What is to say that the anti-imperialist Russian Federation will not simply take the place of the United States upon its defeat?

Historical and material reality.

The US didn’t appear as a magician on the scene out of nowhere. It invaded western Europe not to defeat Nazis but to ensure the survival of western European capital, under new management of course. With US troops and guns at their backs they were spared their people being liberated by socialism, in exchange fealty was given to the US.

Quite honestly the US is a product of and beneficiary of CENTURIES of European colonialism. Russia cannot reproduce that in a day or a decade.

The wealth, power, geopolitical control, cultural dominance and propaganda hegemony the US enjoys was built off those European empires, their looted wealth, and their influence. Was built off cooperation with the British who in the post-colonial moment of WW2 still had deep penetration of many societies, governments, etc.

Even assuming the US suffers a huge fall in a few years the lingering tendrils of its cultural influence and dominance will be fighting it out with Russian and Chinese influence for many years if not decades to come.

In other words Rome was not built in a day, the US did not morph magically into an omni-power empire in a year or a decade out of nowhere. And Russia cannot do the same.

Western Europe did not resist US imposition as it came as a rescue, they will likely resist joining with or being dominated by Russia to form a new bloc to subjugate the world.

One strong, all-powerful enemy or a bunch of enemies in disarray with shifting alliances, backstabbing, and various weaknesses and uncertainty. In the latter situation one can even bargain with imperial powers scrambling for influence a socialist in some cases because of their weakened state being but one of many smaller fish.

Saying the Iranians put themself in this position is ridiculous though.

I mean they didn’t put themselves in this position alone but they teased the monster by enriching uranium beyond their needs.

They don’t need 60% enrichment, not at the quantities they were making. Not for medical research or other bullshit I’m pretty sure. It was done as a middle finger to the west to kind of taunt them to get them back to the table and to get something like the JCPOA back. It was a negotiating tactic and an attempt to punish the west by saying “see, you break your deal, we’ll enrich far beyond our needs, now that we’re here at this mark you need to give us more concessions compared to when we were at that lower mark”. It was a bunch of “bad stuff” they could in theory trade to a west that doesn’t exist, the west that maybe existed in the minds of Iranian liberals in exchange for things they wanted.

That was a tease, it was insincere and a negotiating tactic most likely and a taunt against the zionists and the US who have been hounding them about getting nukes. It was silly to go half-way thinking they could negotiate with the west and it was a bluff clearly as they didn’t go the rest of the way.

And we can see from other Iranian actions they do other gestures like firing their oldest and most easily intercepted rockets at the Americans, warning them ahead of time as a “response” to US aggression and bombing them that they intone highly of “retribution” and god and blah blah blah but when the time comes they duck the war or striking back. They avoid doing anything that would seriously escalate the situation and alter the status quo they’ve had in tit for tats with the zionists for decades. They chose the off-ramp.

Fact is Iran blinked. It was probably the right move under the circumstances for their own situation (maybe not the world, probably not Palestine but who knows). They threatened the US not to get involved, the US punched them in the face and they did this purely propagandistic gesture of spitting at their feet and stomping off while declaring victory (while the US does the same).

So yes, in conclusion they put themselves in this position to be doubted as anything but a paper tiger with their moves as mentioned AND by not getting that nuke.

I have no doubt if the US starts a full on invasion of Iran they’ll respond but the US knows this and is content to manage it and knows what lines it can step up to and how to salami-slice. The zionists got Iran to stop firing missiles at them after all. Palestinians got nothing. Iran got a propaganda victory that’s transparent and empty.

To be fair the Iranians put themselves in this position by enriching uranium beyond their needs and teasing getting a nuclear weapon without ever getting one or intending to get one likely entirely as part of positioning themselves better for bargaining after losing JCPOA. So it wouldn’t be a first and this is why you shouldn’t act that way.

Happy birthday!

This is 100% for their planned war of aggression.

It’s not just kayfabe, it’s not just money for land mine manufacturers. It’s to provide a defense against a Russian counter-thrust after they drive NATO forces deep into Russia via a hole in this. That way they figure they can shape things via controlling where troops end up. Russia should 100% lay their own mine-fields in response because it’s impossible to know exactly where NATO forces are going to dismantle their own minefields in future to thrust through some armored columns. They should wait until after NATO does it of course so they look worse but make the mines now, get out the plans for razor wire deployments and signage to attempt to block off the mine-fields from wandering people.

Westoids are completely deranged about losing hegemony to China and multipolarity and are preparing a suicide-rush on Russia. That or they want to dissuade Russia from helping China when they commit 80% of their forces along with the US to attacking and containing China (and possibly attacking Russian shipping in the process thus giving them valid reason to respond).

The US is doing everything in its power to undermine MAD and nuclear deterrence in general. This doesn’t surprise me given how many more nuclear weapons the US has to China that they think they can and should use some in a conventional war. The logic being they afford to, it kills enemies that would weaken their conventional forces, and enemy use of the same would undermine their limited stockpile while US use wouldn’t matter to their deterrent. Still deeply alarming.

The mainland can obviously send far more missiles back and destroy their strike capacity. Russia does this in Ukraine all the time.

These are not rational actors. Neither is Ukraine. Both are and would be in this scenario run by liberal fanatics/fascist fanatics willing to burn their nation to a cinder for the US. Ukraine is illustrative of this point not really mattering per se.

Meanwhile, if the island is under blockade then the US trying to fly things in will be an act of war.

And targeting Russia’s nuclear triad and hitting their bombers with obvious help from NATO intelligence isn’t? The point is the west thinks rules don’t apply to them and given Russia hasn’t hit MI:6 with an oreshnik yet they seem to be right. In that they can do whatever they want and if you hit them back directly as long as they have a cover THEY themselves believe in no matter how flimsy for their actions they will fly off the handle into a genocidal self-righteous indignant rage. Russia seems to know this, China probably does as well.

I’m not saying the US wouldn’t do that, but at that point it’s a direct war with China for them.

Only if China chooses to and given Russia keeps blinking they may think China will as well and that they can unilaterally escalate while their foes will avoid it, giving them the advantage.

Also, the whole US strategy is predicated on China doing a ground invasion. Every naval battle the US simulated against China, they lost horribly.

Is it? I saw a story of the head of JSOC talking of naval drones and basically mining the whole straits, turning into a zone China cannot cross and using that time to do whatever they want including landing forces. I don’t think the US plans to send in their carrier battlegroups and fight on China’s front door. They are not that stupid and even if they were good strategy would call for assuming they’re smarter than that as one should never underestimate one’s enemy. They have island chains and have been building naval drones in secret for some time now so they can do over the horizon type fighting. Their point like with Ukraine is to bleed China, not to triumphantly plant the US flag but to bleed them, to hurt them, to study them and learn their secrets, to demoralize them, to force it to take longer and be costlier and to make it a big spectacle they can use to rally the western world against China around as this big travesty and atrocity.

I maintain given the US advantage, given island chains not just around China but those policing west Asia, Africa, etc and NATO’s combined naval sizes plus all the land bases and air assets they have that most likely they want to bleed China in the SCS, use it to justify decoupling, sanctions and an embargo and blockade and carry out that blockade off the coast of Africa, Diego Garcia, in the various straits using the zionist entity in west Asia, etc, etc. To draw China out, to spread them out, to hit them with combined naval and air assets and use the superior logistics and amounts of bases NATO has. By doing this they cross out the major advantage China has in the SCS with land-based missiles and rocketry and fight from the high-ground.

Just look at how the trade war is destroying the US economy right now. Imagine what happens if China explicitly cuts off exports to the US.

Which is why they’re so desperate to decouple. The bribes didn’t work and were pocketed, Trump is very clumsily trying tariffs. But when it comes down to it they might think they can force decoupling with a conflict when all else has failed. Sure the consumer economy would implode but I’m not sure capitalists and empire planners wouldn’t consider that and forcing the proles to a much lower quality of life as they work to re-shore an acceptable if painful cost of survival and maintaining hegemony.

A coup is not that unlikely either, some retired military people in Taiwan have openly talked about it already.

I really hope that happens but I wouldn’t count on it. I’m sure the island is filled with US spies and trained dogs and any coup would face a counter-coup of ferocious proportions with support from US assets in Japan and possibly those US special forces already on the ground.

I just worry most about the nukes flying. I hope this conflict doesn’t start until China has a chance to massively expand their arsenal and proof it against Aegis and ground and orbital interceptors.

I suppose the issue is the puppet regime there would likely respond to a blockade with military force. Not day one, maybe not even week one but eventually.

They have thousands of rockets trained on the mainland which they’d fire and rain down on the military and civilians alike in China to push the issue. Yes they’d eventually run out but the problem is the US would try to fly more in. Ships you can ram and get in the way of and blockades are therefore effective without needing to blow up a carrier, planes you have to shoot down and at that point it becomes a question of whether China would shoot down a US military transport plane and put itself in drawing first blood type of thing at which point you get American chuds hooting and baying for blood in response and liberals declaring we also must respond to “stand with Taiwan”.

Make no mistake the US does not intend to let the Taiwan card be only half played. They won’t let China quietly strangle it into submission with a blockade or sanctions, they will force the government to attack China and start a war no matter how doomed a position it puts them in because it lets them paint China as militarily aggressive and rally Europe and the anglo-sphere and their loyal Asian vassals to decouple from and sanction China in response with a purported cause they can blast to their populations.

Let’s also not forget the US has reserve currency status. They can spend as much as they like. Let’s recall the Berlin airlift where the Soviets cut off truck and land shipments into divided Berlin post-war and the US just responded by using its immense wealth and military and industrial and logistics might to just fly supplies in.

Frankly short of a coup by rational military generals in Taiwan who order the stand-down to save their lives and those of their countrymen I just don’t see a situation where the US doesn’t use Taiwan in a Ukraine style play. They won’t last as long but they really only need to hold out for a week of breathless western propaganda coverage and crying about evil China to get things done. After that it doesn’t really matter if they crumple and China doesn’t need to do a massive invasion because they’ll have drawn the blood they wanted and cast China as the villain and victimized Taiwan to do it.

Moscow says it won’t be pressured over Ukraine 30-day truce --RT

This is foolish. As foolish as Trump’s tariffs war. It’s trying to bully someone with a strong hand into a deal when they already offered you one. Trying to bluff them in a situation where if they call your position collapses entirely is foolish.

Trump is showing he truly is someone swayed by whoever talks to him last. Zelensky was instructed by psychological experts from western intelligence I’m sure just how to appeal to him at their last meeting.

Russia’s bottom lines have been the same since the start and the only change has been the addition of recognition of the eastern oblasts (which Russia within its own legal system incorporated as de jure parts of Russia (under Russian law)) as part of Russia.

I can only assume that this ceasefire is another Minsk agreement deception. They intend to attempt to force it, to re-arm and re-train and re-group Ukraine’s military so they can put more of their men into the meat grinder and stall a collapse of the front another 10 months. And quite frankly given all the talk from France and other members of sending in troops once a ceasefire is achieved of trying to push the envelope of the acceptable slowly until Ukraine is de-facto but not de jure part of NATO.

Trump is going to ensure the US gets very little or no minerals to plunder from Ukraine if Russia has to push through to the finish.

I also wouldn’t be shocked if Trump is testing the waters with this, says nothing and then when Russia pushes back hard he’ll claim he never agreed to that and attempts to leave Europe on the hook for it all.

So glad to hear that comrade! I wish you a speedy recovery. Don’t push yourself, give your body attention, take it easy and I’m sure soon this will be behind you.

I don’t suppose there’s a window you could sit by that might let some sunlight fall on you for a bit every day or so? Not the same as walking but it might be something, a half measure that might give you some of that, maybe a window you could crack open too to get that fresh air and some sunlight in and just sit there in it early morning or evening to get some of that experience.

I’m sorry comrade, I hope you’re able to find something that offers a measure of relief for this whole situation though I don’t have any ideas other than these I guess. I know personally just sitting outside for a bit at the right hours in good weather can be very refreshing and energizing even without the walking so I’m kind of hoping you might be able to find some solution involving a window and the right time of day.

It’s understandable but well I guess you can try to look at the bright side. Online connectivity means though you’re inside you don’t have to be trapped mentally, you can do so many things. I think just occasionally maybe looking out a window, looking up nature videos online, things like that might help. It’s hard but it’s best not to dwell too much on can’ts and what we can’t do but instead try to find cans we enjoy. I mean it’s bound to be tough and it’s natural I think to feel frustration and not be able to totally get over it or forget what’s longed for but out of reach for now. But you do what you can and try to find little pieces of enjoyment. Maybe try meditation with nature sounds or something. I wish I had more specific advice.

I’m sorry about all you’re going through. Have you considered trying to find some enjoyable social things to do online? Hexbear has movie and TV show watching nights every evening of the week for instance and there are all kinds of other activities from playing chess to chat rooms that don’t have to cost money.

I would avoid catastrophizing about what might happen with a condition. Instead just try and focus on doing what you can to take care of it within what you have and not overdoing it, don’t worry too much and find things to distract yourself with whether it’s reading a book or online activities with others. Try if you can to find little moments of joy or laughter in a comedy show or movie and do what you can. I really hope things go well for you and your appeal works out.

I feel for you comrade but I really must advise you that unless your parents are wealthy and willing to set you up you really need either a HS diploma or a GED. You can get GED’s online often. RV’s are expensive, even used ones cost a lot of money and there are maintenance concerns. The type of money you’re going to struggle to get without a GED or diploma.

I’d recommend if you think school isn’t for you that you get that GED, you find a trade, you get certifications in it or whatever and you start working on that path. I knew someone in a similar situation to yours, ADHD, only they lied about college not HS. They had dreams of van-life and things like that but didn’t do anything about it and though their parents let them live with them for a while what eventually happened is both retired, felt money was too tight and they moved away and left this person homeless. If they hadn’t had an uncle willing to take them in they would have been on the streets and in terrible danger but even so things are not that great for them.

So I’d highly recommend getting that GED since conventional school doesn’t agree with you and then picking up a trade. Because life will be sooo much better and easier for you if you do those two things and it’ll give you the money and ability to move away from your family and live how you want in a secure way that retail work (where you’re often not paid enough to survive and have to roommate up) just often won’t in many areas (especially heading into a trade war with tariffs where retail could crash). You’ll have so much more to fall back on than without them where you’re going to kind of be a leaf on the wind which can sound kind of romantic but for every great writer who has that kind of bumming around and bumping into success as a backstory there a thousand people who are suffering and stuck on the streets sometimes until they die who tried doing the same thing but failed and were abandoned whose stories are never told in our capitalist society. Don’t think the odds will favor you, take care of yourself, be safe but get a plan, find a trade, get a GED. It’s some work and pain now yes but it saves you a lot of work and pain later and for the rest of your life compared to trying to go without.

Looking at that list darkernations posted, pretty much everything there requires at least high school degree (or GED) and/or on top of that some certifications or community college.

They’re a cabal of pedophiles. And also what you said and they took Anakin because of that but usually take all kinds of kids under the guise of training them. CTH talked about this on and off throughout their 3 riff tracks for the movies.

Democrats didn’t introduce it. It’s a ballot initiative (submitted by private citizens) and the writers named it that but it’ll get a number instead if it’s voted on and if it becomes law it will be as prop #x.

Democrats are not that cool in California or anywhere.

Just typical reactionary distortion of California. Though this is not smart given how many reactionaries agree with what happened in NY.

It’s begging to be weaponized against LGBTQ people to push selective cases to push the narrative that they’re all like that, just as the Nazis had regular columns on “Jewish crime” to give the impression the Jews were all criminals. Or to be used as a cover. I think in Russia there were stings for gay people done along similar lines, filmed and they’d often accuse them of being child molesters, of being after kids which was the homophobic narrative there.

It’s a very sick individual-centered, glory-seeking approach to a problem which is fundamentally that capitalist cops don’t invest serious resources in this, are often predators themselves, etc because they don’t exist to protect the citizens but to protect capital. The solution then isn’t these individualist acts of violence and attempts at mob justice but collective action, not for views, not for clicks, not to portray oneself as some sort of hero but to actually tackle the problem. It’s also of course an issue of the family, of the lack of community involvement in each others lives which makes isolating kids easier. But that would require actual work, community-building, effort, it wouldn’t be dramatic, it wouldn’t stoke the egos of those involved, it wouldn’t sell on youtube, so nothing is done.

The west has been brewing fascism in Ukraine longer than most people on this website have been alive. Besides that those Banderite fascist militias aren’t going to all do suicide attacks on Europe or just give up and sit in their homes watching football.

They’re going to be fighting and they are organized, armed, trained, and still have ties to western intelligence which would likely want to prevent a communist take-over as communists would be against NATO, against the US and align with Russia, China, etc.

Some of these Hitlerite worshippers will put on business suits, act as liberals, tone down the use of swastikas and so on but still make sure to find time to use the resources of state or their old friends to beat up and murder any leftists gathering in numbers and this will be fully, emphatically supported by the EU and the US.

Most Ukrainian Nazis have not been killed. They are blocking units who retreat first and keep the conscripts fighting. They will be alive at the end of the war.

They’ve indoctrinated a whole generation of kids into Nazism in their schools and before that liberalism.

Besides that China is strictly non-interventionist. Russia, their big important ally would not at all be okay with them meddling and setting up socialism there right on their border nor is China in the habit of exporting revolutionary thought. They very much would like for the newly joined regions in the east to be solid voting blocks for Putin’s party of United Russia as they likely will be as Putin is the one who saved them.

The western parts of Ukraine have long had larger problems with fascist/nationalist sympathies as well as liberal aspirations. Very good chance they double down on fascism and stabbed in the back myth or just seek to become EU euro-liberal types thinking that’s the formula for success. Fact is the Eastern parts are already part of Russia as far as Russia is concerned and they were the ones with the strongest pro-Soviet nostalgia I would bet and probably with the strongest communist movements.

Russia would accept Indian peacekeepers. The west would find India more palatable and Russia has a long-standing relationship. India would also not mind showing up China which it sees as a rival power though I’m not sure that’s enough reason for them to agree to something like this given the target it might paint on their back among Banderites and other Nazis.

Russia truthfully would probably also accept a coalition of peacekeepers made up of multiple countries under a narrow UN mandate which seems plausible as a possibility. Likely in that case it would be a basket of Chinese, Indian, European, etc.

edit And if you think EU liberals are freaking out now about imminent war with Russia, they would find it completely unacceptable to have Chinese troops in their war-path. The US also would find Chinese presence unacceptable due to rampant sinophobia. Trump would sooner I think try and ram through Russian troops to act as peacekeepers than allow a Chinese military presence near Europe. He and the US empire leadership are kicking them out of civilian port ownership deals everywhere they can.

Prices of electronics would skyrocket (likely permanently for the west) and there would be shortages. The west would either cut off buying from fabs there immediately leading to a supply crunch or they’d blow them up also leading to a supply crunch but one impacting the mainland as well.