Like, yeah, they can ‘get away with’ ending soft power. They can ‘get away with’ extrajudicial killings. They’re operating off of pure machismo right now. They’re getting drunk on their vices. They’re stripping masks where masks wouldn’t be advised to be stripped. I feel like I understand now that Fascism is, in part, an expression of weakness. They wouldn’t be doing this unless they were scared. It’s too volatile. It feels both too late on a power-level and too early on a popular-level. Never mind the ticking time bomb that is AI data centers. It feels like, and I’m sure this is cope, there is a timer on their ability to run the circus much longer.
My first instinct here is to doubt myself, intellectual pessimism and all. In that vein, maybe this is just revolutionary optimism, but we’re at the point where it feels like there is a palpable anger brewing in the basement. I don’t know. Maybe Palantir works as an anti-communist panopticon and we just death spiral forever. I don’t want to lose hope.
I’m not optimistic. Since Trump first mentioned Greenland my intuition is that no one will stop it. I would not be surprised if young folks that scoffed at Trump’s proposal end up taking land claims in Greenland, USA 5 years from now.
I don’t see a scared empire. I see an emboldened one that is looking in the mirror and noticing it’s wardrobe the last few decades is now out of fashion. I don’t see desperation at all. I see a new trend setting. Modernity is not a prison for fascism and it will no longer imprison this empire. The ruling class doesn’t need to play a perfect hand.
There is too great a desire to emasculate fascism and it is fruitless. ICE and DHS are dangerous. They aren’t “larping.” Their equipment is deadly regardless of if someone thinks it is embarrassing. People can only lash out with “eh they don’t look so tough.” This is all I hear when people try to say the empire is magically crumbling and I find it to be an expression of weakness above all.
This is easily the most believable viewpoint for me. Unless we start seeing the empire crumbling like a house of cards, it’s safe to assume that they’ve got the future locked down through brute force and coercion, the only power that actually matters. Precisely why I’ve lost the will to live, and any desire to see what the future holds. I’m good, I’m just gonna go rot and die somewhere.
The reaction to Trump is also part of emboldenment. Listen to the chorus of “we are a 3rd world country!” “She was a CITIZEN!”
We can not afford to be fooled by liberal historonics.
But I write none of this as a commentary on hope. I don’t give a shit about giving people hope any more than I care to take it away. Hope simply isn’t my perogative. I think you are fully valid to feel as if life is over, because there is no reason to think our lives aren’t the price of fixing this. I wouldn’t even blame you for saying that cost is too high.
I grew up in a culture of evangelism. I was part of sects that would have you build your own casket before you were sent into the field. You had to forfeit your life for the mission. I’ve never met a single person on the west coast USA that has a comparable attitude when it comes to their convictions, but when I do I might admit to an iota of “hope.”
For what it’s worth, this hard-power approach is self defeating. Sure, the US can STILL destabilize countries that they’d sanctioned and economically isolated for decades, but it doesn’t mean the US can keep doing it in perpetuity.
What the government is doing is undermining every institution that made it successful in the first place. Coupled with the fact that the US is no longer an industrial powerhouse and maintains its hegemony through the dollar which is losing its reserve status gradually, means that the US is in a death spiral. All that fictitious capital doesn’t mean jack once people start going hungry in droves.
They flame flickers most when it’s about to go out.
Despite the US’ hollywood-esque shenanigans, the material reality says the US’ fate is sealed.
The US is currently stealing the largest oil reserves on the planet, worth 4x the GNP of Japan, while already boasting the world’s largest oil production.
Id say they’re buying themselves more than enough time to do permanent damage.
Nah, the US can’t move without profits. If there isn’t profit to be made, no US organization will make a move.
Besides, the US is stretched thin. It’s lashing out because it can’t maintain its hold over it’s colonies, so it’s trying to get more vassals, except it still doesn’t address the US’ internal contradictions.
The empire is in free fall. Make no mistake
The days after October 7th, Israel announced its genocidal intent. From Herzog, Netanyahu, to the cabinet of ministers, the Knesset, Israeli media and Israeli luminaries/society.
Israel taught the US and the world that it could just rule through fraud and act with impunity. The masses mobilize to protest but do not stay on the ground in such a degree to actually force a rescindment of support or policy change. They don’t do much economic resistance or sabotage; taking to the streets is now ignored and managed and liberal democracies can delay and obfuscate responsibility indefinitely.
Genocide, brazen, transparent and open in deed and intent was not enough to evoke significant reaction or organize the masses to pressure governments to change course.
The ruling class believes that it can rule as it wishes, through fraud, violence, and decree, and it is because political activists, organizers, socialists & communists, don’t really confront power as it did ages ago.
In the end, true global-scale power comes from a foundation of competent organized human effort. That requires lots and lots of valuable things like actual inter-personal trust between people, a confidence in government, a drive for knowledge and learning, widespread literacy, the ability to make useful spreadsheets… you know, those countless “soft wussy things” that the Hard Men of this moment don’t value. On every front, people in power in the USA are working tirelessly to tear down the foundational human ability of it’s people.
What’s interesting about the recent Venezuelan kidnapping operation is that we see on full display the value of multi-spectrum cultivation of human capability. The US military has a strong esprit-du-corps and a culture of desk jockeys and nerds doing support work, combined with political will and physical capital, that allows it to do shit. But even it is being dragged down by the industrial collapse, unable to modernize or re-arm (the US’s inability to match Russia’s artillery shell output is one damning data point).
I feel similar to early 2022 when russia invaded ukraine and it wasn’t going well and I was defending the anti-nato position and winning nothing for it. Then it turned out that in the long run russia ended up doing alright and a couple of years in the anti-nato position is easier to defend.
And in the grand scheme of things I can see how trump’s venezuela play and a move on greenland might weaken the US in the long term, the problem for me and what I really really really worry is Cuba falling, that’s just something I’m very emotionally attached to and I don’t want to see happen, but if Venezuela stops sending oil to the island and there are protests I can see things escalating towards trump making another move
Yeah the battleships are still there, blocking Cuba. Ever since the Cuban missile crisis ended: It has shown how easy it is to blockade.
It is not naïve. We are very arguably living capitalism’s last few decades right now. If you look at graphs of the rates of profits over time, it’s pretty clear that it will tend toward 0 sometime between 2040 and 2060. And as you might know if you have at least a surface level understanding of the labor theory of value and the tendency for the rates of profit to fall, it is not something capitalists can do anything about for it is caused the very way capitalism function at its most fundamental level.
Much like slave society reached its peak during the Roman empire’s “glory days” before declining until its collapse, so has capitalism reached its peak during capitalism’s best decades last century and has been on the decline since.
All the basic infrastructure that has been utterly crumbling in the same capitalist nations that used to build Empire state buildings and Eiffel towers, all the de-industrialization sweeping through the same countries that caused and lived through the first industrial revolution and invented the assembly line, all the hipped up stage conferences where obscenely rich peoples promise incredible new technology that ends up never seeing the light of day that passes for innovation these days. All of that are signs of decline, signs that capitalism as a mode of production has run its course and has nowhere left to go, signs that the rates of profits are getting so close to the critical point that the very AI driven automation the ruling class are currently drooling at the thought of is all but guarantied to become the sword that slay the beast.
The capitalist ruling class is trying to find a way out of this doom, wildly throwing anything they have at the wall hoping something anything will stick. But there is no way out, there is nothing that can stick. nothing they do can save them, no damage they cause will ever be enough. At best, and with a lot of luck, they may be able to delay the inevitable for a bit, but not for long enough. They are the ant trying in vain to climb back out of the antlion’s hole, oblivion waiting jaws wide open for them at the bottom.
The beast is dying, that is the undeniable truth. The poison of the profit motive in its veins is crippling it. Already the imperial core is increasingly incapable of producing the weapons and machines of war that have been keeping it alive and dominant through force. And the weapons they can produce are all affected by various level of ‘enshitification’ caused by that very profit motive.
As imperialism exports the worst of capitalism’s contradictions out of the imperial core to the global south, it will make socialist revolution in the global south more and more likely as time passes while the imperial core will only get weaker and weaker, and when the 21st century’s first socialist revolution finally happen at long last, it is unlikely the US, let alone the rest of the imperial core, will be in a position to do anything substantial about it. And once revolution has swiped through enough of the exploited nations? It will be the end. The definitive, irreversible end of capitalism as the dominant mode of production on Earth. With nowhere left to export the contradictions of their economic system, no more influx of cheap stolen resources, and no new markets to expend in, whatever remains of the capitalist world will shrivel, rot and burn. The remaining capitalists will be witness to the destruction of everything they striven for, they will see their wealth burn, their influence crumble and their assets be taken from them or destroyed. And a justly deserved end will soon be theirs at last.
But will the rate of profit falling, which is a tendency and not a law, actually end empire if no one takes action? What actions will people take in the core? Will the global south actually do the magical thing you suggest? I don’t understand what we gain by painting this telelogical end unless we are so hopeless, weak, and vulnerable that we need a heaven/salvation myth forged from a religion of economics to cope with the reality that we have no real grip on history.
But will the rate of profit falling, which is a tendency and not a law, actually end empire if no one takes action?
The laws of thermodynamic are “tendencies and not really laws” either, yet as any physicist worth their salt will tell you it is a certainty that entropy will increase over time. Don’t mistake the difference between law and tendency with uncertainty, a tendency can be as certain as a law of physics if the phenomenon it describe has the right statistical properties.
Also, yes, that can and will end capitalism and any empire that still practices it by the times it reaches the critical point. Capitalism necessitate profit, if profits can’t be made, capitalism stops working, it’s that simple. As for people taking action, well, they will have no choice but to take action eventually because if capitalism breaks before they have a replacement ready, it will end badly for everyone involved. And by that I mean, if there is no mode of production handling production and distribution of food, water, and all that, peoples will start starving to death very quickly.
What actions will people take in the core?
It’s difficult to predict. We can say for pretty much certain that the core will keep getting increasingly economically and politically unstable until it cannot sustain itself anymore, but how the local population will react the this decline is hard to tell at best.
Will the global south actually do the magical thing you suggest? I don’t understand what we gain by painting this telelogical end unless we are so hopeless, weak, and vulnerable that we need a heaven/salvation myth forged from a religion of economics to cope with the reality that we have no real grip on history.
First, I suggest that you read theory, genuinely. If you think the Marxist prediction that revolution is unavoidable is some Cristian rapture-like prophesy of salvation coming for the believers, you don’t understand Marxist theory.
It’s not magical or theological, it’s logical. I’m not gonna go through all the theory that explain this conclusion here, again, go read about all that yourself, but here’s a bit of a TL,DR.
One of the benefits Imperial nations get out of imperialism is that some of the contradictions of capitalism get effectively offloaded to imperialized countries, they get cheaper and more exploitable labor that at home to make the things they sell back home for example. This exploitation of the imperialized nation by the imperial nation makes quality of life in the imperialized nation worse as exploitation keeps intensifying.
This will inevitably make the peoples of the imperialized nation revolt because that’s what happen when the standards of leavings of an entire population get unacceptably low at the hand of a greedy ruling class, just look at any popular revolt of a people against their ruler throughout history for examples of this.
These revolts will necessarily be working class revolts, because the capitalist class is already the ruling class under capitalism, and there is no third class beside these two. Therefore, if these revolts succeed in overthrowing the capitalist rulers, they will put a working class government in its place because why would they overthrow capitalists to replace them by capitalists?
Thus, socialist revolution will happen. Not “by magic” but because it is the logical conclusion given the way capitalism and imperialism function at their core.
Part of me agrees. Last year I’m pretty sure I made a joke in some comment here on hexbear that i’m becoming an accelerationist because I think the US invading Greenland might be the only thing that finally makes other countries stand up against them. I am very much not convinced of that anymore.
To your post though, you’re right. Like the drifter says at the end of Disco Elysium. Capital has to take its mask off do the deed. Playing their hand as it is shows their real face to more. I guess. I’m trying to tell myself that. Trying to not give in to despair and its fucking hard right now, i’m legitimately at one of the lowest points of my life here
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will, and so on. I, however, do believe that societies of control, as brutal as they can get, hold within them the contradictions that lead to overconfidence and blind spots. If the digital world becomes a panopticon, people will find a way to circumvent it. Information will never be a solved problem.
I really need to get offline and pick up some Gramsci again.
ICE has been openly kidnapping minorities for nearly a year, and yet you do not see any meaningful resistance to stop them, including from the so-called leftist organizations.
The US openly supports genocide, bombs Iran, kidnaps Venezuelan president, and yet you do not see the other world powers come together to stop them. (The most you can argue is maybe Russia against NATO expansion in Ukraine, but even that was a situation forced upon Russia, who would otherwise be happy to let the status quo persists).
So, no, the empire did not overplay its hands. The empire is free to do so because there is no organized left, not domestically, nor internationally, to stop them. It is pure cope to believe there will be some kind of divine justice against the empire. They are not scared, they are emboldened.
The materialist answer is much simpler: unlike in the past century when there were strong labor movements and international solidarity, today neoliberalism rules the world and every country is more interested in taking advantage for their own gains than to come together as a cohesive force against Western imperialism.
All the pretense about social democracy, civil rights and upholding international laws were relics of the past when Western capitalism had to compete against the Soviet Union. It simply took some years for these institutions to become fully eroded after the 1990s. In other words, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences.
ICE has been openly kidnapping minorities for nearly a year, and yet you do not see any meaningful resistance to stop them.
We just saw a women get murdered while opposing them, and the entire world is condemning it while the Administration tries to spin the murderer as a hero, and the Christian Mom protester as a domestic terrorist who deserved to die. Now the whole world is angry at MAGA, including many on their own side.
That’s a pretty meaningful resistance. MAGA is slipping fast, and the fall is starting. One way or another, they are going to come out of the Midterms in bad shape. In fact, things are going so bad, they have so many retirements, that the House may actually flip BEFORE the Midterm. Then the Dems will control investigative committees with full subpoena and arrest powers. The Dems may not have done much during the Biden administration, but they did put Bannon and Ron Varo in prison for defying subpoenas.
Of course, Trump will pardon them, but that only strengthens the eventual court case that he was using his pardon power to tamper with witnesses and cover up his crimes, and then ALL of his pardons can be annulled by Congress as illegitimate criminal activities, and all those people - the Jan 6 Traitors, the ex-prez of Honduras, his criminal white collar conman buddies, etc., will all go back to prison.
We could make all that happen, and more, if we can force Congress to do their jobs this time around, and not expect them to wait for MAGA to have some sort of moral epiphany, which seems to have been the strategy until now.
the House may actually flip BEFORE the Midterm.
Then the Dems will control investigative committees with full subpoena and arrest powers.
then ALL of his pardons can be annulled by Congress as illegitimate criminal activities,
the Jan 6 Traitors, [et al,] will all go back to prison
Go for the football again, Charlie Brown. I’m sure Lucy will let you kick it this time.
What did the Democrats do during the Biden administration (or the Obama administration, for that matter) that permanently took away powers that the Republicans had been building, such that Trump couldn’t just reinstate them with the stroke of a pen upon election? Literally nothing. The country is backsliding from neoconservatism into fascism and there’s nothing that an aesthetic and media-savvy Democrat contingent will do about it.
The fact that you’ve been
politicallyelectorally active for 48 years and still haven’t figured out that Democrats are compromised defeatists and controlled opposition in the age of neoliberalism is not something to brag about, in fact it’s extremely embarrassing. Most intelligent progressives figure it out within a couple election cycles.The progressive activist wing is at most 20% of the Democratic Party, and they have none of the money, because the money comes from the tech/pharma/banking interests that the party ultimately represents. The Democrats as an oligarchic party will outlive you as a human, and they will possibly outlive America as we know it.
First of all, let’s forget the Biden administration. He could have become one of the top 10 presidents, but instead he’ll be ensconced in the bottom 10, among those who dithered as the nation moved toward Civil War. IF the Dems ever get back in power, they should blacklist every member of the Biden administration. You had your chance, and you blew it badly. You’re fired.
20% is a lot, and it is almost certainly going to grow after the Midterms. The Tea Party started controlling the Republican party with less than that, partially based on the fact that the rest of the party recognized that the Tea Party was the only growing sector of the party.
That’s the situation that the Progressives are in. They should start throwing their weight around, based on the fact that they are the only active sector of their party, and their influence is certain to grow in November.
Money isn’t an issue, the money will follow the power. Besides, Progressives are attracting a lot of support from Independent voters, and regular people. Bernie has been a powerhouse, while refusing corporate money, and relying primarily on small private donors.
The money issue only highlights the BIGGEST problem in our election system. Campaign Finance Reform is the issue from which literally EVERY other issue flows.
Before we can address corporate corruption in government, we need to prohibit ALL campaign contributions of any kind. Campaigns need to be fully financed by the Federal government, shortened to a 90 day campaign season (these people should be working the jobs we elected them to do, not gallivanting around the country pursuing their own ambitions), and tightly controlled, including campaign language and promises. Lying, propaganda, etc. will not be tolerated, and candidates can be cut off from Federal campaign funds, and kicked out of the race for violations.
Campaigning to represent American citizens is a serious matter, and the process should be held to an extraordinarily high standard. The system we have now filters out the best, and promotes the most outrageous, and we end up with idiots in charge, almost exclusively. I’m not that smart, but I’m pretty sure I’m smarter than any of the presidents that I’ve lived under for most of my life, and I’m POSITIVE I’m smarter than ANY of the Republicans. The only one who might have been smarter was Jimmy Carter.
I’d love to be on Jeopardy with Trump and GW Bush next to me.
I think you’re being delusionally optimistic about the ability to grow the progressive representation in the government. We got a boost to the DSA in the first Trump term, and the Squad, which maxed out at 9/435, that’s 2%. The Congressional Progressive Caucus went from 68 to 96 in two elections, and then likewise plateaued. The path to victory there is something seven (7) times that jump. I think less than 4% of the electorate are socialists, and I doubt as much as 25% are progressives. But let’s set that aside.
The money issue only highlights the BIGGEST problem in our election system. Campaign Finance Reform is the issue from which literally EVERY other issue flows.
I agree with something synonymous to this on a core level: money pervades and corrupts everything. There’s just context that makes my structural analysis different.
Power follows money, money does not follow power quite as much. Economic power is the basis for political power, and always has been throughout the history of civilization.
America has always been an oligarchy. It inherited that orientation from its colonial precursor, its government was deliberately set up that way by the founders, and it has found ways to remain oligarchic, from the resistance to Reconstruction to the Red Scare to Dominion ballot machines and expanding primary seasons today. We may have had a brief few decades (from universal adult suffrage and the New Deal) where it got a little bit less oligarchic, then found ways to return.
The rich and powerful will never allow you to simply vote away their wealth and power. As soon as they see what you’re aiming to do, they will put more safeguards in against what you’re doing. This is why the largest upheavals in American history (Revolutionary War, Civil War) were largely two different elevated classes contesting for dominance.
There is no incentive for entrenched congresscritters to approve of campaign finance reform that actually works instead of making the whole thing more byzantine. You are trying to fight corporate interests by flinging yourself against a wall propped up by corporate interests and also the American political inertia. How do you expect you’ll make it happen by working within the existing system, with a large majority of voters who are centrist to reactionary, and who have vested interests in preserving the global functions of capitalism?
Then the Dems will control investigative committees with full subpoena and arrest powers.
How in the world could you believe this? How have the scales not fallen from your eyes? What consequences were there for the targeted assassination of Michael Reinoehl by the DHS? Biden had four years to even do a rote investigation to make it look like the Dems care and they didn’t even bother to do that. The Democrats are not on your side and they never ever will be. They are on the side of the wealthy. ICE isn’t a problem for the wealthy.
The Dems learned a hard lesson from the fecklessness of the Biden Administration, and they know how furious the voters are at them. Right now we still have Jeffries and that cowardly, simpering little bitch Schmuck Schumer as leaders, but if Dems take over, they are unlikely to last.
IF the Midterms Elections happen, it is very likely to be a bloodbath, and a lot of new Dems are going to come into Congress, perhaps even replacing some of the weak Dems from the past. They will enter Congress with real political capital and power behind them, as well as the righteous indignation of the voters, and the Dems leadership will have to listen, or be replaced, which should happen anyway. These people have already proven they’re cowardly losers. Go sit down, and STFU.
The next time Democrats get power, they’d better use it against MAGA, and use it ruthlessly, or else. Right now, Revolution isn’t happening because we still think we have a chance under the Democrats, but if they fail again, and especially if they fail deliberately, then the Democratic Party will be in as much trouble with the American people as MAGA, and without any party to defend them, the American people will have no choice but to defend ourselves.
The Dems learned a hard lesson
I would love to hear the actions or statements by the Democrats that led you to believe this. From where I sit, there has been no change, nothing even coming close to acknowledging their past grievous errors, and certainly not a single whisper of any plans to do anything about this shit. They support ICE, they support kidnapping Maduro and are just a little bit peeved they didn’t get to put their signatures on it, they support economic warfare against China and Russia, they like bombing Iran. They’re all just Republicans with a civility fetish.
Hard to respond when you are just making shit up:
They support ICE, they support kidnapping Maduro and are just a little bit peeved they didn’t get to put their signatures on it…they like bombing Iran.
That’s really dumb, and has no basis in reality. This part:
they support economic warfare against China and Russia
Is true, and we should keep economic pressure on them. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Moving on, this request:
I would love to hear the actions or statements by the Democrats that led you to believe this.
A few months into MAGA 2.0, I saw an interview with Adam Schiff, who I generally respect. He’s an old school Democratic weakling, but he’s shown a bit of willingness to fight back (along with Raskin), so I want to encourage that inclination. Anyway, he was asked about the MAGA blitzkrieg of EOs and illegal actions, and he was very contrite in saying that they underestimated America 's willingness to handle “bold action,” and MAGA clearly demonstrated that it was possible. It was clear that HE, at least, had a change of heart, and I suspect he’s not alone. He knows they made mistakes, and the American voters are going to take it out on them at the polls. I doubt they will proceed with the same strategies, or they will get their asses kicked even worse the next time around.
And as I have said in other posts, it isn’t about what they’ve done in the past, which is worse than shameful, it’s been political malpractice, nearly to a criminal degree. It’s about the future, with new blood, like those we’ve seen come on over the last few years, like Frost, Slotkin, AOC, Smallwell, etc. Then there are the new rising stars like Kelly and Walz, who nobody thinks is going to back down.
The point is that there is every reason to believe that the incoming Democratic freshman Congressional Reps, and hopefully some Senators, too, will be Democratic Warriors. They wouldn’t make it out the primaries if they weren’t. This time around, people aren’t going to be trying to elect a “Good Democrat,” or vote against a bad candidate, they will be voting for Democratic Warriors who will aggressively take the fight to MAGAs and stand toe-to-toe with them. Those Old School Democrat Weenies who have fed us to the wolves, and manage to squeak out another term, better get with the program, or get stomped.
The fierce Democratic Warriors like:
*Slotkin - A former CIA operative heavily funded by AIPAC who believes Israel ‘has a right to defend itself’
*Smallwell - sponsored legislation that made it illegal to boycott Israeli goods and businesses
*AOC - has voted twice, once in July after the genocide had been ongoing and in the spotlight, to keep funding the Iron Dome that allows Israel to conduct their heinous actions without fear of retaliation
I’ll give you Frost since he’s changed his views, but it sounds like you don’t really care if the US war machine keeps destroying the rest of the world, as long as they turn the dial down on their own citizens a little bit. In a just society, they would be in the same jail block as the current administration.
I’m concerned about the very real existential threat facing THIS country. Sorry about everywhere else, but our own house is on fire.
Is true, and we should keep economic pressure on them. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Is true, and we should keep economic pressure on them. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Oh, you’re an imperialist. No big surprise then that your analysis and beliefs are all complete fantasies.
Moving on, holy shit, you’re hilarious
MAGA clearly demonstrated that it was possible
So one single guy said doing more is possible, not that he will pursue it, and you bought that?
I’m not going to keep this up because you’re a simple rube. The Dems will do nothing and you will keep voting for them as they shed more and more of the mask until one day you’ll wake up and just be an outright fascist. Maybe you’ll be doing the roman salute at a DNC convention in ecstatic joy with all the other vote blue no matter who fascists. Either way, it’s clear you’re not willing to grapple with reality. I hope you have a terrible day, you sucker.
Imperialist? Because I recognize the perfectly normal competitive economic relationship between nations? You think competing economically with a country means we are Imperialists? Does that mean we shouldn’t pursue economic arrangements with Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, India, etc, because it would make us Imperialist? That sounds like a MAGA America First strategy. Seriously DUMB take.
And the “one single guy” was just the example I used, but it is by no means the only one (AOC, Crockett, Smallwell, Frost, Stefanik, Slotkin, etc.), but since I only offered one example that PROVES MY POINT, you think it allows you to move the goalposts, and once again disingenuously misconstrue my argument. Weak. Very weak.
Schiff isn’t just “one single guy,” he is an important member of Democratic Leadership, and a potential replacement for Jeffries. He is also respected by his colleagues AND voters. When he goes on Meet The Press, or some other Sunday morning political show, he isn’t just offering his own personal opinion, he is there on behalf of the Democratic leadership, and is speaking for the entire Democratic party. THAT is the reason that the show puts him on in the first place. They know he is speaking for the party.
You’re calling me a Rube, but you don’t understand the slightest thing about how politics is played, completely leaning on whatever political science nonsense you learned from some Community College professor, probably some local MAGA, while passing the bong with your equally genius pals.
And BTW, I will NEVER be defending the Democratic Party, at least the past party. I have been an Unafilliated Independent since I first registered to vote in 1977. I have never been a fan of the Democratic Party, and didn’t even vote for a Democrat until Gore in 2000 (I didn’t vote Republican, either).
My speculations are based on historical precedent, based on my own education and degrees in history, as well as closely observing politics since the 60s, watching the Vietnam War, and hoping it ended before I got drafted. Politics has been personal to me since before I was 10 years old, and I know what I’m talking about, not from some philosophy class and discussions with my stoned buddies, who know just enough to be dangerous, but from actually LIVING it.
And another BTW, I like how you attack on the “Imperialism” thing, but completely ignored the fact that I called you out for lying about Democrats approving of kidnapping Maduro, supporting ICE, and approving of the bombing of Iran, and you just let it go by, to go on the offense about Imperialism. Show me where Democrats have supported ICE, or wanted to “sign off” on the Maduro kidnapping (WTF?). Those are two of the dumbest takes I’ve ever heard. Really ridiculous assertions with absolutely no basis in fact. Hard cringe, Junior. You should be seriously embarrassed, and a person with the slightest self-awareness would delete their posts. But I doubt that’s you.
So get back to class, live a little life, and come back when you actually KNOW something real.
Dawg what fucking world do you live on? Have you seen the Democratic leadership? Schumer was chumming it up with Rubio YESTERDAY. They are not going to hold anyone accountable.
I’m getting really sick of this attitude. You are speaking about the past Dem leadership, and I’m speaking about the future Dem leadership. They don’t have to continue on the same feckless path they’ve been on, especially if we FORCE them to act decisively.
If the Midterms happen, it’s going to be a bloodbath, and a LOT of new Democratic Warriors are going to enter Congress, carrying the righteous indignation of the voters.
Jeffries and Schmuckie aren’t likely to survive the leadership vote, and the next leaders will have to be willing to stand up to MAGA. This is what the people, and the incoming Congressional Warriors, are going to demand.
This is how the 90s Republicans spawned the Tea Party, which took over the party, then morphed into MAGA, and took over. The Dems are at the stage of creating their own Tea Party (Progressives) that can take control of the Democratic Party, and reconfigure it to reflect the true values of the Democratic VOTERS.
If Democrats manage to gain power again, they’d better hold people accountable, or we will hold them accountable. And weak citizens like you, trying to convince people that it’s already over, the Dems will never fight for us, we might as well roll over for whatever fate MAGA has in store for us, are as much a problem as MAGA. If you aren’t going to encourage people that there is still an enormous battle ahead of us to prepare for, and are going to just discourage people that it’s already lost, them YOU are as much a part of the problem as MAGA.
Democratic Warriors
You’re getting sick of the truth is that you’re sick of.
If the Midterms happen, it’s going to be a bloodbath, and a LOT of new Democratic Warriors are going to enter Congress, carrying the righteous indignation of the voters.
I’ve seen this one before. In 2016-2018, the entire party, media, and generally any member of the public who could be described as vaguely progressive was in complete hysteria about the end of democracy. A massive national soul-searching was undertaken (within the boundaries of Liberalism). A massive pondering of “how did we get here?” Setting the absolute fixation on Russia aside, ideas of an epistemological crisis driven by disinformation campaigns on social media weren’t unfounded. It also raised deep questions about the health and wellbeing of democracy in the US. There were so many problems to tackle, from felony disenfranchisement, to voter roll purges, to gerrymandering, media consolidation, the asphyxiating torrent of corporate campaign finance. All of these things contribute to creating the perfect storm which is our shambolic electoral system. For a moment, it seemed like people (like, powerful people) were beginning to realize we had let this shit slip too far, and that deep reforms were necessary to save the republic.
I was THERE. I was a true believer. A patriotic liberal who had come to realize what a smart thing Obama did. Taking a trust-fall into the arms of the institutions, rather than expediently circumventing them to side-step the oncoming disaster. I trusted the system. I felt a personal responsibility to contribute. I went to demonstrations, contributed to electoral campaigns, and spent nearly every waking hour trying to spread the gospel on social media. I had people on r/Politics asking me to run for Congress.
The Trump regime enjoyed total impunity for two terribly long years. At last the Democrats had retaken the house. Now was the time for investigations, transparency, accountability, reform, impeachment. They poured water on that REALLY quick. Delayed for demured for nearly a year before finally impeaching Trump over some extremely contrived bullshit, rather than the fucking across-the-board fraud and corruption.
With the incoming administration in 2020, it was time to fix all of these holes. To do something, ANYTHING about the onslaught of corporate money in elections, the ubiquitous corruption, gerrymandering (2020 was a Census year, after all), ALL the fucking bullshit they use to turn our elections into a fucking joke. It was also a time of acute revolutionary crisis, with the George Floyd Uprising fighting back in steadfast resistance to the impunity of the police state.
The time was ripe for long overdue reforms. What we got instead was a shriveled warm body who was run for the explicit purpose of preventing that from happening. The Biden administration spent another four long years doing everything in its power to sharpen every implement of state violence, reforming absolutely nothing of substance, only to hand the keys right back over to Trump.
This year a number of new Democrats will be elected as freshmen representatives. Some of them might even be GOOD, but the incumbents aren’t going anywhere. They are the ones who control the party, control the committee assignments. They are the ones who will choose the leadership, and their decision will be driven by the same calculus that it always has been.
Jeffries and Schmuckie aren’t likely to survive the leadership vote, and the next leaders will have to be willing to stand up to MAGA. This is what the people, and the incoming Congressional Warriors, are going to demand.
What gives you this impression? Congressional leadership is not a popular election. It is one of the first orders of business after swearing in a new Congress, when public pressure on the caucus is at its lowest. Schumer might leave just because he’s ancient and bad for the brand, but we’re not getting a radical. We’re getting somebody who can maintain the status quo, but do the messaging better.
This is how the 90s Republicans spawned the Tea Party, which took over the party, then morphed into MAGA, and took over. The Dems are at the stage of creating their own Tea Party (Progressives) that can take control of the Democratic Party, and reconfigure it to reflect the true values of the Democratic VOTERS.
Again, do you live under a rock? What do you think the Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020 were? They were EXACTLY this. They fucking crushed it. It turns out the bourgeoisie finds social democracy to be utterly repulsive, while they couldn’t care less about the personal power-play of a couple oil tycoons who want to “run America like a business.”
If Democrats manage to gain power again, they’d better hold people accountable, or we will hold them accountable.
We’ve already run though the cycle of expecting the Democrats to hold people accountable, and then trying to hold the Democrats themselves accountable. There is NO accountability.
And weak citizens like you, trying to convince people that it’s already over,
Ok. How many hours have you spent standing in Lafayette Square shouting at the White House in the pouring rain? How many times have you packed a tent and a sleeping bag and skipped going to party with your friends because something must be done, even though you know that something will change absolutely nothing. How many nights have you spent sleeping on the cold city concrete to maintain an encampment? I vote. I go to demonstrations. I used to write my representatives too, but I know my representatives well enough to know I am better off writing to my allies. I’ve been doing “my civic duty” for nearly two decades now. Long enough to know this is not going to cut it.
It IS over buddy, but don’t worry. It is not the end of the world. This sclerotic republic must die, so something new and beautiful can be born from the ashes.
PRP’s story demonstrates the (rueful) value of electoral work. People get in, do the work, see how the deck is stacked and how it plays out, move left.
"And weak citizens like you, trying to convince people that it’s already over, the Dems will never fight for us, we might as well roll over for whatever fate MAGA has in store for us, are as much a problem as MAGA. "
This is incorrect. PorkrollPosadist’s pessimistic opinions do not make him as much as a problem as MAGA.
You are being emotional, and some of your assertions only have a basis in emotion and not rationality.
I encourage you to retract the insult.
Damn right I’m pissed off, and emotional about the loss of my nation to treasonous pedophile scum. I’m not apologizing for pointing out that discouraging action, without offering solutions, is encouraging that enemy. Anyone who isn’t angry about MAGAs vicious destruction of our country IS a disgusting weakling.
And your whiny call for politeness toward MAGA appeasers and collaborators makes YOU just as much of a MAGA appeaser. You’re probably one of those people who follows the insipid Michelle Obama Doctrine: “When they go low, we go high,” possibly the dumbest political statement I’ve ever heard, outside of EVERYTHING uttered by any MAGA. When they go low, you metaphorically kick them in the teeth, then stomp their heads.
Corrupt Traitors, racists, rapists, misogynists, ignoramuses, and PEDOPHILES deserve nothing less. They certainly do it to us every chance they get. They even manufacture opportunities to deliberately hurt us. Don’t they deserve the same treatment in return?
But you want to be polite, just like Chamberlain and the Nazis. That pathological need for Democrats to always be polite, even in the to face of withering corruption, is the reason that the MAGA Traitors are BACK in power. We locked them out once, and weaklings like you let them right back in, because it was so important to be polite to bullies. How is THAT strategy working out for you?
Retract my posts? No, I stand by every word.
Lol I’m not polite, I just don’t like you.
Pressuring the democrats to take action is somewhere between neutral impact to positive impact.
Pure electoralism will not help you. You need to understand that the guy you’re chewing out has a point.
The point of the 2 party system is to preserve capital and the interests of capital. The democrats have spent decades pretending to be unable to fight back.
Remember that it was Chuck Schumer and the democrats who decided to amplify Donald Trump in the Republican primary of the 2016 election.
Real action involves organizing with other people to create a force that can stand on it’s own legs and push back against the system.
Also fuck your country.
You are speaking about the past Dem leadership, and I’m speaking about the future Dem leadership. They don’t have to continue on the same feckless path they’ve been on, especially if we FORCE them to act decisively.
Wishcasting better leadership isn’t going to do shit. What are you going to do to force them? Millions of people protested all across this country against police brutality and the Democrat response was to increase police funding and increase federal law enforcement budgets. THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU OR WHAT YOU WANT.
You are that cowardly that you’ve already given up, and have now taken to try to talk others into giving up with you? Either you are MAGA, or just a coward. How pathetic and gross, just ew.
We have to make them care. They care about their jobs, so threaten to take them away, and mean it. They care about their legacy, so relentlessly call them out in social media. Go to their town halls and aggressively demand action. Dog their every action, call their offices on every vote, etc. If you have the ability, primary your feckless Democratic rep, even if you know you’ll lose. You’ll still get to publicly call them out on their abdication of their responsibilities. And you never know, sometimes primaries have surprises, like AOC kicking out the #4 guy in Congress, or Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle losing his primary while he was the highest ranking member of Congress in 2004. Crazy shit happens in elections all the time.
And it’s not just about our DC reps. MAGA has deliberately infiltrated every level of government, demanding stupid legislation on chemtrails and vaccines and other stupid flat-earth bullshit, and we need to mercilessly attack every MAGA in government.
We can force them, we just have to flex our Citizen muscles, and not just tell everyone to surrender because it’s already over. How fucking weak and cowardly is that?
TOWN HALLS! PHONE CALLS! Lmao
Your belief that those who doubt your tactics are giving up makes you a fascist in my view. If you think the only way forward is to believe in America, then I’m going to pave the future straight over you, and Trump too.
You are as delusional as MAGA. All you have is vague whiney complaints based on your lack of Critical Thinking Skills, and absolutely no solutions at all. Just scream about how everything is unfair, everybody is mean to you, and everybody is a big poopyhead.
Grow up and get in the real fight, and quit trying to pretend you’re doing something, by doing nothing.
Xiao, I have to hard disagree. I will throw some of your own analysis back at you, and share some of mine.
China
China’s new 5 year plan includes building up domestic consumption. There is no indication that they will fail to implement this strategy.
China has swapped US debt for 2 African countries for the equivalent in Yuan. We may see even more of this down the road.
Africa
Russia has kicked Western forces out of much of West Africa.
UAE’s and Israel’s forces in East Africa, meant as a force against Iranian proxies - is at serious risk because of the Saudi-UAE conflict. This could also spark issues between Turkey and Israel.
The same Turkey that happily sold oil to Israel, while publicly condemning it for a domestic audience.
West Asia
The geopolitics of Turkey could shift against Israel, and Turkey’s internal politics could easily accommodate that shift.
Ansarallah is chilling with popcorn watching Saudi and UAE proxies demolish each other in occupied Yemen. Remember that despite Saudi spending a quarter trillion on genociding the Houthis over half a decade, they were able to not only resist - but get stronger. All that with an estimated tens of millions spent by Iran. Since the seccesation of direct Houthi-Saudi conflict, we’ve seen them send missiles into Isn’treal and scramble carriers.
Israel is planning another attack on Iran. Likely sometime this month, and during a weekend so as to not scare capital.
Even a successful annihilation of the Iranian political class as well as former leaders would not be sufficient. This is because Iran has Vietnam style tunnel networks that span the country underground, and big enough to drive trucks and drones in.
Think of what Yemen is able to do from underground. Even with a visible and loud and propagandized Iranian defeat on the surface, Israel’s fight would not be over.
And it is increasingly seeming like these riots won’t even go anywhere, even with all the support they are getting from the West.
Latin America
The plot against Maduro was a spectacular military success, as well as a spectacular strategic failure.
They took away Maduro, who could have been couped with some patience due to the political backlash of the economic situation caused by US sanctions. American PsyOps managed to create a meme in Venezuela that the weight loss people experienced due to this travesty was the “Maduro Diet”.
They made Venezuelan Liberals into Bolivarians. They brought a new wave of Latin American unity, with Columbia, Brazil, Cuba, and potentially Mexico (the last being least likely) to come together.
The best they could do in Venezuela was PsyOps about the Vice President being on the US’ side. Even there they couldn’t get consistent messaging across on that front.
Europe
They are shitting themselves at both Russia and the potential of a US threat.
They have no good source of oil/gas, and their industry is being hollowed out. Their war austerity is going to cause internal strife amongst a populace who has come to expect their former QOL as the bare minimum.
They feel betrayed by the US, and the Ukrainian “Stabbed in the back” narrative is propagating continent-wide.
European leaders will fold to the US whims, but the next generation will likely be rabid and oppositional.
Add on top of that that much of the younger generation acknowledges the plight of Palestine. They are disenfranchised and powerless, yes, but their leaders will age and die.
North America
Amongst the youth, both the left and the Nazi right hate Israel.
Israeli campaign contributions are used by people all over the political spectrum as a sign of untrustworthiness and corruption.
The generation of Donald Trump have been the political leaders of the US for this entire century thus far. With the average age of the president tending to go up by 1 with every passing year. But they are near the end of their lives, even with the best medical care available.
Regardless of who dominates US politics in the coming years, it will necessarily be younger, and it will necessarily be anti-Zionist.
The US economy is propped up by AI, for which we can all see the writing on the wall.
And think of the earlier point of China undermining the dollar as a reserve currency in Africa.
In earlier economic crises (ie. 2008), African countries had to accumulate US dollars as a reserve currency in order to keep jobs and hedge against their own inflating local currencies. However, with China having more of a consumption-based economy, and with these countries having Yuan-based debt and reserves - then the dynamic completely changes.
This means that the US economy can implode this time without it taking down the “3rd world” and making them even more subservient.
We are seeing a US that is on the precipice of dying, without the opportunity to recover through vampirism like it had done before.
The attacks on Venezuela and Iran were attacks on China’s customers. China isn’t getting involved according to publicly available information.
These countries are still standing and it would take a dramatic series of events to change that. So far the evidence shows a consistent pattern of failure to undermine this relationship.
The downturn of 20% of trade between China and Iran may be painful, but with the US burning through its global supply of interceptors for many years over the course of 12 days, it is hardly sustainable to militarily force a further downturn in Chinese investment and trade.
They made Venezuelan Liberals into Bolivarians.
not sure about this. these people are professional american worshippers and very rigid ideological soldiers first and foremost. ten years of brutal sanctions and hyperinflation permanently galvanized them to the other side, if the country wound up magically better they would still work towards its complete demise. We’re looking at the new mustard viet diaspora and all the fascist militancy that comes with them, just, latin american instead.
Thank you for the response, though a lot of that is too speculative that, while I would love for them to come true, simply does not refute the fact that we’re looking at a lot of inactions today, both domestically in the US, and on the international stage. Yes, there are movements, but not enough to threaten the empire.
The tragedy of the woman murdered by ICE yesterday is one such example. ICE has been kidnapping people for nearly a year now, although most of them aren’t white. They are emboldened because nobody’s stopping them, and the fact remains that if nobody will stop the Gestapo, we all know what that will eventually lead to.
Regarding the specific points on China:
China’s new 5 year plan includes building up domestic production. There is no indication that they will fail to implement this strategy.
China is already in over-capacity. It needs to build up domestic consumption market to absorb global export surplus goods and drive the domestic demand, not more investment on production. If China fails to do so, the US will remain the world’s largest consumer market and dictate world trade.
China has swapped US debt for 2 African countries for the equivalent in Yuan. We may see even more of this down the road.
Which is probably the worst thing any country should do about their external debt situation right now.
The yuan is currently under a lot of pressure to appreciate, and if (when) it does, these African countries that just swapped the loan for yuan are fucked, because the lower interest rate will not make up for the more expensive yuan they have to earn to repay. In this case, they’re probably better off sticking to dollar debt and take advantage of the USD depreciation instead.
Regardless, no country should take on external debt not denominated in their own currency. It’s a guaranteed way to lose your economic sovereignty.
Besides, since China is running a record $1 trillion trade surplus last year, the question becomes where are those countries going to earn the yuan to repay the loans? In the end, they still have to sell their goods to countries who are willing to run a trade deficit (that means the US) to earn the foreign currencies, sell the currencies on the forex market to buy yuan, and then pay back their Chinese creditors.
It’s extra steps to take advantage of the lower interest rate, but the risks are being shifted to hoping that the Chinese yuan does not appreciate down the road.
Furthermore, the internationalization of yuan (and the rise of China’s consumer market) necessarily involves the appreciation of the yuan itself. You cannot have it both ways - that you want an internationalized Chinese RMB with an artificially devalued exchange rate.
In other words, if you’re betting on the yuan supplanting the dollar, then you should expect the yuan to appreciate and the dollar to depreciate. In this case, it does not make sense to swap the dollar loans for yuan.
What China can do right now is to use its vast USD foreign reserves to pay off those African countries’ debt (the entire external debt of the African continent is $800 billion, well within the reach of China’s several trillions of dollar reserve as well as its $800 billion worth of US treasuries), THEN flood those countries with Chinese yuan in a Marshall Plan style to give them the money to import from China. This will simultaneously raise the income of the Chinese working class, build up China’s domestic consumer market, who will now have more purchasing power to import from the developing countries in return while their countries are freed of debt bondage to foreign financial institutions. This will raise the income of both Chinese working class and those in the developing countries together - a true win-win strategy.
That required invention of space program and 30 years of fighting in spain, and they’ve had more decency and fire than americans.
You have to fight profit which gives corporations power, if you find opportunity to fuck american or american company out of profit, you better take it. I can’t get over that panopticon center of ai: facebook, google, microslop are all consumers self fucking themselves, cause they can’t imagine not having treats
No there is something there, public is too disgusted by it all even if they can’t fully explain why yet. Venezuela reminded people too much of Iraq and the fact they are just doing things and trying to justify it after the fact means media is trying to keep up and failing. I was thinking of something like facism burn out or immediately trying to set the pot into boiling instead of gradually turning up the heat.
My prediction: China wins, but then says: You are under new management, since no reason not to brutaly oppress and exploit your population now.
You guys will be living in poverty not seen since the middle ages, with less rights than medieval serfs while your capitalist overlords murder you for fun, and you’ll still be insisting that China will be worse somehow.
you chose your screen name well, i see
repackaged “human nature” argument
A part of does think they are overplaying they’re hand but I think the point about bourgeoisie being scared signals precisely why they’re doing it. I think they see China ordering the dumping of all US assets by Nov 2026, and the bond market collapsing. They know military might is their only tool at this point to preserve capital, and that the neoliberal framework is eroding.
They are confident they can set the tone in this new wartime era and I don’t thunk they’re wrong
They are confident they can set the tone in this new wartime era and I don’t thunk they’re wrong
This is not true for the entire world, though. I’ve seen the Eye of Sauron analogy made a few times and it’s accurate. If the Eye lands on you, there is very little you can do to resist it. When the empire has its attention focused on your destruction, your best bet - unless you’re China or Russia - is just to hunker down and try to survive. There has never been a more brutal and terrifying killing machine in human history than the US military today and it will wield that (with a bit of reluctance due to cost) when it needs to. But to do so, it has to direct its resources from elsewhere. It has to reposition navies, redirect its declining industrial production, shift away its trade leverage, etc. That means everyone not under the Eye’s gaze gets a bit more breathing room. You see this most of all in Africa right now, which Sauron has been forced to de-prioritize. The AES is operating with a pretty free reign and carrying out an anti-imperialist developmental project (with strong socialist undertones in Burkina Faso) because the Eye can’t look everywhere at once. And, most importantly, China is simply so big and so economically dominant that the cost of competition in many theaters is too high for the empire to really contest.
Unfortunately, and as has been the case for 200 years, the Eye will focus where it can operate most freely: in Latin America. They will pay the price of the empire’s rage in the next few years unless it can be drawn in enough directions around the world - including, perhaps most importantly, within its own borders - that it simply can’t keep up with all the different challengers to its power.
Nazi Germany seemed invincible as well. The collapse is coming, there are to many economic time bombs.
idk about that example, it required the mobilization of the entire rest of the industrialized world
Mobilizing of the rest of the world’s industry helped accelerate the end of the war, but I wouldn’t say “required.” Nazi Germany would have eventually lost against the UK, CCCP, or USA and tried to fight all three at once. Any of those could have defeated the Axis Powers on their own. It would have just taken a lot longer, possibly decades. The genocides would have higher death tolls than they did.
As far as actually requiring as many members of the Allies? Doubtful. The US and CCCP production outputs were both greater than the rest of the Axis combined. Britain’s industry was more than Germany and Japan, but less than both together. It was, however, on the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Regardless, the Axis invaded too many countries, spreading them too thin. Even if the US and UK decide to stay neutral, the Soviets are still being assisted by China, Poland, etc. for troops and logistics while their factories sit well-protected east of Moscow. And eventually, the fascists would run out of stuff to steal, which is what allowed them to start the war to begin with. By 1945, they were running on fumes. Even in this alternate timeline, the Germans are still going to have problems with fuel and food. Maybe they make it to 1947 before they feel the strain. They still didn’t make it more than a year into Barbarossa before running into the kinds of problems from our history.
As pointed out below, I’d be more concerned about rogue American elements using nukes from submarines or other clandestine shit like “briefcase nukes.” I don’t think the US has the industrial capacity to wage war like the Germans did because the US can’t even keep up with the wars it fights against smaller countries like Afghanistan or Vietnam. A peer war with China or Russia or both is the end of the US. I’m not even sure it could do anything significant in a nuclear exchange. China may already have the tech to shoot every missile out of the sky while landing all of theirs.
I would be worried about a sub firing a nuke at Saigon or Hong Kong out of pure spite as the rest of America burns.
