Japan is a possibility, its pretty generous towards these permanent tourists and he seems to love it.
Just remember it wasn't a vacuum prediction. There was also fearmongering about a terrorist attack on the Olympics too.
If you make every borderline conspiracy theory prediction eventually one may be correct.
Telesur Aleida Guevara expresó preocupación por reciente actitud de Lula hacia Venezuela
What about the change of government in the United States, with the Democrats leaving and the Republicans returning to power? Will anything change for Cubans?
We say it's the same dog with a different leash. The thing is, this man [Donald Trump] is crazy. We don't know what he can do. Maybe he'll come out saying that, since he's a businessman, he wants to do business with Cuba, but who knows? Because that's how this man is – he's unpredictable. But in any case, it's a danger, a serious danger, not only for Cuba, but for humanity, since that country [the United States] has destructive power and now that power will be in the hands of a man who doesn't think, which can be very dangerous.
Brazil's position after the presidential elections in Venezuela has been questioned by popular movements here in Brazil and in Latin America, because it questions the security of the electoral process. How do you assess this position?
It only benefits the enemy. It makes me very sad. I'm really ashamed that Lula has fallen into this situation. Firstly, because he has just acknowledged that he doesn't even have the right to express an opinion on another country's problems, because he wouldn't want us, or any other country in the world, to express an opinion on Brazil. So, if you don't like a behavior, how can you do that to someone else? It's a basic principle of coexistence – pure and simple. They may have their own criteria and way of seeing the world, which must be respected. I don't have anything to say about that. However, you have to respect them. You have to learn to respect your neighbors, even if you don't like them. For example, we [Cubans] want to have relations with the United States, even though we have nothing to do with their government. We can make an effort and show solidarity. Respect other countries, as long as they respect us, because that's a mutual principle. If you want respect, you have to learn to respect. It's as simple as that.
That's why it hurts so much. Brazil's position regarding BRICS also hurts, because the country refuses to allow Venezuela to join the group. This is unprecedented. Brazil is simply playing into the hands of the United States of America, the enemy of all our peoples. Lula isn’t an ordinary president; he is a president who comes from grassroots movements, someone who comes from trade union struggles. So, Lula has to know what he's doing. This is very painful for us, I mean it. It hurts us deeply and Lula's attitude towards Venezuela disappointed us.
There is something sickening about the way people jump at the chance to denigrate peripheral countries. Western sources suddenly regain all their credibility.
"Roasting" progressives & the mainstream press quickly turns into "very cool, Bloomberg is having a good day, I should repost this, it scans to me" and "AOC finally came to her senses". Well the latter has slowly crumbled but it was funny watching the Charlie Brown punt attempts from my armchair.
I try to use left sources whenever I can and I regularly use Michael' Roberts as he is the one that does the most accessible and frequent economic analysis on current events. We don't quote MSM very often for analysis but often just for the current event data or fact. MSM will lie and have a horrendous bias on reporting.
But if Reuters reports Chinese official data on unemployment or something quoting how is that a problem? Often MSM is the only source on other countries but as long as they're quoting official sources why do you care if its Reuters or AP?
If you're sitting here waiting for an explicitly Marxist professional/academic/journalist to tell you of news events then you'll post a comment a month maybe.
Here on the last week Russian food inflation where people were coping it was cherrypicking because it was MSM.
I was going to comment a much larger comment showing no actualy it is that bad. Here is readily available info from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the current 2024 rising global food inflation.
The current Russia situation is reported by many official sources.
According to statistics, food products in October rose in price by 1.23% month-on-month and by 9.03% year-on-year.
In particular, prices for oranges increased by 14.9%, lemons grew in price by 6.1%), price for potatoes went up 4.9%, onions and bananas grew in price by 4.4%), prices for cucumbers added 3.8%. Prices for apples and carrots decreased by 6.5%.
Rosstat latest data You can google translate yourself but the items are correct. Potatoes are 5% within a week you can reach the conclusion yourself. Картофель 104,68 - 167,43.
Yes the western MSM made a sensationalist headline.
No the reporting was indeed correct by all sources including the Russian government.
Some people want to do some extreme copium, yet if we said that Americans have to deal 10% food inflation in a year everyone would immediately agree its terrible and a doom scenario. Why is this not also true for neoliberal hellhole Russia?
The rest of my comment was going to be explaining why the Nabiullina/Russian CB is a piece of shit neoliberal in charge with no clue but it was too long as I'd have to explain why just mindlessly raising interest rates using shit phrases like "overheating" and "balanced growth" is just clown shit economic principles that will ruin the country. The neoliberal mainstream pursuit of a natural rate of employment, achieved through monetary policy is the key of what they're thinking and its bullshit.
Also the key point I guess is Russian interest rates are once again at the historical high, yet for neolibs there is no admission of failure just double or tripple down. Same talking points, same decisions, then surprised when it doesn't work.
I didn't write it in the end because it was turning into a lesson of Marxism vs neoliberal principles yet again.
“It was stressed that Russia has always strictly complied with its contractual obligations in the energy sector and is willing to cooperate mutually beneficially if there is interest on the German side,” said the Chancellery.
Contractual obligations my fucking ass, what even is this shit, the neoliberal rules based order sucks and must be destroyed, but also we're well known for following it and wouldn't mind following it again? Signaling a fall back to the previous status quo is definitely a mistake no matter the rationale.
It is shit like this that exactly puts the entire legitimacy of BRICS as anti-imperialists into question.
They will abuse "mutually beneficial" all the way to hell. Surely you wouldn't say shit like this in their first interaction after so long and in a crucial moment for both the US and NATO relations(Trump's election). Surely Russia wouldn't use the same Chinese conciliatory language to justify their rapprochement with the west after winning the war huh? Surely!
Learning all the wrong lessons, classic Putin.
Cinia said that a repair vessel is prepared to go to the site, and that the repair efforts have been started. The firm said it does not yet know how long it will take to fix the link, but adds that repair time for submarine cables is typically 5-15 days.
Ah yes the feared Russian retaliation to warn us about WW3 and definitely deserves to get them nuked in response.
Something that can be fixed by Friday.
China stopped publishing the official youth unemployment rate last year when it hit the record high and then they started publishing again with a new metric that excludes college students(use your own judgement on why). It was fluctuating between 13-21% between 2022-2023 and is now back at 17.6%.
This was discussed in brief by Michael Roberts on his China's Third Plenun summary overall mostly positive data except in exactly this area, or you can read something like Sixth Tone's reporting
You can compare the World Bank data estimate here I picked some countries, also here they use other official sources.
Is it that bad? but it is about on par with the worst EU countries(Italy, Sweden, Spain), generally higher than the EU average and generally far higher than Japan and Korea.
US is listed at 10% but fuck if US data is reliable at all. For what is worth its getting worse for some countries too UK is nearing COVID high, US is highest since 2021 etc.
Obviously Chinese economic growth, poverty reduction and wage growth are all far higher so its not to say that "oh Chinese youth are afraid of living in the slums" or something, at all. But I wouldn't be surprised if the COVID era effects still being felt.
Even if the tide rises all boats there is social anxiety from being afraid of being left behind or taking the back seat. IMO understanding material conditions leads to things like crime is the most obvious thing surely, understanding why white cis male chuds do school shootings doesn't mean you approve it.
China having military capability to fight the US does not mean that China should want to fight the US. A war would be incredibly costly for everyone involved, as we can see in Ukraine right now. What possible benefit is there in provoking conflict with an unhinged nuclear power?
You jumped from resisting imperialism straight to nuclear war though, surely there are steps in between? In my initial comment I said nothing about instigating conflict. Please, things like the capitalist financial incentives have nothing to do with nuclear war! I merely commented on Chinese concessions to US imperialism at home and abroad as unecessary and I maintain that.
Besides the elephant in the room is it remains unclear how China investing into Israel in 2015 or giving weapons to Saudi Arabia in 2022 is appeasing conflict at home. With Israel it was the US that had to step in and push both of them apart as Chinese influence from investments was growing.
Did Trump and Biden put Xi on a nuclear gunpoint and say you must aid our imperialist puppets or else? Come on you know the reason why, rather they thought Palestine would head to a two state solution at best and the region was stabilizing e.g see Saudi-Iran deal.
We celebrated it as a genious move of superior and successful Chinese diplomacy. It turned out that was extremely wrong in hindsight as the US called everyone's bluff, put Saudi back on a leash and now maneuvered into a checkmate into the region.
The Genocide shows the failure of Chinese ideals, no you can't be friends with everyone unless you're ideologically compromised.
The fact that anybody would think avoiding war is a mistake is absolutely insane to me.
Assuming everything China does is a one way path to war is not justifiable at all and no American brainworms is not an answer, if it is then we're back to why is the US not even fighting in Ukraine let alone WW3. You have no answer for why libs were wrong on Ukraine yet you use the same argument.
Fucking Xi wont stop on Taiwan, he wants global domination! Its exactly why the US must launch 100 nukes!
I'm so very glad people with your mindset are nowhere near levers of power in China.
Instead we have cowards and grifters, literal enemies of the global south arming our enemies while delusional westerners say nothing but hail Xi as the Comunist party shakes hands with Hitler during the hollocaust.
If only Stalin had fucking J-20s and hypersonic missiles huh? Fuck off the personal attack wasn't necessary.
If you're going to quote RAND at least understand they're not hawkish on nuclear war at all, on the contrary they're analysing potential paths for war while managing escalation.
Next time post your source.
Avoid making U.S. long-range strike capabilities an attractive target for a limited Chinese nuclear strike.
Avoid long-range strike missions that could accidentally or inadvertently engage a nuclear armed third-party, such as Russia or North Korea.
Avoid extemporaneous responses to dangerous moments by preparing communication strategies and responses to Chinese nuclear signaling or use ahead of time.
Avoid peacetime training of conventional missions that appear most likely to trigger Chinese nuclear use, such as large-scale cost-imposition, leadership decapitation, or counterforce.
History suggests that U.S. political leadership might not authorize U.S. kinetic strikes on mainland China during a future conflict.
In Taiwan scenario wargames, U.S. long-range strike is linked to multiple undesired or unintentional escalation dynamics.
In most Taiwan scenario wargames, the initial aim of U.S. conventional long-range strike is operational defense (pure denial) to stop an amphibious assault against Taiwan.
DoD should prepare responses to potential Chinese nuclear deterrence signaling. These responses could vary from very publicly shaming nuclear weapon use to limited but intentionally observable increases in U.S. nuclear readiness, such as initiating continuous airborne alert for the U.S. airborne command posts or moving bombers to alert positions and bringing air crews back to ensure a sustainable day-to-day alert posture (as opposed to immediately raising the defense readiness condition).
There are many pathways to possible nuclear escalation; nuclear use might result from one that seems far-fetched, so even implausible pathways deserve consideration.
If fully committed to fighting and winning a war with China, the United States must be prepared for nuclear escalation and place more emphasis on managing these risks.
None of these 4 papers advise or approach it from the angle of US first use, on the contrary they're specialy concerned with managing escalation while being open to raising it which is entirely expected.
You can't jump from this to "the US will nuke China first if it loses" unless you can mention another source.
Eh? Is that the argument now? I wasn't expecting a struggle session just for disagreeing but sure.
My position is none of this conciliatory moves were necessary at all.
So is the Chinese military supremacy real or not? Am I supposed to just laugh at every meme about superior hypersonic missiles from now on? Is the USN carriers obsolete or not? The J-20s actualy better than F-22s and F-35s or not? The massive fleet building capacity?
All of that may as well not exist then because China is simultaniously a smol bean global south country with no ways of resisting and also the most competent and advanced military in the world.
On Nuclear warfare I think this prospect is absolutely silly. Chinese resistance doesn't lead to WW3 anymore than Russia invading Ukraine lead to WW3, we don't need to submit to liberal fearmongering propaganda. Why is it that we all sat here in Feb 2022 dunking on libs saying that Russia would invade Europe after Ukraine and he must be stopped or else its WW3.
Yet To defend the mistakes of CPC politics we adopt the same discourse? "Yes actually the US must invade China and launch 100 nukes on Beijing if Xi even so much as tell Israel to fuck off?"
Finaly people here have complained, correctly that Biden is literaly 99% Hitler. So are we shaking hands with Hitler or not?
We're not talking about Chinese PLAN soldiers landing in California. We're talking about their own concessions to western imperialism, sometimes literaly collaborating with it(see Israel BRI investments or Saudi Arabia). None of that is necessary and it is not actualy helping.
Wisely collaborating with our enemies while the world burns and the genocide goes on.
Photo of The Anti-Imperialist War front, colored, ca. 2024
Glass half empty vs glass half full.
It doesn't matter what you or I believe only what the CPC and their neoliberal economic advisors think.
Case in point, you say there is no leverage, I say look at Foreign Direct Investment(10 year yoy change) graph and notice the actions of the CPC since early 2023 to begin a conciliatory move and silence western media criticisms e.g they reacted to the wolf warrior diplomacy shit, Xi-Biden meeting even after the moral panic over Pelosi/Taiwan 1 year earlier, absolutely not a single move against Israel etc.
China and the US are already on severe tensions, definitely the US already made moves to threaten and China is responding accordingly.
I don't like it any more than anyone but if I want to say China can resist the US pressure? Surely they can and they should, none of those actions were good or necessary, but it doesn't matter because the CPC doesn't believe they can.
99% washed out boxer vs 100% washed out YT grifter.
The consequences of applying what they've learned, look away. Consolation prize is Russia joined them with the same very common L too. Piece of shit BRICS grifters.
The issue is not really dedollarization here, there is no need to fixate on that.
Rather the fact this is further signs of Chinese integrating with western capital at the most critical juncture.
The part about Saudi Arabia trying to pivot into some sort of Hong Kong 2.0 is accurate as its one of the ways they hope to survival the oil crash. It is also part of the ME own internal struggle between the oil exporters to see who comes out on top. OPEC is doing production cuts and Oil is once again at the 2 year low. Saudi Arabia is rather trying survive by pivoting into financial speculation, putting it in competition with the UAE for example.
As reported 2 billion is quite literally nothing in the grand scheme so why bother at all? Because it signals a complete Chinese compromise with the western consensus. Its China being absurdly simplistic and trying to secure their own slice of the pie.
Major financial corporations are all moving to Riyadh's financial center, just this year there is Goldman Sachs which was the first significant Wall St player just barely last month, HSBC, Rothschild. Even the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is opening a new office there. You can probably make a long list soon.
So both Chinese and the Western capital see the potential of Saudi Arabia realy becoming a financial hub(or simply don't want to miss it) and China wants to secure good relations before its completely bought out by US interests. Yes they are that naive. Heck in this instance I'd go even further and saying there is absolutely acting as if their married to the devil. If they weren't what would explain to us their previous deals and investments in Israel during the 2010's and even earlier?
Its quite the epitome of trying constantly pandering about being an alternative to US imperialism and denouncing western crimes while simultaneously happily making deals with the worst enemies of the global south.
It is as bad as it sounds.
Promising to build more ports so that the same fascists farmers can export even more soybeans to China is definitely going to be one of the electoral strategies of all times.
In order of most likely/immidiate:
Invade Mexico to secure the border and fight the cartel, in reality just an excuse to round up everyone who doesn't speak English in a Guantanamo 2.0 right on the border while doing the same 
on random Mexican schools and bars/markets "owned by the cartel" or some shit.
Next if somehow US goes to war with China you can absolutely expect Asian concentration camps.
Then inevitably I don't see the US surviving climate change without doing the whole "cleaning the cities" first. At first it will be homeless and drug addicts. Then it will be LGBTQ and in the end it will be camps for climate migrants between states e.g Florida.
Not sure how reliable that is given the pretty much apocalyptic dead internet era we're living in specially now during the AI boom.
What exactly is twitter offering when everyone knows its full of bots already? When a significant amount of clout seekers often posting AI content too.
Twitter isn't dead, but the reason advertisers left in the first place isn't going to change overnight. Yes you can quote some random consultant's speculation but this is more than likely the usual political speculation libs love to do rather than meaningful analysis of the economic situation.
Its almost as if they're not talking about the US where lobbying is legal, if advertisers care so much then can pay congress for what they want already and if staying on twitter was profitable at all they would not have left. Its not clear why the speculation this will change overnight, it seems more like lib moral panic for me.
I disagree entirely by your reasoning Bolton would still be there.
We all know Trump isn't just incompetent but extremely egotistical and he is already significantly older and probably not that far off from Biden's coginitive decline.
Essentialy while some standard neocon might get in right now there is realy no reason to indicate this will be sustained for 4 years let alone to believe Trump was already planning around "neocons" having power as a compromise.
I doubt Trump even understands neoconservatism and neoliberalism.
Remember Hinkle here is the near perfect duplicate of Tucker Carlson blasting Trump for escalating with Iran. Only obviously Hinkle is far less influential. But if MAGA substantialy opposes this(for the dumbest reasons) its very likely Trump will flip flop.
I think this is the whole thesis why Trump was even considered possibly a better alternative. There is a very specific narrative angle where MAGA stands completely opposite to neoconservatism and that is Russia as an ally of white supremacy. In general neocons pushing the old Bush era war is entirely against this idea the US even got "allies" outside the liberal sphere in the first place. MAGA fundamentaly can't reconcile having shit EU libs or turbo NATO heads as allies or even having the idea they're the ones in charge.
Democrats and Biden made sure to ally themselves with neocons as Biden made sure to praise NATO and Israel, reminding us how much he loves it every god damn press meeting during the election.
Bad news specially if as predicted Brazil fucks themselves as Lula's government is about to do with cutting social programs right before the crucial pre-'26 election cycle. Once Brazil is compromised BRICS will have no influence in the region, questionable as it already is since Cuba being a new "partner" member is not relevant yet.
Currently a big struggle within the Brazilian government along with massive progressive/left wing parties and unions pushing back. Its not even a victory to make things better which is the shit part, its always the usual fight to stop neoliberal ghouls from making things worse and in this case a completely suicidal blow to Lula's re-election chances.
Even someone deep into the conspiracy mill over dedollarization recognizes this. Props to them, this is about 80% of what I believe. The other 20% is this wild extrapolation that China wants some alternative to US capitalism when we are currently experiencing the exact opposite from everything they do and say.
China says they want to respect the US as long as it respects them. They claim right to development but what development and in what world economy? Of course the current neoliberal imperialist order. To this very point they repeated multiple times they don't want to use BRICS as an alternative "bloc" in every definition. They go to EU and the US and shake hands.
Now they go to one of US biggest allies in the ME and issues bonds and people jump to create some alternative theory of why would the CPC do this? Re-dollarize vs dedollarize is much the same and here they write pretty well. A supposed grand masterful strategy leading us to a destroyed world with no future. Buying just enough time for disaster.
Indeed as they mentioned earlier TINA, conjure some grand theory of how to fight the dollar because anything except the real alternative must not be considered. Anything to avoid repeating the same mistakes as the USSR is turning into the steepest slippery slope.
As the great leader proudly proclaims "we don't want another cold war", indeed they write well "everyone is selling bonds against a future that doesn't exist, America, China, everybody."