baby town frolics

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[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

@FT Misleading headline with article behind a paywall...

Satellite was built by a company in China, unaffiliated with the state.

Iran purchased the satellite from this commercial company in 2024.

[Embacuba_Canada @EmbacubaCanada]

Cam Scott, a member of @cdnntwrkoncuba, who is currently in #Havana, #Cuba, as part of the #ConvoyNuestraAmérica, shares his impressions of the meeting with @DiazCanelB: "It was a really remarkable address and you'll hear more from us in the days ahead."

#CubaIsNotAlone

[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

@RedPill_Marxism https://t.co/HGgR2Rdzq0 is the Tudeh Party of Iran also Trot?

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

It's not hypocrisy, it's capitalism.

The bizarre behaviour of Western states and leaders often seems to betray a moral double standard. But in fact it is all perfectly consistent with a single standard, namely, the objective of maintaining the conditions for capital accumulation in the core.

On Iran, they tell us they "support the protestors". But of course they violently brutalize protestors at home, and never support protests against the governments of their often brutal client states.

They say they support "women's rights". But of course they actively support a genocidal regime that has massacred tens of thousands of women, live-streamed to our screens.

They say they want to see "freedom" and "democracy". But of course they prop up several repressive dictatorships in the Middle East.

They say they value international law. But they violate it regularly, in spectacular fashion, as easily as they breathe.

They say they want to see "liberation". But their explicit objective is to impose a puppet monarchy with zero real sovereignty, permanently subordinated to the US and Israel.

Why? Because they want to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation in the core.

This requires a massive flow of cheap labour and resources from the periphery. To keep it going, they do everything possible to crush any state or movement that seeks real sovereignty, because sovereign development in the South means that the South produces and consumes more for itself, so their resources and labour are less cheaply available for accumulation in the core.

This is why they are going after Iran. It's the same reason they are going after Venezuela and Cuba... it's the same reason they fantasize at going to war with China... it's the same reason they invaded Libya and Iraq... it's the same reason they assassinated Lumumba and Sankara. It's the same reason they prop up Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It's the same reason they support Israel's genocide.

The narrative of "double standards" presupposes that they have at least some shred of morality. But they do not. For them there is but one standard: the law of capital. And in the interests of this standard they will very gladly spit on every human value.

They will not shrink from genociding civilians by the tens of thousands - peasants and workers and children; they will not flinch at killing half a million people each year with illegal sanctions; they will rape the earth and doom our collective future without a qualm.

It is fruitless to appeal to capital, to imperialism, in moral terms. The objective is to defeat it.

[Communist Party of Canada @compartycanada]

The CP of Canada condemns the U.S. imperialist attack on Venezuela that claimed the lives of 32 Cuban internationalist combatants. We stand in unwavering solidarity with Cuba against the blockade & aggression.

Solidarity Letter to @PartidoPCC 🔗https://t.co/w6iXRKdUBR

[Communist Party of Canada @compartycanada]

They're telling us we can't afford our public postal service.

But Canada Post gave its lucrative parcel business to Purolator, which is making big profits.

This is a plan to starve & privatize. Stand with @CUPW to save & expand our public post office!
🔗https://t.co/BKZ1iWjEUR

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

New research on 42 countries around the world shows that in most cases people generally do not believe the system they live under is fair. With one exception: China.

I wrote a summary of this study and its methodology on Substack, which I'm posting in the reply.

This study confirms several other recent studies finding high levels of popular support for the political-economic system in China.

Now, some people question the accuracy of the results, wondering whether people in China overstate their support because they fear repression for political dissent.

It turns out researchers have spent a lot of time investigating this very question! So, in a second post, I wrote a summary of this literature, linked in the reply.

In short, robustness tests - such as list experiments and implicit association tests - systematically demonstrate that people's support for their system is genuine.

These studies point to an important reality that we must grapple with: the Chinese people have a much higher regard for their political and economic system than people in the West tend to assume.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

New research published in The Lancet finds that Western unilateral sanctions have caused 38 million deaths since 1970. The average death toll ranges from 400,000 to over 1 million per year.

Staggering levels of violence. This system is intolerable and must be replaced.

[MY NAME IS MY NAME 🇺🇸🪮 @ctreid89]

This makes a lot of sense.

[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

Every job described pays a wage to workers, not a profit. Profit pays no part in any of these workers lives—except when capitalists cut wages to maximize profit. Who grows the food under socialism? Paid workers, just like in capitalism. Only their pay isn't cut by profits.

[stepfanie tyler @stepfanie]

“abolish capitalism!”

cool. who grows the food???

no seriously—who’s out there at dawn breaking their back in the dirt, fixing broken irrigation lines, replacing a tractor axle in 110° heat—for free? because you think profit is mean?

who mines the lithium for your laptop, the cobalt for your EV battery, the iron for your train rails? who refines it? who ships it? who builds the ships? who insures them when they catch fire in the middle of the ocean?

who unloads the containers at the port? who drives the truck across 4 states? who services the diesel engine at the roadside stop in Nebraska when it breaks at 3am?

who keeps track of inventory, repairs the refrigeration system, updates the software, cleans the floors, builds the shelves, trains the workers, manages the risk, pays the legal fees, replaces the lightbulbs, handles the theft, the overtime, the breakdowns, the lawsuits?

who coordinates all of this across time zones and continents without profit?

you think the whole supply chain is just gonna keep running because everyone suddenly caught a case of the warm fuzzies???

you think people are going to wake up and go do hard, thankless, physical labor for vibes?

capitalism doesn’t work because people are good. it works because people are selfish and it figured out how to harness that into infrastructure. it’s the only system that survives human nature without needing to rewrite it

you kill profit, you kill production. you kill production, you kill logistics. you kill logistics, and suddenly it’s day four of your anti-capitalist utopia and the shelves are empty, the power’s out, the pharmacy’s closed, and nobody knows how to fix a fucking thing

anti-capitalism isn’t a philosophy. it’s a death wish dressed up as a virtue signal

it’s the aesthetic of rebellion powered by an iPhone, subsidized by Uber Eats, and resting on 400 years of industrial infrastructure you take for granted because you’ve never built a single useful thing in your life

you’re not oppressed. you’re just ungrateful

and the second you get your little no-profit revolution, you’ll find out exactly how long society runs on vibes: about three days, give or take—then the generators fail and you’re boiling rainwater so you can heat up your shitty powdered food

[鍾翔宇 Xiangyu @notXiangyu]

In the west, the story of Hitler is mostly framed around his nationalism and his views on Jews. We're told to hate him because he was a bigot, while the political economy of the Nazis is not mentioned.

Fascism isn't just bigotry + nationalism, but finance capital in crisis mode.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

Hi everyone, I'm excited to announce this new project: a website dedicated to research and data on imperialism and inequality. You're going to love this... (links in thread below):

[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

@okaythenme China is a democracy, it just does not use the kind of money-controlled democracy capitalist countries like the US use. Democratic centralism is the highest expression of democracy.

[Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod]

This article is nearly 20 years old. 🇮🇱

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

So let me get this straight: nothing Israel did to Gaza justified October 7, but also October 7 justifies everything Israel has been doing in Gaza, but also nothing Israel has been doing in Gaza since October 7 justifies any violence toward Israel.

Do I have that right?

[Vijay Prashad @vijayprashad]

I carry Gramsci wherever I go, trying to think like the communist leader about praxis in a time of peril, feeling the stones to cross the river. Today is his death day. We lift his example against fascism and for communism to thrive skies. Viva Gramsci!

[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

@eugenia10899 @FeralHeather Yuri may have been referring to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Historically, a very regressive regime in Bulgaria not kind to the lgbtq community!

[WikiLeaks @wikileaks]

Hundreds of foreign students in the U.S. have been told they must self-deport or they will be forcibly deported for campus activism—including attending protests or posting on social media.

This comes after the launch of AI system "Catch and Revoke", which trawls social media for politically incorrect speech. Speaking to reporters, Rubio said ‘Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas… At some point, I hope we run out.’

There are over 1.1 million international students in the U.S. today.

https://t.co/XbepcHcepJ

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

Even if you suppose the world’s most dangerous most despicable man was in that tent, Israel could’ve taken him out with a small drone bomb

To use a giant bunker buster on tents shows how the carnage of civilians is the goal, the alleged “target” is merely the pretext.

Genocide!

[baby town frolics @Imdatailor]

@tony4mrht @AhmadAlNaje2002 @ahmedsmiry_GAZA Did you read this article? Nothing in it supports your statement.