Stephen Brown

Socialist, tax nerd. Interested in democratic accountability, learning about heterodox economics and environmental issues. Brit living in Florianópolis.

[mitra @mitrajoy_]

It took Kamala Harris losing an entire election and watching three primaries go anti-genocide before she’d even get on the phone with Mamdani or meet with pro-Palestinian activists. Yet it took Lindsey Graham zero effort to get a heartfelt eulogy out of her. That’s who she is.

[Stephen Brown @teewee_stephen]

@slayerofngggggz @CelticMatheus Or just a white English man who happens to live in Brazil you racist c#nt!

[Stephen Brown @teewee_stephen]

@PhilipProudfoot They think it is bad because most climate change policies restrict capitalists' ability to extract resources unchecked for profit, rather than concentrating on what is best for us all.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

So the way to choose who will represent the people of South Carolina in the US Senate is to choose one of Lindsey Graham's siblings in order to "pay tribute" to him? That's not really the reason we have a Senate.

Neither party even pretends to care about what voters want. Hey: Lindsey Graham died 6 seconds ago: we picked his obscure, experience-free sister to send to the US Senate and didn't even pretend to hear if you want that!

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

To the best of my knowledge I have never met a member of the IRGC. Neither expressed “a positive opinion” about them. An English woman named Shabana Mahmood has just made it punishable by 14 years in prison so to do so as a free-born Scotsman I will have to reconsider that. So far as I’m aware - as a UK legislator across five decades - this is the first time I have been explicitly told that I can go to prison literally for my opinion. For those of you cheering, remember, it will be your opinion next.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

⭕️ Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened the International Criminal Court on Monday, saying the U.S. would “teach the ICC the full meaning of American resolve” and accusing it of seeking to become the “unaccountable arbiter of a new global law” that could arrest U.S. citizens.

The court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, but has not indicted or issued warrants for any American.

Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, said Rubio’s “slick rhetoric” masked a bid to let Trump “commit war crimes with impunity,” including on the soil of ICC member states, undercutting a court meant to deliver justice regardless of a perpetrator’s power.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

BREAKING:

Trump is dropping bombs on Iran’s largest petrochemical hub in Mahshahr, in Khuzestan Province.

In the middle of the night.

Not military targets.

Critical industrial infrastructure — the heart of Iran’s oil industry.

[middleclassparty @middle_class_us]

The advice for the housing crisis is get roommates.

The advice for grocery costs is cook at home.

The advice for the commute is move closer to work.

The advice for debt is cut spending.

The advice for burnout is find balance.

None of these are solutions.

They are instructions for how to be poor more quietly.

[Sizwe SikaMusi @SizweLo]

People defend capitalism because they confuse it with commerce. They believe “capitalism” is when people start businesses and sell things.

If people understood that the thing they call capitalism and love so much is actually just commerce and that it’s not the same thing as capitalism, they would feel very different.

This is because a local baker selling bread, a mechanic fixing cars, or an artisan selling wares on a digital storefront is a sign of commerce in a market economy, which is simply a mechanism for exchanging goods and services based on supply and demand.

Needless to say, this has existed for thousands of years before capitalism was created.

As economic historian Fernand Braudel pointed out, commerce and capitalism are not only distinct; but historically, they have often operated at cross-purposes.

According to Braudel, ordinary commerce is competitive and transparent, while capitalism is anti-competitive and deliberately opaque, making it a zone of privilege held by a small elite who bend the rules in their favour.

Braudel further argues that commerce, or the market, is horizontal, transparent, and competitive and as old as civilization itself. It involves individuals or small groups trading goods, where barriers to entry are low, no single player dominates, and profit is a reward for fulfilling a specific need.

Capitalism, meanwhile, is a specific institutional arrangement that emerged relatively recently in human history, around the 16th to 17th centuries. It is NOT just people “trading stuff”. It is instead the legal and financial system where the means of production are privately owned, and the primary objective is the continuous, infinite accumulation of capital.

Because of this accumulation-obssessed nature of capitalism, when it scales up, it seeks to eliminate the free play of commerce to protect its investments. True market competition is risky for massive capital as it drives prices down and threatens profit margins.

Braudel contended that capitalism only begins where commerce ends. It is the zone of high finance and state collusion. Because it operates across vast distances such as the 17th-century spice trade, information takes months to travel, which creates a deliberate lack of transparency.

Braudel noted that the great capitalists of the early modern era in Madeira and Venice or the Dutch East India Company, never wanted to compete in a fair, transparent market because competition slices profit margins to the bone. Instead, they secured royal charters, exclusive trading rights, and naval protection. At the same time, the state granted them legal monopolies, effectively outlawing competition.

Therefore, capitalism naturally trends toward creating monopolies and securing state interventions like bailouts, subsidies, and regulatory capture to shield itself from the very market forces it claims to champion. In fact, the most important takeaway from Braudel’s analysis is that capitalism is NOT the natural evolution or the highest form of the free market, it is its dark shadow.

So, when our lizard overlords use “free market” and “capitalism” interchangeably, they’re deliberately hiding this distinction and using the moral legitimacy of the hard-working, transparent business owner to defend the structural privileges of the protected financial elite and its regulatory capture.

If ordinary people could comprehend these distinctions, many self-described “capitalists” would realise they are just pro-commerce, and actually anti-capitalist, because it would be clear that defending “capitalism” means defending the right of a small parasite class to bypass the market entirely.

[Power to the People ☭🕊 @ProudSocialist]

The Communist Party of China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. Meanwhile, in capitalist USA, billionaires are becoming trillionaires while 70% of Americans struggle to afford housing, healthcare, and groceries.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

I'm proud to join over 100 economists in calling on the US to lift sanctions on Venezuela and unfreeze its assets following the June 24 earthquakes.

Venezuela must be allowed to recover and rebuild.

https://t.co/WAEllZCtEG

[🧡Lulu🌾; @ItsLulu_7]

Capitalism and it's atrocities must be understood by the people

[𓏲 ๋࣭ ࣪‧₊🪼˚‧ ✧𓍢ִִ໋˚. @_be_atypical_]

Não existe 'livre comércio' com os EUA seu bagre. Os EUA interferem constantemente até na economia de outros países para proteger empresas americanas.

[Marc Botenga MEP @BotengaM]

En un seul jour, Trump dit vouloir qdmm le Groenland, brise les relations commerciales avec l'Espagne, annule le cessez-le-feu avec l'Iran.

Et les dirigeants européens? Ils regardent ailleurs. Et signent plus de contrats d'armes pour les USA.

Arrêtons cette folie. Osons réagir.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Netanyahu claims Iran has Chemical Weapons and is 'a danger'.

Israel actually has Nuclear Weapons, has attacked 9 countries in the last 2 years and is currently invading 3.

We all know who the danger is.

[Glenn Tunes @glenn_tunes]

JUST SO I UNDERSTAND THIS, BLOCKING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS UNFAIR, BUT BLOCKING OIL SHIPMENTS TO CUBA IN ORDER TO COLLAPSE THEIR WHOLE COUNTRY, IS FAIR 🤔 DID I GET THAT RIGHT 🙄

[د. أحمد عطوان DR.AHMED ATWAN @ahmedatwan66]

في البرتغال ..
قاموا بتجميع فيديو مدته 4 دقائق يعرض أبرز الفاولات والعنف والايذاء البدني الذي مارسه لاعبي الأرجنتين ضد مصر وكيف تهاون معهم وانحاز لهم الحكم
واكتفوا بالتعليق بعبارة :
"فضيحة عالمية وقذارة غير مسبوقة"🤢
الفيديو حصد 30 مليون مشاهدة و35 الف مشاركة خلال 3 ساعات 👇

[Fernando Haddad @Haddad_Fernando]

A extrema direita já começou a discutir o direito das mulheres de votar e serem votadas. Quando eles colocam em dúvida o direito das mulheres, quando defendem submissão aos interesses de fora e quando flertam com esse Brasil atrasado, eles mostram que o projeto é criar um país colonizado, desigual e autoritário.

Tarcísio é parte desse mesmo campo político, uma extrema direita representa uma visão de mundo atrasada, subserviente e perigosa. #HaddadNoBarão

[Masoud Pezeshkian @drpezeshkian]

The U.S. government's conduct as World Cup host follows its familiar foreign policy: bending rules, bullying rivals, creating obstacles, and cheating. This is their MAGA playbook. Iran rejects such games. We stand firmly for our rights.