Yeah that last paragraph you highlighted is wild by western standards. That’s what needs to be done though!

I didn’t say they were all good hedge funds.

So you what makes you not a campist?

Most higher ed institutions are just hedge funds at the end of the day.

Why can’t you answer that question? Is it because you don’t know?

Hmm?

Sorry about your friend. I do not have empathy for fascists, and I won’t be asking anyone to have empathy for fascists in this space. The harm the Kirks are still causing far out weighs whatever grief his widow is experiencing.

I’m not sure what you mean. If you didn’t get me $5 I wouldn’t have been able to buy that gun in your made up situation. Which only aligns with the ideas and goals behind the BDS movement. BDS is exactly what you are describing, and people should join these movements and collectively boycott industries that contribute to the genocide. BDS was one of the most effective weapons of international solidarity against the apartheid state of South Africa. It can be an effective weapon again against the apartheid state of Israel. If you can disrupt the circulation of capital, you can disrupt its goals.

I think the closing of the article lays out the stakes pretty well:

As a result, Israel Diamond Exchange president, Nissim Zuaretz, stated that his industry faces an “existential threat”. “We are slipping backward,” he warned, adding:

My message to the government and the public is clear: it’s now or never… We have a golden opportunity to restore Israel to the center of the global diamond industry, but the window is closing fast. Every day without government action means another diamond dealer lost, another family without income, another piece of our national heritage gone.”

However, if the Israeli government does indeed step in to safeguard its national industry and take a more interventionist approach, it will only further underscore the fact that the purchase of diamonds is inherently funding the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, supercharging blood diamonds into genocide diamonds.

All over the world, wherever there are capitalists, freedom of the press means freedom to buy up newspapers, to buy writers, to bribe, buy and fake “public opinion” for the benefit of the bourgeoisie.

V. I. Lenin

This has been a great early Christmas gift!

Thanks comrade! ❤️

Did we forget that he signed off on having the files released (yes, I know that likely won’t happen; you can stop typing)? Venezuela has been on the hit list of the US Empire since the Bolivarian Revolution. Liberal news never draws the connection between Venezuela’s shrinking GDP and the timing of US sanctions, starting in 2014 under Obama.

• 2014-2015 (Obama Admin): Initial targeted sanctions on individuals involved in human rights abuses and corruption.
• August 2017 (Trump Admin): E.O. 13808 prohibited U.S. entities from dealing in new Venezuelan - debt, limiting financial access.
• May 2018 (Trump Admin): E.O. 13835 expanded restrictions on specific transactions with the Venezuelan government.
• January 2019 (Trump Admin): E.O. 13857 targeted Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, and froze government assets.
• August 2019 (Trump Admin): E.O. 13884 blocked all property of the Venezuelan government.
• Oct 2023 (Biden Admin): General License 44 temporarily eased oil/gold sanctions after the Barbados Agreement for free elections.
• April 2024 (Biden Admin): Sanctions reimposed as Maduro failed to meet election fairness terms (e.g., banning María Corina Machado).
• March 2025 (Biden Admin): New order proposed 25% tariffs on countries importing Venezuelan oil.
• Late 2025 (Trump Admin): Escalated military presence in the Caribbean; FAA warnings about Venezuelan airspace

So this doesn’t appear to be some new development as a distraction from the Epstein files. This has been building for some time now.

Jesus christ…

The ANTIFA are the friends we made along the way.

The justification for this sizure is suspect at best, and naturally, the NY Crimes is out here doing their part to manufacture consent for this kind of bullshit. I do find it amusing how many liberals will froth at the mouth over Trump’s injustices demestically, but when Pam Bondi makes some shit up about Venezuela, suddenly all the liberals fall in line and salute the flag.

The long shadow of 9/11 still envelops the country.

Terms like “crony capitalism” imply that this is somehow an aberration within the capitalist system and not simply capitalism operating under its laws of motion and development. As Marx said, “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie”, It is, in other words, the most efficient means of increasing profits, the core drive under capitalism. Lobbying, regulatory capture, and favorable legislation are not some form of corrupt distortions of the system; they aid in the process of capital accumulation. The insistence on using terms like “crony capitalism” is to secede ground to the capitalist, who would want nothing more for people to cling on to the idea that there is some kind of “pure” or “ideal” capitalism that we need to return too. So long as quarterly earnings calls are what drive the economy, capitalism will always be reaching for influence and political power to keep those profits rising.