I really have to wonder if it isn't intentional at times like these. I know the way the bourgeois electoral theatrics work is it isn't something that should be consciously known by the participants but the Democrats at times REALLY seem to be openly taking a fall and planting their face while wearing a smirk and then saying "aww shucks" with a comic laugh to their base full of fools while winking at the Republicans and the camera.
‘- massive expansion in terms of dollars and terror of state power against immigrants. I’ve been skeptical about efforts to terrorize, imprison, and deport immigrants due to the critical function they serve in the economy, but now…. I don’t know
I am genuinely beginning to think they want to do a return to white supremacy thing. They kick out the immigrants, immiserate the population including white people, take their healthcare, force the neurodivergent to work and then exploit those groups to fill the roles previously filled by immigrants while whipping people up with "at least we're a white nation and can be great again" rhetoric which the hogs will be excited about. Of course they won't kick them all out, it's not possible or desirable but they'll use the terror to further suppress their wages and living conditions and any chance of bargaining power, push them into a pseudo-slavery like arrangement. They'll push them to back of house, they'll push them out of view where they can be exploited in the worst conditions out of sight while pushing the aforementioned whiter workers under more exploitation into the front of house work immigrants previously did so the ILLUSION of the immigrants being gone is maintained.
Eh they've been building capacity though.
Among other things I just can't see this Ukraine situation ending with a total Russian victory. I think Russia captures the entire eastern oblasts that voted to secede plus maybe a buffer area or cordon sanitaire as they've called it and the Ukrainians agree to stop attacking Russia, to stop contesting (but not formally recognize) the eastern oblasts Russia has annexed plus Crimea, and to keep troop levels lower and/or to not move them within a certain distance of the cordon sanitaire or Belarus.
I don't see full denazification, I don't see full disarmament.
What I do see is the west has already started and used the war economy of Ukraine to jump-start arms production factories in western Ukraine. What I see is the west turning western Ukraine into a bunch of heavily exploited, but quite competent and experienced and low cost weapons makers for the west. They plan to turn it into their war factory for the coming war with Russia and/or China and I do think that within the next 3 years they'll have that capacity operational and be able to use it against China or Russia and it will be significant in the amount of production capacity it will give them and the ability it will give the west to stay in a long fight.
Filling Ukraine with arms factories really is a win-win for the capitalists as they get the increased money from the increased "defense" spending but by spending it in a devastated rump state of a country they stretch their dollars a lot further, can actually meet the needed quotas for weapons for the western war machine against China/Russia WHILE also pocketing still record profits.
That number apparently also allows up to 1.5% of it to be spent on things like highways and bridges in support of infrastructure necessary for troop movements. But to be honest even a 1% bump in GDP towards arms is a pretty big amount.
without anyone questioning why they don't use the broad, sweeping powers exercised by Trump to do Literally Anything Good.
"We must protect and rebuild the institutions and we cannot do that by breaking more rules like our adversaries" is what they'll say once they get into power. Before they get into power all kinds of vague promises of justice and doing this and that. But darn it the Parliamentarian will rule against them and they refuse to be just like the enemy they fight in effectively getting things done. They're going to set an example of their ideals!
The question I have is, how long until these services begin to capitulate to the state and down rank or shadow-ban these kinds of broadcasts?
Immediately the moment someone fires a gun back at and kills one of these feds. They'll say that they caused the death and are putting other lives at risk and threaten them heavy-handedly and they'll all fold like cards or be targeted by other elements of the state. Some will obviously fold far before that.
And get the technical knowledge stolen by Mossad given how deeply infiltrated and compromised Iran is? I wouldn't think so.
Russia doesn't have a ton of production capacity and last I checked s-400 systems are very expensive, India bought some and they're going to be delivered in future for example and given how much force the west would likely hit Iran with they'd need a lot of them to prevent them being overwhelmed and destroyed by drone and cruise missile volleys. It would be as much an opportunity for the west to gather technical data as either of those powers.
Another problem is as we've seen the zionists are firing munitions from outside of Iran's borders to clear the way. Iranians don't want to engage them in the airspace outside their borders as it risks bringing another country actively into the war against them and also don't have good radar visibility which increases the chance of these systems just being killed without doing much good.
China already got to test their systems with the Pakistan vs India situation I believe. Russia has already tested them against Ukraine.
Neither power seems particularly interested in enraging the US by sticking their neck out here. Both go out of their way to kick the can down the road and bide their time and strength. Russia is full of capitalist liberals who genuinely want to find a way back to some sort of compromise between full NATO membership and the reality that the US and NATO will seek to destroy them because they're not sharing Europe or central Asia and control of those or other parts of the world with Russian bourgeoisie. They want at the very least to PLAY Trump into not escalating in Ukraine and not slapping on more sanctions for as long as possible by not doing anything that would cause him to walk away from negotiations as like it or not they can't win Ukraine decisively in the way they want that doesn't end in a smoldering conflict that keeps flaring up without a negotiated solution and if Trump walks away they fear years more of fighting Ukraine in a drawn out war deep into central and eastern Ukraine at great cost and damage to their economy as there are like it or not problems Russia is experiencing from this conflict and it can't keep this footing forever in a capitalist mode of production. They were able to do a deal with the DPRK because it's already off the chessboard for the US given the DPRK has nukes so it didn't matter to the US that Russia agreed to defend them as it doesn't change a strategic calculus nor is the DPRK near as important to global control as Iran. China has its own reasons as in basically biding its time to build up its own military and because it still hasn't resolved Taiwan and still needs the US economically (which is why they're willing to do deals with Trump and restore access to critical minerals despite some of them being bound to be used in weapons that are likely to be used on China within a decade).
Neither has had a break out moment showing a turn towards outright hostility towards the US which this would be perceived as and both seem to accept the US ruled order of the world. For example despite the staggering sanctions on Russia they haven't moved to destroy dollar hegemony because they don't want to anger the US and Trump and because they believe if they don't they'll get their stolen $300 billion dollars back held by the west.
A lot of good that did Syria in the end. Or Hezbollah. It's cope.
I do think 10 years is quite excessive but I also think western media would lie about that so I'm going to assume that with good behavior and reform they'd probably actually be out in much less than half that.
Secondly I don't presume that this was per se special punishment because of the orientation, non-hetero nature of the works and that the law provides for the same for straight works. I admit there are likely problems with selective enforcement as with any law like this that runs into existing societal biases and prejudices so I think that would be another argument in favor of leniency but again I don't really believe that sentencing is necessarily accurate or the whole story.
Thirdly we don't know all the details about the ages of the characters or any aggravating factors about the content or the nature of payments or whatever.
Such a good chant. Going to have to look into his music now.
Also more seriously, this guy is a hero and braver than the troops. He's put himself at risk against the entire zionist propaganda apparatus, against the British state which has already shown a willingness to criminalize and prosecute musicians, something he knew before going on given who followed him.
Production capacity is not yet online. Shockingly it takes time to build factories and get them producing, however the work has been put in, ground has been broken and Ukraine increasingly has a skilled workforce for this kind of thing. They're not online right now but likely will be as I said within 3 years if not less which is plenty of time for the China conflict or any plans by Europe to do a charge at Russia in future as they keep talking up a war with Russia being inevitable.
Three things