ANNOTATED NEWS

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Yes, this deeply intermingled and certifiably sociopathic crowd, this “fortress of cruelty, brutality and mendacity” which, as Wight puts it, has “the temerity to describe [itself[ as a civilised society”, is also quite convinced that nothing radical needs to be done about the cascade of awful things constantly emanating from every pore of its scandalously lopsided arrangements. 

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—CNN has published a fascinatingly manipulative and falsehood-laden article titled “25 times Trump was soft on Russia“, in which a lot of strained effort is poured into building the case that the US president is suspiciously loyal to the nation against which he has spent his administration escalating dangerous new cold war aggressions.

BRYAN DYNE—The political dead end of the climate protests is also expressed by the endorsement of the current round of “strikes” by 3,024 companies, who in response to actual workers’ strikes would respond with court injunctions, mass firings, and brutal violence. In the case of the climate “strikes,” however, they are hoping that by pasting on a “green” label, they can dissipate the demonstrations and turn the millions of youth and workers away from a struggle against capitalism.

As the great fabulist prepared to close the news conference, he offered the servile media “one more question, on the economy, please”.  Knowing that most Americans know little and care less about foreign lands, but prick up their ears when the “economy” is mentioned, Trump surely wanted to use the question to brag some more about how well the economy is doing on his watch. The man may actually believe that.

When you consider Obama’s record after four years in office–a multi-trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, the continuing “war on terror,” more civil liberties shredded, the Employee Free Choice Act abandoned, deportations on the rise, a deepening assault on public schools–the answer has to be no. The list of broken promises and betrayed hopes goes on and on, outweighing anything that could be described as progress.