SeventyTwoTrillion

100%. If you aren't a submarine, you are fucked. Surface navies, and most especially the American one due to its size, has been turned into a giant liability that eats money and resources for not much gain in return.

It does actually kinda force a more multipolar world arrangement because navies from now on will only be able to function where there is land nearby from which anti-air facilities can be placed and supplied to cover the navy, thus forcing countries away from offense and towards defense. If Crimea didn't exist for the Russian Navy to be docked in and protected by, most of it would have been sunk by now. Does also mean that China isn't totally fucked if it has to militarily take Taiwan and some of the island chains due to its proximity to the mainland, but it might never be able to become a global military power (which is a good thing on the whole, even if I would cheer if the Chinese navy appeared in the British Channel to liberate us)

You can absolute support Russia’s anti-imperialist goals while rejecting all their other reactionary views. The same can be said for support for the anti-imperialist causes of the Palestinians, Iranians, Lebanese, Algerians etc. You don’t have to like them, you just need to acknowledge that this is a historical process that is inevitable.

Many left-wingers (most especially Trots, I find) think the question is: "Should we support a multipolar world? In fact, is the coming world going to be multipolar or just Russian/Chinese imperialism replacing American imperialism? Should we support Russia in Ukraine and/or China against Taiwan?"

But these are all pointless questions. What does it matter if you support Russia/China or oppose them? It's akin to spending your time debating "Is the hurricane coming inland good or bad?" instead of saying "Fuck, okay, there's a hurricane coming inland. What should our individual responses be? Should we start prepping? Get involved in local politics to better withstand it?" and even "How did this hurricane come about? How will existing infrastructure be affected? It's been looking pretty rickety even before the winds started up..."

I try to imagine that I'm looking back on the events of today from 100 years in the future. Doing so makes all questions of justification much less interesting than the question of "Where does this lead, and how is it fought?" It also explicitly imagines that there is a future, which is something that many people (quite reasonably) struggle with as climate change and massive wars continue to engulf us, which helps give perspective; just because things are a certain way now, doesn't mean that they'll be this way in 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now. It's almost impossible to have predicted the world of 2024 from the position of somebody in 1924 or even 1974, in the multitude of ways that it has changed.

Russia lost another boat, a coordinated sea drone attack with support from US intelligence. While nothing can be done about US assistance even Rybar already put their hands in the air basicaly saying its hopeless given the current leadership.

At this point the Russian doomers are just frantically looking around for things to be negative about. These people would have been utterly inconsolable during WW2, constantly crying in the fetal position. The war has already been won and we're just waiting for the Ukrainians to surrender. "We lost a boat! Now how are we going to fight all those epic naval battles in the Black Sea that we've been having throughout this war?!"

my immediate thought was Boe Jiden for some reason

Most targeted sites completely evacuated before aggression

The spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Yahya Rasool Abdullah, stated that the cities of al-Qaim and the Iraqi border areas were subjected to air “strikes” by US aircraft, adding that these “strikes” come at a time when Iraq is striving to ensure the stability of the region. He emphasized that these "strikes" flagrantly violate Iraqi sovereignty, undermine the efforts of the Iraqi government, and pose a significant threat that could drag Iraq and the region into highly undesirable consequences. He underscored that the ramifications of these actions would be severe, particularly jeopardizing the security and stability of both Iraq and the region.

An official from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior informed AFP that, based on preliminary information, the American "strike" targeted a warehouse for light weapons. Concurrently, an official from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, speaking to the same agency, emphasized that the bombing in the al-Qaim area did not lead to any casualties.

Sources to Al Mayadeen confirm that most targeted sites had been evacuated before the aggression.

As a result of the aggression, Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Aleppo reported that electricity had been completely cut off in Deir Ezzor.

Deeply silly stuff from the US here. Like most military actions nowadays, the narrative is seen as more important than the actual impact. No fucking shit that warning groups days ahead of a strike would lead to them moving equipment around. Announcing your targets before you strike them is Ukraine-level dipshittery.

"Yeah, I don't think these groups that have been bombed for the last couple decades will have developed any countermeasures to being bombed yet." Every day, I am thankful for American military incompetence.

I know we've all been saying that the situation is on the brink for months now but it really does feel like the next 4-5 days are the brink of the brink, and it's all behind-the-scenes so I genuinely cannot make any predictions. Will the Resistance take a subpar deal under pressures both known and unknown to us, and thereby potentially doom Gaza? Has Israel merely set up this deal predicting that the Resistance will reject it, so as to provide a pretext for further action including against Hezbollah? Will the deal merely involve a lengthy ceasefire and a prisoner exchange leading to the war flaring up again later as neither side wants to give in? Will Iran and its allies meaningfully respond to US strikes or just take it on the chin? Will the US agree to withdraw from Iraq or has it all been a feint? What would Hezbollah do if there was a ceasefire in Gaza? What will Netanyahu do? What will happen to Zionists and Zionism as a whole given that most of the non-Western world now hates them and they failed to destroy Hamas or permanently kill off the Gazans and annex the territory, as well as the settler anxiety at the northern border?

Quantum Communalism

So using the word "quantum" as in "discrete" then this is just... every commune is its own nation or something? Just have like 100,000 country-communes across the planet?

Crypto-Conservative Futurism

Elon Musk.

Algorithmic Agrarianism

Essentially just high-tech farming communities.

Neo-Viking Libertarianism

Up-to-date Nazi fascism, more or less. Or if we're assuming it would be actually libertarian as hypothetically described by its supporters, then just a society that is constantly cosplaying as Vikings, perhaps futuristic ones, with the American political system.

Eco-Anarchist Techno-Mysticism

I really like this one. Debating becoming this now. I imagine it would be a society that has like, pagan or druidic rituals with plenty of nature and recycling and so on, but people connect via the internet to engage with it, and the internet itself is seen as this spiritual invisible force... but also in an anarchic society.

Post-Postmodern Monarchism

I first read this as "post-postmodern modernism" which would be a pretty funny ideology by itself. Defining post-postmodernism is a task in itself, but it's far from impossible that we could see this in a Gulf Monarchy eventually.

Biopunk Municipalism

A bunch of cities made of flesh and blood. I dig it.

Cosmic Nihilist Syndicalism

This one is hilarious. Like, oh yeah, all power to the workers and all that, but... what's even the point, when we're so small compared to the universe? I don't think this could work as official policy of a society but there have definitely been people who have had this ideology before.

Afrofuturist Agrarian Anarchy

Didn't Marvel do this?

Techno-Druidic Libertarianism

Similar to Eco-Anarchist Techno-Mysticism.

Post-Industrial Nomadic Collectivism

This is literally what the United States will turn into after balkanisation and massive climate disasters.

a "gulf country" was going to fund building a wall in Rafah

Israel trying to impose terms from a position of defeat is genuinely fascinating. Similar to Ukraine, I suppose. Fascists be like that

I'm not gonna "um, actually" all of these accusations because they obviously point to her being at best a lib reformist with the odd performative "socialist" act and at worst a CIA asset. I just don't personally understand why any of this actually matters from a communist or even socialist perspective.

We're all pretty aware of how reforming the system from the inside is impossible even if the "left" bloc was a supermajority of Congress. Even a hardcore communist who was hiding their power levels and entered office would soon be met with the dilemma of when exactly to reveal their stance and, y'know, do something. If you have to worship the American civil religion, actively praise brutal war criminals, vote for issues that you don't support in order to maintain the facade for some future purpose... when do you reveal yourself?

"Oh, they're going after abortion now? I really wanna start organizing a socialist alternative and using it to put genuine pressure on power, but hey, I've got a number of years still in office - much worse things could come along."

"Oh, they wanna create concentration camps for immigrants? Well, maybe now is the time to finally act... but... maybe they'll go after all black people next, and the American people probably won't be willing to defend immigrants en masse due to propaganda, and..."

and so on for years and years, until you've accidentally had a decades-long political career obeying the Democrats at virtually every important issue, thus making you indistinguishable from a tepid Democrat centrist despite internally desperately wanting to build a dictatorship of the proletariat and dismantle imperialist structures and praying to a portrait of Mao every night

the inherent claim being made throughout all these discussions of AOC over the years seems to me to have been either "we must support AOC, even if critically, because she's better than every other Democrat and has some good policies regardless of whether she's a Bad Person or a CIA agent or whatever" or "by supporting AOC, we draw effort away from supporting actual socialists and communists in America and so it's a giant waste of time," when I literally don't think it matters at all. a total breakdown of America due to its unwillingness to solve any social issue nor reindustrialize, leading to the creation of a bunch of little quasi-capitalist, quasi-feudal little fiefdoms ruled by the failsons of our current failsons that are then conquered by a more efficient and attractive socialist group seems infinitely more likely than communists ever overthrowing the government as it currently stands, and I can't see AOC or Bernie or whoever becoming communist warlords

like Biden vs Trump, I don't have any explicit problem with somebody deciding "okay, Biden is literally a genocidal piece of shit but I will take the time out of my day to vote for him because I fear what Trump will do to the people I love," like, sure, whatever. what I have more of a problem is debating whether Biden or Trump is better instead of doing anything else. "you can care about two issues simultaneously" is only true if you're not on the 56th struggle session about AOC or Biden or Trump or Bernie while barely discussing anything that's happening outside of America. luckily I think this site has gotten better and more internationalist about this and I hope we won't have any struggle sessions on voting this year but on less explicitly communist spaces that I may visit from time to time, I can only shudder.

One wonders if the reason why the rumor that a ceasefire and an all-for-all prisoner exchange had been accepted by both sides when Hamas is still several days away from even fully reviewing it is to a) try and pressure Hamas to accept a subpar deal that wouldn't involve reparations or reconstruction or an end to the siege on Gaza (which Zionism cannot accept, especially now), and b) if that fails, then to portray Hamas as the ones who are unwilling to make peace and thus the unreasonable aggressors here, which could even preempt starting a war with Hezbollah as a "necessity" in the face of the Resistance unwilling to make peace

and also I suppose c) to try and turn the civilians of Gaza against Hamas; I've heard rumors that some people in Gaza were celebrating the "ceasefire" by taking down their tents

This is an important step in history because this was what happened during WWI: the bourgeoisie thought it would be a minor skirmish that would be over by Christmas, but as the war escalated they had to beg the state to intervene in the national economy, thus creating the material conditions for socialist and workers movement to grow in the early 1900s.

Who will be the Russian Mussolini, I wonder...

bit idea: putting a "don't forget to like and subscribe and turn on the notification bell" thingy at the end of each video in order to appeal to the younger crowd