randomquery [none/use name,any]

Very recently read “Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present”. It’s an extremely interesting book, and one point the authors make is that capitalism has nowhere to go forward now. The only thing left is imperial violence turning inwards again, squeezing wages inside the core to increase the rates of profits.

I think it’s a reflection on the end of the era of liberal democracies. We have this happening in many countries, neoliberals are trying to hold onto power as right wing politicians are on the rise.

I agree, I also don’t think they will be able to solidify a sphere of influence. Seems to me more of a fool’s errant, but it could lead to hot (and maybe nuclear) wars.

It means it’s not strong enough anymore and they need the hammer. This seems to be the direction Trump presidency. The american empire has been slowly losing its ability to exert control over other countries indirectly and now needs to do it directly. Most of the color revolutions of the last few years have failed, most of the attempts to covertly overthrow governments or push for the benefit of american capital have been unsuccessful. Even successful ones seem unable to push countries under the total influence of the USA (for example Peru is still going through with huge infrastructure projects funded by China). It seems Trump’s presidency will be about trying to solidify a definite sphere of influence in more direct terms and resurrect the american industrial base.

I was talking to my friend about music, mentioned an artist (that she didn’t know about) and showed her a song on my computer. 5 minutes later her video app on her phone was suggesting songs from that artist. It’s completely ubiquitous, I operate under the assumption that I am always listened to.

I don’t think the dems thought they could win the election. They just picked a bad candidate who would not hurt them as bad as Biden down-ballot. Biden had to take away the covid measures, withdraw from Afghanistan, and be involved in 2 major wars one of which is a genocidal war. They could not win this election, they just picked a candidate who they consider bad so they can burn her.

I think it would become more difficult for Hezbollah but at least to my ignorant mind the idea that they will be completely cut off from any access to weapons sounds too pessimistic. Some people here are already spelling the end of Hezbollah is a bit too premature.

Here Jeremy Scahill says he is no longer a member of Hamas: https://twitter.com/jeremyscahill/status/1864000895752589504

Thank you! If you also have some article/source I would appreciate (but I can search also things myself, based on your information).

Do you have any sources on Sudan? I am interested to read more, especially related to US/western involvement but can’t find much information.

An update on the dutch education protests (mentioned here by @Beetle@hexbear.net ): In the end student unions and the youth wings of the socialist party and the communist party said they would go anyway to the protest. The police (that yesterday said they couldn’t guarantee the safety) said today that they will facilitate the protest so there was no ban. The labor unions still asked people not to go. In the end around 3-4k people gathered (mostly students and some university employees), which I think was very good given the circumstances. Some universities decided to host local protest on campuses (but as far as I can tell those were small). The university staff and unions are calling for another protest on the 25th of November.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2544475-toch-studentenprotest-in-utrecht-ondanks-oproep-van-de-gemeente-om-weg-te-blijven

Yes the budget cuts are massive, for context (for people not in the Netherlands) the cuts amounts to about the total budget of 1-1.5 big dutch universities (the country has in total 20 universities). The police of course waited for the last moment to not let any organizing party any leeway to plan something else. The unions are completely pathetic, immediately rolled over.

Comrade, as the others said, I have never been more certain that we will win. Be strong and be well!

“if we burn” really dissected that period, such an excellent read.

How about the general secretary of NATO admitting that the war happened because of NATO expansion? The following is an article by Jeffrey Sacks talking about it: https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/nato-chief-admits-expansion-behind-russian-invasion

This is not exactly what you ask but the quote of Stoltenberg is pretty telling:

The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.

The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second-class membership. We rejected that.

So, he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.

No, you get it perfectly. It’s “American Dream: The movie”. Innocent white middle class man can pick himself up from his bootstraps even from the prison cell. I watched it years ago, and felt exactly what you describe.

The situation in the Netherlands is also pretty bad. 1 in 80 people tested positive. The waste water analysis shows that things are now worse than the 2021 autumn surge. :(

As far as I understand, the opposition has already said that they will have their own counting of votes and they will only recognize that as the result.

Hi, do you have any resources on Sudan, especially highlighting the involvement of western governments? I am trying to learn more about what’s going on there, but it’s hard to find resources.

Committed a genocide.