alanjjohnstone
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Similar to previous incidents where anti-missile interceptions caused damage, a Ukrainian official had to resign when he suggested the Dnipro apartments were destroyed in the same way.
Yves Smith from July
“The Ukraine military is so close to collapse that Russian forces going to Odessa sooner rather than later is a real possibility”So her opinion is one that I would not hold much store by.
Will the West replace Ukraine’s depleted weapon stocks?
They are pledged to but perhaps not in time to stop the expected Russian offensive. But the longer the Russians delay such an assault, the more time there is for Ukraine to replenish its forces.
But as this is a proxy war, the West will deploy more of their reserves for instance such as from the USA arms dumps in Israel
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/366072Around the world, the US has many such reserve depots to tap.
I thought the pandemic demonstrated that the medical supply line had vulnerable links in its chain that capitalism was unable to cope with, despite the spin (think of the ongoing political wrangling of VIP procurement ordering as well as the nationalist roll-out process).
And then there is NICE within the NHS which determines the effectiveness of various treatments using a form of cost-benefit analysis
I think we proposed a combination of non-monetary approaches, one being the rational application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It would seem reasonable to suppose that needs that were most pressing and upon which the satisfaction of others’ needs was contingent, would take priority over those other needs. We are talking here about our basic physiological needs for food, water, adequate sanitation and housing and so on. This would be reflected in the allocation of resources: high-priority end goals would take precedence over low-priority end goals where resources common to both are revealed using a “points” system of cost-benefit analysis.
A self-regulating system of stock control which of its responding very rapidly to shifts in demand. If people come to reduce their demand for a particular product this will manifest itself in a build-up of surpluses, prompting distribution points to cut back their orders from suppliers who, in turn, will reduce their inputs for said goods from their own suppliers and so on the further back along the production chain.
The opposite would happen if people increased their demand for a good. This would automatically trigger a signal for more of such a good and hence the inputs for such a good. The point is all this is perfectly possible today and more so now with the development of computerised system of stock control. A self-regulating system of stock control which responds directly and promptly to changes in the pattern of demand from both production units and consumers provides the necessary data we need relating to stocks of inputs. It then becomes a matter of economising most on what is scarcest (based upon Liebig’s Law of the Minimum). The “relative scarcity” of any input is a function of the demand for the end product of which it is a component and of the technical ratio of input to output (or product itself). In this way, it is quite possible to rank the relevant inputs in terms of their relative scarcity. So selection of the least cost combination is entirely practicable in a communist society. Only the method of doing it is quite different to what happens with a common unit of accounting.It is what can be called a “lateral” approach to cost accounting rather than a “vertical” approach. We select technical combinations of inputs that minimise as far as possible our reliance upon scarce inputs in favour of more abundant alternatives. This is not an exact science but it’s the orientation of decision-making that counts – the fact that we are operating within a systemic constraint that pushes us always in the direction of economising most on what is most scarce – which makes it an eminently sensible and reasonable principle to apply.
We don’t favour labour vouchers believing it is far too cumbersome as a mechanism for rationing. If you are going to have rationing, at least for some goods, there are far more effective and straightforward mechanisms than this.
I think we should be cautious in declaring that free access solves everything and that production-for-use or needs-orientated or reciprocity-based systems will be a panacea. However, it will remove much of capitalism’s distribution problems of can’t pay, can’t have.
I’m all for a continued discussion on how to implement socialism but always with the caveat that we cannot pre-empt the decisions of those future generations of socialists who will have the responsibility of bring it about. We ourselves always remain in the realm of speculation and educated guessing.
A rare article on those Ukrainians who are pro-Russian but the article remains still sympathetic to Ukraine. No mention of the consequences to those deemed collaborators.
https://www.alternet.org/traitors-ukraine-vladimir-putin-invaders/
China’s population has fallen for the first time in 60 years, with the national birth rate hitting a record low – 6.77 births per 1,000 people.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64300190
Deaths also outnumbered births for the first time last year.
“The high youth unemployment rate and weaknesses in income expectations could delay marriage and childbirth plans further, dragging down the number of newborns,”
The Pro and Anti-NATO left
Realists see Ukraine only as a proxy war, liberals only as a war of liberation.
One side wants to trade territory for peace with a ruthless and untrustworthy dictator, while the other is willing to sacrifice Ukrainian civilians, soldiers and infrastructure to ensure Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
https://theconversation.com/whats-next-for-the-anti-nato-left-after-ukraine-197649
The “pro-democracy” protests in Israel accused of hypocrisy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/1/16/israelis-are-not-demonstrating-for-democracy
“…former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, also accused of war crimes in Gaza, but for the 2009 war on the strip. She declared: “Together we will protect the state because it is for all of us.”
But “for all of us” it is not. That was made clear when the crowd turned hostile on the small number of anti-Zionists who showed up at the protest with Palestinian flags. Those were quickly pulled down by fellow “pro-democracy” protesters…”So, TS, you expect an unconditional surrender of Ukraine to happen and that the whole country will be occupied by the Russians and Ukraine once again being absorbed as part of the Russian nation.
This was indeed the initial war-plan with the drive to take Kiev and then to pressure the Western regions into compliance with a new “puppet” government, with a target date of August 2022. It failed. The Battle of Kiev was a defeat for Russia. Not the diversionary assault that you claim it to have been.
The initial advances on the Donbas front were repelled at Kharkiv and then Kherson retook and was unable to even besiege Odessa. Mariupol was the only significant Russian long-term success.
The position of those of us on the forum has been that outright victory was never going to be achieved and that a negotiated armistice would be agreed upon. That would mean de facto recognition of Crimea and the Donbas separatist republics being conceded to Russia.
That remains the best hope for some sort of end of hostilities. But not a permanent peace treaty. But the sooner there is a truce and fewer casualties inflicted on working people in an internecine conflict the better.
The stated war aims of Russia have failed. There has been no collapse of Ukraine’s government, no submission to a superior force. Hence the need for another phase of the war, a new offensive. But the aim is merely to simply scramble to be in a better position to parley that will not be perceived as a humiliation for Putin.
80,000 Israeli protesters have demonstrated in Tel Aviv against plans that would make it easier for parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings.
Until Bahkmut falls (the Soledar battle a battle that never featured in any of your earlier pronouncements but now somehow grows in prominence) and the Kiev government capitulates or Russia withdraws to Feb 2022 the war is in an actual stalemate.
Yourself has predicted outright victory for Russia and the accomplishment of its primary purpose – ‘denazification’, demilitarisation, defeat of NATO expansionism and annexation of Donbas – None have been achieved other than partial control of the Donbas.
Will the expected imminent offensive by Russia succeed?
It may bring some territorial gains but all Russia can hope for is it could produce negotiations that result in a ceasefire such as we see in Korea and Kashmir, a stalemate. Certainly, permanent peace will not prevail.
Greta Thunberg criticized Germany’s Green Party on Saturday for supporting the demolition of the village of Lützerath to make way for the expansion of the coal mine Garzweiler.
Making deals with fossil fuel corporations such as energy giant RWE – which has bought the site of Lützerath for mining – “show where their priorities are”, Thunberg said of the Greens, who form part of Germany’s coalition government
Leading Green politicians such as Economy Minister Robert Habeck have defended the demolition of Lützerath, arguing that the coal below is needed to maintain energy security in the current crisis. The local and national governments, both of which include the Green party, made a deal with fossil fuel giant RWE last year allowing it to destroy the village in return for a promise to end coal use by 2030, rather than 2038.
“The coal that is in the ground here will not lower prices immediately. Anyone who thinks like that is simply out of touch with reality,” Thunberg said.
The Greens are also in power in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where the village of Lützerath has become the latest flashpoint for activists opposed to the government’s continued use of coal.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/thousands-protest-german-mine
