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Bulletins and International News Discussion from November 10th to November 16th, 2025 - The Trials and Tribulations of Tinubu - COTW: Nigeria

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of protestors in Nigeria in 2024.

As I'm sure everybody is aware by now, Trump's accusation that Nigerian armed groups are unfairly persecuting Christians in the country is a rather bizarre lie, seeking a justification to go in, to quote Trump, "guns-a-blazing". Whether this is likely to actually occur or is merely a threat, who can really say nowadays? But Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province are targeting people in Nigeria fairly indiscriminately; insomuch that there is a target, it is farmers whose land is being raided and taken in resource conflicts, and their religious affiliation is not usually questioned by those groups before they are pillaged and/or murdered from what I can tell.

The President of Nigeria, Tinubu, has no small responsibility for this state of affairs - enacting IMF "reforms" which have exacerbated hunger, poverty, and unemployment in the service of Western financial institutions. Those who have protested against this state of affairs have faced repression by state security forces. Meanwhile, Tinubu allegedly has strong connections to the DEA, paying large amounts of money to avoid a trial for his actions; the DEA released this statement: “We oppose the full… release of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records,” which is certainly not concerning at all - followed by “While Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”

It must be a shame for him that such a loyal subject of empire is facing such scrutiny, and it likely has everything to do with Nigeria's inexorably growing connections to China (just like pretty much every country on the planet), especially in relation to Nigeria's massive mineral deposits. It could also perhaps be retribution for Nigeria's failure to adequately oppose the growing independence of the Sahel.

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

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

::: spoiler 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.

:::

633 comments

  • South Africa very narrowly avoided becoming an international pariah yet again and forsaking any goodwill the non-Western world (especially Palestinians) built over the last 32 years since the end of Apartheid, especially with the Cuban Ambassador present in Johannesburg as Africa's most important city was experiencing a humanitarian crisis in the middle of it's airport.

    Border security was prepared to force the plane with the 160 Palestinian refugees to leave because the Nazi entity had intentionally not stamped the passports and falsely claimed they are not allowed to request asylum. Pastor Nigel Branken was onboard the flight and during an interview given to Salaamedia at the airport even called the border patrol as counter-revolutionaries. He even stated that the flight was only halted because an ambulance was responding to medical emergencies onboard the plane and had strategically parked in the path of the aircraft, preventing it from taxiing and sending the refugees "into the ovens". This "delay" also gave time for other South African heads of state to intervene.

    Had the flight taken off, it would have caused a permanent black stain on the post-Apartheid South Africa's reputation that will never wash off in the eyes of the world. There may even be mass civil unrest in South Africa against the government's lack of timely action resulting in turning away Palestinians who were hopeful to finally live in guaranteed safety and normality once they saw the iridescent South African flags and the cityscape of Johannesburg and Pretoria out of the plane windows. And we would have yet one more burning flag emoji to add to our collection.

    G20 was also present in Johannesburg, but...

    Death to piSSrael, unlimited Iranian hypersonic missiles on the Nazi entity. If Tel Aviv wants to cosplay as the Third Reich, Tehran should play along as the Soviet Union and bring down Stalin's Hammer on that wee Nazi shite

  • By all accounts, the attempted coup in Mexico has failed. Protesters tried to storm the Presidential Palace and clashed with police for approximately two hours, but now the situation appears to have calmed down.

    • Telegram

  • People (Ian Ellis) that are much better at making graphics than me have made an illustration the US military buildup in the Carribean against Venezuela, using the same primary sources of plane nerds and internet sleuths. There's a lot of hardware involved.

    Source link, with primary sources listed

    If anyone's wondering why the deployment to El Salvador is listed as "special", the P-8A Poseidon aircraft deployed there is from a secretive reconnaissance squadron Special Projects Patrol Squadron (VPU) 2 "Wizards", and is fitted with a bunch of unique sensors. The C-40 deployed to El Salvador is also not your regular C-40 (militarised Boeing 737-700) it's again a secretive specialised variant, using larger fuel tanks, owned by a shell company, and equipped with unique/specialised sensors, and is known to communicate with P-8As directly and collaborate with them. The AC-130J Ghostrider gunship in El Salvador is the firepower.

    Article on that

    Linked to the above, there have been more AC-130J Ghostrider gunship strikes in the Eastern Pacific.

    Video source of strikes from US Secretary of Defence/War Pete Hegseth

    • This is very worrying, not just for Venezuela but for everyone else. The technology gap between the US and the rest of the world, barring countries like Russia and China, is too big and even if the US is in full economic, social and political meltdown, they can still mobilize enough high-tech systems to blow your country to bits if desired and there is nothing you can do about it. Iran serves as the example, all those years preparing for the US strike and when it came, they could do nothing about it. The fact that both the US and "israel" suffered a grand total of zero air losses in the campaign tells you something.

      Venezuela has the best or the second best Armed Forces in the entire continent. Maybe there is a discussion between them and Brasil. But regardless of this, as it stands right now, they have little to no chance to stave off a US military assault, even less when the US plays with their strongest cards available -- sheer maritime and air power.

      I get that a lot of people are referencing Vietnam and such, even Maduro said so. But back in Vietnam the technology gap was big but it could be closed, after all, the MiG-19s and MiG-21s weren't all that inferior to the Phantoms. The vietnamese AD systems were very good and claimed a lot of kills. In the ground the equipment was comparable. Despite a US advantage on firepower and technology, the vietnamese could close the gap with their own high tech systems (althrough available in limited numbes), sheer resilience and appropiate doctrines. Today I think the technology gap gives one side a tremendous firepower advantage over the other, so much so that "normal countries" have no way of closing it right now.

      Take the 1982 South Atlantic War for example. Argentina ran a bunch of older-ish tech against the British yet a number of ships were hit and sunk. Today such feat will not be possible I think. We're talking about planes that cannot be detected on the radar which can destroy your own radars and fire beyond visual range... that wasn't a thing in the 70s and 80s...

      Well, I guess Venezuela should have bought ballistic missiles... I think it's very heroic to "mobilize the militias" and give peasants some old AKs, but you can't fire at incoming Tomahawks with militiamen...

      • they can still mobilize enough high-tech systems to blow your country to bits if desired and there is nothing you can do about it. Iran serves as the example, all those years preparing for the US strike and when it came, they could do nothing about it.

        While I understand what you're saying generally, Iran is not exactly "blown to bits", is it? We have yet to see the US successfully carry out the doctrine you're talking about. So let's not give them too much credit until they actually demonstrate they can do it.

      • This is precisely why some got nukes. This is a country that hasn't had a year of peace for a reason. Their pockets are deeper than the crevice where their souls are supposed to be

      • The tech gap is very concerning. When Venezuela purchased the Su-30s in 2006, and the S-300VM/SA-23 a few years later, it was enough to deter the US in effect, to make it not worth the effort with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ongoing. But it's now almost 20 years since the first Su-30 purchase, and the USA has advanced in military technology significantly, and Venezuela hasn't, Russia can't really give them anything significantly better either. Su-30 vs Su-35, S-300V vs S-400, it doesn't close the technology gap significantly. China has supplied a couple of search radars, but that's it, they don't export their high tech stuff like J-20s or the latest HQ-9C air defence. Pakistan has the most advanced Chinese exports currently. If there's no one on the international stage that has the capability or willingness to arm it's allies with the latest and greatest, we end up in this situation.

      • Bleak

      • I get that a lot of people are referencing Vietnam and such, even Maduro said so. But back in Vietnam the technology gap was big but it could be closed, after all, the MiG-19s and MiG-21s weren't all that inferior to the Phantoms. The vietnamese AD systems were very good and claimed a lot of kills. In the ground the equipment was comparable. Despite a US advantage on firepower and technology, the vietnamese could close the gap with their own high tech systems (althrough available in limited numbes), sheer resilience and appropiate doctrines. Today I think the technology gap gives one side a tremendous firepower advantage over the other, so much so that "normal countries" have no way of closing it right now.

        Not just that. Sadly the surveillance capabilities have absolutely advanced in leaps and bounds.

        Back in Vietnam the resistance could dig tunnels in the jungle and at night the US generally couldn't have anything approaching total visibility. These days with modern satellites, high altitude and low altitude surveillance via drones and manned planes they US can have just incredible visibility of movements even in jungle using things like IR sensors and motion detection. So if they say plan to fight a protracted battle against a direct US invasion it's going to be hard if they haven't extensively prepared before now because the US is going to spot and know where any new major construction on bunkers, underground tunnels, facilities, etc are and can see assaults heading towards cities ahead of time with way more warning than in Vietnam. Frankly there is huge gulf in US capabilities then and now and the relative levels of support the two countries could expect. Vietnam was getting direct military aid from the USSR and China who was just over the border, Venezuela has no nearby superpowers that aren't across an ocean or two to supply them and Russia is currently quite occupied dedicating its production capacity to Ukraine while China is unlikely to want to get involved and certainly won't be likely to go into smuggling or blockade running over a wide ocean to do so.

        Frankly I do think the US could succeed in seizing the capital city, turning it into a green-zone and pacifying the area around it long enough to set up a comprador government that's recognized internationally and arming and training the local reactionaries. They'd face years of insurgency obviously but with US air cover they could perhaps manage to seize the oil producing regions or at least deny their ability to export (perhaps through US led interdiction, declaring all the oil belongs to the US set up comprador regime and leading to the US blockading and stealing anything sent out at sea).

        But as I think about this I think it's about many things and given how many are very important it doesn't look good:

        • Oil control (and the economic power that comes with it considering all the gulf states are US vassals when push comes to shove)
        • locking down control of South America in the cold war with China in terms of raw resources but also in terms of being able to lock China out of markets there
        • Reasserting themselves in the face of an inevitable Ukraine loss to intimidate their enemies and show they still got it and can and will still fuck you up if you don't obey them
        • Direct testing of weapons systems refined and suggested by the Ukraine conflict to prepare for and further refine them for a conflict with China in the future

        Best hope for Venezuela is that they try to decapitate and kill Maduro and those closest to him (preferable obviously for us that they don't totally succeed), take out some of their military but then quickly get bored, declare mission accomplished and leave and either a still living Maduro or whoever succeeds him and declare they've dealt with the "drug trafficking". They may yet still think they can just use special forces to achieve a coup and comprador government being put in place after decapitation of the civil government and military as well as degrading of most military capabilities and not want to commit to boots on the ground. As long as local reactionaries can be foiled, prevented from receiving weapons and acting the US can be frustrated into giving up. Though the US will likely turn to economic weapons to try and turn up the heat on Venezuela and get the people angry and amenable to regime change or at least apathetic to the US forcing it.

    • This is why the shutdown needed to end.

    • Is there anything that Venezuela can do to stop it if there's a mass bombing campaign, because afaik they don't have all the long-range missiles like Iran used to hit the zionists back with.

      • Not much. Venezuela have advanced air defences, but in very limited numbers. Their most numerous air defence systems, the S-125/SA-3, are modernised cold war relics. The Venezuelan F-16s lack radar guided missiles, and the Su-30s are outclassed by F-35s. Maintenance and spare parts are an issue for both aircraft types. Anti ship capabilities are limited to shorter range missiles launched by Su-30s, or Iranian made patrol boats. Venezuela doesn't have any ballistic missiles, also the range to hit the continental US is almost double that of Iran vs Israel, and greater than Yemen vs Israel. Some kind of air bridge from Russia or Iran for supplies is not feasible, neither state has the airlift capacity. Russian government officials were bragging about maybe sending one or two Pantsir S1/SA-22s over, and repairing existing air defences last week.

        The biggest bargaining chip Venezuela has to play are the 5000 Igla-S/SA-24 Man Portable Air Defense systems (MANPADs). That's a big number and could complicate low altitude flights/operations by helicopters and close air support. It could also end up outside of state control in the case of a collapse of the Venezuelan government.

        What Russia could do at most is supply Venezuela with longer range anti ship missiles, a P-800 Oniks battalion with ground launchers for instance. Or the air launched version, the Kh-61. Or some ground launched Kalibr cruise missiles. But I think that's very unlikely. It has just as much of a potential to start a conflict as it has to deter.

      • Sabotage the Panama Canal.

    • There were those reports that "Trump was having doubts" about the effectiveness of a potential operation.

      Seems like their solution to that was to just bring in a whole extra carrier group.

      • There were plenty of reports before the attack on Iran about Trump reconsidering, backing out, etc. It's put out there on purpose to muddy the waters and get people to let their guard down. Only true military deterrence will prevent an attack at this point.

      • CNN says the doubts are about the legality of strikes on mainland Venezuela, and that the administration is seeking a new legal opinion from the Department of Justice that will make it legal. But who knows at this point. The media space is full of contradictory articles.

        What the Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group adds is more air defence AEGIS assets, more Tomahawks, and most importantly, 60+ F/A-18E/F aircraft for various missions, bomb trucks that can provide constant close air support or an intense bombing campaign from close by. It's on the move currently.

  • The Iraqi Parliamentary Elections are officially over since a few hours ago. Very civilised and calm occasion, probably the best elections since elections became a thing in Iraq after the American invasion and occupation. Clear increase in the number of voters despite Muqtada Al Sadr's countless tantrums and subsequent boycott of the election, with his 1+ million potential loyal voters not showing up today.

    Let's quickly talk results. Final results will be announced tomorrow at 6 PM Baghdad time, but we already have strong indications from exit polls, dumbass election officials who have leaked way too much, and initial calculations by people that I respect in the Iraqi political world. Full breakdown of the results probably coming by the end of the week but no promises. If the names and numbers are confusing, please click on my profile and check my earlier breakdown of the elections.

    Biggest winners:

    1. PM Mohammed Al Sudani and his coalition. Sudani's gang have by all indications achieved a historical performance in this election. They seem to have a very strong performance in Baghdad, Basra and surprisingly Nineveh as well. They are set to have 50+ seats at the moment and Sudani looks to be the guy that will be tasked to form the new government. More on this point after the official results, but Sudani's victory comes as a result of a Sunni-Shia middle-class coalition of people that we as Internet freaks would refer to as "I just wanna grill" people. The rise of the griller is a new phenomenon in Iraq, it will be very interesting to talk more about this soon.
    2. Kurdistani Democratic Party. All that talk about Kurds finally getting tired of the Barzani eternal oligarchy was just talk. The KDP has burst through the 1 million votes barrier and will position themselves as the primary senior partner in Sudani's upcoming ruling coalitions, alongside Halbusi's Sunni-led Taqaddum
    3. Nouri Al Maliki's State of the Law. The shit that just won't flush. He is the living proof of "time heals everything". Most Iraqis wanted him hung in Tahrir Square after the ISIS disaster, but somehow people forget and he seems to have secured more seats than last time, enough to make him a pain in the ass when it's time to form a government.

    Biggest losers:

    1. PMU-aligned parties except Sadiqoun. Horrible performance by both Kataeb Hezbollah's Huquq, and Badr, two of the three big PMU-related parties. Anti-resistance propaganda by American-backed media has definitely left an effect in people's mind which directly affects their vote and leads to the creation of something like the "I just wanna grill" societal class. PMU parties in Iraq also seem uniquely bad at developing a strong base of loyalty and support, which leads to many situations where they display clear incompetence compared to the disciplined and popular Hezbollah and Ansarallah.
    2. Muqtada Al Sadr. He lost the elections despite his boycott. He wanted to tank the credibility and the participation rate in the elections, but that drastically failed today with how positive the whole atmosphere around the elections has been. He's truly the worst gambler of the all time, can't believe he once again maneuvered himself and his followers into a stupid ass position that makes him look like a loser cult leader again.
    3. Kurdish opposition. It was a little bit of a now or never for most Kurdish opposition parties, but early results shows that they're sadly cooked like the kids would say. Iraqi Kurds just seem incapable of even considering the idea of voting for another guy or party.

    The real nerd breakdown coming soon inshallah chat.

  • The 2025 Iraqi Parliamentary Elections are officially over, and we have the final results. The results are not entirely finalised yet, as the Election Commission go over small irregularities which might add or subtract one or two seats from some parties, but we have a pretty good idea of how it looks. I’ll first present the totals in three different sections to make the tables smaller and more readable. Section one will be Shia-majority parties, then Sunni-majority parties, then Kurdish-majority parties.

    Section 1 – Shia-majority parties:

    Party Number of seats My previous prediction Personal commentary
    Reconstruction and Development Coalition 46 40-50 PM Sudani’s party did pretty much in line with my prediction, enough seats to be the clear winner, but not enough to be the sole decisionmakers.
    State of Law Coalition 28 20-30 I’m Maliki’s number 1 hater, but I can’t deny that it was a strong performance by his party. They weren’t the outright winner in any governorate, but they had a strong base across the South and Baghdad.
    Sadiqoun 28 15-25 I fucked up the math there, I wrote that they were going to double their seats, which they actually did, as they went literally from 14 to 28, but I wrote 15-25 for some reason. Very strong performance, they will be the prime pro-PMU voice in Parliament.
    Badr Organization 18 15-25 Again a reasonable performance by Badr, with an underperformance in Baghdad, which was compensated by a surprisingly good result in Diyala.
    Huquq 6 10-15 Horrible performance by the political wing of Kataib Hezbollah. They gave too many people the ick by going too sectarian without having the actual political clout to be sectarian. There’s a big chance that they get completely excluded from the government formation process, with the US veto on them.
    Coalition of State Forces 18 - I completely forgot Ammar Al Hakim’s party when doing my breakdown. They stand for more lukewarm Iraqi isolationist nationalism, with slight Shia nationalist tones. It’s kinda funny because Al Hakim has excellent with Arab leaders such as Sisi and MBS. They completely sucked in the last election, so they are the biggest winners of the Sadrist boycott.
    Iraqi Foundation Coalition 7 5-10 Respectable performance for Muhsin Al Mandalawi’s party considering that it’s a completely new formation. Their real win is that they successfully challenged the ethnic quota system and got Feyli Kurds elected from the normal seats in Baghdad instead of the quota seat.
    Tasmim 6 5-7 Perfect prediction by me here, just needed to flex tbh. Governor Eidani is in trouble though, as his loose coalition in Basra is on the verge of collapsing already due to his guys in the coalition only winning 2/6 of the seats, with three going to members of the isolationist Sheikhi sect and one to a Sunni candidate that will caucus with Taqaddum.
    Smaller and regional Shia parties 25 10-20 Smaller and regional parties did pretty well, even better than expected tbh.

    Section 2 – Sunni-majority parties

    Party Number of seats My previous prediction Personal commentary
    Taqaddum + allies 33 35-45 Slight underperformance by Halbusi’s party. They overperformed in Baghdad but did slightly worse in Sunni-majority regions due to the emergence of Azem and their strong performance. Halbusi is a cunning politician though, there’s already credible rumours about him uniting all Sunni parties in one coalition with over 75 seats in order to be the senior coalition partner to PM Sudani.
    Azem 15 15-20 Azem have successfully positioned themselves as the 2nd largest Sunni party after a very respectable election. How big of a role they will get will depend on if they manage to strike an agreement with Taqaddum.
    Al Siyada (Sovereignty) 9 - I forgot them in my earlier breakdown. A party for more tribal dudes and dudettes. They did well and can potentially leverage their tribal connections to Shia Iraq for a big role in the future.
    Smaller and regional Sunni parties 12 - Normal performance, most of these parties will probably be absorbed by Taqaddum pretty quickly.

    Section 2 – Kurdish-majority parties

    Party Number of seats My previous prediction Personal commentary
    Kurdistan Democratic Party 26 25-35 Slight underperformance by the KDP despite a record number of votes. They fumbled too many seats to the opposition surprisingly, with Ali Hama Saleh’s Halwest denting their numbers in Erbil somehow. Great numbers in Nineveh, probably the most impressive Kurdish performance there ever.
    Patriotic Union of Kurdistan 17 15-20 Nothing too surprising there, the PUK had a normal election result, and they will leverage Bafel Talabani’s cute friendship with Baghdad to get the President of Iraq role again.
    Halwest 5!!! 1-3 Amazing overperformance by Ali Hama Saleh’s new party, probably the most surprising result of the whole election. There’s much excitement in Baghdad for them; Saleh is probably the most valuable addition in the Parliament with his notorious anti-corruption record in the Kurdistan Region.
    Kurdish Islamists + New Generation 8 5-10 With Halwest carrying the opposition vote, NG notably declined in this election. Kurdish Islamists slightly overperformed though, good for them.

    Discussion

    Government formation?

    There are a few possible scenarios. The most likely scenario is that we get a vast coalition of literally everyone, with the bigger parties getting the bigger slices of the cake, and smaller parties getting stuff like the Ministry of Tourism. There’s a wild card this time though, Sudani is actually interested in governing instead of bickering like the Sadrists usually do after winning most seats. There are three possible scenarios for coalition governments without the usual “everyone is invited”.

    American-friendly government: Sudani (46) + Sunni coalition led by Taqaddum (75) + Kurdish coalition (42) + Tasmim (6) + a few smaller parties (10-20) = >165

    Iranian-friendly government: Maliki (28) + PMU coalition (60-ish) + Hakim (18) + Foundation Coalition (7) + PUK (17) + random smaller Shia and Sunni parties (40-ish) = >165

    Impact of Sadrist boycott?

    This election had a bigger turnout than the last election despite the Sadrist boycott. The Sadrists are now treated as pariahs in Iraq, after their failed attempt to influence the legitimacy of the elections by their stupid boycott. Muqtada Al Sadr has a big hill to climb now if he wants his people to return to politics now. I think that the Sadrists now regret their decision, especially with anti-Sadrists taking most of their seats in the south and Baghdad due to the boycott.

    How did our beautiful communists do?

    zero, 0, صفر

    so sad

  • Wikipedia: A sham election, or show election, is an election that is held purely for show; that is, without any significant political choice or real impact on the results of the election.

    The 1929 and 1934 elections in Fascist Italy

    The 1942 general election in Imperial Japan

    Those in Nazi Germany, East Germany other than the election in 1990

    ???

    Those in Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

    Those in Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina

    ???

    Those in Russia under Vladimir Putin

    ???

    Those in Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro (most notably in 2018 and 2024)

    Those in Belarus after 1994 (most notably in 2020)

    The 1991 and 2019 Kazakh presidential elections

    Those in North Korea

    The 1995 and 2002 presidential referendums in Saddam Hussein's Iraq

    Those in Cuba since the Cuban Revolution.

    The 2025 Tanzanian general election was decried by many as a sham election.

    WTF even is this list? They focus on stuff like Cuba and ignore all the latam sham elections during the 1880s - 1980s (mostly under the junta control). And they consider Maduro elections fake but not Chavez? How tf are all of North Korea elections fake when South Korea has been a military dictatorship for most of it's existance.

  • Venezuelan Special Forces are patrolling the streets of Caracas in preventive actions against saboteurs. On Saturday night (11/15), CORPOLEC (Corporación Eléctrica Nacional, S.A., often known by its abbreviation Corpoelec, is a fully integrated state power corporation of Venezuela) reported acts of sabotage against three transmission towers that were blown up. The Venezuelan government is treating the case of the three transmission towers that exploded in the municipality of Juan Antonio Sotillo as an act of internal sabotage, describing the action as having been carried out by “criminal agents supported by foreign powers.”

  • Agricultural offensive: how Burkina Faso is moving towards self-sufficiency in food production

    c/news post

    I'm only quoting a few small snippets with numbers below. There's much, much more in the article worth reading.

    Also the role of the small national bourgeoisie in decolonial economic development is perfectly exemplified in BF's ongoing revolution. If you're looking to understand the way the national bourgeoisie can be a progressive and revolutionary force, BF is the best place to look. At extremely low levels of economic development, the entrepreneurial small capitalists (many of whom are returning diaspora bringing some modest western monetary capital) are key partners in building up industry beyond what a small, underdeveloped state can achieve. This always poses a long term threat to a socialist project (which I think BF aims to build), but still, national bourgeoisie are a key ally against comprador bourgeoisie.

  • UPDATE

    Of the 153 Palestinian refugees trafficked into South Africa, 23 of them have chosen to depart to other destinations. The 130 who are remaining in Johannesburg have all been granted a 90-day standard visa-free stay, during which they now have access to medical care, food, housing and in this time can decide whether to formally file for asylum to become South Africans.

    None of the 153 refugees were even given water for over two days, at near-death from dehydration, until they disembarked in Johannesburg after a 6,500 kilometer black-bagged flight.

  • The invasion of the Presidential Palace in Mexico was planned. The “Generation Z” protesters brought a circular saw capable of cutting metal to cut through the protective fences, as well as gas masks and helmets. The “protesters” were also seen with swastikas, Nazi and fascist symbols, and One Piece flags. They spray-painted racist and anti-Semitic slogans on the walls outside the palace, such as “Jewish whore.”

  • The Hill: Hegseth announces operation ‘Southern Spear’ to quash ‘narco-terrorists’

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday evening a new operation dubbed “Southern Spear” to quash “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere.

    Hegseth said the mission is being led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) to defend the “Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people.”

    ...

    In late January, the U.S. military announced that the U.S. Navy’s 4th Fleet will start a new operation, named “Southern Spear,” that will “operationalize a heterogeneous mix of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking while learning lessons for other theaters.”

    Strange that they announced it way in advance, right after Trump's inauguration. I guess it was vague enough to avoid raising suspicions, but why say anything at all?

  • Protesters from “Generation Z” attempted to storm the Presidential Palace in Mexico City. The protesters carry the same flag as the pirates from One Piece, previously seen in demonstrations in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Mexican police were seen preparing to intervene and disperse the protesters.

    Mexican police clashed with protesters who are trying to storm the Presidential Palace in Mexico. They knocked down the protective walls and are advancing toward the police in an attempt to storm the palace.

  • Another plane filled with Palestinian refugees was trafficked into Johannesburg, with the plane not yet given clearance to disembark at the Oliver Tambo airport, still waiting out on the tarmac. This one was blocked, unlike the previous flight. Oh look, it's literally the Madagascar Johannesburg Plan by Adolf Eichmann from 85 years ago. Around 170 people are onboard this flight that is essentially sitting in the middle of the runway of Africa's 2nd largest airport, with Johannesburg on the verge of having it's own MS St. Louis incident. A few people have even been actually pleading for the refugees to be turned back with the knowledge that they will be exterminated. Bro, South Africa absolutely is long overdue for a Maoist purge

    Someone on Facebook mentioned that the reason for the refusal of entry is due to the fact that the South African Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Scheiße of the Diet Apartheid (DA) party, is an avowed Zionist and an open supporter of the Final Solution.

    Yet, at the same time just 20 kilometers west of the airport, the South African Communist Party has welcomed the Cuban ambassador Fakri Rodriguez, with him currently convening at the SACP's headquarters in the Cosatu House.

    UPDATE: Gift of the Givers has confirmed that the stranded Palestinian refugees have now been granted entry into South Africa. The delay was due to the intentional mis-processing of passports by the Nazisraeli entity. 17:00 SAST

    So far, around 350 Palestinians from Gaza have been trafficked into Johannesburg at gunpoint this week. The only lasting guarantee of safety is that they will eventually legally become South African citizens.

    Source: Salaamedia and Gift of the Givers (Facebook)

    Correction: Today's flight had around 170 Palestinian refugees arriving in South Africa, not 100.

  • 

    General strike set for December 11th in Portugal.

    The right-wing government is taking advantage of its dominance of the country's elected institutions to pass a labour package, a set of "reforms" to "modernize" labour law and offer "security and flexibility", pretty much all of them are about taking labour rights away.

    There are a few major changes, such as the right of refusal for companies to allow union representatives to set meetings in companies where there aren't registered unionized workers there, but also a lot of detail changes that just make things worse, like how previously if you got fired the employer had to wait a year before replacing you with an outsourced worker or through a temporary work service, now they'd be able to do it immediatly.

    The right currently have an unprecedented majority in parliament (center-right+liberals+far-right), the government of the 2 autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira, the largest number of municipal governments AND the presidency (the current president is a center-right old guy and there are presidential elections next year but one of the front-runners is also a center-right old guy).

    What's of note isn't that unions oppose the labour law, but that the regime-aligned union confederation UGT agreed to the general strike, the communist influenced CGTP would always agree to it, but it says a lot that the changes are so bad that even the UGT which is filled with workers affiliated with the centrist parties and also prides itself on it record of "negotiation" also agreed to the strike and is outright rejecting the labour reforma.

    Will it work? Idk, we haven't had one of these for a while and it's unknown whether the unions can still paralyze the country.

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