pretty much :)

The whole aspect of the imperial decline where they continue making wrong decisions based on the assumptions of their own superiority has to be the most hilarious aspect of the whole thing.

One thing I’d add here is to also set up backups from the start. It’s a life saver if you do end up borking your system somehow.

The war in Ukraine was one of the most consequential blunders for the empire because it led to a whole alternative economic system being established. And not only can’t the west weaponize it, it’s also completely opaque to the west removing the advantage western companies had being privy to trade flow data. I recall how for a while there were a whole bunch of articles talking about China’s trade slowing down, and then it turned out that they were based on SWIFT numbers. What was actually happening that China’s trade through the western financial system was being reduced.

exactly

You have to add material analysis to the mix here though. It’s not a war of wills, but of industrial bases and logistics. What we’re seeing is a broader economic war between the West and BRICS with Ukraine and Iran being the kinetic manifestations of the conflict. So, the real question is which side will be able to keep the war going longer. Will the west have sufficient production to keep up with the rate of attrition in the war. Russia has shown over the past four years that their industrial base is able to outproduce NATO militarily, and Russia is backed by China because it would be a disaster for them if Russia lost. On top of that all, the US is engaged in conflicts all over the world, and cannot devote all of its resources to Ukraine, while Europeans lack the industry and the conflict in Iran is making the situation worse.

So, what I think Putin is saying here is that the west is going to have no choice but to concede the war soon. There are numerous articles talking about the severity of the energy crisis that’s unfolding in Europe right now, and we haven’t even hit peak shortages. If Europe folds then the war is over.

A lot of the time, the goal for the US is simply to destabilize the region. Afghanistan is a great example because of where it’s situated. As long as it remained unstable, it precluded BRI expansion to West Asia and it was a source of terrorism in Xinjiang which fueled the whole Uyghur genocide narrative. So, the US doesn’t need to actually accomplish a regime change, they just need to keep the region at war indefinitely.

At this point, the whole world can see what happened though. There’s not enough lipstick for this pig.

Seems like countries aligned with Russia and China will be in the best position to weather the crisis. Meanwhile, the western bloc is headed for an economic disaster. As Lenin famously put it, every society is three meals away from chaos.

https://www.niradata.com/global-pulse-2026

Imagine once high speed rail is established across these routes too. At that point, it might be close to shipping in terms of volumes of goods that can be moved.

I don’t see how they get them back at this point. Even CNN has now showed that they’re completely flattened, so the rebuilding alone would take years even if the Gulf states agreed. It’s not even clear that the US has the technological capacity to build stuff like the radar arrays they had today. And ultimately what would even be the point given that Iran has shown they can destroy these bases any time they want. The whole security umbrella was premised on the idea that US could take out incoming attacks, but now everybody can see that they can’t.

I get the impression that Americans are still acting on the assumptions of being the indispensable economy and controlling the global financial system. But that’s no longer the case, and the only economic power the US has nowadays is being a large consumer market. However, as it goes into a recession the consumption drops which removes the only leverage the US still had.

Oh yeah the framing is hilarious, but the significance here is huge. What this comes down to is that companies and countries have to choose whom to do business with. Do they respect US sanctions or Chinese ones. And since China is a far more important trade partner for majority of the world, it’s pretty easy to guess which way most will swing. On top of that, as the article points out, we’re going to see more dedollarization as a result since the easiest thing to do will be to just transact in yuan and make it opaque for the US.

Seems like he’s just embracing it.

I mean most manufacturing happens in China, so all western companies have a ton of assets there.

It’s adorable they think that the empire cares about their needs. It’s genuinely incredible how each pawn of the empire thinks that they’re special, and that the same thing that’s happened to every other pawn could not possibly happen to them too.

What’s really interesting is that the quirk is only present if you translate to English. Other languages will give a more faithful translation. It’s as if they specifically didn’t want the anglophone crowd to see how homophobic Ukraine is.

In the office of the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kirill Budanov on the desktop noticed a red notebook with an interesting inscription.

It is reported by Babel.

Journalists visited the office of the official and showed what they saw there. Among other things, in particular, attention was attracted by a red notebook, which contained the name “List підорасів (gays) 2026”.

On the table there is also a large chessboard, you can also see the icon over his head.

Budanov in his office (Photo: Julia Weber/Babel) Budanov in his office / / Photo: Julia Weber/Babel

Before entering the reception room, say media, contains a photo gallery of Ukrainian presidents and heads of their offices, administrations and secretariats. Such a “Wall of Memory” appeared after the appointment of Budanov, the newspaper notes.

Among them are Dmytro Tabachnyk, Andriy Klyuyev and Viktor Medvedchuk, who were deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, as well as a photo of fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych, this is the principled position of Budanov himself. According to him, people should know the true history of the institution in which they work.

In the photo, which were published by journalists from the office of the head of the OP, you can also see a small drawing demonstrating the difference between the boss and the leader — that is, an example for subordinates. This is an image from Budanov’s previous office, when he held the position of head of the DIU and where the NV correspondent used to visit. A plaque that Budanov took from his previous office (Photo: Julia Weber/Babel) A plaque that Budanov took from his previous office / / Photo: Julia Weber/Babel

As NV journalist Maxim Butchenko told then, Budanov’s office as a leader was «“more like a museum than to the workplace of the chief military scout of the country.” “There was a place for a grenade on the table, and the map of the collapse of the Russian Federation already known to even the Russians, and numerous awards and diplomas, telephones, aquariums, miniature with the Snake Island, paintings and a photo portrait of the president of Ukraine,” the NV article about Budanov’s office back in 2023.

oh and that sure is a weird google translate quirk, not that the other version makes it any better

A Marxist-Leninist here as well. In my view, dialectical materialism is the best tool we have for understanding the world and social relations.