turns out fascists aren’t very good at logistics

Additionally, it’s worth noting that public sector controls the commanding heights of the economy in China. While these are not run as cooperatives, the purpose of work is the key difference. The goal of a private corporation is to produce capital for the owners. Meanwhile, public enterprise exists to produce things the society needs. The workers in public enterprises are the primary beneficiaries of their labor. Additionally, the state owns the golden share in all major corporations, and thus makes final decisions on how they operate. So, even private sector in China exists on a tight leash. I can highly recommend this video from Ben Norton explaining how Chinese economy actually works for people who are interested.

yeah the whole thing is obviously a hare brained scheme

Are you suggesting they wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that?

Oh I think it’s still a very real possibility, but it would be a truly desperate move on the part of the US.

The nuclear option is definitely a possibility, but it would be a disastrous move for the US to take. As Ted Postol explained in this interview, Iran already has sufficient material to construct atomic bombs. They don’t need any large facilities to do that, and they don’t need to test them ahead of time. This can be done in a tunnel with very little space. Around three atomics would basically end Israel, and they have enough material for around a dozen. The key part is that they can make them even after they’ve been nuked.

But even leaving that aside, using of nuclear weapons in an unprovoked war of aggression would make the US a global pariah. It would be politically impossible even for other western countries to associate with the US at that point. On top of that, this would expose the US army as being incredibly weak in practice. If they have to reach for their ultimate weapon after only a month of fighting that means the US has very little conventional power. Russia is on the fourth year of war in Ukraine and they haven’t had to resort to nukes.

The situation in Lebanon is very much dire though, and it seems like that’s gong to be up to Hezbollah with little support from Iran until the ceasefire collapses again.

We already know what will happen because we’ve already seen what happened during the tariff war. The reality is that American economy is entirely dependent on goods from China to function. If the Burger Reich gets too uppity then China will shut off the flow of treats. It’s really that simple.

Calling Ansar Allah rebels is kinda silly given that they’re the government that controls vast majority of the country. It’s the official government of Yemen.

no disagreement there

He acts as an accelerant to be sure, but same direction of travel would’ve been happening without him.

In a way, I find it preferable because he pulls back the curtain and shows the empire for what it really is. A more slick imperial asshole might’ve actually been smart enough to sell these atrocities in a way that western public would accept.

Trump is just the front man.

kind of ironic with the BBC being the UK regime mouthpiece

I think you may be overestimating how tethered to our shared reality Trump is here.

exatly

exactly

yeah I expect the negotiations are going to fail over the weekend

i imagine the Gulf states must be rethinking the whole arrangement now. They thought they were untouchable under the American umbrella, but now they see they’re in fact the ones who will be absorbing most of the damage from the war. And if the US can’t protect them, then making peace with Iran is the only way forward.

Absolutely, the whole premise was that nobody would have the audacity to fight the US directly. There is a famous poker saying that you don’t bluff someone who can’t fold. Iran couldn’t fold because their survival as a state depended on it. So Trump’s made the worst possible blunder, trying to bluff against an opponent with no exit and maximum stakes.

Aside from Iran starting to charge a toll and control traffic through Hormuz, this is the other most consequential outcome of the war. All the infrastructure that the US spent decades building is now useless. Iran proved that none of these bases were defensible, and they destroyed billions, if not trillions, worth of radars and other high tech equipment, not to mention the cost of building these bases themselves. The entire US position in the region has now collapsed, and there’s no going back to the way things were before.