Bulletins and News Discussion from July 15th to July 21st, 2024 - It's Joever
Image is of Joseph Robinette Biden, who has stepped down and will not run against Trump in the 2024 election.
In the aftermath of Trump surviving an assassination attempt, many professional opinion-havers are now talking about the scourge of "political violence" that has overtaken, or will soon overtake America, and how we must not let chaos rule. This is, of course, patently absurd. The American government and its allies have been the greatest force of political violence on the planet since the beginning of colonialism, and the foundations of the country are made of corpses. Today, America commits political violence by forcing Ukrainians into the maw of Russian artillery instead of trying to reach a peaceful settlement, which Russia has repeatedly expressed interest in and offered Ukraine relatively favourable terms. They supply Israel with endless weaponry to destroy entire cities and populations, while Biden supporters insist that somehow things could be worse than daily massacres and mass starvation.
In May 1945, French police fired on protestors, causing retaliatory attacks on French settlers, killing about a hundred. In response, the French murdered 45,000 Algerians in a little under two months, in a frenzy of political violence called the Sétif and Guelma massacre. As the massacre was being completed, the International Court of Justice was established. It goes without saying that Algeria never benefited from the ICJ, and the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962 was made inevitable. Over a million Algerians were killed before France could bear the fighting no longer and gave up, and Algeria won itself a state. Comparisons to the ongoing war of independence and genocide in Palestine are obvious.
While the means of colonial violence have evolved over the centuries, the basic structure of it has not. As in Algeria, Vietnam, and Cuba, resistance groups in and around Palestine are fighting for a world with less political violence. The American government would drown every city in the developing world in blood to prevent peace.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Algeria! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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.
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.
The former president (and dictator) of Peru, Alberto Fujimori (Age 85), will be the candidate of Popular Force, a right-wing nationalist party, for the Presidential elections in the country, in 2026. The announcement was made by his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, party leader.
He was in jail with Montesinos (Fujimori's right-hand man) and Gonzalo. He had been released and arrested again mutiple times due to the Political Crisis in Peru and the quick changes in goverment. Usually the judiciary refuses the Parliamentary and Presidential Pardons Fujimori receives.
I think he is terminally ill with Tongue Cancer and Lung Cancer. He is thankfully suffering a lot. I belive Keiko knows her father (who used to torture her mom) is way more popular than her, and wants to use him as a way for her to become president. Maybe she will attempt to be his VP or something.
Btw, Keiko and her brother (Who Fujimori used to dedicate Military Marches to) are going to jail for corruption.
As first lady during her husband's presidency, Higuchi was among the early people in Peru to allege criminal misdoings on the part of her husband. As early as 1992, she denounced several of her Fujimori in-laws for corruption in connection, especially Juana and Rosa Fujimori, alleging Fujimori's sisters sold used clothing donated by Japan for millions of dollars
The Congress of Peru was beginning to investigate the allegations, though President Fujimori initiated the 1992 Peruvian coup d'état and dissolved Congress before any formal inquiries could begin.
Because of her outspokenness, Higuchi was subjected to repeated efforts to silence her. Peru's media, which operated in accordance to President Fujimori, also ignored stories regarding the alleged abuses against Higuchi.
One journalist of Channel 2, Juan Subauste, said that they interviewed Higuchi in 1994 in the Plaza de Armas of Lima where she said that she was mistreated and locked in her room, though the interview was never reported in Peru until the 2000s due to the oversight of Channel 2 by the National Intelligence Service of Vladimiro Montesinos.
In July 2001, she alleged that in 1990, shortly before coming to power, her ex-husband received a donation of US$12.5 million from Japanese citizens destined for poor children in Peru, but he deposited it in a private bank account in Japan.
In 2001, she told investigators probing the corruption of the Fujimori years that she had been tortured "five hundred times" by the intelligence services of the Peruvian Army. Fujimori denied that Higuchi had been tortured. He said the scars on her back and neck were not caused by torture, but were the result of a traditional Chinese and Japanese therapy called moxibustion, which Higuchi underwent to help her stop smoking and to relieve back troubles.
In 1994, she publicly condemned her husband as a tyrant and his government as corrupt. Fujimori reacted by formally stripping her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their elder daughter Keiko First Lady in her place.
The whole Fujimori family are big POS and weirdos with huge egos. Fujimori used to force soldiers and tanks to march on random days to make his son happy. It is believed Kenji is Fujimori's favorite children, and Keiko is very jealous of him.
As first lady during her husband's presidency, Higuchi was among the early people in Peru to allege criminal misdoings on the part of her husband. As early as 1992, she denounced several of her Fujimori in-laws for corruption in connection, especially Juana and Rosa Fujimori, alleging Fujimori's sisters sold used clothing donated by Japan for millions of dollars
The Congress of Peru was beginning to investigate the allegations, though President Fujimori initiated the 1992 Peruvian coup d'état and dissolved Congress before any formal inquiries could begin.
Wasn't he elected as a Liberal alternative to the usual Socdems (APRA and Alan Garcia) and Conservatives (Mario Vargas Llosa) in 1990? Then the Army already had the whole Plan Verde planned out, and they were going to coup whoever was the president, but Fujimori actually joined them and kicked out his liberal VP and the democratic/leftist military officers that attempted to remove Fujimori after his 1992 coup?
They used to be democratic socialists and Peruvian nationalists between 1924 and 1980. But they always had connections and coalitions with right-wing and far-right parties because their main rival was the Peruvian Communist Party. But Alan Garcia was the only one to push the party from the left to the center-right during the 1980s.
His presidency in the 1980s was chaotic, mainly because of Shining Path and the economic crisis. I think APRA's candidate in 1990 was Luis Alva Castro and, surprisingly, he lost second place to Fujimori. It seems that most of his voters ended up voting for Fujimori, as he was seen as an outsider.
Then Alan Garcia won the 2006 elections against Colonel Ollanta Humala. If I remember correctly, he ran on a socdem platform saying that he wasn't the same as he was in the 80s, practically people said he was the Lulista candidate, while Humala was the Chavista candidate. I think he accused Humala of planning a military takeover, of being homophobic and that he would grant amnesty to Fujimori and the Shining Path rebels, while Garcia said he would give the death penalty to Gonzalo.
I remember him having bad relations with Venezuela and Bolivia, but good relations with Chile and Brazil, promoting a lot of privatizations and even supporting the whole intervention in Libya. Then he lost the 2011 election to Humala, who had good relations with Venezuela and Bolivia, but was still a neoliberal. Alan Garcia killed himself under suspicious circumstances after an arrest order.
Funny enough, Keiko Fujimori is currently facing legal problems because of the Car Wash Operation.
only one way to get rid of Japanese menaces. I will never forgive Japan (for a lot of things) for sheltering this genocidal dictator egomaniac just because he had a japanese last name.