Bulletins and News Discussion from May 20th to May 26th, 2024 - Never Break TrueAnon's Rules For Life - COTW: Azerbaijan
Image is of Azerbaijan's President, Aliyev (left) and Armenia's President, Pashinyan (right) in a meeting a month or two after Azerbaijan took Nagorno-Karabakh.
Never go to a second location.
Always get the interior ministry post.
Never get in a helicopter or any small aircraft.
If someone with a gun enters your car, they’re gonna kill you.
If someone tells you they’re not going to kill you, they’re calming you down to kill you later.
Never give up your nukes.
Never release the opposition's political prisoners.
Never let the opposition delay elections.
If someone starts to get into German runes, drop them.
Never trust a South American with a German name.
Never move anywhere for a religion.
Never go into the sewers unless you’re a sewer guy.
If someone’s trying to get you to commit a crime, they're FBI (sometimes CIA or military intelligence).
Never become an FBI informant.
If you do become an FBI informant, record everything.
Never relinquish your arms.
Always get it in writing.
If you keep gambling, you’ll eventually win.
Never talk to cops without a lawyer.
Always pay your mercenaries.
Don’t let anyone take your passport.
To add an addendum to rule 3, never put your President and Foreign Minister in the same helicopter or small aircraft. Especially if doing so in bad weather conditions. Especially if you're already under threat from a hostile nuclear power in the region with a proclivity for terrorism (though this probably isn't Israel's doing, in this particular case).
Anyway, Azerbaijan. Not a great country, I think. Did some genocides. They're a petrostate that is hosting Cop29, which I suppose is a way for the bourgeoisie to implicitly convey their contempt for the green movement. They got weapons from Israel, too.
Just for the record, there's an Iranian province called East Azerbaijan, which is not the same as Azerbaijan.
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 Azerbaijan! 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.
PM Sunak's unexpected decision comes as the Tories are trailing far behind the Labour Party.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the advancement of the general elections in the United Kingdom to July 4th.
The unexpected decision comes as the Conservatives are trailing far behind the opposition Labour Party, according to all polls, and on the same day it was revealed that inflation dropped to 2.3 percent in April, its lowest level in almost three years.
Sunak informed King Charles III of his intention to call for elections on July 4th, despite having the option to do so anytime before January 28th, the end of the parliamentary term.
After assuring that the United Kingdom has gone through its most challenging period since World War II, Sunak said his administration has focused on restoring economic stability to the country following the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I came to government promising economic stability, and thanks to collective effort, we have achieved two milestones: our economy is growing faster than anyone anticipated... and inflation has returned to normal levels. This is proof that our priorities are working," he added.
In a statement that turned into his first campaign act, Sunak said that the UK will have to choose between his Tories and the Labour Party, which, in his view, "would be like going back to square one."
This morning, Sunak had reiterated in the government control session in Parliament that his intention was to call the elections in the second half of this year, but did not specify when.
Asked by the leader of the Scottish Nationalists in the House of Commons, Stephen Flynn, about the abundant speculation on an early election, Sunak insisted on his intention to hold the elections in the second half, without clarifying when.
The announcement has taken analysts by surprise, given the 20-point lead that polls give the Labour Party over the Tories, which could be enough to achieve an absolute majority.
Just three weeks ago, municipal elections were held in which the Conservatives had historically low results, losing half of their councilors in the localities where voting took place.
Tories are going to eat shit
Labour is going to win, but they are lead by a bunch of neoliberal ghouls
Unless Labour somehow does the same self-sabotage they did in the 1992 election, they should get a majority with a chance of a supermajority. Too bad they will do barely anything to help the working class.
Am I right in assuming the Tories are calling an election now because they can only see their prospects getting worse as their policies continue? Are they forcing a cursed chalice on Labour?
It's noteworthy they've called this on a Scottish school holiday. It indicates they're worried about a Labour resurgence in Scotland taking seats from the currently weak Scottish National Party (known on hexbear for attempting things like the Gender Reform Bill)