I think most of us are indeed hoping for US imperial power to diminish, as it is historically, by far, the greatest impediment to any sort of left movement anywhere. And it’s not just leftism. It’s an impediment even to basic economic sovereignty. Russia is a good example. Not open enough to domination by US capital, therefore a US enemy, despite being otherwise fairly similar to the US politically. This can’t continue if any progress to be made.

It’s unfortunate that some of the countries successfully (at least partly) asserting their sovereignty against the US are doing so on strictly nationalist rather than leftist grounds, but that’s what we’ve got at the moment, and it offers at least a modicum of hope that US imperialism might also be resisted by more left wing states in the future.

Not going to get into anything about China because I suspect we have vastly different ideas about what is and is not true about China, and that’s another discussion entirely.

Good point.

Jesus. What a perfect encapsulation of the entropy inherent in a system so allergic to central planning. It’d almost be funny if it wasn’t such nasty business.

I’ve seen a lot of takes lately about ISIS being essentially a US asset at this point. Tracks with what I know of US methods historically, but wondering if anybody has anything substantive or specific on this.

King Charlie will be fine. Joe Biden about to cure cancer any day now.

Lol. What the fuck are you even doing here?

Liberal thinks the shitty neoclassical economics taught in 99% of universities is economics itself. Imagine my surprise.

“The other party” implies that there is a party representing the left/workers. I assume you are talking about American politics, and are specifically implying that party is the Democratic Party. To which all I can say, if you are actually serious, is LOL.

Holy shit. How did people ever get it in their heads that drone strikes are not military incursions? Is it because there’s no humans physically entering the territory? Would you think the same thing if we were lobbing artillery shells over the border?

And how would doing either of those things without the cooperation of the Mexican government be anything other than an act of war?

I mean, I get that there is a difference between sending an armored column to occupy Juarez and a drone strike, and it’s not clear from the title which one we’re talking about, but you can’t really dispute that either of those things would be an act of war under any meaningful definition.

It’s an insane thing to say, regardless, because if you know anything about US Mexico relations you know he’s not talking about some kind of cooperative anti-cartel police action. He is in fact talking about an act of war. And a particularly stupid one at that.

I realized a year or so ago (after a letter from my isp) that I didn’t actually need to torrent anymore. There are websites like bflix.io (and I’m sure many others) that have basically everything streaming for free. Fuck subscriptions. Would maybe go back to torrenting if I got a vpn sorted out, but you’re not gonna get in trouble for streaming shit on a pirate website, so for now it’s the best solution I’ve found. Certainly not paying any of these assholes. Lol. Fuck outta here with that.

Ukraine is fucked. As others have pointed out, western vultures are already carving it up via mass privatization (though they may be disappointed with what’s left when the war is over). The “counteroffensive” went nowhere and whether Russia marches all the way to Odessa is really just a question of if they want to at this point. The war was lost before it started and Ukraine will be lucky if it doesn’t get annexed to pieces by Poland et al in the coming months. Best case it keeps some manner of territorial integrity and limps along as a failed state. Not sure Zelensky deserves all the blame for this disaster, as the wheels were in motion at least as early as 2014, but they definitely bet on the wrong horse here.

It 100% would be better. There is nothing in modern Chinese history that remotely approaches the level of imperial devastation the US has wrought on the world. This is not up for debate by any serious person. How many countries has China invaded recently? How many coups have they instigated? Is their "foreign aid" designed to help countries develop, or to extract as much wealth as possible while keeping them impoverished, underdeveloped, and dependent on the west for their most basic needs? Has the standard of living in China been going up or down in recent decades? Now ask yourself the same questions about the US.