I will admit to being a bit of a grinch about Halloween. Even as a kid, I didn’t really get into it. As an adult, it’s very important to my wife that we all do a themed family costume, and I really dislike the costumes I’ve had to wear, so I wasn’t really all that thrilled about.

BUT, actually getting out there with the kids, it was so good to see how happy they were. They had a blast and I loved watching them do it all. My littlest one literally jumping up and down in excitement every time she got candy. Totally worth it.

Only downside was that there was basically no one else the neighborhood who was trick or treating. We went late and people were telling us that there was only one other family out there before us. My wife thinks it’s social media, and people in our town will gravitate to just a few neighborhoods were the people there go all out. She was saying she saw on Facebook that people in the most popular neighborhood were buying 10-12 big bags of candy and expecting to hand it all out.

Common social media L.

fwiw I know a bunch of “average” Americans, and they all think the memes about this are hilarious. Same people who 6 weeks ago thought it was uncivil to celebrate someone’s death. I think folks don’t give a shit about ol’ Charlie anymore, that was faster than I thought.

Even Wang Yi seems to having a laugh over it.

I’m not sure you’re getting a representative sample of conservative American men if your dating pool is limited to NYC.

I have been saying this to myself for a couple hours now.

I am old enough to remember the late 90s and the time before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Americans were for the most part willing to use the military so long as there was a fig leaf of justification for war. The military failure in Iraq had me convinced Americans were snake bitten on this. And I do think for a time, they were. The US I think was forced to use sanctions and more low-level ops in the aftermath of Iraq, and I think public attitudes and reluctance of Americans to want to deploy boots on the ground in other countries played a part in this.

But now I think that’s over - which makes sense, since Iraq has not been an issue Americans have thought about much in nearly 20 years. The memory has faded.

Saying this as I see how nonchalant Americans seem to be over starting a war in Venezuela that no one actually believes the line the administration is putting out there. Hasan is showing some polling stats right now that, while they don’t show Americans are thirsty for war, they sure don’t seem all that bothered about the US attacking another country totally unprovoked and without any even close to legitimate casus belli.

At this point I just hope the forces of Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution are able to really make the Americans regret their ambivalence over this evil act.

I’m skeptical there’s a real mechanism for that since even Trump can’t directly set those rate cuts.

There isn’t. I don’t want to imply that some institutions are independent of the control of the bourgeoisie, but the Fed has some fairly robust protections of its independence (an independence which in the grand scheme of things, serves the interests of the bourgeoisie anyway). That doesn’t mean that Trump can’t have folks roll up to Powell and threaten his position or his safety if he doesn’t comply, but that seems like a stretch to think he would do this at Trump’s behest for China when he wouldn’t do what Trump demanded earlier w/r/t rates.

I keep coming back to something Jon Elmer said recently: all through the last two years, while the US and Israel lie all the time, they do not bluff. They say “we are going to invade” and then… they do it. Every time. At the start of this military buildup I was hoping this was a bluff to get concessions out of Maduro but it now it seems fairly certain they want him out of power and they want all of Venezuela’s resources for themselves. I don’t think they are bluffing, I think the US will attack. I’m just hoping that it’s ineffective and the US gives up with minimal loss of life.

Death to America.

I’m starting to think at this point Your Party should pack it in. Election is a long ways away so maybe I’m wrong but it feels like they kinda missed their moment. The Greens seem to have all the motion right now. Corbyn and Sultana’s instincts kinda suck while Polanski comes off like Mamdani.

It can’t be a coincidence that liberal opposition parties across the globe (Democrats, Labour, et al) are all playing the exact same tune: don’t propose or do anything, just say at least you’re not the other guy.

Labour is capable of as much self-reflection as an Elimidate contestant who just lost out in the last round and goes on video and blames everything except her awful personality.

Seriously, I know their election victory was a bit of a mirage but still, to fall this hard this quickly and not ask “why”. Of course, I know the answer is they know their austerity, privacy, and Israel policies are utterly despised by the people but Starmer would genuinely rather hold to those policies and lose than backtrack on any of them.

awesome resource, thanks!

FYI I just made a post here asking for recommendations on kids US history books.

If you talk to comrades on the ground who have been organizing for Mamdani, they will tell you all about how struggling with people for a cause that, at least in theory, is the manifestation of the working class taking action together to try and accomplish something that exerts their power and attempts to get something materially has been tremendous for developing class conscious locally.

It’s the act of striving for something better collectively that develops class consciousness.

I fucked up, comrades.

Last night I was up late, went outside for a moment and came back in. Gone through that door thousands of times and every time I close it. But last night it must not have closed all the way. My wife’s elderly cat got out. She is 100% for sure gone, and almost certainly eaten by coyotes.

I feel broke up about it. Obviously my wife is real sad. Granted, the cat was very elderly and having serious health problems and wasn’t long for this world, but could have had another year or two.

We don’t know for sure if it was me or the kids who left the door open, but it was probably me. My wife said whoever it was, she won’t hold it against them because the door does have a problem with closing so it’s somewhat expected to have happened eventually. But still, my wife doesn’t have her cat anymore and isn’t able to say goodbye like I know she would have preferred.

My problem is, I don’t know how to comfort my wife when I know I’m the one who probably made the mistake. Again, it’s not like she’s apparently angry with me or anything but still… had I closed the door properly the cat would still be around. I’m planning to play it by ear and try and gauge if my wife just wants some space for herself tonight to grieve or if she wants to be there for her, but any suggestions you all have for how I approach this are appreciated.

I’m sorry for your loss, from this picture of him he strikes me as a good person.

Per Drop Site News:

At least 104 Palestinians in Gaza were killed, including 46 children and 20 women, in Israeli attacks on Gaza overnight, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. At least 253 Palestinians were wounded, including 78 children and 84 women. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 68,643 killed, with 170,655 injured.

Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 211 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 597, while 482 bodies have been recovered, according to the Ministry of Health.

Among those killed was Mohammed al-Munirawi, a journalist with Palestine Newspaper, along with his wife, as they were sheltering in a tent in Nuseirat, central Gaza. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, al-Munirawi’s death brings the total number of journalists killed since the start of the war to 256.

The Zionist entity murdered as many people in one day (yesterday) as they have in all the days since the ceasefire. Nakedly obvious “collective punishment” since the entity is just mad that a IOF soldier died and by their own admission, they don’t know if it’s Hamas or not.

I honestly think sambo could potentially be that martial art, as it was designed to be practical self defense. And it’s from the USSR so it’s cool. Problem is unless you live in Eastern Europe you’re not going to be able to find a decent place to learn (and even then), and you really can’t learn it just from YouTube videos.

The answer is probably BJJ, as it’s still a very practical martial art and you can find places everywhere - even in relative smallish US cities.