Guy with a Churchill profile picture yelling at the guy with a Stalin profile picture for idolizing someone who killed millions in a famine.

Guy who spells it "Amerikkka" telling the guy who spells it "Drumpf" that he's doing a pointless virtue signal for cred.

Guy who says Communist Parties are authoritarian because the 9 people on the Central Committee aren't directly elected telling the guy who wants to reform the Supreme Court he's against democracy.

People want to have it both ways.

China campits exist. There are fantastic sources of information about China who are not even remotely Marxist and just support China for whatever reason. I am wondering what percentage of China supporters do you think that applies to?

The biggest trick the bourgeoisie pull on the working class is convincing the working class that it doesn't exist.

The second biggest trick the bourgeoisie pull is convincing us that everything we make, all the culture we do, all the progress we make, is somehow owned by them.

Even many of us fall victim to this thinking. But, just because capitalism now has to pay lip service to feminism, native struggles, queer identity, and oppressed nationalities does not mean we have lost.

They have convinced some of us, and we often convince ourselves, that once the ruling class start paying lip service to our struggle and use our language that the struggle is lost. They said this in the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was convinced that the contradictions both internal and external would relax and that they could simply make all the barbarians Roman. The Empire would last forever because any rebels could be co-opted and made into Romans. But one day Alaric the Goth did not get a military promotion and the Western half of the Empire fell forever.

Do not let capitalism tell you that because it bottles up your identity to sell it back to you that you've lost.

What is this?

This is a transcript I have from a lecture given at Tsinghua University by Li Bangxi on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. The titles are something I added because this lecture was not originally written down (no one really titles portions of their lectures haha). I would love if we started a discussion in the comments because this is, to my knowledge, the first time this lecture is reaching the west.

The audience he was addressing was a mix of Chinese and Non-Chinese (mostly Americans).

Li also sometimes gets into specifics. I have cut out the most of the portions where he simply stated numbers from charts he had of economic indicators since those are publicly available and I don't know what his sources were.

The lecture:

CHINESE ECONOMIC POLICY

THE STATE AND BUSINESS

The basis for all government intervention in business in China is to be found in the Socialist conception of the relation between business and the State. According to the Socialist theory business is subordinated to the State. Formerly, it was believed that the fate of the State and of the nation lay in business, for it was said that business was of such great importance and so powerful that it controlled the State and determined State policies.

In the Socialist State the relation between business and State is just the contrary. Today the State or State policy controls or rules business.

I must emphasize that in Socialist eyes the State incorporates in itself no absolute value as is the case, for instance, in an absolute monarchy. The supreme value is the community of the nation. The State is only the form of organization and the manifestation of the people.

This means that the State is not concerned with economic conditions as long as they do not conflict with the welfare of the nation. The principle of private initiative has been maintained. However, where it seems necessary to bring business into line with the welfare of the nation, the State will not hesitate to intervene and direct business into the desired channels. In China, contrary to the usual belief, we have no “planned economy”, but rather a “directed” economy if I may use such an expression.

THE AIMS

The aims of the present regulation of production can be summarized in a few words. First, the securing of supplies of raw materials for industry. All measures serving this aim are included in the Five-Year-Plan the aim of which is to make China as independent as possible of imports by increasing domestic production.

Second, an increase in domestic agricultural production with the aim of making China, as far as possible, self-sufficient in the field of foodstuffs.

China has only a few raw materials and has always been faced with the necessity of importing the greater part of her raw material requirements. But as you realize, imports can only be paid for out of export proceeds or other credit items in the balance of payments such as shipping, insurance, or proceeds from capital investments abroad.

INDIRECT AND DIRECT REGULATION OF PRODUCTION

The Chinese government follows no definite theory in establishing the methods by which intervention in the field of production is to be accomplished. This is one of the most characteristic traits of Socialist economic policy. In combatting unemployment, the government did not follow one theory such as the theory of direct public works or the theory of the stimulation of private initiative, but followed both theories impartially according as to which seemed best at the time. The same is true of the regulation of production.

The various measures may be classified as: 1. indirect and 2. direct.

The State undertakes indirect measures when it intervenes not in production and capital investment themselves but in conditions which govern them.

There are four special groups of indirect measures:

1. Regulation of taxes, especially reduction of taxes. For example, in order to revive automobile production, which was at an extremely low level, and thus to stimulate motorization in China, which had lagged far behind the level of motorization in other countries. In the last five years, these measures together with the economic upswing have brought about a great advance in automobile sales and a great improvement in Chinese motorization.

A further example of regulation of production by means of tax reductions was the exemption of short-term capital goods from income tax. The value of these goods could be deducted from taxable income of the individual and from the taxable profits of an enterprise.
This stimulated the purchase of such goods and was a means of increasing the low activity of the capital goods industry. The elasticity of the Socialist economic policy can be seen in the fact that this measure was repealed as soon as the capital goods industry was fully employed.

2. The second means of indirect regulation of production is price policy. This can take place in two ways: by a reduction in costs and by an increase in, or guarantee of, sales prices. These methods have been chiefly used in the field of agriculture, where production reacts quickly to price changes. An example of this reduction may be seen in the prices for artificial fertilizer, farm machinery and agricultural implements. On the other hand, by a scaling of farm prices it has been possible to increase considerably the acreage given over to winter barley, the production of fiber plants and oil fruits, and the number of sheep.

3. Closely related to this price policy is tariff policy, the utilization of which is necessary where domestic goods compete with foreign products. This is particularly important in the case of agricultural products, the prices of which are considerably lower on the world market than in China. Special boards have been set up in order to compensate for these differences in prices, and are empowered to regulate imports.

4. The last method of indirect regulation of production is the prohibition of new private issues on the capital market. Since new issues are permitted only for special purposes all those branches of trade and industry which are shut off from the capital market are thus limited in their capital investment possibilities. They can only extend their plants, etc., to the degree that their own funds allow. A special board was set up under the control of the People's Bank of China, to which application must be made before new issues are floated. Permission is only granted for private issues in the case of companies which serve the ends of the Five-Year-Plan, where, moreover, no other possibility of financing their work exists.

CAPITAL INVESTMENT POLICY

Among the large number of methods of directly influencing production, I have to mention first the government orders which predominate in some economic branches.

Apart from this a good deal of direct regulation of production by the Government consists of the regulation of capital investment activity.

Thus, the regulation of capital investment activity really means a planned direction of capital investment. This was proved especially necessary when work was started on the Five-Year-Plan. In a certain sense capital investments were scaled according to urgency, the Five-Year-Plan, rearmament and exports are the most important.

A number of measures have been introduced in this connection. They may be classified as follows: There are capital investment prohibitions, the purpose of which is to prevent industries whose capacity is sufficient to cover demand, from extending their plants. This prevents needless using up of the limited capital and material available, and avoids overproduction and consequent disturbances of the market. We have such capital investment prohibitions, for instance, in the paper industry, in the glass industry, in part of the textile industry, and in part of the chemical industry.

In the second place the regulation of capital investments and production by profits and sales guarantees given by the government. I have already emphasized that Socialism adheres to the principle of private initiative. However, this does not prevent the State, if it seems necessary, from relieving private business of some of the risk it runs in undertaking certain projects. These profits and sales guarantees given by the State are especially important in the production of staple fiber, motor spirit and synthetic rubber. The companies engaged in such production in China are private firms; their profits however, have, been guaranteed by the State to a certain extent, since their products are of great importance for the economic policy of the State.

In some fields the State itself has gone into production, and has for this purpose made capital investments. The principle that business is to be left as far as possible to private initiative does not mean that the State cannot engage in economic activity in certain fields of production and under certain specific conditions. This is the case, for example, in the field of iron ore production.

After the loss of territory in the War, only a small part of China’s iron ore requirements could be covered by domestic production. In view of the fixed costs and prices prevailing and under the usual methods of exploitation only part of China’s iron ore deposits could be mined with profit. The dependence on imports in the case of such an important field as iron ore had to be eliminated. But the conditions and problems in this type of production were so peculiar and so extensive that the State correctly assumed the initiative itself.

The Government, founded a company, the business of which is the mining of the low content iron ores which abound in China.

SUBSIDIES

One of the oldest and best-known methods of State intervention both here and abroad is the granting of subsidies by the State. Outside China, especially in the United States, subsidies are well-known, above all in the shipping industry. Here too private business is not in a position itself to operate an economic branch in the way the State considers desirable. The same thing holds in China for some spheres of production. For example, certain building projects, such as the building of dwellings for agricultural workers or the erection of settlements for industrial workers, are carried out either directly with the help of contributions from the State, or indirectly with the aid of loans granted by the State on extremely favorable terms. Furthermore, the production of nonferrous metals has been supported by State subsidies for many years.

REGULATION OF RAW MATERIAL CONSUMPTION

The third group of measures of government production regulation concern raw material consumption. Almost the whole of Chinese industry is subjected to the system of raw material quotas. The essence of quota-fixing lies in the control of imports, which was introduced as part of the New Plan for Chinese Foreign Trade. The control is carried out by 27 control boards, one of which has been set up for each branch of industry. Factories which use imported raw materials are only allowed to purchase a certain volume of raw materials abroad. Normally, the basis of the quota-fixing is the consumption of a certain month. But the importance of the orders which the company has to fill, is also taken into account, export orders being given special consideration.

Apart from this system of import regulation there exist a number of decrees dealing with the use of raw materials. For instance, as a result of the scarcity of wool and cotton it has been decreed that all wool and cotton cloth manufactured in China for the domestic market must contain a certain percentage of staple fiber. Certain products, for example doorknobs, may no longer be made of brass. In private residential buildings only a certain amount of construction iron may be used. This system of regulation has been carefully worked out and is not too strictly bureaucratic in its application. In many cases the usual raw materials must be replaced by new synthetic raw materials which can be produced without any import. The use of these new synthetic raw materials does not mean a lowering of the quality of the finished product. On the contrary, the shortage of raw materials leads to new inventions and improvements and even brings about as in the case of synthetic rubber a technical progress which otherwise would not have occurred.

INCREASE OF PRODUCTION

If you were to ask me what success has been achieved in the sphere of production regulation, I could not do better than to give you a few figures which will show you the extent of the increase of production in China. The production of capital goods has risen much more strongly than has the production of consumption goods.

Progress in the field of domestic raw material production has been even greater. Iron ore production has risen from an average of 843,000 metric tons for the first 3 months of the year to 1,226,000 metric tons in the first three months of the year. This means an increase of 45%. Furthermore, there has been great progress in domestic oil production.

CONSUMPTION POLICY

A number of measures of production regulations, namely all those which affect production of consumption goods, also influence consumption. When, for example, in the interest of a sufficient bread supply it is decreed that all bread should contain a certain amount of maize flour, this is felt by each individual consumer. (Incidentally, in view of the good harvest, this particular measure was abolished) The same is true of the changes in the textile field and in other fields where the new synthetic materials are gaining a foothold.

The idea of “consumption regulation” is undoubtedly something completely new to you. In the economic textbooks and handbooks nothing will be found on this subject. Of course, the fact that — contrary to general belief — man cannot consume what he desires, is as old as the hills. And even today in the modern economic systems the individual is subjected to many restrictions in his consumption.

In the Middle Ages there were strict provisions as to the clothing worn by the various classes. The Mercantile countries, that is, the countries of the 17th and 18th centuries, restricted consumption for economic reasons, mainly in order to stimulate home industry and to cut down imports. And if you consider your own position, you will find none or only a few restrictions in your consumption as the result of State action (you will remember of course the days of prohibition!), but you will probably find great restrictions in consumption as the result of custom, fashion, habit, social viewpoint and, last but not least, industrial production.

It would probably be very hard for you to secure outside the six to eight different forms of straw hats to be found in almost every shop, one which was especially light and comfortable and in a form designed by yourself. This is nowhere manufactured and it would be hard for you to find someone to make you a straw hat according to your own design and measure. Industrial hat production, which is rationally based on machine production of hats, will certainly not do it. While on the subject of hats, it would be impossible for you to walk around in America, in a round plate-like felt hat, instead of the usual form of felt hat, without being laughed off the street, for that would be contrary to American custom and habit. And finally the fact that each family must spend a certain part of its income on food, the amount being in inverse proportion to the income, is most certainly a restriction of freedom of consumption which weighs quite heavily on the individual.

The aim of consumption policy in China is to increase consumption and thus raise the standard of living of the entire nation — especially that of the working class — to adjust consumption to production and to regulate consumption along Socialist lines. The aims of consumption regulation are partly of a political nature and partly determined by the economic situation.

It is far harder to regulate consumption than it is to regulate anything else in economy. For every measure of consumption policy affects the largest unit, the entire population. A decree concerning the iron ore producing industry affects only a few hundred firms. However, an appeal to the consumer affects over 1 billion people. This fact alone makes special methods necessary for regulation of consumption.

I have hinted at these methods in telling you about the bread supply and textile production. Of a similar nature are certain limitations imposed upon trade, whereby only a fixed amount is allowed to each customer, as for example m the case of fats in months when there is a shortage.

The most important means of regulating consumption is publicity. Of course, this method does not guarantee as sure a success as do legal measures. But it has the great advantage that it gives the consumer the feeling that he is doing something of his own free will and that the only pressure exerted upon him is that which is exerted by his conscience.

NUTRITION

China is in the unfortunate position that there is a limit to which those foodstuffs the consumption of which increases with a rise in income, such as fats, butter, eggs, etc., can be produced or imported. Thus, the aim has been to influence the consumer to use as much as possible those foodstuffs which are abundant in China and to use to a less degree those which are not so plentiful or which have to be imported. At the same time, there was a possibility of directing nutrition in the best ways from the point of view of health. For instance, everything possible was done to convince people that for a great part of the population, for example those who do not do hard physical labor, a diet too rich in fats is not especially healthy. Along the same ideas, great success has been achieved in increasing the consumption of fish. Today China consumes 26-9 lbs. per head per annum, as compared with 18-7 lbs. five years ago. A summary of everything desired in the field of consumption regulation may be found in the food list which the Chinese Institute for Business Research has worked out. The Institute classified the foodstuffs into three groups, those whose consumption should be increased, those whose level of consumption should be maintained, and those whose consumption should be restricted.

In China we do not have a regular supply of all foodstuffs throughout the year as you do in America. The Institute therefore drew up a list of those foodstuffs which are to be especially pushed in certain months. As an example, I shall quote two months: January: pork, geese, fish, cabbage, root vegetables, fruit and vegetable conserves. September: mutton, poultry, mushrooms, pickles, tomatoes, beans, salad, spinach, plums, pears and apples. However, I would like to emphasize that these are not the only goods which may be consumed, but the public is to be educated to adjust its diet to conform more or less with the fluctuations in the supply of certain foodstuffs. Publicity to this end is not carried out by the Institute for Business Research or by the Government direct but by organizations and private companies.

Another measure serving the same purpose is the Anti-Waste Campaign. The purpose of this is clearly to be seen in its name.

ORGANIZED CONSUMPTION

A special field in consumption regulation is the organization of consumption which is carried out by the large political units. Here political and social aims correspond to economic aims. Everything is being done to influence the worker to spend his income as much as possible for such things as mean a substantial rise in his standard of living and as little as possible for such things as burden the Chinese foreign exchange balance. Through organization it is possible to effect price reductions, and these price reductions are to make it possible for the worker to do those things which formerly only the better-situated classes were able to afford.

Hi comrades. My username is soviet entropy and the entropy part is not doomerism or a momento mori. Entropy is imo a vital part of modern materialist analysis. This post is an introduction to the concept and how it relates to political economy.

1. Information is Physical

"Information" is often considered to be immaterial. Many definitions of it are and many definitions of it are also bad an incoherent. As marxists and materialists, what is information?

Let's take a sequence. It could be a sequence of atoms or molecules or DNA base pairs. I'm going to have it be numbers for this demonstration. Here is the sequence: [0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1]

How much information does this sequence contain? Well let's compare it to another sequece: [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]

Now image want to perfectly re-create these sequences somewhere else. We need to store them first. If we wanted to store these sequences by compressing them, it would be easier to store the second one than the first one. We can compress the first by saying "repeat 0 four times, then 1 four times". To compress the second, we only need to say "repeat 0 eight times". The less you can compress a sequence, the more information it has. This is sometimes called Shannon Information Theory.

Imagine we have a completely random sequence. Well if there is no pattern to it, then the smallest way we can store it is simply writing the entire thing down. There are no patterns or anything. Sure it's not information that is useful to humans, but it's information.

But what does this have to do with Entropy or Materialism?

2. Entropy

Entropy is a simple concept that physicists have made difficult to understand. I think this is because they are often idealist or dualist and not materialist.

Imagine we have a six sided die that is perfectly fair. The numbers 1 thru 6 have a perfectly equal chance of coming up. We're gonna roll it a bunch of times.

Now, how surprised would we be if a 2 comes up? Not very surprised. If we roll it again and a 3 comes up, again we are not surprised. If we roll it 4 more times and only get 2 and 3, then we are going to be more surprised. We can say that our surprise is inversely related to the probability of something happening. And indeed this is a concept in statistics called "surprise". If something has a 1/10 chance of happening,we would be less surprised of it happening than something with a 1/100 chance. We define surprise as the logarithm of the inverted probability. So for the 1/10 and 1/100 things, they have a surprise of log(10) and log(100). We only do this log thing to make something with a chance of 100% have 0 surprise. Otherwise it would have a surprise of 1.

Now image we knew the chances of events happening. Say we know that a die is fair or we observed a process for a long time and now the typical things it does. We could have an expectation for our surprise. The surprise of each event that could happen weighted by how likely it is to happen. All of this added up is our total expected surprise. This is what Entropy is.

Let's go back to the sequences. Remember, these could be numbers or atoms of a metallic crystal or DNA base pairs. Let's say we have the sequence: [0,1,0,0,1,1,1,1]
The probability of getting a 0 is 3/8 (we count the number of 0's).
So the surprise is log(8/3). The probability of getting a 1 is 5/8 so the surprise is log(5/8).
The Entropy of this sequence is therefore: 3/8 * log(8/3) + 5/8 * log(8/5) = 0.66

If we do it for this sequnce: [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
We get 8/8 * log(8/8) = 0

Take a minute here if you want. Something might be about to click! Sequences with low information, like 0 repeated eight times, also have low Entropy! That's because Entropy is Information. They are the same thing. The amount of entropy in a sequence is how much information it contains and also how difficult it would be to compress it.

3. Increasing Entropy and Production

So why does Entropy increase?
This is not from some hand of God or a mystical force. Here's why it happens.

Imagine a sequence of random numbers that you get from rolling a six sided die. Maybe we get [1,4,3,1,1,1,1,1].

Now, of all the possible sequences we can have for numbers rolled from a die, how many of them have that many 1's? Not that many. If something causes some of those numbers to be re-rolled, there are way more outcomes where there are fewer 1s. In fact, the most likely outcome would be one where the sequence gets more random. There are way more sequences of 8 numbers from a die where there are a relatively equal amount of each number. And these sequences also have higher Entropy. So with random change over time, Entropy tends to increase.

But how to we remove Entropy? Well that takes energy. And it's what production is.

Let's say we have a sequence of aluminum atoms in a big sheet of aluminum. This is a very, very low entropy/low information material. To make it useful, we in fact want to put out own information into it. We use a big press to stamp a pattern into the alluminum and turn it into a car body. But in order to do this, we first needed to remove all the entropy that acrued over time from the random movements of matter and energy in the earth's crust. Aluminum ore has tons of entropy because of all the other atoms bonded to the aluminum and the other rocks and things in it. There are way more ways for 1kg of aluminum atoms to be in a hunk or ore than in a sheet of metal. So we first take out information and then put our own information in. We use energy to decrease the entropy and then increase it again toward what we want.

The same goes for printing a book, or for making a chair, or printing semiconductor chips, or building a cargo ship.

Finale

I hope you all found this interesting. Materialism is not just a belief that the universe is governed by rules or anything like that. Materialism means that the physical world of particles and energy are the only things that are real. Information is often thought of to be a human construct but it is not. It is a real, physical, material thing.

The relevance to modern political economy and marxist analysis can be gone over in more detail in anyone wants. One of the most important results is that in a situation where production and distribution are mediated by money and markets between equals, the maximum entropy situation is the same as the distribution of energy in a chamber of gas molecules. Meaning that over time there will be a large mass of very poor people and a small mass of ever wealthier and ever smaller people.

Hello comrades.
I'm a former USonian and I've been politically active most of my life. I thought that it might be fun to share some of the weird legal technicalities that I've learned over the years.

These may be useful, these may not be useful. The USonian legal system is very much a secular version of ancient clergies with its fancy language, recitations, robes, and holy texts for judging moral matters. But maybe some of you will find these quirks interesting!

1. Patents are not property

A mild one to start out. Patents are something called a government franchise. Altho they are traded as tho they were property, they have a quirk. The federal government of the US is the one issuing the franchise, and it can thus revoke it at any time without compensation. The government can actually revoke any property at any time (especially land) but it has to give compensation. But if the federal government wanted to make certain technical innovations (refridgerants with low warming potential, vaccines, medicines, etc.) it could do it literally at zero cost.

2. The Constitution does not want a permanent army.

Sometimes this is called a "standing" army. This one is also very fun for any technicality lovers. Article I of the US Constitution is about Congress and Section 8 of Article I is about its powers. Article I, Section 8, Clause 12 says Congress has the power:
"To raise and support armies".
Compare this to Clause 13 which says it has the power:
"To provide and maintain a navy".
Raise and support vs provide and maintain.
So what? Maybe they just worded it differently. Well I'm being a bit of a trickster because the full text of Clause 12 says "To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years".
The Constitution did not want a permanent army. This is why, to this day, that military spending is done in the Discretionary Budget each year. It's not technically automatic, technically all the soldiers have to re-enlist, and so the army is in line with the Constitution. (See what I mean about the legal system being a secular clergy lol).

3. National Guards are not state militias.

The original meaning of the 2nd Ammendment is even weirder than the modern interpretation that private citizens are allowed to own guns. The original meaning is that private citizens can form their own paramilitaries. This is the right that is actually protected. Now that makes sense in a settler colony originally conceived as a confederation of separate rural settler colonies, but it remains there to this day.

This one is actually the most useful for us leftists because militias are not only legal, they are Constitutionally protected. Having independent militias of the proletariat being armed is protected in the US Constitution. This is a fact that basically no other leftist movement has had and could very easily be leveraged if any leftwing militia is legally challenged. The public legitimacy would be more easily justified and even non-leftist legal system members would defend it.

But that's not the only thing. Many people think that the National Guard are the State Militias that the 2nd Amendment talks about. They are in fact, not! Only 20 of the 50 states have these militias. They are often called "defense forces". Wikipedia has a list of them here if you want.

Another weird thing is that the President likely has the authority to call these state militias into service under their command. 10 U.S.C. 251, 252, and 253 state that pretty clearly.

So then, what the hell are the National Guard? The National Guard use the other technicality of that Clause 12 from Article I Section 8. It does not say "army" it says "armies". Not only does Congress raise the regular army, it raises armies. The National Guard is raised under Congress's power to "raise and support" armies. Source 1 and Source 2.
The states are just given special control over what are essential local units of a federal army.

And lastly, perhaps most bizarre of all, here is more proof that the National Guard are actually not members of a militia but actual soldiers in the army. This is the case of Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d Cir. 1982).

Here's the backstory: Attica is a state prison in the state of New York. A prisoner uprising occured in 1971 against inhuman treatment of prisoners. Around half the 2200 prisoners took part in the uprising. The prison eventually took back control of the prisoners but were forced to begin implementing changes. Racial integration of staff, more humane treatment, etc. But the prison guards' union refused. So they went on strike. The governor of New York (Nelson Rockefeller. Yes, that Rockefeller family) activated the National Guard to run the prison during the strike (and also to scab but it was against racist cops so fuck both of 'em).

And this is where the court case happened. The 3rd Amendment prevents housing soldiers in homes during a time of peace. The prison guards took the state to court and won. The National Guard members were soldiers and members of the army and were housed in lodgings the prison had where some prison staff lived. This was deemed to be a home that the soldiers had been illegally quartered in a time of peace.

4. The reason party delegates don't have to vote in line with their citizens is the 1st Amendment.

I'm sure many of your know that voting for President in the US is not done directly. You vote for a candidate but that is merely an opinion poll. Each state is given a number of "electors" who are unelected people and usually party insiders. These electors are the ones who actually vote for the President and they do so "in their respective state capital on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday of December".

Then the results of these meetings are brought to Congress on January 6th and tallied up and the new president is officially confirmed.

But the political parties themselves also have a similar system. This is what the national conventions are. And each state is given electors but they are often called "delegates". These delegates do not have to vote for who the state voted for and the reason is the 1st Amendment on freedom of speech and association.

So even tho states could pass laws requiring electors to vote in line with the state's population (or with the national vote), there is nothing they can do to prevent the delegates from voting however they want.

The End

I hope you all found those interesting! I might do another one of these if people found it fun. Feel free to share any other strange quirks you know of.

i'm sure you've all been hearing about the recent moves in the stock market. almost every stock in the US is overvalued almost all the time and stock prices basically never reflect material reality.

the basics of what happened are this:

1. Japan had really now interest rates. So you could borrow money in Yen at like 0.5%
2. To fight inflation, the US raised interest rates very high very fast. So the US would pay you maybe 5% if you bought treasury bills
3. Investment banks would borrow Yen at 0.5%, convert it to US Dollars, then buy treasury bills which paid 5%. When the treasury bills matured, they would then convert the money back to Yen and pay off the interest and be left with 4.5% returns.
4. Japan recently raised interest rates and this made the exchange rate between Yen and US Dollars change. Now the last step of converting back from US Dollars to Yen might not give you enough money to pay back the loan.
5. Investment banks start selling other assets to try and get cash to pay their loans. Tons of stocks are put up for sale so their prices get lower and lower.

Hi comrades. I was in a discussion last week about socialism (like I usually am) and I think we can do some self crit.

I think it's important to remember that multiple modes of production can (and almost always do) exist in a single soceity at once. There is a dialectic between the systems along with within them.

So when we discuss the social democracies, the soviet states, and modern communist projects like China, we should keep that in mind. There are capitalist, socialist, and communist sectors in many countries now. One of them will dominate, however (Marx says this in the first sentence of Capital).

When looking at the USSR, is had basically no capitalist sector, a very large socialist sector, and a big communist sector. But communist sectors are not unique to the USSR or a DotP. Denmark and the UK both had small communist sectors in things like their healthcare. The period before Thatcher actually saw a UK mix quite similar to post-Deng China--a large capitalist sector, a big socialist sector, and a sizable communit one. (This is likely why the economic performance and worker gains were so high during this time comared to other waning empires like France).

Modern China is very similar. And we should not be ultra leftists and ignore that these are all states in transition. We as communists, and Marxist Leninists do not deny that socialist sectors and communist sectors can appear in other societies. We simply state that unless there is a DotP established, the capitalist sector will erode them away.

Note: The definition of sectors here is whether production is governed by exchange value or use value. Capitalist ones have commodity production i.e. their productive forces are guided by exchange value. Communist sectors are governed by use value (to each according to their need and from each according to their ability). This means Communist sectos don't have commodities. Socialist sectors are ones where commodity production does exist but exchange value takes a secondary role in governing production.
UPDATE: Two comrades said they did not agree with how I defined socialist here. I don't think the definition of what true socialism is effects this argument. Feel free to replace "socialism" with whatever word you would describe for a sector where production is not entirely governed by exchange value but still is to some degree.

I hope you all gain something from this. Everyone in our discussion did. I look forward to any other perspectives. I'm originally a USonian so I know I may be narrow sighted.

The history of post war Japan and the US involvement setting up the regime there used as an explainer for why the same can't happen in China.