colin feels

'𝒕𝒂𝒙 𝒔𝒍𝒖𝒈'

[David Caldwell @roodave]

In most Australian cities, the problem with public transport is not the face value of a fare for a trip on a bus, train etc.
It is the “generalised cost”, waiting time, unreliability, discomfort, slowness.
Cutting fares does not fix these costs to the user (it makes it worse)

[colin feels @common_uLi]

@patrick_jn_ @KosSamaras migrants build houses 🙃

[SubwayTakes with Kareem Rahma @SubwayTakes]

We need to stop having all elections and elect leaders through a random lottery!! Feat Riz Ahmed

[senator penny wrong @tomorrowsashes]

what does it matter to me that my landlord is "australian" lmfao

[colin feels @common_uLi]

@Oscar_Grenfell interesting read. just flagging you've got Yoorrook mispelled as 'Yarrook' or 'Yoorook' a few times in the piece, also missing an 'n' in millennia. also 'Aborigines' appears twice and is generally considered kinda offensive alternative to 'Aboriginal people' in a contemp. context

[colin feels @common_uLi]

@Michelle_Rent Slum fly, boss buy — Witty’s gritty city
(You're listening to the MP from the rent-hiked city)
THIS IS JAMMED/HOT

[Nick Schadegg @nickschadegg]

anthony albanese in 2003:

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

a fanatical Zionist asks Chomsky if he believes Iran having a nuclear program is an existential threat. Chomsky replies: No, the existential threats to the region and humanity are Israel and the US

[colin feels @common_uLi]

@edwardross01 @cmkusher If only there were a way for property speculators to get liquidity other than speculating on property and taking out loans. Get👏a👏real👏job👏

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

What's wild about the US tariffs is that they are not coupled with any industrial policy or public investment strategy that could plausibly deliver US re-industrialization. The result is that the tariffs will likely accelerate US industrial decline and general economic degradation.

It is truly fascinating to watch. The US has so thoroughly purged socialist ideas from its economics departments, and has ensured such absolute hegemony of neoliberal principles, that it is incapable of conceptualizing and implementing even *basic* industrial policy that could deliver on the government's own stated goals.

Total self-sabotage. The US ruling class has no idea what to do, they are completely adrift. And this is dangerous because they are likely to resort to violence and geopolitical bullying in a desperate dying bid to hold onto power.

[colin feels @common_uLi]

@TimboRez @MChandlerMather MACNAMARA

[colin feels @common_uLi]

YES, THANK YOU
https://t.co/0igOYlA2MO

[Public Transport Users Association @ptua]

50 cent fares are a distraction.
Some short distance fares are too expensive, but there are better ways of fixing that.
The priority for cost-of-living relief is upgrading public transport services and frequency so more people have the option of not having to drive everywhere.

[communist history vids ☭ @commsurreallism]

elder communists talk about what it means to be a rebel against a sick society

[no longer respecting gardenias @NLRG_it]

its really incredible how suddenly the regime collapsed

[Livin' DeVito Loca @dapraxiszone]

Not an endorsement of NZ Labour at all, but could you imagine Albanese posting anything remotely close to this in collab with the Greens and Thorpe?

[Riff Raff @RichardAOB]

This is like having a 'no barking' law with an exemption for dogs.

[99% Johnny Graz @jvgraz]

If you voted for Kamala Harris:
Fuck you.

You cost Jill Stein Virginia.

[David Wengrow @davidwengrow]

this clip is quite old, but anyone feeling surprised or shocked by today’s result clearly hasn't been paying attention. Obviously I'm biased, but my mate David had a clearer diagnosis of contemporary politics than anyone alive now.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.