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Indrajit Samarajiva

Indrajit Samarajiva
11 Feb 2025 | 12:15 pm

1. Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying


Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying
This will be looked back on like the Nazi Olympics, cause they doing Nazi shit right now
Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying

When the Kansas City Chiefs (named after genocided people) are playing the brain-damage slave games, as American F-35s (currently genociding people) fly over the covered stadium just burning money, there is no rebellion at half-time. Gil Scott Heron was absolutely right that the revolution would not be televised, and Kendrick Lamar was wrong to refute him. Kendrick Lamar's song and dance just gave the appearance of rebellion, a fifteen-minute slot during full-time repression.

Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying
Zül-Qarnain Nantambu

You could see the repression quite clearly when backup dancer Zül-Qarnain Nantambu flew a Palestinian and Sudanese flag and got dragged off-screen. Kendrick has scrupulously said nothing about either genocide, unlike even Drake who called for a ceasefire publicly. In this case, Kendrick's silence takes the side of the oppressor, and for this he has been rewarded handsomely.

What was Kendrick even doing in this performance? Dissing a Canadian while the rapey American President sits in the audience? Standing in front of an American flag that Colin Kapernick was blacklisted for kneeling against? Entertaining tourists for $3,000 a ticket while homeless people are bused into unheated concentration camps? People talk about inclusion, but inclusion in what? People talk about diversity, but why diversify this disaster? This is just selling out and celebrating it.

Rappers being about their money is no surprise and I don't begrudge them that. As Kendrick said early in his career, "Money trees is the perfect place for shade." But to say this is a victory for 'the culture' is a condemnation of hip-hop culture itself, long reduced to free advertising for diamonds from 'Israel' and luxury goods from Europe, ie the worst people on earth. Malcolm X scoffed at this idea of celebrity leadership decades ago, saying,

I just told you a little while ago these leaders that they call leaders—this included Lena Horne this included Dick Gregory—and this included comedians, comics, trumpet players, baseball players. Show me in the white community where a comedian is a white leader. Show me in the white community where a singer is a white leader, or a dancer, or a trumpet player is a white leader. These aren't leaders. These are puppets and clowns that have been set up over the white community and are over the black community by the white community and have been made celebrities and usually say exactly what they know that the white man wants to hear.

Or as the more modern activist Bree Newsome said,

The fixation with the Grammys, Oscars & Super Bowl is about these being white-dominated spaces… Can we be honest? 🥴 So what does it mean that we place so much value on white spaces & remain so invested in being part of white elitism? "We're Black! In a white space! With white people watching us!" Like…😬 We need to unpack this. The overvaluing of white spaces itself is a problem. There's no way to arrive at that point without first being invested in whiteness & the idea that white spaces are superior.

Irregardless of the content of Kendrick Lamar's performance, you have to look at the context. The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of American football, but the base is thousands of debt slaves in the college football system, who are much more likely to get brain-damaged than ever get paid for the labor. But the universities and mostly white coaches make money on them all the way. If they ever make it, the National Football League (NFL) is mostly Black players, but the owners (with the exception of one Pakistani-American) are all white. Black men are traded back and forth amongst their white owners like what Young Dolph called rich slaves.

Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying
The Osprey helicopter famously doesn't work and this is an absolutely dystopian scene

Then look at the physical space that this musical 'half-time' happens in. The US President is there, fresh off calling for ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which every US President has been doing. The US Marines staged a flyover of the covered stadium for some reason, because the whole thing is a showcase of not just American football but American power. These are the men and matériel besieging Gaza this very day, and these are the warmongers and war that leave their own people in poverty. The whole thing is like a Roman Circus, except with Carl Jr's hamburgers instead of bread (they actually gave out free burgers the next day, calling it National Hangover Day, because the nation is deeply depraved).

Kendrick Selling Out, And Who's Buying
Why am I sharing this deep mediocrity, sorry

Then look at the context around the famed Kendrick/Drake feud behind Kendrick's big song. Both artists are owned by Universal Music, which is owned/run by prominent Zionists like Sherry Lansing, Bill Ackman, and most nefariously of all, Haim Saban. While Kendrick had a whole stadium singing 'a minor' about Drake's alleged transgressions, the head of Universal Music Lucian Grainge is actually named in a suit about sex abuse at the 'Diddy Parties'. Then remember that Black artists like Diddy and R. Kelly actually end up in jail however big they get, while Jeffrey Epstein ended up dead in jail because Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton are too big to fail.

What are we even talking about here at the Super Bowl? Anything but the actual problems and the actual criminals. It's all a distraction for the plebs while the super elite that own the game, own the league, and own the performance, and own the masters continue their Eyes Wide Shut shit in the super suites. Everybody else gets a fat burger and four hours of thin entertainment.

I don't mean to single out Kendrick Lamar here. Get paid, I don't care. Kendrick is not the object of criticism because he's not the one really getting paid at all. As high as you get in the working class, he's still working for his living, while the ownership class owns him, owns the football players, and owns the celebrities in all the commercials. The question is now who sells out but who's buying. That's the actual thing to actually rebel against, and not from stages they own. As Brother Malcolm said, "This is part of what's wrong with you. You do too much singing. Today it's time to stop singing and start swinging."

Indrajit Samarajiva
10 Feb 2025 | 11:40 am

2. Monkeying Around


Monkeying Around
Modified Ceylon Electricity Board logo by Sajith Bandara
Monkeying Around

According to the Sri Lankan news, a gang of monkeys got into the Pandura power station and somehow power tripped the whole island. I don't understand how this happens, but that's what the Ministry said. As I sit in the (relative) dark, this reminds me of what I know but forget on a daily basis. That this is all going away.

Three years ago, Sri Lanka fell into the dollar debt trap, specifically petrodollars. Unable to service old loans, we couldn't get new ones, and the ongoing fantasy that this was a functioning economy became an immediate fatality. Sri Lanka ran out of fuel oil (for electricity), natural gas (for cooking), not to mention petrol and diesel for vehicles. Rich Colombadors like myself drove up the price of bicycles and my family slept on the balcony to escape the heat.

I was living peak oil and climate collapse quite viscerally. Everything you'd consider modernity just didn't work, lights, fan, car, nevermind AC. There was no electricity for at least six hours a day, and as much as 18, at which point the whole country revolted. The government was overthrown, the IMF picked the bones, and we elected leftists as soon as we could (years later, unfortunately). Debts are suspended till 2028 which does not, unfortunately, suspend reality. Even if the dollar largely disappears by then (as I hope it does), the petroleum is also disappearing. What we face is not a financial accounting problem as much as biological accountability.

This all comes back to me as I sit in the dark because, ostensibly, "A group of monkeys who entered the Panadura Power Station had ended up in a spat, interfering with the power grids, causing an islandwide power outage, sources from the Power and Energy Ministry said." I suppose this could describe generations of comprador politicians physically fighting in Parliament since the 80s, but that would be unfair to the monkeys.

The truth is, as much as Sri Lanka is described as an economic basket case, we're all going to hell in the same hand basket. Sri Lanka's debt to GDP ratio is better than America's, but being a poor country we can't just paper it over, as America has been doing for decades. But we all have to pay the piper some day. The collapse I experienced is all of our destiny, just deferred. As William Gibson said, the future is already here, just unevenly distributed. Planetarily, the petro is running out and, politically, the dollar is bullshit. We can pretend a little longer but look at America's own electricity generation, a better metric than its coked up GDP.

Monkeying Around
Via the Honest Sorcerer

This shit is flat since 2008, when their economy actually died and became a zombie kleptocracy. America has been huffing natural gas to get high ever since, literally fracking the bottom of the barrel. But new fossil fuel reserves will just get more and more expensive until they economically run out before they're environmentally unavailable. Fossil fuels are called nonrenewable resources for a reason and renewables both require and do not replace them. You know that moment when the party's over but you're too drunk to leave? Perhaps you don't, bless your heart, but this is it.

I again know this from bitter (and deeply suppressed) experience. During the Sri Lankan collapse my household—again, being rich Colombador elites—bought expensive battery storage. We already had solar panels so our house was technically self-sufficient and renewable. Even if monkeys trip the whole grid, I can just walk downstairs and flip a switch to keep my household running. But this is just destiny deferred by money, like the whole western economy.

Technically the whole house is renewable, but this is just deferral, not an actual difference. The battery power runs out in a day and then the batteries themselves run out in maybe a decade. These things are heavy (and toxic) as hell and every 'renewable' component is made of nonrenewable, largely non-recyclable resources that have to be dug up and transported with fossil fuels, largely diesel. Who are we kidding? Not God, who blinks through this whole charade.

Of course, Chinese electricity growth is still growing (bless them), but they're still cursed by history. Communism failed almost everywhere but China and global communism was our last chance to plan our economies in any coherent way. Not planning is just planning to fail, as they say, and you can see the results today. Unplanned capitalist economies will just grow capital at all cost, which is great for capital, but roasts the planet by mindlessly doubling every generation, with no concept of moderate prosperity (小康社会). The capitalist economy is all gas and no brake. And so it breaks. The White Empire fucked the planet and China is in the planet so they're fucked also. China's economic miracle is again just a deferral of destiny.

There was a moment where global climate communism could have hand-braked on the way to Armageddon, but that time was two doubling cycles ago, in the 70s/80s. The time when broad neoliberalism went exactly the wrong way. Now everyone is pledging to change by 2050, ie another doubling cycle in the future. It's a charade. Whether industrial civilization is wastefully capitalist or resourcefully communist, it's still going the same way. As Li Bai from the Tang Dynasty said,

Do you not see the Yellow River come from the sky,
Rushing into the sea and ne'er come back?
Do you not see the mirrors bright in chambers high
Grieve o'er your snow-white hair though once it was silk-black?

Everything that claims existence must lose it, this is the unfortunate nature of existence. We're just a bunch of jumped up apes who dug up some higher beings that were buried for good reason and now we find ourselves in well-predicted dire straits. We cannot 'renew' our way out of this but we can circle the drain a little longer, which is all we're doing this century. I think of this as the power comes back on, then goes off again, then comes on by literally running the national generator (burning oil).

Monkeying Around
Sri Lanka's generation curve on monkey liberation day

How long can this go on? No one actually cares as long as the lights come on now. I know this because that's all I care about, right now. Globally, we're just a bunch of monkeys having a fight at the power station before the whole thing trips the light fantastic and just doesn't work anymore. I think about this often, and forget it just as soon.

Indrajit Samarajiva
7 Feb 2025 | 1:34 pm

3. Now Is The Time Of Morons


Now Is The Time Of Morons
Antonio Gramsci, Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician, killed by medical neglect in prison by the fascists
Now Is The Time Of Morons

We live in a time of terrible tension, Antonio Gramsci's time of monsters. What Nino actually said is that "the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."

Gramsci lived (and died) in a time of monsters during World War II, and now—in the midst of World War III—the beast is slouching towards Bethlehem to be finally dispensed with (inshallah, please). Gramsci unfortunately did not live through World War II, he died suffering in fascist prison, of morbid symptoms. Capitalism (née Imperialism) unfortunately survived World War II largely unscathed, as America merged with Nazi Germany into NATO (just look up its early leadership). The survival of colonial empire played out as that colonial imperialist Winston Churchill said in his beaches speech, "then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

After World War II, England and Europe became America's bitch, and it also established bitcheads in Japan, South Korea, but notably not Vietnam across the Pacific. America took over British imperial bases (and French imperialism) with Hitler's General Staff under NATO. America, with all its power and might, stepped forth to the subjugation of everyone else under the slaving American flag, itself a crude copy of the British East India's.

Now Is The Time Of Morons
These are still the flags of Pacific (Australian, NZ) and Atlantic (USA) White Empire

Today America (née Britain, it's all one White Empire) is unfortunately well positioned. The genocided continent of North America has gigantic ocean moats and established bitcheads across both the Atlantic and Pacific. As many wars at America loses abroad, it can only lose at home, which no one can get to. They have genocided their continent quite thoroughly, with only meek gentlemen génocidaires to the north in Canada and Greenland, and weak, already genocided people to the south. No can hit America at home (except some weird BDSM terrorism they're actually into), especially with nukes pointed at our collective domes.

Fortunately, America is on a terrible path. Victory is a vector, a direction not a destination. As Andre 3000 "Said, Baby boy, you only funky as your last cut, You focus on the past, your ass'll be a has-what." America went for broke when they went off the gold standard in 1971, actually went broke by the 1980s but coked their way through it, visibly broke in 2008 but stimulused themselves out of it, and died of the plague in COVID-19 but somehow kept going as a zombie. America has been broken for decades but it's lumbered on, a hegemon by fiat. But this leads to contradictions. As Nino said in the expanded quote from above,

That aspect of the modern crisis which is bemoaned as a "wave of materialism" is related to what is called the "crisis of authority". If the ruling class has lost its consensus, i.e. is no longer "leading" but only "dominant", exercising coercive force alone, this means precisely that the great masses have become detached from their traditional ideologies, and no longer believe what they used to believe previously, etc. The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

I will depart from Gramsci here because I honestly don't understand most of his fragmented Prison Notebooks. What I read in the entrails of my own ignorance is that things fall apart, the center cannot hold (to paraphrase Yeats). What we experience as 'morbid' symptoms across the body politic are, in fact, death and destruction in the imperial extremities. From White Empire's perspective, infection by liberation movements and painful amputation of its reach. The beachheads encircling Asia are falling one by one, Ukraine this year, 'Israel' this decade, and Taiwan is a non-starter. As Empire reels backwards, it has to make overt claims to Canada and Greenland, statements that were hitherto unnecessary. These are not signs of a rising empire but rather claws going down a cliff's edge as Hemingway described. Gradually, then suddenly.

This is the paradox of Empire. It's both too big to ever fail and too big to sail forever. As long as it keeps growing, people ignore the fundamental impossibility of it all, but the minute it stops, it's the emperor's new clothes. What has been unremarkably naked for a while suddenly becomes naked all along. Power is a mummer's trick and the moment the magician gets tired, it's curtains. All things which claim existence must lose it, this is the conditional nature of existence, be they nations or humans. Life is a disease which is 100% fatal and impermanence (annica) is one of the three symptoms (check behind your own eyelids).

With all that said, what is to be done, as Lenin said. It is all well to say that all Empires die in the end, but they have to be killed also. This the paradox of free will, which is better understood by the Indic concept of dharma. Yes, your actions are largely determined by long-woven karmic cycles, they may be distasteful or personally disastrous, but you have to do them anyways, as Lord Krishna told Arjuna. Indeed, for centuries people have been resisting White Empire against impossible odds. But because of their resistance and the Empire's own intransigence, the odds are now in their favor. White Empire has been in a long retreat since at least Vietnam, and its long genocide of Muslims just means it's going down in rank ignominy.

The tragicomedy is that no one is even trying to overthrow White Empire. Certainly, no one is even trying to attack America directly. All the Resistance groups are just trying to live on their own land, in peace. China would happily trade with America, Iran would happily sell them oil, Russia wants to sell them gas, everybody would rather get along. Blood for oil is not necessary, people would happily take dollars. It's like robbing a bank that would happily extend you credit.

Americans, however, are an isolated, ahistorical people who have only ever shoplifted and have no concept of normal shopping, ie give and take. They took their land, they took their empire, and they don't give a fuck. Genocide and theft are not an anomaly for America, they are a normalcy. America itself is genocide, America itself is stolen, in a very deep sense, smash and grab is its true constitution. Since its preening Declaration of Independence, America has been projecting its own sins onto "the merciless Indian Savages" which is just all colored people cause they don't know what an Indian is. And so they go out the way they came in, with colonial ultra-violence.

And so history repeats, first as tragedy, then as farce, as Marx said. Whereas America came in with highfalutin talk of independence and rights and freedom, they're going out with Donald Trump saying, "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it." All pretences are gone, the vanities are burning. As Nino said, "exercising coercive force alone, this means precisely that the great masses have become detached from their traditional ideologies, and no longer believe what they used to believe previously." The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born, now is the time of morons.

Indrajit Samarajiva
6 Feb 2025 | 5:25 am

4. Trump Forecloses On 'Israel'


Trump Forecloses On 'Israel'
A 1989 Resistance poster from Palestine and a 2025 poster by KRIME from within White Empire. As the hero of Batman: The Dark Knight said, "the fire rises"
Trump Forecloses On 'Israel'

As I said, 'Israel' was defeated on October 7th and the Resistance is facing the final boss of colonialism, America. Now Donald Trump just comes out and says it (full transcript). America's ruling oligarch said, "The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it..." This is a stark admittance that 'Israel' has lost in Gaza, and that America must literally clean up after them. Except, of course, they cannot. By Kissinger's own terms, the Resistance has won the Battle of Al Aqsa Flood (by not losing), and with Trump's temerity, America loses the information war even more thoroughly than before.

While Benjamin Netanyahu stood there, gripping the lectern to keep his prostate from falling out in shock, Trump said, "I do see a long-term ownership position. Everybody I've spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land." This is of course news to godless Jews like Netanyahu, who nonetheless believe that God promised them that land. As Netanyahu said in response, "He sees a different — he sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much — so many attacks against us. So, many trials and so many tribulations." Different indeed. 'Israel' has fucked it and Trump is foreclosing on them in public. People are talking about the humiliation of Trump pulling out a chair for Netanyahu, but the greater humiliation is Trump pulling Gaza from under 'Israel' entirely.

Meanwhile the righteous Palestinians do not give a fuck about such deals among devils. Such talk—and it's just talk—only unifies men of action in the field (which both 'Israeli' and American soldiers run from to bomb hospitals from computer screens). As Palestinian Islamic Jihad said, "President Donald Trump, in his arrogance, has placed our people in the Gaza Strip before a single choice: displacement. He should remember that 15 months of relentless bombing, with 80,000 tons of American weaponry, failed to displace them. Does he now imagine that deceptive, racist statements wrapped in false humanity will achieve what bombs could not?! Our Palestinian people have always had the option of resistance, a path they have pursued for over a century—before Trump and after him."

If the word jihad sounds scary to you because you're ignorant (read the Quran), here's the same sentiment coming from an Italian human rights lawyer and UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese,

I know that this is going to generate panic across the world because it bears huge consequences. We live in a world where the United States are ingrained in our politics, in our lifestyle, in everything we do in our economies. So these influences are hugely felt. And no one alone will be able to stand against the United States. But this will be the default option… it will either be subservience, a world made of vassals who abide by this lawlessness, this lawlessness and nonsense that is being propagated. And the other will be to take a principled stance and say enough, enough. So, start disengaging.

Disengaging alone is, of course, toothless. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the brave men of the actual Resistance, engaging imperial tanks at point-blank range. Trump is, in fact, now openly acknowledging what the Resistance has been saying for decades, making it obvious to people that would rather persist in American integration. That America is, in fact, the head of the snake and that 'Israel' is an artificial entity, more frail than a spider's web. As Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been saying and resaid in 2024, "The insistence of the US and its allies on ensuring the safety of the usurping regime serves as a cover for their lethal policy of changing the [Zionist] regime into a tool for seizing all the resources of this region and using it [that regime] in major global conflicts." Now Trump has blown their cover. He just comes out and says it.

The fact is that America hid behind 'Israel' for a reason, just as they hide/hid behind Ukraine, Narco Afghanistan, South Vietnam, etc. As long as they prop up a plausible puppet, America doesn't have to show their hand. They can say aw shucks, we're just helping out this poor 'country' because Democracy™, Freedom©, and Human Rights®, not just stealing resources and land. But then Trump just comes out and says it. He said, "we'll own it." And so they do, not the land, but the failure, condemnation, and disgust. People might cheer or fear from the stands but this misses the point. Trump has given the whole game away. As the late, great Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in 2017,

We should thank Trump for revealing yet again the true face of the U.S. administration—a racist, criminal, murderous, bloodthirsty entity that confiscates freedoms, plunders wealth, conspires against oppressed peoples.

This echoes what other martyrs have said long ago (oh Allah, there's a chorus), like George Habash (of the communist PLFP) in 1979. He said, "Our real enemy is not 'Israel' and Zionism only. It is American Imperialism, who is backing 'Israel' because 'Israel' is playing a bodyguard for American imperialist interests." At that point, the information war was as Silvio Dante said, channeling Michael Corleone, "Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself." But now he has. Needless to say, this is not a good look. It is, in fact, an irretrievable loss. Proxies are there for a reason, to protect the boss. But now the final boss is exposed, and like every video game ever, this is the beginning of the end, not the end of resistance.

This is the value of Trump. With professional politicians like Biden you have to waste hours denying their lies but Trump just comes out and says it. Like Hitler was the last honest European, Trump is the last honest American. He's honestly evil. This does us all a favor, especially bloggers. What this means geopolitically is admitting what Nasrallah said shortly after October 7th, that 'Israel' was defeated then, that the non-entity was non-functional. As Nasrallah said shortly after the operation,

This operation has lifted the lid and uncovered many facts. However, speaking of the glorious repercussions and effects of this glorious operation requires hours, if not days. What's more important is that it has exposed the frailty, weakness and total fragility of Israel. More frail than a spider's web. I have read some reports on the Israeli media that the Israelis themselves have come now to believe, more than even myself, the Israelis have come to believe that Israel is more frail than a "spider's web. This fact was established and cemented by Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The United States administration represented by their president, ministers, state secretaries and even top brass, support this shaking entity in order to catch its breath, get back on its feet again, and to restore some action and to take the initiative which they had until now — and they had to call out for protection and support. The swift response by the United States to support and back Israel has proven how Israel is failing. From the very first days of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, against a totally besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli government was in a dire need for the US fleets to navigate to the Mediterranean for military and psychological support. Where is your fleet? Where are your warplanes? Where is the invincible army of Israel, the mightiest in the region? Where is all that?"

The United States hurriedly despatched aircraft carriers and other pieces of their naval fleet. The US top brass, generals, military experts went running to the area to open the strategic weapon depots for the Israelis. From the very first days, Israel demanded new weapons, new missiles from the United States. From the first day, Israel demanded ten billion dollars. Is it a strong state, an invincible army, as claimed? A state the requires this amount of US and Western support? Heads of state, heads of government, top brass generals flocking from all over the world to provide moral support. This is what Al-Aqsa Flood has caused, this frail entity. These are some of the profound impacts of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. All these must be evaluated and analysed in detail, which we don't have time to do here. Yet, we must understand that all of the sacrifices in Gaza, the West Bank, and all fronts are really worthy.

This is indeed true if you look at the numbers. 'Israel' was in the ICU as much as the ICC, they've been on constant death support since October 7th. Britain flew 47% of reconnaissance flights over Gaza, America flew 33%, and Germany—never one to miss a genocide—contributed weapons and idiocy. Even then, all the White Empire's horses and all the White Empire's men couldn't put Humpty together again. 15 months later, Hamas is not only undefeated, they have rapidly reconstituted governance in Gaza and, as outgoing war criminal Antony Blinken said, "Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost." Netanyahu is still talking about eliminating Hamas because they haven't done it. They keep having to go back to the imperial bank, and now the bank is foreclosing. But on land it does not own and cannot control either. It's just a killing joke.

This is being spun as 'Israel' getting more support from America, but this is too much support, Trump is talking about ownership now. And ownership of what, and how? America hasn't been able to effectively occupy anybody since Korea. America couldn't even maintain a $320 million pier in Gaza without it floating away. Its bankrupt proxy 'Israel' couldn't secure a single block of land without getting blown up the next day. These are cowards hiding behind computer screens who consistently lose against men in the field and just move on to the next money laundering war. 'Israel' is already lost, it's directly America now, and ask everyone from South Vietnam to Narco Afghanistan how that goes. As Nasrallah said in 2024,

Surely, this Zionist and American dream is a vain, unattainable delusion. The [Zionist] regime is like "an evil tree, uprooted from the ground," which according to God's true words, "lacks any stability" (Quran 14:26).

This malicious regime is rootless, fallacious, and unstable, and it has only managed to stand on its feet with difficulty with US support. And God willing, this too will not last for long. The clear reason for this statement is that for a year now, despite spending several billion dollars in Gaza and Lebanon, and despite the comprehensive support given by the United States and several other Western governments, the enemy has failed in its confrontation with several thousand fighters and mujahid on the path of God, who are besieged and blocked from receiving any assistance from the outside. The only thing it [the Zionist regime] has been able to do is to bomb homes, schools, hospitals, and centers with a dense unarmed population.

Remember, also, that Nasrallah was saying the same thing for decades, since his predecessor at Hezbollah was martyred. Nasrallah came in with rebellion on his lips and that's how he went out, with honor. Now he leads from the ranks of martyr commanders like Al-Qassam, Sheikh Yassin, Yahya Sinwar forever. Jews of all people should know that killing local resistance just makes them more powerful. As the Quran says, "Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah. Some of them have fulfilled their vow, and some are still waiting, and they have not changed in the least." Thus as Nasrallah said in 2017,

Neither Trump nor his father, nor his grandfather, nor George Bush, nor his father, nor his grandfather, nor any of these racists can touch the courage, will, conviction, or faith of even a child among us, let alone our men and elders. Therefore, we are not worried; rather, we are very optimistic, because when an idiot resides in the White House and openly flaunts his foolishness, it marks the beginning of relief for the oppressed around the world.

So take heart you who have sacrificed nothing, from those who have sacrificed all. The Palestinian cause is just, American weapons are rust, and 'Israel' is dust. Trump is foreclosing on 'Israel' and the Resistance is facing the final boss of colonialism. Now our true enemy has revealed themselves and as Ho Chi Minh said about a victory he saw but would never live to see,

The war of resistance against US aggression may drag on. Our people may have to face new sacrifices of life and property. Whatever happens, we must keep firm our resolve to fight the US aggressors till total victory.

Our mountains will always be,
our rivers will always be,
our people will always be ;
The American invaders defeated,
we will rebuild our land ten times more beautiful.

For further reading, I invite you to read Reading Resistance, a collection of the statements and speeches I'm referencing above.

Reading-Resistance-Print Reading-Resistance-Print.pdf 2 MB download-circle

Indrajit Samarajiva
3 Feb 2025 | 6:07 pm

5. An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh


An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh
'Ho Chi Minh's legacy lived on long after his 1969 death. This 1980 poster celebrates the man revered as the father of the country's communist revolution. The poster reads, "Nobody loves Uncle Ho as children do, nobody loves children as Uncle Ho does."' (Via)
An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh

Ho Chi Minh is dead, but he needn't go unread. This is an 'interview' with Uncle Ho wherein I ask him questions and the great man answers, with copy-and-paste as my spirit medium. This interview is 'exclusive' in the sense that it's in my head.

The man whom I affectionately call Uncle Ho defeated the French, the Japanese, and Americans, a rare decolonial hat trick. Ho Chi Minh is the Lionel Messi of kicking colonizers out; they're both strong leftists.

I think it's important to talk to Uncle Ho now, because the Resistance to French/America aggression (why I call it all one White Empire) is ongoing. It has come to a head in Palestine with open warfare, the Battle of Al Aqsa Flood, which Hamas has won by surviving. Hamas has won this battle but when humanity has lost so much in the process. Millions of lives shattered or snuffed out, and billions traumatized by watching it.

How do we bear the injustice a moment longer? In 1946, Ho said, "The war of resistance will be a long and hard one," and he wasn't lying. What the Vietnamese call The Resistance War Against America only ended in 1975. Fifty years later, the Resistance War Against America still rages, so let's get some inspiration from latter-day sages like revered Uncle Ho Chi Minh.

Nephew Indi: What is the main enemy of world peace?

Uncle Ho: US imperialism is the main enemy of world peace, consequently we must concentrate our forces against it.

Master Sun said "Know the enemy; know yourself, and you will meet with no danger in a hundred battles. If you do not know the enemy, but you know yourself, then you will win and lose by turns. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will lose every battle, certainly."

As a master of guerrilla warfare, you know the enemy better than anyone. What can you tell us about the Americans?

Ever since the late 19th century, the USA has repeatedly relied on war to enrich itself and become a chieftain. The present US scheme is to kindle war in the hope of gaining world hegemony.

In the areas still under his temporary occupation, the enemy strives to disseminate a depraved culture and hooliganism in order to poison our people, especially our youth. He seeks to use religions to divide our people. His main scheme is to "use Vietnamese to fight Vietnamese [insert nationality here] and feed war with war."

The anti-democratic camp is headed by the US. Immediately after the end of World War Two, the US became the ringleader of world imperialism and reaction. Britain and France are ite right- and left-hand men and the reactionary governments in the East and the West its henchmen. Aspiring to world hegemony, the US holds out dollars in one hand to entice people and brandishes the atomic bomb in the other to menace the world. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO Pact, and Programme for Southeast Asia are all US manoeuvres aimed at preparing for a third world war.

In Europe the US has, through the Marshall Plan and NATO, seized control over the Western countries in the military, political and economic fields, and at the same time has been striving to arm them and compel them to supply cannon-fodder.

Nephew Indi: Remarkable Uncle, it sounds like you're talking about now. America is still using Europe to attack Russia, and is pitting Slav against Slav in Ukraine, Semite against Semite in Palestine, and Chinese against Chinese in Taiwan. Since you have fought the Americans directly, can you tell us about their tactics of war?

"The leopard does not change his spots" ; the US aggressors are still very stubborn. In the South, they go on intensifying the war, savagely bomb the cities and destroy whole areas in the countryside, while carrying out frantic raids against the southern provinces of the North.

Of late, the frenzied US aggressors have taken a very serious step in their escalation by starting air strikes on the suburbs of Hanoi and Haiphong. That is a desperate act, the death throes of a mortally wounded wild beast. The heavier their defeats, the more cruel means they employ, such as napalm and noxious gases, to massacre our compatriots.

The South Viet Nam people have defeated the US "special war" and are defeating the US "limited war", a very brutal war of aggression, waged with over one million troops including nearly 500,000 US troops and over half a million puppet and satellite troops, thousands of aircraft, hundreds of warships, millions of tons of modern weapons and the most cruel means of war : noxious chemicals, gases, napalm, pellet bombs, etc... Even more barbarous than the Hitlerite fascists, the aggressors have carried out everywhere a "burn all, destroy all, kill all" policy. In an attempt to escape from the quagmire in South Viet Nam, the US imperialists have launched an increasingly more brutal air and naval war of destruction against North Viet Nam. They attack our communication lines, industrial centres, populous areas in both the cities and the countryside, hospitals, schools, churches, pagodas, dams and dykes, etc. They wrongly assume that with bombs and shells they can damp the patriotism and destroy the sacred militant solidarity of the Vietnamese people in both zones. But, for the sake of their Fatherland's independence and freedom, the 31 million Vietnamese people, united and of one mind, are determined to fight and defeat the US aggressors to save the country.

Politically, how do the Americans operate (re: corrupt and manipulate)?

They have fostered a puppet administration and puppet troops as instruments of their aggressive policy. They have resorted to extremely savage means of warfare — toxic chemicals, napalm bombs, etc. — and applied a "burn all, kill all and destroy all" policy. By committing such crimes, they hope to subdue our Southern compatriots.

They buy over the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Lao puppets [insert Ukraine, Taiwan, and 'Israel'] and speed up the organization of puppet armed forces. They force the French [EU] to make concessions to the puppets, that is, to them. They have a plan to replace the French step by step, but continue to use the latter as stooges for the implementation of their war policy.

Apart from their economic exploitation and plundering, the French and American imperialists practise such deceitful policies in the political field as declaring sham "independence" and "democracy", holding fraudulent elections.

The US imperialists supply their henchmen with armaments to massacre the Indochinese people. They dump their goods in Indochina to prevent the development of local small industries. / They disseminate a depraved culture to poison the youth in areas under their temporary control.

Today it feels like American Empire is dying all over, and yet killing more than ever. Genocide in Gaza, terrorizing Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, toppling Syria and sundering its territory to Al-Qaeda, etc. What was your experience with the French Empire dying? Did those bastards also go down ugly?

Since France was defeated by Germany, its power has completely collapsed. Nevertheless, with regard to our people, the French rulers have become even more ruthless in carrying out their policy of exploitation, repression and massacre. They bleed us white and carry out a barbarous policy of all-out terrorism and massacre. In the foreign field, bowing their heads and bending their knees, they resign themselves to ceding part of our land to Siam and shamelessly surrendering our country to Japan.
An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh
"There is nothing more important than independence and freedom" (Via)

How do we not lose hope at these trying times?

Our present political struggle is a long, hard and complex one, but it will certainly be victorious. Victory is certain because our cause is just, our people are closely united and of one mind, our fellow-countrymen in both South and North are struggling with heroism, the peoples of the world are supporting us and the world peace movement is growing stronger every day, while the imperialists' warlike schemes have suffered ever more serious failures.

Our long war of resistance will have to go through many more difficult periods. We must endure sacrifices and hardships and make great efforts. But we are ready to face sacrifices and sufferings and to exert ourselves for five, ten years in order to break the chains which have held us in slavery over the past eighty years, and regain unity and independence forever.

The US imperialists are resorting to brute force in the hope of subjugating our people and intimidating other peoples in Indochina, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. But they are grossly mistaken.

Ours is a heroic people. We have overthrown the Japanese fascists and defeated the French colonialists, and are now resolutely fighting to defeat the US imperialist aggressors.

We are determined to win complete independence for our Fatherland and complete freedom for our people. In face of the danger created by US aggression, our people in the North and in the South are of one mind in their resolve to fight : even if the battle should last five, ten, twenty years or longer, we will resolutely fight on till complete victory.

Now we are waging a long war of resistance to defend our unity and independence; we have powerful forces and enjoy favourable national and international conditions : we are bound to win.

However, we must be aware of the following :

The enemy will grow even more reckless and ferocious, they will probably extend their attacks even more before being wiped out.
— We shall meet with even greater difficulties and hardships before winning final victory.

Therefore we must be vigilant and resolute ; we shall neither be discouraged by temporary setbacks, nor grow arrogant when winning big victories ; neither shall we grow complacent and underestimate the enemy.

How long must we fight the Americans?

The war of resistance against US aggression may drag on. Our people may have to face new sacrifices of life and property. Whatever happens, we must keep firm our resolve to fight the US aggressors till total victory.

Our mountains will always be,
our rivers will always be,
our people will always be ;
The American invaders defeated,
we will rebuild our land ten times more beautiful.

We must first of all keep in mind that the war of resistance will be long and hard, but will certainly end in victory. The war of resistance must be a protracted one because our population and territory are small and our country poor. Long and all-round preparations have to be made by our entire people. We must always bear in mind that in relation to us the French invaders are quite strong, and, in addition, they are assisted by the British and Americans.

They are like a "tangerine with a thick rind" and so we must have time to "sharpen our finger-nails" in order to peel it. We must also understand that each stage is linked up with others : it succeeds the one that precedes it and produces seeds for the one that follows.

Isn't there an alternative to armed resistance?

The Vietnamese people are now facing these alternatives: either to fold their arms and bow their heads and fall back into slavery, or to struggle to the end for freedom and independence. No! The Vietnamese people will never again tolerate foreign domination. No! The Vietnamese people will never again be enslaved. They would rather die than lose their independence and freedom.
An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh
Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom (via)

America is trying to break the will to resist through terror and sheer force of arms. Can they do it?

Johnson and his clique should realize this : they may bring in half a million, a million or even more troops to step up their war of aggression in South Viet Nam. They may use thousands of aircraft for intensified attacks against North Viet Nam. But never will they be able to break the iron will of the heroic Vietnamese people, their determination to fight against American aggression, for national salvation. The more truculent they grow, the more serious their crimes. The war may last five, ten, twenty or more years ; Hanoi, Haiphong and other cities and enterprises may be destroyed ; but the Vietnamese people will not be intimidated ! Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom. Once victory is won, our people will rebuild their country and make it even more prosperous and beautiful.
An Exclusive Interview With Ho Chin Minh

What military strategy are both you and the Axis of Resistance around Palestine following?

We look not only at the present but also to the future and have firm confidence in the spirit and strength of the masses, of the nation. Therefore we resolutely told those wavering and pessimistic people : Yes, it's now grasshopper versus elephant, ' But tomorrow the elephant will collapse. Facts have shown that the colonialist "elephant" is getting out of breath while our army has grown up into a powerful tiger.

The enemy wants to win a quick victory. If the war drags on, he will suffer increasing losses and will be defeated. That is why we use the strategy of a protracted war of resistance in order to develop our forces and gather more experience. We use guerilla tactics to wear down the enemy forces until a general offensive wipes them out The enemy is like fire and we like water. Water will certainly get the better of fire.

The reactionary colonialists' aggressive war is unjust and hated by all. Our resistance for national salvation is a just cause and is therefore receiving support from many people. The majority of the French people want to live in peace and friendship with us. The peoples of the colonies sympathize with us. The Asian peoples support us. World opinion is favourable to us. On the moral plane, the enemy has already failed completely and we have won total victory.

What message do you have for people within the White Empire (France, America, same thing),

We have no grudge against each other. Only selfish interests have driven the reactionary colonialists to provoke clashes. Profits are for them, death for you, and decorations for the militarists. For you and your families, only suffering and destitution. Think the matter over. Are you going to shed your blood and lay down your lives for the reactionaries? Join us, you will be treated as friends.

Our people are determined to drive away the US imperialists, their sworn enemy. Yet we always express friendship toward progressive American people.

Viet Nam is thousands of miles away from the United States. The Vietnamese and American peoples have no quarrel with each other. For what reason have you launched an aggressive war in South Viet Nam and wasted billions of dollars of the American people to support a corrupt and dictatorial administration, spat upon by the South Vietnamese people ? What right do you have to force tens of thousands of young Americans to come and kill innocent South Vietnamese, then to get killed in this unjust, dirty war ?

What does genuine peace look like? How do we define victory for the Resistance?

Our people cherish peace, but genuine peace only comes with real independence and freedom. Our position is very just and clear : the day the US imperialists end their war of aggression against our country, end the bombing of the North, withdraw all US and satellite troops from South Viet Nam and let our people freely settle our internal affairs, that day peace will be restored. This is the desire of our people and also of progressive people in America and peace- and justice-loving people in the world. The only way to restore peace is to achieve the total withdrawal of US and satellite troops. Viet Nam for the Vietnamese !

And Palestine for the Palestinians, China for the Chinese, Ukraine for Ukrainians and I guess now the Russian speakers to Russia, cause that's not receding. Basically the world to the world to sort out its own problems, and death to America which has just been creating them. As always, the best solution to the world's problems is America fucking off, and as someone who showed them the door, I deeply appreciate Uncle Ho's wisdom. As Uncle Ho said, capping off his own career,

For the first time in history, an oppressed nation defeated the aggression of a mighty imperialist power, won back national independence, brought land to the tillers and genuine democratic rights to the people.

The victory of the August Revolution and the great war of resistance proves that even a small and weak nation can most certainly defeat the imperialist aggressors, if it is closely united under the leadership of the working class and its Party and correctly follows the Marxist-Leninist line.
Source: Ho Chi Minh Selected Writings 1920 - 1969 Ho Chi Minh Selected Writings 1920 - 1969.pdf 15 MB download-circle
Indrajit Samarajiva
2 Feb 2025 | 5:34 pm

6. An Art: Still Life With Dead Game


Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market. 1614, Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579-1657)

This is Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market, which my boy Frans Snyders painted in 1614, in Flemland. I don't know what's going on here but this painting commands your attention. To my illiterate eyes, Santa Claus has killed Rudolph, there's a cockfight under the table, and Santa is also getting robbed. A black cat lurks profitably beneath it all, gold eyes shining like equatorial moons. It's beautiful work, from back when painters put work in.

The detail is incredible, paintings like this tell so many stories. In this case mad carnage. Santa killed Rudolph, Pumba, and Peter Rabbit. There's a tropical peacock in there for some reason. The squabs are still squawking.

Technically, the metal work is exquisite, I'm always amazed when painters can replicate how metal captures light. Like this other Still Life from Hannah Skeele (Fruit Piece, 1860), with its exquisite silver and ceramics.

Fruit Piece by Hannah Brown Skeele (1860)

Skeele does glass, ceramic, and metal in one work, a technical trifecta. I think she does ceramic and metal amazingly, but I must say her glass and strawberry game is weak. This is odd because she painted a lot of strawberries here. But the ceramic is both warm and cool at the same time, and the silver is also somehow more than a color, it shines. Painting is still what we call (possibly offensively) godayata magic, magic to a villager. A great painter can conjure more than reality out of goop. I've tried painting (or had painting tried on me, in school) and it's magic what painters do.

This, for example, is a Sri Lankan painter I discovered in a tea estate bungalow. Anupa Indika Perera.

Still Life by Anupa Perera

His Still Life shows common Sri Lankan household items (of a bygone age, no plastic). I suppose few people do Still Lifes anymore, because life is so disposable and dismal. But a few people do, Noah Verrier for example.

'Triptych' by Noah Verrier, trip tychen by me

When it comes to modern, trippy Still Lifes, my favorite is Van Gogh, like his Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples. I've seen this painting live in Chicago, and it vibrates on the wall. It's uncanny.

Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples by Vincent van Gogh, the deserved OG

Anyways, that's an art. Or seven arts this time. I'll regularly share art so we don't all go crazy. Life is beautiful, when it's Still.

Indrajit Samarajiva
31 Jan 2025 | 2:42 pm

7. Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)


Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)
Ye olde triangle trade. Evil incarnate, and it keeps reincarnating
Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)

White Empire has always been bad, this is history, not news. Whether it was headquartered in Amsterdam, London, or Washington DC, they've always been genociding, stealing, and spreading corruption. That's the whole business model. What's ending White Empire is not its bads but its lack of goods. Not its sins but the fact that there's nothing redeeming them.

Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)
Walter Rodney
Evil For Goods

Manufactured goods make a fool out of man, this much is known. In How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney relates the story of Estaban Montejo, an African who ran away from a Cuban slave plantation in the 1800s. Montejo said,

It was the scarlet which did for the Africans; both the kings and the rest surrendered without a struggle. When the kings saw that the whites were taking out these scarlet handkerchiefs as if they were waving, they told the blacks, "Go on then, go and get a scarlet handkerchief" and the blacks were so excited by the scarlet they ran down to the ships like sheep and there they were captured.

This story was the history across the world. Since the beginning of colonialism, smaller forces (usual corporate armies like the VoC) were able to colonize much larger populations by dividing and conquering them. For comprador elites in the colonies, the deal (at gunpoint) was sell out your homies and get "Dutch linen, Spanish iron, English pewter, Portuguese wines, French brandy, Venetian glass beads, German muskets," as Walter Rodney wrote. Not even the good stuff, usually shit they didn't want, but it worked.

Like waving a red flag in front of bull, if an embarrassingly small minority went for European goods, evil spread across whole continents. Colonialism is a stick-up but also an inside job. If you beguile a few natives, they'll do the colonizing for you. This has been the deal since time immemorial (from the offer of Roman citizenship to the perfidy of Albion to the consumer culture of America). Evil for goods.

The End Of History Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)
From the Collected Works of Ho Chi Minh

After occupying Western Europe (really Far West Asia) after WWII, America inherited White Empire and kept the devil's deal for most of the 20th century. As Ho Chi Minh (of Vietnam) said in his Political Report of 1951, "Immediately after the end of World War Two, the US became the ringleader of world imperialism and reaction," and "Aspiring to world hegemony, the US holds out dollars in one hand to entice people and brandishes the atomic bomb in the other to menace the world."

Uncle Ho said the main obstacle to this was the Soviet Union and socialist liberation movements across the world, but the Cold War (which was hot to us) defeated one and seemed to defang the other. The carbon carrot and nuclear stick seemed to work. So much was the over-confidence (and ignorance) that Francis Fukuyama declared the end of history in 1989. As he wrote,

that state of consciousness that permits the growth of liberalism seems to stabilize in the way one would expect at the end of history if it is underwritten by the abundance of a modern free market economy. We might summarize the content of the universal homogenous state as liberal democracy in the political sphere combined with easy access to VCRs and stereos in the economic.

You can see the colonial deal restated here. Adopt corrupt liberal democracy (beware Greeks bearing gifts!) in exchange for goods (VCRs and stereos). Japan was the poster-child for this 'new deal', nuked when they were bad, but able to make endless anime about being nuked when they were good. At the same time, however, you can see the root White Empire's undoing in Fukuyama's triumphal musings. All of the goods he talked about (VCRs and stereos) were not made in America at all!

This was a marked departure from history as it was. Early Europeans had the only industrial base. America had the only unbombed industrial base after World War II. Both conveyors of White Empire were able to fulfill their part of the deal (manufacture goods) on their own. After World War II, however, America got drunk on the spoils, over-reliant on the colonies and then communists, and slowly, surely spoiled it all.

Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)
Hitler's Mein Kampf

Hitler, the last honest European, said that Europe's weakness was that it was like a pyramid standing on its head, compared to America which had a vast base in genocided America. You can see Hitler's clear inspiration by what the Europeans and Americans were doing, though they try to paint him as an anomaly. Learning nothing from history, America reproduced the fundamental instability of European colonies when it took them over.

America outsourced energy production to the occupied/chaosified Middle East that they inherited from the British. Then gradually outsourced industrial production to the occupied Axis (Germany and Japan) and occupied Korea also. This was all happening well before China entered the WTO. America was deindustrializing and financializing from at least the 80s, hard. America was quite confident in their incarnation of White Empire, stretching across the Pacific and Atlantic and keeping Africa and South America down. They thought they could pump up their stock market and cover up inevitable crashes with money printing because, hell, all those global suckers still bought it. But pride, as They say, goeth before the fall.

The End Of The End Of History

The triangle trade works, fundamentally, as long as you have something to trade. Yes colonialism was evil, exploitative and fundamentally theft, but it gave people—especially colonized elites—stuff they wanted. Sam Huntington said, "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion... but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence." but I'm telling you that corrupt local elites (like me) and their serfs did most of the violence for them. This worked because they could deliver lace and cannons and all the manufactured stuff men go foolish for. The White Empire had something to trade, and we were willing to trade our souls. This enabled them to go incredibly force light (a few thousand white men at a time conquered India), because manufactured goods were better than manpower.

After inheriting White Empire from conquered Britain, America went even more force light, relying even more on fossil-fuelled trade to sustain local oppressors and co-opt local bourgeois. Cars and carcinogens, degrees and jobs, these were the levers of soft power that allowed them to not go hard. Indeed, everywhere that people mounted sustained armed resistance (half of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan), America lost. After Vietnam, they lost the ability to conscript armies at all.

At the same time, America slowly lost (outsourced, forgot, private equitied to death) the manufacturing power they built up in World War II. This was actually the base of their power, and they freebased it in the 1980s. By 2000 it was vestigially there, but by 2020 it was gone. You can see it in this one picture.

Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)

In these two maps, via the cursed Economist, you can see the breakdown of the modern Triangle Trade. Not an explanation, but how it literally breaks down. For centuries, everybody's abusive trading partner was White Empire in some incarnation. This geographically and demographically unusual situation (why should a minority of the population have most of the wealth?) continued until the turn of this century, but then it turned hard.

By 2020, most of the world was trading primarily with China, and this has only accelerated in the years (which have each been decades) since. At the same time, China began trading more with the global majority than the rapacious minority in America. America was both losing its place in the triangle trade and the whole concept was becoming redundant because people just traded with each other. Now while China continues building global infrastructure via the Belt and Road Initiative, America is practicing auto-erotic asphyxiation via tariffs. It's not just that China is actively coming up, America is actively going down.

Now an increasing number of the consumer goods used to pacify the internal population of America are made in China, or made in China and assembled somewhere that America isn't tariffing in terror.

Goods Vs. Bads (China Vs. America)

If you look at this graph from the also cursed American Enterprise Institute, you can see two distinct trends. Everything made or monopolized in America is ruinously expensive (like housing, healthcare, and education), whereas the consumer goods that make life bearable are increasingly made in China. The working part of America's economy is actually China's economy. This is why the American government is freaking out so much about social media (TikTok) and AI (DeepSeek). These were like the quarterbacks of their tech industry, the last place a white man could lead. But now that lead has evaporated. America's only a few years away from being a failed state with just a strategic OnlyFans reserve to its name.

The Broken Triangle

This reorientation of trade changes the whole triangle. Remember that during European colonialism, manufactured goods were at the top of the slavery plantation chain. And that American imperialism is literally fuelled by oil and goods through their wartime shipping lanes. The engine of power is literally engineering, and without it power cannot be triangulated. Today, White Empire's hold on this power is tenuous, largely artificial, and waning.

To give you a personal example, in Sri Lanka when you travel you are always asked to bring stuff. Electronics, clothes, toys, books. This diasporic dance, however, has become increasingly absurd when you go west. Almost all of the items people request have come from Asia in the first place. Electronic, clothes, toys, books, almost none of this is made in Empire anymore. The goods are made in China or wherever, sail past us to England, then we fly over there to bring them back.

Now I increasingly ask my wife, why would I go West to bring something from China? This exasperates her to no end, but I always ask if we can get those branded good unbranded from AliExpress, because that's what the brands are doing themselves. Western brands are just bulk shopping from the same factories and literally white-labeling it. Then it takes a boat ride to White Empire, I pay the worst people on earth unconscionable markup, and I bring it back to Asia, taking a huge carbon dump on the entire planet in the process. WTF are we even doing here? This is the question, in microcosm, that the world is asking. If White Empire doesn't even make manufactured goods we want, what are we letting them kill our children for?

Right now everything is denominated in dollars, but that's in name only. Rather than the heart of a beating Empire, the dollar is increasingly just a medium of exchange, and a bad reminder of an Empire that beats us. The US dollar and US society itself is propped up by Chinese manufacturing, something inchoate markets are increasingly aware of. In November 2024, for example, China was recently able to issue USD bonds at effectively the same rate as the US government, which is unheard of, except you just heard about it. People trust China because people know that China is the manufacturing power behind the throne. But then WTF do we need the White Empire for? It's becoming increasingly obvious that the empire has no clothes. It literally does not make them anymore. It's just a matter of time before enough people point this out, and America goes bankrupt as Hemingway said. "Gradually and then suddenly."

An Extended Shower Metaphor

As an example of why things go on like this—in a shitty, obviously non-optimal state—just look at your life. In my life, for example, the overhead shower kept popping off. In soapy frustration, I tried to fix it, ripping the whole thing off the wall in the process. Now we just use the hand shower and there's a hole in the wall. This is most people, and most people in aggregate. I called this the cracked screen phenomena, where will avoid fixing something until it's completely unusable.

This is what I think is happening with the obviously necessary decoupling from a vestigial White Empire. White Empire kills our children, overthrows our governments, and is despicable and rude, but changing financial and economic systems is a pain in the ass and most people would rather not do it. Even Russia, despite being neoliberally raped by White Empire for a decade, still wanted to trade, reconcile, and even fight with them. As Vladimir Putin told Oliver Stone, "During the meeting [in 2000] I said: 'Let's consider an option that Russia might join NATO,' Clinton said 'Why not?' But the U.S. delegation got very nervous." As shitty as the 'rules-based order' was, it was an order, and most people were happy to exist within it rather than tear it all down.

All of America's avowed enemies—from Venezuela to Iran to China—would happily trade with them for another century. All they ask, a la Aretha Franklin, is a little respect. But this, for a White Empire used to domination, is too much. So they rage, rage against the dying of the white and die this decade, instead of chilling and retaining vestigial power for a century more. So they push out Russia, push out Iran, push out China, and push all of rising Asia together, while their own fortunes only fall. Like me pushing and pulling on the shower until it broke, this is what America is doing to the bloodbath they were enjoying.

Bads Vs. Good

As I said at the beginning (this is the conclusion), White Empire has long been bad, whether it was molesting us from Amsterdam, London, or Washington Das Capital. This never stopped it before and, indeed, it only grew stronger on filthy lucre. That was because for all the bads in the world, the goods were good.

But now the goods are shit or literally white-labeled Chinese products and all that's left are the bads, which are many and reprehensible. The petty corruption via consumerism that made native elites complicit is gone, and the natives are restless now. People put up with all the humiliation and homicide because they got color TVs and sneakers (or smartphones and AI), but that's stuff all made in China or elsewhere now. They put up with it a little bit longer because those products were designed in America, but now China is designing its own versions which are better on their own, and also don't explode if America ('Israel', same thing) doesn't like you. If you can get goods without the bads, why wouldn't you?

The entire deal behind White Empire is looking like a steal (at our expense), which is what it always was. It's interesting how history rewrites itself as someone loses power and new 'victors' come into view. All the rage, rage against the dying of the white (Dylan) is just making the end come faster, the falcon cannot hear the falconer and so on (Yeats). Now all the bads of White Empire stand out, because there are not nearly enough goods to counterbalance them. The last, most precious manufactured good is history. And that's made in Sri Lanka now. You heard it here first (nevermind my citations).

Further Reading, please do

White-Empire A deranged and largely unedited collection of my posts on the subject White-Empire-Print.pdf 14 MB download-circle Ho Chi Minh Selected Writings 1920 - 1969 Ho Chi Minh Selected Writings 1920 - 1969.pdf 15 MB download-circle How Europe Underdeveloped Africa -- Walter Rodney How Europe Underdeveloped Africa -- Walter Rodney.pdf 11 MB download-circle End Of History - Francis Fukuyama End Of History - Francis Fukuyama.pdf 2 MB download-circle
Indrajit Samarajiva
27 Jan 2025 | 1:33 pm

8. How Communism Is Outcompeting Capitalism


0:00 /1:32
How Communism Is Outcompeting Capitalism

I asked DeepSeek for a rec on Chinese art and it suggested Along the River During the Qingming Festival. This is a 1736 version by Chen Mei, Sun Hu. Jin Kun, Dai Hong, and Cheng Zhidao. Set to Jasmine Flower.

Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think? A hundred EV companies have bloomed under communism, while capitalism subsidizes one blowhard making four vehicles and one paperweight. A startup has trained an AI for $5.5 million under communism, while capitalist AI requires $500 billion in government support. Everything capitalists told you about capitalism was just some bullshit to sell you more capitalism. Communism is actually far more innovative than capitalism. They do more with less, and for better purpose.

Long, Possibly Unnecessary Historical Digression

The great technical power of communism was actually known from the jump. Russia and China industrialized within one generation. No nations ever developed faster or more, an economic miracle pointedly ignored by most western economists because communism bad, STFU. The productive capacity of communism was discredited because the whole thing seemed to fall with the end of the Soviet Union, but that wasn't all. As Xi Jinping said in 2018,

Historical development is never straight, but full of twists and turns. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe not only led to the disappearance of the first socialist countries and the socialist countries in Eastern Europe, but also brought a serious impact on the vast number of developing countries that aspired to socialism, and many of them were forced to take the path of copying the Western system. Socialism in the world has suered a serious setback, as the saying goes, "All flowers are scarce for a while". I have talked about the journey of socialism from empty thinking to science, from theory to practice, from one country to many countries. It is worth studying in depth....

History always evolves according to its own logic. The great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics in China shows that socialism has not perished, nor will it perish, and that it is flourishing with vitality and vigor. The success of scientific socialism in China is of great significance to Marxism and scientific socialism, and to socialism in the world. It is conceivable that if socialism had not achieved the success in China today, if the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and our socialist system had also collapsed in the domino change of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Soviet Communist Party, and the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, or had failed for other reasons, then the practice of socialism might again have to wander in the darkness for a long time, and again as a ghost, as Marx said wandering in the world.

Luckily for the world, China was decoupling its model from the Soviet model before the Soviets fell and evolved something quite different (and more robust). As Xue Muqiao said at a World Bank conference in 1982 (all of this via How China Escaped Shock Therapy, Isabella M. Weber, read it, it's excellent),

Xue closed his speech by reminding the audience that China had learned a painful lesson when it copied the Soviet model. This mistake could not be repeated. No change in abstract principles was needed, according to Xue, for the key question was how to reform in practice. China would not pursue indiscriminate or wholesale copying but would take the best from each country and find its own way.

The chief Chinese insight was that the problem required Chinese insight. Chinese communism was branded socialism with Chinese characteristics and with this highly experimental and adaptive economic system, Deng Xiaoping took China to market (without selling off the whole hog). Uncle Deng predicted the trajectory quite presciently in 1987 (in People's Daily):

Poverty is not socialism. We must support socialism, but we must move ahead in building a socialism which is truly superior to capitalism. We must first rid ourselves of the socialism of poverty (pinkun shehuizhuyi); although everyone now says we are creating socialism, it is only in the middle of the next century, when we have reached the level of the moderately-developed countries, that we will be able to say with assurance that socialism is really superior to capitalism and that we are really building socialism.

If anything, Uncle Deng was being conservative. We're only a quarter through the new century and China already has higher life expectancy and living standards than capitalist America. The only thing America leads on is GDP, which measures its corruption, debt, healthfraud, and constant self-stimulation as positives (which they are not). In real economic terms like PPP, China already tops America, and it doesn't prioritize such blunt (dick) measures itself, preferring to look for 'high quality' growth than just making abstract numbers go up. As you can see, Chinese socialism is pragmatic more than programmatic. As Deng said in a 1962 speech (which pissed Mao off),

When talking about fighting battles, Comrade Liu Bocheng often quotes a Sichuan proverb—"It does not matter if it is a yellow cat or a black cat, as long as it catches mice." The reason we defeated Chiang Kai-shek is that we did not always fight in the conventional way. Our sole aim is to win by taking advantage of given conditions. If we want to restore agricultural production, we must also take advantage of actual conditions. That is to say, we should not stick to a fixed mode of relations of production but adopt whatever mode can help mobilize the masses' initiative. At present, it looks as though neither industry nor agriculture can advance without first taking one step back.

China, of course, had to lay a Maoist foundation to industrialize in the first place, but what to do with that industrial base was the problem in the 1990s. Many post-communist countries threw themselves on the tender mercies of capitalism (feeding socialism to the market) and saw the steepest declines in quality of life outside of wartime. China had a different idea which was markets within socialism. Why not? As Uncle Deng said in 1984,

It is wrong to maintain that a market economy exists only in capitalist society and that there is only [a] "capitalist" market economy. Why can't we develop a market economy under socialism? Developing a market economy does not mean practising capitalism. While maintaining a planned economy as the mainstay of our economic system, we are also introducing a market economy. But it is a socialist market economy.

Indeed, people have had markets under every type of economic system, The Market™ is not something unique to capitalism, that's just marketing. As Jiang Zemin described socialism with Chinese characteristics in 1992,

Whether the emphasis was on planning or on market regulation was not the essential distinction between socialism and capitalism. This brilliant thesis has helped free us from the restrictive notion that the planned economy and the market economy belong to basically different social systems, thus bringing about a great breakthrough in our understanding of the relation between planning and market regulation.

This is all the historical background that leads to the situation we see now, where Chinese socialism clearly outcompetes western capitalism, as Uncle Deng foresaw. So we're at the point where the modern General Secretary can look back and take a bit of a victory lap. China's success proves that socialism is not dead. It is thriving. Just look.

EVs

Take cars, for example, the most obvious vehicle for conveying national power. The Tesla was an innovation when it started, but now they're just releasing four models and some toy-trucks that brick if you wash them. It's honestly dystopian if you want to buy a pure EV from a pure EV company in America. You can buy an S, X, or Y, or barely usable Cybertruck.

Meanwhile in China, BYD alone sells over 40 models, and there are hundreds of what they call NEV companies, engaged in ruthless competition. China, the communist country, preserves the rational spirit of capitalism while America, the capitalist country, subsidizes one clown car. WTF is going on? It's almost as if the propaganda were bullshit and communism actually works.

The core difference between communism and capitalism is not what (there are markets under communism and state-intervention under capitalism) but for whom. Cui bono? The names communism and capitalism tell you all you need to know. Under communism the community is most important whereas under capitalism it's capital. The difference between communism and capitalism is not that hard to understand, etymology is enough. Democracy™ and Human Rights© are just marketing taglines capitalism uses to obscure the obvious, that it's rule by capital above all.

The problem is that capital is not actually very good at allocating capital. As Biggie said, one should never get high on one's own supply, which American capitalism has been doing since the massive deregulation of the 1980s, which is now uniparty policy (Congress is just an insider trading club now). Stock buybacks, bullshit valuations, pump and dumps so big the government bails you out. The core question, as always is for whom? Communism allocates resources for some common purpose (socialism for the social purpose) or Islam for God (who is surely the best planner); many economic systems are possible depending on 'for whom'. Capitalism is marketed as some all-purpose solution for general good, but it's not, it's just for increasing capital, as it says on the tin. Capitalism is not a system for governance so much as a system for dismantling governance for its own metabolic needs. In short, a cancer.

Communism (or any -ism that isn't centered around money) is capable of allocating capital for a different purpose beyond just reproducing capital. Like reproducing humans and (theoretically) reproducing nature and not killing us all. There are many different directions possible if you direct your economy towards something rather than just 'growing your economy'. That is circular logic which divides by zero at some point. You cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet.

Communist industrialization, of course, leads to the heat death of life on earth as much as capitalist industrialization, but there is at least the concept of a shared community which might include all living beings, rather than share capital above all things (I'm musing purely theoretically here). If communist liberation movements (there has never been a Capitalist Liberation Front) had not been brutally suppressed across the world last century, we might have had a fighting chance to stop climate collapse and resource exhaustion by the 1970s, when it was possible. There is at least the theoretical concept of a brake within communism, whereas under capitalism it's all accelerator.

This is the core reason communism makes better cars and artificial incarnations today. China produces cheap, functional EVs and not luxury virtue signalling devices. China produces cheap, efficient AI and not luxury investment vehicles. Communism has a reason behind production while capitalism is just irrational growth for growth's sake (ie, cancer). None of this will save the world (it's too late) but we can at least say 'I knew it' to machines that don't care while we're tooling along the highway (to hell).

AI

Now take AI, another vehicle for conveying national power (which also destroys the natural world). Conversational AI was last place where western capitalism could be said to work. AI was like the quarterback of the tech industry, the last place a white man could lead. But now that lead has been obliterated by DeepSeek.

At the same time the US government was announcing a $500 billion oligarchy investment in OpenAI, DeepSeek released a comparable model that had been trained on $5.5 million. Under communism a private entrepreneur came up with DeepSeek out of pocket, while under capitalism the President had to stand next to Sam Altman, holding his hand. What's going on here?

The problem again is that capital is not very good at allocating capital. It will just give the money to itself. This is another digression, but at a very high level, Jamie Merchant describes how, "Traditionally, some form of planned economy is taken to be the alternative to market institutions, but there is not much planning happening here. Rather, this is something new: the abolition of the market without planning." What Merchant means by the 'abolition of the market' is important. America effectively arrived on central planning without planning. A cartel of banks just moves interest rates around, and the government gives them free money to do it. It's all centrally controlled, but without a brainwave among them. As Merchant continues,

As the premier capitalist country, the US essentially takes on the mounting costs of reproducing the deteriorating conditions for global capitalist production, which show up as an exploding Fed balance sheet and national debt. At the same time, the expansion of governance into private finance and of finance into government erodes the basis for the market's competitive function. The further this dynamic progresses, the more the scope for the market shrinks; the more the market shrinks, the less profitable private production becomes relative to the revenues to be collected through finance; the less profitable private production becomes, the more the accumulation of capital is exhausted, requiring ever more drastic state intervention just to keep its heartbeat going, which further erodes the basis for the market. Traditionally, some form of planned economy is taken to be the alternative to market institutions, but there is not much planning happening here. Rather, this is something new: the abolition of the market without planning.

What Merchant is describing is the fact that America in 2008 bailed out the big banks without taking equity stakes (ie nationalizing them). It did the same thing to the big car companies. The market said these companies were dead but the US government just said no and kept them going. The 'creative destruction' of the market was abolished, ie the market was abolished without planning. The US government was just reacting to crises, but ended up creating a conundrum that they can't get out of. Their whole economy is a giant Ponzi scheme and there is no reverse Ponzi. In this oligarchic system, the only purpose is make line go up, to keep the high going as long as possible. In that sense, having a product that works well and cheaply is actually a terrible comedown. It lowers profits (which are increasingly irrelevant) and worst of all lowers spending. As Merchant continues, "The asset management firms Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street Advisors are the largest single shareholders in 9 out of 10 companies on the S&P 500, on average owning more than 20 percent of the shares of every company on the index, so it is naturally in their interest to discourage any competition that could lower profits."

In this capitalist context, what is the purpose of a $5.5 million AI system? What is its value to those for whom the opening bell tolls? Why would any capitalist want such a thing when we've got this $500 billion hustle going on? Offering cheaper, more efficient anything to bankers is like offering them a hand towel in the nightclub bathroom. That's not what they're in there for. At work or play, they're trying to make that line go up as fast and furiously as possible.

As Matthew McConaughey says in Wolf Of Wall Street:

You have a client who bought stock at 8 and later announced it's at 16 and he's all happy he wants to cash in, liquidate, take his book, take his money and run home. You don't let him do that, okay, 'cause that would make it real, right? No. What do you do? You get another brilliant idea, a special idea, another situation, another stock to reinvest his earnings and entice him, and he will, every single time, 'cause they're addicted. You just keep doing this again and again and again. Meanwhile, he thinks he's getting rich (which he is, on paper), but you and me, the brokers, we're taking home cold hard cash via commission.

AI was the golden goose that VR was supposed to be, it made NVIDIA's line go up and the 'magnificent seven' crowded into the bathroom stall to get high AF. The more GPUs (and energy and water) these products consumed the better. AI was a magical product with frankly mythical benefits that had people lining up to throw money at it. That was the value of AI in the capitalist system, not AI itself. Again, remember that capitalism perceives no human need but greed. It doesn't care what the product does, how much energy and water it burns, as long as it makes line go up, be it in the nose or news.

But now in China they're facing a 'competitor' (everyone besides America is happy to work together) that upends their main hustle with a side project. DeepSeek was a side-project of some financial quants (algorithmic traders) with a dream and some spare GPU capacity. Conversational AI is a side-side-project in China which has a real economy building real things, and where AI is primarily used for boring business cases, not idle chatting. And so DeepSeek is released open-weight (effectively open-source) because they don't give a shit. As DeepSeek's CEO said,

In the face of disruptive technology, a closed-source moat is temporary. Even OpenAI's closed-source approach hasn't stopped others from catching up. Our value lies in our team, which grows and accumulates know-how through this process. Building an organization and culture that can consistently innovate is our real moat. Open sourcing and publishing papers don't mean we lose anything. For technologists, being followed is an achievement. Open sourcing is more of a cultural act than a commercial one. Giving is a form of honor, and it attracts talent by fostering a unique culture.

OpenAI is just a branding term, but DeepSeek is actually doing it. Nobody's trying (or able) to become some rentier oligarch in China, they already collectively own the means of production through the Communist Party. People can certainly get rich, but China's target is 'moderate prosperity' and 'high-quality growth,' not fuck-off money and growth at all costs. This leads to very different products. It's actually a completely different culture.

Isn't It Ironic?

As Alanis Morissette said, isn't it ironic, don't you think? Capitalism was supposed to be this great engine of ingenuity, but it's congealed into monopolization, corruption, massive waste, and pump and dumps. Communism was tarred as the death of individual initiative, but they've got hedge fund guys doing game-changing AI as side projects. Note that I don't mean conversational AI itself is game-changing, I mean that DeepSeek exposes the shell game American AI companies (and chip-makers) were playing. I haven't even gotten into how China outcompeted America on social media and basically every domain they care about, and the domains they don't care about, like, health, housing, education, and actual human needs.

If you read even thinly into the history of these economic systems, it's not that hard to explain. Communism has a purpose beyond profit and the economy can be directed for some human (or ideally natural) purpose. Capitalism has no purpose beyond profit, and just degenerates into fraud. These systems are not the same. Capitalism is worse.

Indrajit Samarajiva
24 Jan 2025 | 6:22 am

9. Nationalism Vs. Internationalism


Nationalism Vs. Internationalism
The Naci flag
Nationalism Vs. Internationalism

What I tell Americans about Trump is that at least he fucks up your country. The Democrats fuck up ours. This is but a difference in degree—Trump assassinated General Soleimani and Biden deported more than Trump—but it is a difference nonetheless. Trump is a nationalist while Biden was internationalist. They're both National Capitalists (Nacis) but at different ranges. Trump trying to conquer the Americas, and Biden Asia.

If you look at a map, Biden was focused on Ukraine, Palestine, and belatedly Taiwan. Biden's focus was closing the encirclement of Asia started in World War II. Trump, on the other hand, is focused on Canada, Greenland, and the 'Gulf of America,' in what's called the 'Donroe Doctrine'. These men are both evil bastards, but it's the difference between beating your wife and beating the neighbor's wife.

It's like the difference between European imperialists during WWII. Britain and France invaded and genocided countries across the Global South (which doesn't count) while Germany expanded across Europe itself (which was unforgivable). In the same way, Trump is talking about a land empire, not distant places he can't pronounce.

Trump's focus is nationalist, meaning maintaining the white genocide of America (by deporting colored people who dare walk across the continent, as they did for thousands of years before America, and as they must do more because of America). Within that narrow conception of White Empire, he also foresees formally expanding into the useless cuck state of Canada and taking Greenland from even more useless (and also abusive) Denmark. America, of course, already has all the bases and debasing behavior it needs from both non-nations, but might as well make it official. All of the countries in the core White Empire (Britain, the EU, Japan, South Korea) are non-nations, there to whip other nations or be whipping boys for America, as needed. As America goes red giant, who cares if such non-nations get devoured in a last gasp of nationalism?

Biden, on the other hand, was an internationalist, meaning accelerating the anti-Muslim genocide of the Middle East started under the Bush regimes and anti-Russian crusading of last century. He was an old man with an old plan, barely remembered as corrupt apparatchiks wheeled him around to sign blank cheques to the military contractors that actually paid them. Biden, of course, never had a plan for ending wars, his handlers just had quarterly plans to profit from war, which went swimmingly (in blood). Under Biden, the military industrial complex dumped huge amounts of expiring ammunition and discontinued weapons systems on suckers in Ukraine and innocents in Gaza. They were able to get hugely inflated prices for old junk and secure new orders from the greatest fools in Europe, who think NATO is protection and not a protection racket. Biden, as a career politician in America representing the credit card district was, in fact, a career criminal and acquiring the Presidency was just the end of a long con. So he went out an old crooked internationalist, issuing preemptive pardons all around.

I digress because I hate Biden so much. To paraphrase the original senile emperor, Ronald Reagan, 'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the [US] government, and I'm here to help.'' When Americans come to your country talking about democracy and human rights, run. This is just the branding they use to bomb and loot countries, and they seem to have fired the marketing department. Biden read the usual words off a teleprompter (complete with stage prompts), but his handlers didn't even try to hide the contradictory actions. In Ukraine, the Americans completely suspended elections, banned opposition parties, and just press-ganged people off the street to lubricate their useless weaponry with blood. In Palestine, they staged a livestreamed genocide of trapped civilians for 15 months, bombing hospitals and committing luxury terrorism across the region. Biden was a rank internationalist, meaning a Naci gone wild abroad.

In this sense, Trump is a relief because, as I say to Americans, he's at least focused on fucking your country up. Not that he isn't also 'bought' by the 'Israel' lobby (really a money-laundry scheme to enrich the usual suspects, including rich Jews, while blaming the Jews as a race, the classic European ruse). Also not that he isn't also paid by the military industrial complex, and constrained by the same 'men in suits' that Putin said changed every well-meaning President to a corrupt, parroting rube. But it is that Trump is more focused on classical American imperialism across the Americas, with a traditional poke at Europeans and Chinamen. This is all classic US 'Manifest Destiny' unlike Joe Biden manifesting American power everywhere, a distinctly post WWII delusion.

Biden was focused on World War 3 whereas Trump is me, me, me. This is the vital difference between both visibly dying monarchs, representing a visibly dying White Empire, though not dying fast enough, unfortunately. Biden loved bombing the other side of the world while Trump is more focused on deporting the gardener. Trump is a pure nationalist, focused on his (stolen) borders while Biden was a pure internationalist, focused on wrecking more distant countries. For most of the world, objectively, Trump is better (note the ceasefire in Gaza and freeze-out of Ukraine), but don't get it twisted. They're all Nacis to me.

Indrajit Samarajiva
23 Jan 2025 | 9:38 am

10. An Art: Tobacco College and The Ambassadors


An Art: Tobacco College and The AmbassadorsAn Art: Tobacco College and The Ambassadors

As a palate cleanser, I look at art, so here is an art. This is Tabakskollegium [Tobacco Club], Abraham Teniers, mid-17th century. I don't know anything about this art, I just think it looks cool. I'm a big fan of dogs playing poker and this is monkeys going wild at a 'Tobacco College' or Tobacco Club.

It's pretty fun, though I don't think this artist has ever seen a monkey. The black monkey looks half bulldog, half kangaroo, half bat. The fuzzy monkey looks like the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. The monkey in the other room, drinking with a bar maid, looks like Chewbacca. This honestly isn't a very good painting.

An Art: Tobacco College and The Ambassadors
"Jean de Dinteville, French Ambassador to the court of Henry VIII of England, and Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur. The painting is famous for containing, in the foreground, at the bottom, a spectacular anamorphic, which, from an oblique point of view, is revealed to be a human skull. An Armenian carpet, a vishapagorg rug from Central Anatolia, is on the table."

This is a very good painting. This is The Ambassadors, a 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger. I tried to install the 225 MB version of this painting as a wallpaper, which ground my computer to a halt until I laboriously removed it. The Ambassadors is a stunning painting which makes me mad at how shit modernity is.

I like some modern art but the fact that most modern art looks doodly and abstract is disappointing. You can lose yourself in old oil paintings as opposed to just being lost. I've seen The Ambassadors live in London and it is alive. You have to get really, really close to see the (literal) painting (on oak).

An Art: Tobacco College and The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors is more than photo-realistic, it takes realism into the absurd. WTF is this skull, for example, and what ungodly light source is it lit by?

An Art: Tobacco College and The Ambassadors

You're supposed to be able to view this memento mori at an oblique angle, from the very side of the painting. Or maybe through a glass tube. I don't quite get it but it's very cool.

When I look at The Ambassadors I also imagine that the two gentlemen could read and play all those instruments, spoke many languages, and could raise an army or harvest crops. Now we have all of this knowledge in our pockets, and precious little in our skulls. Anyways, that's a small artistic break from the usual fire and brimstone. One art, and another art.

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