"In capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting the whole life-time of the masses into labour time" Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, Chapter 17

It's not the most standout quote of his work. But it's one that really solidified the concept for me.

新年快乐！Happy chinese new year everyone! Hope your year is full with good luck and good organizing.

I had mentioned my passing desire to go on tour to the DPRK (since it's not very far from where I am now). He had said that if given the choice he would rather be shot than visit North Korea. My response was "well that's certainly a choice" hoping he would get how rediculous he sounded. Luckily my other friend pointed out that what he said was really dumb. I then had to tell them that they literally know nothing about North Korea and that they shouldn't blindly fall for propoganda. The conversation moved on after that, but it was an odd thing to hear someone say.

The concept of geeks often felt like it was tied up with aspects of oppression. The concept of simulated ethnicity is an interesting perspective on it. This ties in with the liberal mentality that your "class" is tied up in the aspects of culture that you subscribe to and surround yourself with (e.g. the tv shows you consume and the activities you participate in define your position in the class hierarchy). It's a false front on reality. Geeks are outcasts socially, but they still reify capitalist relations in their perceived superiority to non-geeks. Framing this as simulated ethnicity calls it out as being artificial and an attempt to benefit from the racial stereotypes without taking on the same negatives those stereotypes come with. It shows the desire to gain the perceived benefits of oppression without the actual consequences of oppression.

Apparently this memorial was originally supposed to be unveiled in 2023, but after the Canadian government invited a Nazi into their parliament for Zelenski, they delayed it's unveiling.

Also, they have had the memorial up for nearly a year with no names on it, and more than half the 550 names they suggested were directly affiliated with Nazis. Now they are considering art to symbolize things instead of actual names... I wonder if the people doing this ever realize that maybe they are barking up the wrong tree.

So instead of a straw hat it's a helmet with a brim? Not only have the coopted a modern day epic about revolutionary liberation and tearing down oppression, but they can't even get the symbolism correct. It's truly sad. I see some people being excited about this as a wave of revolutions, but i haven't been able to dig in enough to understand how many of these are just attempts at colour revolution.

I appreciate the line that states most of their business is not affected because Europe and the middle east still buy a lot of stuff. America realizing they don't matter anymore is fun to watch.

This is definitely good news. It's too bad they didn't go as far as Cuba on their most recent rewrite of family law, but I'm glad things are moving in the right direction.

I hope Didi gains custody of her son soon enough, that will also be a win when it happens.

I really dislike ads, so usually I have them blocked, but not all my devices have it done yet. Usually it's just capital trying to get me to buy things so I just scroll past, but just over the weekend it was scary how quickly ads relating to Iran's retaliatiatory action started popping up with the obvious slant you would expect in the west. There seems to be a concerted effort to start beating war drums... This is not including the horrific ads I've seen coming from Zionists over the last half year with blatantly genocidal language. I even reported those ads and nothing came of it of course.

I guess to sum up: ads can and are used as political tools to shape ideology. Yet another reason to get everyone you know on an ad blocker.

So 6 years to project start. Then just a few more years for completion. All in we are looking to a decade out for project completion +/- a few years.

Meanwhile, in Canada they can't even get a timeline or funding for a single line on the most obvious corridor. And the second most obvious corridor has no timelines, and is only a study of feasibility at this time.

The Soviet Union saved one of my Great Uncles from a concentration camp. Not quite the same, but I appreciate them none the less.

The image shows data from April.

In may Germany entered Recession: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-enters-recession-2023-05-25/

While the G7/EU other countries may have mostly technically avoided recession, they have only done so barely so far.