Late Stage Capitalism

Using his knowledge of the U.S. systems and the fascists' Project 2025 agenda, LegalEagle made a video of his predictions for the dire changes coming in the U.S. to anyone who isn't white, hetero, cisgender, Christian, in perfect physical and mental health, and politically/socially reactionary.

U.S. sanctions, totaling more than 8,000 measures, impact one-third of humanity in more than 40 countries. They are a crime against humanity used, like military intervention, to topple popular governments and movements and provide economic and military support to pro-U.S., right-wing forces.

The U.S. economic dominance and its 800+ military bases worldwide demand all other countries participate in acts of economic strangulation. They must end all normal trade relations, otherwise they risk having Wall Street’s guns pointed at them.

The banks and financial institutions, who are responsible for the devastation of our communities at home, drive the plunder of countries abroad.

As our book is titled, “Sanctions are a Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy.”

The intention is to smash all normal economic life.

Venezuela is the fifth most sanctioned country in the world, and it has cost the country dearly: 946 sanctions! Some 40,000 to 100,000 people in Venezuela are estimated to have died from lack of food, medicines, clean drinking water and other basic necessities as of 2019, imposed since the Barack Obama administration. (Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 25, 2019) The Joe Biden administration has now imposed new, harsher sanctions on Venezuela for the crime of carrying out free and fair elections.

The sanctions on Gaza, since the population dared to overwhelmingly elect the Hamas slate, the Movement of Islamic Resistance, in 2006, operate consciously with Israel to strangle the whole population. This is collective punishment.

Sanctions, combined with a torrent of U.S. provided weapons, have reached a level of genocidal violence against civilians in Gaza that outrages the whole world. U.S. sanctions against Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen brutally impact all the economies of West Asia. They stretch to Afghanistan, blocking all development after decades of U.S. wars.

Sanctions stretch to Myanmar, Laos and the country with the oldest sanctions: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, since 1950.

Cuba, in this hemisphere, has been strangled for over 60 years. Now Nicaragua is in the crosshairs. Impoverished Haiti remains under sanctions.

The largest number of sanctioned countries is in Africa, countries although resource rich, are already strangled by centuries of colonial looting. From Libya, the Central African Republic, Congo – DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, sanctions block the Right to Develop.

They harm the most vulnerable citizens: children, the sick, the elderly and the poor.

so...libertarians concluded in 2021 that el señor trump stopped more migrants to enter legally than illegal migrants? his 4d chess was a mistake?

A good video on how movies pretend to criticize Capitalism, but really only criticize individuals and not the system. Also contains analysis of a film that does look at systems and labor relations.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity.

X (formerly known as Twitter) no longer trades publicly after Musk shelled out $44 billion to take it private in October 2022.

However, Fidelity discloses what it believes is the value of its shares of X (formerly known as Twitter), and those estimates serve as a closely watched barometer for the overall health of the company.

As of the end of August, those shares were worth just $4.2 million, according to a Sunday filing by Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth Fund.

That new estimate marks a 24% drop in value from what Fidelity estimated as of the end of July. And it represents a staggering decline of 79% from the $19.66 million that Fidelity estimated the shares were worth in October 2022 when Musk acquired Twitter.

The new valuation from Fidelity implies that it believes X (formerly known as Twitter) is now worth just $9.4 billion — a far cry from the $44 billion that Musk paid. Other investors could value X (formerly known as Twitter) differently.

Analysts say Fidelity’s plunging price tag for X (formerly known as Twitter) likely reflects shrinking ad revenue at the company, which no longer publicly releases quarterly financial metrics.

Fidelity declined to comment on individual companies.

X (formerly known as Twitter) did not respond to a request for comment.

Ad pressure on X (formerly known as Twitter)

“Musk clearly overpaid for this asset,” Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CNN in an email.

Ives said that he believes Twitter was really worth around $30 billion when Musk bought it, and today it’s worth closer to $15 billion. He said that while engagement on X (formerly known as Twitter) is “strong,” ad pressure has persisted.

Under Musk’s ownership, some advertisers have expressed concerns about extreme content on the platform that they don’t want their brands linked to.

A recent global survey by Kantar found that a net 26% of marketers plan to decrease their spending on X (formerly known as Twitter) next year, the steepest pullback from any major global ad platform. Just 4% of advertisers said they think X (formerly known as Twitter) ads provide “brand safety” (certainty that their ads won’t appear near extreme content), compared with 39% at Google.

In November, Musk faced a backlash from brands, some of which halted spending on X (formerly known as Twitter), after the billionaire embraced an antisemitic conspiracy theory favored by White supremacists.

Musk later apologized for what he called his “dumbest” ever social media posting. However, during that apology, Musk also told fleeing advertisers: “Go f**k yourself.”

But X (formerly known as Twitter) continues to be a major player in social media under Musk’s ownership.

The company said it had 570 million monthly active users during the second quarter, up 6% from the year before.

However, research firm Similarweb has found some drops in engagement.

X (formerly known as Twitter) had 73.5 million monthly active users on iOS and Android combined in the United States in August, according to Similarweb data shared with CNN. That represents a drop of nearly 11% year over year and a 20% decline from October 2022.

Similarweb also found that US web traffic to X.com in August was lower than it was for Twitter.com before Musk bought it. However, Similarweb said X (formerly known as Twitter)’s traffic numbers have been somewhat stronger outside the United States.

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said he doesn’t believe the value of X (formerly known as Twitter) has dropped nearly as much as Fidelity’s estimates imply.

“Fidelity was overly aggressive. They are essentially cleaning house on the investment,” Munster told CNN.

Munster said that in the long run, he thinks X (formerly known as Twitter) and the data the company has access to will be worth more than the $44 billion that Musk paid for Twitter.

“If you want a real-time understanding of what people are thinking, Twitter is the best source of that. And that is valuable,” Munster said.

It’s especially valuable because X (formerly known as Twitter) data has helped train Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, Musk’s increasingly valuable AI startup.

X (formerly known as Twitter) has emerged as the unique angle for Grok, which Munster said has the potential to be Musk’s biggest source of wealth.

“When Musk bought Twitter, investors didn’t realize we’d be taking off on AI as fast as we are,” Munster said. “Musk buying Twitter is a case of better lucky than smart.”

Hilarious!

Scientists and politicians will call Hurricane Helene a “natural disaster,” but in many aspects it was human-made, fueled by deregulations of environmental protections, expansion of fossil fuels and coal extraction and reductions in funding for climate change concerns on state and federal levels. Climate-related projects under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act won’t take place until 2025.

Scientists point to extreme rain falls impacting communities across the U.S. in recent years. Warmer ocean temperatures, along with moisture from rain-saturated soil, created the 20 trillion gallons of rainfall that this hurricane dropped in its path.

Experts are already finding evidence that climate change fueled Hurricane Helene’s destruction that included 30 to 35 inches of rain, falling in less than three days across steep mountainous terrain. The sudden rainfall caused rivers, creeks and streams to spill over their banks and carved new watery paths that wiped out roads, bridges, homes and businesses.

North Carolina was once a national leader in renewable energy and climate change resiliency policies. But beginning in the early 2010s, pro-big business lawmakers and corporate interests in North Carolina fought climate control measures and sabotaged projects designed to cut heat-trapping emissions and help communities withstand hurricane-force winds and widespread flooding.

In 2010, the legislature slashed the operating budget for the state’s Department of Environmental Quality responsible for protection standards. In 2012, Pat McCrory, a former executive at Duke Energy, North Carolina’s largest public utility, was elected governor.

[…]

In contrast to [neo]imperialism’s abandoning the environment, [the People’s Republic of] China has established long-term plans to reduce carbon emissions by funding the production of electric vehicles and low-energy rapid transit and designing green cities to absorb carbon pollution. And [the Republic of] Cuba’s planned economy allows the island nation to maximize plans to deal with the ramifications of major hurricanes, with evacuation plans that minimize death tolls.

In the U.S., where capitalists’ profits are always prioritized over people’s needs, potential victims of major storm damage are left on their own to cope.

The U.S. company Boeing Defense, Space and Security manufactures the bunker-buster bombs and the guidance systems [that the occupation] relies on. Lockheed Martin makes the Multiple Launch Rocket System used to strengthen the IOF ground forces. Ghost Robotics produces the robotic “dogs,” complete with weapons, that [the occupation] uses to patrol areas of northern Gaza.

Northrop Grumman sells extensive amounts of weapons and military technologies to [the occupation]. According to The Mapping Project: “Northrop Grumman is deeply complicit in [Zionism’s] ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and theft of Palestinian resources. Northrop Grumman developed manned aircraft missile systems, which the […] Air Force uses in attacks on Palestinians.

“In collaborative ventures with Lockheed Martin (another major U.S. weapons manufacturer), Northrop Grumman provides [the occupation] with the Longbow System used in [Zionism’s] fleet of Apache AH64D helicopters […] and in the production of the F-35 fighter jets. […] Northrop Grumman also produces parts used in F-16 fighter jets sold to [Zionism’s régime].” (mapliberation.org)

[Zionism’s régime] has employed these and other weapons systems “containing Northrop Grumman component parts in its repeated attacks on densely populated areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Lebanon. In these attacks, [the régime] has targeted civilian homes, civilian infrastructure and refugee camps.”

While Biden and Netanyahu are well-deserving of growing global outrage, so too are the millionaires like Boeing’s President and CEO Ted Colbert, Lockheed Martin’s President and CEO Jim Taiclet and Northrop Grumman Chair, CEO and President Kathy Warden, who oversee these killing corporations.

These multibillion-dollar weapons producers have everything to gain from Blinken and Biden’s consistent refusals to put any restrictions on weapons sales to [Zionism’s neocolony].

The U.S. “money for weapons purchases” is by no means unique to its support of [Zionism]. The billions of dollars that Biden and Congress give to Ukraine is usually in the form of weapons produced by the same U.S. companies profiting off the war in West Asia.

... in our hellish, capitalist dystopia people gladly pay for it.

Streaming services are available everywhere: on TVs, computers, phones, tablets and anything else with a screen and a network card. They ensure an uninterrupted audiovisual assault on our mind with Pentagon-approved movies and made-for-binge-watching TV shows. All palatable to us because of sights and sounds that play to our emotions, moving along a simple plot with dialogue that never challenges. Our defenses are brought down and we aren't even aware that our mind is filling up with neoliberal ideology.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5716641

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19745956

What is a Yocan Torch?

Introduction If you are a fan of vaping, then you may have heard of the Yocan Torch. This device is a portable e-nail that allows you to vaporize your favorite concentrates on the go. It is a popular choice among vaping enthusiasts because of its convenience, portability, and ease of use. In this article, we will take a closer look at what the Yocan Torch is and how it works.

What is a Yocan Torch? The Yocan Torch is a portable e-nail that is designed for use with concentrates such as wax, shatter, and oil. It is a small, handheld device that is powered by a rechargeable battery. The Torch is made up of two main components: the battery and the atomizer. The battery is the power source for the Yocan Torch. It is a rechargeable battery that can be charged using a USB cable. The battery has a capacity of 1100mAh, which is enough to provide several sessions of vaping before it needs to be recharged. The atomizer is the part of the Yocan Torch that heats up the concentrate and turns it into vapor. The atomizer is made up of a quartz dual coil (QDC) and a glass tube. The QDC is the heating element that heats up the concentrate, while the glass tube is where the vapor is produced.

How does the Yocan Torch work? To use the Yocan Torch, you first need to charge the battery. Once the battery is fully charged, you can attach the atomizer to the battery. To do this, simply screw the atomizer onto the battery until it is firmly in place. Next, you need to load your concentrate into the atomizer. To do this, remove the glass tube from the atomizer and place a small amount of concentrate onto the QDC. Be careful not to overload the atomizer, as this can cause it to clog and reduce its effectiveness. Once you have loaded your concentrate, replace the glass tube and turn on the Yocan Torch by pressing the power button five times in quick succession. The power button is located on the front of the battery and is marked with a Yocan logo. The Yocan Torch will begin to heat up the concentrate, and you will see vapor start to form inside the glass tube. To inhale the vapor, simply place your mouth over the mouthpiece at the top of the glass tube and inhale.

Conclusion The Yocan Torch is a convenient and portable e-nail that is perfect for vaping concentrates on the go. Its compact size and ease of use make it a popular choice among vaping enthusiasts. If you are looking for a reliable and efficient way to vaporize your favorite concentrates, then the Yocan Torch is definitely worth considering.