ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM

ALEXANDER RUBINSTEIN—The four major DC-based think tanks that Team Warren draws from share one thing in common: aggressive support for sanctions and military interventions from Syria to Korea to Venezuela. Perhaps the most hawkish among these think tanks is the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). As The Grayzone reported, CNAS’ top donors include leading weapons manufacturers, NATO, the US and European governments, and titans of the fossil fuel industry. Until early last year, the think tank was directed by Victoria Nuland, a key architect of the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine and wife of neoconservative Robert Kagan.

MATTHEW JL EHRET—Although Trump’s speech characterized Iran as a “major supporter of terrorism” and Gen. Soleimani as a “top terrorist”, his assertion that a common interest exists between the USA and Iran in the combat of ISIS is a spectacular break from the neocon agenda. This break is also one of many in a long line of internal struggles emanating from the corridors of American power in the days since Soleimani’s murder.

CJ HOPKINS—Mainstream journalists who dare to question the official Putin-Nazi narrative, even in the most respectful way, are going to come under increasing pressure to tone it down or suffer the consequences. Putin-Nazi paranoia will metastasize. Dissident websites will be deplatformed and demonitized. The Internet will be increasingly monitored for any and all forms of non-conformity. Dissent will be increasingly stigmatized. “Reality” will be increasingly policed. It’s all going to get extremely unpleasant, and that’s assuming that civil war doesn’t break out.

PHILIP A. FARRUGGIO—Driving in my neighborhood the other day I was behind a car that had a ‘ Retired Navy Veteran’ on the license plate. The driver looked to be my age, that of a baby boomer. So, he was referring to having served perhaps during the Vietnam ( so called ) War era. Well, the truth is that the only time a person should be proud to carry such a label is if he or she served during the ONLY time in modern history that we were at war: WW2. In all the other instances no one should be proud to say they served in our military.

RAINER SHEA—By applying his familiar dishonest framing tactics to demonize militant anti-capitalist strains in modern America, Hedges is trying to undermine the strains of our society that seek to carry out practical steps towards revolution. The overthrow of the bourgeoisie, especially in the highly militarized United States, will require some amount of violent struggle. As Lenin concluded while he was participating in an actual anti-capitalist revolution, “The replacement of the bourgeois by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution.” But Hedges attacks both those who acknowledge the necessity of violence, and those who seek to apply Lenin’s other lessons for building proletarian power.