“There is “no sign” of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world’s nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions.” As long as it makes the super rich even richer the world will burn! #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism

Albert Einstein (1949): "Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

The situation prevailing in an economy based on the private ownership of capital is thus characterized by two main principles: first, means of production (capital) are privately owned and the owners dispose of them as they see fit; second, the labor contract is free. Of course, there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society in this sense. In particular, it should be noted that the workers, through long and bitter political struggles, have succeeded in securing a somewhat improved form of the “free labor contract” for certain categories of workers. But taken as a whole, the present day economy does not differ much from “pure” capitalism."

https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/

#Socialism #Capitalism #WageSlavery

https://substack.com/@simplicius76
Long subscribed to Simplicius, as I wish you to do as well.

“The real truth always looks implausible.”
F.M. Dostoyevsky

#politics #Russia #ukraine #US #britain #deepstate #capitalism #NATO #europe #vassalage and other.

It’s obvious that a second Trump administration will be worse in almost every conceivable way from what a Harris administration might have been.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that a Harris victory would have been *good* for our climate and environment. We've been going in the wrong direction for at least 20 years under Presidents from both parties — and there's no reason to think that Kamala Harris would have charted a different course.

SEE ➡️ https://archive.ph/VnlWF

When it comes to our climate and environment, we can't blame either the Democrats or the Republicans. We have to blame both. We have to blame capitalism.

🧵 1/3

#Politics #History #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

In the six years between 2016 and 2021, according to data published in the most recent Circularity Gap Report, the global economy consumed 582 billion tonnes of materials — nearly as much as the 740 billion consumed in the *entire* 20th century.

REPORT ➡️ https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024

That’s very bad! But I wonder, do you think the world has been doing better since 2021? 🤔

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that global consumption has NOT declined during the past three years. In fact, the level almost certainly has increased. But let’s just say it has remained steady.

If that’s true, it means another three years of the world annually consuming ~97 billion tonnes of materials. So the total over the past nine years is now at least 873 billion tonnes — or about 18% MORE than all the materials consumed in the entire 20th century!

Driven by capitalism’s incessant demand for profits at any cost, we are consuming ourselves to death. But who cares about that? As long as billionaires keep getting richer, that’s all that matters, right?

Business As Usual must go on.

#History #Economics #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

"The satisfaction of Tetler’s book does not then rest on its reconstruction of the importance of ‘not-capital’ to Marx’s mature theory (although that is certainly still there). Instead, it rests upon an ingenious structure in which, through the lens of ‘not-capital’, Tetler addresses the ‘blind spots’ within one theorist’s position by drawing upon the position of the theorist who follows (138). What results is not quite a value theory battle royale, so much as an intricate dialectical progression, which takes us from Roman Rosdolsky, Mario Tronti and Toni Negri (chapter two), to Chris Arthur (chapter three), Moishe Postone, Wertkritik and John Holloway (chapter four), before eventually arriving at a ‘critique of capitalist society’, which comprises a Postonian ‘critique of labour’, an ‘open Marxist’ conception of ‘capital as class struggle’, and a Neue Marx-Lektüre inspired ‘monetary theory of value’ (chapter five). What makes Tetler’s arrival at this composite position satisfying, however, isn’t simply that our route is so skilfully crafted. Rather, it’s that – in a Marxist field oversaturated with hackneyed labels, slogans and -isms, in which movements and schools might be readily dismissed or adopted with little care, attention, or, most frustratingly, justification – the dexterity and deliberation that Marx’s Not-Capital demonstrates is so unusual."

https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/21758_marxs-not-capital-labour-and-the-contemporary-critique-of-political-economy-by-benjamin-tetler-reviewed-by-will-berrington/

#Marx #CriticalTheory #Capital #Labour #Capitalism

(2/2) Washington Post reference for my claim about the #Jan6 disrupters above the fold.

"A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble

Trail of bankruptcies, tax problems and bad debts raises questions for researchers trying to understand motivations for attack"

No paywall https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/10/capitol-insurrectionists-jenna-ryan-financial-problems/ #Capitalism #GameOver

(1/2) This describes 99% of #Jan6 'insurrectionaries' the #ProgLibs 'left' insisted on ridiculing, disenfranchising.; Calling the fucking be I on. They are NOT Left or friends of it

"America is now at the stage of the game of Monopoly where it's obvious who has won because they own everything, but you have to keep going round and round the board while they drain the last of your money from you.

This is the point where some people choose to flip the board.' -@draftexcluder #Capitalism #GameOver

The United Nations — founded by and controlled by the world’s most powerful capitalist countries — will NOT save us from climate and environmental collapse.

All we’ll ever get from them and our so-called leaders is a lot more “blah, blah, blah.” Words, not actions.

What our biosphere will get is more chemicals poisoning the land and sea, more plastic waste, more cars, more roads, more forests chopped down, and more droughts...
_________________________________

The Amazon Basin is responsible for around 15% of all fresh water discharged into the oceans and 13% of the planet’s biodiversity. But the rivers in the world’s largest tropical rainforest are drying up. Their waters have dropped to record lows this year.

This is all happening, scientists warn, at a point when the biome has lost 18% of its forest cover, reducing its capacity to absorb and store carbon. The Amazon is now approaching the point of no return, while global temperatures are set to break the annual heat record for the second consecutive year.
_________________________________

FULL STORY -- https://sumauma.com/en/infografico-o-terrivel-ressecamento-da-amazonia/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

What do you think happens when a UN climate conference is hosted by a petrostate — a country like Azerbaijan whose economy relies heavily on oil and gas?

Turning over a new leaf? Acknowledging it’s time for capitalism to end? Mea culpa?

Ha-ha, no.
_________________________________

A senior official at the COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," says Soltanov.

As well as being chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of Socar, Azerbaijan's state energy firm.
_________________________________

FULL STORY -- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmzvdn9e18o
SEE ALSO -- https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/cop-is-for-oil-deals/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #COP29

..pt 3

#mastodon servers with their #500characterlimit is reproducing the corporate model of restricting communication and reducing it to 1 liner impression statements that would never threaten the establishment or lead to grassroots organizing

and server masters are wannabe twitter/X executives for imposing such a rule, while allowing huge corporate media a/v material

#Capitalism is accelerating #Extinction

@sidereal @dirtwizard666

The usa will #vote for who will give the murderers the weapons of death tomorrow.

Either way #Palestine will pay the price. #genocide apparently matters less than the cost of groceries.

Libs will sleep well if their queen #kamala is elected. Brown babies should have known better.

#warpigs one and all. Fuck the usa, the dept of war, the dems and republicans, the #billionaires, all of it.

#freepalestine #notanotherbomb #capitalism #politics #israel #votingdoesntchangeanything

Below is an excerpt from an absurdly hopeful article about plans for developing “green concrete” to keep up with the AI-driven data center building boom.
_________________________________

The United States is home to more than 5,000 data centers today, and the Department of Commerce forecasts that number to grow by around 450 a year through 2030.

Concrete is a major ingredient in data center construction — and is also a major contributor to climate change, accounting for around 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Data centers use so much concrete that the AI building boom is wrecking tech giants’ commitments to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Last year, Microsoft’s carbon emissions jumped by over 30%, primarily due to the materials in its new data centers. Google’s greenhouse emissions are up by nearly 50% over the past five years. As data centers proliferate worldwide, Morgan Stanley projects that data centers will release about 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 each year by 2030 — or about 40% of what the United States currently emits from all sources.
_________________________________

In a masterpiece of greenwashing, the article tries to put a happy face on everything, with section headings like these:

😃 “1,000 Companies Working on Green Concrete”

😃 “Better Cement Through Chemistry”

😃 “Software Takes on the Hard Problem of Concrete”

😃 “Cement Plants That Capture Carbon”

😃 “A Sustainable Foundation for the Information Age”

And somehow, oblivious to the crazy irony, this article actually touts AI itself as part of the solution!! 🤦‍♂️

➡️ https://spectrum.ieee.org/green-concrete

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Greenwashing

Why are we making products that last 3-5 years when we could be making products that last 30-50 years?

You know why. And I hope you know what it means, too.

#capitalism #politics #climatecrisis

Over 20 years ago I wrote a book where I argued new information technologies might bring about a quantitive change (things done quicker) but changed little qualitatively about society; the new information economy was still capitalism.

Little (apart from relatively marginal things like Mastodon) has changed that argument.

Despite the promises of the internet utopians, we live in an information capitalism that often feels like a C19th economic system....

#technology #capitalism #economics

It is frankly absurd that people's food is grown thousands of miles away and transported across the world to various locations. Such a method of production, done only to swell corporate coffers, is quite obviously prey to interruption, if not destruction, by all kinds of foreseeable disasters.

But if the world is arranged to benefit corporations then those who allow this will always end up paying the price when it all goes to shit.

#capitalism #climatechange

Capitalist civilization is inherently unstable, out of balance with its environment and will inevitably collapse. People who danced around in forest glades by moonlight thousands of years ago knew the truth of this and yet we do not.

We are not the inevitable progress of the human race but we might be the final examples of it. And we shall deserve to be for our ignorance and arrogance.

#environment #climate #capitalism #politics #anarchy

#mentalillness #mentalhealth #UBI #NoBillionaires #livingwage #wagetheft #capitalism

They are the worst, scariest monsters you can possibly imagine. And they’re real.

#Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #JustStopOil

"Democracy Dies in Darkness"

—Motto of the post-American newspaper, "The Washington Post," which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Dies_in_Darkness

#maga #capitalism #washingtonpost #1932

When on the internet, all I want to do is read text, see images, and watch videos. That tech existed 20 years ago. All commercial #webdevelopment since then has intentionally had the goal of making that harder. It has accomplished little else other than providing the ability to order things.

#Capitalism did not create the internet (c.f. ARPANET) and it is seemingly incapable of improving it. I'm not sure how it got to be in charge.

Humans, rise

#opensource #linux #fediverse

In rural #Massachusetts are such unmanned kiosks. No one is watching. There are just goods for sale and a money pot to make change. For a brief moment, you get the feeling that you're no longer living in the future.

I very, very much prefer this reality; I'm exhausted.

#capitalism #NewEngland

Brummet contrasts the US government’s response to the hurricane relief efforts in places like Cuba, in particular, which although is often in the direct path of hurricanes, it historically has had very few hurricane related deaths.

The day before Hurricane Ian hit Cuba in 2022, 50,000 people were evacuated and taken to 55 shelters. By October 1, less than five days after Hurricane Ian’s landfall, 82% of the residents of Havana had their power restored. In contrast, over 100 people died in Florida as a result of the same hurricane, with many blaming delayed evacuation efforts.

Cuba has “drastically lower rates of deaths from hurricanes than we do here in Florida,” says Brummet. “And then when the storm has passed, it’s a priority for the government that everyone’s home is given attention, is repaired.”

In the US, “this is not even imaginable,” Brummet claims. “People are often permanently displaced because their homes are destroyed and they aren’t given the resources to repair them. With all the wealth that we have in the United States, we could prioritize making sure that our communities are safe from storms, that people are evacuated, and that where a storm does hit, that people’s needs are met and they can have their homes rebuilt and their lives can continue.”

#compare #hurricanes #USA #capitalism #Cuba #socialism #government #humanism

#UN #wealth #humanity #capitalism #imperialism #oligarchy #finance #debt #money #power #blackrock #vanguard #deepstate #banksters #poverty

“A few years ago when they were coming in en masse, we had to let family units in. People kept coming in and after a while we noticed the kids were the same, but the parents were different. They were recycling the kids,” one Border Patrol source told The Post.

“I hate thinking about it because there were thousands of kids and who knows where they all ended up,” the source explained.

Authorities say it’s not clear what is happening to the children once they are smuggled into the US — but many are vulnerable to being exploited for child labor and child sex trafficking.

#USA #US #american #migrants #slavery #children #trafficking #capitalism

Check kiting goes viral on social media. Is it bank fraud?

#banksters #banking #fraud #capitalism is low #culture

it is not the socialist revolution that provokes mass violence, but the bourgeois counter-revolution, that begins when capital realises that it is losing its property and power.
...

Beyond that, the picture was of a “triumphal procession of Soviet power” (this heading in Soviet textbooks was no accident). In the winter of 1917-1918 the relationship of forces saw half a million members of the workers’ militia, the Red Guard, pitted against a few tens of thousand White Guard members in the south of Russia. Everything was quiet until the counter-revolution received vast sums of money from the Triple Alliance (primarily from Germany) as well as from the Entente, and all these imperialist countries launched aggression against the young Soviet power.
...

And this applies to countless examples, all over the world, where the West first provoked and brutally antagonized socialist or communist countries, then accused them of cruelty, and finally “liberated” them in the name of freedom and democracy, literally raping the will of their people. All this just so European and North American imperialism would survive and thrive.
...

Ask the common men and women of the streets of London, Paris or New York, what they know about Stalin’s era, or the famines in the early years of the USSR, or in Communist China?

99.99% know nothing. Where these famines took place, or why? But they are absolutely certain that they took place. No doubts, whatsoever. No doubts that they happened “because of Communism”. Westerners are intellectually obedient, like sheep. Most of them do not question the propaganda unleashed by their regime. Are they really “free”?

The famine in the Soviet Union actually took place because the young revolutionary country was totally devastated by the Western and Japanese invasions, which tried to break and plunder the country. British, French, U.S., Czech, Polish, German, Japanese invasions, to name just a few.

But ask, for instance, the Czechs, how much they know about their Legions that controlled the Trans-Siberian railroad, on their way from Europe to Vladivostok. Plundering, rape, and mass killing. I tried. I asked, in Prague and Pilsen. They thought I was a lunatic. The Legions are portrayed as heroic, in their history books.
...

In both cases, Western propaganda made people believe that the real cause for the loss of lives in Russia and China was Communism! The brainwashing has been so successful, that even in Russia and China, millions of people have been fully indoctrinated by these countlessly repeated lies coming out of the West.

But ask in London, whether people know anything about the fact that under the British occupation of India, tens of millions of people died from starvation; victims of the famines triggered by London, for many reasons, one of them being an attempt to lower the population. Over 50 million Indian people, cumulatively, died in these famines, between 1769 to 1943, in British administered India.

Should we, as a result, ban the British political system? I am convinced that we should! But that is usually not what the people of the world, including the victims of the British colonialist barbarity, are demanding.
...

The goal of Western propaganda has always been to equate Communism and Fascism, the two most antagonistic systems in history, in the world. It was the Soviet Communist system, which smashed Nazism to pieces, saving the world, at an enormous cost of approximately 25 million human lives.

Only Western imperialism can be compared to German Nazism. The two are made of the same stuff.

#capitalism #imperialism #europe #Western #intervention #mccarthyism #anticommunism #anti-Russia #USSR #Stalin #bolsheviks #socialism #communism #soviet #russian #history #China

and each of them reminds us #how #capitalism has deranged humanity toward #fascism

I generally would rather see grotesque extractionist systems dismantled rather than just turned on each other, but I'll admit that I enjoyed this one. 🤣

"An Airbnb owner has been forced to implement a new ‘no crypto mining policy’ after a tenant installed 10 mining rigs that racked up a $1,500 electricity bill in just three weeks.

Other Airbnb hosts have also complained about crypto miners running up their electricity bills.

Another user in the UK revealed on an Airbnb forum that they believed their guests were mining bitcoin and that it caused their bill to increase by thousands of pounds."

https://protos.com/airbnb-host-adds-no-crypto-mining-rule-after-tenant-installs-10-rigs/

#AirBnB #Bitcoin #Housing #Capitalism #Sustainability #Landlords

When my cat brings a chipmunk into the house, she'll ignore it for the longest time, allowing it free run of the house. When she is peckish, however, she reclines at the door of the room it's in. Sooner or later, the chipmunk becomes hungry, becomes desperate, makes a mistake. Then, in less than two seconds, it's over.

When the next chipmunk is released in the house, it must think that its chances are pretty good.

All I needed to know about #capitalism, I learned from that cat.

Excellent and hard hitting Episode of the Common Weal Policy Podcast on profit extraction from Scotland. Yet another example of the fact that globalised #Capitalism benefits no one but the ultra rich.

The Common Weal Policy Podcast: Episode #209 - Profit and Politics

Episode webpage: http://commonweal.scot

Media file: https://www.buzzsprout.com/264906/14990854-episode-209-profit-and-politics.mp3

Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame

"We have heard very compelling and heart-wrenching stories..."

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/11/1243982287/fbi-agents-housing-costs

Well, now they don't like #capitalism. 🙄

#FBI #housing #economy #midjourney

#map of #homeless #population #poverty #poor #peoples #humanrights #world #problem is #capitalism #imperialism

The U.S. has wasted its entire blood and treasure on war. Imagine what the U.S. could have built with $14 trillion dollars? Where the U.S. could have been in relation to China for that amount? As someone else noted, the U.S. could have very well built its own “one belt and road” project for that money, connecting the world and reaping untold benefits.
...
#Western system is based on the actual institutionalized economic sabotage and subversion of the developing world.

#China #economy #compare with #USA as Golem #Israel #Mossad #vassalage #Pentagon #deepstate #MIC #banksters #capitalism #imperialism #military #american #money #investment in #debt #Bidenomics #US #finances is #fail

I confirm, everything the professor says is absolutely true, here in Ukraine, after the #Maidan 2014 government coup, the order and dictatorship of the oligarchs became like in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Only he does not mention President bloody confectioner #Poroshenko, who is responsible for shelling the inhabitants of eastern Ukraine (Donbass) from 2014 to 2019. It was because of Poroshenko bloodthirsty Russophobia that Zelensky won over 70% of the vote in the presidential election.
The presenter is a bit mistaken, there was no territory of Ukraine until the 20th century, for hundreds of years it was Malorossia ( #littleRussia ), with urban population predominantly Russian.

#USA #Pentagon #CIA #NSA #Gladio #NATO #EU #failstate #ukraine #oligarchy #corruption #anti-Russia #Donbass #ukrainian #nazi #neo-nazi #Zelensky minion of #Kolomoysky sponsor of #Right-Sector #Azov #Svoboda #fascism #zionism #anticommunism #USSR #history #Western #terrorism #mindmanipulation #propaganda #war #infowar #economicwar #capitalism #imperialism against #Russia again

#USA #us #american #capitalism #imperialism #deepstate is #poverty for #humanity #economy #taxes #money for #criminal #government #system

February 20, 1933: At a meeting between Hitler and industrialists, campaign aid of three million Reichsmarks is demanded for the NSDAP and the Black-White-Red Campaign Front for the upcoming Reichstag elections.
#history #germany #money #capitalism #imperialism #fascism