Image is of protestors burning down the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepal’s government offices in Kathmandu.

For more on the situation in Nepal, I recommend @MelianPretext@lemmygrad.ml’s comment here.


Following a “anti-corruption” protest movement spurred by a social media ban (but with much deeper roots) in which dozens of protestors were killed by state forces, the government of KP Oli has been ousted, and an interim leader is currently in power as the country prepares for elections. Notably, events have been characterized as “Gen Z protests”, and this leader was decided (at least partially) by a Discord vote. When a non-western government rapidly falls, it’s wise to at least glance in the direction of the United States, and there are almost certainly elements of color revolution here. But, as always, it’s more complicated than simple regime change - Nepal is a deeply troubled economy even as developing countries go.

Vijay Prashad has offered his five theses as to why Nepal’s government fell that goes beyond non-specific terms like “corruption” or “color revolution”:

  1. Despite winning 75% of the seats in parliament in 2017, the various communist parties have failed to unify towards forming a common agenda and solving the problems of the people. When the nominally united communist party split in 2021, infighting and opportunism eventually brought on the rightist politicians we see today.

  2. The Nepalese economy is not successful. Disasters are slow to be ameliorated, education and healthcare is underfunded, and poverty is fairly rampant. There have been significant developments made by the communist parties, such as electrification programs and some poverty reduction, but it has been insufficient.

  3. The petty bourgeois usually come from oppressed Hindu castes, and are frustrated by the domination of upper castes, and so are inspired by India’s BJP. They essentially want a return to monarchy, under the guise of anti-corruption, and despite their relatively small numbers, are powerfully organized.

  4. Of the countries that aren’t tiny islands, Nepal has the highest per capita rate of work migration, due to insufficient employment in Nepal. The jobs that Nepalese citizens receive overseas range from unpleasant to unbearable in both labour and wages, and this has generated rightful suspicion that the government cares more about foreign direct investors than their own citizens overseas.

  5. The government of KP Oli was close to the United States, and India’s Modi has promoted the BJP in Nepal. Both countries have sought to exert influence over Nepal, though Prashad speculates that, if there is indeed a foreign mastermind at work, India is more likely to be the culprit behind these recent protests, in a gambit to use the chaos to promote/install a far right monarchist government.

I agree with Prashad that it seems unlikely that mere electoral changes will result in anything terribly productive, though whatever government emerges will inevitably hoist the banner of anti-corruption to try and legitimize themselves. We have seen the same breakdown of electoralism as a meaningful pathway to solve national problems all across the world, from the superpowers to the poorest states. Until a rupture occurs, greater surveillance, policing, and repression seems guaranteed.


Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist 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 the temporary Zionist entity. 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.


  • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    This happened on the 18th of September, it was posted here when it happened before details were known so I wanted to share it a little. No spoiler but CW for stalking and description of the shooting.

    Deadly York County shootout that left three officers and suspect dead | Motive, how it happened

    Authorities release names of 3 police officers killed in Pennsylvania shooting: Updates

    The shooter was stalking a young woman who he briefly dated, went to the farm where her and her mother lived, and was waiting in ambush. They had put up a trail cam because the daughter’s truck had been set on fire last month and they suspected the man, who had never been to the farm or invited there previously. They spotted him on the trail cam so they left and called the police.

    The cops got there and swept the area and the surrounding fields with a drone, saw the house was unlocked so four of them went in and were immediately ambushed, leaving 3 dead and 1 wounded. The shooter fired at two sheriff’s deputies in the street from the house, wounding one, then it sounds like he advanced on them and died in a shootout.

    Guy definitely would’ve killed the woman and her mom if they’d been home or returned first. Guy killed dog in the basement.

    This was all pretty depressing IMO. The district attorney correctly said this was caused by the scourge of domestic violence. Attorney general Pam Bondi called it an attack on our law enforcement, which whatever, fash is gonna fash. At the press conference Gov. Josh Shapiro said something about doing better for mental health for people who think picking up a gun is the answer - that bit really stuck in my craw. This is a typical line from politicians who don’t want to grapple with gun violence, it is weasely in general but applying it to a DV situation was upsetting to me.

    Also, spoiler because this sounds like fedposting

    spoiler

    one jerkoff with a long gun inflicted 100% casualties on an assault team comprised of four veteran law enforcement officers, and 50% casualties on a two man security team.

    • TreadOnMe [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      That is because law enforcement aren’t actually well trained for breach and clear against targets who are actually laying in wait and armed. They pretty much only do breach and clear against unarmed and sleeping targets.

      It’s why the Uvalde cops were frightened little piggies, they know that whoever is going in first has an over 50% chance of being shot if the person knows they are coming.

      However, that is supposedly literally their job, to willingly go into dangerous situations and literally keep the peace. To that degree, honestly good on these pigs for actually doing their job.

      • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        Thank you for adding context. Yeah I was a little surprised they didn’t call in a SWAT team if they believed the guy was in there and there was no immediate danger of a hostage. This was a depressing incident all around and I won’t break out the officer-down balloons because like, well if it weren’t these cops it woulda been the young woman and her mom.

    • Breath_Of_The_Snake [they/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.netM
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      5 days ago

      Why leave the dog? Pets belonging to a DA survivor were often the initial target. The bastards love to hurt the pets of their victim fad a warm-up.

      Glad she survived, glad he died, glad the pigs got owned, but that’s equivalent to leaving the dog in the basement if the fire alarm goes off.

      Idk, I’ve been in a “save your life now” situation, but I still took my pet. Not casting judgement, I didn’t have the fear of a mirderous abusing pig approaching in that. It’s just a sad addendum to a tragedy that would have been avoided if our society took protecting women from absiers seriously.

      • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        Idk, I’ve been in a “save your life now” situation, but I still took my pet.

        That is wild, I’m truly sorry you have had first hand experience of this, if I had to guess I’d say the would-be victims were either viewing this remotely through the trail cam or just didn’t have the context to think of this.

      • mickey [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 days ago

        Sorry I was sparse on the details, yes the shooter had an AR-15 with a suppressor. It wasn’t clear what the detectives who went into the house were armed with. It was also not clear how TaCtIcAl the entry was so I may have overstated things in my spoiler tagged bit above. The two officers in the street, one was a sheriff’s deputy armed with a pistol, he was shot then got his rifle, and the other was a detective with a rifle.