ComradeRat

ah true ty for the correction

‘We will have peace,’ said Théoden at last thickly and with an effort. Several of the Riders cried out gladly. Théoden held up his hand. ‘Yes, we will have peace,’ he said, now in a clear voice, ‘we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished – and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter of men’s hearts. You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just – as it was not, for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired – even so, what will you say of your torches in Westfold and the children that lie dead there? And they hewed Háma’s body before the gates of the Hornburg, after he was dead. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc. So much for the House of Eorl. A lesser son of great sires am I, but I do not need to lick your fingers. Turn elsewhither. But I fear your voice has lost its charm.’

It's such a good speech outright condemning imperialism and the movie BUTCHERS IT

imo the only members of Saruman's army were "in the right" are the Dunlandfolk ~~and Woses~~ who have been tricked into thinking that Saruman will kill the Rohirrim who they (rightfully) hate for taking their land. But both live subsistence lifestyles so i don't think it'll go well for either them if Saruman the clearcutting riverpolluting enthusiast won either

Based, Uruk's very cringe (basically Sauron's sergeants and middle manager-soldiers who oversee the less willing conscripts and slaves) and Uruk-Hai are made even more evil by Saruman by feeding them human flesh.

Also very cool and not much more fantastical than stuff that Legolas actually does do in the books (e.g. Legolas doesn't sleep, is light enough to walk atop grass or snow). Of the issues with the movie (e.g. cutting out the best parts of Theodan's speech to Saruman even in the extended cut) this is a relatively minor one imho

retvrn to tradition

the most horrifically comedic manifestation of this i've seen has been "sailor on a slave ship bound for the Caribbean writing in his journal about how horrible and fucked up it would be if pirates attack and sell him into slavery"

Jokes on you i was already doing that 🤓🤓🤓

Screenshots from Fidel's autobiography, tldr (at least as I read it) is that Fidel wanted Cornman to nuke the US if there was any invasion of Cuba.

Fidel wrote to cornman on 26 october (27 october in russia) telling him to send nukes if he thinks an invasion is going to happen

Cornman wrote back on the 28th, basically telling fidel to chill bc he wants peace

And Fidel wrote again to Cornman the same day telling him that he will not chill cuba is in danger

Cornman replied on the 30th with a lotta platitudes (Cornman thought he won the missile crisis lol) but most relevant here is him saying fidel's "send the nukes" idea was wrong

Fidel's reply (Oct. 31) shows what he thought of Cornman's 'victory':

Fidel wanted to but cornman was a coward

If you're rly interested I'd suggest reading Cope's book, as he lays out the figures and even the movement of the money better than I can with more citations than I can. As you suggest, it's about the aggregate motion of capital. Take your restaurant example:

The restaurant isn't losing money so long as imperialism persists, because they're selling e.g. burgers for inflated prices. The burgers can be sold for inflated prices because e.g. construction worker is paid inflated wages. Construction company can afford to pay inflated wages because it's buying artificially cheap materials and because it's being paid inflated fees by e.g. a bakery. Bakery can pay the inflated fees because it's buying artificially cheap materials and because it's selling e.g. cakes at inflated prices. The cakes can be sold for inflated prices because e.g. tech employees are paid inflated wages. Tech companies can afford to pay employees inflated wages because e.g. government buys new windows hardware at inflated prices. Government can afford those inflated prices because a. the global south governments pay them yearly debt repayments or b. because they tax superprofit made in the global south.

why do business hire anyone?

1. So they can sell shit to them 2. Because they still have things that need doing 3. Because trade unions fought for higher wages (cf. Emmanuel Unequal Exchange) for more detailed examination.

And if all business in the core are inherently unprofitable, what is the mechanism that keeps them afloat?

Cope argues superprofits from imperialism

I can't say I've ever heard that definition of value of labor power.

It's the definition Marx uses in Capital. The difference between value of labour power and the value of the products of labour is the source of surplus value. Marx himself invented the category of labour power; earlier economists thought that the employer buys labour.

Why would capitalists pay these workers as much as, or more than, the value of their labor?

First off so they can buy the commodities and avoid the horror of warehouses full of unsold goods. Second off because the trade unions won higher wages. Arghiri Emmamuel's Unequal Exchange looks at how that came about over the the 1860-1920ish period, then intensified after ww2.

in other words, the capitalist is either not making money or is actively losing money by employing them.

This is exactly Cope's point; businesses in the global north are not profitable unless kept aloft by the superprofits