It was pretty old, I think from the 50s or 60s.
Yo I heard you like trains that go through snow…
That’s a Union Pacific Rotary Snow Plow. 17 feet / 5.2 meters tall. 150 RPM. It’s not self-propelled and had to be pushed by 4 locomotives. It was used in Wyoming up into the 1990s to cut 14 foot / 4.25 meter wide paths through the snow.
This is why US politicians fought tooth and nail to get TikTok banned. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit et al do whatever the government wants to do to ensure the “wrong” information doesn’t get out there. The fact that TikTok is Chinese is irrelevant, it’s that TikTok doesn’t censor the views that the government wants censored.
None other than President Xi himself has emphasized the role of markets and downplayed the use of “central planning” in the Chinese economy. I think the state control of the banking system works hand-in-hand with this type of central planning (where there’s an overall strategic plan developed by the state and the plan is implemented in the market sector). It’s a fascinating model that I’m trying to learn more about (just downloaded Roland Boer’s Socialism With Chinese Characteristics)
Yeah Netanyahu’s claims are obvious BS
I don’t think he had to step down because of polling on his Gaza policies but I also think (respectfully) you are overthinking this. Biden was incredibly unpopular for a whole host of reasons - less popular than LBJ when he dropped out because he was unpopular. The debate performance was bad. And every time he’s spoken in public since it’s clear he is degrading fast. I can’t imagine how incoherent he will be by Election Day. I really don’t think he will live to finish out his term. Keeping him in the race would have been a certain loss, literally any other party democrat would have given them a better shot so he was forced to step down. I don’t think it’s more involved than that.
All US client states in the region only have the individuals at the very top - kings, some of the national bourgeoisie - who are allied with the US. The overwhelming majority of the people despise the US. Not a stable situation for an ally. The client states also have their own allegiances and enemies across the region. Those entanglements make unilateral action harder. Israel is a completely foreign entity to the region without any sort of entanglements - everyone hates them. And as you have seen over the last year, these clients have to tread very carefully with their own populations in terms of being seen openly helping the US. Israel has a population that is bloodthirsty and loves it when their military causes death and destruction in the region.
Thank you, I suspected that I was being far too generous to the west.
The Beam has fried this guy’s brain.
(I do have a soft spot for this lib, his older novels are pretty great ngl)
I largely agree with you. I just finished reading Socialism Betrayed (great book, highly recommend it). That book’s thesis is that the major contributor to the collapse of the Soviet Union was the development and growth of a “second economy” - economic activity outside of official channels that could either be legal, illegal, or something in between. The growth of this second economy led to the development within the USSR of an entire social base of individuals with a material interest in seeing the overthrow of socialism. A base about which not only did the CPSU do nothing about, but actually many party members were deeply entrenched in this “second economy”. The book cites a quote from someone who stated that there was NO illicit enterprise in the USSR that would have lasted a month without support from someone in the party.
China is not the topic of this book, but the authors do spend a page or two commenting on what is an obvious question: if this is what helped undo the Soviet Union, what does that mean for China, who has a more legal but vastly larger second economy? The authors express concern and maybe even a bit of skepticism, but not outright criticism (and keep in mind, they were writing in 2004 and in the last 20 years quite a few western Marxist have changed their views on China, like David Harvey).
Reading between the lines, I think they are saying it could work, but what we’ll call Dengism is a very risky move. You have a massive social base in China of people who may very much like the CPC, but also very much like their ability to own a business and get rich. People who will revolt against any strong measures to curtail these markets. In the USSR, this social base saw socialism as a hindrance to their potential. In China this same social base faces no real limitations on their material advancement, so they have no reason to rock the boat.
Long way of saying, I think “boiling the frog” is the only move the CPC can make. And actually, if that’s the move the CPC wants to make I think they will be successful. The bigger question to me is, is that actually what the CPC wants to do? Even talking about the CPC as if there is one voice is a mistake. I’m sure this is the direction Xi would like to go in, but there are also plenty of liberals in the party (IIRC the #2 in the party is a huge, unabashed lib). The party itself is very opaque when it comes to things like this, but I do think it is NOT a foregone conclusion that the dedicated Marxists in the party will win in the end. Boiling the frog I think will work but the party itself needs to be committed to that line, which I am not sure they are there yet.
This was the path that was open to them in 2014. Arguably, it’s the path most Ukrainians wanted. That big economic deal that Yanukovich tried to make with Putin would have kept them neutral, because they had to make a deal with someone and Putin was more interested in keeping Ukraine away from NATO than pulling them into Russia’s orbit.
But that was unacceptable to the US and NATO. So they fanned the flames of Maidan, which in itself led to tremendous division in Ukraine. And when Ukraine was looking to make a deal to end the conflict quickly, that’s when Boris Johnson came by with either threats or lies (or both) to keep them fighting. For any Lemmy libs who may wander in here, that is why I give my critical support to Russia in this fight. In no way is some inevitable, ancient conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In fact, every time Ukraine has had a chance to pull the car over to side of the road, the US has been there to jerk the steering wheel back and step on the gas.
Death to America.
He was also managing the empire before the era of neoliberalization. From the Great Depression up until the 1980s, it was generally understood and accepted among the powerful regardless of party affiliation that you have to intervene in the market. There was no interest in laissez-faire libertarian capitalist, in the US that only came about with Reagan.
Also ignored everyone who said “don’t go along with Elise Stefanik’s little congressional university president witch-hunt”, much less totally debase yourself in front of her. They will not see you as one of the “good ones”, they will just smell blood in the water.
The most far-reaching price controls in US history were initiated by noted communist Richard Nixon…
Incidentally this applies 100% to Israeli settlers, too.
Saying this as an outsider, so I can only speak to appearances, which means I may be very wrong.
But it seems to me that China still trusts the United States way too much. It’s almost as if they can’t see why the US would be will to throw away a relationship that has been so profitable for both countries for so long. Or at least, they do not quite see the full threat that the US poses.
It could just be that China doesn’t feel like they are in a position yet to make strong counter-moves against the US. I mean, yes, I think they do recognize this and that’s part of the rationale for the belt and road initiative, for dumping US T-bills and moving into gold, etc. But I don’t know if they realize the speed at which the US is moving.
I really enjoy board games - those complicated ones that can take hours to play. And I usually play with a good friend of mine since we were little kids. This friend of mine is absolutely brilliant, too. And whenever we play games together, he wins almost every time. Why? Objectively, the strategies I take are usually “correct” and well thought out. I don’t think my strategies are any worse than his. However, my friend operates on another level when it comes to speed. I will have this whole machine built in my head, but I will say to myself that I still need to do X and Y to win. And then by that point, my friend will already have won.
Maybe that’s a silly parallel to the China/US situation. While I don’t think China actually trusts the US anymore, I do hope they realize the implications of what the US is planning on doing, and realize that they may need to rapidly speed up their plans to counter.
Requesting thoughts from the New Mega Economic Bureau:
I do believe the prospects for the Israeli economy are very grim (inshallah). They've lost a huge number of citizens to emigration, disability, and death. The economy relied quite a bit on over 200k Palestinian workers who Israel has said they don't intend on welcoming back. I think they will stick to that, and their plans for replacing those workers from others from places like India I don't think will pan out (both for logistical reasons and because Israelis are deeply racist). I can't imagine they will be able to draw immigrants like they used to and will likely bleed more citizens as they've shown their own people just how precarious their lives there are. The tourism industry there is dead. Their reputation in surveillance and security - an important export industry for them - has taken a massive reputational hit. I doubt Intel will want to continue on there.
When the potential destruction of the Israeli economy (and thus, by extension, the Israeli state) is brought up, a perfectly understandable retort is that the US will do whatever they need to to prop up the Israeli economy. That's what I more or less what I think at least on the surface. But the question I have been asking myself is: is it even possible for the US to prop up the Israeli economy?
My understanding is that all "aid" from the US to Israel takes the form of US dollars being used to purchase US-made munitions and military equipment. The money never touches Israeli hands, is never sent through the Isreali economy, and is not used for anything "productive" from the Israeli economic perspective. And this the general modus operandi for US foreign aid - the foreign country doesn't get cash and they CERTAINLY aren't granted like, the ability to recruit US firms to build facilities there. So point being... sure, the US can take USD and buy not just military gear from the US MIC, but they can also buy food from US farmers, cars from US manufacturers, etc. They can make sure Israel has food to eat and coal to keep power plants running. But all of that won't actually do anything for the real, productive economy of Israel.
Oct 7 has shattered the very foundations of the productive economy of Israel - industrial capital, in the language of vol 2 of Capital. And these fundamental problems that have been created cannot be cured with US foreign aid. If I'm right then I don't think there's any the US can do in order to rescue the Israeli economy in the long run.
Thoughts?
NBC keeps all their Olympics stuff online behind paywalls. I don’t have OTA TV but even if I did their broadcast coverage is so bad because they only cover Team USA (with a generous dose of American exceptionalism) and they only ever show the events they think Americans care about. I don’t want to watch the USA team unless China or Cuba is playing against them so I can root against the USA.
Any suggestions on how I can watch, either with a website or an app? I have a VPN so that should be helpful. I think in 2022 I set my VPN to Canada and watched on the CBC website, gonna try that again now.
Based on the coconut tree from which I fell, my IRL social circle skews heavily towards white, conservative evangelical and Catholic types. I also have an unhealthy obsession with following these same politically conservative white evangelical individuals and groups on social media.
And what’s surprising to me is, since shortly after Oct 7, it seems that the overwhelming opinion of relatively younger (let’s say under 40) people in this demo is at least some sort of soft anti-Israel opinion. The boomers, they still have that Fetterman-esque love for Israel. But younger conservatives… I usually see opinions about how we shouldn’t send Israel any more money, or acknowledging that Israel is committing a genocide. And it seems like it’s the overwhelming opinion from young conservatives, too. I’m sure there’s plenty of younger conservatives that do support Israel, but anecdotally that group feels very small.
That’s not to say I’m seeing a lot of pro-Palestinian sentiment, because I’m not. That’s probably a bridge too far for them. Also probably related to the fact that most Americans are just so incredibly ignorant about what goes on in other parts of the world, they can’t formulate full thoughts on these issues.
For months now, I’ve been all geared up to argue with anyone I know IRL who supports Israel. But it’s just never happened. Either people care or have any opinion one way or another, or they are critical of Israel. Not what I was expecting.
I wonder if AIPAC and Israel realize just how much they’ve lost younger Americans, probably for good (not that they care, they’ll just keep buying off American politicians).
Not exactly a revelation to Hexbear users but it’s a shower thought I just had.
Death to America.
Obviously it wasn’t like those child emperors wielded any power whatsoever. They were just a sieve by which whatever the rich and powerful wanted would happen.
I was thinking about how Trump himself isn’t “dangerous”. He’s a moron who doesn’t actually care about anything policy-related. But it’s specifically because of that, he simply enacts whatever the capitalists pulling the strings in the GOP want - and no doubt, the GOP’s agenda is awful.
Of course, that doesn’t make Biden any different. The man clearing has pudding for brains now. It’s obvious Nuland was and Blinken now are running the show in foreign policy. And even if there’s a different group of capitalist who support the Democrats, ultimately what they want is largely the same as the GOP capitalists.
Good times up ahead…
I’m in the fortunate and privileged position of having some very long term friends in my life. Unfortunately, we’re now spread across the country. We’d like to try and keep our social connection by playing a TTRPG over zoom or something.
I have never played a TTRPG before. I really got into Disco Elysium and that’s got me interested in TTRPGs. Other friends have been interested for years but no one’s bothered to try and organize something. So all of us have zero experience with running an actual game. And no one to guide us through it who has experience.
I’m looking for recommendations for a TTRPG for us get started on. Needs to work over Zoom. I’d say the most important aspect is that it’s fun and social. “Fun” sounds like an obvious one but the reality is I have one shot to make playing TTRPGs “stick” with this group. If my friends don’t have a great time with it we’ll probably not play after this.
Happy to answer any questions about myself or my group that would help you come up with a recommendation.
“bUt TrUmP WiLL tUrN AmERicA fascist”
Don’t care, we’re already there anyway and the Democrats were the junior partners in making this place a fascist hellhole anyway.
I literally do not care what happens to this country anymore. We deserve sooo much worse than 9/11. If there’s a god then this country deserves divine judgement. Death - and I cannot emphasize this enough - to America.
I will vote for anyone who promises to stop American imperialism. But since that describes precisely no one in either of the two major parties, I guess I’m not voting for any of them then.
Claiming you want to see the downfall of the CPC is akin to wishing for the deaths of all 1.4 billion people:
Reverse uno card on all those “criticizing Israel is antisemitic” freaks.
I kinda don’t like this meme because Garak is cool and the IOF-satzgruppen is incredibly evil.
Thought this was an interesting analysis, though I think it needs to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt (I think it’s power is what is qualitatively describes rather than precise numbers, and I think the author might even agree with me).
I’m always on the lookout to see it quantified how much the average American benefits from imperialism. My guy says if the US was unable to exert hegemony, the US would experience at least what Russia experienced in the 90s. These numbers align with that; and this is only talking about dollar hegemony and not, for example, the US using military pressure, sanctions, or other methods for extracting cheaper resources and goods from the global south.
That said, I’m not sure you can just run a regression and get your answer. I don’t see how you can isolate the US losing dollar hegemony without it then creating an uncountable number of secondary effects. All this stuff is deeply interconnected. But that said, I think this does a good job of highlighted at least in a qualitative sense just how much Americans benefit from dollar hegemony, and how losing that would be huge problem for the US economy.
My single issue is “anti-genocide”. I wonder which party is more anti-genocide 🤔
The girl’s mother and her sister were also murdered in the same attack on Khan Younis.
Reminds me of this photo from 20 years ago.
As always, Death to America !amerikkka
This wasn’t in a rural area or impoverish inner ring suburb. This was in an older but perfectly nice suburb of a large midwestern US city. I had two friends at the time who were just out of college and teaching in public schools. And they both bought houses. One had a spouse who was working (normal job, not high pay or anything) but the other was single. I know for a fact they didn’t have any help from parents. I do know they both had most of their school paid through scholarships so little to no college debt, fwiw. Went on google street view to check out the houses - not large but definitely comfy. Around 1,600-1,700 sq ft single family homes with a yard and everything. Something a small family would be comfortable in.
And I mean, I was looking at buying a home around that time, too (and for years afterward). My salary was above the national median but not that much above it. There were lots of options - the only reason I didn’t buy was because my life situation was not stable. I don’t live in that city anymore but looking at my salary now and what’s available on the market, buying a home is pretty much out of reach for me. Certainly what I could get now, in terms of square footage, is drastically reduced. I’m not even taking into account current interest rates, I was just plugging in numbers at the old 4%.
That’s how fast material conditions have eroded for a lot of Americans. This is what journalists who write this articles about “aww why are young people so down these days, they should just cheer up all that bad stuff is all in their head” completely miss. Probably because in all likelihood, they bought a house a couple decades ago and are secure themselves. It’s why the dems’ bullshit about how the economy is so great is so offensive to us. It’s a denial of reality.
Generational politics is bunk, but I also think inequality should be thought of along multiple axes. One is whether or not you bought a house 15-20 years ago or not. If you did, then you’re sitting on a mortgage that is relatively low which makes your material conditions comfortable. You’re not feeling the effects of the bad economy as much. If you’re under 30, then it’s not possible to be in that situation.
Because:
1.) Fuck the troops. US soliders in Vietnam were every bit as genocidal as IOF troops today.
2.) The whole idea that Vietnam was holding any POWs after the Paris peace accords was a total lie made from whole cloth. There has never been any evidence presented that there were any POWs being held after the war and anyone who spends 10 minutes on the internet reading about it will come to that conclusion.
Seeing this flag burn, in emoji form, would be nice.
I haven't really come up with anything smart to say about this. Probably because pointing out hypocrisy is pointless most of the time. Like, it doesn't matter, no one cares.
But the 1932-33 Soviet famine (commonly called "The Holodomor") gets all the attention for being a man-made famine. Despite the fact that no legit historians believe this, even those who hate the USSR like Robert Conquest. At the worst, the Soviet leadership and Stalin were slow to act and believe reports on the ground (don't @ me, Stalin and the Soviet leadership admitted this themselves) but once they did understand the problem, the immediately put what resources they could into mitigating the famine. It was an incredible human tragedy, but it wasn't the result of intentional genocide.
Meanwhile right now, in Gaza, there is an UNDENIABLE intentional, artificial famine being conducted on the part of Israel with the full intention of genociding the population. What is happening in Gaza is what libs think happened in Ukraine in the 1930s. And yet, so many Americans are either supportive of the actions being taken, or are at the very least passively supportive of the US' and Joe Biden's role in this intentional famine.
I'm not even sure what to say, it's such a disconnect.
So many libs keep telling me if I don’t vote for Biden that Trump will pass all these anti-trans laws that Biden and the Democrats would of course have stopped. I tell them my trans comrades on Hexbear all say I shouldn’t vote for Biden but these libs just keep asking for the proper documentation.
To clarify something, I’m not some boug. I worked at a job for years where they put money into a 401k as part of the benefits, and I was there long enough that it vested. So I have a few grand that’s locked up in an IRA that I can’t get into until I retire.
Here’s my simple strategy: I’m putting everything into Chinese index funds / stonk ETFs.
My rationale: it’s all about the emotional risk management.
What I mean by that statement is, in the past when one of my sports teams I root for has made it into the final round of the playoffs, I would place a small bet against them. Because if they win, I won’t care that I lost some money. But if they lose, I’ll at least have a bit more $$$ in my pocket, it’s a small consolation but it helps.
So how does this relate to China and investing? The way I see it, there’s likely one of two scenarios for where the Chinese economy will be a few decades from now when I can take that money out. Either A.) the CPC more or less just continues on with what it’s been doing since Deng. Continue to develop the productive forces, continue to rack up W after W while the west implodes on itself, and the Chinese corporations I’m invested in will do great - stonks go up and I have a nice little savings built up.
Or B.) CPC pushes the communism button in 2050 or so, they nationalize all the corporations, and I lose the whole investment. But you know what, WHO CARES?! THEY PUSHED THE BUTTON! That would literally be the best thing that I could ever see happen in my lifetime, and the last thing I would care about would be my IRA.
Seems like no matter what, I end up a winner 😎
