Didn't the Royal Navy reorganise itself as a support service to the US Navy and cease operating anything more than a token force like more than a decade ago?
Why would Ukraine even still be interested in joining NATO? That alliance won't be worth anything more than the pearl necklace the US leaves it after it pulls out.
Unrest is one word for it. No military has ever had a good time fighting against guerillas, and if the US kicks off against Mexico it's going to be a campaign with the guerillas pre-infiltrated all over the US.
The amazing part, to me, is that these two halves manage to get along just fine in everyday life and work. There's obvious tension when the topics come up, but until you float that tension you can't really tell one from the other (unless they own an EV, in which case it's Tesla vs all the mainland brands and that indicator hasn't failed me yet).
I hope it doesn’t come across like I am demanding sympathy. To me, it is more about recognizing appropriately the entirety of liberation struggle and avoiding falling prey to reducing it only to static characteristics, for lack of a better way to put it.
I think the most salient part of the point they're making is that those protests/parades don't have any positive material effect, that they are a pressure valve that protects the imperial core from more significant consequences. They're acutely aware of the entirety of the global liberation struggle, and Western protest culture does not contribute positively to it.
To address the derisive tone of calling them 'parades'... When people from the Global South give feedback or advice on this kind of thing, Western Leftists ignore them or patronize them. They dig their heels in and double down on the righteousness of their ineffective methods while a significant portion of them continue to uncritically agree with Capitalist media's portrayal of any actual Socialist governments - In Pacific Asia, in the Sahel, in Latin America - as brutal dictatorships and problematic. Doing things like calling Western Protests 'Angry Parades' is a very effective filter when talking to Westerners to see if it's actually worth discussing politics with them or if they're more likely to yell at you for undermining the 'Leftist Unity' that was needed to get Kamala into the White House and save the world.
I used to think that American leftists were selfish cowards for choosing to live with their privileges at the expense of everyone else.
But seeing those privileges stripped away as the imperial core becomes fascist and turns its wrath inward, I started to realise they're not selfish cowards, they're just cowards.
Probably my worst, most hateful take. But so many of my family have suffered from American greed that I don't care. I will burn all my bridges and die on this hill.
I watched Trumbo (2015) yesterday. Dramatised biography of Dalton Trumbo. Had no idea the guy who wrote Spartacus (1960) was a comrade but that makes a lot of sense.
Anyone got more info on Trumbo from a communist perspective? That his other big movie in 1960 was Exodus leaves me wondering if there were other less savoury influences to him coming off the writers blacklist than were shown in this film. But then I've not seen Exodus... it sounds like obvious Israeli propaganda but I have no idea.
I think I make a better contribution (better use of my skills) to the People's Republic in my current job. The world would have to be in a dire situation if they needed me, and in that situation I couldn't morally refuse.
Whenever I hear people posit that the US aggression against Venezuela is a distraction from the Epstien files, I can't help but think it's the other way around.
Whatever happens with the release of those files, the Capitalists don't have a lot to win or lose from that situation. If by some miracle Trump actually faces justice, he'll just be replaced by another puppet.
But with Venezuela, things can go really well or really badly for them. Venezuela's fate is the issue that capitalists have a significant stake in.
I want to suggest to people reading this and picturing chaotic sky traffic with random crashes and cars crashing down onto the towns below... maybe give China a bit more credit than that? They're not stupid. They'd have to be monumentally stupid to grant public access to flying cars without a traffic plan.
Yeah, and that is also why recent Chinese history is a huge part of the education system from a very young age.