For the full record.
Arthur Dent deliberately set out to wreck this site early in 2016 and considering it was on life support at the time this was easily achieved.
Actually Arthur had for over 4 decades conducted himself in exactly the same manner over numerous projects that (with a couple of exceptions) inevitably drew in fewer people on more or less each round. I may get around to demonstrating the ‘when and how’ of this, but I can’t do so now but it’s important that such conduct be documented for when the next upsurge causes revolutionary youth to research what went wrong with past efforts. It ought to interest people who eventually land on the open honest and above-board square, after they discover how important revolutionary democracy really is and how serious some very few Australian self-declared Marxist-Maoist were about it.
The reason that I have kept posting to this ‘dead’ site is simply to keap a public record ‘diary’ of my thinking. It’s to hold myself to account. All the old blogs like this site have by now moved on and most did so many years ago. The trend has been for many years to VLOG. But that discussion and development slipped by as we few theoreticians stuck to the task of producing theory fit for our times. This was achieved best by those involved in Strange times at the previous site Lastsuperpower nevertheless it then continued at Strangetimes.
‘We’ older comrades probably have one last significant contribution to make based on an ongoing exposure of the pseudo-left and a restating of democratic revolutionary credentials that have currently vanished from the public space thus leaving the field open to all the green/woke/peace-nick poison that the disinterested masses incorrectly take to be the loony left. They may be loony but there is nothing left about these mostly feeble-minded forces.
Our failure was not in concluding that we had entered an unusual period where theory was primary, but in not then realising that when we did get the new theory it had to go back into practice! This is particularly startling over the Iraq issue where our correct theory of ‘Drain the swamp and there will be no more mosquitoes.’ is now hardly noticed. Since Hitchens died it’s almost vanished from the public discourse. The idiot view that the Iraq war was a disaster and similar to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is now common and that is what our practice ought to have been directed at as a No1 priority of all manner of practice that people ought to have immersed themselves in. Just as peoples health suffers if they don’t do some exercise so our production of more theory was and is harmed without a practice track to our work.
The current youth and older activists, right across the western world that are stirring particularly in response to the vicious actions of the Zionists in slaughtering the Palestinian people and the idiocy in response by the political forces of the ruling elites, most notably in the Anglo sphere that’s been exposed as a result, are having to rediscover all manner of issues that people who were once associated with this site and all its forerunners are in a position to make useful contributions to are NOT. The absence of useful ongoing practice has harmed the struggle for theory. Theory was only ever primary till we got some useful new theory to test in practice and we regularly got that some new theory decades ago!
Over the last 5 weeks ending 31 May there has been a very big uptick in the reported UAF stats re Russia; with the average daily loss of personal running at 1249! The 5 weeks prior to that saw an average of 835. People who have not noticed this are not following this war anywhere near closely enough to ‘get it’. The bottom line is that the summer fighting season is well underway, and the Russians are in all manner of trouble.
The dramatic uptick has also been apparent across all the other reported items and the failure of the northern Russian offensive has been obvious. This failure was easily predicted despite all the carry on from quite a few in the MSM and most of the usual suspects on SM platforms when it broke. The 30-50,000 Russian troop buildup on the norther border had been well reported and the attack was expected as was its failure and the price of its failure hence the uptick in stats is not any sort of departure from what reality ought to look like! We are getting the big picture delivered in the daily stats.
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=E33161B435D127BA%21115352&ithint=file%2Cxlsx&authkey=%21AIUgFlGIk8-n1hM
Naturally ‘all the usual caveats apply’ to the DATA supplied by the UAF, but much of this is almost self-evidently happening as a result of the UAF getting up every morning in these better hunting conditions and going ‘Russian hunting’ in this more target rich environment. This is what the next level ‘new’ drone warfare that we are watching is all about. The UAF is better placed to take advantage of the new style of warfare that they are inventing! They are the best in the world at this fighting. The difference between WW1 and WW2 was revealed long before France was over-run but only to those that were paying close attention. We are now seeing the destruction of the Russian imperialist armed forces. This is the greatest gift to NATO and other western countries that could ever have been given. NATO was designed for one purpose only and that was to defeat the USSR (forget about its revolutionary past, that ended with certainty on Stalin’s death in 1953) but whatever one thinks of the revolutionary period of the Russian revolution and the creation of the USSR the ending of the USSR presented NATO with the stark enemy of Russian imperialism. What the likes of Mearsheimer thinks of as eternal great power self-interests or some such rot. IMV what we are witnessing is a nailing down of the lid on the coffin of imperialism. Unfortunately, there will be many more nails required because our ruling classes and ruling elites are such slow learners; I wrote about the non-viability of imperialism in the 21st C in about 2006 (I can’t find the article currently) and this now requires a review. I’m still of the view that it’s not viable but I have to admit that the west is being led by such appalling weak liberals in the likes of Obama, Biden etc and that’s brought on a consequent move in response from the openly anti-democrat ‘authoritarians’ and the alternates like the populists of the Trump sort who send me into headshaking that matches the woke drivel from the liberals! Good thing the West is now so powerful and that the first open aggressor that had Great Power status was the feet of clay Russian gangster regime of Vlad the Audacious Czar of all the Russians beloved by the Russian Orthodox church no less. What a great lesson for all the worlds dictators this would be, were it not for the blatant double standard of the western toleration of Zionist slaughter in pursuit of the failed imperialist undertaking of the War for Greater Israel! A 6-day war no less!
The masses can be forgiven their widespread confusion, and ‘they are all as bad as each other’ attitudes given what is being served up for all in 2023-24 and people will have to learn to walk and chew gum as they say because the next decade has all the Rumsfeld-ion problems both built in and still to surprise us.
Despite these good current results, this war will go on for quite some months more or less like this till the F-16’s start to add their effects as yet another layer. We are only 2.5 years into what I thought would take 5 to win. And I have to remind myself that I am by nature an eternal optimist.
We can be sure that the fighting will run into the US election now looming as a not so distant known known with unknown but known possible consequent subsequent ‘puzzlements’.
Leaving aside whatever we don’t know that we don’t know we ought to at least know that the current strategic focus of the war has swung to what it was ‘all about’ in the long distant first place and that is Crimea. Even if the deluded tyrant Putin mistakenly thought it was about something else and launched the war on the basis of his delusions nevertheless it has now become distilled and focused on keeping or losing control of this pivotal oblast! The other 4 constitute the required land bridge to this ‘power projection peninsular’ that requires Ukraine water and so forth to actually be viable.
I suppose we can say it was a good thing Putin did make this blunder or he may have got away with years more terrorist activity hiding behind his ‘I’m so powerful’ bluff. Right now, some of the Russian elites are having the deck chairs rearranged but that can’t help with any current offence, and it will not change where this war is going to be fought out to a finish. The southern front is NOW the focus and the UAF are slowly getting a new battlefield shaping result from their efforts.
The next 6-7 months are going to set conditions for what looks increasingly like a 2nd Trump term. The UAF must already realise they have to move mountains to ‘set the stage’ for when/if a new Trump Admin takes control and if he does not win then they are no worse off! In short prudence requires the UAF and political leadership to plan for what could be a worst-case scenario come next January!
If the UAF make good progress and Trump both comes to a 2nd term and yet still can’t see what is blatantly in US interests and goes thru with his foolish (unspecified peace initiatives that ‘will end the war in 1 day’), then the EU+ could then step up and ensure a Ukrainian victory even effectively without the US.
-if thus required as a result of a Trump US pull back (and this would amount to a betrayal of any western values-
But the US ruling elites despite their huge internal splits would not like to be seen to be on the sidelines when the European powers brought forth a Ukrainian victory and so if that looked like being the emerging case (as IMV it already does) then the US under ‘the art of the deal’ rules would most probably return to throwing US weight behind the Ukraine/European/others effort.
After all it really is ‘good for all western countries that China gets the memo that starting a war is not good for anything’. Everyone ought to feal in their bones that the pathetic west is nevertheless still powerful but grows quick when forced to fight!
I just shake my head that Biden and Trump are what is on offer for this next round and hope for a surprise to break the spell. Then I look around and see all the others and know I’m dreaming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McQ0oUfRBh4 This requires a detailed response.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6DI5bwrq8
Joseph Lindsley – Ukraine is Showing NATO how to do NATO, in Defending the Bleeding Edge of Freedom. Interesting thinking that points to revolution. Messy stuff looking for the bigger picture. The situation is one of ‘good v evil’ and Ukraine will win because they will fight harder and pay a bigger price for victory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxwcSLAsPwo good basic undertanding that was never fooled by the Putin lie of Russian oppression see Steve Owens take on the 2013-14-15 struggle for the detail.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=michael+shellenberger+website&mid=4BBFBD176C1642F81BEB4BBFBD176C1642F81BEB&FORM=VIRE
He’s got it, and this is why despite my thoughts from 3.5 and 4 years back Trump looks like he will win!
I’m very torn by this prospect. Ukraine will have to persuade Trump that it really is in US and his interests to see the Russians defeated. And as for the war for greater Israel well if this is what winning looks like after near 60 years.
‘Talk back to the alarmism!’ is about right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBEc-A98acY
Jul 6, 2024
Renowned US author and analyst, Chuck Pfarrer, a former squadron leader of SEAL Team 6, explains why Russia is continuing to fail in Ukraine and is struggling to advance despite all of its recent reinvigorated efforts. Pfarrer points out the many signs that Russia has neither the strategic nor tactical ability to execute complex missions. Russia, time and again, fails to make significant headway in Ukraine and is facing increasingly hostile troops unwilling to become cannon fodder.
Pfarrer, who has advised the “full alphabet soup” of US national security agencies and is a leading figure in the analysis of the war in Ukraine, is a new special correspondent for the Kyiv Post. Here, he explains why Russia’s losses so far have been disastrous and why an abysmal summer awaits the Kremlin. Russians soon to be mobilized should not delude themselves with fantasies of victory: Like nearly all of the Russian soldiers who participated in the initial full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the newbie Russian troops will be heading straight to the meat-grinder.
After his service in the US Navy, Pfarrer served public and private sector clients as a military and counter-terrorism contractor and non-proliferation expert. Pfarrer has written extensively on counter-WMD proliferation and gray zone operations. He has written an op-ed for the New York Times and the Knight-Ridder Syndicate and has appeared as a writer and counterterrorism expert on CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Fox, CSPAN, NPR, Voice of America, Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, IPR, and America tonight.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Ukraine’s secret operation in Russia
02:23 How Russia missed its best opportunity.
06:26 Which weapons does Ukraine require now?
07:49 Do the Russians realize what a bad situation they are in?
10:15 What should we expect in the coming months?
11:44 Do you think the Russians are sincere in calling for negotiations?
14:20 Thank you
More stories on our site: https://www.kyivpost.com
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/KyivPost
Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KyivPost
David posted the following on his new Substack
Platform Suggestions for a Bona Fide Left
DAVID MCMULLEN
JUL 06, 2024
Preamble
When a genuine left finally emerges it will have nothing in common with the present masquerade. Below I look at its position on three matters of particular importance, namely, the working class or proletarian revolution, the battle for democracy and the pressing need for economic and social development on a global scale.
Working Class Revolution
First off, we have to stand by the Marxist view that proletarian revolution is the answer to the limitations of capitalism. Its central feature is the replacement of private ownership of the means of production with social ownership and the total transformation in how we work together. This is the basis of a more human society where we thrive when others thrive.
Communism did not fail in countries such as the Soviet Union and China. It was defeated, and the primary reasons were the unfavorable starting conditions and the emergence of a reactionary ruling strata opposed to the transformation that it required.
Because of the pull of old attitudes and ways of behaving, and the fact that the old division of labor between thinking and doing can only be gradually eroded, the transition from capitalism to communism after the initial seizure of power will be an intense and protracted struggle between supporters and opponents of revolutionary change. It will be a rocky road with the prospect of serious setbacks along the way.
A society where we transform our relations in production will have a far better economy than capitalism. It will perform well in terms of motivation, information and “economic calculation”.
We need to be thinking about the development of a revolutionary movement. This means, among other things, people not forming sects, the preservation of which becomes the primary purpose. Rather, the focus has to be on developing a movement geared to eventually taking power. An important task at this stage would just be thinking about the possible circumstances in which a revolutionary movement would come to power, and how it would consolidate power and keep the economic wheels turning.
The Battle for Democracy
We have to be stalwarts in the battle for democracy and civil liberties. A radical left would find it far harder if not impossible to emerge and grow under tyranny. Here are a number of fronts where we have to take a stand.
(1) In the case of Ukraine, we should excoriate NATO for its inadequate response to Russian aggression and demand it do what is necessary to ensure a speedy defeat for the Moscow regime. This would free both Ukraine and Belarus, and weaken the forces of national chauvinism and fascism in Russia and elsewhere.
(2) We should call for the establishment of a Palestinian state under UN auspices. A UN mandated force would provide security during the transition to an elected Palestinian government. The failure of this to happen would be sheeted home to the countries obstructing it. In particular, there is the US which could veto the process in the Security Council and fail to instruct its client state in Israel to pull out of the occupied territories.
(3) Events in Palestine should remind everyone that we are overdue for a second Arab Spring. There should be an extensive exposure of the tyrannies in the region should be put under the spotlight, particularly those Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. At the same time we should be holding the western powers to account for supporting rather than undermining these regimes, and demand they prioritize democracy in their dealings with them.
(4) The same treatment should apply to the corrupt tyrants and election riggers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
(5) We have to be the strongest opponents of the “communist” tyrannies in China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea. There is nothing “socialist” about these regimes that needs to be preserved. The only desirable outcome is free elections and for them to stop pretending to be socialist, much as we saw in eastern Europe 30 years ago. China of course is the biggest problem. Its threat to democracy in Taiwan is best deterred by the western powers ensuring a Ukraine victory and imposing serious consequences for its present invasion preparations. This regime will pose a long term threat to the prospects of democratic and proletarian revolutions.
(6) In bourgeois democracies the left has to defend democracy and civil liberties from the right and the fake left. It has to champion free speech and also counter the present toxic polarization of the population into “right” and “left” with their competing brands of lunacy.
Pressing Need for Economic and Social Development
The economic and social backwardness of quite large regions, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, is a major problem. The higher the level of prior development the better the prospects for a successful communist revolution. The experience in Russia and China bears that out. You cannot create a society of equality when it means sharing poverty and toil, and when most people are still tied to traditional ideas.
The left in the rich bourgeois democracies would help see the emergence of a public opinion that presses government and “civil society” to adopt aid and other policies that contribute to speedy development. Included here among others would be battling kleptocracy, ensuring extensive and well chosen infrastructure investments, and removing trade barriers to imports from “the South”. Insipid “sustainable development” is not enough.
This point of view is completely at odds with “anti-capitalism” that wants to “stop capitalism”. Marxists do not want to stop capitalism because the more capitalism the more mature the conditions for proletarian revolution.
When it comes to impacts on the environment, the solution is the development of technologies that reduce them – “technofix”. “Degrowth” is an appalling idea. Fortunately support for it will always be confined to a green fringe. Although, it is a sufficient force to be quite a nuisance.