JoeByeThen

I grew up with Muppets and Sesame Street and all that. Fozzy and Gonzo were my go tos but I loved them all. This past winter, my sibling and I went on a nostalgia binge of Christmas Specials from our childhood. Almost all of them from back then are on youtube. You may enjoy this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9qSKZuvC4

You know what they say "You have to have high high hopes for a living." Also, "the people" are slaves of media and cultural hegemony. That's why Zero Covid was always Class Struggle, and the only real solution will be Revolution.

Oh, an important part of my reasoning that my brain skipped over (and why I brought up Fanon and JM) is that when we look at the violence of imperialism and colonialism we see that it's directly in opposition to labor organizing and communism. Like communist revolutions are the opposing force which they're using violence to try and prevent. You've always got Labor on one side and the Owners on the other. So when we see those same methods being used at home for the same intention, to me it seems like it fits the bill.

I've had the same thought, but there's no way I'm not masking around those plague rats and I feel like that would hinder sales.

IDK if it strictly falls in the line of being Marxist but I've long felt that "Fascism is Imperialism/Colonialism turned inward." hit the mark pretty well especially after reading Fanon and The Jakarta Method. Done overseas, the methods of Imperialism is to use the violence of the State on behalf of the Capitalists as a class, there's no obfuscation required in order to satisfy the aesthetic performance of a democratic system. That's why I also feel like it can be seen as an advancing infection whereby the most vulnerable of society can be living under Fascism while those still living in the illusion of the performance are shielded from it until it's too late.

Freedom for the Opulent Minority.

You're welcome. We're still talking talking about covid masks though. I very much recommend listening to that podcast; Immunocompromised folks have been dealing with the discrimination and abuse of these mask bans for years even before covid.

This is US Propaganda. El Pais is not above publishing NED folks, plus:

The results of a digital poll carried out by the platform Cubadata, which measures citizen insecurity on the island, showed that 61% of respondents say they had been victim of some kind of violence or crime in Cuba in 2022. Of this group, only 14.6% said they had reported it to the police.

NED - Cuba 2021 Grants

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

Strengthening Independent Civil Society Organizations’ Capacity

$500,000

To enhance the ability of Cuban independent civil society (ICSOs) and other relevant actors to build informed advocacy agendas and refine communication strategies based on the voluntary and independent opinions, needs, and perceptions of Cubans on the island, the Institute proposes to support public opinion polling through the implementation of nine large-scale research panels. In coordination with the Institute, CubaData will utilize the polling data to analyze Cubans’ needs, perceptions and beliefs about topics of public interest. The Institute will train on-island ICSOs and other actors such as self-employed (cuentapropistas), women, artists, and religious groups in strategic scenario planning, interpretation of CubaData survey results and tactics for strategic advocacy and communication initiatives. The Institute will also support the development of an alliance of regional civil society organizations, with a demonstrated commitment to advancing rights and freedoms in Cuba, to serve as an advisory group that will help guide the panels and disseminate the results of the surveys at the regional level.

More and more people are saying this!

This law rewrites a pre-covid mask ban that was previously created in response to union organizing. When they were taking the pandemic seriously, the mask ban was suspended from the law. What's in the tweet are the vague and easily abused exceptions to the reinstatement of the ban. The Death Panel Podcast episode: “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” (05/23/24) did a great breakdown of the law, the anti-labor history behind mask bans, and the bad faith arguments of the legislators while they were pushing this through.

Lol, I completely memory holed that cartoon.