"Zelensky says allies asked him to scale back attacks on Russian energy"
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0e7lrxrelwo
Yeah, fuck that
Fuck any country in Europe still stuck on #oil and #gas
Fuck bigot Americans in giant low fuel economy pickup trucks whining
Fuck you India, Fuck you China
Fuck you all
All countries:
Get the fuck off oil and gas. Period. End of story
Addressing the #climatecrisis and defunding vile regimes is job #1
Ukraine is leading the way on freedom from fossil fuel fascism...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qdwpnwzwpo
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-oil-drone-attack-fire-export/33719116.html
Excellent! Keep hitting Russia's oil infrastructure until Ukraine is whole again.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/03/30/ukraine-russia-putin-zelensky-drones/
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260330-russia-expels-uk-diplomat-on-spying-allegations
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/30/zelensky-russia-iran-war-ukraine
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/100-Oil-Is-Solving-Russias-Budget-Problem.html
Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks on Russia's top export hubs, including Novorossiysk on the Black Sea as well as Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea.
Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.
@roblosricos @Npars01 @benroyce
It’s a nice piece. But Forbes avoids mentioning that the interviewee, “Energy Minister from 2008 to 2015”, was a member of a Broad Front government.
As China continues to show, strong socialist policies support converting to renewables. Meanwhile, free market economies support what the powerful industrialists prefer.
Want Greener policies? Get a more socialist government!
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
i wouldn't agree with china as a depiction of socialism. more like capitalist totalitarianism. a smart one, for now. but all authoritarianism goes one way in the end, one way or another
you do understand that china is capitalist, yes?
@benroyce @roblosricos @Npars01
I understand.
I am very sympathetic to Xi. I lived in rural Western China for a year and I saw the effects of his policies on ordinary people. The reopening of the Shanghai stock exchange was by his predecessor. Xi has taken the revenue generated and poured it into public projects, aimed at lifting people out of poverty; cheaper energy, cheaper and more efficient public transport, government subsidies for opening mom & pop stores, fixed prices for food, and so on.
I often repeat the point that Xi knows what it’s like to go to school without shoes. I honestly believe that his support for the nation’s poorest people is heartfelt and genuine.
@benroyce @roblosricos @Npars01 One of my brighter students referred to China’s economy as “managed free market”. It’s a lovely tongue in cheek observation.
Further, I grew up in a capitalist UK economy that coexisted with a socialist welfare state. Aspects of Xi’s China have some similarities to mid 20th century UK Labour attempts at a halfway house. Fortunately, China doesn’t have a Tory Party dominating the national media, so the social projects should last longer.
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
ah
so you believe, under an autocratic system as in china, as opposed to a democratic system as in the uk, that there is a better chance for plutocratic forces to fade and socialist forces to dominate
that's a very interesting belief my friend, to put it as mildly as possible
@benroyce @roblosricos @Npars01
I think it would be fair to say that we would agree that the Republican Party, or the UK Conservative Party, and the Murdoch press are working counter to the interests of the working people.
Capitalism exists everywhere. Social projects are the only way that socialist governments can operate *within* a capitalist economy, like the Uruguayan example. Xi’s domestic policies are socialist in much the same way.
Do I think Xi should be President for life? No.
Do I think he deserves credit for lifting millions of people out of poverty and for increasing commitment to renewable energy? Yes.
I think I’d even praise DJT if he did these things. But we both know it’s a safe bet that he never would.
Do I trust the Chinese system to keep the working class safe under any leader? No (See the Cultural Revolution).
Do I trust capitalist parliamentarianism? Also no.
I am, I hope, not entirely a fool. :)
I know we have differences of opinion. We also share many of the same hopes.
I think it’s important to celebrate gains that are made towards those goals, even in systems we cannot wholeheartedly support.
Do I trust Xi entirely? No.
Do I think he has done more good for the people of the world than DJT, Netanyahu, MBS, or Putin? Yes.
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
nothing good comes out of authoritarianism
the democratic world is rotting under the forces of plutocracy, and will wind up as authoritarian if we don't get a handle on it
which is where china already is
china's success is due to capitalism, not socialism. and as a rights-trampling autocracy its plutocrat fate is already written
the solution, as you said
uruguay
democracy
strong social-democratic tradition
robust welfare state
champion uruguay
not china
@benroyce @roblosricos @Npars01 There are as many problems with democracy, as far as I can see.
No British Prime Minister has supported broad socialist policies since Wilson.
Democracies have been responsible for far more wars of aggression in my lifetime than autocracies.
European democracies are tending toward fascism, on a sliding scale from Orban to Macron deliberately obstructing the public choice of a socialist prime minister.
If we compare Xi with Obama, one of these leaders was engaged in overseas wars of aggression, in which he oversaw the use of drone warfare, with resultant civilian casualties. One of these leaders has also raised millions of his citizens out of abject poverty.
Democracy as an ideal is better than authoritarianism as an ideal. However, a number of fascist dictators have been installed by the democratic process, including Hitler. I live in a democracy that has had single-party rule for all but two short periods in its postwar history.
1/2
@benroyce @roblosricos @Npars01
The problem with the PRC is succession. Who comes next? And how is that decided? The history of the PRC shows that it is a dangerous and unreliable process. Looking at the history of the G7 over the same period suggests that democracy, as it exists, is also a dangerous and unreliable process.
There are a lot of things that need to be changed in democracy in order to make it more representative, less influenced by big money, and so on. I know that’s something you passionately believe in: involvement in the decision making process by voting at every level. And you are correct.
Even so, if you judge world leaders by a few simple criteria (No wars of aggression; commitment to social projects; commitment to conversion to renewables), some key democracies haven’t produced a leader with the positive qualities of Xi. That is all I am saying. Not that the man, or his system is flawless; but that the leaders of the “free world” are, frequently, less capable of helping the people of their own country and other countries.
Xi is an autocrat. Agreed.
China is a one-party state. Agreed.
Yet, it has brought more into the lives of its citizens, and those of other countries, than most of the postwar leaders of democracies.
Surely, that raises questions about the kind of democracy we have.
2/2
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
yes china delivered those things
with capitalism. combined with no human rights. totalitarian capitalism
and so i look at your bio and i am struck at the contrast. between someone who proclaims rights, and yet is so eager to betray rights. and i wonder. is it a troll? do you lack the capacity to understand your profound hypocrisy?
i sniffed you out as a tankie from the get go. i just had to confirm it. and you did
my friend:
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
there is no such thing as being on the left, and championing authoritarianism. they are completely incompatible positions. a tankie is merely a fascist at some intermediate ideological evolutionary state. with MAGA at least they are honest about their vile bigotry. tankies? they want the same as MAGA, but don't know, or don't care
my honest feelings about you i have to censor or i will be banned
you are not on the left, and you are in some ways worse than MAGA
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
i unfollowed you, i forced you to unfollow me. do not speak to me ever again, you rotten delusional piece of shit
you are not of the left. not that you fucking tankies will ever stop lying to yourselves about that
fucking pathetic self-deluding morons. good lord are tankies worse than MAGA: MAGA is at least honest about its malice. tankies like you? the rank hypocrisy in such sweet words behind which is nothing but vile rights destroying fascist intent
@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
🖕 🖕 🖕
trip and fall on your front steps and wind up in the hospital, you tankie piece of shit. you are not of the left. you are worse than MAGA. and the biggest joke is you tankies don't even know it, as you work hard for fascism
@JigmeDatse @Npars01 @Tattered @roblosricos
Fucking tankies
Working hard for fascism
Pretending they are on the left
@JigmeDatse @Npars01 @Tattered @roblosricos
concentration of power in the hands of the few inevitably results in destruction of rights
for someone to point at china, which is totalitarian capitalism, as a triumph of socialism, is peak delusional or a straight hard sociopathic lie
so anyone putting their faith in authoritarian control for the people's rights is a moron of the highest order, or an icy liar working hard against people's rights
the idea is to cure sick democracy. not abandon it
@JigmeDatse @Npars01 @Tattered @roblosricos
china's rise is just abandonment of all of it's communist principles, embracing capitalism, but keeping the authoritarianism. that's a fucking nightmare, fuck all the shilling tankies and their lies about that
russia meanwhile is the straight simple tragedy of how rosy ideals are betrayed by sociopaths (ie, stalin)
and democracy fucking sucks
it's just that, there's no better option. we need to fix it
of course, as a culture
but we speak of "china" in this context in terms of it as a political entity, which only dates to 1949
and the shift that led to its embrace of capitalism and its economic rise is even more recent, 1978 and deng xiaoping
@benroyce I suspect the Middle Kingdom hasn't gone away altogether, and a Middle Kingdom and outer barbarians implies an Inner Kingdom.
We still have bits of Rome under the Norman underlay, and the various seepages.
And it doesn't take me long to get to something from a long time before Rome came here, although how many cultural elements from then hang on. Footpaths and plantings do.
sure but this is whimsical poetical musings of vague echoes, not contemporary hard political realities
what you refer to is ancient echoes. it's an aspect of cultural roots. what that has to do with the political sphere is extremely obscure to the point of irrelevancy
china being totalitarian capitalist doesn't have anything to do with the song dynasty's struggles with the jin dynasty
@Tattered @Npars01 @benroyce @roblosricos
No British Prime Minister has supported broad socialist policies since Wilson.The UK has always tended toward repressive governance. It only began to lurch leftwards in two spurts:@Tattered @roblosricos @Npars01
my friend
you can declare yourself a friend of the people
or you can declare yourself a friend of this:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276
you can't do both
you're not an idiot. you know where that leads
and yes, the average citizen of china has put aside freedoms and rights because economic growth is a rocket ship
you do to?
and might i remind you, it's all due to capitalism
i don't champion capitalism. but it means you referring to socialism here is a puzzle
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