My mother has told me similiar things. A lot of people in Iran are apparently saying that the gulf Arab countries and US were somehow preventing rain because Iran has been in a drought for a few years now.

Personally I've not seen any evidence for this beyond what could be a mere coincidence. Though if someone more adept in the fields of meteorology and climatology could way in on it, that would be much appreciated. Personally I just assume it's climate change and extreme weather conditions.

Your gratitude is appreciated! I'm still personally waiting for the other shoe to drop in regards to the end of the ceasefire. Being able to keep up to date with the collapse of imperialism in West Asia has been preserving my sanity in a way.

Wouldn't the "class" of people on UBI just be Lumpen Proletariat rather then a new class entirely? If not, I'd appreciate a correction.

Although I agree that more could be done to radicalize these communities, I think this fails to recognize that a large part of the rural US are petty bourgeois white folk who've historically also been the biggest opponents to marginilized workers liberation. In the early 20th century the Midwest was obviously significantly more radical than now, but it should also be noted that the urban centers, mining towns, and port cities, were also hotbeds for action. The labor struggle was advancing on all fronts, with the immigrant poor, black working class, and undocumented populations being at the forefront. Undocumented migrants are likely in rural areas due to their exploitation as agriculture workers, so in that case I'd argue that there must be more organizing on that front. However undocumented migrants aren't really what I assume you mean when you say "rural US" and they largely exist in cities as well.

Although, I guess as a Californian I'm one of the "coastal elites" so to speak, and I may hold biases due to not having interacted with the opinions of many rural comrades at a deeper level of analysis on the subject.

Yeah, I'm probably one of the most skeptical individual regarding Kurdistan, however Türkiye is unquestionably the instigator of the whole issue. Kurds would not be able to be used like disparate playthings of empire if Türkiye wasn't ruthlessly vile against them. Part of the reason no settlememt could made in Syria between Assad and Rojava was in my opinion because the Syrian government feared that too many concessions would lead to Türkiye directly invading the country.

I'd argue Türkiye isn't quite at the same level as the zionists, but more so because at the very least they are still an organic part of the region (even if their state is ethnosupremacist) rather than explicitly settler colonial.

The current Turkish initiative to basically recreate the influence of the ottoman empire in the modern setting is obviously a danger to every other country in the region as well. I suspect that one Israel collapses, which I think will be sometime after the resumption of the war against Iran, Türkiye and Iran's cordial relationship is going to be strained. I expect to see some synchronization of the Islamic Republic with the Safavids coming put of Türkiye as it ramps up in the coming decades.

I still hold the opinion though that outside of Türkiye, Kurdistan is not project that can succeed as an anti-imperialist entity. Also the region largely needs to reject ethnoreligious seperatism in favor of unified efforts against imperialism and towards economic development.

The fascist counter reaction is happening right now. We are seeing that the reactionary online personalities are shedding their "classical liberal" facade in favor of outright fascism. I forgot to mentioned that the socdem surge occurred in 2020 until today.

This might be more of a complaint on how some Marxists act vs an ideological disagreement, but it has to do with some of the dismissiveness on certain topics.

For example, if someone decides to talk about their Fandom culture, or some piece of media they enjoy which is not explicitly revolutionary or just generally mainstream, there are quite a few Marxists who will jump on that person, and tell them "this is nonsense you should be busy organizing."

I generally don't go into my interests here on the Grad just because I don't often get the opportunity to. Sometimes I do indulge however when a topic comes up in the gaming, free chat, or anime communities.

Regardless, I think some Marxists underestimate the amount of effect agitprop can have when you engage in Marxists analysis of consumerist media. I don't mean just going into a fanspace for a media you like and scolding everyone there either, I mean just existing Inna community as a Marxist openly, as it can be surprising how receptive people can be when you apply Marxism to something outside of strict political discussion.

This is one of the things which strengthened reactionaries duing the 2010s and caused a social democratic backlash in the same spaces online. We are seeing a more explicitly fascist reaction confronting the old socdems and need explicitly socialist opposition to battle for cultural hedghemony online.

Djinn might be made of smokeless fire but Ansarallah about to make sure to show them what it means to get smoked.

Also the concept of zionist djinn is unnaturally entertaining to me.

This penchant for collective punishment but aversion to collective responsibility displayed by whites is seriously a poison in every respect.

I grew up going to my mosque every week. In that time I can say that whenever there was some occurrence of violence perpetuated by what the western media claimed to be Muslims, I'd be fearful for that week's trip to the mosque.

A childhood of anxiety as I'd prostrate onto a stone and hold my breath thinking, "there's a chance today's the day that some paleskinned freak comes in guns blazing and rains lead upon us." Than, I'd put head up from the stone, and nothing happened. The same thought repeated with every prostration but eventually the prayer would end and we'd be fine. From there, the night would go on and I'd move on until the next newscycle.

That was my childhood. My generation in my community could probably all tell you a similiar feeling. Something we don't really talk about but I'm sure it's consistent between us all to some degree.

To this day when I go to my mosque I have the same feeling itching feeling every time I put my head down to the stone. It's less invasive, less fearful, and less persistent, but that paranoid little boy never truly left.

However, now after the small spike of anxiety, slight terror isn't the main followup, now it's a very spiteful anger.

Why the fuck did I have to grow up with that feeling? Why did any of my brothers and sisters have to feel it? Why were we told that as representatives of our faith we must take into consideration the fragile sentiments of those whites who despised us? Why must we be on our best behavior as if we are guests in another man's home?

We are not guests, intruding upon the Yankees pristine estate, our parents had struggled fiercely to carve out a community against capitlist ruthless individualism. How we carry ourselves is for our own self respect not because we should fear rabid reactionaries. No child should be instilled with that fear. It is the least I can do to make sure no other child from our community feels that spike if anxiety my childhood self did.

Our parents tried to be cordial with the denizens if empire who we call our neighbors. They had to, it was a matter of survival when our communities were less established. However that's not an approach my generation can take.

The Yankees never chose to act in good faith towards us, and so our cordiality must end as well.

Apologies if I'm rambling but I wanted to express my thoughts.

I think it's more accurate to say that the US and western market system is just fundamentally counter to fusion development.

The problem with fusion isn't some impossible to solve puzzle that everyone is trying to crack, it's that we don't have the proper materials and expiremental data to just build one. In order to get those you need long term stable testing and continued steady improvements. There's no secret shortcut that will give us commercially viable fusion, it requires longterm commited development.

However, western banks are never gonna finance something like that, at least not at a reasonable interest rate, becuase there's no profit to be made during that long period. So in the US especially (though I've seen some stuff from Germany as well) you get these nuclear fusion startup schemes (advanced snake oil salesmen if you ask me) who market new fangled methods if producing fusion that promise create some breakthrough that doesn't exist.

Here in California for example, we have a project, up in the bay area I believe, that's trying to use lasers to sustain fusion. It's a neat little idea, but the thing it needs is long term testing, and so the problem loops back around. The project attracts investors for a time with the promise of fusion but realistically it'll fail not because their theories aren't sound but because eventually investors will figure out it's not going to produce any profits anytime soon.

The only real fusion project I think has any serious (it's still barely any) potential is one on the east coast called Commonwealth Fusion which came out of a bunch of MIT alumni. I single that out just because they actually link their work to the development of chamber materials, which will likely continue getting renewed development. Even then, thet still need to do consistent testing that could only really be performed by a state, which this little startup of STEM nerds isn't capable of doing.

China recognizes the needs for nuclear fusion development and doesn't need to deal with the pointless puppet shows put on for investors. They are interlinking the entire nation's resources for the sake of developing nuclear fusion, which itself is just another part of a dynamic system of technological advancement.

ITER had some potential in my opinion but was mired by the need for political dominace exhibited by the West. An international fusion project is frankly a wonderful concept and would ideally be the way to develop fusion as different nations contributed in whatever areas they were exceptional at. However obviously that's not how international relations work under capitlist world hedghemony, so it was doomed to failure.

This may have become a possibility had Europe not expelled Russian nuclear fusion scientists, considering the Tokomak design originates from them. Still doubtful but I think that decision really sealed the nail in the ITER coffin.

This is actually what I've heard said to my face by other Californians. It's not as absurdist a statement unfortunately.