cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6980341

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1231…

This article by Arturo Huerta González originally appeared in the December 2, 2025 edition of La Jornada de Oriente*, the Puebla edition of Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of* Mexico Solidarity Media*, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.*

On November 26, 2025, the country’s President stated that “there is no money to pay what the farmers are demanding ” and that “you can’t promise what you can’t deliver.” The government has indicated that “the producers’ request to set a price far above the current market value for all national corn exceeds the government ‘s financial capacity ” and that the farmers ‘ demands “must be adjusted to budgetary availability, as public finances have limits.”

This rhetoric is the same as that of the neoliberal presidents who have governed us since the 1980s. By limiting public spending relative to revenue, the government seeks to curry favor with international rating agencies , the International Monetary Fund, and the national and international financial sector. This has led to a reduction in the size and participation of the government in the economy and a neglect of growth objectives for the productive sector, such as job creation, which the population demands. It is a crime to cut public spending in a context where the economy is not growing and the demands of large segments of the population are not being met.

It should be noted that a sovereign government has no financial limits. Financial resources are available. It’s simply a matter of amending the Organic Law of the Bank of Mexico so that it can purchase government debt directly at a low interest rate. This would allow the government to expand its spending and investment to meet the demands of farmers, promote the substitution of agricultural and manufactured imports, and generate employment. This would not be inflationary, as it would increase production, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and generate revenue to cover debt payments. The government could also reduce funding for failed projects such as the Maya Train, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec train , and the Dos Bocas refinery, and allocate those funds to support basic grain producers, a strategic sector essential for ensuring food self-sufficiency in these areas.

Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.

The government says that the requested guaranteed price of 7,200 pesos per ton for corn is far above the market price and that absorbing the difference is very costly for the government. The problem is that the national price should not be set based on the open market, determined by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as this has led to cheap imports displacing domestic production and jeopardizing food self-sufficiency in basic grains. This not only affects agricultural producers but also increases the foreign trade deficit and makes the economy more dependent on capital inflows, which requires setting high interest rates to stimulate them. This, in turn, increases the cost of servicing debt for the government, businesses, and households, and restricts investment, spending, and economic activity.

Farmers are not mobilizing to defend any privileges, as the government claims ; they are demanding the implementation of policies to boost Mexican agriculture and advance food self-sufficiency. Therefore, they are demanding an end to importing basic grains, the provision of affordable credit, and the establishment of fair prices for these products.

The government refuses to do so for fear of inflation and devaluation, which would affect the financial sector, which requires low inflation and currency stability to safeguard its capital. Since the economy lacks the conditions to lower inflation, given low productivity and production lags, it has resorted to stimulating capital inflows to lower the dollar’s value and thus imports in order to reduce inflation. All of this benefits the financial sector and producers from the US and other countries who flood the domestic market with their products at the expense of displacing national producers and without implementing policies that promote economic growth.

The government must work for the benefit of the country, not against it. Domestic production and employment must be incentivized , even if this seems more expensive in the short term, because it would boost economic growth and employment, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and provide workers with income to cope with higher prices. This would prevent the current practice of lowering inflation to benefit the financial sector and US producers of imported goods, which has led to a decline in our industry and production of basic grains. This, in turn, has stifled economic growth, increased unemployment and underemployment, and lowered the population’s standard of living.

The government opposes the farmers’ request to remove staple grains from the USMCA trade agreement because it fears the US will impose further restrictions on Mexican exports to that country. Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.

The President said that “we must be very responsible about what can and cannot be done,” and in this regard, it must be said that economic policy must be responsible in order to satisfy the demands not only of agricultural producers, but also of those who clamor for well-paying jobs, just enough to address the growing poverty and crime plaguing the country. To achieve this, the government must abandon budget cuts and ensure that the central bank serves the growth of the productive sector and employment. Furthermore, trade liberalization must be reviewed, and protectionist policies implemented to favor domestic production. If the government does not increase investment and spending to boost private investment, production, and employment, and if the central bank does not lower interest rates, the economy is headed for a crisis.

Without growth in production and employment, there is no growth. Neoliberal policies must be abandoned . If the government fails to meet the needs of the population and continues to act in favor of the interests of the US and the financial sector, economic and social problems and discontent among affected sectors will worsen, leading to increased protests.

Analysis

The post Continuing Neoliberal Policies Over Farmers’ Demands appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating one of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so in recent weeks.

CAIR's Florida chapter announced a lawsuit challenging the order at a Tuesday press conference in Tampa, where Hiba Rahim, the chapter's interim executive director, called the order "defamatory and unconstitutional."

The U.S. government has not designated CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, but President Donald Trump last month began the process of doing so for certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

The Florida order instructs agencies to take action to prevent CAIR from receiving any state contracts, employment or funding.

CAIR was founded in 1994 and has chapters in nearly two dozen U.S. states.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-governor-designates-muslim-rights-group-terrorist-organization-2025-12-09/

“We will leverage taxpayer dollars in a more accountable, flexible and deliberate manner to maximize their value across capability portfolios,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during an address at the National War College. “We will shift funding within portfolios’ authorized boundaries swiftly and decisively to maximize mission outcomes. If one program is faltering, funding will be shifted within the portfolio to accelerate or scale a higher priority. If a new or more promising technology emerges, we will seize the opportunity and not be held back by artificial constraints and funding boundaries that take months or even years to overcome.”

In that address, Hegseth credited the military services with laying the groundwork for some of the reforms he wants to make department-wide. And the Army started its implementation work last month, naming six new “portfolio acquisition executives.” Each of those PAEs will oversee different “capability areas” with programs managed by what had, up until now, been called program executive offices (PEOs), and will now be called capability program executives (CPEs).

Army begins to reshape its acquisition enterprise along portfolio lines

Former program executive offices are starting to realign their organizations under the new "capability portfolio executive" construct.

^{Jared Serbu (Federal News Network)}

• Groundwork Collaborative;
• Consumer Reports.

New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”

• Groundwork Collaborative;
• Consumer Reports.

New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”

The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in central Paris with actor Ary Abittan before a performance he was about to give.

The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word “rapist” and shouting, “Abittan, rapist!”

A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape, but in 2023, investigators dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence.

Before Sunday’s performance, Macron is seen in the video, published by local media Public on Monday, asking him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, Macron was heard jokingly responding, using a vulgar expression in French, “If there are any stupid removed, we’ll kick them out”.

Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists

The French first lady’s team says she had intended to criticise a feminist group’s ‘radical method’ of protest.

^{Al Jazeera}

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/39957209

Hello lemmings, I've once again come for your advice. I've built a sff system with a dual boot bazzite os. This will be mostly for my kids playing games and media serving from Big picture in the living room. I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up the accounts. Ideally it would be as close to a console experience as possible but I want to make sure each kid can save their own progress. What's my best option here? Does everyone need their own os account that signs them into steam properly? I've never set up a system for multiple users before.

Edit: details

Edit: thanks for all the feedback! I'm leaning towards single system account with multiple steam accounts. Now I just need to figure out how to keep myself signed in on steam so I don't have to put my PW in every time. Thanks a ton!

Hi Linux Lemmites. Recently finished up school and started working full time and kind of miss working on personal projects. I’m looking to try to make something in rust and try out gpui if I can figure it out or maybe egui. I also want to make something maybe even a handful of people would actually use as I find that motivating, so I ask what would actually be useful to you?

Edit: thank you all very much for the input, I think that maybe doing something akin to a “settings+” would be a fair target for me for a n initial project. If I make anything interesting I’ll make another post in this sub.