Interested in geopolitics, neoliberalism, spirituality, sports, and literature.
Joined August 2021
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Julien retweeted
Hakeem Jeffries mocks the media and asserts he already has the votes for Speaker then endorses Chuck Schumer.
This man is funded by AIPAC and Palantir, opposes Medicare for All, and will use his speakership to serve Wall Street and the Zionist war machine.
The people desperately need a party because the Democrats don’t represent us at all.
Julien retweeted
If you make $200,000 you will pay 40% tax.
If you make $200,000,000 you will pay 0-2% tax.
This is what you should be angry about.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
US federal top marginal income tax rate is 37%, not 40%; effective federal income tax for $200k earners is typically 13-18% while top 1% average 26% and pay 38% of all such taxes (IRS data). The $200M claim confuses realized income with unrealized wealth gains.
taxfoundation.org/data/all/feder…
clearmoneyguide.com/federal-income…
taxfoundation.org/data/all/feder…
propublica.org/article/the-se…
Julien retweeted
There are so many historical errors in this short clip I honestly don't know where to start, so I'll just go through them.🤦♂️
1. "Only a couple thousand people".
This is off by like 100x. Christopher Read has Bolshevik membership at around 10,000 in Feb 1917 and over 200,000 by October. Edward Acton's numbers are even higher, 24,000 up to 350,000. By September they had 75 newspapers in eight languages and Pravda went from 90k copies in July to 200k in October. That's not counting the Red Guards, the Kronstadt sailors and most of the Petrograd garrison.
2. "Russia had 25-50 million people".
It was more like 170-180 million. He's not even close.
3. "Not even a significant minority".
In the only free national election (a few weeks after October) the Bolsheviks got around 22-25% of the vote. That's about 10 million people. They won the cities outright and got two thirds of the soldiers' vote on the Western Front. Their allies the Left SRs also had a lot of peasant support.
4. "The whole party was in one building" / "the White Army wouldn't fire on it".
There was no White Army before October. It formed after, during the Civil War. The actual government at the time (Kerensky's Provisional Government) didn't hold back at all either. After the July Days they arrested the leaders, opened a criminal case on the party and Lenin had to go into hiding. What actually saved the Bolsheviks was in August when General Kornilov marched on Petrograd and regular workers, railwaymen and soldiers stopped him. After that the Bolsheviks looked like the ones defending the revolution.
5. "They were already slaughtering people".
Before October most of the killing was done by the old regime. Bloody Sunday in 1905, Tsarist troops shooting into crowds in Feb 1917, etc. The October takeover of Petrograd was almost bloodless. The Red Terror wasn't declared until September 1918 in the middle of the Civil War, so it has nothing to do with how they got power.
6. Kirk asking about the "hubris of the Tsars".
There was no Tsar to overthrow lol.
Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917 after a popular uprising the Bolsheviks barely played a part in. In October they overthrew the Provisional Government, not the Tsar.
7. "Lenin went from soviet to soviet".
Lenin was in exile until April and then hiding in Finland from July to October.
The soviets formed on their own and were run by the Mensheviks and SRs at first. At the first Congress of Soviets in June the Bolsheviks only had 105 seats vs 285 for the SRs and 248 for the Mensheviks. They won majorities later by actually getting elected. Trotsky became chair of the Petrograd Soviet on Sept 25 and they had Moscow by early October. Also to Kirk's "September of '17" question, no.
September is when they won the soviets. The actual takeover was October 25 (Nov 7 on our calendar).
8. "Peace, land, bread" being "mass formation hypnosis".
Nobody had to be hypnotized into wanting those things. Russia had lost millions of men in the war, the cities were starving and peasants were already taking land off the estates before the Bolsheviks even promised it.
9. "No gulags, no Solzhenitsyn".
This is built on all the stuff above being true, which it isn't. Also the Tsars already had a massive prison exile system (katorga). That's where Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky all got sent. It was worse than any Gulag.
Julien retweeted
The capitalist class will never give up if we don't force them into peace and an equitable future. And this is not a antiquated social paradigm but the only framework that can help you understand the insane levels of political violence around us.
Kyoto University Symposium 2026: "Geopolitics in the Time of Monsters"
Keynote 3 (Presentation 11): Prof. Radhika Desai
Professor Radhika Desai examines the crisis of world capitalism through her geopolitical economy approach. She argues that Western decline and China’s rise reflect a deeper struggle over production, imperialism and socialism. Drawing on Marx, Smith, Keynes and Gramsci, she challenges prevailing accounts of world war, fascism and neo-feudalism. The discussion explores artificial intelligence, Russia’s economic system, Trump’s tariffs and neoclassical economics, concluding with an exchange with Bill Mitchell on the left’s retreat from macroeconomic policy and the role of planning.
Radhika's Links:
Website: radhikadesai.com/
Books: radhikadesai.com/books/
Neutrality Studies Links:
Neutrality Studies Substack: pascallottaz.substack.com
Support Neutrality Studies: neutralitystudies.com/donate
Neutrality Studies shop: neutralitystudies.com/shop
Time Stamps
00:00 Geopolitical economy and capitalism’s crisis
06:06 The changing world order
17:26 Imperialism, nations and development
27:45 Marx, monopoly and planned production
39:00 Neoliberalism and capitalism’s decline
50:37 Q&A: Keynes, AI and multipolarity
59:33 Russia, China and imperialism
1:19:17 Bill Mitchell: where the left lost its way
#Geopolitics #Imperialism #Capitalism #China #Neutrality
Julien retweeted
Abby Martin: ‘The Democrats’ midterms landslide will NOT result in any policy changes. They will go back to doing what they do best…LOSING.’
‘The Democrats are going to point to Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer to say, “Our hands are tied. These are the leaders of the party.” So whatever progressive measures that they bring forward, they’ll be stymied by the veto power of Trump.
Trump just posted today. Remember, I’m POTUS. Yeah, we know, and we know exactly what’s going to happen because we’ve seen this playbook rolled out several times.
They’re going to try to pass a modicum of progressive legislation and it’s going to be stopped dead in its tracks and they’re going to say, “Well, we tried, let’s get back to losing just like we do best.”
So look, there’s a lot of excitement, and rightfully so. Kansas, Texas, these states turning blue for the first time in my lifetime.
That’s monumental, and it shows again the repudiation of this draconian authoritarianism, the fascism, big tech, the data centres, the culture war, the wars. All of Americans see it for what it is, but it’s not going to translate to any sort of policy change.
And the Democrats are going to do what they do best, which is co-opt these these movements, mobilise them into just a voter base, and just go with more of the same. Because right now they’re locking down with their self-preservation, and we saw what they did to Angie Nixon in Florida.
A Democratic Socialist that was anti-Zionist, was this close to actually popping off a blue seat in Florida. And Chuck Schumer said he’d rather not. He’d rather not because he’s that scared of anti-Zionism.
So we already see where their loyalties are, and we see what they’re willing to give up to hold on to their power and their allegiances. And it’s going to be another huge disappointment for the American people moving forward.’
—@AbbyMartin, Co-Director of ‘Earth’s Greatest Enemy’, joins us for Monday’s episode of Going Underground
Don’t miss it, follow us on X and follow our Rumble channel, link below in the replies 👇
Julien retweeted
Follow Vasily
❗️ "There are hundreds of these across Ukraine" – a map of torture sites in Ukraine has been published. A map has appeared online identifying four additional locations in Ukraine where men who were forcibly mobilized are subjected to torture:
Sumy Region, Rumny, 65 Zapadinskaya St.;
Kiev Region, Fastiv, 67 Kiev St.;
Mykolaiv, 4 Otradny Lane;
Chernigov, 15 Bogushevicha St.
🔻 These are illegal sites for the abuse of human beings, similar to the torture facility recently uncovered in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, near Kiev.
🔻 When the head of Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov (designated as a terrorist in Russia), arrived at the scene—ostensibly to quell unrest—he let slip that "there are many such houses". In doing so, he effectively admitted that this is not a matter of "local excesses" or the actions of a "rogue commander," but rather a state-run apparatus of torture.
🔻 A Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) serviceman named Sergey, with the call sign "Kraken," later admitted that there are at least a hundred such disguised concentration camps in Kiev alone. In these basements, deserters are subjected to brutal torture, and their relatives are coerced into paying bribes; those who fail to pay are sent to the most dangerous sectors of the front line.
🔻 Yuliia Mendel, former press secretary for Zelensky, recently stated in the Bundestag that the cost of a bribe to avoid being sent to the front line is $30,000 per person. This serves as one of the sources of illicit income for Ukraine’s corrupt leadership.
by PolitNavigator
Note: Torture in Ukraine is one of the themes of my new weekly review. But in fact, I have been talking about secret prisons in Ukraine, where people are tortured, since 2019.
Julien retweeted
❗️ "There are hundreds of these across Ukraine" – a map of torture sites in Ukraine has been published. A map has appeared online identifying four additional locations in Ukraine where men who were forcibly mobilized are subjected to torture:
Sumy Region, Rumny, 65 Zapadinskaya St.;
Kiev Region, Fastiv, 67 Kiev St.;
Mykolaiv, 4 Otradny Lane;
Chernigov, 15 Bogushevicha St.
🔻 These are illegal sites for the abuse of human beings, similar to the torture facility recently uncovered in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, near Kiev.
🔻 When the head of Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov (designated as a terrorist in Russia), arrived at the scene—ostensibly to quell unrest—he let slip that "there are many such houses". In doing so, he effectively admitted that this is not a matter of "local excesses" or the actions of a "rogue commander," but rather a state-run apparatus of torture.
🔻 A Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) serviceman named Sergey, with the call sign "Kraken," later admitted that there are at least a hundred such disguised concentration camps in Kiev alone. In these basements, deserters are subjected to brutal torture, and their relatives are coerced into paying bribes; those who fail to pay are sent to the most dangerous sectors of the front line.
🔻 Yuliia Mendel, former press secretary for Zelensky, recently stated in the Bundestag that the cost of a bribe to avoid being sent to the front line is $30,000 per person. This serves as one of the sources of illicit income for Ukraine’s corrupt leadership.
by PolitNavigator
Note: Torture in Ukraine is one of the themes of my new weekly review. But in fact, I have been talking about secret prisons in Ukraine, where people are tortured, since 2019.
❗️ My new weekly review
KIEV IN THE DARK; SBU EMBROILED IN CORRUPTION SCANDAL
◼️ Days-long power outages have driven Kiev residents to the streets. People in several districts of the capital have staged protests and blocked roads. There has been no reliable electricity supply for nearly five days, with power returning only for brief intervals. Kiev’s combined heat and power (CHP) plants have failed to restore generation, and follow-up strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on energy infrastructure are complicating repair efforts. We discuss how life without electricity is fueling open discontent among the capital’s residents.
◼️ A new corruption scandal has hit the leadership of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine). The NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) and the SAPO (Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office) have released materials from "Operation Carthage." The investigation implicates General Sergey Duka, Aleksandr Kovalchuk, and Anton Kravchuk. According to investigators, these security officials took bribes to provide cover for fraudulent call centers, drug trafficking, and the production of counterfeit cigarettes and fake currency. The criminal ring involved at least 12 individuals. Members of the group are also suspected of carrying out assaults, kidnappings, and beatings.
◼️ Torture chambers in Ukraine and the role of the security services. Human rights advocates began documenting the secret detention and torture of individuals by Ukrainian security forces as far back as a decade ago. In this episode, we revisit the issue and discuss the accountability of security service leadership and high-ranking officials. Could such facilities have existed for years without the knowledge and protection of those in power? Why have reports of torture failed to lead to thorough investigations or the punishment of those responsible?
◼️ Trump loses the Republican majority in Congress. The Democrats have secured a major victory, winning a majority in both chambers following the elections. The Republicans even lost ground in their traditional strongholds. Trump himself has expressed a willingness to work with Democrats, while simultaneously vowing to block any legislation he deems "crazy." We examine how the Republican defeat shifts the balance of power in Washington and impacts the president’s ability to pursue his agenda.
See my replies below for more details
Julien retweeted
People who think Obama was a great president don’t realize that he destroyed Libya, murdered Gaddafi, and orchestrated a deadly coup in Ukraine that led to a genocide and the war we have today.
Julien retweeted
Israel is not only murdering children. It's a slow torturous death. Paid for with tax dollars now under control of Democrats. Own it.
Julien retweeted
Happy 109th anniversary of the October Revolution!
On this day in 1917, the Bolsheviks took over Petrograd , in a surprisingly quiet seizure of power. Overnight, Red Guards, soldiers and sailors took the city's bridges, train stations, telegraph office, telephone exchange and State Bank, organized by Leon Trotsky through the Petrograd Soviet's Military Revolutionary Committee.
Meanwhile Vladimir Lenin made his way to Bolshevik headquarters at the Smolny Institute. At 10 a.m. Lenin declared the Provisional Government overthrown.
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko and Nikolai Podvoisky ran the siege of the palace, which dragged on through the day. At one point the signal to attack was held up because no one could find a red lantern, until around 9:40 p.m. the cruiser Aurora fired a single blank shot. An hour later the Congress of Soviets opened with Lev Kamenev as its chairman, and when the moderate socialists walked out in protest, Trotsky told them they belonged in "the dustbin of history."
At 2:10 the next morning, after most of the palace's defenders had drifted away, Antonov-Ovseenko led his men inside and arrested the ministers in a small dining room.
For most people in the city it was an ordinary day: trams ran, theatres stayed open, and only a handful of people died. Within hours Anatoly Lunacharsky was reading Lenin's proclamation of Soviet power to the Congress, and by the next evening Lenin was head of a new government promising peace and land. That strangely quiet day led to a civil war and shaped the rest of the twentieth century.
Julien retweeted
This woman lied and ruined his football career. She faced no consequences by the way!
Julien retweeted
Why did the Western powers want to dismantle and destroy Yugoslavia?
Was its massively powerful economy a threat?
Was its unity of several ethnicities and religious a threat?
Or was it simply a target for plunder?
Julien retweeted
This really sums it up.
AOC says voting for Obama, the first black president ever, “changed the world”.
Liberals celebrate war criminals.
Communists want to get rid of the system that produces them!
AOC: A note for Gen Z. If you want to understand millennial cringe, what you all call millennial cringe, this earnestness, imagine all the seats we flipped last night. That feeling, plus, on top of it, electing the first Black president ever. And on top of that, you did it the first time you ever voted. That hits generationally. You’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
And because you did it the first time you ever voted, you’re like, ‘Yeah, we can change the world. Why not? We did it the first time. Let’s just do it again.’
Julien retweeted
Watch Episode 1 here:
youtu.be/BNMYgxFE_YI
Julien retweeted
LES GENTLEMEN ANGLAIS ET L'OPIUM EN CHINE.
On te montre l'Angleterre comme le pays des gentlemen.
Le thé à 17h. Le costume trois pièces. La politesse. Le fair-play. Le "God Save The King". Les universités d'Oxford et de Cambridge.
Le gentleman, c'est l'homme bien élevé, propre, cultivé, qui ne hausse jamais la voix.
Mais derrière le costume, il y a la plus grande drogue de l'histoire. Et le plus grand crime.
C'est l'Angleterre qui a drogué la Chine.
Pas les dealers de rue. Pas les cartels. L'Empire britannique. Le gouvernement. La Reine.
Au début du 19e siècle, les Anglais ont un problème.
Ils adorent le thé chinois. Ils adorent la porcelaine chinoise. Ils adorent la soie chinoise.
Mais la Chine n'a besoin de rien de l'Angleterre. Rien.
L'Angleterre perd tout son argent. Elle s'appauvrit.
Alors les gentlemen ont une idée. Une idée de gentlemen.
Ils vont vendre à la Chine quelque chose qui rend accro. Quelque chose que les Chinois ne pourront plus arrêter d'acheter.
L'opium.
Ils le cultivent en Inde, qu'ils ont colonisée. Ils le fabriquent en masse. Ils l'envoient en Chine par bateaux entiers.
Et là, ce n'est pas du commerce. C'est une guerre chimique.
En 20 ans, de 1820 à 1840, le nombre de drogués en Chine passe de 1 million à 12 millions. 12 millions de Chinois drogués. Des paysans. Des soldats. Des fonctionnaires. Des mères. Des enfants.
Les gens vendent leurs maisons. Ils vendent leurs terres. Ils vendent leurs enfants pour une pipe d'opium.
La Chine s'effondre. L'économie s'effondre. L'armée s'effondre. Le peuple s'effondre.
La Chine essaie de se défendre.
En 1839, un homme, Lin Zexu, un fonctionnaire chinois intègre, dit : "Stop."
Il confisque 20 000 caisses d'opium à Canton. Il les détruit en public. Il les jette à la mer. Il écrit une lettre à la Reine Victoria : "S'il vous plaît, arrêtez de nous empoisonner."
Tu sais ce que répond la Reine ?
Elle envoie la guerre.
La Première Guerre de l'Opium. 1839-1842.
L'Angleterre, le pays des gentlemen, envoie des canonnières bombarder la Chine.
La Chine perd. Elle est obligée de signer le Traité de Nankin, en 1842.
Le traité dit : "Vous devez nous laisser vendre l'opium. Vous devez nous donner Hong Kong. Vous devez nous payer une amende pour l'opium qu'on vous a détruit."
Tu as bien lu. La victime doit payer le dealer pour la drogue qu'elle a détruite.
C'est ça, la justice des gentlemen.
Et ça ne s'arrête pas là.
La Deuxième Guerre de l'Opium. 1856-1860.
Cette fois, l'Angleterre s'allie avec la France, l'autre pays des "droits de l'homme".
Ils entrent dans Pékin. Ils pillent le Palais d'Été, le Yuanmingyuan, le plus beau palais du monde, 8 fois plus grand que Versailles. Ils le pillent pendant 3 jours. Ils volent l'or, le jade, les tableaux. Et après, pour effacer les traces, ils le brûlent.
Ils le brûlent pendant 3 jours et 3 nuits. Les flammes se voient à 30 kilomètres.
Aujourd'hui encore, les ruines sont là, à Pékin. Comme une cicatrice.
Pourquoi ? Pour forcer la Chine à légaliser l'opium. Pour forcer la Chine à ouvrir tous ses ports.
Résultat : le Siècle de l'Humiliation commence. 100 ans. De 1840 à 1949. La Chine découpée comme un gâteau. Hong Kong aux Anglais. Macao aux Portugais. Qingdao aux Allemands. Taïwan aux Japonais. Shanghai divisée en concessions étrangères où il était écrit : "Interdit aux chiens et aux Chinois."
Interdit aux chiens et aux Chinois. C'est écrit par des gentlemen.
Et aujourd'hui, on te dit : "Les Chinois sont communistes, ils sont dangereux."
Mais qui a drogué qui ?
Qui a commencé ?
Ce ne sont pas les Chinois qui ont drogué les Anglais. Ce sont les Anglais qui ont drogué les Chinois pour les voler.
Le gentleman en costume, avec son thé, son accent chic, son chapeau, c'était en réalité le plus grand dealer de drogue de l'histoire de l'humanité.
Et il a fait ça avec un sourire poli. Avec des manières. Avec des gants blancs.
C'est ça, la civilisation des gentlemen.
Tu connaissais cette histoire ?
Julien retweeted
Your first clue that the Democratic party isn’t democratic is that for decades it has rigged its primaries for its preferred corporate candidate with superdelegates, media collusion, and backroom deals.
Your second clue is that it kicks third parties off the ballot and brainwashes its voters to think that by destroying democracy they are somehow “saving” it.
Your third clue is that the party funded a genocide in Gaza and when students protested the genocide a Democrat president condemned the student protesters and continued funding the genocide.
Your fourth clue is that the party rails against corporate money and billionaire-funded elections while taking corporate money and being funded by billionaires.
Your fifth clue is that the party does not serve the will of the people and installs corrupt corporate politicians into leadership positions like it is doing right now with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.
Your sixth clue is that when the party is in power it does not pass policies that benefit the people. It funds war, bloated military and police budgets, corporate welfare, and most egregious a for-profit health insurance plan that kills 100,000 people a year.
These are not hallmarks of a democratic party that serves the people. They are all hallmarks of an authoritarian capitalist party that is resisting change in order to serve its corporate donors and protect the failed status quo.
Julien retweeted
Anyone who calls being against genocide a “purity test” is straight up evil. If you can’t stand up to genocide as a representative, you definitely won’t stand up for your constituents.
AOC TELLS THE LEFT TO ABANDON PURITY TESTS, LIKE GAZA
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez built her political career challenging the Democratic establishment, promising a new era of progressive politics and accountability. But a New York Times profile portrays a politician increasingly embracing party alliances while encouraging the left to move beyond ideological “purity tests,” almost gaslighting her supporters.
Among the scathing rhetoric is how divisions over Isr*el's war in G*za and the g*nocide are portrayed and diminished by AOC. To many of her critics and supporters, it seems that questions about P*lestinian rights and accountability are being dismissed as political obstacles rather than fundamental principles.
AOC's own voting record has fueled those criticisms. In 2021, she voted “present” rather than opposing an additional $1 billion in funding for Isr*el's Iron Dome mis*ile defence system. In 2025, she voted against an amendment that would have eliminated roughly $500 million in Iron Dome funding, arguing that defensive systems should be distinguished from offensive weapons.
The Democratic Socialists of America even withdrew its national endorsement of AOC in 2024, citing disagreements over P*lestine and her failure to meet several conditions, including opposition to all military funding for Isr*el.
Although AOC has since pledged to oppose all future U.S. military aid to Isr*el, including Iron Dome, her evolving positions continue to raise questions about the relationship between progressive movements and the political establishment, especially when progressives like her, Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, seem to be moving closer to establishment politicians like Obama.
As both major parties face criticism over corporate influence, foreign policy, and their inability to deliver meaningful economic change, voters are left wondering if this even matters, if anything will fundamentally change. It appears not much has.
Julien retweeted
Let’s do the actual math of the imperial supply chain.
Take a mother working in a garment factory in Bangladesh.
She works a 12-hour shift.
During that shift, she sews more than 150-200 t-shirts for H&M.
Her pay for the entire day? Less than 5 dollars.
Now look at the other end of the ledger.
H&M takes those exact same shirts and sells them to European consumers for more than 20 Euros each.
That is over 4,000 Euros in retail value. Generated by her hands. In a single day.
Her cut is less than a fraction of a percent. The rest goes straight to shareholders in Stockholm.
What is the human cost of this math?
This mother spends 12 hours away from her child. She works until her body gives out. And she goes home to a wage that barely covers the bare minimum food to share with her family at the dinner table.
This is what Western "free trade" actually looks like on the ground.
The European consumer gets cheap fashion. The corporate boardroom gets record dividends. The Bangladeshi mother gets starvation.
H&M runs massive ad campaigns in Europe talking about "conscious" fashion and "sustainability."
But there is absolutely nothing sustainable about a system that requires a mother to sacrifice her child's childhood just to keep the company's profit margins intact.
This is why the factories are shutting down.
They aren't just striking for a few extra cents. They are striking for the right to actually sit at the dinner table with their kids.
All power to the striking workers of Bangladesh.
They are hitting the empire right in the ledger.
