When socialists win power within the capitalist state, how should they govern? What are the measures of success? Can they move us closer to socialism, or just mitigate the harms of capitalism?
I turn to an essay by Erik Olin Wright for answers open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...
Death to America
Death to Israel
Long live Iran
The lib brain must be studied by science
If you can’t see the connection between settler colonialism and fascism, then you need to read a book
A car. Doesn’t me you have to love cars
People love cars too, both are signs of mental rot
The 2nd installment in my native edible plant series is here!
I wrote about an oak shrub perfectly suited to small gardens that pumps out high-quality food under tough conditions with zero inputs. It’s also an ecological powerhouse that supports hundreds of native insects & mammals
Americans spend more than 3 billion hours **per year** pushing or riding gas-powered lawnmowers. That’s the equivalent of 187,500 people working full-time just on lawn mowing
It’s hard to imagine a more vacuous & destructive embodiment of unearned wealth & ecological ignorance
Love this part
Yeah you could say I have a lot going on this month
I’ve started writing a new series on edible native plants
Based on my own testing, these are species that belong in your garden, where they can provide abundant, low-input yields while forming the bedrock of a healthy ecosystem open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...
Had to try it
Super good, tart and fruity with a complex herbal finish from the turmeric. Great condiment for anything fatty
This new study shows that restoring peatlands—which cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface but store 2x as much carbon as all forests combined—can restart long-term carbon sequestration in just a few decades
This is the real “carbon capture & storage”
Not tylenol or vaccines, dumbasses
Weird take
This is an ultra-efficient wood-burning masonry heater with an integrated oven and stovetop
If this is fueled by a regenerative supply chain—such as a coppice or invasive management program—it’s vastly more sustainable than high-tech heat pumps and induction cooktops
Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the commune movement in collaboration with the Ministry of Food just opened a grocery store in Caracas with prices 50% lower than market. As many products as possible are sourced from communes around the country
In America’s class war, only one side is fighting for control of the land
The only ones, in fact!
It’s 100% clearcut. Species that co-evolved in a given geographic range form a web of interdependencies that support their lifecycles; introduced species do not. If species A supports thousands of insects in a given range & species B does not, and species B is displacing species A, then= invasive
It’s literally defined in the first sentence of the sheet I posted. Real scientists and ecologists do not struggle with this very simple question, only people looking to making excuses for inaction or participation in the destruction of biodiversity
Ignorant apologia for invasive species is rampant, sometimes coupled with nonsense about supposedly harmful language yada yada
The reality is that invasive species have created a global ecological crisis and exterminating them should be a top priority
“But what should we actually DO?”
To answer that question, you must first understand how to make change open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...
progressive.international/blueprint/18...
That’s because it’s an overview. You can’t make a good faith critique unless you’re willing to dig deeper. It’s a single interview covering a broad range of topics
I agree that petro-socialism is a contradiction. But what I see here is country grappling to implement an ecological development plan under extremely difficult circumstances & with very few resources, despite having no real reason why they have to do so. They’re doing it because they want to
I think you’re jumping to some conclusion here based on a single interview. The communes already exist, he’s referring to new internal committees. You can’t dismiss the forestry initiative without knowing the details. And he’s not talking about cloud seeding, he’s talking about forest hydrology
You can read about that here orinocotribune.com/a-structural...
Just catching up on this Maduro guy. Look at this tyrannical insanity!
If you want some background on one of the most exciting and important democratic initiatives in the world—the communes of Venezuela—and Maduro’s role in supporting them, here’s a very good and thorough new piece on the subject www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/03/v...
