Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds, every time. Trans liberal extremists will mostly stand with fascism to defend capitalism.

I think The Russia Federation underestimated much much life and money NATO was willing to waste dragging out the war in Ukraine. US figures did openly state the war is about weakening Russia, and the USA barely cares about its own people, let alone anyone in Eurasia. Maybe Russia also underestimated how weak, corrupt and sycophantic Europe leaders had become? Willing to kneecap their own economies for the US oligarchs and back a US/NATO provoked proxy war on Russia’s border for US hegemony.

US and vassal state fascists think they’re untouchable (despite crippling themselves with sanctions and getting their game in Ukraine upended). They live in a supremacist and chauvinist bubble where they think they can do no wrong, think they are exceptional, while they commit genocide, immiserate popualtions and provoke war after war via proxies. But Russia won’t have its hands full with Ukraine forever, and China wont take bloody noses forever. This ends much like every other bloated belligerent violent empire.

Wonder if they feel the same way about the Jewish State and Israeli Synagogues?

I have heard this concern before, and I think there may be an element of truth to it. You can push to hard and hurt your gums, possibly accelerating natural gum recession that comes with age. I have not heard that Oral B are worse than others. Best listen to your body, be gentle, floss. And I know what you mean regarding mistakes with teeth. Our teeth are so important, can’t really be ignored, mistakes or bad dental work can be forever.

LOL every accusation, a confession. Jillian is standing by the gate they just breached, helping hold it open. The live streamed savagery of today’s Israel has turned the world’s stomach, and it’s hard to imagine the lack of self awareness, or conscious bigotry, required to think Israeli Apartheid or the Gaza Genocide are morally acceptable.

Jillian Segal’s politics are abhorrent, as is the conflation of anti-Zionism with racism or any kind of bigotry. This appeasement by Labor of a foreign backed, racist and supremacist movement and its championed Apartheid Regime needs to stop. I think Australians want it to stop. Jews have never been oppressed or especially targeted in Australia, by Australians, certainly not compared to aboriginal Australians, or even Muslims or Asians. Remember Bondi was by Pakistani ISIS (who, if you know little about Islam and history, probably couldn’t care less about Palestinians). This positive-segregation Zionists are pushing for is not just unjustified and unfair, but will promote antisemitism, which is of course what Israel and Zionists want. Australian Jews, mostly fine people like so many Australians I’m sure, do not need their own special protection laws or special privileged treatment at the behest of Zionists and Israel. They deserve the same protections as the rest of us, proportional to realistic threat. Australian Jews are not like Aboriginal Australians, for who we do have special laws, we have those because we colonised their country and wrecked their ancient culture, deliberately. Indeed, Israel could learn from Australia how to do better by their indigenous people, , the Palestinians, even after the fact of settler colonisation.

What antisemitism there is in Australia, outside of Israeli-model admiring Neo-Nazi groups, is caused by the crimes of Israel and the deliberate and dishonest conflation of Judaism and Israel and Zionism, by Zionists themselves.

That’s how faux left bourgeois parties are. Same in Australia and the UK. The “left wing” major party is well to the right of their poor supporters, wedged by the system they either dare not break or have eternal faith in for some reason.

When you join a political party you typically must sincerely agree with and endorse that party’s political platform, worldview and professed values. What are Democrat members agreeing to when they join, if they can go on to support ICE, little more than Trump’s Brown Shirts? Either ICE is acceptable to the Dems, or they should eject these party members. Then can always join GoP. But they won’t, because this is symptomatic of Bourgeois Dictatorship, capture of both major parties by capital. Fake-left parties and two party systems have been instrumental in removing, and manufacturing consent for the removal of, working class gains post WWII, made by largely unionized, even socialist, working classes.

Trump’s planning a big Pool Room off the back of the White House, named after himself, to house all the gifts and awards he expects from sycophants.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a bad joke anyway. He’ll probably end up getting it.

The sanctions are designed to immiserate the people of Iran and force them to act out against their government, the only one within reach, in desperation and at great personal risk. Because this may help the USA get a government in that will bow to US pressures or bribes, and allow US multinationals privileged access to markets and control of Iran’s resources. Not to mention removing one of the few governments in the region that still stands up to US imperialism and the USA’s settler colony in the ME, and a value partner for Russia and China.

Hassan may value his popularity more than Iranian lives or self determination, which Hassan should know, cannot come via any interference by the imperialist, warmongering and increasingly despotic USA, motivated such as it is. And what is this “democracy” Hassan is talking about “exchanging”? Hypocritical corporate neo-liberalism and Bourgeois Dictatorship? He can’t mean Israeli democracy, where supremacist soldiers of an apartheid regime pose smiling, cynically holding liberal themed signs or flags, over a Gaza they’ve made resemble ground zero after a nuke, and under which are almost certainly diverse victims? Does he mean US democracy? The government that runs an empire where conflicts of interest, hypocrisy and exceptionalism reign? A “democracy” for the oligarchs, its litany of offenses well know here.

What kind of “democracy” does the USA or the imperialist, genocidal and increasing fascistic and warmongering West have to offer Iran? When have we conveyed our social or civil liberties to anyone abroad? We do enjoy, or enjoyed, valuable social and civil liberties, but where did they come from and what is, or was, their nature? They’re from the past I’d say, not today’s political classes; they’re the one’s winding back what liberties we have. The nature of the liberties we are allowed is class safe, and often selectively recognized or respected (exceptionalism is core to liberalism). We can die prematurely for lack of basic medical care, diet or shelter and few care, because it didn’t happen due to being targeted indevidually for our sexuality, race etc. We can march for our identity’s recognition, until it’s for the recognition of peoples the empire wants gone. We see this with the criminalization of pro-Palestinian groups, protests etc which seek to prevent the cultural genocide, the denial of Palestinian identity, that accompanies the bodily one in Gaza.

I appreciate your post. I’m sure there’s more that can be added. I was thinking today about Trump’s argument that the US or Big Oil was robbed when the Bolivarian Revolution kicked them out of Venezuela, with a billion dollars compensation. I’ve seen an article claiming Big Oil had invested at least five billion in oil extraction infrastructure in Venezuela, as if this substantiated the claim of robbery or even just unfair treatment. I have not seen anybody attempt yet to produce a figure for just how much profit Big Oil made during its time in Venezuela, or how much profit in total they had made by the time they were booted out. Since the search engines all have AI, I went down that rabbit hole, and an AI produced this. It has citations, such as they are. However I have not checked their veracity, and AI makes things up, so I take these figures as something to be investigated further.

Perplexity AI summary after a series prompts:

Big Oil companies operating in Venezuela from 1914 to 1976 likely earned a total of approximately $50–200 billion in nominal dollars (profits retained after royalties/taxes plus $1 billion compensation bonds), based on production data and fiscal terms across the era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Venezuelan_oil_industry

​ Low-End Breakdown

The minimum (~$50 billion) factors low early output (e.g., 6,000 barrels/day in 1922 at ~$2/barrel, 16⅔% royalties allowing high company margins), ramping to 1.1 million barrels/day by 1948 under 50-50 splits, with firms retaining ~$25–40 billion pre-1976 plus bonds—far exceeding $5 billion investments.

https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2516&context=vjtl

​ High-End Breakdown

The maximum (~$200 billion) includes 1970s peaks (3+ million barrels/day at $10+/barrel), 35–50% retained shares despite 65% government take, yielding $150+ billion profits atop bonds amid booms like 1929’s 137 million barrels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/business/venezuela-oil-industry-timeline-trump.html

​ Adjustment Note

In 2026 dollars, this range scales to $300 billion–$1.5 trillion, highlighting massive returns before nationalization handed PDVSA a thriving industry.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/business/venezuela-oil-industry-timeline-trump.html

If this is anywhere true, which would be no surprise at all, the notion Big Oil was robbed by Venezuela is absurd. The claim is absurd on its face to those just somewhat familiar with imperialism and Big Oil. However it is out there and some people may need a prod to think about it a bit more, so they don’t buy it uncritically.

*Sorry if I have broken Rule two. Haven’t gotten the archive link to work.