elias posted:anyway this actually falls in line with the USG’s feelings in 1979, which welcomed the soviet invasion of afghanistan. they were only overjoyed that the soviets had done something so stupid.
So stupid that by 1984, the US & co-backed contra forces had gotten into such a bad position that US press reported that the Soviets had all but won, and it took bottomless funding and a huge counterrevolutionary global crest to finally topple the Afghan government three years after Soviet withdrawal (and one year after the overthrow of the USSR and much of the socialist bloc).
Obviously now that the former USSR is flooded with heroin, with Russia having the highest rate of injecting users in the world (and the third highest new HIV cases annually), we can say from atop our Forever War: Wow, they sure were stupid to fight THAT inevitability! They probably shouldve let imperialism overthrow the popular Afghan government and set up a deeply reactionary forward operating base right on its border..
Anyway, its time to go think about my friends who died from Afghan heroin here in the US lol
Crow posted:elias posted:
anyway this actually falls in line with the USG’s feelings in 1979, which welcomed the soviet invasion of afghanistan. they were only overjoyed that the soviets had done something so stupid.
So stupid that by 1984, the US & co-backed contra forces had gotten into such a bad position that US press reported that the Soviets had all but won, and it took bottomless funding and a huge counterrevolutionary global crest to finally topple the Afghan government three years after Soviet withdrawal (and one year after the overthrow of the USSR and much of the socialist bloc).
Obviously now that the former USSR is flooded with heroin, with Russia having the highest rate of injecting users in the world (and the third highest new HIV cases annually), we can say from atop our Forever War: Wow, they sure were stupid to fight THAT inevitability! They probably shouldve let imperialism overthrow the popular Afghan government and set up a deeply reactionary forward operating base right on its border..
Anyway, its time to go think about my friends who died from Afghan heroin here in the US lol
hey don’t take my word for it, take the soviet politburo’s, several months before the occupation:
Andropov: Comrades , I have thought this issue over very thoroughly since yesterday and have concluded that we should consider very, very seriously whether it would make sense to send troops into Afghanistan. The economy is backward, the Islamic religion predominates, and nearly all of the rural population is illiterate. I do not think we can uphold the revolution in Afghanistan with the help of our bayonets. The idea is intolerable and we can not risk it.
Gromyko: I fully support Comrade Andropov’s view that we should exclude the dispatch of troops to Afghanistan. The Afghan army is unreliable and our army would become an aggressor. With whom will it fight? With the Afghan people! Our Army would have to shoot them! To be blunt, the Afghan leaders have made many mistakes and haven’t got the support of their own people.
Regarding that problem I highly reccomend Vincenzo Cuoco’s Historical Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, which charts both the disastrous missteps and nobility of an attempt to create a republic with a very narrow social base in alliance with France.
elias posted:it tells you that soviet brass suspected what history would soon bear out: the pdpa leadership was sclerotic, with a very limited social base of support (centered mostly in kabul) and as a consequence the counter-insurgency would be brutal and legitimately unpopular. and that's with a large plurality of afghans, not just the reactionary islamist contras, who, like crow alludes to, weren't armed with the most serious weaponry until the mid-80s. this wasn't exactly a repeat of the liberation and bolshevization of the central asian soviet republics here, the soviet occupiers and their partners in kabul were not quite so sensitive. and why would they be, when the leadership of the cpsu itself was so uncommitted to leninism at home anyway?
So you're a glass half empty kind of guy.
ghostpinballer posted:i am 70% sure trump will be reelected, but I’m somewhat impressed at the success of the dem strategy thus far. it seems to be to shift as little as possible on key issues and hope disgust with trump nudges the tide in their favour. they’ll hopefully ride a wave of meh into 2020, and imo winning the presidency while offering nothing is pretty bold and deserves respect. “not trump” is their entire sales pitch, and people seem to be responding with a resounding, "yeah, sure, i guess". party unity is good. warren running will probably split whatever constitutes the left vote on the blue side of the business and war party, thereby enabling POC centrist candidate beto o'rourke to bring everyone else together around some platform of means tested hope and opportunity. this should delay the undiluted fascism of whatever trump 2.0 is lurking in the republican camp for at least four years. good for the democrats. i am looking forward to an exciting campaign season in which the candidates sportingly duke it out for the greater good of the united states of america. a twitter account and suicide pills are a must this time around.
cory booker is the centrist poc. beto o rourke is, as i think politico cheerfully put it, “obama, but white”
or maybe Bernie wins, I see a lot more potential for vote splitting in the center than on the left. he could run the Dem 2020 primary exactly like Trump ran the 2016 GOP primary. god knows how a soc-dem US president with almost no legislative support turns out tho (probably real poorly)
ZTE is a giant foreign telecom company that's close with the Chinese govt. They've violated serious U.S. sanctions on Iran & N. Korea. Their lobbyists keep blocking accountability. And today former Senator @JoeLieberman joined them. Should that be legal? No.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 3, 2019
“Raytheon’s vision about making the world a safer place and the Girl Scouts vision of making the world a better place couldn’t be more well-suited as partners.” Learn how we're teaming up to get more girls interested in careers in STEM fields: https://t.co/8gxPWYCsDO pic.twitter.com/6Kjfco8NcH
— Raytheon (@Raytheon) July 23, 2018
I can’t wait for drone operation badges and trophies for best sonic weapon design.
cory booker is the centrist poc. beto o rourke is, as i think politico cheerfully put it, “obama, but white”
i know, i was trying to do an irony bcos libs have been saying "no more white men" for 2 years and then a couple of leftish women of colour get elected last year and suddenly the same libs are saying "beto is the future of american politics" without skipping a beat, and it has very "bill clinton os the first black president" vibes to it all.
ghostpinballer posted:clinton os
pros: easy to install, compatible with all major corporate software, slick interface, huge userbase and lots of available support.
cons: giant gaping security holes, inexplicably hostile to common free software standards, tracks everything you do and sells the data to anyone, uses most of your resources to bitcoins for Goldman Sachs whenever it thinks you wouldn't notice
swampman posted:ZTE is a giant foreign telecom company that's close with the Chinese govt. They've violated serious U.S. sanctions on Iran & N. Korea. Their lobbyists keep blocking accountability. And today former Senator @JoeLieberman joined them. Should that be legal? No.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 3, 2019
i am in support of politicians just saying things shouldn't be legal though. more of that.
i think warren will probably get the nomination, her discourse appeals heavily to the declassed and declassing former and transitional labor aristocracy. not just that, but her brand of capitalism, at the expense of the oppressed colonial nations, actually does have a material appeal to them, they will benefit from her presidency. so rather than choose naked fascism some are going to want to go for social fascism instead, imperial social democracy at least feels and looks better to a lot of people. unity with empire needs to be reinvented, in the eyes of a lot of the bourgeois elements of the ruling class, because they worry that unrestrained empire a la Trump will lose the assent of their subjects.
The government shutdown is causing difficulties for Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government broadcaster. A source told me that "RFA will not be able to pay employees after the end of the month." (thread).
— Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) January 17, 2019
Parenti posted:what kind of dumb name is isaac stone fish? who the hell is called fish, that's just moronic.
sounds native to me, google suggests it's Lenape, sorry to spoil your fun
thirdplace posted:Parenti posted:what kind of dumb name is isaac stone fish? who the hell is called fish, that's just moronic.
sounds native to me, google suggests it's Lenape, sorry to spoil your fun
Okay sure, but what the heck kind of fish is made of stone. It would sink
Petrol posted:what the heck kind of fish is made of stone
otolite is a very pretty mineral growth found in fish auditory system and used as a gemstone after it washes up on the beach.
