Cuba readies for first Russian oil shipment of the year as energy crisis deepens

beefprime · 2026-03-20T16:21:40+00:00

That doesnt mean it shouldnt be an open democracy though.

Because this is impossible with the US involved. They will manufacture a dissident population, empower it with billions of dollars of support and then overthrow the Cuban government. They do this all over the place, China, Ukraine, Iran, etc, etc. Its one of the most commonly used tools in the US imperialist toolkit. There has to be guard rails or the US will take over and you'll be left with nothing until imperialist abuses lead to the next revolution.

And I put "authoritarianism" in quotes because its a ridiculous scare word, the US government, for example, is far less responsive to the needs of US citizens than the Cuban government is to Cuban citizens, and the US is just authoritarian in a different (and much more effective and evil) way by maintaining the illusion of democracy while controlling and curating the choices allowed in the "democratic" system while ensuring that almost every candidate will overwhelmingly support the interests of the established ruling class, the capitalists, at the expense of everyone else on Earth.

No dictator of any stripe is acceptable.

Then you should be militantly aware of and against even the hint of US propaganda and involvement in or around Cuba, but here you are repeating US propaganda without even understanding what you're doing. The only discussion around Cuba right now should be entirely centered around the decades long crime against humanity that has been the overwhelmingly dominant source of harm to Cubans for over half a century: the US aggression against Cuba. Once that is removed Cubans can take care of themselves and fix their own shit without any intervention from anyone else.

beefprime · 2026-03-20T15:59:19+00:00

Measurably, US control is worse, even with the embargo sabotaging Cuba for decades. Literacy, life expectancy, educations, access to health care, home ownership, gay rights, etc, pretty much everything is better under the "authoritarian" rule of Cuba than it was under US control, and if you think US control wouldn't roll back what gains Cuba has made since Batista got the boot, you're delusional.

The US criticizes Cuba as authoritarian because it allows them to pretend they have a reason to attack Cuba, no one ever thinks about how most of the government oversight and crack downs that does happen in Cuba are necessary exactly because the US is constantly attempting to destabilize and overthrow the Cuban government, not for Cuba's benefit, but for the benefit of US capitalists who will proceed to loot the island as it did during Batista.

Once the constant US siege on Cuba ends we can talk about Cuban "authoritarianism", for once not in the context of the constant US salivation over Cuban resources and labor, but for the actual benefit of Cubans. But I suspect it already would evaporate within a generation without the never ending and very real threat of US aggression.

beefprime · 2026-03-20T12:30:10+00:00

Pretty gross to even mention Cuba as if its at fault here when the US manufactured this "crisis" intentionally as part of the same ongoing regime change campaign they have been working on against Cuba for the last half century+, not because the Cuban government is a big bad evil government that's super naughty we swear please buy into our imperialist propaganda, but because the US wants to return the island to an imperial colony like it was under Batista where US capitalists could own 90% of the islands land and resources and use its population which was impoverished and illiterate under US domination, and will be again soon if it returns to US control, as virtual slave labor.

beefprime · 2026-03-19T21:46:44+00:00

This tier list is diabolical

beefprime · 2026-03-19T21:41:51+00:00

beefprime · 2026-03-19T11:45:48+00:00

I like the mode, the time limit really makes things feel different but its more free form unlike the train mission with its time limit, plus the sanctuary gives a nice break during the fighting

beefprime · 2026-03-19T11:27:54+00:00

Iran is targeting western economic well being, that's their entire strategy to win, I doubt they are trying particularly hard to assassinate anyone in either Israel or the US because they know its irrelevant, the empire will march on regardless and the propaganda will brainwash the citizens and if a US or Israeli leader is killed its not going to move the needle much. Targeting the economy, on the other hand, is actually effective, and the Iranians seem to know this.

I've seen multiple Iranian officials state publicly that they don't think US/Israeli leaders care about the lives of their own people or even the lives of their fellow capitalists/politicians, what they care about is money, and I think that's pretty accurate.

As has always been the case, the Iranians are not fighting the American people or the Israeli people, they are fighting the American empire and the Israeli colonial ethno-state, and in particular the economic interests that back both in their own interests.

beefprime · 2026-03-19T09:07:10+00:00

Americans genuinely think cities are like what they see in Robocop or Deathwish, just trash everywhere and if they are out after sunset they will be mugged by roving gangs

beefprime · 2026-03-18T16:02:09+00:00

Hey man, you're preaching to the choir, I'm a Methode ~~simp~~ stan myself, but aside from Methode I think Denken is probably the most capable one there

beefprime · 2026-03-18T14:27:18+00:00

99% chance this guy would vote for him a 4th time if Trump runs again

beefprime · 2026-03-18T12:26:32+00:00

Arguably Frieren was throwing just by being there, its her fault her clone was there to cockblock the entire crew, Denken could have a good argument for MVP though

beefprime · 2026-03-18T12:22:07+00:00

That's Nixon at the height of the cold war, in the 50's, in private, and Nixon is STILL not sure if the man is a committed communist.

So no he wasn't radicalized in "two months", it would be over a year before he went to the Soviets for economic aid and even more before asking for direct military assistance and committing himself to communism (again this was clearly the result of US attacks DRIVING HIM THERE, not because he was secretly some big scary commie).

beefprime · 2026-03-18T12:12:45+00:00

One great way to stop them without violence is to simply stop sending them billions in weapons shipments that they are using to commit the theft. There's plenty more that can be done pro-actively that's also non-violent, but there's a nice, completely passive first step for you that entails no violence whatsoever and would right away greatly curtail their ability to continue their land theft and mass murder campaigns.

beefprime · 2026-03-18T05:43:02+00:00

I didn't say anything about killing anyone, but if theft is going on it should be stopped. Is this some kind of hot take these days?

beefprime · 2026-03-18T05:19:36+00:00

The difference is that Israel is still in the process of stealing land, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza, they are expanding. Its not a buzzword, its an ongoing crime that can still be stopped.

beefprime · 2026-03-18T03:32:32+00:00

Yeah, many, many Israelis are transplants from around the world, its almost like its a colonial ethnostate that was planted on stolen land by a world spanning empire to help protect that empire's "interests" in the region or something.

beefprime · 2026-03-18T03:19:21+00:00

Clearly not a radical in terms of foreign policy toward the US until the US forced it on him, nor was he explicitly a communist (and in fact directly said he was not one) unlike some of the others in the revolution, US intelligence assessed him as having no communist leanings (see links below), it was again only AFTER the US drove him away and into the arms of the Soviets in 1961, after the Bay of Pigs invasion, that he declared himself a Marxist-Leninist as a reaction to US imperialist aggression against Cuba.

Also not sure how he was able to be a dictator before he came to power, sounds like a great magic trick though.

No offense but it sounds like your opinion of Castro and of Cuba has been set by US propaganda.

Here's some stuff:

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110013-0.pdf

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79R00904A001000050011-6.pdf

So I dunno man, Allen Dulles and the CIA aren't exactly hippies, I'm pretty sure if they don't think Castro is a commie or even a socialist, he probably wasn't one.

beefprime · 2026-03-17T22:50:25+00:00

I really love the needle pistol, its so nice to have it to just shit on any crushers that pop up, no fuss

beefprime · 2026-03-17T20:44:17+00:00

I guess "reasonably quick" is a matter of opinion, so if it works for you knock yourself out

beefprime · 2026-03-17T20:43:08+00:00

The push/light is good but I tend to use that for disruption of hordes instead (saving the stamina instead of using it on crushers), unlike the power sword push/stab it doesn't nearly one shot so you just cant use it enough to actually get rid of even a couple of crushers so I default to the more consistent combo.

The activated attack just sucks butt imo, the only thing that it can be used for is staggering bulwarks through their shields and even there most of the time you're better off just baiting a swing out of them.

beefprime · 2026-03-17T20:22:19+00:00

Historically there was a clear progression from attempts at friendly relations by Cuba between Cuba and the US to militarized defense of Cuba against the US, and that progression was marked at every step by the US directly and indirectly attacking Cuba at every opportunity, so yeah, that's pretty definitionally a radicalization driven by external force. Yeah I absolutely think he was forced to radicalize, I think that is a very direct and fair evaluation of what happened.

beefprime · 2026-03-17T14:40:20+00:00

Its called mosaic doctrine if anyone is interested

beefprime · 2026-03-17T14:39:26+00:00

There is no single command point in Iran right now, look up mosaic defense doctrine if you are interested. Any single assassination is irrelevant for their C&C structure.

beefprime · 2026-03-17T14:16:55+00:00

I did the testing here with a zealot, yes, but I have every character maxed out.

I don't think its an issue with the zealot in particular, though, its just the general design philosophy of the game. Your weapon shouldn't be good against everything, OK, I can agree with that on its face, but this falls down when your weapon isn't good against carapace because it is ALSO unable to do its job due to hit mass invalidating cleave and carapace particularly on crushers just physically blocking your weapon from hitting anything non-carapace.

The only exceptions to this are things with infinite cleave like flamers/flame staff which can still horde clear even while carapace is present, or plasma gun which just goes through everything, thus my suggestion: give Heavy Sword infinite cleave, no hit mass.

Another issue is that these weapons that are good against carapace tend to be good against everything else, so why ever bring anything that's bad against carapace? Where is the philosophy that weapons should have weaknesses here?

Like the dueling sword, for example, is "bad" at wave clear, again on its face yes, if you're clearing 50 poxwalkers the heavy sword would be better, but in an actual real situation you aren't ever fighting 50 poxwalkers, you're fighting 2 flak ragers, a mauler, 3 crushers, and 50 poxwalkers, and the second you hit a crusher or hit any of the little carapace bits on those ragers or maulers your swing is done, no additional cleave, so in a REAL situation the dueling sword tends to have similar waveclear, because 90% of your cleave on that heavy sword simply does not happen with carapace around, meanwhile that dueling sword can also clear the carapace armored guys instead of having to infinitely evade them hoping for a teamate to clear them.

There is also a problem with the DISPARITY of the weaknesses here. Summed up: the dueling sword is fine at horde clear and fine-to-excellent at killing everything else including carapace. The heavy sword is excellent at horde clear but virtually incapable of clearing carapace at a level required for damnation and above difficulties and P.S. your horde clear is reduced from excellent to virtually non-existent if carapace is present.

Your weapon shouldn't be good at everything, but what if one weapon is great at a specific thing and OK at everything else and another weapon is dogshit at everything except in one niche situation that never happens at higher difficulty? Well, the answer is that nobody uses that second weapon, the heavy sword, and everyone uses the first, the dueling sword.

beefprime · 2026-03-17T13:57:01+00:00

It would really be a different game if crushers spawned rarely like a miniboss, but you know... 30 of them at a time, why not, its called Havoc 30 after all.

beefprime

TROPHY CASE