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D3FNC ,

It feels very cool to buy hand soap or whatever at the grocery store and see the box is stamped ‘made in Iran / DPRK / Vietnam’ though

blterrible ,

Those countries can’t swing Florida election results

_cnt0 ,
@_cnt0@sh.itjust.works avatar

Podcast recommendation for people like me who like to listen because they don’t find time to read as much as they’d like and don’t have first hand experience/memory of the Cuban revolution and the following intertwined history with the US, because, well, they weren’t born yet:

blowback.show/Season-2

After a critically-acclaimed retelling of the Iraq War, season two of Blowback presents the unlikely story of the Cuban Revolution: America’s Cold War crusade brings the world to a nuclear-tipped showdown between the Kennedy brothers, Fidel Castro, the Soviet Union, the CIA, and the Mafia. Co-hosted by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, season two is a 10-part account of how the United States tried and failed to thwart the creation of a socialist government less than a hundred miles to its south.

The style of the podcast, with two moderators, took some getting used to for me. But I learned to love it. It is very comprehensive and in-depth. You can find it pretty much everywhere; I listened to it on spotify.

stella ,

Of course.

Fuck this country.

Never voting for a democrat or republican again. They’re all scum.

xor ,

Aye that’ll solve it.

Trump actively increased sanctions while biden reduced them. They’re both shitty, but let’s not pretend they’re the same.

Not voting at all makes it easier for the vastly worse party to consolidate power.

stella ,

Not voting at all makes it easier for the vastly worse party to consolidate power.

There is only one party: the party of the ruling class.

The bickering between democrats and republicans is just a show to distract people while making them think their side is making progress.

Both sides are just looking out for rich people. This will be true until we can get money out of politics.

xor ,

You’re right that the US’s democracy is deeply flawed. Criticising and discussing how politicians are influenced, and the systems that allow it is great and valuable, especially when those systems are used to influence both major parties.

But to pretend that every single politician is part of some hive mind run by a shadowy cabal, rather than a set of individuals with their own beliefs and aspirations is not only falling prey to conspiracy theories, but also massively damages your ability to actually understand how the systems work, and how its flaws can be mitigated. At the end of the day, regardless of what else may be influencing them, politicians still have to be elected by the citizens.

Opting out of being involved in politics, not voting and just letting the universe run its course doesn’t solve the problems or stick it to the man, it only takes away your small piece of influence.

If you don’t vote, politicians don’t care about you

So vote, protest, have conversations with people about your views and listen to theirs. That’s the only way the system will work better for the people.

augusto ,

it’s not a “shadowy cabal”, it’s the ruling class, aka the bourgeois class, the owners of the means of production. capitalism’s flaws cannot be mitigated because it’s because of these flaws that the system itself can exist (exploitation of workers in different degrees, exploitation of the 3rd world, revenue concentration in the hands of a few, wars and misery etc etc)

the system won’t work well for the people because that’s the whole point of the system’s existence since its inception. it works for a particular class and only that class. the problem isn’t Democrats vs Republicans, it’s capitalism vs the working class. you don’t have to vote, you have to join worker’s unions, a socialist/communist party, be an activist, and when duty calls, participate in the revolution that is to come. the only real material change comes when the working class takes power and actually makes way for changes in the socioeconomic status of the country/world. I suggest reading some of Marx’s work

With that said, I do agree that in some aspects the Democrats are “better”, such as LGBT rights and such, but that could be 10 times better if the people were actually in charge instead of a few rich lobbyists.

Asafum ,

I get what you’re saying in theory, but even then the “owning class” is a large group of people that are not working together for anything. They all independently influence whomever they want and it’s the disproportionate amount of power they hold in that respect that is the issue (money.)

It’s no wonder though that the majority of the “owning class” that we really see as problematic in their nature (think Koch’s, Musk, Adelson, Russian oligarchs via the NRA, etc) all support Republicans. Those that support Democrats tend to be better people as far as what they do with their money for society (Think: Gates, but not always: Bezos).

Edit: 50/50 wasn’t really worth the comment so I’ll just strike through instead of delete lol

stella ,

No, not all politicians are bad.

US democracy is so horrendously flawed, however, that only a few good eggs make it though. They almost serve as an excuse for ‘not all representatives are bad’ when the vast majority of them are.

I think the true issue is the constituency. Nothing will change until the culture changes. For the culture to change, people need to admit when they’re wrong.

I won’t hold my breath, personally.

velox_vulnus ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    TexMexBazooka ,

    Not that have a snowballs chance in hell of winning

    zephyreks ,

    Two party state baby

    D3FNC ,

    Two party, lol please. The ruling class hasn’t been divided in this country since JFK

    ShimmeringKoi , (edited )
    @ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net avatar

    Not seriously since the COINTELPRO days

    mayo_cider ,
    @mayo_cider@hexbear.net avatar

    You’ll need an insurgency for that

    Asafum ,

    Bernie was the only one with balls to step forward. If there are any others out there then they’re hiding or being hidden somehow because we don’t see them.

    AOC is as close as you’ll get and the right immediately “Hillaried” her so now she’s “damaged goods.” They’re very good at muddying waters and ruining candidates via propaganda and brainwashing society.

    ksynwa ,
    @ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    Neither Bernie nor AOC is socialist in a meaningful sense. Bernie campained on taxing the rich and single payer healthcare which is radical in the American contest but it is not enough to make him a socialist. After he got ratfucked by DNC he has started toeing their line uncritically.

    If you want a prominent western anglosphere politician who is socialist, look at Jeremy Corbyn. Compare Labour’s manifesto during his election to Bernie’s programme. Bernie’s looks extremely lukewarm in comparison.

    Asafum ,

    As an American the only thing I know about him is the media smearing him for standing in front of an illuminati mural that they tried to frame as him being antisemitic… Figures he’d actually have good policies if they’re going to go after him like that.

    Hexbear2 ,

    Nope. Alternate power structures that can seize power during crises is how socialist revolution can come about. Much writing on this, here is a link I randomly googled:

    dsa-lsc.org/…/dual-power-a-strategy-to-build-soci…

    axont ,

    There are some socialists elected to regional positions, like city councils, school boards, etc. The most prominent is probably Seattle councilwoman Kshama Sawant

    Lols ,

    unless youre actually voting for a third party, not voting for the shinier turd is still a worthless position that does not improve anything

    Asafum ,

    I mean, voting 3rd party in the US system is just letting the party you agree least with win… There’s no good option :(

    Lols ,

    i can appreciate that third parties can only become mainstream if folks vote for them while they arent, and that its perfectly possible that there will never be a ‘right’ time to vote for them

    even if you dont think its worth it now, theyre at least using their vote to improve things long term

    stella ,

    Yeah, I think voting for a third party is fair.

    zerfuffle ,

    If the US and Israel are completely aligned in foreign policy, what keeps Israel from just becoming treated as another state of the US?

    GarbageShoot ,

    Its ethnonationalist policies would violate Federal law pretty severely, and then the US is explicitly on the hook for Israel’s war crimes, terrorism, assassinations, etc.

    kboy101222 ,

    The US isn’t on the hook for it’s own war crimes, terrorism, or assassinations, so that wouldn’t matter

    stella ,

    Yes, “all’s fair in love and war” means you can do anything you want if you can get away with it.

    stella ,

    Israel has more power over the US than states.

    Ram_The_Manparts ,
    @Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net avatar

    Also, Ukraine was the only country that abstained.

    Enkers ,

    I think that’s an understandable position, given their situation. They’re receiving a lot of military support from the US, so it’s not surprising that they’d at least be cautious about taking a position that might harm ties with the US.

    PolandIsAStateOfMind ,
    @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

    The word you are looking for is “puppet”. Even the other US vassals oppose the embargo.

    Enkers ,

    I mean, they didn’t vote to uphold the embargo either, so maybe half puppet? Also, not saying I agree with their position, just that it’s understandable.

    Lols ,

    how many of those are currently suffering an invasion

    PolandIsAStateOfMind ,
    @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

    By Cuba?

    Cockmaster6000 ,

    Why are you pretending to not understand their point? Of course not by Cuba.

    PolandIsAStateOfMind , (edited )
    @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

    Stop being obtuse. Why would Ukraine be even hostile to Cuba to the point of not opposing the murderous embargo? The only reason is to bootlick USA.

    Cockmaster6000 ,

    Ukraine’s ability to defend itself from Putin’s “special military operation” directly depends on continued financial and military support from the US.

    It’s not bootlicking, it’s a rational decision to avoid making waves with US foreign policy that doesn’t involve Ukraine at all.

    Lols ,

    can you explain in detail how you came to the conclusion that i meant ‘by cuba’, because im genuinely interested

    PolandIsAStateOfMind ,
    @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml avatar

    You said:

    how many of those are currently suffering an invasion

    (by “those” i meant US vassals)

    It’s pretty clear you somehow counted Ukraine being invaded by Russia as reason for Ukraine to not oppose the murderous embargo on Cuba, unrelated country on the other side of the world.

    Cockmaster6000 ,

    Yeah, why would Ukraine not upset the US when continued support for their country’s defense is currently being debated in congress?

    It’s a real head scratcher.

    Lols ,

    It’s pretty clear you somehow counted Ukraine being invaded by Russia as reason for Ukraine to not oppose the murderous embargo on Cuba

    thats funny, ‘it being pretty clear that i meant russia’ is a weird reason for thinking i meant cuba

    It’s pretty clear you somehow counted Ukraine being invaded by Russia as reason for Ukraine to not oppose the murderous embargo on Cuba, unrelated country on the other side of the world.

    currently relying on military aid from the US government to deal with an ongoing invasion might be a reason to abstain from voting against an embargo being upheld by the US government

    ‘the other US vassals’ are generally not currently relying on military aid from the US government to deal with an ongoing invasion

    i figured that was pretty clearly what i was talking about, what with it being the literal topic of the conversation:

    They’re receiving a lot of military support from the US, so it’s not surprising that they’d at least be cautious about taking a position that might harm ties with the US.

    Flyberius ,
    @Flyberius@hexbear.net avatar

    Every year they have this vote. Every year is the same thing.

    Death to America, death to the west, death to America’s allies.

    Starshader ,

    And to Russia and to China and to pretty much every country <3

    ShimmeringKoi ,
    @ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net avatar

    🙄

    GiveMemes ,

    hates America

    *is chinaboo *

    Lmaooo

    Starshader ,

    Isn’t it better to say fuck all religions rather than a specific one ?

    TheGamingLuddite ,

    China is a force for good and Russia is the harm reduction candidate vs the US.

    Starshader ,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    TheGamingLuddite ,

    If Gaza hasn’t shown you that Uyghur Genocide was a crackpot evangelical conspiracy theory cooked up in a Langley basement then nothing will

    Starshader ,

    Ok so every neutral journalists, humanitarian comitees, independent experts and basically most Uyghur are in the conspiracy and the very nice Chinese government is clean because they never lie.

    Hahaha you are a drone or a flatearther.

    Abracadaniel ,
    @Abracadaniel@hexbear.net avatar

    hexbear.net/post/984944?scrollToComments=false

    Starshader ,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    Abracadaniel ,
    @Abracadaniel@hexbear.net avatar

    the replies to the post I linked are admittedly not very well sourced. there are better resources. why do you call me Winnie the Pooh?

    EDIT: Here’s a post with much better resources: hexbear.net/post/2361

    China is not comitting a genocide. neither is Russia. Eqiuvocating the actions they are taking to the holocaust or even to Israel’s actions against Palestinians is really fucked up.

    Starshader ,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    TheGamingLuddite ,

    If you look into it, most of the indpendent experts are one right wing crank, Adrian Zenz, who is 100% funded by the UK State-Owned BBC and an American intelligence cutout organization called the NED. He’s a far-right Christian Zionist who doesn’t speak a word of Mandarin. You should be happy that there’s no genocide in Xinjiang (even Zenz has never claimed this), mad that your tax dollars likely went to fund his bogus cause, and furious that those same tax dollars are also being used to conduct a real genocide in Gaza.

    Starshader ,

    Wow wait ! I’m not American. And fuck the state of Israel. But as much as it may rather be a cultural genocide, it still sucks. And as I said, I can’t trust a state that did what it did to Hong Kong, Taiwan and try to hide things to it’s people (tiananmen for example) I have no faith in the words governments, wherever they stand and I don’t believe in “nations”.

    Flinch ,
    @Flinch@hexbear.net avatar

    I have no faith in the words governments

    “Except the ones I agree with, those are telling the truth”

    Rom ,
    @Rom@hexbear.net avatar

    Can we get an embargo on the US?

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    By imposing sanctions on more and more Global South countries, the US is effectively embargoing itself.

    D3FNC ,

    BRICS: hold my beer

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    The 51st state doing the work I see.

    Rapidcreek ,

    The UN has no authority over the way the US does business as a country.

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    Yes, the US is a Rogue State

    Rapidcreek ,

    Russia has a leader wanted at the Hague.

    Masimatutu , (edited )
    @Masimatutu@mander.xyz avatar

    Ah, so you’re a troll.

    Edit: looking at your profile, I’m not so sure anymore. If you’re not, please do explain how that makes the US any less of a rogue state.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    The US should have leaders wanted at the Hague, and perhaps would if not for the Hague Invasion Act.

    Rapidcreek ,

    Yeah, ĝotta teach our troops how to butcher civilians and steal children.

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    Butwhatabout-

    Rapidcreek ,

    Dude said rogue nation. How rogue do you want to get

    Glytch ,

    How about invading the Hague?

    While it hasn’t happened yet congress has authorized the president to do just that if any (important) American armed service member catches war crime charges.

    Masimatutu ,
    @Masimatutu@mander.xyz avatar

    Yes, you are right, de facto the UN has very little authority over countries. But however powerless, they can still try to nudge countries away from doing what they definitely shouldn’t be doing through coordinating international opinion.

    Rapidcreek ,

    Cuba can talk to our Secretary of State just like any country wishing to change our relationship.

    grte ,

    I’m sure they’ve never thought of that before. They should give you a job as head of their diplomatic corps with ideas like this.

    Masimatutu ,
    @Masimatutu@mander.xyz avatar

    Do you seriously think they haven’t tried?

    Rapidcreek ,

    Trump resumed trade prohibitions. After that I don’t know. But that is the way to change relationships. Last I heard, Cuba actually arrested some Russians for recruiting Cubans for the Ukraine War. Which was, I should think, a good sign. But, Cubans know the way to Blinken’s office.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    You keep saying that, implying that going to Blinken’s office would do fuck-all to change America’s 60+ year embargo when it obviously wouldn’t.

    Rapidcreek ,

    Actually, Obama started them on their way to normalization. Then Trump reapplied sanctions. So it wasn’t a straight 60 years. They want to get on the path that they agreed to again, I’m sure SecState would be receptive. And that is the way it’s done.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    Stop implying that Cuba is the one dragging its feet. It’s the US’s unilateral embargo, which it can stop any time it wants with the stroke of a pen, as the US General Assembly has called for it to do every single year for the past 31 years.

    Rapidcreek ,

    What I’m implying is if Cuba wants normalization it knows how to get it. The way to get it is not through the UN. Has Cuba the one dragging feet? IDK, when was the last time they had a free and fair election?

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    What I’m implying is if Cuba wants normalization it knows how to get it.

    Please spell it out for us, what does Cuba need to do to get America to act like a normal country? We know it has nothing to do with “free and fair elections,” because there are plenty of countries the US isn’t embargoing that don’t have that. The US Has No Business Lecturing Cuba About “Free and Fair” Elections

    Rapidcreek ,

    I’m not the Secretary of State. But I suppose it has something to do with improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms. The promotion of universal human rights and a person’s right to speak freely, peacefully assemble, and associate, and by supporting the ability of people to freely determine their future. The common stuff. The stuff Russia, Iran and North Korea don’t do. The stuff Cuba is pretty terrible at.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    Do you think the Secretary of State—who is facilitating genocide in Gaza as we speak—should be the world’s arbiter of universal human rights? If you look at the UN General Assembly vote on the matter, every year for the last 31 years, you will find that the world almost unanimously disagrees.

    Rapidcreek ,

    Who do you want as the arbiter? Hamas?

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    The UN should be the arbiter, that was literally the fucking point.

    Rapidcreek ,

    That’s funny.

    purahna ,
    @purahna@lemmygrad.ml avatar

    archived web.archive.org/…/un-votes-end-us-embargo-cuba-us…

    Ashyr ,

    In all seriousness, who does the embargo really benefit. Maybe it made sense during the Cold War when missiles were getting moved around, but now? Someone somewhere must be profiting from it, but it’s not the American people.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    Wikipedia » Political positions of Noam Chomsky » Views on institutions » Criticism of United States government

    His conclusion is that a consistent part of the United States’ foreign policy is based on stemming the “threat of a good example.” This ‘threat’ refers to the possibility that a country could successfully develop outside the US-managed global system, thus presenting a model for other countries, including countries in which the United States has strong economic interests.

    queermunist ,
    @queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

    It benefits the US empire. Duh?

    MossyFeathers , (edited )

    No one is, but my understanding is that banana companies stand to lose a ton of money if Cuba’s “”“debt”“” to the US is forgiven. Iirc Cuba has a significant outstanding debt with the US after they successfully overthrew their banana republic, because fruit companies got pissed off and shit themselves when Cuba told them to fuck off and seized their land. Said companies then went to the US government and bitched and moaned about not being able to use pseudo-slave labor for bananas anymore and the US government said, “oh, poor guys, they just wanted to grow bananas and get rich” and told Cuba it now owes the companies that were operating in Cuba a fuck ton of money. If the US government hadn’t whored out to banana companies, Cuba would probably be our weirdo little brother with strange ideas about what proper government should look like.

    It honestly weirds me out that tankies love to suck Putin and Pooh’s dick when Cuba is just right there and seems to be doing socialism right (I’ve heard Vietnam has been doing pretty well too, and genuinely likes the US despite the US-Vietnam war^1 ). My understanding is that the reason why Cuba struggles with quality of life is mainly a result of the US embargo. Hell, recently they passed a law regarding LGBT people which is supposedly one of the most progressive, if not the most progressive, set of protections for people who are LGBT in the world. Not only that, but supposedly it was the result of Cuban citizens (not politicians) getting together and deciding, collectively, that they needed better protections for people who are LGBT and received a large majority of support.

    What the fuck are you doing tankies? Why are you sucking Putin’s cock when Cuba’s over here being cool?

    ^1 I’ve been told that Vietnamese people see the war as validating (they went up against the biggest military in the world and won) and also understand that a lot of the soldiers deployed by the US didn’t actually want to be there, which is why they generally have a positive view of Americans.

    appel ,

    Tankies like Cuba no idea what you’re on about

    MossyFeathers ,

    I almost never hear about tankies (at least not the hexbear/lemmygrad type) talking about Cuba. It’s always Russia and China. I’m sure they exist, but why do they like idolizing Russia and China? It makes no sense.

    appel ,

    Because Cuba is not often a major player in world events, like Russia and the PRC are currently. Cuba is involved in quite a few discussions in communist theory. I also don’t really see what you mean regarding idolizing, they just have quite a different viewpoint.

    PowerCrazy ,

    Also “tankies” like cuba. So do leftists, and pretty much every one who doesn’t simp for capitalism. I’m pretty sure that Mossy Feathers strawman actually likes Cuba too.

    stella ,

    Nobody. It exists solely because of American’s indoctrinated hate towards Communism.

    I guess long term you could make the argument it threatens the ruling class, because if (more) communist ideals were proven successful then more nations would implement them.

    autotldr Bot ,

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    HAVANA, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly called for the 31st time on the United States to end its decades-long trade embargo against Cuba as the communist-run island suffers its worst economic crisis in decades, with shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

    Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a speech before the assembly that the “blockade prevents Cuba from accessing food, medicines, and technological and medical equipment.”

    Havana is also prohibited from exporting to the neighboring United States, Rodriguez said, curtailing access to a massive market for its goods and costing Cuba nearly $5 billion in losses in 2022 alone.

    “The blockade (embargo) qualifies as a crime of genocide,” said Rodriguez, who said the U.S. policies were deliberately aimed at promoting suffering among the Cuban people in order to force change in the government.

    U.S. diplomat Paul Folmsbee, in a brief speech opposing the resolution, said the embargo was aimed at promoting “human rights and fundamental liberties in Cuba” and that the U.S. made exceptions for humanitarian purposes.

    The long-running dispute between Cuba and the United States shows little sign of detente, despite some modest gestures of goodwill under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

    The original article contains 330 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 40%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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