Sandroew

This is the background according to The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/why-trump-us-attacked-caracas-captured-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro [...Maduro’s rule is considered dictatorial, with the UN estimating in 2019 that more than 20,000 Venezuelans were killed in extrajudicial executions. Key institutions, such as the judiciary, have been eroded under Maduro and the rule of law has deteriorated.]

This will be used against the West as a "rules for thee, but not for me" example. And they would be correct.

Trump could not go a week without shooting an intellectual own goal. He is probably doing it on purpose subconsciously. He is a true clown at heart. Too bad his circus is the White House.

Yeah, i understood that, but only afterwards i made my comment. And i agree, its definitely a step up from stage orange pure capitalistic values. I imagine a society with a stage green base would be chock-full with projects that arent for maximising profit or to enrich the leaders.

Im very happy to read about this. My whole life i was thinking about how to improve society, even before i discovered Leo and his work, this was my favorite topic to think about. And capitalism is the single biggest factor in shaping our society. Currently im in the process of familiarizing myself with Peter Joseph and his work. He is brilliant in his definition of weak points and pitfalls of capitalism, however i was astonished to learn how childish and juvenile his solutions are at the end of his second movie Zeitgeist: Addendum. (Im assuming here you know of him and probably saw the movie as it was very popular some time ago and Leo shared his more recent work in his blog. If you arent familiar i highly recommend looking into him, start with the brilliant analysis from him Leo shared on the blog recently - its on page 2 or 3 now.) I completely agree with you that a new system has to evolve from our current one, instead of tearing it down to build something new from the ground up. However my first impression of your idea is that its not thorough enough to solve the fundamental flaws of capitalism, but i’ll have to contemplate more before i can adequately discuss it with you.

Happy Holidays!

I just listened to one of the lectures from Stephen Kotkin Leo posted on the blog a while ago. For an amateur like me, this guy is a brilliant resource. I’ll link the lecture i listened to here. Just from listening to this guy for two hours you’ll get better geo political understanding than 80% of the population.

Bro looks 10 outta 10 as well. Lol

Bruh, i havent shaved in like a week or so and i dont even want to send picture of the top of my head. I look like im 50 years old.

@Natasha Tori Maru yeah i would slash myself like every other time lol. Thats why i like to use hair clipper its so much easier. And thats why seeing Leo with perfect baldness every time is so impressive lol.

@Leo Gura That makes sense. My grandpa used to have weenesday and saturday designated for shaving. I used to do the same but then sometimes i feel like my hair gets too big then.

@Natasha Tori Maru no man, i get it. Never seen Leo with a bad hair day lol.

@Natasha Tori Maru @Leo Gura how oftwn do you shave your head? In my experience every other day would be the best but my skin gets irritated easily. More power to the baldheads!!

Woow! Really nice. Gotta keep an eye on this!

I had the itch recently to read something recreationally. What did you guys read recently that you would recommend? All time favorites? Let me know!

@Natasha Tori Maru I think my law instructor explained it the best for me: When you are outside in a public place and there are cameras watching you, intrinsically you behave differently. Basically survelliance is in conflict with our values of freedom. And it fits really well in the picture with Trump like you said. He is a maniac.

I dont think thats the route we should be taking.

@Daniel Balan Thanks man and you are right about not letting anyone tell you that you are stupid. Even the most intelligent people cant be well informed and have expert level knowledge about every different aspects of existence. I know i am not an expert in world politics either, but that doesnt mean i cant have an opinion. People should respect that and dismissing someone as stupid is just ignorance from their part.

I’ll respectfully back off then, there was no ill intent from my part. We actually sort of agree on that part in our views.

Im saying that with economic integration in mind and not as a geographical statement.

Russia is basically just the most eastern part of Europe. Of course they should be interested in their neighbors like any other country is. And europe including the ex soviet union members is by far their most important international partner. I dont think BRIC has any relevance in this. First of all BRIC is not created with the goal to be an opponent of the West. Neither is it a military pact like NATO.

Im from Hungary. We literally have a national holiday representing the people who fought for our independence. Google the 1956 revolution in Hungary. That was in ‘56 !! Viktor Orbán started as a voice of independence in ‘89. Believe me, aligning ourself with Russia as in Russia as any sort of leader is not what we think about. And i can tell you its the same with almost any former Warsaw pact countries. We arent the same as Western Europe i’ll give you that, but we are not under the sphere of Russian influence and we never be. That way of thinking is the remnant of the last century. Time to move on.

Well, im not saying Russia should integrate into Europe, i would have to think about it… im not sure if thats realistic at all. My point is they could have done so with all their effort they have put into scheming and trying to dominate the region. There could be a strong eastern European alliance. There is culture that would bind Eastern Europe together, but Russia is ruining it all by itself because Putin refuses to let go of the past when they were able to achieve it by dominance. That time is clearly gone by, the world has changed.

The Soviet Union wont happen again. Virtually none of the ex members want to partake in a divided Europe especially not led by Russia. Its not 1950 anymore, it doesnt work like that anymore. Clearly Europe has enough agency to defend itself and its not “ripe for taking” like you imagine it is. Putin is such a fucking moron. What he should have done after 1989 is taking a step back, fucking process what happend in the meantime, and move on from the world view that was created in a century with two fucking world wars. Then he could have built a strong Eastern block with Russia as a flagship, but based on collaboration instead of dominance. Noone says that Russia has to be an enemy of Europe, it could be a part of it by now. But no, Putin plays the big bad wolf for 30 fucking years, goes as far as annexing Crimea in 2014 and now wants to play the victim when NATO stands up against him. Its your own fucking fault, you dickhead! Look at China, they sort of understood the assignment and they are doing a lot better than Russia. I just hope when Putin dies his attitude goes with him. The world is ready to change for the better.