A liberal who wouldn't recognize anything democratic if it were to bite them on the arrsse completely misses the ball on reactionary politics in a way that only a liberal could.
Remember - they didn't throw Martin Skhreli into rich-guy's prison because he caused thousands of people to die by raising the prices on lifesaving medicines out of reach of poor folk... no, no, no, they threw him into rich guy's prison because he embezzled some of his fellow rich parasites' money.
Political parties represent the interests of the wealthy - for a third party in the US to be successful, it would have to cater to a moneyed interest that the current "good cop/bad cop" routine doesn't cater to. As far as I can tell, the capitalist class in the US is perfectly happy with this duopoly - so no third party.
I'm afraid that a third party is no "silver bullet" - here in South Africa, we have a whole bunch of parties, and guess what... they still only end up serving the interests of the wealthy. Our largest two factions of political racketeers are neoliberals that will happily bend over backwards to sell South Africans out to foreign corporations, while the third-largest is literally just a front for a bunch of overmoneyed Zulu royalty - no surprises that our voter apathy is even worse than in the US.
Yes, the entirety of Vietnam - unless you think that there are plenty of Vietnamese who don't know or don't believe that Vietnam was invaded by China during the Cold War... twice.
As I've already said... China could help Russia logistically - but this help could disappear in a puff of hot air tomorrow. Again... China has no friends.
Modi just had a big state visit to Russia.
And this doesn't mean much in any way whatsoever.
I don’t need to ask Jonas Savimbi, I’ve been reading current events.
Actual history will tell you a lot more than warmed-over propaganda.
Good thing Russia isn’t making friends with China and India,
China has no friends - it's like the US in that regards. And India even struggles to project power within it's own borders, never mind outside it.
China could help Russia logistically, but Putin (and all of China's other "allies" - and I use that term lightly) understand fully well that China's "loyalty" can switch at any time - just ask Jonas Savimbi if you don't believe me.
You don't need to be some geopolitical genius to know that this assessment is correct - Russia simply doesn't have the economic and logistical power to engage in a wider European conflict with any prospect of success, and this was perfectly clear even before Russia invaded Ukraine and before everyone lost their minds to Putin-hysteria.
I remember this. They made such a big deal about the (supposed) "loose cigarettes" he was selling, and that made me think - they'll kill you for selling loose cigarettes... but sell a shipload of the stuff and you get to live in a mansion.
Considering that it came only two years after the Marikana Massacre here in South Africa, it probably broke the last bit of faith I had in liberalism. It didn't make me hate the police - at that point my hatred for them had already gone as deep as hatred can go.
TL;DR
A liberal who wouldn't recognize anything democratic if it were to bite them on the arrsse completely misses the ball on reactionary politics in a way that only a liberal could.