Ten Myths About Israel (sic) is a good summary or takedown of the narrative zionists have of their history. Pappé is an “israeli” historian with good opinions (acknowledges that the Nakba was ethnic cleansing, admires the courage of Hamas after al-Aqsa Flood), and the text is pretty snappy. Like some of the myths are covered in less than ten pages. People might have read this one though, cause that link is pulled from the news thread like two years ago
It’s a fools errand to try and predict when the war will end, but carpoftruth posted this mil blog article a few days ago. It’s a good summary, and mostly brain worm free (beyond considerations of the essential, unconquerable Russian spirit).
If you don’t want to read the whole thing, the gist of it that the USA is at the last rung of missiles it can ship over (Tomahawks) and this is a card best played as an escalation in reserve. This is because only a small number of Tomahawks will ever be provided (if they are), since the USA actually needs them. Additionally, not even the Ukrainians think they’re actually going to win at this point, they’re trying to raise the cost of Russia’s victory. Better to bluster about cruise missile strikes on St. Petersburg (tragic name change) in order to get Russia to the table then risk the Ukronazis actually hitting something important.
In actual battle news, there are a number of places that have advanced by dozens or hundreds of meters, and you are right about Pokrovsk in terms of media attention. The city was been operationally encircled (all roads in cut or covered by FPVs and artillery) for some time, and it looks like it might finally be squeezed out along with others fronts vaguely in the area. Importantly, Ukraine has lost whatever initiative it had. 2023 saw two mechanized offensives with moderate success, 2024 had the Kursk offensive, and 2025 had Ukraine exclusively playing fireman with reserves and reinforcements
This Western-ish article is from July 2024 and this RT article is from September 2023. There’s probably a qualitative difference between flying over the Black Sea and buzzing Tallinn. That said, Ukraine has carried out a number of strikes on Crimea and naval targets, and these NATO reconnaissance flights almost certainly helped with that
wait, are you saying that “CIA” is in all caps because of emotional invective? a real pedant would have brought up “en masse”, smh. make sure to watch this to the end 
i think everything you said is true for nations looking to go to war in the next three to five years. After that, i’d imagine more specialized models and tactics will emerge, and versions made with civilian parts will be worse. More importantly, it would probably be best for countries to start their own drone and drone munition production. It’s about training engineers and technicians as much as it is about making weapons.
i think the economy of combining off the shelf drones with old munitions is possible because Ukraine and Russia have access to the Chinese markets for drone parts and lots of Soviet munitions stockpiled up. i don’t know if your average country has old stockpiles to that extent. That also has impact on design; having a big pile of surplus mortar rounds encourages designs meant to use them. It could be that in ten years, everyone serious uses some kind of shaped charge made for drones especially.
i also don’t think that drones make heavy armor or navies a waste of money. Capital ship navies have been a waste of money/ a national prestige project since the 80s at least. Back then, of course, no one had to worry about what the navy was for, because any serious conflict meant nuclear war. Battleships emerged and became obsolete within like 20 years (naval aircraft and torpedoes). Aircraft carriers emerged and became obsolete within like 50 years (anti-ship ballistic missiles). Submarines are also there. People are going to keep fighting on the water. Drones, missiles, and satellites change the details, but the big issue with boat fighting is and always has been finding where the hell the other person is and then getting there fast. Light patrol boats, missiles, and loitering underwater drones are probably going to be the budget navy of the future. i don’t think the parts for UUVs are as easy to get as quadcopters.
For heavy armor, the big problem in Ukraine is massed armor, because both sides have so many radars, satellites, and sensors that multiple vehicles are an immediately detectable and attractive target. They still use lone tanks as armored fire support, and IFVs and motorcycles together provide supporting fire for rapid movement. In other wars, countries or organizations with no armor have made technicals, which are all of the fire support of the above without protection. Most countries won’t be dealing with NATO vs Pact, farce edition, and will probably have zero satellites involved. Soldiers with motor transport will move faster than soldiers without, and soldiers with fire support will best soldiers without. If a T-70 with a cope cage is good enough for the Russians, i’m sure even the jankiest tank can be modified for a non-NATO force.
Combat aircraft is a tougher one, because i don’t think there’s been a real showdown between most air forces and most air defenses. Like yeah, that one Lightning got downed in Serbia in the 90s, and a bunch of MiGs and Mirages got wasted in the Gulf War, but those both had too many outside factors. India and Pakistan were probably both really glad to have jets during their little war, even if India lost some. We still can’t tell if the Zionists bypassed Iranian air defense systems because they were bad or because of access to Azeri airspace. The other thing worth considering is that the last time the US faced a real air defense challenge and took casualties was Vietnam. They’ve built all their planes, missiles, and radars since then to make sure it never happens again.
Sykes is saying that negotiating with Russia right now is the same as Chamberlain meeting Hitler. The implication is that the Ukrainians/ NATO ought to fight to the bitter end, because this is literally Putler. Serge is mocking the logic of saying that negotiation is bad (because that’s famously how you enable Hitler), so instead we ought to fight to the bitter end no matter what (because that’s famously how Hitler decided to go out). Serge is mockingly taking Sykes at his word, and then ‘regretfully’ realizing that the actual conclusion is “We shouldn’t act like we’re helping Hitler, so instead we should act directly like him.”
Most countries maintain a nominal split between fiscal and monetary policy (or however you want to describe it). Japan has the Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance, the EU has the Europe Central Bank and dozens of finance ministries, the UK has the Bank of England and the Treasury, China has the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, and the USA has the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. The people in charge of the finance departments are appointed with different goals and objectives then those in monetary ones. The fact remains that these are all political agencies subject to political will. Central bankers are supposed to be “above politics”, because in liberal theory economics and politics are separate.
Trump represents a split in government and economic priorities from within Washington, compared to the past. i would argue that he also represents a factional squabble over profits and contracts within the USAmerican bourgeoisie. Trump calling for the Federal Reserve to do what exactly he wants to support a tariff policy most liberals (read USAmerican liberals and conservatives) think is stupid had Powell dragging his feet and saying no. China owns over 800 billion dollars of USAmerican debt/ dollars. A different situation could see them cooperate.
To give an example, the Plaza Accords of 1985 are mostly known for the effect of kneecapping a rising Japan. The actual agreement was for Europe and Japan to lower the value of the dollar, because they felt it was too high. The agreement did fix the trade deficit the US had with Europe. The dollar had appreciated after Volcker of the Federal Reserve raised rates, which created currency depreciation that led other countries to the negotiating table. When the Empire is at stake, both hands can work together just fine. If the various finance theorists and decision makers decide that some policy is necessary for containing China and maintaining US financial hegemony, Powell will call an emergency meeting on the spot.
thank you comrade, i had thought those tarps by the shore might have covered ramps to the ship or something. now that you say it, i can see the prow is on the dock. definitely not a great place for a boat to be
the second image especially looks to me like the ship is lying on one side. what do you mean by split in two? is it the tarps at the right/ upper part of the images? i don’t want to disagree with your analysis, i just don’t see it
i do sometimes really agree with the idea behind “horses surrounded by oceans of drinkable water”. but the sheer number of kids i have seen turn from belligerent to enthusiastic about education because they were moved closer to the board or given glasses is unreal.
it’s worth noting that the median USAmerican reads at a 6th grade level. what that means is they can read a page of info, and then tell you what the words on the page mean and report back on the basic content of the page. abstract or critical thinking problems are beyond them. half of people are worse off. it is more accurate to say that most people in our pig country will need education, not re-education.
even for young people, from the 1990s to the early 2010s, most school districts required reading to be taught incorrectly. an unfortunately mistaken psychologist thought that guessing at words from the first letters and the picture should be taught instead of phonics. the above is essentially the strategy of certain “middle readers”, and the idea was that the “good” cohort would sort themselves out, and teaching a different strategy to the “bad” cohort would help them. what happened is that the “good” cohort does figure some things out, and the other two don’t learn how to read.
holding a kid back a grade was also basically banned by no child left behind, so you’d just advance fourteen year olds reading at a second grade level
the only reason i heard about Mamdani in the first place was his anti-zionism, and every appearance he’s had since then has been backtracking it. no magic words, just a very bad sign for his integrity and true feelings. the United States of America is directly threatening Venezuela with military intervention, and has been strangling Cuba for 50+ years. this is not having issues with a country in a vacuum, or an academic interview. this is the person claiming to represent the furthest left tent pole in the media laundering the current imperialist regime change project. are we seriously calling a succ dem mayor AES? while actively warmongering?