Thread image created by yours truly, depicting Iran and Pakistan very impolitely not asking whether America, on the other side of the planet, is okay with them transporting gas around.
The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has long been obstructed by American involvement in the region. Iran completed its section of the pipeline quite quickly, but Pakistan has been unable to finish its construction for a decade due to the fear of falling afoul of American sanctions on Iran. The United States has repeatedly tried to pressure Pakistan to give up the project and obtain gas from other countries instead. Recent articles on the state of the pipeline are contradictory, with some stating that Iran or Pakistan have given up on the pipeline while American sanctions persist. Pakistani officials reject this framing, saying that they are still working with Iran to try and get the project completed somehow. Nonetheless, Iran is becoming increasingly frustrated and is threatening a legal battle and a demand for reparations.
Meanwhile, back in Niger, the $13 billion under-construction pipeline connecting Nigeria and other West African countries to Spain and Italy will likely face delays due to the sanctions applied by the West and ECOWAS on Niger. Those following the European gas fiasco will be aware that while Spain and Italy have been impacted by the energy crisis, they have been very busy making deals with African countries to replace their Russian gas, and thus stand a better chance than Germany of making it through the crisis with their industries somewhat intact. The coup has thrown a wrench into their plans, though they can still obtain some gas from northern African countries.
And, last but not least, America tried for years to stop the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines between Germany and Russia, which culminated in them deciding to blow them up late last year.
All in all - the United States really does not like it when countries build up energy infrastructure and gain some independence from them.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
This week’s first update is here in the comments.
This week’s second update is here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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
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.
Last week’s discussion post.
Dude that jumped the border into the DPRK seeking asylum. Damn near uncritical support.
spoiler
Over 25% of personnel across all branches of the military were food insecure in 2018, with some service members struggling to stay within their monthly budgets or finding themselves captive to their schedules, according to a report released earlier this year by the RAND Corporation think tank.
“[W]e actually looked at some of the predictors of food insecurity among service members and, actually, service members who live on-post are more likely to experience problems accessing food, more food insecurity,” said Dr. Thomas Trail, a behavioral scientist who co-authored the report.
“Which makes the situation at Fort Cavazos kind of concerning, because you think, ‘Well, you know, they have dining facilities there, they get a meal card, they should be able to eat.’”
Soldiers at the sprawling, 214,968-acre U.S. Army base, which sits about 70 miles north of Austin, have battled insufficient food access for much of the summer, Military.com reported earlier this week.
Just two of the base’s 10 major dining stations have been open every day this summer, with another three open only during limited hours, according to the report. Confusing or conflicting information on hours of operation has compounded the problem.
While some soldiers can head off-post to grab grub, not all have vehicles. And those who do face a lengthy drive — up to an hour round trip — plus the prospect of paying for food out of pocket, rather than with military-issued meal cards usable on-post. Without factoring in bonuses and allowances, annual base pay for active duty soldiers starts at just over $23,000.
The reported root of the problem at Fort Cavazos is a lack of staffing for the on-post facilities, with a majority of cooks either deployed or undergoing training elsewhere.
“What we’ve found and what the [Department of Defense’s] own surveys have found is that the rate of food insecurity is high among service members and their families, higher than it is among equivalent civilians even,” Trail told The Messenger. “It’s a fairly large and somewhat persistent issue.”
The research report, which was sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, did find some trends. Two-thirds of those service members found to be food insecure were “in the early to middle stages of their career,” according to the report. They were also more likely to be of racial or ethnic minorities, and disproportionately in the Army rather than other branches.
“[I]f you’re living on-post, [and] you have a meal card, but you can’t use that meal card to purchase food because the dining facilities aren’t open or they’re not easily accessible, then you’re essentially not getting the pay you’re owed to pay for your food,” said Trail.
This issue comes up even on bases with ample kitchen staffing, with some soldiers’ work schedules incompatible with the hours of operation for on-post dining options.
“Some people are on shift work and they need to eat when the dining facilities aren’t open, so they’re spending money on food [off-post] that technically they’re not being reimbursed for from the military,” said Trail.
One person interviewed for the research report relayed that exact concern.
“We do a lot of shift work, which means that you won’t be eating in the [dining facility],” that interviewee said. “You get your BAS [Basic Allowance for Subsistence], and if you’re buying microwave dinners or eating takeout all the time, it adds up quick.”
New York’s Fort Drum is currently running a pilot program allowing soldiers to use their meal cards at non-military eateries, like Panera and Qdoba, according to Military.com.
So, the biggest military in the world has tactics that are entirely geared towards fighting shepherds in deserts, wunderwaffen that cost exponentially more than the hardware they may end up outmatched by, and they still can’t feed their soldiers in their own country living on bases. I hope there’s a lot of Qdobas and Paneras in Taiwan otherwise China’s gonna have a cakewalk.
Yea that’s not a good sign when your military logistics network can’t provide the barest of necessities while in their home country. And the solution basically being subcontracting it out to fast food joints is too perfectly American. Next you’ll hear about McDonald’s on bases charging $500 for a big mac, can’t leave those military contracting dollars on the table after all!
After January 6, congress deployed the national guard to the capitol. They slept on the floor and the politicians passed out greasy pizza to the soldiers
milspec tendies
Can’t wait for slop commercials with a low gravelly truck advertising voice talking about “military grade meat” and “eating like a warrior”
VMRE: Value Meal, Ready to Eat
Every military base I’ve been on has had a wendy’s and every foreign US base I’ve been on has had some form of Applebees or equivalent Amerikkan restaurant.
Usually a Subway for “healthy” options, too.
People don’t talk about rural poverty much - or when they do it’s about the absolute poverty of Appalachia - but there’s been a massive hollowing out of the rural regions between metropoles due to the end of military keynesianism. Bush gutted and neoliberalized the military during the Iraq war and in doing so started to drain out one of the only economic inflows into many of the poorer regions in the south. Recruiting numbers aren’t just down because people don’t want to be war criminals, they’re down because joining up is no longer the guarantee of economic stability that it used to be
o7 thank you Bush for destroying the US military o7
damn, that brings me back to making “bush is a crypto-leftist sleeper agent wrecker” jokes 20 years ago
I was gonna make a meaner joke about the difficulty of making your Dodge Challenger payments when you also have to pay for food.
i have infinite money and cheap food. someone please help me budget this my soldiers are starving
The fact that, according to the article, staff on a demestic base are more ñikely to go hungry than deployed tells you about some fucked up culture rather than lack of means
The average US military grunt gets treated like absolute shit, and the culture makes that the whole point. Follow that trail all the way up and you can see why they allow barracks to fall into disrepair and why they neglect to consider at all feeding the troops domestically. It’s very much the sense of hyper-individualism striking again, “they get paid, they can find their own food” without sparing a glance at what that entails.
It’s very much the sense of hyper-individualism striking again, “they get paid, they can find their own food” without sparing a glance at what that entails.
US Military Brass have the mindset of an Austrian commander in the 1600’s, but think that they can contend with China militarily.
First it was the missile gap now it’s the whopper gap
Neat, my Qdoba has a NATO stock number!
This is how you get an officers coup lol
Officers are usually paid well-enough, breaking in at above 40k a year from the moment they start their careers as an O-1, with career officers climbing the ranks making over 200K a year.
Of course this doesn’t include military bullshit that garnishes your pay or bonuses that can help subsidize your life in service.
So the only reason if and why we’d see any sort of officers revolt would likely be something spawned from pure ideology - which is also extremely unlikely.
Yes, but officers coups are generally only successful if they can get enough grunts to follow them.
Battleship Potemkin is one of my favorite movies, the first act especially
americans would rather drive an hour out of their way and waste all their money than go without fast food lol
One thing I’ll never get over when visiting family in the US is seeing how strong military worship can be in some places. I remember going to some small rural town and having “US MARINE” bumper stickers or decals would have people honking their horns and a few going “YEAH! YOU’RE A HERO!” Another time a guy in a military outfit was buying groceries and some dad loudly said to his kid, “Go to that guy and tell him thank you for protecting us!”
Military people in my country are largely viewed as slackers or people too stupid to pick up a trade or go to school. The only people who do something similar to what I saw in the US are the far-right types that like the fashy aesthetic of it.
like the fashy aesthetic of it.
This is why they do it in the US too. USA is a Fascist state.
Yup
Its a fascist culture being hidden by a bourgeoisie democracy
Protecting us from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards that are 9489156498km away from Fuckall Town in Iowa.
So I was browsing
and I saw a user post a video of Pyongyang taken from a very tall building. The user kinda admits the city looks cool but finishes by saying “these buildings are all empty and there are impoverished people”, first commenter say Pyongyang is the cleanest city because people are “not allowed to do anything” (???).May
burn and suffer a painful death. I am tired of better than thou white ass cracker motherfucker gringos. The world will be a better place without them.My favorite thing is that this is literally how so many cities in the U.S. operate, with tons of empty buildings and their cities are still covered in garbage.
yeah like, “these buildings are all empty and there are impoverished people”, have you been to any small town in the US lately?
North Korea is just a giant pizzeria. All the “citizens” are powered down until they see a westerner. Then they activate and perform pre-programmed tasks
new pizzagate dropped
children would eat the rats. then the rats would eat the children. then the guy in the rat costume would bring everyone cheese pizza.
Unfalsifiable conspiracy theories for the smoothest of brains
Argentina’s primary election winner Javier Milei, the ancap, said that if he’s elected he’ll cut diplomatic ties with China because “they’re Communists and I don’t deal with Communists”. Diplomatic, political and economic suicide, here we go!
Also he said the US and Israel would be “our top allies” if he wins, how original. He also gave names for a possible cabinet and how he’s going to reorganize the government: A number of ministeries will be eliminated, state scientific institutions will be privatized (He’s on the record saying “What have scientists done for us?, they need to be competitive”) and the Central Bank will be “demolished”. He mentioned the Ministry of Defense will be under a woman who is known for being a Videla apologist, she claims the last military junta did not carry out a genocide and denies 30,000 people were disappeared, tortured and killed by the state. He also wants a “voucher system” for education, public schools and universities are pretty much gone, instead, the state would give people “vouchers” for them to “spend on educative institutions of their choosing”, thus “forcing schools and universities to compete among themselves”. And probably his “top issue” is complete dollarization of the economy. His path will be most likely similar to Menem’s neoliberal plan, first he’ll “fix” high inflation (In the case of Menem it was hyperinflation of the late 80s), this will be seen as very positive by the general population. He’ll most likely do this by cutting a deal with the IMF and other foreign entities, they’ll let him “reign in peace” for two or four years, in exchange, Argentina will give up it’s energy and lithium reserves (among other things, like labor reforms and shit like that), sealing our fate.
We’re living in the wildest nightmare. Capitalism has brought this country to it’s knees numerous times before, and the “libertarian” solution to capitalism is even more capitalism. I am contemplating more and more just leaving this hollow piece of shit behind and migrate to Spain, at least for a number of years. I just don’t feel particularly safe here no more, this is a nightmare scenario, this isn’t just your typical right winger taking power and getting kinda obstructed by democratic institutions, these are true Fascist demons taking power and going all in. I’m not sure he’ll be able to fully implement his agenda, most likely he’ll fail along the way, the problem is that this shit will bring high social tension, economic devastation and a massive drop in quality of life. Do I really want to live through this crap AGAIN? I grew up during the late 90s and early 2000s, I remember the December 2001 riots, I can still hear the echoes of the “Cacerolazos” (people banging pots to protest), I remember my school friends asking me if we could give them spare cardboards to their parents because these could be sold for some money, I remember the endless waves of unhoused people looking for food in the trash (who are more and more visible today) and, of course, I remember the police killing 30+ people during the protests as if this was 1978. No, I don’t think I want to live through this again, even less when I’m a target for these lunatics. There is fight in me, but is there any fight in those around me?
Death and Eternal Suffering to all Fascists.
Every time I explain the war to libs I become 1% more pro-Russia and I’m a little concerned about it.
Like, can someone tell me what Russia or the separatists could have done differently that would allow the provinces some pathway towards secession or even just representation, while minimizing loss of life? There’s an answer to that question, right? Help.
That’s the question they never answer. Once you acknowledge that the Ukrainian govt was literally waging war against an ethnic scapegoat and that the intention of NATO leadership is to absolutely pillage the people and natural resources of Russia, what was Russia supposed to do differently?
the intention of NATO leadership is to absolutely pillage the people and natural resources of Russia
I don’t think it’s realistic that NATO expected to just steamroll Russia so I don’t really agree with this interpretation at all.
It’s the economic sanctions. Cutting Russia off SWIFT and confiscating their foreign reserves were the equivalent of dropping financial nukes on the country - to blast them back to the 1990s poverty. Then they’d be able to move in and carve up Russia’s resources for themselves. They were fully conscious of what they were about to do to tens of millions of people in Russia.
The fact that Russia survived the nukes was an exception, not the rule. Most other countries would not survive that.
I don’t believe sanctions are a reliable, sufficient method of collapsing major world powers. It’s not really relevant to my question in any case.
I don’t believe sanctions are a reliable, sufficient method of collapsing major world powers.
The point is that they didn’t know that.
What they were seeing is that the two largest economic bodies teaming up together (US + EU) to unleash the most powerful economic sanctions ever seen on a country with a GDP smaller than Italy’s. It was supposed to be a show of force and a warning to the rest of the world about “this is why you don’t fuck with us Europeans or this will be the fate of your country! If we can collapse Russia with ease, we will collapse yours too”
The point is that they didn’t know that.
I think they did. Because it’s just generally true.
I really don’t see on what basis I’m supposed to believe that they believed sanctions would be enough. You can’t just press a button and destroy a major world power. I find it absurd to think that they would go down this whole path of provoking war, all of it resting on the assumption that Russia would instantly collapse when they did sanctions. There are way more plausible explanations and interpretations that don’t rely on people being that dumb.
I really don’t see on what basis I’m supposed to believe that they believed sanctions would be enough.
All the politicians saying “russia will colapse from sanctions” isn’t good enough?
Here is the most blatant example I could find.
I think one a key intent was cutting Europe off from Russian resources and weakening its industry to the benefit of domestic US industry in anticipation of conflict with China.
It’s nothing to do with steamrolling militarily, the sanctions were put in place in such large doses and so quickly as to try and cause a breakdown of the war effort and internal revolt against the Russian government by West-friendly oligarchs who could then hand over everything that isn’t nailed down to the West
Yeah obviously once they sent troops in NATO did sanctions but the idea that that would lead to what you said is a pipe dream. Obviously if they somehow got Russia on a silver platter they’d loot it, as they would anywhere. My question doesn’t concern events after Russia sent troops in, my question concerns the events leading up to that. I am not inclined to believe that NATO’s plans from the start relied on sanctions being enough to bring down Russia as that’s an extremely unreliable approach.
NATO actually started the sanctions before the invasion. People were back then were actually saying “Wait, if we threatened Russia with sanctions if they invaded and then sanctioned them anyway, what is stopping Russia from invading?”.
The biggest sanction on Russia is probably being cut of from the Swift network and that was put in place after the invasion. Along with the foreign reserves being seized.
I stand corrected on that point, but I still don’t think NATO went down this path thinking that all they had to do was press the sanction button and watch Russia collapse.
coming to this pretty late, but yeah, we’ll never really know since we can’t get in their heads but there might be some credence to that believe among US policy planners as they did a similar thing to Allende’s Chile with the whole “make the economy scream” sanctions.
That was of course coupled with a US-supported military coup with Pinochet. They are also using sanctions to encourage domestic discord in Cuba and Venezuela to ultimately achieve a regime change. Economic sanctions are definitely in the coup-toolbox right?
The same people already pillaged Russia once, and it took them a long time. This has been a several decades long project and I don’t see what’s changed that would suggest they have a different motive. But I think you’re probably onto something in your comments below. They probably weren’t so stupid to actually think Russia would be handed to them in a couple of months.
On second thought, some of them definitely thought that, the rest were just stirring up racism. Also, I’m tired, so I might be misunderstanding what you’re getting at.
I guess my view is that it’s more about seizing control of Ukraine than having designs on Russia, although that could be a long term goal. They wanted to bring Ukraine into NATO and they didn’t want to give the people the option of saying no. Some people didn’t like that, so they seized control of their provinces and declared independence, and Ukraine wasn’t going to allow that but Russia backed them up. I think the explanation that it was about bringing Ukraine into NATO better fits with these events than that all of this is a plot to loot Russia. The latter is speculation that is only supported by further speculation, that they thought Russia would fold like a house of cards as soon as they imposed sanctions, which I find unbelievable.
Of course, they’d loot Russia given the chance, but the same is true of anywhere. I don’t think there’s any reason Russia would be specifically targeted, as it’s not as if they were particularly vulnerable. I also haven’t heard any explations for how the West supposedly made such a huge miscalculation regarding sactions, aside from “they’re all just really stupid.”
Generally my position is that I think that the people of Donbas ought to be able to have a representative government and be able to choose their own fate, and I’m coming around to the argument that that was impossible to achieve through peaceful means. But at the same time I’m skeptical of a lot of other Russian narratives about the war, and that includes the idea that the whole thing is a plot to pillage Russia.
A brewing conflict at the border, that can be ramped up or down on US orders, can also be used to get concessions out of the Russians. Even better if NATO is there, because Russia has to avoid getting into a direct confrontation with them. Ultimately this allows them to destabilize Russia and undermine state control over the border region. If Russia doesn’t want that to happen, they might have to agree to some other bullshit, like allowing some NGOs to operate or something like that.
The answer that’ll really get you labelled as a Putin shill is that Russia shouldn’t have stopped at Crimea back in 2014. Back then the Ukrainian state was much weaker than it is now and Russia could possibly have beat them a lot faster and consequently with a lot less lives lost compared to what’s happening now.
To go even further, Russia and the USSR before them should have been more assertive against and less trusting of the West at every turn. “Peaceful coexistence” was a mistake and led to here. Against NATO, peace was never on the table.
I imagine the sanction regime of the west would have actually done something in 2014. I don’t think the Russian economy was quite ready at that point
I’m not sure how NATO would react. The whole reason they declared an SMO and not a war(no full mobilization even 18 months later) was because they were afraid of NATO’s response.
It was a mistake of course back then and today as well. The SMO shit was far too conservative even though it was working and Ukraine was finaly on track for a peace agreement, history wont look back favorably to that choice.
Then again one could argue the only reason we are not in a nuclear winter right now is exactly because the Russians were too scared so lucky for everyone else too. Even the west used to talk about “red lines” or pushing Russia back in the early days too.
I don’t become pro Russia. I just hope that the Donbas can stay protected whether Russia wins or lose. They should never give up their arms
But if Russia loses (or didn’t intervene) then Donbas wouldn’t have any protection if it declared independence, and no representation if it didn’t. I don’t particularly trust Russia but I don’t see much hope for the people of Donbas without them.
Well that’s I mean. I don’t trust Russia either because I imagine they’ll pull a “weeelll, we did fight for you, so you should let us do xyz,” but they’ll still protect them from the west because you can’t really go from making a big deal about the region to just tossing them and pretending you never cared. But if they do fail, then I hope the east fights like hell to achieve some kind of autonomy
If you watch Patrick Landcaster’s interviews in Crimea a lot of people say that Ukraine didn’t invest in any public infrastructure of any kind. Minimal roads, no water, no schools, no hospitals, etc but that since Russia took over it has invested significantly in infrastructure.
I cant imagine that Russia would act different in Donbas. They have already started paying pensions to former Ukrainians and begun rebuilding some of the cities they took.
Even if Russia does exploit Donbas resources and labor a harder than the rest of Russia it will likely be preferable to being exploited by Ukraine and persecuted for their culture.
Possibly if Russia had either annexed Donbas immediately or allowed them to join the Russian Federation. Crimea managed to avoid being shelled by being part of Russia.
The problem with that from Russia’s perspective is that Russia was significantly more vulnerable to sanctions in 2014. Russia spent the past 8 years on hardening itself against western sanctions. Ukraine and NATO spent the last 8 years on ideologically hardening Kyiv’s army and government to fight to the death. Russia managed to avoid being destroyed by sanctions and NATO managed to avoid a repeat of the Georgian war.
Maybe if Donbas had a referendum on joining Russia before the SMO started? That would have made Russia’s involvement a bit more reasonable but the west would just call it a rigged referendum like they have with all the others.
I have enough problems getting the libs to acknowledge the Crimean Referendums in the 90s.
Well they won’t, because the conclusion, for them, is predetermined
Libs only understand movies, material reality is too much for them to comprehend
Yeah I mean if Ukraine was prepared to accept the results of a referendum they wouldn’t have banned opposition parties in the first place.
Yeah this keeps going back to
becoming increasingly fascistI’m not sure whether the foreign or domestic pressure was the bigger influence but that certainly played a role.
hmm I could be wrong but I think they did in 2014, this MoA article on Feb 17, 2022 from the buildup series quotes an AP piece:
In April 2014, Russia-backed rebels seized government buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, proclaimed the creation of “people’s republics” there and battled Ukrainian troops and volunteer battalions.
The following month, the separatist regions held a popular vote to declare independence and make a bid to become part of Russia. Moscow hasn’t accepted the motion, in the hope of using the regions as a tool to keep Ukraine in its orbit and prevent it from joining NATO.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-moscow-061c1ea46ad98716b8da01eb8b967da2
Every time I explain the war to libs I become 1% more pro-Russia and I’m a little concerned about it.
I think the tenet of “If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” is possibly the only correct thing Reagan ever did or said other than dying, when applied to real-life debates and arguments. Everybody’s seen the TV arguments where a host is asking short, snappy, accusatory questions to a person that has foolishly volunteered to try and explain their viewpoint, where every time they get more than 10 words into an explanation they are cut off and another accusatory question asked, so even if you support the interviewee it’s like “Dang, this is rough to watch.” It’s mitigated quite a lot online by upvote metrics - if you see a short, snappy comment with like 3 upvotes and a reply with 80, then you mostly know in your lizardbrain who is winning and who is losing. But even so, the tenet still holds, and that’s why it’s important to also attack your opponent rather than remaining in defensive explanations after every accusation. Hence the chapo/Hexbear styles of engagement with libs.
With that said, what might be happening is that when a liberal offers a short, concise, and wrong accusation or argument - say, “Russia invaded Ukraine because Putin is an authoritarian dictator who wanted to destroy Ukraine for not bowing down to him, and Ukrainians are resisting him,” - it’s tempting to try and offer a short, concise, and more correct statement in response - “Actually, Putin was justified in invading Ukraine because NATO pushed up to their borders and Ukrainians are Nazis.”
The problem is that that response isn’t actually true, or at least it’s not the whole truth, and additional details are critical to make the argument more airtight especially if you don’t want somebody to turn around and say “Well, if you think that’s right, then you think X country (that you don’t support) invading Y country (which you support) was justified too, because the situations are broadly comparable.”
The problem now is that if you try and add those additional details, by the time you’re done, you’ve written an essay, and you are explaining and thus losing. This is the exact problem I had with writing Hexbear’s position on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
So I’m personally quite non-judgemental when people on the Left in public give these sorts of short, snappy, and wrong statements, because while people around them are like “This isn’t my position, this is insufficiently nuanced, actually I have a great 15,000 word essay on this and 7 books if you want to know more…” in reality they’re constrained by “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
I’ve noticed a slight shift in the reporting on Ukraine in Danish media. There’s less of the “Our superior Wunderwaffen will crush Russia!” stuff and a lot more stuff about how challenging things are for the Ukrainian armed forces, some even go as far as saying that the counteroffensive has failed.
Theyre still campaigning to give Ukraine F-16’s and seems to think that this time superior Aryan technology will change the tide of the war.
Something suggests that at least some of the sources that western media get their Ukraine content from is winding down their bellicose stance.
There’s less of the “Our superior Wunderwaffen will crush Russia!” stuff and a lot more stuff about how challenging things are for the Ukrainian armed forces, some even go as far as saying that the counteroffensive has failed.
My take is when Ukraine finally loses you’ll see part of the media reverting to their normal racist fashy shit Ukrainians will become the dumbass asian/slav hordes whatever idiots that couldn’t figure out how to use the awesome tactics and the super magical BS weapons. They literally already did this but it will go to 11 when they lose imo.
At the same time I think another part of the media will hold on to the Ukrainian sacrifice myth until the end, they’ll claim it could all be avoided if we sent more [insert outdated NATO shit from 1985 here], it is all our Russian bots fault for not supporting the holy fight for democracy and freedom, we are responsible for 500k dead Ukrainian children, how we all failed the brave and heroic Ukrainian
Nazisfreedom fighters blah blah and that is why we need more and more spending and why Russia is the big evil more than ever.In essence, they’ll play both sides.
It’ll be like the brave mujahudeen thing until some Azov guy flies an airplane in the Eiffel tower.
“Azov is a Russian Nazi organization sent to destroy Europe as part of Putler’s genocide.”
deleted by creator
It’s like all these libs saying that you can’t “force democracy” on removed savages like I’ve been seeing pop up about Afghanistan after federation
That’s been a talking point since the invasion of Iraq
Liberalism cannot fail, it can only be failed
you can’t “force democracy” on removed savages
I think you discribed the media split between the western states proper and the hyper-reactionary post-soviet states in the middle of the West and the East.
This is going to be the same goddamn thing as the last few wars isn’t it
They’re going to tone it down down down until they’ll say right to your face that “nobody really supported zelensky” or “I thought the war was suspicious from the start” when they’re the ones who were screaming “kill the orcs!” right along with the other nazis.
I can’t talk about the Iraq War around any older people I knew at the time because they all tell me they didn’t really support the war when I fucking remember that they did! My dad does it and it’s maddening.
Mkultrawide is infuriated by people’s false narratives and altered histories.
When you remove the context the idea becomes quite funny.
20 years later, president Ben Shapiro signs off on ending the war but passes it on to president Sinema to botch thr execution.
Sinema: “This will not be like Vietnam, or like Afghanistan. There will be no photo of a heli lifting people out at the last minute.”
If the Ukrainians get the old stuff, that means that NATO has to replace it with new stuff.
Old is an understatement at some point they received Harpoon missiles from the UK that were literally past the expiration date.
The antique collection In 2020 the RN issued an exploratory request to the industry for bids to extend the life of its Harpoons Block 1C Anti-Ship missiles to 2027. Ultimately Babcock (Devonport) was awarded a contract in early 2021 to extend support for another year. Current weapon stocks are mostly life-expired. Even if well looked after and maintained by the Defence Munitions organisation, the explosives and propellants in a missile degrade over time. These elements need to be replaced and the weapons re-certified or they can become at best unreliable or even dangerously unsafe. Unless there has been a crash program to rapidly re-certify UK Harpoon stocks, there are probably only a handful of usable weapons left. The lack of missiles was indicated by the fact that for the Carrier Strike deployment in 2021, which included operations in the contested environment of the South China Sea, only one of the four RN escorts (HMS Kent) was fitted with Harpoon.
And Harpoons are like the worst ASM’s in current stock anywhere
For real, small, slow, short ranged. Out performed by basically every Soviet and Chinese ashm.
Are the Harpoons even being used against Russian ships, or just fired into Donetsk like everything else?
That’s a good question. As far as memory goes, harpoon guidance only really works against ships.
Marxism-Leninism is when the capitalists sell us the rope with which we will hang them.
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is when we sell the capitalists the rope with which they will hang themselves.
It’s a slow news week.
I was pissed when the colonial government in hawaii did nothing to help us when we burn, and move mountains to evac tourists. And now that they’ve sent “aid”, I’m even more pissed.
you want to know why?
Instead of sending extra volunteers, more firefighters, or further aid. Instead of stopping the landlord leeches currently using this crisis to further buy up land.
they sent a mortuary assistant to help identify our burnt corpses https://www.khon2.com/hawaii-fires/portable-morgue-unit-in-hawaii-to-help-identify-maui-fire-victims/
Hawaii still refusing to do anything about the fires besides protect property and evac tourists
fuck this country
Democratic stronghold state showing once again that a Democratic Supermajority wouldn’t get shit done as much as the VOTE crowd likes to think it would bring the US to a new golden age.
Exactly, its sad to see those subjected to colonialism being some of its defenders
Isn’t Hawaii literally the Bluest state in the entire country? Like the Democrats win Hawaii with such margins that you’d think they would do something with it, but somehow all that amounts to is the dems giving blowjobs to hotel owners.
Why would they need to do anything? They already win Hawaii with huge margins.
To me, that sounds like good reason why they don’t feel the need to do anything. Why lift a finger when they’re guaranteed support there anyway? Pretty bleak and cynical, but that’s the dems for you. Now if it were a “battleground state,” then there would at least be incentive to make a show of helping out somehow. Even then, I’d be amazed if it were more than some token support they could use for soundbites.
Send Trump over to offer everyone hamburgers before sneaking out the back door
I can just see him tossing paper kitchen towels into the fires and still getting better optics than any other politician
Our big wet boy will put out the Fires with his immense wetness.
Just found out that there’s been a new china scare: china is potentially operating a Covid testing lab in the US, making the virus more contagious and deadly. For some reason the US government can’t even confirm whether these people are Chinese or if they were American citizens
Pretty insane how the first thought is “how can we link china” when they’re in a state that’s a hotbed for the military, intelligence, and hippie biological modification
a friend of mine is argentinian and the news there… oh boy. fuck
not looking great at all.
as these were the primaries - is there any hope that something can be done to stop the ancap destroying the country, like parties or contenders banding together or something, or is Argentina just toast now? he got like 30% of the vote I think, which is a lot higher than he should have gotten but still isn’t a majority
IIRC Argentina has been indebted for decades and the case doesn’t seem to improve. So it is just natural that there are actual Ancaps trying to push for abandoning the country’s currency for the USD (according to Geopolitical Economy Report and that interview with Ha Joon-Chang).
I guess the optics the Ancaps are trying to sell to the population is that free market and a better integration with the US’s economy apparatus are going to help with investment and jumpstart the economy, but we all know the real reason is to help with capital fly and it’s just a way to the wealthy interest group to prepare for a rug pull.
We had a period where we could have ended all the debts the different neoliberals put on us to automatically funnel the money to their Panama accounts, but succdems gonna succdem and then people chose the same neoliberals to do the exact same thing again, and boy did they did it.
From that moment, economic policy became a stupid echo of the sequence we already lived:
last dictatorship ecopol (Macri gov) -> Alfonsin ecopol (Alberto Fernandez) -> Menem ecopol (Bullrich / Milei / Massa if some kind of planet alignment happen and he somehow wins)
First as a tragedy, now as farce, etc
I don’t think they’re going to band together, because who is even going to lead that coalition? The key issue here is that Milei and Bullrich are friendly to each other, in the past they held talks about forming a possible electoral front, promising cabinet positions and so on. So in reality, this race between the two is more like a friendly contest than anything else, it now depends on the individuals and their aspirations. Whoever wins is most likely going to make very friendly offers to the other (example: Milei winning and offering the Ministry of Security to Bullrich, a post she used to hold in Macri’s presidency).
Another thing is the nature of the primaries. During the primaries, people vote because the vote is almost worthless (unless you’re a small party trying to make it to the 1,5% minumum required to compete in the Generals or you have an actual primary going on within your party), and in the past we have seen very wild tendencies during the primaries and a completely different thing during the generals. Last election cycle, Fernandez absolutely wiped the floor with incumbent Macri during the primaries, but in the generals the election was so much closer. This can be the case of an anomaly, people voted Milei “to send a message”, people might have voted Milei as a “punishment vote” against the Government and the principal opposition group, not because “they’re serious about it”. Punishment votes are a common practice, at least here, several candidates in the past were voted not for ideological reasons, but to punish certain parties for being shit.
The future is not uncertain, it’s dark. An election between a Bolsonaro with long hair and a female Bolsonaro awaits, one wants to militarize the police because crime rates, the other wants you to sell your own baby if you can’t make it to the end of the month, if you have a spare lung you might as well just sell it (He’s legit about this, libertarian moment anyway). My only hope is that Peronism implodes and all the votes scattered around are taken by the left. Left-wing Christian Juan Grabois did a decent election (especially for a guy smeared by the media 24/7), 1.3 million votes is not bad even though he lost the primaries to Sergio Massa (5 million votes). The Left did pretty meh, 600k is all there is, but I think if we play our cards right (we will most likely wont, for a reason I’ll explain soon) we can get a chunk of these 1.3 million voters, maybe.
And why we won’t play our cards right? Because Trots, despite being my comrades, are dogmatic. Like I understand being the “party for the revolution” but holy shit, open up a little. In general I am in agreement with them, but there are key things I disagree with, one being the over-reliance on Dogmatic Trotskyism, it is their way and their way only, it’s heavily disappointing because you can build a leftist movement but they’re just excluding whoever because it doesn’t fit in their own version of how things should be. This isn’t natural to Trotskyism, but to many other more radical left wing parties, but it’s disappointing to see regardless.
It’s sad, Peronism has stolen leftist votes and Milei has stolen leftist messages. This could be a wonderful place to build Socialism but here we are, barely hanging on. I just hope the Gestapo-like officer who’s going to execute me at least sold one of his lugs to pay for the bullet…
Regardless, Communism will win. Even in the most desperate and adverse situations, we will find a way out, because this fight is for our own survival. I feel like a positive message needs to be sent.
Speaking of which, wheres @RNAi@hexbear.net ? e: nvm they’re here i just rarely saw them nowadays.
I’m bussy being in physical pain thinking about the future
bussy being in physical pain
I see you touched more then just grass.
Since long ago I replaced the original word with that, someday this joke is gonna bite me in the ass
someday this joke is gonna bite me in the ass
And now we are back to your bussy being in phisical pain.
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Lukashenko, to Ukrainian journalist, emphasis mine:
Lukashenko: “I’ve drawn this map specifically for you. Russia will crush your personnel and hardware over there. Those motivated, ideologically strong, Nazis as they are called, those ideologically strong men are no longer around. All of them have died already. Who is fighting here, then? Those you can catch in the streets and bring here. They are not prepared. Well, and a bit of military personnel. They will not be able to defeat this machine. Russia has changed. At present, Russia has cutting edge weapons at the front. There are plenty of drones now. Well, it is a totally different army now. And the most dangerous thing… I don’t know whether I should tell you or not…”
Reporter: “Please do!”
L: “They have 250,000 volunteers! Russia has 250,000! Who are not at the front yet!”
R: “In reserve now?”
L: “Volunteers! They have been trained and they are in reserve. Do you understand how many people 250,000 are? Russia has fewer people at the front now. So they are staying on the defensive. Not because they cannot advance. They don’t have to! And you keep walking like people who have had too much drugs and alcohol. You walk [with assault rifles] at the ready like German Nazis in movies. You walk towards these barricades. But you cannot even reach them. We can see it, and it is so. You cannot even reach the minefields. You are just getting slaughtered in thousands. Your counteroffensive cost 45,000 in dead and maimed. 45,000! So they are on the defensive. Your losses are 1 to 8. 1 to 8 at the front line. And 250,000 in reserve with cutting edge hardware. You will be crushed. Then they will do what you and your leadership fear the most. They will cut you off by advancing towards Moldova, towards Transdniestria. What will you do after that? And Poles rub their hands in glee. Pushed by Americans, they will cut off the western regions. You will have only this little bit left, if any at all. This is what will happen to you. And the state, the Ukraine you and I know, will cease to me. Our native land. Yours and mine.”
R: “Has this history been determined? What you are saying now…”
L: “If you don’t stop now, it will happen! If you don’t start negotiations now. Russia suggests it. You don’t want it? Well, if you don’t want it, we don’t need it! Russia is powerful enough. No West will help you in this regard. You have to take your head into your hands and act on the basis of reality. Act in the interests of this huge and beautiful territory. The West is already starting to understand that nothing will come out of it. Ukraine will not be able to survive even with the West’s aid.”
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He just can’t help himself, can he? Every single time there’s a political fundraiser or some bougie event like that, his brainworms are free to writhe in his brain and he transforms into a slightly more put together Trump. “Folks, the Chinese! Not great! Not good! They can’t do it, their economy just isn’t up for it! They don’t have the same number of geniuses that we do!”
And this inevitably comes after a US politician goes to China to try and “reduce tensions”, so it’s extra bewildering. The contradictions in policy are so plainly visible.
“They have got some problems. That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things,”
he sounds EXACTLY like trump. I remember there was this Q theory where “Biden” is secretly Trump wearing a mask and that real Biden is actually sitting in prison right now. Maybe there is something to that 🤔
China: “we want to do business and have friendly relationships with the US”
US: “CHINA SPY BALLOON SPYING ON YOUR WASHING YOUR ASS RIGHT NOW!!!”
Biden said, claiming that he did not want to hurt China and wanted a rational relationship.
