John Weathers

#Orthodox ☦️ #Communist ☭ Mathphile ∑ Programmer 🖥️ #StarWars lover #Wagnerite 🎶 #Francophile 🇫🇷 #Astronomy lover 🪐 #Science lover. 🧪

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

I’m saddened to learn of the passing of Senator Sheev Palpatine. We had our differences, but he was a true pleasure to work with. I recall fondly how he brought a much-needed sense of humor to our good-faith negotiations that ended with his decision to bless the military operation to destroy Alderaan.

Though I respectfully voiced my objections, I appreciated his principled honesty in his push to replace the outdated democratic republic with the Empire.

He was a strong advocate for his beliefs, and I admired his power of persuasion that included force-chokes and blue-lightning beams that inflicted significant pain on his political opponents.

He will be missed - the Imperial Senate won’t be the same without him. He was the best of us.

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

What Bari Weiss has done with the 60 Minutes: Iran has no nuclear weapons, this isn’t something the US or Netanyahu himself even claim. It’s a total fabrication, causally thrown in there by the most trusted name in news. A bargain for the Ellison family at only 2% their net worth

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This WaPo article is unreal: they unironically mock China for not being imperialist and failing to use force to defend its interests, arguing that they're losing out to the U.S. (in Venezuela, Panama, etc.) which does precisely that.

In essence the article can be summarized as: "You Chinese losers thought you could gain influence by actually building things? The only thing that actually works is bombing people."

I'm not even exaggerating. The author literally writes that "China can spend all the money on infrastructure it wants... But in a crunch, it is only military force that counts."

He argues that China's approach was "a colossal waste of money" because "control of infrastructure can be changed" with a US-led "change of regime" and "ownership of any asset can be overturned."

His article's conclusion? "You can’t buy an empire, nor can you purchase global influence. It is only hard power that counts for anything."

As cynical and brutish as the article is, it's also refreshingly honest. It is factual that China's strategy was to win over the Global South by investing in their infrastructure and development, while the U.S. maintains its influence through regime change, various forms of coercion, and the threat (or use) of force.

The conclusion that it is China that should feel embarrassed by this as opposed to the U.S. is, however, completely insane.

Every sane person on earth should hope that it is China's approach that ultimately prevails, for the sake of our collective future as humanity. China is ultimately trying to prove that one can prevail geopolitically without violence, by building instead of destroying: don't be like this idiot WaPo writer and root for the answer to be "no".

Src for the article: https://t.co/UgxwltA4CK

[Vijay Prashad @vijayprashad]

Michael Parenti (1933-2026) died today. He has, as his son Christian said, 'gone to the Great Lecture Hall in the Sky'. A socialist from early into his life till the very end, Michael Parenti wrote in a feisty way and spoke bluntly the truths that were not always easy to digest in a wretched capitalist system. He was a fierce critic of imperialist wars and suffered the consequences of this because he could keep and then hold academic jobs even in liberal states such as Vermont.

The toughest test for all of us came when the USSR collapsed, and it was in this period that Michael Parenti played an important role in the Battle of Ideas, fighting the reactionary Western media and the intellectual cowardice of his peers. His books on Yugoslavia's destruction earned him terrible attacks, which he brushed off as the necessary price you pay in this struggle. In the midst of it all, Michael wrote 'Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism' (1997), a rebuttal to the anti-Marxist and anti-Communist blather that had begun to infect the world. The book remains an essential tool to fight against the ridiculous anti-communist historiography that demeans the great achievements of the workers' movements.

He spent the last period of his life within himself, which was a loss to the rest of us, and now his departure leaves us without that anchor which he provided.

Michael Parenti. Comrade. Our Red Flag dips in your honour.

[Rick Worley @bloodoftheland]

The internet could be the greatest tool to advance humanity in history but instead its mostly people posting videos they spent two minutes on of them making this face while they watch trailers for corporate children's toy commercials pretending to be movies

[Greg @GregGrandin]

Pope Leo XIII was known as the “social pope” or the “labor pope,” and his encyclical Rerum novarum made the case for a just wage, and that the earth is for the benefit of all.

[Rick Worley @bloodoftheland]

Well, that was a lot of fun, guys! Thanks to everybody that was watching! Did not expect that many people to show up or for it to last that long, but we were having a good time so we kept it going. You can still watch it now if you missed it! https://t.co/1vqrwTTgyf

[Rick Worley @bloodoftheland]

Happening in two days! I'm also going to be having @JamesKruczek as a guest host! I had talked to him a while ago about a project he's been working on which is his own version of the sequels based on what we know about Lucas's treatments, so he seemed perfect to talk about this

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is the best news of the day:
https://t.co/IwQBoxObd8

ASPI, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was one of the world's major sources of anti-China propaganda. They're not even hiding their bias, their Executive Director just wrote today on X that "China is not a force for good. They are a malign power." (https://t.co/Xdp5HjfiJe) Don't tell me that an outlet headed by that guy was going to produce fair and impartial "research"...

And the very fact it needs to suspend its "research" into China as a result of US State Department funding cuts (reminder that ASPI is supposed to be an Australian Think Tank) tells you all you need to know about their operations...

This quote from the article is particularly telling: "Pauses to grants from the State Department are also causing concern among the international think tank community, which relies heavily on US investment."

This should really trigger fundamental questions. Why are think tanks all over the world, such as ASPI, funded by the US, when think tanks are by definition incubators of ideas for government policies? Is it normal for a sovereign country to have its policies incubated with funding from another country? Especially a country like Australia which, due to its geographic position and trade relationships, has vastly different interests wrt China than the US? You draw your own conclusion...

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

The National Endowment for Democracy is a CIA front that is one of the most destructive, deceitful and manipulative entities on the planet. This funding freeze should be permanent:

[John Weathers @johnweathers]

Just caught up with #Severance #season2! Wow. So worth the multiple-year wait. Just as amazing as season 1. Friday needs to get here ASAP!

Definitely my favorite TV show right now. Stands with Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Succession. Creme de la creme of television!

[Peter Daou @peterdaou]

🚨 NEWS: Former Israeli Minister Yoav Gallant makes two major admissions:

1. Israel killed its own citizens on Oct. 7 under the "Hannibal Directive."

2. Hamas agreed to the current ceasefire in July, yet Biden backed 6 more months of Gaza massacres.

[Dan Sheehan @danpjsheehan]

I am so bone-tired of living in this ignorant, hateful, all-powerful circus of a nation.

There are not enough hours in a day to even track the grotesqueries—from politicians, public figures, ghoulish private citizens, both Republican and Democrat.

This is an utterly lost place

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Just look at the difference. Russia wipes out Ukrainian family, Palestinians mysteriously lose their family.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

The Western ruling class considers China's technological development to be a threat because it undermines a core tenet of the imperial arrangement.

Here's how it works. The states and firms of the imperial core actively seek to prevent sovereign technological development in the global South, while establishing monopoly control over necessary technologies (capital goods, medicines, computers, etc, etc).

This forces the South into a position of dependency, such that they are compelled to export large quantities of (cheapened) industrial and agricultural goods to the core in order to pay for necessary imports.

The result is a massive net flow of material wealth from periphery to core that sustains high levels of material consumption in places like the US and Europe, overwhelmingly to the benefit of their ruling classes. And the core's technology firms enjoy monopoly profits.

But China's technological development is beginning to break Western monopolies, and may give developing countries alternative suppliers for necessary goods at more affordable prices. This poses a fundamental challenge to the imperial arrangement, and the net flow of goods - and profits - that the core enjoys.

The core states will not let this happen easily. All the US saber-rattling against China's development is *not* because China poses a military threat to the territorial United States (it does not), but because it poses a threat to imperial capital.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

The Deepseek moment isn't just about AI. It's also about the world realizing that China has caught up - and in some areas overtaken - the US in tech and innovation, despite the efforts to prevent just that.

A stunning shift when just 10 years ago, Harvard Business Review was running articles on "Why China Can’t Innovate"( https://t.co/BlULlncqKo). Now you have Silicon Valley's most legendary investor calling a Chinese AI project one of the most impressive breakthroughs he's ever seen.

We're in a new world now.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

The funniest part of this - or most tragic, depends on how you look at it - is that Denmark is probably the most committed U.S. vassal state in the entire EU.

Look:
- they're a founding member of NATO
- they've participated in nearly every major U.S.-led military operation whenever the U.S. asked, even the most controversial ones like Iraq
- Denmark was revealed to be the base for the NSA's spying on European leaders (https://t.co/5atr27arWs)
- Denmark always buys American military equipment over European alternatives
- They've agreed to hosting a U.S. military base - in Greenland! (Thule Air Base) - which has been crucial for U.S. strategic interests since the Cold War

And yet here you have Trump apparently seriously considering annexing 98% of their territory (yup, Greenland is big, and the rest of Denmark very small)!

I mean, talk about cuckoldry...

The irony gets even richer - and sadder - when you look at Denmark's response as per the FT's article (https://t.co/v0A4p2IBIr). Instead of showing any backbone, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish premier, offered "more co-operation on military bases and mineral exploitation." This perfectly encapsulates the European leadership's approach to U.S. relations: no matter how egregious the provocation, the response is more servility and more meekness.

Yet the KEY lesson here is that servility obviously gets you nowhere. Europe needs to wake up, fast. Its weakness means that it's now very much not at the table anymore, it's on the menu. And this should serve as an immense wake-up call for other U.S. "allies" too: submission only breeds contempt and disregard for your interests, you can be crushed on the altar of your master's craziest whims.

I know I'm a broken record on this topic but Europe is about to step into its century of humiliation if it keeps behaving like this.

And the worst part is that no-one is going to care because of Europe's double-standards and hypocrisy in its own dealings with the rest of the world, Gaza being the latest example of this. By choosing to openly abandon even the appearance of principles Europe has essentially announced it was ok with "might makes right". A monumentally stupid thing to do when you aren't mighty yourself...

Europe's leaders (if you can call them so), in their eagerness to be "good allies" by supporting the violation of international law in Gaza, have forgotten that principles aren't just moral luxuries - they're shields, and once broken for others, they no longer protect you either.

Their forgetting this is especially egregious given Europe's own history. Because we've we've seen this many times before and perhaps the most salient example is the response - or absence thereof - to Mussolini's Italy invading Ethiopia in 1935, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian deaths.

Despite Ethiopia being a member of the League of Nations, the UN-ancestor meant to prevent exactly such aggression, major powers chose to protect their fellow European power rather than uphold international law. With the consequences we all know about: the death of the League of Nations as a credible institution and the clear message to other European powers that hunting season on weaker nations and peoples was officially open. Within a few months afterwards, Hitler started remilitarizing the Rhineland.

The century of humiliation that Europe is walking into has a uniquely self-inflicted quality to it, stemming from its own moral corruption and strategic myopia. Unlike China, which at least could claim to have been blindsided by European imperialism, Europe is actively participating in dismantling the very protections that could shield it from stronger powers. Which means it won't even have the moral authority to protest.

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

A commenter recently asked me how they can open up their Trump-supporting father to other ways of thinking. The answer isn’t so simple; we cannot rationally argue people out of their irrational political persuasions. People become magical thinkers not because they’re nuts, but because of the pain that comes with being abandoned by the system. Their pain, which their rrational beliefs are grounded in, is real—and we should not deny it.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

Asked about Havana Syndrome, President Biden gets confused and starts talking about "ISIS theology" until reporter says, "So my question was on Havana Syndrome."