Tactically IMO marmite on it’s own is weird, even applied with TOAST it’s a bit outdated in today’s kitchen-fare. However when deployed in tandem with a more complex strike package - say to the effect of providing UMAMI layered into an already capable CHILI package - well then you have turned what was once a meager ingredient into a very capable force multiplier in the kitchen.
This is true. Take it with a grain of salt but from some quick searching: Venezuela is 4% and Iran is 13.6% of China’s total oil imports. China is the biggest buyer for both countries though, absorbing 90% of iran’s total export, and “more than half” of Venezuela’s.
It’s the same US imperialism, just shedding the “rules based order” antics so they can apply gunboat diplomacy more liberally.
Yeah I haven’t heard from my maga family yet, but they were jumping ship with the boats and oil talk early on, all except 1 who’s ready to sink with the ship. I think those who aren’t “true believers” or in the cult of personality will exodus soon if not yet, and those who remain will dig their feet in to defend it to the bitter end.
Is there like particular sources you look to etc?
What do you follow to stay updated on these developments? You seem to have good, interesting, analyses that I don’t see elsewhere in the sources I check and I find it hard to get good updates on the various conflicts and proxies, etc.
Yeah i wish it was brought to light more often in more damning ways by more sectors of the left to increase the general publics distrust of mainstream media and journalism. It’s amazing how blind trust in these groups is still as common as it is after all that’s taken place with the Gaza genocide.
Would this effectively make aircraft carriers a non issue for the PLAN? It seems like an incredible feat of engineering to design something like that in and of itself, let alone to make it accurate enough to hit a moving ship in the sea.
These new weapons of war are truly terrifying - especially after seeing the videos of those Iranian hypersonics. I can’t imagine seeing those IRL along with the other missile and drone swarms from the perspective of the opposition…
That’s “HSR” - emphasis on air quotes since the best lines are a fraction of the speed and length of the far superior CRH lines. It honestly feels silly to even attempt a comparison. As someone whose lost people, nearly died myself to an impact with a drunk driver, and who has spent countless hours in stand still traffic between geographically close locations - this is the one material condition I think of the most. People truly don’t understand the scale and how much human life and potential is wasted sitting in traffic and spending paychecks on unnecessary car payments, maintenances, insurance payments, roads/parking lots etc. incredibly horrifying and inefficient system especially when you realize how flat and ripe so much of the US is for HSR.
Man every new tweet feels like an episode of [insert adult cartoon comedy here], still baffles me even after all this time.
In front of the golden arches of mcdonalds lol, what a shot!
Side note: you know of any credible estimates for the real spend? That would be great for agitational content
I don’t know how we can escape this downward cycle.
There’s this funny thing called “revolution”
4 weeks left in 2025… Let’s see if any of these get us to 2035.
Yeah same experience where I’m at and to such an extent that our work has raised the general baseline for a handful of adjacent local orgs and coalition partners. Previously soft non-profits have become more serious and agitational, expanded their scope, and adopted parts of our tactics. It’s pretty cool to see how quickly the Party’s gone from not even existing in my area, to becoming a seriously influential material force.
I think the holes in Mamdani’s socialism and potential are discussed enough here, and the broader popular perception is of course not a marxist analysis of his campaign. So I won’t rehash either, but I do hope to make clear what I think is often missing in online discourse, which is the potential it has for comrades organizing in the US.
Conditions are different from AOC’s start, and the political ramifications are less about the position and more about popular perceptions. Back then the zeitgeist was “Trump Bad”, liberal Dems enjoyed a big swing off of Trumps first term. But it was a swing and a miss: since then dems had a senile Biden, a flop Kamala, a genocide, nothing to show and fumbled things back to Trump and the right-wing, then said “time to fight” but steadily handing them project 2025 objectives. Add to that many Trump voters are disillusioned seeing jobs and the economy sink, the few safety nets many rely on - or may soon need - getting scrapped for cash by billionaires. I know plenty Trump voters who have completely flipped and are beginning to sound like stronger socialists in rhetoric than Mamdani’s fans without realizing it.
People who have voted dem their whole lives are disillusioned, people who voted with Trump are disillusioned, both sides have incredibly low approval and a spotlight has been cast on a socialist who beat establishment Dems and Republicans united against him.
In effect Mamdani caught the public eye at a critical moment and expanded the perception of socialism and socialist candidates along with their potential to be viable and win. Now people will go looking for this in their localities as @jack mentioned his firsthand experience.
Instead of that energy being directed toward similarly fraught reformism (as an ends) - they can instead be shown the power and potential of principled revolutionary organization and strategy, and we can potentially gain many new cadre. Of course this window of opportunity is clearly attached to Mamdani, and can fall if he falls and it’s our duty to use this opportunity while it’s available to the best of our ability. The tactics look different as well if you’re in NYC, a progressive metro area, or a rural town. But nonetheless the popularity of the situation and discussion provide an opportunity for comrades across the country.
This may be a viable tactic with slight alterations… first things first: we’ll need to find our best Bill Clinton dopple-ganger.
With their gaze on Venezuela I’m not so sure they’ll let a communist waltz into power in Chile so easily. There’s probably plots being drawn up as we’re typing.
Fwiw from Al Jazeera:
Activa Research, a polling firm, found that 24.9 percent of respondents planned to back Jara, compared to 16.9 percent for her next closest rival, far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast.
Hopefully Trump’s war-mongering will kill Kast’s chances and strengthen the hopes for an anti-imperial bloc in South America.
Mayor of Chicago called for general strikes, now mayor of Minneapolis is saying GTFO.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneapolis-mayor-jacob-frey-ice-shooting/
I know it’s just talk, but maybe a sign of the Overton window shifting.
Also just popped into my head but maybe it would be a worthwhile strategy pressuring more mayors / officials to sign onto calls for a general strike like Chicago’s mayor did. That’s more actionable and material than them saying “we don’t like this”.