even when Biden explicitly said they would destroy it!

Only for Trump to take credit for it anyway.

They’ll just wait for people to lose interest and do it quietly. Or use some other warehouse.

Libertaryans

I’m stealing redistributing this one.

Technically not recession is the best kind of recession, am I right?

You get to meet your boss everyday?

The libertarian wet dream was actually a reality.

China is an authoritarian regime, no offense, this is a collective choice.

So what he means is, China is authoritarian by… democratic choice of the Chinese people?

I suppose that’s progress from the usual liberal position.

You’d think so, and I don’t think anyone of them tried, but as a counterpoint: Macron (who is as close as you can get to a King of France without being one at this point) did pretty much that multiple times and nothing happened.

Thanks for the post, fascinating read. I have to admit, I had no idea San Marino had a socialist experiment.

Although it seems like it was more of a case of a communist party winning elections in coalition with a socialist party right after WWII. Which would’ve happened throuought most of Europe if not for American interference. I guess San Marino just wasn’t important enough. Doesn’t seem like they reformed the electoral system much either, just focusing on Good Governance™.

Of course, as a tiny city-state, they had no means to defend their gains, so the experiment collapsed the moment foreign powers decided to “do something about it”.

why TF does right wing nationalism (which is supposed to be all about exclusive self determination of one’s own country) always end up compromising with American interests?

Two things:

One, right-wing nationalism is always anti-communist so they naturally will ally with the dominant Anti-communist power.

Two, a lot of those movements (or at least their most prominent representatives) are often astroturfed by Americans in the first place.

Fascism is when government does stuff, and if it does A LOT of STUFF that’s NAZISM.

Yet another proof that if you disbelieve anything the Main Stream Media™ says about the West’s “designated adversaries” you’ll probably be right.

That’s the kind of analysis that metaphysical thinking leads you to. They refuse to take into account that the world system has evolved since the times of East India Company to the times of World War I, and again evolved since World War I till today.

You can absolutely consider the East India Company to be (proto-) imperialist and at the same time recognize that Russia and China aren’t.

Imperialism, like anything, is not a static metaphysical category, but a dialectically evolving one.

All the “Chyna lab leak bioweapon” accusations were always a projection.

Who would’ve guessed.

The US is stealing any oil tanker they can see in the Caribbean, lack of will is not the problem.

Gaza already exposed it, anyone who could’ve been convinced already has been convinced.

Yeah, it’s very convenient to criticize China for being “insufficiently internationalist” when not a single socialist organization in the West even has any physical ability to do anything for Cuba, since they have no economic base, no production to speak of, only parties, forums and book clubs.

In fact, I would argue the current siege on Cuba is happening now precisely BECAUSE China started massively increasing its commitment to Cuba with the supplying of solar panels for Cuba to build sovereign and independent energy grid. In a couple years Cuba would be energy self-sufficient enough that a blockade like that would no longer work.

China has been in the process of supplying Cuba with enough solar panels to cover 2/3 of their energy demand for year or two now. If anything, it’s China’s help in getting Cuba to energy independence that’s driving the current mad dash to crush Cuba before it’s too late.

Or the reason the oil siege happened now “all of a sudden” is that in a couple years Cuba will be energy independent, so now is the empire’s last chance. In other words, if they started laying those solar panels four years earlier, Biden would have been the one to impose the blockade.

“Almost as an article of faith, some individuals believe that conspiracies are either kooky fantasies or unimportant aberrations. To be sure, wacko conspiracy theories do exist. There are people who believe that the United States has been invaded by a secret United Nations army equipped with black helicopters, or that the country is secretly controlled by Jews or gays or feminists or black nationalists or communists or extraterrestrial aliens. But it does not logically follow that all conspiracies are imaginary.

Conspiracy is a legitimate concept in law: the collusion of two or more people pursuing illegal means to effect some illegal or immoral end. People go to jail for committing conspiratorial acts. Conspiracies are a matter of public record, and some are of real political significance. The Watergate break-in was a conspiracy, as was the Watergate cover-up, which led to Nixon’s downfall. Iran-contra was a conspiracy of immense scope, much of it still uncovered. The savings and loan scandal was described by the Justice Department as “a thousand conspiracies of fraud, theft, and bribery,” the greatest financial crime in history.

Often the term “conspiracy” is applied dismissively whenever one suggests that people who occupy positions of political and economic power are consciously dedicated to advancing their elite interests. Even when they openly profess their designs, there are those who deny that intent is involved. In 1994, the officers of the Federal Reserve announced they would pursue monetary policies designed to maintain a high level of unemployment in order to safeguard against “overheating” the economy. Like any creditor class, they preferred a deflationary course. When an acquaintance of mine mentioned this to friends, he was greeted skeptically, “Do you think the Fed bankers are deliberately trying to keep people unemployed?” In fact, not only did he think it, it was announced on the financial pages of the press. Still, his friends assumed he was imagining a conspiracy because he ascribed self-interested collusion to powerful people.

At a World Affairs Council meeting in San Francisco, I remarked to a participant that U.S. leaders were pushing hard for the reinstatement of capitalism in the former communist countries. He said, “Do you really think they carry it to that level of conscious intent?” I pointed out it was not a conjecture on my part. They have repeatedly announced their commitment to seeing that “free-market reforms” are introduced in Eastern Europe. Their economic aid is channeled almost exclusively into the private sector. The same policy holds for the monies intended for other countries. Thus, as of the end of 1995, “more than $4.5 million U.S. aid to Haiti has been put on hold because the Aristide government has failed to make progress on a program to privatize state-owned companies” (New York Times 11/25/95).

Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.”

― Michael Parenti, Dirty Truths