/leftypol_archive/ - Leftypol archive

So the Russians are the first ones to demonstrate, what appears to be a purely or mostly kinetic impact weapon that is rocket-propelled. This thing competes with low yield so called "tactical nukes". Without any of the downsides like radioactive contamination and massive shock-waves.

They destroyed a weapons factory complex and aside from an estimated 100 people that were inside, nobody else died, the surrounding buildings weren't damaged. The decades old promise of doing "surgical strikes" at scale and parity without "collateral damage" seems to have finally been realized.

Given how much more focused the delivery of destructive energy from those impactors are, it's likely more effective at destroying hardened military targets than most nukes. Nukes technically are plasma weapons. And for this new weapon the line between kinetic and energy weapons is beginning to blur a little as well because of the extreme physical conditions during impact.

I would consider this as a strategic deterrent, because it likely can destroy icbm missile silos, air-fields, naval ports/battle-groups and command and controle bunkers. Part of the deterrence effect might also be that the political cost of actually using one is much lower than with nukes.

I also think that they will tag on other functionality, like replacing the 36 impactors that slam into the ground, with an air-to-air variation making hole squadrons of fighters or drones go poof.

There also is the arms-race aspect, i wonder how that will play out.

It might change the political game too. At present the neocons antagonize Russians in order to create a threatening enemy in order to get funding for their schemes. But since this new weapon doesn't really threaten anything that touches the majority of the population, the political effect of the "Russian boogieman" might just fade away. Companies like Black Rock have been lobbying for the Ukraine war, I've been wondering for a long time whether these war-lobbies would get targeted like military eventually, it wasn't really possible, until now.

If WW3 was fought with this type of missile not many people would die, probably less than in many of the currently active wars. People could opt out of WW3, just by avoiding the places that would be strategical targets. So that's why i think it might be a silver bullet.

Somebody just fired on Evo's car.
https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/1850529326581649668
BREAKING: Former Bolivian President Evo Morales says his vehicle was shot at amid escalating tensions with President Luis Arce’s government. Morales posted a video on Facebook showing two bullet holes in the windshield and an injured driver. While the video’s authenticity hasn’t yet been independently verified, tensions between the factions of the two former allies have been high. An economic crisis has intensified the situation, with Morales’s supporters blocking highways in central Bolivia and the government attempting to clear them. The incident has heightened fears of further unrest

Interesting new article from DropSite. Here are some selected sections:

Yarvin and Land’s New Right ideas have taken a central place among Trump’s intellectual support structure. Within a month of Trump’s 2017 inauguration, Politico reported that Yarvin “had opened up a line to the Trump White House, communicating with [Trump advisor] Steve Bannon and his aides through an intermediary.” (Yarvin denied reports of speaking with Steve Bannon.) Peter Thiel—described as a friend of Yarvin, who invested in Yarvin’s startup in 2013 and hosted Yarvin at an election night party in 2016—reportedly became disillusioned with the Trump White House for not taking Yarvin-like ideas far enough. “Thiel fantasized that Trump’s election would somehow force a national reckoning,” according to Barton Gellman, who published a wide-ranging interview with Thiel in 2023. “He believed somebody needed to tear things down—slash regulations, crush the administrative state—before the country could rebuild.”

VP nominee J.D. Vance, a former employee in one of Thiel’s firms, has discussed similar ideas, citing Yarvin. In a 2021 podcast appearance, Vance was prompted to give his advice for Trump in a possible second administration. Name-dropping Yarvin, Vance advised: “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, and replace them with our people.” As Gaby Del Valle at The Verge pointed out, the advice Vance offered is Yarvin’s proposal “Retire All Government Employees” (RAGE)—intended to “‘reboot’ the government under an all-powerful executive.”

We can see the osmosis of these ideas into mainstream Republican politics with “Schedule F”: an executive order that would eliminate employment protections for federal workers, and allow the Trump administration to retire all government employees and crush the administrative state. Trump signed this executive order in 2020 — and had Biden not been elected that year, it would have gone into effect.

Vance finished his statements by adding: “We are in a late republican period. If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.” James Pogue at Vanity Fair notes this language also comes from Yarvin’s New Right ideology: evoking America as Rome in its “late republican period,” waiting for its Caesar to come anPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

One Year of Genocide

Continued from >>483169

Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 42,000. With over 10,000 missing, it's expected that current estimates are lower than the actual death toll, and excess deaths have been estimated by The Lancet to plausibly be upwards of 186,000.

Hamas political leader and negotiator Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran by an Israeli bombing.

Israel sabotaged the international supply chain to put bombs in 3,000 pagers and other electronic devices in Lebanon, resulting in thousands of injuries and several deaths, in a major blow to both Hezbollah and the Lebanese civilian population.

Israel launched an ongoing series of carpet bombings of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing several high-ranking Hezbollah commanders. A strike dubbed "Operation New Order" which used 80 2,000 lb bombs took out several blocks of apartment buildings and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, and also killed an IRGC commander.

In early October, Israel began launching ground invasions of south Lebanon, which are ongoing and have met resistance. Thousands have been killed, and over a million displaced.

Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

After Pavel Durov's arrest, he's now agreeing to surrender private user data.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglp0xny3eo

pic unrel

She fucking won. She will be the first female president whether you commies like it or not!

From Democracy Now!:
After nearly two decades of obstruction by the U.S. military, The New Yorker has obtained and published 10 photos of the aftermath of the 2005 Haditha massacre, when U.S. marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians in revenge for an IED bombing that killed a service member. The graphic images show dead Iraqi men, women and children, many of them shot in the head at close range. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 76. Release of the photos came only after producers of the investigative podcast In the Dark sued the Navy, the Marine Corps and U.S. Central Command to force them to turn over the photos and other records. "What the photos clearly show is that these were innocent people who do not appear to be doing anything threatening at the time of their deaths," says Madeleine Baran, host and lead reporter of the podcast. Four marines were charged for the killings, but the charges were dismissed in three cases, and the last ended with a plea deal that did not result in a single day in prison. Baran says the survivors of the massacre, who cooperated with producers to get the photos released, are still waiting for justice. "What they want is the world to know what happened to their family, to know that their family were good people, not insurgents, and they want justice," she says.

Happening tomorrow. Who's stoked to see it fall apart?

Continued from >>481432

Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 39,000. With over 10,000 missing, it's expected that current estimates are lower than the actual death toll, and excess deaths have been estimated by The Lancet to plausibly be upwards of 186,000.

Reports in the Israeli press confirmed that the IDF implemented a 'mass Hannibal Directive' on October 7th, knowingly and purposefully killing many of its civilians and turning the Gaza border into an 'extermination zone' to prevent hostages from being taken alive.

The US Congress invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak. Tens of thousands demonstrated in DC, blockaded roads, and pulled mischief at the Watergate Hotel, but apparently failed to arrest Netanyahu for war crimes. Many were met with pepper spray and tear gas. At least 96 congress members boycotted the speech. Ahead of the visit, the Center for Constitutional Rights called for the DOJ to investigate Netanyahu for genocide, war crimes, and torture as required by US law. Simultaneous demonstrations occurred in other parts of the US and Canada.

A deal for a "national unity government" between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas was brokered in Beijing.

The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on the legal status of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, as requested in 2022. It found that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, its occupation is illegal, and its activity in Gaza & the West Bank has continued to constitute a de facto occupation even after the IDF ostensibly withdrew in the '00s. It also confirmed that supporting Israeli apartheid and illegal occupation is illegal.

Yemeni Houthi attacks on shipping, in solidarity with Gaza, have continued, nearly shutting down the Israeli port of Eilat. A Yemeni drone struck a building near the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv on July 19th. This was followed by direct Israeli airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Masoud Pezeshkian was elected the new president of Iran on Friday. He's reportedly a moderate. What do you think of him? Will he be up to the challenges ahead for Iran, in its struggle against imperialism and Zio-fascist savagery?