>>2940397Means how confident consumers are about the economy and their own wallets.
>>2940430i feel like material metrics are more relevant than feels unless you're an investor trying to track the "animal spirits" as keynes called them
Marco Rubio’s visit to Athens integrates Greece deeper into US imperialism’s war strategy
The conservative New Democracy (ND) government in Athens is integrating Greece ever more deeply into Washington’s drive to war from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran and Ukraine.
Greece’s critical geopolitical position is being placed at the disposal of the US military and NATO, tens of billions of euros are being committed to rearmament, and its energy policy is being aligned with the strategic interests of US imperialism—at a staggering social cost to workers and youth.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Athens on October 6–7 and held talks with Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The talks centred on binding Greece more closely to Washington’s war strategy in the region in an effort to dominate its energy resources and trade routes.
A joint statement released by Gerapetritis and Rubio after their October 7 meeting announced a $4 billion arms package including munitions and upgrades for Greece’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.
The statement announced the “Vertical Gas Corridor” initiative that aims to turn Greece into a regional hub for US gas. US energy firms ExxonMobil and Chevron are set to profit from hydrocarbon exploration in the Ionian Sea and south of Crete.
Rubio’s visit was overshadowed by earlier reports on the conduct of US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was lobbying governments on behalf of Aktor Group, one of the main Greek companies involved in “Vertical Gas Corridor” deals. She offered a rich US donor access to President Donald Trump if he paid off a $100,000 credit card bill.
In an exchange with Greece’s energy minister, while referring to the collapse of the government in Romania, Guilfoyle belligerently said, “We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here.” After initial dithering over whether Guilfoyle’s position was untenable, the Trump administration forced her resignation on October 13. On the calculations behind her resignation, an unnamed Republican operative told Politico that “the craziness and the corruption was too blatant and Greece too important.”
The US military base in Souda Bay in Crete has for decades served US imperialism as a key logistics and transit hub. It is now being used in the war against Iran, while the US base in Alexandroupoli in northeastern Greece—a combined military base and natural gas facility—plays a similar role in NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine.
Over the next 12 years Greece plans to spend €25 billion in the largest modernisation of its armed forces in history. The flagship is the $3.5 billion Achilles Shield—an anti-aircraft and anti-drone dome—which will be developed in partnership with Israel. In a press conference, Rubio praised Greece for being on track to spend 5 percent of GDP on its military and related infrastructure by 2035.
While billions of euros are squandered on war and energy deals, the Greek working class is still reeling from austerity implemented by successive governments during the last decade at the behest of the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund.
In 2024, public health spending stood at just over €12 billion, more than a fifth lower than in 2009, while average full-time earnings were €18,000, less than half the EU average, and the minimum wage is a paltry €920 a month.
According to Eurostat figures last month, 87.1 percent of people in Greece struggled to make ends meet—the highest in the EU and more than double the EU average of 42.5 percent.
The centrepiece of Rubio’s visit was his address at the Pnyx on the evening of October 7—the site of the sovereign assembly of citizens in ancient Athens. There was nothing democratic about Rubio’s speech. Attendance was by invitation only, limited to a handful of politicians, foreign diplomats and businesspeople, with snipers employed on elevated positions around the site. A 24-hour ban on outdoor gatherings applied across central Athens, with 3,000 police deployed and surveillance drones overhead.
Rubio’s speech rehashed the fascistic themes he set out in Munich on February 14, centring on the myth of Western “superiority” while invoking the “great man” narrative of history.
Rubio used the word “democracy” only twice—paying lip service to ancient Athens’s political system—before revealing that it was not the democratic traditions of the Athenian city state that he valued. Rather, it was “qualities” that “ran far, far deeper” that “can’t be reduced to any particular political system or theory.”
Chief among these qualities, according to Rubio, is the ancient Greek concept of “thumos”—the part of a person that feels anger, pride, courage and indignation—without which “nations lose their will to fight, the will to strive, the will to survive.”
Ignoring the fact that ancient Greek philosophers cautioned that “thumos” should be subordinate to “logos” or reason, Rubio laid bare the Trump administration’s naked imperialist agenda: “Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice. We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power: to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future.”
Rubio’s visit came amid rising tensions between Greece and Türkiye, also a NATO member, with both nations lining up behind US imperialism’s aims.
The historic rivalry between the Greek and Turkish bourgeoisie over the Aegean and Cyprus has sharpened since the discovery of gas reserves in the region, with the countries coming close to war in the summer of 2020.
Plans for the “Great Sea Interconnector” cable to connect Cyprus’s electricity to the rest of Europe have stalled after Türkiye objected that the cable would cross into waters off Crete that both countries claim. Anxious to keep US imperialism’s flank in the Eastern Mediterranean intact, Rubio refused to be publicly drawn into the dispute, saying it is “best handled through private diplomacy, outside the setting of press conferences.”
Alexis Tsipras led the pseudo-left Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) government in 2015–19, which imposed brutal austerity, and now leads the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), established in May. Commenting on the cable dispute, he struck a nationalist tone, stating that Rubio took a “Pontius Pilate” stance in refusing to back Greece’s claim.
Tsipras slammed the decision to allow Rubio to speak at the Pnyx, which he claimed was incompatible with “Greece as the birthplace of democracy” given that the MAGA movement’s “positions were at times completely borderline with regard to the issue of democracy and sovereignty.” He then boasted of his own decision as Greek prime minister to invite French President Emmanuel Macron—known as the “president of the rich”—and former US President Barack Obama to speak there, with Obama’s address scuppered by security concerns.
Tsipras and the affluent layers of the middle class for which he speaks have no problem with an imperialism that conceals its predatory aims by draping itself in the language of democracy and human rights. In practice, such niceties are junked once the pseudo-left comes to power. It was on Tsipras’s watch, and during the first Trump administration, that the Greece-US Strategic Dialogue was initiated in 2018, laying the groundwork for the subsequent upgrade of US imperialism’s presence in Greece.
Absent from Rubio’s visit was the verdict of the Greek working class, the overwhelming majority of whom oppose the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the genocide in Gaza. There is no progressive outlet for these sentiments. The only protest to take place was a 2,000-strong march on the US and Israeli embassies on October 6, called by the All Workers Militant Front (PAME)—the trade union federation affiliated with the Stalinist Communist Party of Greece (KKE)—along with sections of the trade union bureaucracy and various pseudo-left tendencies. The trade union bureaucracy in the main Adedy and GSEE federations refused to mobilise its members against the visit.
The urgent task facing Greek workers and youth is building a genuinely revolutionary party that rejects the nationalist outlook of the pseudo-left and the trade union bureaucracy, and is capable of uniting Greek workers with their counterparts in Türkiye and across the world against the imperialist powers’ war drive.
>>2940452Have you been to rural america? Or detroit?
Most of the country is shit third world levels
>>2940399He's been taken into custody. Good thing he didn't shoot himself.
>>2940462People only know this place from TikTok reels and High School Musical
lolbert ran out of coins
>>2940448Wow that su-
>new york daily newsare you fucking with me
>>2939945I've already voted six times, hbu? Might do it a bit more tomorrow I dunno tho.
>>2940485dropsite reported it….
>BREAKING: Trump: I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up
>>2940475>neoliberalyeah sniffing cocaine is bad for the brain. you can look at the insane text posted by a cocaine user.
>>2940462pic 1: one of the more neglected parts of Detroit, Michigan
pic 2: near Lagos, Nigeria
I will let the anons judge whether your statement is correct >>2940512
Cause the USA is shitty
>>2940506Chagos anon was from Mauritius, not even the Chagos archipelago
>>2940475Sorry, the best they can manage is having a dance off in government mandated free speech zones
U.S. Poverty Rate Hits 28.9% as Rent, Groceries and Utilities Crush Household Budgets
Poverty has more than doubled since 2020, with nearly three in ten Americans struggling to afford basic necessities
The United States poverty rate has reached 28.9%, up from 12% in 2020, according to figures released Monday in this alternate-history scenario. The rate briefly approached 30% earlier this year, reflecting six years of mounting pressure on household finances.
Housing and food costs have become central drivers of the crisis. In major metropolitan areas, a one-bedroom apartment that rented for $1,200 per month in 2020 can now cost $1,950, while average monthly grocery spending for a family of four has risen from approximately $800 to $1,250.
Electricity and heating bills have also climbed, with some households paying $250–$350 monthly for utilities during periods of extreme weather. Gasoline prices of around $4.20 per gallon have further increased commuting costs, particularly for workers living far from employment centres.
For a household earning $35,000 annually before taxes, a $1,950 monthly rent payment alone consumes roughly two-thirds of gross income. After groceries, utilities, transportation and healthcare expenses, little remains for savings or unexpected emergencies.
The figures have intensified pressure on Washington, where lawmakers remain divided over expanding housing assistance, increasing the minimum wage and strengthening federal benefits. Democrat legislators are demanding greater public investment, while republicans argue for employment growth, private-sector construction and more targeted assistance.
Economists warn that the headline poverty rate requires careful interpretation, particularly regarding whether the figures use a consistent income-based or supplemental poverty measure. Nevertheless, a sustained increase of this magnitude would represent a profound deterioration in household economic security.
With nearly three in ten Americans now below the poverty threshold in this fictional scenario, the immediate challenge for policymakers is reversing the decline in living standards before housing insecurity, household debt and reduced consumer spending cause further economic damage.
>>2940569I've been arguing about the poverty level in the U.S. so much with neolibs I feel like a fucking crazy person sometimes. We see headlines like this every day and every single person I know talks about how rough it is out there, but then you get these fucking shills who're like "Erm, excuse me? Have you looked at the data? Things have never been better than they are now!"
Like I've literally pointed out before how much easier it was for my parents generation doing the same work as me to be able to afford a house, and I just got straight up told "well you're wrong, the data shows that you have it so much easier than previous generations!"
And Trump's out there boasting about "how much money we're making" and its clear that he's entirely internalized America as his rich buddies and him. You'll see these midwestern types go all "well we wanted the country run like a business!" and it is! You're not the fucking stockholders in this business, you're the employees.
It's just driving me up a wall.
>>2938367that would imply FDR (xi) supporting hirohito (putin)
>>2940576i cant tell if this is a joke about pearl harbor being a false flag or somethin else
midterm predictions?
It might actually be over for MAGATards but they always seem to overperform over the polls…
>>2940581Everyone should vote Republican.
>>2940583This everybodi on the site should vote republicans so they can continue destroying the usa
>>2940573Ah, I see that you have encountered a Bloodless Quant in the wild
>>2940569>in this alternate history scenario.If you actually google the headline all the results say poverty is at an all time low, but this 'alternate history' feels closer to reality
>>2940594>Freedom Burger Institute downgrades Burgerstan Funny that the propagandists can't even keep up the charades to such an extent but funnier even that their ideology makes them think anything has truly changed in the last few years.
I'm not even sure exactly what changed that made them lower the US's score, my guess is it's Trump beefing with MSM whore-nalists. Because to the media class, getting pats on the back for legitimizing imperialism is what's important in their ratings. I doubt stuff like the shit ICE does even registers in their score
>>2940570>>2940573you don't read past the headline, don't you?
>>2940611someone has read the article.
also:
>in this fictional scenario.What is true is that america's inequality is on the rise:
>Recent federal data shows that wealth inequality continues to grow. The top 1% saw their share of wealth increase from 31.7% to 32.5% just between the first and second quarters of 2026, a jump of over $8.5 trillion. That caps a steady climb from 30.9% in the last quarter of 2024 – and from 27.4% in 1999.https://theconversation.com/us-inequality-is-getting-worse-in-ways-you-might-not-expect-294075 >>2940594I am glad that "democracy" can be counted in raw numbers and the higher the number the more demokkkracy you have
>>2940594>the us became a flawed democracy when trump was electedWho actually uses Wikipedia? I don’t even like trump but I can recognize its retarded, bush rigging in 2000 isn’t even flawed lmaooo
>>2940624I've heard so many jokes over the years about how JFK won because of ballot stuffing in Chicago. Never really looked into it tho. If it did happen, why not elsewhere too?
https://wormhole.app/zyJND1#jBK8eHyurTOMf03ULEcbnwWe aware of your darkest pedophile secrets. We have evidence here. We have moles in all your channels. We unbroken string of successful psychological campaigns against you. You can ban 160,000 people, but you can't ban the anti Epstein forces Because we know exactly how to destroy you
The evidence against you speaks for itself. You are epstein paper left z1ocom. trans Epstein z1ocom dsa dickrider ziohran lovers on suicide watch
>>2940629GETchan sucks ass but I also don’t want leftypol being taken over by the ACP so go fuck yourself
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