‘Don’t want a slave’s peace’: Maduro hits back after Trump ultimatum; tensions surge
Sources told the Miami Hearld that during the call Trump had pressed Maduro to leave “right away”, offering guarantees for his family only if he resigned on the spot. Maduro reportedly refused and instead put forward counter-demands, including global amnesty and the ability to retain control of the armed forces even if he ceded political power.
According to the Miami Herald, there has been no further communication since, despite Maduro’s attempt to secure a second call after Trump declared Venezuelan airspace “closed in its entirety”.
‘Don’t want a slave’s peace’: Maduro hits back after Trump ultimatum; tensions surge
US News: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rejected a \"slave's peace\" amid escalating US pressure, accusing Washington of testing the nation with a prolongedTOI World Desk (The Times Of India)
China’s currency push gains ground as Russia nears issuance of yuan bond
China’s currency push gains ground as Russia nears issuance of yuan bond
Foreign governments have raised a record 13 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) via yuan bonds this year, Bloomberg-compiled data shows.Bloomberg (South China Morning Post)
China pares down US Treasury holdings
China pares down US Treasury holdings
China cut its US Treasury holdings by $25.7 billion in July to $730.7 billion, marking the steepest reduction in nearly two years and pushing its holdings to the lowest since 2009, as the country's foreign exchange reserve diversification continued, …global.chinadaily.com.cn
China-Russia cooperation expanding in traditional areas, emerging sectors
Bilateral trade poised for steady growth
China-Russia trade is expected to maintain growth momentum in the coming years, as both countries are actively strengthening business ties in manufacturing, green industries, cross-border e-commerce and other emerging sectors, said market watchers an…global.chinadaily.com.cn
*Per reddit u/pathtracing - Thu Jun 19 08:27:23 2025 UTC - old.reddit.com/r/ipv6/comments…
I think the problem is you (and others) using the term “vpn” to cover various different needs.
There’s:
- actual privacy from network observers, which is about only Mullvad
- exploiting non-technical podcast listeners, which is just about every other product labelled “vpn”
- providing better connectivity, which is Tunnelbroker or a GRE/vxlan provider
- joining the DFZ via a crap isp, which is bgptunnel and various more expensive ones
You want 3 or 4, which is fine. Making item 1 provide a subnet doesn’t help 1 do its job any better and definitely will harm unskilled users.
[Patch Notes] Content Update 0.4.0 — Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids
Early Access Patch Notes - Content Update 0.4.0 — Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids - Forum - Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.Path of Exile
‘There is no Mamdani effect’: Manhattan luxury home sales surge after mayoral election, undercutting predictions of doom and escape to Florida
In the aftermath of much well-heeled panic about a potential mass exodus of New York millionaires and billionaires following the election of Zohran Mamdani, the contrary is already happening, and Manhattan luxury apartment buyers are voting with their wallets.
Signed contracts for Manhattan homes costing $4 million or more rose to 176 in November, a 25% increase from October’s 141 deals, according to fresh data from brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel. New signed contracts of more than $4 million increased at more than twice the rate of the overall market, the report noted.
‘There is no Mamdani effect’: Manhattan luxury home sales surge after mayoral election, undercutting predictions of doom and escape to Florida
Signed contracts for Manhattan homes over $4 million grew by 25%; “the idea that people would flee New York was overblown,” said realtor Donna Olshan.Sasha Rogelberg (Fortune)
Water is Doug Ford’s latest target for privatization
Authoritarian Doug Ford is privatizing our water - rabble.ca
Water is Doug Ford's latest target for privatization.Paul Kahnert (rabble)
Water is Doug Ford’s latest target for privatization
Authoritarian Doug Ford is privatizing our water - rabble.ca
Water is Doug Ford's latest target for privatization.Paul Kahnert (rabble)
Micron Announces Exit from Crucial Consumer Business
Russian Forces Liberate Klinovoye Settlement in Donetsk People's Republic
Russian Forces Liberate Klinovoye Settlement in Donetsk People's Republic
Russia's Yug battlegroup took control of the settlement of Klinovoe in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.Sputnik International
Grand jury declines to indict N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, less than two weeks after the first case was dismissed
Grand jury declines to indict N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, less than two weeks after the first case was dismissed
The Justice Department on Thursday failed to secure an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, a person familiar with the matter told NBC NewsRyan J. Reilly (NBC News)
Maduro may have to bring out their gundams
Look at this imperial hubris:
Maduro has said there are 8 million civilians training in militias, but one source estimated that only thousands of intelligence personnel, armed ruling-party supporters and militia members would really participate in defensive actions.
sources and planning documents seen, but not shared, by Reuterssix unnamed sources familiar with Venezuelan military capabilities said
reuters
the U.S. is seeking regime change to take control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
That is the polite way of saying the US wants to destroy Venezuela and steal in natural resources.
Linus vs Linus
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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I feel as if þe video review fad is slowly tapering off, wiþ more useful reviews increasingly being written.
I can only hope þe format dies, and YouTube wiþ it.
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Meanwhile, I read stories from other users here on the Fediverse who had grandparents who got fed up with Windows and installed Aurora; they just figured things out as they went and stuck with it.
So like you say, don't go too crazy right out of the gate. Get used to the new system, and learn a new way of doing things.
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Yes but audio drivers still seem to be a common issue for everyone. That should really just be working out of the box by now it's insane.
His biggest issue was Premiere Pro not working on Linux, and Davinci Resolve not supporting the AAC Audio codec which VLC recorded in which he then wasted a ton of time on to get it to work and eventually tried to vibe-code his own video editor which didn't really work out so then he purchased Davinci Resolve premium to get AAC support.
His biggest issue was Premiere Pro not working on Linux, and Davinci Resolve not supporting the AAC Audio codec which VLC recorded in which he then wasted a ton of time on to get it to work and eventually tried to vibe-code his own video editor which didn't really work out so then he purchased Davinci Resolve premium to get AAC support.
Holy hell, why would he do that? Just "for the content"?
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Someone should have told him about bazzite, I just installed it (because someone here told me to last week) and it basically just worked.
Waiting for ffmpeg to run over several hours or spending 30 days vibe coding his own video editing software is something I would end up doing though…
I've read on Lemmy that Bazzite also has some issues. I believe GN chose it as their testing distro too and had some issue. Especially for non-gaming related tasks. Aurora is also a recommendation which is supposedly a general purpose bazzite but I'm not sure if that then has gaming issues.
Someone should really do a distro test where they test the out-of-the-box functionality of all distros on different tasks
I use Bazzite as my only desktop OS at the moment (I have multiple headless servers with either Fedora or Debian), and have been using Fedora atomic for awhile before that. I noticed no significant change in general purpose computing when switching from Fedora atomic (Kinoite) to Bazzite, other than all the non-free codecs and drivers I would have installed in Fedora already being present in Bazzite. If anything, that improved my experience. I don't even game much, it's just something I do occasionally, though I've been using Linux exclusively for over a decade now, so I can't say I get frustrated enough fixing minor things that I'd really remember things that are easy for me to fix, but potentially difficult for someone new to fix. Honestly, the only time I've really had to fix stuff in my recollection is from bash scripts I wrote in other distros no longer working, and since it's atomic, I chose to rewrite for the tools available instead of layering unnecessary packages. Certainly not something I'd imagine someone new doing.
As far as most software goes, you install it via Flatpak, so the experience should be identical across different distros.
I have used Bazzite for some time for both gaming and development tasks. Distrobox is what I use to do development, and rpm-ostree if I don't care about layering on to the system image. Really, immutable distros just function differently than non-immutable, so if you try to use them like you might be used to, then you might have a difficult time.
Bazzite's real strength is with completely new users in regard to Linux who haven't already built up non-immutable habits imo (although I've used Linux for over a decade and was able to adapt to immutable and actually prefer it). It pre-packages everything someone moving from gaming on Windows might need while making it more difficult to break. That's why Wendell recommended GN use it over Cachyos, since it's more approachable and accessible to those moving from Windows.
WHERE
EDIT: HERE
Hello I am fleeing the American century of humiliation Collection.
Good Shirts is your hub for all good shirts.Good Shirts
The death of the US Empire is funny until you realize that other countries will need to endure a bunch of US immigrants complaining that roads are too small and the food doesn't have corn syrup in it.
Sorry, I mean expats, that's the word when the immigrant is white
we don't like corn syrup right?
Yeah, we need corn syrup.....please do not be insensitive to our addiction.
There is no stopping the impulsive need to add corn into everything. Corn for the fuel, corn for sugar, corn for the livestock, corn for the hole. If you can cram corn in it, we've done it.
that's the fun part, it's been snuck into all of our foods that oftentimes we have little choice.
You can either cook all of your meals from scratch, or deal with high fructose corn syrup. That's livin in America.
You think they're going to last a century?
Should be the decade of humiliation.
They started off this century pretty strong though.
I'd say it was the '60's that they started embarrassing themselves which means we have another forty years left.
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While they have Mountain Dew in China, I haven't been able to find images of a Baja Blast variant, it could be the reason.
Injured teenager: consequences of drone attack on Russian regions
Injured teenager: consequences of drone attack on Russian regions
Between 11:30 p.m. Moscow time on November 30 and 7:00 a.m. on December 1, on-duty air defenses intercepted and destroyed 32 Ukrainian UAVsTASS
I am not sure I follow. Had you never noticed? If so I can't take credit for that discovery (I'm very sad about that).
Or is it that you don't want it censored? You enjoy seeing that, you sicko? You love that saggy orange nussy.
You disgust me.
So, looking at lady parts while I'm horny are going to be tainted because my brain will remind me of that nussy.
I disgust me.
"Oh so just because i get really sad when a Nazi dies and angry when normal people celebrate it, you think I'm some sort of Nazi, you're crazy, you're mentally deficient!"
Lol suck my ass Nazi, nobody buys your smol bean shit. Everyone hates you guys.
Yeah yeah, antifascists are the real fascists, we've all been through 2015
Go mourn Charlie Kirk somewhere else, you dollar store Svengali
fuck off, nazi scum.
you fucks love playing the victim don't ya?
Not only did he get what he deserved
You and yours made it very clear after the fact it was the correct thing to do
Which is great because now literally no one has any lingering sympathy
Can you imagine how much conservative whining and crying we're going to witness when this traitor fuck dies and the vast majority of the world throws a fucking party?
I'll only be upset about how much tax payer money is going to be spent giving this felon rapist pedophile a state-funded funeral.
Kissinger looked like this in his 80s and made it another 20 years.
Don't hold your breath.
If I had a dollar every time I heard "Politician I hate definitely has late stage physical/mental illness and will be going away shortly", I'd be rich enough to blow millions bankrolling corrupt NYC mayoral candidates who promised to keep my taxes low.
Trump appears healthier than Cheney and Cheney lasted five years longer than Trump is right now. So don't hold your breath.
Trump appears healthier than Cheney and Cheney lasted five years longer than Trump is right now. So don’t hold your breath.
My sibling in sin, half his face is drooping.
And in another five years, I’m sure he’ll look even worse.
First off, have you ever had relatives with dementia? When you have a relative, especially a close relative, you can see the signs. A drop in the face is one of the most noticeable, often it's one of the first things you notice, alongside other things like trouble walking, coordination issues, and often Erratic, Hostile behavior. The last one of course is one that Trump has always had, but the other ones can be seen very clearly in most news footage of him. Man's got issues.
Second off, I don't know what things are like over there, but here we have public information films that are broadcast on TV to teach people how to spot a stroke, because it's imperative that you get someone help when you suspect a stroke. The signs are:
- A droop in one side of the face.
- Trouble lifting their arms.
- Slurred speech.
The Acronym "FAST" is used here: Face, Arms, Speech, Time. A droop in the face is something that remains for a while after a stroke. Donald Trump very likely has either had a stroke or a severe brain injury on the level of being shot through the head and surviving. If I saw a man who looked like Donald Trump in that picture in the Supermarket, I would stop and ask if they were OK, because I might need to call a fucking Ambulance!
And I'm not saying that for partisan reasons, even with Biden's senior moments I thought that (as did he) that he was getting too long in the tooth, but it's very clear this man has dementia and it is developing quickly. His father had dementia and people who have had family members with the condition are at a higher risk of having it.
All of this is an issue because this man is in charge of Nuclear Weapons and is also the head of a personality cult that the ruling party want to maintain no matter what and thus is reluctant to officially at least trigger the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Donald Trump is becoming incapacitated and the Administration is reluctant to accept that.
Despite not being American, the fact that America has nukes, one of most powerful armed forces in the world and are in a Cold War with two others nuclear armed nations with one of them at war with a European country and the other threatening to Invade an ally and the source of the world's Microprocessors, and has a President who's very clearly had a stroke and is developing dementia, it is kinda my problem because I don't particularly want to be vaporized when the Russians slam nukes into Edinburgh City Center and Edinburgh Airport, because I just happen to be in the blast radius of both of those places, ken?
Get on Kalshi and place your bets.
But all this naked speculation about how Trump is on death's door has been going on since he was running for President the first time way back in 2015.
Wilson and Reagan left office before the dementia really took hold at 60 and 78 respectively, Trump on the other hand is 79, one year older than when Reagan left office and has four years left to go, when he'll be 83, and dementia doesn't stop for anyone.
Wilson threw in the towel when he realized he was getting too long in the tooth admitting that he was not up to the job. Reagan left office because he legally had to (two terms) which is something Trump is openly saying he will not do.
So one admissions of poor health, one case of being legally required to. Not exactly good arguments against a man who openly is saying he will flout the constitution for a third term.
Wilson and Reagan left office before the dementia really took hold
Wilson had intended to seek a third term in 1920, but was fully incapacitated and bedridden by October of 1919
Multiple Reagan staffers confirm he was fully in the thrall of dementia by his final year.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.youtube.com
Office for Budget Responsibility(OBR) chair quits after inquiry into early release of Reeves’s budget
Richard Hughes departs after investigation into how official forecaster accidentally published budget 40 minutes early
OBR chair quits after inquiry into early release of budget document
Richard Hughes takes ‘full responsibility’ for watchdog error as Starmer attempts to secure chancellor’s positionPippa Crerar (The Guardian)
Russian diplomat advises NATO to rein in 'escalatory' talk about preemptive strikes
Russian diplomat advises NATO to rein in 'escalatory' talk about preemptive strikes
According to Maria Zakharova, Moscow sees such statements as a deliberate attempt to undermine efforts to settle the Ukrainian crisisTASS
Ukrainian Black Sea attack infringed NATO state’s sovereignty – Kremlin
Ukrainian Black Sea attack infringed NATO state’s sovereignty – Kremlin
Ukraine’s strikes on the Kairos and Virat tankers targeted Turkish sovereignty and the vessel owners’ rights, Dmitry Peskov has saidRT
Spain reaffirms plan to skip Eurovision if Israel is allowed to compete
The head of Spanish public broadcaster RTVE has reaffirmed that his country will not join the 2026 Eurovision contest if Israel is allowed to compete - a protest by the Spanish delegation against Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Corporación de Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) president José Pablo López's statement follows weeks of lobbying by the Austrian delegation and others to keep Israel in the contest, which will take place in Vienna.
"We hold the same opinion [...] that Israel's presence was unsustainable — firstly, for the genocide. Eurovision is a contest, but human rights are not." López told a parliamentary hearing on Thursday.
López's remarks come a week before a crucial vote on whether Israel can participate in the competition.
https://www.newarab.com/news/spain-reaffirms-plan-skip-eurovision-if-israel-competes
Israel says it killed 40 Hamas fighters trapped in Rafah tunnels
The Israeli army claimed to have killed 40 Palestinian resistance group Hamas members who had been trapped in Rafah, in southern Gaza, last week.
The army said in a statement late on Sunday that it continued to intensify efforts to destroy the remaining tunnels in eastern Rafah to eliminate armed fighters inside.
Israel says it killed 40 Hamas fighters trapped in Rafah tunnels
No immediate comment from Palestinian groupTRT World
Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39725978
Israel kills two Palestinian children in a drone strike on Khan Younis. Trump is rewarded for his heavy intervention in Honduras’s election as his preferred candidate is leading a close race, with the left-wing party of the incumbent president trailing badly. Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim is released from detention. Trump mandates closure of Venezuela airspace and cancels repatriation flights. A coup in Guinea-Bissau. Fires kill 150 in Hong Kong. Floods kill over 1,000 in Southeast Asia. Rains continue to imperil the people of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces withdraw from Tubas, ending an intense operation in the West Bank city. Attacks continue near Hebron and Bethlehem Netanyahu asks for a pardon. Far-right cabinet members push for more guns for West Bank settlers and promote a Border Police officer who killed surrendering Palestinians. U.S. halts visas and asylum for Afghans. The U.S. Navy is accused of covering up plutonium leaks. Drop Site publishes a dispatch on guerilla fighters in West Papua. The Pope heads to Lebanon and continues the Vatican’s push for Palestinian statehood. Russian-Ukrainian negotiations continue as a lead Ukrainian negotiator departs, due to his role in a growing corruption scandal within the country. Israel kills 13 in Syria. A French investigation finds that Sudan’s Army used chlorine gas as a weapon of war last year against the RSF. Turkish and Kurdish negotiators reach an impasse. Iran seizes another tanker.
Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon
Israel kills two Palestinian children in a drone strike on Khan Younis. Trump is rewarded for his heavy intervention in Honduras’s election as his preferred candidate is leading a close race, with the left-wing party of the incumbent president trailing badly. Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim is released from detention. Trump mandates closure of Venezuela airspace and cancels repatriation flights. A coup in Guinea-Bissau. Fires kill 150 in Hong Kong. Floods kill over 1,000 in Southeast Asia. Rains continue to imperil the people of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces withdraw from Tubas, ending an intense operation in the West Bank city. Attacks continue near Hebron and Bethlehem Netanyahu asks for a pardon. Far-right cabinet members push for more guns for West Bank settlers and promote a Border Police officer who killed surrendering Palestinians. U.S. halts visas and asylum for Afghans. The U.S. Navy is accused of covering up plutonium leaks. Drop Site publishes a dispatch on guerilla fighters in West Papua. The Pope heads to Lebanon and continues the Vatican’s push for Palestinian statehood. Russian-Ukrainian negotiations continue as a lead Ukrainian negotiator departs, due to his role in a growing corruption scandal within the country. Israel kills 13 in Syria. A French investigation finds that Sudan’s Army used chlorine gas as a weapon of war last year against the RSF. Turkish and Kurdish negotiators reach an impasse. Iran seizes another tanker.Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon
Drop Site Daily: December 1, 2025Drop Site News
Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon
Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon
Drop Site Daily: December 1, 2025Drop Site News
Where can I find Wayland solutions?
Wayland is breaking a solid 30%-40% of everything on my computer right now, but I want to be better prepared for if/when I don't have an x11 option.
Is there a forum or place where people listen and actually try to help you find fixes/workarounds for Wayland problems?
- use a modern, popular distro. There are less things broken and you get more support
- do a fresh install with a fresh user to nor carry over your broken configs and customizations. Do everything from scratch again
- Tackle the issues one by one and provide detailed steps to reproduce, error messages, logs, screenshots or videos. You can ask right here on lemmy, but you'll probably get more eyes on it on reddit tbh.
I felt just like you a long time ago when kde introduced wayland at the end of 2016. After a couple of super frustrating months, I made a backup of my /home, migrated my archlinux to btrfs (by doing a fresh install) so I can have snapshots and revert if I mess something.
Had only minor issues since then and most have been fixed some years later. Others I've learned how to work around (for example by using gamescope, because I have mixed resolution multi monitor setup and some games think my 2k screen is 4k)
I recently got a new laptop and put fedora 43 KDE on it.
It is so solid I get bored.
I literally just installed fedora 43 KDE on my laptop, spent like 2 hours trying to get it to boot (would black screen after a fresh install, apparently multiple people have the same issue for months, idk why no official fix has been released, but a community .iso worked for me)
But after that, holy fuck do I love it way more than gnome. I just hated gnome and everything about it, but most poplular distros I tried used it. I finally decided to try KDE and now I wish I did it earlier
I tried Wayland for a day but went back to x11 (using KDE Neon) because of annoyances. Mostly input-related issues:
– I used Fusuma to remap extra mouse buttons, which doesn't work anymore
– Touchpad scrolling is buggy and pinch to zoom barely works
– Espanso has a Wayland version but doesn't work most of the time
– select with shift+arrow and release shift: it also releases the arrow so you have to press it again (seems small but annoys me)
And there's problems with windows opening on the wrong screen and then completely crashing when you try to move it (under Wine with full screen at least), and some apps with weird behaviors like drag and drop not working.
well I was looking for a forum to start cataloging it but off the top of my head:
copyq
gnome-pie
miss assigning xwayland
not recognizing USB c monitors seen by xrandr
window taring
sudo commands
executable binaries
lots more
copyq has some guidance for wayland issues:
github.com/hluk/CopyQ/issues/3…
...but some things such as global shortcuts may depend on your choice of compositor, GNOME has no support at all for example.
It seems some people transition easily to wayland and some do not, it really depends on your setup unfortunately. Maybe it'll get easier over time.
CachyOS - KDE 6.5.2 - Wayland - some settings don't work
Hi guys, CopyQ version: 13.0.0-1.1 from AUR. Some settings don't seem to work like: Paste to current windowxchatter (GitHub)
yeah, works fine on x11
edit: I do notice the speed improvement on Wayland tho
Is this on a fresh install, or have you installed a Wayland DE on an existing distro? If so, you may be missing some packages. What DE are you using for both X and Wayland?
I'm surprised wlr-randr is missing a display that xrandr can see, they should be looking at the same place for the display info. If you hunt through dmesg do you see any errors related to "EDID"?
to help communicate and troubleshoot what is broken here, we need to think of Wayland as a protocol just like HTTP is a protocol
saying "Wayland broke X" is like saying "HTTP broke X", which is possible but not likely to be what you're actually trying to say
rather, we need to be talking about the implementation(s) of the protocol, not the protocol itself
e.g. "HTTP broke X" -> "Google Chrome broke X"
e.g. "Wayland broke X" -> "GNOME broke X"
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I agree, but I also wonder if the Democratic party can be converted from the inside to change it's focus.
Probably not. I just winder what the best way forward is. It's not really clear.
The DNC is designed against entryism, and drives its power not from popular support, but wealthy private donors. What's important is directly organizing on the ground to form a large, working class party, like PSL. Reading theory and organizing are the best things you can do. If you want somewhere to start with theory, I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list you can check out.
Read Theory, Darn it! An Introductory Reading List for Marxism-Leninism
"Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement."
- Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done? | Audiobook
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
- Dialectical and Historical Materialism
- Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
- Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
- Friedrich Engels' Principles of Communism | Audiobook
The FAQ of Communism, written by the Luigi of the Marx & Engels duo. Quick to read, and easy to reference, this is the perfect start to your journey.
- Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
Ugh, philosophy? Really? YES!
- Georges Politzer's Elementary Principles of Philosophy | Audiobook
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
- Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific | Audiobook
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
- Karl Marx's Wage Labor and Capital | Audiobook as well as Wages, Price and Profit | Audiobook
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
- Vladimir Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism | Audiobook
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
- Rosa Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution | Audiobook
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
- Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution | Audiobook
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
- Vikky Storm and Eme Flores' The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto | (No Audiobook yet)
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
- Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth | Audiobook
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
- Leslie Feinberg's Lavender & Red | Audiobook
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
- Mao Tse-Tung's On Practice and On Contradiction | Audiobook
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
- Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
- Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
- Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
- Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
- Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
- Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
- Mao Tse-Tung
Revolution. Socialism. Liberation. - Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.admin (Freedom Road Socialist Organization | FRSO)
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Democrats would rather lose to a Republican, to a conservative, to a fascist, to Trump, than address the material conditions of the American people.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
I mean a conservative project to do exactly this is what transformed the Cheney era neocons into the modern day fascist party we see. So at least in principle that's possible. but clearly the neocons were more than happy to go along with fascism. Fascism and conservativism have effectively the same goals.
The neoliberals who faced the same kind of insurrection from within their party at the same time were unwilling to adopt progressivism and are still unwilling to adopt progressivism. The right was able to change their party into a fascist one, the left has failed to move the demo party into being a progressive party
The following can all be true:
- The Democrats are a right wing neoliberal party.
- The Democrats are the most left-wing option that is realistically available to American voters.
- The Democrats can be pushed further left if American progressives work to do so.
- The Democrats - at the party level - will resist such a change, but that resistance can still be overcome.
- In the long term, massive structural overhauls and the downfall of capitalism are the only things that will save America and the world
- In the near term, voting consistly and enthusiastically for the least bad option can still protect vulnerable groups from harm and create changes that lay the groundwork for those structural overhauls.
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I think we're showing mixed results on your third bullet. It did seem that way, for a while, as we pushed on social issues. And when it came time to get on with the economic issues, the core management team of the party rallied, and rather than adopt the left flank to win, steps right to hand control to Republicans.
And it's happened more than once now, to obvious and clear effect: the goal of the Democratic party isn't to win elections, it's to keep the country idealogically aligned with a neoliberal ruling class. And if that means handing control of government to Republicans, they'll do so, then blame the left (even though it's them moving to the right losing elections).
To the fourth bullet, no, it's not clear that within the machinations of the party infrastructure it can be overcome. Because if not now, when? Party leadership has never been weaker or more vulnerable nor the times more desperate. Democrats as a party poll worse than Trump, yet progressives can win elections with both the entire Republican and Democratic apparatus gunning to take them down. yet somehow we can't replace Schumer's or Jefferies.
Skipping to the 6th point, again, that isn't actually borne out by the evidence. It's not something well know in advance and only as an artifact of history. What's been extremely clearly is that so far, voting has been wildly insufficient to make the kinds of structural changes necessary. Obama is the classic example of this. He runs on healthcare, holding wallstreet accountable, and ending the wars; he delivers corporate "access", bails out the banks, and continues the wars. The voters did their job and the system didn't work.
So a relentless optimism that the system will just work as intended doesn't seem warranted, and it's clearly not going in a good direction.
Until we recognize that the Democratic party, it at least it's current and historical structure is at the core of the problem with why we can't advance political change, its pretty clear that this decent into autocracy, fascism, and a degraded quality of life is inevitable. The Democratic party isn't just part of the problem: it's the core element of the problem.
While those are technically true, they are inconseuqential at best, plain wrong at worst.
Yes, the dems could be pushed left a little over a long time in theory. But practice has shown that this is not achievable since all other material circumstances are against it.
The "least bad" option is a communist party, absolutely not the dems.
Voting is not going to help half as many people than going to the next soup kitchen or neighborhood meetup and organize there.
I hate these soc dem apology posts. Biden has blood on his hands up to his shoulders.
The funny thing about this is that if it were possible to reform the democratic party, it would only be through demanding change, and credibly threatening defection if those demands are not met. By setting conditions and giving those conditions teeth. What you're suggesting is just asking nicely for people to act directly contrary to their material interests and hoping for the best. It's complete nonsense.
Also lol at "enthusiastically voting." Yes, it's very important that you not only bend the knee to your corporate masters completely unconditionally, but that you do so with a smile on your face. You can trust me, I'm a leftist just like you, see how I say all the language about needing the downfall of capitalism?
Always remember that while The Democratic Party is far from perfect, this is Russian propaganda. The party and the rules it has to play by are changed by voting locally, early, and often. Spreading the voter apathy message that both parties are the same and our votes are inconsequential just gives more power to the oppressors.
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Why are you linking to a crypto-fascist’s book? Because you bought the narrative that he’s “Putin’s brain”? 🙄
Always remember that Russiagate was bullshit.
- IT Pro: Cambridge Analytica models were exaggerated and ineffective, [UK Information Commissioner’s Office] claims
- Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
- Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
- Washington Post: FEC fines DNC, Clinton for violating rules in funding Steele dossier
- Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
- Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
- Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
- Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
-
- Matt Taibbi: CIA "Cooked The Intelligence" To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
- Aaron Maté: Under Trump, the CIA is still covering up its Russiagate fraud
- Matt Taibbi: Note on New Trump-Russia Disclosures Thanks to explosive new document releases, the Russiagate hoax is now exposed, commencing a new era that will be about accountability for the guilty
- Matt Taibbi: No Doubt Left: Russiagate Was a Cover-Up
- Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away The cynical con the Democratic Party and the F.B.I. carried out to falsely portray Donald Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin worked, and continues to work, because it is what those who detest Trump want to believe.
4 substantive replies and 13 hours later, your only response is "sigh people disagree with me look how put out I am"?
Does your side have literally anything to say for itself?
Substantive? That's a bit of a stretch. One reply that cites any sources and not a single one would get past a community college level RA.
It is laughable to me that you think we're on different sides. There are two sides, manipulators and manipulatees, and none of us here are the manipulators, though you may have created an echo chamber to increase the volume of certain manipulations.
'Sides' aside, do I have anything to say for myself? Of course. Would the time spent add any value to my life or fulfil any purpose? Maybe, but the ROI is too slim. You can't reason a person out of an opinion they didn't reason themselves into. It's the same reason I don't waste time arguing with MAGA these days. Even on the off chance you're talking to a real person, presenting them with any kind of evidence is just going to make them double down on their opinion. That's just human psychology, The Backfire Effect in action. I made the mistake of not checking where I was before commenting at all. Coming back here to reply to you was probably a mistake in and of itself, but this whole 'sides' thing just irks me. I hope you don't really feel that way. If we both want to move the country to the left, then disagreements like this only serve to benefit those who want to move the country further to the right. There's this book that outlines exactly how to create these ideological disagreements that drive wedges into opposition to the right, and who it benefits, but for some reason y'all have completely discounted it even though everything written in it has come to pass since. If y'all want to outright reject reality then more power to you, but I don't have to involve myself.
Pretty much see you as the exact equivalent of a right wing chemtrail person in terms of incoherence and facile beliefs.
Your brain has been severely damaged by Rachael Maddow.
If y’all want to outright reject reality
Fucking crank
Training models takes a stupid amount of energy. Using them after the fact uses very little.
I could generate something like this on my phone using any of the dozens of local models.
I could generate something like this on my phone using any of the dozens of local models.
Feel free to share the device type and local AI model capable of producing an image like this. My guess is you won’t though because it’s not possible 😕
Try for yourself github.com/ShiftHackZ/Stable-D…
But that's (very clearly) beside the point, which is that you can run a variety of models locally on your PC or phone for miniscule energy. Once a model is trained the damage has already been done.
As always, it's the corporations using the resources and doing the damage, so pearl clutching about random individuals is less than useless.
GitHub - ShiftHackZ/Stable-Diffusion-Android: Stable Diffusion AI client app for Android
Stable Diffusion AI client app for Android. Contribute to ShiftHackZ/Stable-Diffusion-Android development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
Always remember that left and right are difficult terms: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%…
In Germany Harris would have been conservative CDU (the most conservative/right party before the AfD turned up) and Trump would have been in the AfD. However, CDU is still fine. Nothing bad about being conservative. I disagree with most of their opinions but they are valid political opinions. AfD and Trump share political opinions that are undemocratic, dangerous and stupid.
Turns out supporting genocide makes you look bad. Someone should've told Biden and Copmallah.
It's almost as if your party duopoly consists of two fascist parties.
Their strategy is to give into Trump's demands in the hopes that it prevents him from destroying their precious institutions. They hope to be able to take over from an unpopular Republican party after Trump dies without really undoing the damage he's done. The problem with this approach is that it will prevent the system from needing to be properly rebuilt, effectively legalizing most of his abuses of power and prolonging the instability of our country. A big part of this will be institutionalizing the blatant corruption and oligarchy while further rigging elections to make it impossible for popular movements to ever legally gain power.
A Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg presidency will see them ruling as a weaker feudal king than Trump, but only to promote business activity and interests. Relying on the honeymoon period following Trump's removal, they will position themselves as the saviors of "democracy," yet they will do little to actually undo a lot of the election rigging that Republicans are installing right now. They will suppress workers rights and throw the most disposable minorities under the bus, deregulating and burning through all the goodwill they have. They'll parade the corpse of liberalism around as long as fools will believe it, but it will be a cynical gesture.
In order for actual liberal democracy to exist again in this country, the liberals would need to have shown a backbone and resist Trump no matter how much he destroys institutions. They would need to risk temporary jail time and potential assassination to invigorate long term support for a rebuilt American dream. Instead they're showing that they never cared about liberal ideals, only the goodwill liberalism afforded their power.
All I want is the freedom to vote how I want and still count my vote if my first choice didn't win. Democrats should be free to run their political party how they want. Just like how everyone else should be free to participate in our elections. Free of a spoiler effect.
There should be no monopoly on the future of our nation. Republican, or Democrat.
Surely the freedom to vote how people want is not to high a bar for the democrats to clear right? Self proclaimed democracy advocates surely want the people to be represented fully... right?
I would never force a liberal to vote for my preference in a election, why is it okay for them to do that to me?
And it is a conscious decision to force me to vote a certain way. Every election democrats mercilessly rage at 3rd party voters. The Democratic party and their voters understand that First-past-the-post voting is flawed. Yet in blue states, fully in control of the Democratic party, FPTP voting shackles the people.
Democrats understand FPTP voting does a bad job of representing the nation. They ignore this festering gaping mortal wound... all for safe states and easy elections against a complete clown show. One that has defeated them in every way possible.
The monopoly is over democrats. You never deserved it, and you most certainly do not deserve it now in our darkest hours. Get out of the way, we have to move forward as a nation.
The Democratic party is not more important then the United States of America.
::: spoiler Electoral Reform Videos
(What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems
:::
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
The system can’t be reformed to favor the working class because it was created by & for the owner class, the “donor” class. If necessary they will unleash fascism to maintain control.
The Democratic party is not more important then the United States of America.
They both have to go. There’s never going to be a socialist USA. That can only happen after a revolution leading to an different state with a different name.
The Whig party died because it failed to address the whig voters' concerns over slave states. The Whigs in charge were too busy trying to find a moderate choice between traditional whig and democratic policies since the Whigs consisted of both northern and southern slave states and were too spineless to pick a side. Zachary Taylor (W), who had never voted or voiced his political opinion prior to running, won the nomination because whig voters in the convention thought being a middle ground candidate was enough to win. And he did win, but...
After Zachary Taylor was president, Winfield Scott (W), who was running a diet-democratic campaign seeing how it worked with Taylor, was running against Franklin Pierce (D), a dark horse candidate who wasn't even in the running until the 35th ballot at a stalled democratic convention. Scott, having lost the anti-slavery voters of the northern states, had an enthusiasm issue so big that people of the time regard this is one of the least exciting campaigns in presidential history. After Pierce won the election 254 electoral votes to 42, Free Soil and ex-Whig voters coalesced into the republican party. The whig party had been killed.
If your party isn't giving what people are pleading for or isn't a real opposition party, it's easier killing the party and starting fresh with something better than trying to lure the lost party back to your own values. And if we're already putting forth all that effort to build up a new party when one dies, why not be cool and make a revolutionary vanguard party instead of filling the vacuum in bourgeois elections?
Which is their entire platform, which is why the whole thing keeps going further right.
Except the Democratic party doesn’t just block leftward movement. It turns the crank in the same direction, just slower.
"I am angry the overton window has moved so far to the right, I'm going to blame the folks trying to move it leftward"
What hasn't happened is an IRL movement around a new party or leader. What has happened is lots of "divide the left" memes and posts. I do wonder who that sentiment serves the most.
Left wing starts are anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. The democrats are complicit in genocide and take money from AIPAC and only care about pleasing their business owners. Also the DNC is a private corporation
The Democratic National Committee is many things but democratic
drmikekatz.com/the_dnc_and_rnc…
observer.com/2017/08/court-adm…
rsn.org/001/dnc-to-court-we-ar…
courthousenews.com/wp-content/…
Court Concedes DNC Had the Right to Rig Primaries Against Sanders
The court affirmed that the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a palpable bias in favor Hillary Clinton.Michael Sainato (Observer)
Moving it leftward is when you support two separate groups of genocidal fascists in Israel and Ukraine and whine at leftists for not tactically supporting the fascists enough
Divide the left
You are not on the left. But I do keep seeing a bunch of "How do you do, fellow leftists? We sure do love voting for the 𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓵, amirite? By the way fuck communists" memes and posts. I wonder who that sentiment serves the most?
Browser Fingerprinting And Why VPNs Won’t Make You Anonymous
Browser Fingerprinting And Why VPNs Won’t Make You Anonymous
Amidst the glossy marketing for VPN services, it can be tempting to believe that the moment you flick on the VPN connection you can browse the internet with full privacy. Unfortunately this is quit…Hackaday
This is a bit of a misnomer. No one PC can be fully anonymized or fully private, even if the PC provided fake data points, they will still be technically fingerprinted. Having said that, having a browser that tries to spoof stuff like LibreWolf, Tor or IronFox is decent.
The gains in using a VPN, among other best practices is that helps --assuming people do not log on to something like Google-- is to minimize the fingerprint of the PC to you, as a user. Assuming one trust their VPN provider, helps.
Tor leverages the point of having all users look and be fingerprinted mostly as the same, so you get lost in the shuffle and crowd.
The Global Zionist Organ Trafficking Conspiracy
In July 2015, the European Parliament issued a landmark report on organ trafficking. Its introduction notes, "before 2000, the problem of trafficking in human organs...was primarily limited to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia." However, following the turn of the millennium, "trafficking in organs has seemingly started to spread globally, to a large extent driven by Israeli doctors." The document went on to detail a number of high-profile organ trafficking cases.
The Global Zionist Organ Trafficking Conspiracy
All my investigations are free to read, thanks to the enormous generosity of my readers.Kit Klarenberg (Global Delinquents)
i asked ai to summarize the article and it started and ended with warnings that this was anti-semitic and, when i asked why, it flat out said that ant-zionism is inherently antisemitic. lol
even deepseek is kowtowing to that definition of antisemitism and it makes me sad.
When objective, real Criticism is labeled as "anti-semetic" just by fact of existing, then it makes you question how much you are being lied to in so many things regarding them and their interests.
Sadly, AI cannot be trusted on this topic if that is what it does.
Germany wants to build Europe’s strongest army – a new conscription bill is moving that closer
This year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe’s strongest army – a tall order for a country whose military has undergone years of neglect.
The coalition government is hoping a new bill agreed upon last week will help make this a reality, bolstering Germany’s forces in the face of the perceived threat from Russia and a significant shift in US foreign policy.
The sweeping new reforms will see Germany attempt to boost its numbers to 260,000 soldiers, up from around 180,000 currently, in addition to an extra 200,000 reservists, by 2035.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/23/europe/germany-europe-army-reform-intl
It is a lot of slow frog boiling. They start off with "voluntary" so they can eventually introduce mandatory conscription without too much pushback.
Europe and the US are very likely gearing up to start World War 3 in a few years.
davel
in reply to ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆ • • •☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
in reply to davel • • •Amusingly, I predicted this exact scenario right at the start of the war, looks like mainstream western press finally figure it out.
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in reply to davel • • •chgxvjh [he/him, comrade/them]
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