P. GREANVILLE—We publish the whole uber-ballyhooed debate between the duopoly’s actors, Trump and Harris, whose disgraceful lack of substance is matched by their lack of independent agency and morality, each one trying to outgun the other in imperialist machismo and bloodlust, not to mention complete absence of actual solutions to the problems afflicting the US and the world. These enormous flaws, personal and systemic of the duopoly’s figureheads, are underscored by Jill Stein’s intelligent analysis of the political situation and the sensible requisite policies that will heal a nation tearing itself apart.
-
-
EDITOR—A MUST-WATCH roundtable discussion of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the conflict between the “collective West” (the US Hegemon plus its vassals), and Russia and its multipolar bloc allies, chiefly China, Iran, North Korea, etc., over the shape of the emerging new world dedicated to national sovereignty for every nation, and non-exploitative trade relations. Ritter and Johnson provide superb explanations for Turkiye’s gradual drift away from the EU/US/NATO bloc and Recip Erdogan’s moves to rebuild the glory of the Ottoman empire. Both analysts agree that Turkiye’s departure from NATO will weaken that organisation considerably and precipitate its dissolution. Turkiye, despite its modernity thanks to Kemal Ataturk’s reforms, is and remains an Islamic nation and civilisation, something that many Western leaders and analysts forget at their own peril. Turkiye’s values are essentially incompatible with the West’s, and its fiercely independent heritage clashes with the American empire’s demand to bow before its hegemony. Larry Johnson and Scott Ritter also eloquently describe the problem the world faces in Ukraine, a nation long-recognised as a grifter’s paradise, now turned into a malignant instrument for reckless (and typically devious) Anglo-American policy. With the public in Europe and the US anaesthetised by massive ignorance and propaganda about the actual situation, and an Anglo-American leadership brimming with moral mediocrity, alarming insularity, and reckless imperialist arrogance, it was not surprising that Russia’s just demands in 2021 for an international order grounded in mutual security were swiftly rejected by “the West”. This criminal posture spawned the Ukraine war, which is now pushing the world literally to the edge of the nuclear abyss, warns Ritter, with Johnson concurring.
-
EDITORS—Signs of desperation. As the wars continue to expand, the empire’s henchmen are everywhere trying to stamp out free speech and crack down on citizen journalists and activists, such as Richard Medhurst, Scott Ritter, Danny Shaw, Craig Murray and many others, while also heavily policing so-caled “misinformation” on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Rumble, TikTok, etc., under various pretexts (the spectre of Russia, China, Iran, “antisemitism”, etc.), all in defence of the Empire’s utterly mendacious official narrative. The multiplying problems and the widening crisis are at the core of the capitalist system, essentially the collapse of its profits and the rise —again—of “overproduction”, both incurable in the present system. Under such circumstances, the capitalist rulers look to wars and “austerity” to save their system at the expense of everyone else.
-
EDITOR—Garland and Laith discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, and Israel’s outrages, now working feverishly to convert the West Bank into another Gaza, a genocide writ large, none of which attracts the criticism of Western “leaders”, who may have hitched their wagon to a vehicle —Zionism—that may eventually accelerate their historical demise. Laith comments that in the current confrontation, the Empire’s navy is no match for the stubborn commitment of the Houthis, Hezbollah, and other members of the Resistance Axis, and that the US and other members of the alliance may have to withdraw from the region or face a severe military and financial setback. Equally interesting, the Zionist fanaticism of Israel may be condemning Jews, in general, to an ugly backlash around the globe, including in the West itself, since, contrary to protestations, it was the millennia-old brutal persecution of Jews in the “West”, culminating in the Nazi horror, that made the idea of a “Jewish haven” an ideal worth pursuing in Palestine.
-
VIJAY PRASHAD—Daniel Jadue won the election to become Recoleta’s mayor first in 2012 and then won re-election three times. When he ran in the primary during the presidential campaign in 2021, he secured 40 percent of the vote. The faith of the public in Jadue comes from his promise to revive public services in Chile and from his actions during his mayoralty to do just that. Since the coup against Allende in 1973, Chile has been a laboratory for neoliberal policies, with the private sector able to absorb public functions from education to health care. It has made immense profits from the provision of these services. As an example, three pharmaceutical providers (Cruz Verde, Salcobrand, and Farmacias Ahumada) control almost all of the supply of medicines into the privately controlled pharmacy network in the country. They have frequently been fined for collusion and price fixing. The result of the latter is inflation in prices for basic drugs that eats into the budgets of the masses. A promise to reverse that situation faces a challenge from the pharmaceutical lobby and raises the hopes of people who would like to see better control of prices. The Pharma lobby had stifled any political challenge until Jadue came along in Recoleta.
