28 Comments

Happy new year everybody.

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Happy New Year OB. It's been nice meeting you too. Thanks for the cheerful list of good things of the year. How do I get a Hu shirt?

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They have a merchandise tab here: https://www.thehuofficial.com/music

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Wow, great job with the recap. Let me see if I have this straight; there seems to be something here for almost everybody (on the cultural right, I mean… but I hope I have that wrong):

-transgender therapy for minors (which typically does NOT include surgery, or any other irrevocable medical changes) is evil. Check. PS: At least your GOP governor didn’t grab the low-hanging RW fruit. Bravo.

-The dysfunctional doings of the Republican House “majority“ are worthy of mention simply because you don’t like the Squad (and have a thing about Jimmy Dore)…as opposed to the many entertaining ways in which the GOP majority has been, well, entertaining. Check.

-Climate change science has everything exactly backwards, and greater CO2 concentrations have somehow become a good thing (WTF? You’re just saying this to mess with us, right?…) Check.

-your main conclusion regarding the importance of social media is that it involves “unconstitutional/authoritarian” overreaches by nefarious agents of the Democratic Party (as opposed to the far right’s deification of Mango Mussolini by the same means, notably helped along by legend-in-his-own-mind Elon Musk, who also has no problems whatsoever with giving a megaphone to disgusting fascists who are free to parrot the orange idiot and almost every other supporting actor of his, and who has also felt free to sic the shit-flinging rightwing monkeys on any remaining lefty voices on X)

A couple of questions of my own…

How do you feel about Trump being (unfortunately, I expect only temporarily) stricken from the ballot in Colorado and Maine? This probably does at least distantly reflect the opinion of the majority in both of those states, but what amuses me is that those who oppose it do so on the basis of the “voice of the people” - while those same creatures can be counted on to roll out that great chestnut “This is a republic, not a democracy!”

Obviously, neither major party in this country stands for “socialism” - with most of both parties being completely clueless on the definition of that word. They don’t know the first thing about it, nor do they understand that the real definition describes a country that would be unrecognizable to the USA… except, of course, for the ways we have always been and remain “socialist” in the ways THEY would never admit to, i.e., public ownership/control of police and fire departments, highway departments, etc. etc. It seems inconceivable that the two major parties, espouse anything like *real* socialism. So what is your point in even bringing it up?

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My point in bringing it up is to suggest that we don't have to settle for what we have now. The federal government has become tyrannical and should be overthrown. It is tyrannical because it has been bought, therefore the people who bought it need to be rendered harmless.

Climate change is real. I've seen it and lived it. What isn't real are the prescriptions for dealing with it. When the ruling class continues to wage wars and use private jets, but tell me I should be forced to give up my gas stove and gasoline lawnmower, I call bullshit.

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Yes, this bullshit degrowth is quite the propaganda campaign. Like the best propaganda, it's a messy issue and totally incompatible with one or two sentence proclamations or interactions. Yes there's climate change but per usual the rich people are using it to their advantage.

Those lucky few who own everything are pushing the ridiculous idea that it's good to be broke and have nothing. And this coincides with the mass of people literally going broke and having nothing due to rich people.

Just yay. Just yay.

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Instead of ballot bans, if the Democrats would just (genuinely) stand up for the things Americans -- including many Republicans -- want, like universal healthcare they could throw the Trumpsters out the window like a wet washcloth.

But they won't. They won't because they are owned by the same corporate fascists and in the case of the US/Israeli genocide, Zionist forces and big money.

So instead of a real alternative to Trump, they have to try to keep him off the ticket, peddle silly woke causes and kill off their own primary process so whatever is in charge can continue to work sock puppet Biden's mouth.

When Trump wins, the ones to blame are not the Trumpsters, but the Democrats, who are the flipside of the same coin, and much of the left who have abandoned organizing and resistance for virtue signalling ego massages.

It's just one big corporate party, folks: The Republocrats.

Of your list OB, your first one was my favorite. May the yachts of the wealthy splinter and sink.

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Happy New Year all!

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Thank you, and happy New Year! Слава миру - glory to peace. I hope it happens in 2024 for all families!

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I was wrong about my prediction of a truce in Ukraine by Christmas. Better move that back a year. Dammit.

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I suspect so - there are still some more Ukrainians for Joe, though he has new countries he's playing with now. I will still hope for peace, without the cost of too much misery.

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Or two.

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That's possible. I think it depends on when the Ukrainians get sick of dying for American MIC profits, which might happen sooner than Russia's anticipated major offensive date that's scheduled, according to some high-ranking Russian muckymuck or the other, for 2025.

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2025??? Man, that is a long time. So much unnecessary suffering and death. Daily bloody deposits in the US karma account.

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The war has been good for Russia's manufacturing base. Their GDP is projected to increase 3.3% or something next year, and it's manufacturing that's propelling it.

I understand it's not all weapons manufacturing, either. Looks like the Russians figured out if you make most of your own stuff, you're just better off.

There can't help but be incentive in the Russian oligarchy to let the war drag on, while Russian military strategy will include minimizing their own casualties. Ukraine's drafting women. How much longer can they really hold out? It may be a matter of months for all I know.

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And Uncle Sam looks on and thinks, "Huh, that's weird. I didn't know that."

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Happy New Year,OB..and everyone.

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This made my day! "A pod of orcas cruised around Europe attacking yachts and other rich people boats, thereby proving that if there is any inherently proletarian intelligent species on this planet, it is the cetaceans."

I'm also a fan of what the UAW is doing.

Happy New Year, comrade!

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Sadly, your UAW info is incorrect. It was a sellout contract. The ratification was suspect. It did NOT abolish the tiered wages. I don't understand why people think this contract was good. Mainstream media must be straight-up lying about it. It in no way eliminates the tiered system, the pay increases are less than the cost of inflation, and there are a million exceptions and loopholes. These workers were completely bamboozled by an outrageous propaganda campaign that even indie media are naively accepting as truth.

The stand-up strikes were a sham. If you go to work, you ain't on strike. The workers were PISSED about this non-strike strike. Talk about gaslighting to a sick degree! The few plants that did strike were ones that were so unimportant to the auto production process that it was obvious to workers that they were being swindled. They had voted approximately 95% to strike. Let that sink in. The vast majority of the UAW membership voted to strike when the contract extension ended. I don't think they could have ever imagined that their vote to strike would mean only 1% of them would actually strike. That is not exactly what one thinks of when one envisions a strike.

The purpose of a strike is to withhold ALL the labor and fuck over the jackasses who profit off the labor. Because they've fucked labor one too many times. They've taken it too far and they know it, but their psychologists are so damn GOOD at their jobs of persuasion and deception.

This stand-up strike is liberal for "bullshit propaganda campaign". You can find plenty of info about this, tons of articles (use title search function for "UAW and contract" for best results) at wsws.org.

I don't like 60% of wsws content- I don't agree with snobby Trotskyites, but that website is far and away the best place for legit info on labor issues. No other websites come close to it. I know, I know, those damn Trotsky peeps, but I just ignore the bullshit and read the labor news.

Oh, and because I should withold respect where it is NOT due, may I remind everybody that Shawn Fain is a piece of shit who makes 250k a year and photo-opped with Joe Biden. That should be a clue as to whose side he's on.

Here's one article to get you started, titled <<I guarantee you that they stuff the ballot box!”: Michigan autoworkers speak out against UAW contract “ratification”>>

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/17/auto-n17.html

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The WSWS is a bunch of pompous, worthless academics hanging out in Ann Arbor. They oppose any union action that doesn't set their purist Trotskyist standards that never existed in reality. They also swallowed the government Covid propaganda hook, line and sinker, and STILL support China's spectacularly failed Zero Covid Policy.

They don't know what they're talking about. They've never done any real work a day in their lives, and have no idea of what union organizing is like. They don't even understand the principle of asking for more than you really want.

I wouldn't believe them if they said rain was wet.

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So you believe the union bureaucracy because you don't like wsws???? These articles quote workers. But because they spoke with wsws you're gonna believe mainstream media's lies? What the fuck, dude. Believe whatever you want. But you're wrong about the UAW and it sucks that you'd double down on incorrect anti-labor information. It shocks me that you wrote this.

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I believe this union bureaucracy for two reasons. First their leaders are an insurgent slate which, if memory serves, the WSWS supported at the time. Second, I know something about contract negotiations. If you're a union rep, you always demand the Sun and the Moon when you only really need the Moon. That's what this UAW did, and it worked. The results speak for themselves.

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Your comment is a great example of biting off your nose to spite your face. You're siding with the union bureaucracy and a guy who makes 250k/year.

Who's your source that says this contract was so great? You're dissing my argument because you don't like my source. This is literally like talking to a liberal who won't listen to an argument because they have a pre-existing opinion about the outlet. Maybe think about that before you repeat the popular narrative that stabs the UAW workers in their backs. Because how would you feel if you just got a shitty contract and the entire media was telling you it was fabulous?

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My source is what seems to be the consensus of the autoworkers themselves. I know I and many millions of others would be DELIGHTED to get the kind of contract that Shawn Fein did. I've been in AFSCME for decades, and the most they've ever accomplished is a 3% raise. Relativity is a big factor in how I look at this.

Why are you so angry? I know who the WSWS are, and what they are, that's all. If they weren't infiltrated by the Feds they wouldn't touting the Big Pharma Covid narrative as they do, or the identity politics garbage they at least pretend to go along with.

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Citation of these auto workers? I've read everything about this I can find.

I'm angry because these workers were fucked over. How would you feel if you were a 2nd tier auto worker and you hop on substack to read what a great contract you just got, when your wage gain was a pittance, you're making less than fast food workers, and the whole country is gaslighting you that "the contract was great!"? How would you feel?

I will say I got a warm fuzzy feeling inside when my husband told me that TESLA owners were abandoning their cars that wouldn't turn on in the freezing cold.

I'll end on that happy image of rich people abandoning their useless cars in the cold, angrily screaming and clutching their cell phones as they lose feeling in their fine, manicured fingers.

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Happy New Year and hooray for the orcas! They were the one shining light of the entire year for me. May we see many more cetaceans take on the human polluters on the ocean... and the birds... yes, maybe they can clear the skies for us?

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Orca Uprising!

Workers strike back!

And the Levellers get a shoutout!

Thanks for this year’s roundup!

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