this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
126 points (100.0% liked)

news

23554 readers
39 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today/ . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Image is of Bolivian President Luis Arce (center, with glasses) face-to-face with General Zuñiga (in camouflage) during the coup attempt.


On the 26th of June, while Hexbear was in an 8-hour hibernation, General Juan José Zuñiga marched 200 troops and some armored vehicles on the government palace in an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Luis Arce. This is somewhat reminiscent of Jeanine Anez's coup in November 2019 where she overthrew the socialist president Evo Morales, but while that coup was due to a colour revolution likely orchestrated by the United States and had at least a tiny amount of political/public legitimacy and "followed the rules" in a certain sense (as Morales was trying to abolish presidential term limits, which is only evil if a socialist is doing it), this was a much more naked attempted seizure of power by a military general.

This coup was quickly terminated without even a momentary transfer of power. Democracy was saved.

Despite being in the same party, Morales and Arce have increasingly been in opposition. Morales champions anti-imperialism, rights for indigneous people, and poverty reduction. This last one especially has been threatened by Arce, though it's not entirely his fault, as the Bolivian economy is threatened by the same crisis affecting so many developing economies around the world right now - say it with me now - a lack of dollars and mounting debt. The US Federal Reserve is carrying out a bloody offensive against the world's poor, and this has combined nastily with a rather uninspiring "post"-coronavirus economic recovery in Bolivia, as well as diminishing natural gas production (and thus less exports with which to earn dollars).

While the coup was ongoing, Morales banded behind the government. Afterwards, however, Morales expressed his skepticism about whether the coup was, in fact, genuine, calling for an independent investigation into it, and saying that Arce “disrespected the truth, deceived us, lied, not only to the Bolivian people but to the whole world." This is because General Zuñiga made a series of very interesting statements to his family and colleagues, saying that Arce had "betrayed" him, and saying that Arce had told him “‘The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity.'" This does check out on the surface level, at least: Arce has suffered increasing unpopularity as the economy has suffered.

Interestingly, Morales' narrative has been supported by the anarchocapitalist leader of Argentina, Javier Milei, who is currently busy completely destroying his own country and stripping the copper out of the walls to give to American capitalists. Milei said that the coup attempt was "fraudulent". Meanwhile, those inside MAS opposed to Morales' accusations of a false coup have accused him of allying with the fascist right and becoming an instrument of imperialism.


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 Bolivia! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.


you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 55 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

American allies fear Biden is finished and can’t beat Trump

“We’re not sure that, even if he wins, he can survive four years more,” said one official from a European NATO country.

Article (Huge Article)

Diplomats and world leaders preparing for next week’s NATO summit are privately expressing acute concern about President Joe Biden’s age, health and ability to win the 2024 presidential election.

These foreign officials largely favor Biden’s reelection and fear that Donald Trump’s return to office would damage the NATO alliance and cripple the war effort in Ukraine. But they have reacted to Biden’s recent debate performance with dismay and fear that Biden may be too frail to defeat Trump and lead a global superpower.

POLITICO spoke with 20 people connected to NATO or the alliance’s upcoming summit over the past month and heard that many allies already had quiet reservations about putting their trust in Biden well before the debate. Now, Biden must convince his counterparts that he’s not only up for the fight but will overcome a political crisis to stay in it.

“It doesn’t take a genius to see that the president is old,” said one official from a European NATO country. “We’re not sure that, even if he wins, he can survive four years more.”

Others went further. “It was painful to watch, let’s be honest,” an EU official said of the debate. “We all want Biden to have a second term to avoid dealing with Trump again, but this isn’t really reassuring.”

Speaking to POLITICO before the U.K.'s change of government on Thursday, a U.K. minister put it most bluntly: “Can the Democrat donors please get their act together and get Biden retired, so we have some chance of a candidate credible for voters?”

Biden already had a tough sell ahead of him at the NATO summit next week, where he was preparing to face questions from allies about America’s commitment to Ukraine. But his catastrophic debate against Trump has turned the gathering into a different kind of assessment of Biden’s physical and political resilience.

Few European leaders have addressed Biden’s age on the record. But Donald Tusk, Poland’s centrist prime minister, offered an extraordinary public expression of alarm after the debate, telling reporters: “They definitely have a problem. The reactions have been unambiguous.”

Mark Gitenstein, the U.S. ambassador to the EU and a longtime Biden adviser, said that any focus on Biden’s age stems from concerns about the election and his ability to secure a second term.

“I have never heard any leader directly or indirectly express a concern to me about his age,” Gitenstein said in an interview. “They’re all worried about the elections, because the elections are close and they’re worried about some of the stuff Trump has said.”

The questions swirling around Biden’s candidacy have turned a summit billed as a celebration of NATO’s landmark 75th anniversary into another stress test for a president whose political future hangs in the balance.

Biden will have to very publicly show off his leadership skills and stamina at the summit in Washington, which begins Tuesday morning and runs through Thursday in what’s forecast to be sweltering heat. As the host, he won’t be able to skip events.

On the summit’s first day, the president will deliver a high-profile speech on NATO’s 75 years at the Mellon Auditorium, where the alliance’s founding charter was signed a few years after World War II. Biden is an advocate for strengthening the alliance, but the message could get lost if he stumbles over key passages or loses his train of thought mid-sentence.

Then on Wednesday — the summit’s busiest 24 hours — Biden will shake hands with leaders of the other 31 member states as well as partner nations. Then he’ll lead a three-hour meeting of the North Atlantic Council featuring the other heads of state and government.

On Wednesday night, Biden will host a dinner of world leaders deep into the night — blowing past his newly self-imposed 8 p.m. work curfew. It will have all the trappings of a state dinner, requiring Biden to be lucid as he pals around with counterparts and discusses sensitive matters away from the cameras.

Biden on Thursday will also attend and lead a marathon session of meetings on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, to boosting NATO’s deterrence capabilities, to the dynamic security situation in the Indo-Pacific. He’ll have to sit for bilateral sessions with top allies, adding even more to his already packed three-day schedule.

And he’ll cap it all off with a solo news conference, where he is sure to field far more questions about his age and acuity than transatlantic relations.

Among NATO allies’ concerns is how much longer Biden can muster American support for Europe’s defense, especially after what is likely to be a close election against a Republican former president who is skeptical of assisting partners abroad.

“We’re having more conversations about our own defenses since it looks like Trump is coming back,” an official from a NATO country said after the debate.

On top of that, some NATO allies aren’t wholly satisfied with Biden’s leadership, with many saying he’s been too incremental in his approach to providing weapons and giving Kyiv the go-ahead to strike inside Russia.

“Is the U.S. leading or is it just taking part like everyone else?” asked a senior European diplomat in Washington. The grumbles mainly come from hawkish alliance members — typically in Europe’s east — who want military aid to flood Ukraine without limits on Kyiv’s use of it.

Biden’s views on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are well known, and he repeated many of his talking points during the debate with Trump. He called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal who “wants to reestablish what was part of the Soviet Empire. Not just a piece, he wants all of Ukraine.”

Such talking points and three and a half years as president have given Biden an advantage heading into the summit: He has established solid relationships with most democratic allies, according to three U.S. officials who have been part of various diplomatic engagements.

That’s been true with those whose politics are closely aligned with Biden’s own brand of democratic centrism, like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He’s also been friendly with ideological foes who share a concern about Ukraine’s fate, namely far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and with French President Emmanuel Macron, who openly calls for a bolder European role in its defense and Western troops in Ukraine.

And yet, allies pleased with Biden’s tenure still can’t shake the reality of his age, according to three diplomats.

It’s not so much that they’re upset that he has, at times, skipped out on ceremonial dinners at various summits or left them early. And it’s also not that Biden has been using notecards, speaking more slowly and softly, and moving with a stiffness that’s impossible not to notice, the diplomats said.

They worry about his political standing and reelection chances, knowing that his age is a major political liability.

“It seems to me that’s going to be very tough for him to pursue his campaign and to stay on,” said one senior EU diplomat, who added that while it was up to the Democratic Party whether to replace him, they should be “considering all options.”

Biden’s electoral crisis comes amid political changes in other major NATO powers: British voters installed a new prime minister, the center-left Keir Starmer, just days ago. France holds elections on Sunday that could strengthen the far right and derail Macron’s presidency. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is already seen by many as a lame duck following June’s EU elections that badly weakened his political coalition.

Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, said he has directly heard fears about Biden’s status from many G7 and European leaders. “Ukraine is still the most important topic,” he said, “but concerns about Biden and growing panic from Europeans about Trump are increasingly distracting the substantive conversations.”

[–] PosadistInevitablity@hexbear.net 35 points 5 months ago

Speaking to POLITICO before the U.K.'s change of government on Thursday, a U.K. minister put it most bluntly: “Can the Democrat donors please get their act together and get Biden retired, so we have some chance of a candidate credible for voters?”

The degree to which everyone inside the echelons of power just know democracy is a total lie always astounds me.

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 28 points 5 months ago

Nazis Are Taking Over. die-motherfucker

[–] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 25 points 5 months ago

https://archive.is/gfbMy please link this in your comment

The state department should hand out merch to euro leaders "I destroyed my economy and military in a US led proxy war and all I got was this lousy tshirt"