Let them know it's not just Andrew Tate. There's also Tristan Tate. And if anything, Tristan's even cooler.

With regard to the war in Ukraine I have always felt myself a bit detached from the orthodoxies that have coalesced around it. The liberals railing against Putler and alleging that Trump is a Russian puppet are obnoxious and oblivious to basic reality, of course. On the other hand, I've never been particularly convinced by the line that has developed on the hard left -- that Russia is fighting a defensive war against NATO aggression and that 'supporting' Russia (whatever that means, like they're soccer teams or something) in this war is the anti-imperialist position.

Or, I could say that this line in and of itself has some merit in terms of the broader picture, but has a tendency to devolve into woolly thinking and black and white cartoonishness, such as when proponents confidently repeat Russian propaganda about Ukraine being a 'Nazi state'. Or when they handwave away basic facts such as that Russia is run by stone-cold gangsters who made their cash looting the USSR and is trying to annex large parts of a neighbouring country in a program of open irredentism. It's hard to imagine ways in which Ukraine is more of a 'Nazi state' than Russia, and, everything else aside, it's completely unsurprising that a country in Ukraine's situation would fight back against invasion and annexation.

My inclination is to see the war as less of an anti-imperialist struggle (or some kind of colonialist adventure) on the part of the Russians and more as just a fucking disaster, provoked by a whole constellation of factors including capitalist realities on both sides, ethnic chauvinism and irredentism, the usefulness of war in cementing power and churning through old military stocks, and so on. Mainly I see working people from both countries being thrown into a pointless meatgrinder while elites check their stock market apps.

The point of my post however is about the relationship of NATO to all this. NATO aggressively expanded into the Russian sphere of influence, certainly freaking out Russian leaders and strategists and arguably provoking the current conflict. But over the last decade the whole NATO structure seems to have been upended, throwing into question the idea that there even is a 'NATO imperialism' to be 'struggling' against. It's not like it has disappeared, but the Trump admin's open contempt for the alliance, and their nosediving level of support for Ukraine, culminating in the recent decision to just drop major sanctions against Russia, are hard to make sense of in light of the idea that NATO is the enforcer of US imperialism.

The way I see it there are a couple possibilities that could work to explain what is going on.

The first is that it's just stupidity and incompetence on the part of the Trump admin. These people are too insane, too compromised by their financial interests, and too wrapped up in their own personality disorders to give a shit about continuing American hegemony, so they're just letting NATO disintegrate because they don't give a shit. This would be good news, maybe, for anti-imperialists. I say maybe because who knows if the alternative situation will necessarily be better -- it could devolve into much more naked American force projection, which could end up being much more violent, but who can say.

The second is that there is a scheme at work. The Americans have concluded that Europe is now a competitor rather than a reliable subservient vassal, and they are just continuing their meatgrinder policy in Ukraine (drain Russian resources, see what happens) but have now decided to apply it to Europe as well; let the Europeans pay for it all, and when the dust settles maybe they will be weaker and the US will be comparatively stronger. This seems plausible to me.

The third option is the libtard nightmare, which I think at least bears consideration. This is the idea that the MAGA crowd simply admires Russia's cultural conservatism and the open way in which its leadership monopolizes money and power, and contrasts this with what they see as the wimpy and effeminate bureaucracy of the EU. They don't like one and they do like the other, so they are gunning to establish some sort of realignment in the medium term.

What do you think?

“closing the borders isn’t enough to silence a population that has been robbed,exploited, and beaten to a state of mere survival”

https://www.the-midnite-desk.com/france-protests-horrifies-donald-trump-how-he-attempts-to-prevent-a-uprising-in-the-us/

Picture this: you're a military-age Ukrainian male. You're walking down the street, dressed in drag to try and trick the TCC. But you don't fool the TCC's Ukrainian drone, as its AI camera sees straight through your disguise. You hear the sound of the Ukrainian drone descending, look up to see it swooping down on you, and try to duck, but it's too late. The Ukrainian drone snatches you off of the street and airlifts you to the nearest recruitment center, where you are transferred midair to a AFU forward deployment Ukrainian drone. It shackles you and flies you to the front, handing you off again to an AFU mine clearance Ukrainian drone. This one dumps you unceremoniously onto the nearest Russian anti-personnel minefield. Your leg is blown off, but luckily your ankle cuffs prevent it from flying away. A medevac Ukrainian drone airlifts you to the hospital, where your leg is sewn back on. A 3d printer, the same one that makes Ukrainian drones, makes some pieces to cover the parts of your leg that weren't salvageable. As you hobble out of the hospital, you hear the buzzing of a TCC Ukrainian drone overhead...

An unironically great take on the failures of left organizing.

The left is more committed to being correct than to building lasting organization.

They filter out people instead of being open and welcoming. They have prescribed goals and ideals instead of asking the community. They embrace failure. They don't experiment with what works. They aren't looking to have fun and socialize.

Edit: Archive link so you don't have to create an account.

https://web.archive.org/web/20261017095710/https://jacobin.com/2026/10/evangelicals-warren-organizing-community-socialism

Mods, even though I am posting this from a throaway, I not a troll: I am only doing it from this account to curate my public footprint on my other account because on Reddit the smallest things get always used against you

But honestly it is a valid question: Why is it everywhere you go you see personality responsibility sermons sermon after sermon sermon after sermon like we haven't fucking heard the same tired old "fuck you, I got mine, you got yours" message for the 1000th damn time

Like, ok cool; So what is the end goal? Because even if we internalize the shortcomings, guess what pal, you're not safe either; Your ass could literally go one medical emergency into debt

Seriously what the f happened? Was it the Marvel movies brainwashing everybody with "superhero syndrome" ? What is it celebrity culture convincing everyone to be the next Justin Beieber, Kanye West or Kim Kardashian? Is it just a logical evolution of the careerism craze of the 2000s?

Nah because the timing of it is still wild to me. So what is truly going on

Then all the self improvement and motivation porn popping up everywhere ew get that visual pollution of my social media

I need answers!

Following the reelection of United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, the corporate media and the pseudo-left have rushed to declare that he has won a “mandate” from the membership for the “militant direction” he has supposedly taken the union. Autoworkers speaking with the World Socialist Web Site say that the real mandate expressed in the election was a mass repudiation of the UAW apparatus, shown by the fact that more than 90 percent of eligible members did not vote.

In one of the few acknowledgements of the extremely low turnout, an editorial by the Automotive News editorial board noted that Fain won “in a landslide,” but that “fewer than 10 percent of active members and retirees cast a ballot.” The publication called the result one with “profound ramifications” for the Detroit 3 automakers and the 2028 contract negotiations with the UAW.

The editors were troubled by the “paltry election turnout.” Weak participation four years ago, they claimed, “could be chalked up on a new process that likely included confusion and some technical hiccups,” but “that explanation does not apply this year.”

The Automotive News editors pointed out that after the UAW’s worst corruption scandal in its 91-year history, members won the right to directly elect their leaders in 2022-23. But the low participation this year, they say is “concerning,” concluding that Fain “won his mandate,” but whether most of the members he will represent “had a say is another matter.”

The auto executives and big shareholders are not concerned about the rights of workers. Rather, the Automotive News fears the efforts to rebuild the credibility and authority of the UAW apparatus after the corruption scandal are failing, and that an apparatus without credibility may be unable to contain the anger of workers when contracts expire in 2028.

Autoworkers interviewed by the WSWS underscored this point.

...

Referring to the campaign of Will Lehman, a Pennsylvania Mack Trucks worker and socialist who has fought for rank-and-file power, he said, “I was 100 percent behind what Will was saying about rank-and-file power. There is not enough information, and if you inquire from the union, you play hell to get them to get back to you. They are playing to keep us ignorant.”

Chris, a leader of the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee, said: “What I think it means that more than 90 percent of workers did not vote in the UAW election is that workers have no faith or trust in the UAW anymore. We are disgusted. We know we are being lied to all the time. We know the apparatus is not being truthful. They are covering things up, like we need a printed copy of our contract. We do not know what’s really in there.

“Plus, a lot of Nexteer workers did not even get a ballot. Fain’s being portrayed like he’s the second coming of Christ, but the truth is that the majority of UAW members are disgusted with him and the clique that runs the UAW.”

He recounted the recent contract fight at Nexteer. “We rejected three concession-laden contracts and voted 86 percent to authorize a strike. Every decision made by workers was ignored by the UAW apparatus.

“By the time of the fourth offer, again, almost nothing was changed except some sugar-coating of the wording. We were forced to vote in the plant. Workers, including new hires, were told, ‘Vote yes’ and you’ll get a $3,000 signing bonus. That was a lie. Workers like myself who have worked here 20 years today are making $24.00 an hour. That’s a poverty wage.

“They didn’t give us anything, and the majority of the bargaining committee told us, ‘This is the best we can do, and if you don’t vote for it there will be layoffs and closures.’ And now the layoffs are happening.”

Chris also pointed to the apparatus’ political role. “Today I got 13 pieces of mail, and only two were legitimate. The rest were political ads for voting in the midterms. The UAW spends lots of money to back the Democrats. But what are they doing to fight Trump, who wants to use the ‘mother of all bombs’ against 90 million people in Iran?”

...

James said the growing hostility to the political establishment is part of the same process. “Since his first term, Trump’s moves against the people have made a lot of us think more seriously about politics. He has lined his own pockets and the pockets of his own family on our dime. Workers are paying more attention and looking past the BS. I told a worker who backs Trump that the Democrats are part of the money game too and both parties are two sides of the same coin. Both parties start wars to draw our attention away from the real issues that we face. War is a money game too.”

Workers drew the same conclusion about what must be done. “What does this mean for us? We have to expand the rank-and-file committees,” Chris said. “True, we have a long way to go, which is why we must build in mass to abolish the apparatus. The UAW officials take sides with the company and the government.”

He added: “What I have learned from the campaign of Will Lehman is that all workers have the same problems. We are trying to fix our problem by uniting and supporting workers from all over the world. We can do this.”

Anna put it this way: “The solution? We have to organize in rank-and-file committees and start an organized, planned procedure to bring power back to the shop floor.”

Sorry this is news from 2 weeks ago, but who the hell is Portugal even planning to fight? Spain? And why is our secretary of state lobbying for an American arms sale?

The Killing of Hind Rajab | Wikipedia

Over 465 government workers with Teamsters Local 952 walked off the job on Oct. 13 against the County of Orange in Southern California. Less than a week later, on October 19, county officials filed an unfair practice charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) charging that the union is illegally obstructing operations.

They are seeking an injunction, which may include a temporary restraining order against prohibiting the flow of traffic in and out of the facilities. All county facilities remain open and operational, but the walkout has begun to cause delays in services due to reduced staffing, filled in mainly by management personnel.

Issues such as low pay, staffing shortages and increased workloads, as well as retro pay to cover the months they have been working without a contract, which expired on June 25, are the immediate causes of the strike.

These workers fulfill several key operations within Orange County, such as landfill and waste disposal; animal shelter care; road, flood and storm preparation; beach and park maintenance; and repairs on county and first responder vehicles.

The landfill workers operate out of the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano, Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine and Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea.

“With this economy, we can’t survive,” Sammy, an Orange County waste management worker for eight years, told the WSWS. “And we’re trying to provide for our families as well. Not only that, but it’s been months that we have been without a contract.

“We’re just fed up. Some of us are coming down from Corona, Riverside, Los Angeles, and they don’t match our pay with the price of gas. They recently just severed our overtime for our gas mileage. That’s what we’ve had before and now they’re not paying us back our gas mileage.

“The price of gas is insane. I live in Corona and that’s 60 miles I drive one way, every day. That’s the wear and tear of my car every day and the gas that we’re paying for.”

The much-needed maintenance projects to prepare for the historic Super El Niño forecast coming this year have placed these workers in a very powerful position to win their demands.

...

While the California state government is dominated by Democrats, Republicans and Democrats often alternate political office in the County of Orange. Both parties are trying their best to avoid the parity clauses found in many other union contracts across the county.

These clauses stipulate that if any other bargaining unit within Orange County receives a pay raise of more than 3 percent, all other contracts with the county would receive the same pay raise.

This would reopen contracts for other public employees, such as the Orange County Employees Association (OCEA), which covers about 18,000 service workers, including nurses, social workers, health inspectors and other essential staff.

Therefore, any raise above the 3 percent threshold would have a ripple effect well beyond the 465 Teamsters members who are currently striking. This means that all county employees have a stake in this struggle.

Despite this, the trade union bureaucracy, especially within the Teamsters, has done nothing to mobilize the membership within the County of Orange or even the Teamsters union itself.

In neighboring Los Angeles County, a three-day strike by 500 warehouse and delivery workers in IBT Locals 630 and 848 against Sysco’s Los Angeles operations in Walnut ended on October 15, isolating the two workforces from each other.

The union bureaucracy will permit a strike to run long enough in order to vent out rank-and-file anger, then move in to impose a sellout contract and shut the strike down before it can develop into an independent movement of the working class.

Therefore, workers should assert democratic control over their strike by founding a rank-and-file strike committee, prepared to countermand any decision made by union officials which violates their will, including a premature end to the strike or contract proposals which do not include workers’ demands.

...

JB has worked for more than three years at this landfill. He said, “I work for a composting facility, so I make sure that all of our compost gets taken care of for all of our communities around here. We make our own compost, our own mulch, the whole nine yards.

“As of right now, the working conditions are manageable, but for what we get paid versus what we do, it definitely doesn’t feel like it’s enough. For example, if you work for public works and you go and fill potholes, you may get around $30 to $35 an hour. Here we start off closer to like $20 to $21 an hour. It’s kind of a large discrepancy, and we feel like we definitely deserve a little more, especially for how much revenue we pull in for the county.

“I would say roughly around 70 percent of the revenue that comes in for the county comes from the landfills themselves, just by tonnage and whatever else that we do here.

“The commercial drivers, that’s where most of our money comes from. We deal close to maybe about 300, 400 tons, maybe even more in a day. For the rates that we have here, you can definitely tell that we make a lot of money for the county.

“I commute all the way from Fontana. That’s about 55 miles, and that’s just one way. I have to make round trips of about 110 miles a day just to be able to come out here and work. With the gas prices on an all-time high, it’s just definitely not enough for what we do around here.

“Normally, I don’t get into much politics, but in my personal opinion, it doesn’t matter what side you choose. They’re all wrong, they’re all corrupt. Democrats, Republicans, whatever the case may be, you’re always going to find, there’s going to find somebody out there who’s just going to screw you over some way, somehow.

“It’s just as simple as divide and conquer. The more you divide the people, the more that they’re bound to start fighting with each other instead of banding together and realizing that all of this is wrong. We should really be looking at our government and saying, ‘What is wrong with you? Why is it that you are allocating all of this money to places that it doesn’t need to go to when you should be taking care of us here at home?’

“We have the largest military system in the entire world. We have some of the highest military budgets anywhere else in the world. Somehow we always seem to come up short for our people. You can see it in everybody’s faces and everyone in the country. There’s a huge mental health crisis. There’s a huge crisis in physical health. You can see there’s a housing crisis.”

A WSWS reporter pointed to the growth of mass demonstrations and strikes over the exact same issues in Spain, France, India and all over the world. JB said, “I agree. It’s not just here. It’s all over the world.”

Michael Hudson says it like it is again:

Banks create money when they lend (create deposits and corresponding debts on the balance sheet). If the supply of assets is held more or less constant while that buying power increases, the prices of those assets inflate faster than real goods produced. This asset price Inflation is considered a good thing by asset owners and creditors because it means real gains for them (if they sell and buy goods, because goods prices are inflating more slowly... so they call it “equity“ instead…). But this asset price inflation is totally different from commodity price inflation. Commodity price inflation is the only kind usually referred to with the word “inflation” and with a pejorative connotation (“boo!”), because deflation of commodity prices is in the interests of the creditors who dominate every discourse. But right now, the inflation of prices of commodities like oil is not even caused by “too much money“ (chasing too few goods), like the neoliberal models suggest. It’s caused by the supply disruptions, which the idiotic war in the Middle East is causing. It’s political.