Thank you for your service!

100 % agree! I picked up those vibes too, like a vibe was building around justifying to not do anything. It used to be different, right? Everyone used to keep saying:"Get organized!"

And yes, everyone on hexbear who is physically and mentally able and has the necessary bare minimum of resources and time should at least try to get organized and/or contribute in some (not online only) way that fits them. There are so many unique, individual ways to participate. We just have to find ones that fit us long-term without getting burned out.

And of course moments like this should absolutely be used to agitate and to win more comrades and raise class consciousness and in the imperial core: to lower acceptance for imperialist wars. Even if the outcome is not revolution in the US, lowering acceptance for wars can harm hegemony enough to save literally millions of lives outside the imperial core. It worked for Vietnam.

Not American, but where I am, I often feel like, I've let things slide too. Only been to like two protests this year and not really active anymore in the orgs I'm in. I used to do more. I always feel guilty when I'm in a period where I do less politically and of course there are always good reasons. Point is, it's not about feeling guilty, it's about at least trying to go out there. Just this week I reconnected with a comrade and activated some friends and we'll go to some leftish/semi-lib Pro-Palestine protest soon and we'll see what we can do/who we can connect with.

someone very powerful in the Iranian power structure wants to wind down the proxy strategy and they're not above using Mossad to solve their problems for them

Isn't it contradictory to imply "someone" (who?) betrayed these military commanders by giving orders to the military (like to air defense to stand down)? If they could do that already, why go through this much trouble?

There would have been many easier ways to go about such a conspiracy, if we had any grounds to believe one existed, which I'd like to see.. Was there any evidence before of infighting escalating to the point normal legal and political means are exhausted? Domestic assassinations are not enough? Bringing in the revolutionary guard is not enough? Using Iranian secret services is not enough? No it has to be nothing less than a foreign air force, really? I'd like to see much more evidence before I believe that.

Chuds like the one quoted here always want to see infighting between what they see as "terrorist countries" and the prospect of a large, united and powerful country with an Islamic culture actually doing something might just be too much for them to conceive.

Ah, that's why I got some weird vibes from this talking about "random terrorists"and stuff.

Yes, that's when coal comes from. There were giant global fire storms, because of all the dead trees and also because there was more oxygen. The oxygen also caused insects to become gigantic. They don't have lungs, just random holes in their body so the airs oxygen content limits their size.

One lesson I took from the western student and protest movement against it is, that if possible, every group that mostly consists of newly politicized people, should be lead by Palestinians or at least by people from outside the imperial core. White western leftists can be enthusiastic about the anti-genocide cause too and can be a valuable addition to the group. But as leaders they often fall into one of two errors: taking too many risks or folding to quickly under pressure. The first is bad, because white people with citizenship have the privilege to come out of confrontations with the authorities much better, than everyone else. So they lack proper perspective. And the second is bad because it compromises our cause.

It's a general lesson for every movement: leadership should mainly include the most affected people (just like the proletariat has to free itself). They can best judge which risk to take and which point to press.

Also book clubs are less effective in introducing Marxist-Leninist ideology/theory to a group than just showing up, helping and talking to people.

Oh and negotiations (for example with city or university authorities) need to be public and on our ground (eg in the protestors encampment). If the people you send aren't trained negotiators, they need the support of the group or they will be pressured into needless concessions.

As always, it gets weirder, the longer you look. Is the left horse black or white? Or both? Why is it cut different then the other one? Why are the pieces behind the white ones black too?

Treat them more like cats, not like dogs. Don't look them in eyes, it makes them nervous. Or slowly look away on purpose, when they look at you. If you feed them, choose unsalted peanuts.

It was very clear, that the British Empire's days were numbered almost 200 years earlier. And it took two mayor wars for them to get the point. 1775-1783 and 1812-1815. The "great rapprochement" wasn't until 1895-1915. The US empire needs to catch on that it's over way faster than that, preferably without starting World War III.

That's the official reasoning even. They say it's to make the "defense" industry more independent. And whether planned or not, it increases the likelihood of global war:

A similar thing happened in the lead up to the great depression and World War II: faced with a recession, the ruling class turned to protectionism with the Tariff Act of 1930. With the very high tarrifs, the recession worsened into the Great Depression until World War II saved the economy by enabling mass employment.

War is great for the capitalist class, if they want to win some time against an economic crisis, because it's a way to have mass government spending without cutting into anyones profits. If value gets created by a not for-profit entity in any sector, profits go down, because businesses who need to make a profit can't compete. Capitalists love war, because it only destroys value instead.

It's the golden triple chance for profit: first accumulation by dispossession (taxes and austerity to finance the war effort flowing directly to weapons manufacturers), then imperialism (opening new markets, stealing resources), then restarting the production cycle (lucrative contracts for rebuilding efforts after everything is destroyed).

Leftists reaction to the tarrifs must be to shift organizing to focus more strongly on anti war efforts.

Yes, that's it. Class solidarity has historically been annoyingly high amongst capitalist both national and international and (whatever other effects), this might have the potential to further erode both at the same time.

Maybe it's about measurement, but also look closer, the change is not 2006, it's 2007. It's when the financial crisis related to the US real estate bubble hit. Also the x-axis is in percent. So it might just be, that the crash hit the regions harder, whose banks had invested most in the bubble: US and Europe. The apparent rise we see might just be production in the global south staying constant, while falling elsewhere.

Also China started huge investments, but I think most of that was at the end of 2008.

Edit: No, I was wrong. Looks like production shifted from medium skilled south to low skilled south. I have no explanation.

This would work inverted as well: "Yeah, I'm running a quick vibe check on the data to find out where the noise is coming from."