Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Image is of vehicles set aflame by protestors near a government building.
Since July 1st, students have protested the unpopular proposal in which 30% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their relatives. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of around 20% and a population of 170 million, a large number of otherwise eligible and competent people would have been forced out due to favouritism for veterans. As with basically every country on the planet over the last couple years, Bangladesh is suffering from inflation and an increasing cost-of-living, further exacerbating tensions.
The student protests have been met with significant violence by the government - local newspapers report that over a hundred protestors have been killed, and thousands have been injured. Guns and tear gas have been used. Additionally, the government has completely cut internet access throughout Bangladesh to prevent organizing, which has had some success in dividing protestors, but has also only further angered various parts of the country due to the massive impact to Bangladesh's online industries and various startups. And a national curfew has been in place to limit movement, with the population told to remain home if they want to be safe.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh relented, stating that now, only 5% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans and their families. 2% would be allocated to members of minorities, with the remaining 93% distributed on merit. A period of tentative calm has arrived, but Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has stated that unless the government restores the internet, removes the curfew, releases detainees, and forces certain ministers to resign within a few days, then the protests will resume.
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 Bangladesh! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
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Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
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Just a general reminder that Harris was an unpopular candidate by the time she bowed out of the 2020 primary where her only moment in the sun coming from the media trying to push her for a hot minute as a popular alternative to Bernie for a hot minute. Granted that she has the benefit of mostly staying out of the media spotlight and would enjoy the full support of the Democratic Party in an uncontested primary, she still has to contend with the fact that she fucking sucks so bad her own state bailed on her in a race against the Maga messiah and a Kennedy spoiler candidate.
Though at this point I'm thinking Kennedys more of a spoiler for Trump if he keeps going but by the sounds of it he wants to fuck with the democrats before bowing out and possibly endorsing trump over a red diaper baby
Image sourced from here
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/democratic-primary/2020/national
That said the Kamala cope is so big even my one of my nato-loving anarcho-bidenists came into work yesterday uncharacteristically chipper than the usually doom and gloom. (For the record everyone else, who tend to be apolitical didn't give a shit Biden dropped out)
Yeah Kamala both has no real base of support that isn't just Dem voters who would vote for any ticket with Dems on it, and she's a deeply unsettling person whose attempts at charisma are very off-putting. I think she's got a tough campaign ahead of her, the only thing I can think of that would really tip the scales would be if Biden stepped down and she took the Presidency for the rest of the term and started doing some of the first 100 days plan Biden was dangling like a carrot in front of voters. Then she can roll into November as the President, doing or trying to do popular things.
Oh I think actually putting her in the spotlight would be a detriment to her campaign and that the libs would be smarter to market the image of her as thr true successor instead of actually showing her off as she is
I think at least in the short term it's a good idea to give her the spotlight, simply because of the immediate contrast to Biden. We've been conditioned for 4 years to believe that this senile old man is totally capable of being president, so Kamala should look like the Most Qualified Person Ever in comparison. They can give her some easy wins too by her simply not bringing up illegal immigrants when asked about abortion.
Basically, you only need the bare minimum to beat the orange man and Kamala can be that bare minimum imo. I think she's a more viable candidate than uniquely reviled people like Hillary or Genocide Joe who calls Zelensky "President Putin". She just needs to be "generic unnamed democrat" and avoid questions about Gaza.
She also gotta dodge questions about her family's ideological background and her background as AG of Cali imo because the former could scare off all of the suburbanite demons the libs triangulate on whereas the latter could poison the well for the black and Latino communities
dodge questions about her family's ideological background
it depends whether your average suburbanite really gives a shit about Marxism I guess. like I genuinely have no idea because I avoid talking to those treatfiends but they could either be like "Kamala's parents were COMMUNISTS?! I must vote for Trump to protect the country and my house from the commies! they'll steal my treats!" or "who the fuck is Carl Marks?"
The anti-socialist brainworms may be slowly withering but imo the Anti-communist brainworms are still wriggling among the libs target demographic. At best you'll get a bunch of the demons going "I'd rather be a communist than elect a cheeto fascist", in which case would be rather neat and would really drive the hogs over the edge if she wins but at that point it's rather moot either way
better red than dead
If anyone says better dead than red, I'd suggest not making a tempting offer like that
If the best tactic is to hide her like they've been hiding Biden, I think Trump's got this in the bag
I honestly don't know what's happen this election, like it seems that way but if it keeps going on with the clown shit Trump might choke on a burger and we end up with a president worm
President Worm? I know just the guy to solve that problem:
THE REAL DARK HORSE CANDIDATE RIDES ONCE MORE!
She was reading complete sentences off the teleprompter at the olympics press thing today. That's a big step up for the democratic party.
Getting a meowing cat and putting subtitles on perceived words the cat said would be a big step up for the dnc lmao, they really hit rock bottom thus far and can only go up
nah if biden resigned she could legalize weed, give us the remainder of the $2400 checks, and push forward a gaza ceasefire hard. That would actually allow her to win if they did that, but they won't
I think they'd sooner let Bernie win and be a do-nothing figurehead than let any of that happen.
She was Wall Street's favorite in 2020. She let Steve Mnuchin off the hook completely, which was a big signal.
Unsurprisingly, she was no one else's favorite. California voters had seen enough of her to be sickened by her fascism (prison slavery, transphobia, shielding Catholic priests, etc.).
No wonder why Biden called her vice president Trump lmao