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It was pretty old, I think from the 50s or 60s.
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Yo I heard you like trains that go through snow…
That’s a Union Pacific Rotary Snow Plow. 17 feet / 5.2 meters tall. 150 RPM. It’s not self-propelled and had to be pushed by 4 locomotives. It was used in Wyoming up into the 1990s to cut 14 foot / 4.25 meter wide paths through the snow.
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This is why US politicians fought tooth and nail to get TikTok banned. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit et al do whatever the government wants to do to ensure the “wrong” information doesn’t get out there. The fact that TikTok is Chinese is irrelevant, it’s that TikTok doesn’t censor the views that the government wants censored.
Greenleaf
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None other than President Xi himself has emphasized the role of markets and downplayed the use of “central planning” in the Chinese economy. I think the state control of the banking system works hand-in-hand with this type of central planning (where there’s an overall strategic plan developed by the state and the plan is implemented in the market sector). It’s a fascinating model that I’m trying to learn more about (just downloaded Roland Boer’s Socialism With Chinese Characteristics)
Greenleaf
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Yeah Netanyahu’s claims are obvious BS
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ngl blaming RFK Jr on Russia just feels kinda lazy. The dude is just a brainwormed guy who has a bunch of incoherent views largely held together by conspiracy theories, like basically most of all Americans do. He was pulling votes from Trump so Trump gave him a promise that he totally won’t renege on, so he dropped out. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…
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I don’t think he had to step down because of polling on his Gaza policies but I also think (respectfully) you are overthinking this. Biden was incredibly unpopular for a whole host of reasons - less popular than LBJ when he dropped out because he was unpopular. The debate performance was bad. And every time he’s spoken in public since it’s clear he is degrading fast. I can’t imagine how incoherent he will be by Election Day. I really don’t think he will live to finish out his term. Keeping him in the race would have been a certain loss, literally any other party democrat would have given them a better shot so he was forced to step down. I don’t think it’s more involved than that.
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All US client states in the region only have the individuals at the very top - kings, some of the national bourgeoisie - who are allied with the US. The overwhelming majority of the people despise the US. Not a stable situation for an ally. The client states also have their own allegiances and enemies across the region. Those entanglements make unilateral action harder. Israel is a completely foreign entity to the region without any sort of entanglements - everyone hates them. And as you have seen over the last year, these clients have to tread very carefully with their own populations in terms of being seen openly helping the US. Israel has a population that is bloodthirsty and loves it when their military causes death and destruction in the region.
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Thank you, I suspected that I was being far too generous to the west.
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The Beam has fried this guy’s brain.
(I do have a soft spot for this lib, his older novels are pretty great ngl)
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I largely agree with you. I just finished reading Socialism Betrayed (great book, highly recommend it). That book’s thesis is that the major contributor to the collapse of the Soviet Union was the development and growth of a “second economy” - economic activity outside of official channels that could either be legal, illegal, or something in between. The growth of this second economy led to the development within the USSR of an entire social base of individuals with a material interest in seeing the overthrow of socialism. A base about which not only did the CPSU do nothing about, but actually many party members were deeply entrenched in this “second economy”. The book cites a quote from someone who stated that there was NO illicit enterprise in the USSR that would have lasted a month without support from someone in the party.
China is not the topic of this book, but the authors do spend a page or two commenting on what is an obvious question: if this is what helped undo the Soviet Union, what does that mean for China, who has a more legal but vastly larger second economy? The authors express concern and maybe even a bit of skepticism, but not outright criticism (and keep in mind, they were writing in 2004 and in the last 20 years quite a few western Marxist have changed their views on China, like David Harvey).
Reading between the lines, I think they are saying it could work, but what we’ll call Dengism is a very risky move. You have a massive social base in China of people who may very much like the CPC, but also very much like their ability to own a business and get rich. People who will revolt against any strong measures to curtail these markets. In the USSR, this social base saw socialism as a hindrance to their potential. In China this same social base faces no real limitations on their material advancement, so they have no reason to rock the boat.
Long way of saying, I think “boiling the frog” is the only move the CPC can make. And actually, if that’s the move the CPC wants to make I think they will be successful. The bigger question to me is, is that actually what the CPC wants to do? Even talking about the CPC as if there is one voice is a mistake. I’m sure this is the direction Xi would like to go in, but there are also plenty of liberals in the party (IIRC the #2 in the party is a huge, unabashed lib). The party itself is very opaque when it comes to things like this, but I do think it is NOT a foregone conclusion that the dedicated Marxists in the party will win in the end. Boiling the frog I think will work but the party itself needs to be committed to that line, which I am not sure they are there yet.
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This was the path that was open to them in 2014. Arguably, it’s the path most Ukrainians wanted. That big economic deal that Yanukovich tried to make with Putin would have kept them neutral, because they had to make a deal with someone and Putin was more interested in keeping Ukraine away from NATO than pulling them into Russia’s orbit.
But that was unacceptable to the US and NATO. So they fanned the flames of Maidan, which in itself led to tremendous division in Ukraine. And when Ukraine was looking to make a deal to end the conflict quickly, that’s when Boris Johnson came by with either threats or lies (or both) to keep them fighting. For any Lemmy libs who may wander in here, that is why I give my critical support to Russia in this fight. In no way is some inevitable, ancient conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In fact, every time Ukraine has had a chance to pull the car over to side of the road, the US has been there to jerk the steering wheel back and step on the gas.
Death to America.
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He was also managing the empire before the era of neoliberalization. From the Great Depression up until the 1980s, it was generally understood and accepted among the powerful regardless of party affiliation that you have to intervene in the market. There was no interest in laissez-faire libertarian capitalist, in the US that only came about with Reagan.
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Also ignored everyone who said “don’t go along with Elise Stefanik’s little congressional university president witch-hunt”, much less totally debase yourself in front of her. They will not see you as one of the “good ones”, they will just smell blood in the water.
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The most far-reaching price controls in US history were initiated by noted communist Richard Nixon…
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Incidentally this applies 100% to Israeli settlers, too.
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I started by looking at a James Lindsay tweet, and then spent waaay too much time reading the replies, and then going down too many rabbit holes of seeing profiles of boomer MAGA weirdos with the worst takes on communism you can possibly imagine.
Americans brains are so deeply broken. They are convinced there’s some massive conspiracy, led by the Democrats and noted communists like George Soros to bring about a communist revolution, which apparently is going to happen definitively if Trump isn’t re-elected.
I don’t know why it bugs me as much as it does.
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It’s 100% faked.
www.theguardian.com
An article about how in the GDR a state-owned firm developed a damn-near unbreakable glass. Of course as with most other industries in the GDR, the plant got bought out by western interests and stripped for parts. We’re told it’s because “socialism is inefficient” but this is a good example of how that’s bullshit - the commies made something of such high quality it was deemed “unmarketable” because retailers wouldn’t have more repeat purchases of people who broke their glasses. Not even because they were too expensive! As the article states these glasses were ubiquitous across the GDR. The article is mostly free a brainworms except one odd digression where the author states that no one knew who the glass designers were because in the GDR they valued the collective over the contributions of the individual. Hey, without Googling, can you tell me who came up with idea for Yeti mugs? Or the Stanley cups? Just a weird point to make, like in any society people have any clue who is designing fucking *drinkware*.
Based on the coconut tree from which I fell, my IRL social circle skews heavily towards white, conservative evangelical and Catholic types. I also have an unhealthy obsession with following these same politically conservative white evangelical individuals and groups on social media. And what’s surprising to me is, since shortly after Oct 7, it seems that the overwhelming opinion of relatively younger (let’s say under 40) people in this demo is at least some sort of soft anti-Israel opinion. The boomers, they still have that Fetterman-esque love for Israel. But younger conservatives… I usually see opinions about how we shouldn’t send Israel any more money, or acknowledging that Israel is committing a genocide. And it seems like it’s the overwhelming opinion from young conservatives, too. I’m sure there’s plenty of younger conservatives that do support Israel, but anecdotally that group feels very small. That’s not to say I’m seeing a lot of *pro-Palestinian* sentiment, because I’m not. That’s probably a bridge too far for them. Also probably related to the fact that most Americans are just so incredibly ignorant about what goes on in other parts of the world, they can’t formulate full thoughts on these issues. For months now, I’ve been all geared up to argue with anyone I know IRL who supports Israel. But it’s just never happened. Either people care or have any opinion one way or another, or they are critical of Israel. Not what I was expecting. I wonder if AIPAC and Israel realize just how much they’ve lost younger Americans, probably for good (not that they care, they’ll just keep buying off American politicians).
To which I say… bring it on! While I know the attack will be nothing more than red baiting, it would amazing if people actually started looking into what he’s actually been writing about and saying. My understanding is that he’s a Marxian economist and not, say, a Marxist philosopher or whatever. And - much like Marx himself - Kamala’s dad is far more focused on critiques of actually existing capitalism than how to bring about communism. Hilarious if the GOP starts to make the campaign about him, then people actually see what he says and then they’re like “hang on a sec, let him cook this stuff he’s saying about how the economy actually works makes sense to me.” Edit: I added the quotes around “has a Marxist dad” in the title because, now that I’m doing some research, I don’t see anywhere where he’s self-identified as a Marxist. It appears he uses Marx’s analytic tools and speaks highly of Marx, but I also wouldn’t want to put words in his mouth. There are plenty of academics in economics and other fields like history and anthropology who think highly of Marx and apply his methods but wouldn’t consider themselves Marxists.
Not exactly a revelation to Hexbear users but it’s a shower thought I just had. Death to America.
I already run, but I would like to incorporate some total body strength training. Just to stay health and build enough strength to be able to stay fit and limber. I’ve got that “Homemade Muscle” book that seems to be what I’m looking for, but want to see if you all have any recommendations. I’m also trying to figure if there’s some low cost equipment I should add that would help. Like those variable weight dumbells, I think I could afford those. But a full set a weight plates is well beyond what I can afford.
Obviously it wasn’t like those child emperors wielded any power whatsoever. They were just a sieve by which whatever the rich and powerful wanted would happen. I was thinking about how Trump himself isn’t “dangerous”. He’s a moron who doesn’t actually care about anything policy-related. But it’s specifically because of that, he simply enacts whatever the capitalists pulling the strings in the GOP want - and no doubt, the GOP’s agenda is *awful*. Of course, that doesn’t make Biden any different. The man clearing has pudding for brains now. It’s obvious Nuland was and Blinken now are running the show in foreign policy. And even if there’s a different group of capitalist who support the Democrats, ultimately what they want is largely the same as the GOP capitalists. Good times up ahead…
I’m in the fortunate and privileged position of having some very long term friends in my life. Unfortunately, we’re now spread across the country. We’d like to try and keep our social connection by playing a TTRPG over zoom or something. I have never played a TTRPG before. I really got into Disco Elysium and that’s got me interested in TTRPGs. Other friends have been interested for years but no one’s bothered to try and organize something. So all of us have zero experience with running an actual game. And no one to guide us through it who has experience. I’m looking for recommendations for a TTRPG for us get started on. Needs to work over Zoom. I’d say the most important aspect is that it’s fun and social. “Fun” sounds like an obvious one but the reality is I have one shot to make playing TTRPGs “stick” with this group. If my friends don’t have a great time with it we’ll probably not play after this. Happy to answer any questions about myself or my group that would help you come up with a recommendation.
I don’t know. I look at the evidence and details from the trial… and idk. I trust my fellow Hexbears have good, informed opinions on this. Honestly same question about Tukhachevsky. If anything I’m probably more inclined to think he was innocent than Bukharin.
I heard Engels gets some things wrong like applying dialectical materialism to the natural sciences (which Marx didn’t agree with) but overall it’s pretty good?
“bUt TrUmP WiLL tUrN AmERicA fascist” Don’t care, we’re already there anyway and the Democrats were the junior partners in making this place a fascist hellhole anyway. I literally do not care what happens to this country anymore. We deserve sooo much worse than 9/11. If there’s a god then this country deserves divine judgement. Death - and I cannot emphasize this enough - to America. I will vote for anyone who promises to stop American imperialism. But since that describes precisely no one in either of the two major parties, I guess I’m not voting for any of them then.
m.youtube.com
Damn, girl’s hella talented.
Claiming you want to see the downfall of the CPC is akin to wishing for the deaths of all 1.4 billion people: Reverse uno card on all those “criticizing Israel is antisemitic” freaks.
I kinda don’t like this meme because Garak is cool and the IOF-satzgruppen is incredibly evil.
Thought this was an interesting analysis, though I think it needs to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt (I think it’s power is what is qualitatively describes rather than precise numbers, and I think the author might even agree with me). I’m always on the lookout to see it quantified how much the average American benefits from imperialism. My guy says if the US was unable to exert hegemony, the US would experience *at least* what Russia experienced in the 90s. These numbers align with that; and this is only talking about dollar hegemony and not, for example, the US using military pressure, sanctions, or other methods for extracting cheaper resources and goods from the global south. That said, I’m not sure you can just run a regression and get your answer. I don’t see how you can isolate the US losing dollar hegemony without it then creating an uncountable number of secondary effects. All this stuff is deeply interconnected. But that said, I think this does a good job of highlighted at least in a qualitative sense just how much Americans benefit from dollar hegemony, and how losing that would be huge problem for the US economy.
My single issue is “anti-genocide”. I wonder which party is more anti-genocide 🤔
Can’t find the year it was painted. 
The girl’s mother and her sister were also murdered in the same attack on Khan Younis. Reminds me of [this photo](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4261858) from 20 years ago.
As always, Death to America 
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