Image is from this SCMP article.
Much of the analysis below is sourced from Michael Roberts’ great website.
Japan’s ruling parliamentary coalition, consisting of the LDP (purple) and it’s junior coalition partner Komeito (in light pink) have lost their ruling majority. They have ruled post-war Japan for almost its entire history. The LDP is currently led by Shigeru Ishiba after Kishida stood down due to a corruption scandal, and ties to the Unification Church.
While geopolitical factors (over the cold war between the US and China, etc) may have played a role, by far the biggest reason for this result in the poor economic conditions over the past few years. Inflation has risen and real wages have fallen, with little relief for the working class via things like tax reductions. While inequality in Japan is not as extreme as in America, it is still profound, with the top 10% possessing 60% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% possess just 5%.
Shinzo Abe previously tried to boost economic performance through monetary easing and fiscal deficits, while Kishida ran on a “new capitalism” which rejected Abe’s neoliberalism and promised to reduce inequality. Nothing substantial has resulted from all this, however, other than increasing corporate wealth. Innovation continues to fall, and domestic profitability is low, resulting in decreasing investment at home by Japanese corporations. Labour productivity growth has only slightly picked up since the mid-2000s and is falling again. The rate of profit has fallen by half since the 1960s, and Japan has been in a manufacturing recession - or very close to it - since late 2022. In essence: there is no choice but between stagnation or decline.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
According to RNN the number of B52H “stratofortress” bombers deployed to Qatar will be 12 in the coming days. I’m not sure where they got their numbers but that is a little over 20% of all the active B52H used by US air force. Cradle article with more background
B52H are the largest bombers the US has and they are designed as nuclear bombers 🫠
The 4th Reich is also withdrawing its USS Lincoln carrier group, probably because it’s a big vulnerable target and they don’t want it sitting there when they finally declare hot war on Iran.
Something is coming.
On al Jazeera Arabic and English websites I can find no mention of this despite the fact the Pentagon announced it. Almost makes you think…
So they’re pretty much admitting the THAAD was sent to “Israel” so 100 American soldiers can be cannon fodder just so the US can nuke Iran the second one of them gets a splinter.
B-52s are very old and defenseless against modern air forces and defenses, so much so they primarily use air launched
ballisticcruise missiles to stay as far away from the enemy as possible. Iran is too big geographically for this, and operating out of Qatar would be needlessly vulnerable when the aircraft can fly from Australia, Guam, even the US for a specific operation. If these are more than an intimidation tactic they’re probably for attacking Yemen and Iraq.I think the B-52s have been converted to use air launched cruise missiles, in particular the AGM-158B JASSM-ER stealth cruise missile. The planned air launched AGM-183 ARRW ballistic missile failed testing, similar to how the GAM-87 “Skybolt” ALBM failed testing in the 1960s. The B52 does not seem like a good platform to launch ALBMs from.
I’d guess they’re there to carry out strikes in Iraq if Iran plan to use Iraq as a staging ground for their retaliation. Or given the ability of the B-52s to carry EMP cruise missiles, and some of the bombers being nuclear capable, as a thinly veiled threat to Iran.
ah fuck i did the ballistic/cruise mixup again you have like 10 different stupid missiles’ tabs up on wikipedia it gets jumbled. but anyways the JASSMs have like 300-900km ranges which should require them to enter iranian air defense for a lot of possible targets.
I feel this. And that’s not even mentioning all the missiles that Wikipedia, or missilethreat, don’t have entries on.
JASSM ER has over a 900km range, which is more than enough to target various sites, including static air defence sites or radars, while the launch platforms remain out of range of air defence systems. The S300 PMU2s maximum range is 195km.
And let’s not forget, as of 2019, the US Air Force have deployed at least 20 CHAMP-equipped missiles based on the JASSM ER platform. CHAMP is a microwave EMP payload capable of over 100 uses per sortie, which would come in handy for destroying nuclear facilities with minimal damage. Iran has also hinted at possessing such capabilities, mentioning a new type of weapon in the context of a ballistic missile strike simulation against Israeli nuclear facilities.
the JASSM ER are technically capable it just seems like the wrong tool, fly from Qatar, into Saudi Arabian or Iraqi airspace to take potshots at S300s at the edges of Iran then return to an airbase getting pounded by Iranian missiles and well within the range of Iranian air forces? B-52s gotta be your-second/third strikes after defense has been weakened, that’s how they were used against Iraq and they were not flown from very close to their targets. US strategic bomber doctrine seems to lean toward basing the planes well outside retaliation distances, so placing them in Qatar vis-a-vis Iran would be a major departure from this, for no benefit when the bases in Australia and Diego Garcia are operational for B-52s.
They were used in Afghanistan and Iraq. These could be used for a massive carpet bombing campaign. But I don’t know all that much about military planes.