You’re not helping them long term which was the point of the Sankara quote.
It forces these countries to be dependent on food aid rather than self sufficient which means that if they try to go even somewhat against neoliberalism and actually raise the living standards and wages of their people the US then pulls the aid (as well as likely aiding armed groups to kill the leadership) in order to force the government out and installing comprador regimes in its place.
Finally made the switch over to Linux yesterday, kind of cool it was on the anniversary!
The people still support their government, but are obviously very upset right now. They overwhelmingly blame the US Empire and their blockade, which is just an open tool of economic warfare.
That’s a great point that I forgot to include in my post!
Including some links in case anyone is interested in how elections in Cuba work.
Good Video on the History of Cuban Elections and how they work.
Someone else will hopefully have more specific details on the situation.
In general the economic situation isn’t great due to the blockade since as an island nation they have to Import anything (like oil) that isn’t a natural resource on the island. Blackouts and other energy issues have been a problem due to that.
Trump recently increased the blockade and I know due to COVID their tourism industry was hit pretty hard.
Some silver linings to the situation:
China has provided solar panels that should help strengthen their grid and provide them a source of energy that can’t be blockaded.
They recently became a BRICS partner member which should hopefully give them some ability to trade even with the blockade.
Vietnam recently has raised millions in an ongoing effort to send donations to Cuba.
Edit:
Also if anyone is interested in learning more about Cuba and its history I’d recommend the podcast Blowback season 2.
Adding some links to explain how democracy and elections work in Cuba and why the government still has such large public support:
Good Video on the History of Cuban Elections and how they work.
Also Some other links below on recent news:
If you ever want to see an Elk close up I would definitely recommend visiting Estes Park during Rutt (spelling?) season.
Lived in Denver for a couple years and my wife and I would always drive up there to see them!
Glad to see the Elk showing solidarity!
I get the hesitation since in US politics they often get conflated and I can’t say I’ve followed him very closely but someone else shared this. I know he’s also advocating for city owned grocery stores.
As others have said no one source should have blanket trust.
Understanding the bias the source may have by looking up who owns/funds it and understanding how that might skew what you’re reading is important.
For news based on studies I usually will try to directly to the study which should list the methodology which will help show how well done it was.
If I have time later I’ll put together a list of ones I use and what I’ve seen as their biases.
I’d recommend Ken Hammond’s “ China’s Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future”.
There’s a mini series in podcast form that was done on it as well with him as a guest. First episode is here.
Pseudoscience is always going to attract people who want to feel like they know more than others without putting in a lot of work on studying things.
Terrance Howard also believes 1x1=2 so wouldn’t put a ton of stock into his other theories but haven’t heard of this one specifically. Like the other commentator said if he at some point shows concrete evidence I’m happy to admit I’m wrong but he hasn’t had that for his other stuff so I’m doubtful.
Wish there was an easy way to use these in a mobile app like voyager.
It’s wild to me that when she realized she had to somewhat distance herself from Biden she chose to say she’d have a republican in her cabinet. Not something about helping the working class more, or not supplying and funding a genocide that’s incredibly unpopular with what should be her base.
Stuff like that along with “having the most lethal military” and campaigning with Cheney alienated leftists, student, and Muslim voters which all could have been easy wins.
Economically people don’t feel better under Biden than they did 4 years ago which while the inflation largely isn’t his fault she still needed to meaningfully project she would be different than him to get working class voters and she didn’t effectively do that since she wasn’t pushing a populist message.
She clearly doesn’t know how to campaign well (pretty sure I heard she had Clinton staffers giving advice to her campaign lol) but that shouldn’t be a surprise since she was the first candidate to drop out of the 2020 primary.
For real, 1 whole Costco pizza is already a good amount.
I’ve heard this story a few times and supposedly it happened over a weekend but yeah either the guy was a very good card counter and played a ton or recklessly bet it on roulette and got insanely lucky if this is true.
I know you’ve been getting downvotes but just wanted to say thank you for voting PSL!
Thank you for posting this! Found it informative and the pictures were helpful as well.
JOHN CARLOS: Yeah, “Blimey, John. You’re calling me with these blimey questions here?” And I said to him, I said, “Pete, I have a concern, man. What’s this about you don’t want to have your statue there? What, are you backing away from me? Are you ashamed of us?” And he laughed, and he said, “No, John.” He said—you know, the deep thing is, he said, “Man, I didn’t do what you guys did.” He said, “But I was there in heart and soul to support what you did. I feel it’s only fair that you guys go on and have your statues built there, and I would like to have a blank spot there and have a commemorative plaque stating that I was in that spot. But anyone that comes thereafter from around the world and going to San Jose State that support the movement, what you guys had in ’68, they could stand in my spot and take the picture.”
Really cool move here. Like the message it sends that anyone can (and should) stand up and do the right thing and support those that are oppressed.
Like I kinda said in my last paragraphs you’ve got fair points that it may be good enough for what it’s being used for here (despite it’s clear biases) since it’s not being used to disallow posts. Although other commenters have said it has a pro-Zionist bias as well which is honestly more concerning than things I’ve pointed out. Haven’t had time to check beyond the ADL one.
Overall my main issue is the community wasn’t really asked if one was desired, which one should be used, how it should be used, etc. Because of that and the lack of good response by the poster I’ve already decided to follow other world news communities instead of this one.
I think the importance of American bias is overstated. What matters is that they’re transparent about it. That bias also impacts the least important thing they track.
It affects the overall credibility rating of the source, how is that the least important thing? They also seem to let it affect the factual reporting rating despite not clearly stating that in the methodology.
Based on MBFC’s [methodology](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/methodology/), it’s actually impossible for editorial bias alone to impact the credibility rating without having additional problems
This is only true specifically when you’re thinking about it as a great source can’t have its credibility rating lowered. A not great factual source can get a high credibility rating if it’s deemed centrist enough which again is arbitrary based on the (effectively) 1 guys personal opinion.
High Credibility Score Requirement: 6
Example 1
Factual Reporting Mixed: 1
No left/right bias: 3
Traffic High: 2
Example 2
Factual Reporting Mostly Factual: 2
No left/right bias: 3
Traffic Medium: 1
See how weighing credibility on a (skewed) left/right bias metric waters this down? Both of these examples would get high credibility.
On top of that, none of this impacts this community at all. It could be a problem if the standard here was ‘highest’ ratings exclusively, but it isn’t.
That’s a fair point and I did state in my original post that despite my own feelings I’d be open to something like this if the community had been more involved in the process of choosing one/deciding one is necessary and also if we had the bots post clearly call out it’s biases, maybe an explanation of its methodology and the inherent risks in it.
The way it’s been pushed from the mod first without polling the community and seeing the reaction to criticism some of which was constructive is my main issue here really.
I’m not going to die on the intercept hill here I’m fine with the fact that even though they fired the person it’s a stain on their record so sure let’s say that rating is fine.
It was one of the first 3 I checked so I’m sure I’ll find more that are problematic when I have a chance to look because it’s their methodology that’s biased. Also the other 2 I pointed out are clearly not correct.
Got rebuttals for any of my criticisms about the methodology?
WSWS is run but trots, you can say a lot about trots but being pro CPC is definitely not one of those things lmao