BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES

MoA—The man is a war mongering psycho: “Blinken surprised some in the Situation Room by breaking with Biden to support military action in Libya, administration officials said, and he advocated for American action in Syria after Obama’s reelection. These sources said that Blinken was less enthusiastic than Biden about Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval for a strike in Syria, but is now — perhaps out of necessity — onboard and a backer of diplomatic negotiations with Russia. While less of an ideologue than Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (a job for which he was considered), he not surprisingly shares her belief that global powers such as the United States have a “responsibility to protect” against atrocities…”

PATRICE GREANVILLE—LITERALLY MILES OF CARS WAITING FOR FOOD HAS BECOME ANOTHER SEARING IMAGE OF LIFE IN AMERICA THESE DAYS. Jimmy Dore properly calls them, “poverty traffic.” And they are popping up all over the country, including in once “proud” libertarian cultures like Texas. 

Major crises, like this “trifecta” of a pandemic, economic implosion and political bankruptcy, reveal in stark relief the shortcomings of any major social system, and so it is with America’s “Way of Life,” its beloved capitalism. While Congress and the White House have done literally NOTHING to assist the tens of millions thrown into complete destitution, it is the people who spontaneously organise themselves to help each other, and they do. Mind you, this is not charity, per se; this is people properly and promptly doing what needs to be done to solve a social problem. There is solidarity here, and a lesson that we hope will not be forgotten: the people really don’t need the capitalist structure oppressing their lives.

RAMIN MAZAHERI—PressTV feels it is critical to broadcast the DSA’s blacklisting of Iranian media because DSA’s prejudice has many political implications within the country that has waged such devastating capitalist-imperialist war on Iran since 1979. Iran, too, has a critical election coming up to prepare for – in June 2021. Regardless of the timing of the US presidential election – and Iranians reject the absurd, pathetic and amateurish recent claims that Iranian operatives have meddled in the 2020 US election – it is critical to broadcast this information to Iranians so they can have a proper amount of time to absorb and incorporate the implications of DSA’s anti-Iran prejudice into their own analyses as voters and responsible citizens. 

JOHN A SCHOONOVER—A conversion project of the magnitude described above is beyond the capabilities of the global capitalist economy in its current state of decay. A cut in petroleum product consumption in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the price of oil negative for a while, and it is currently selling below $40/barrel less than production costs for many producers. The first large victim of this relatively minor disturbance has been ExxonMobil, which Dow Jones no longer lists. Imagine the effect on the oil industry, in particular, and capitalist economies in general were a decision to replace petroleum with uranium to become policy. Every oil company would have to write down the value of its assets, oil in the ground and equipment, and rapidly declare bankruptcy. It would be necessary to artificially maintain oil production during the interim period until it is no longer needed.

CALEB MAUPIN—Many celebrate Trump’s defeat without realising they have not defeated the forces that made him possible. In fact they just voted them back into power. Caleb’s chats are the ideal tool for those who wish to acquire a solid understanding of contemporary history in an easy, accessible manner.  “This was a victory for the American establishment. Make no mistake about it.” The country and the world suffer terribly because we lack the politics of a communist party. The country is in a crisis, and the only way out of this is through the class line, through the optimistic building of a socialist society. Caleb agains sketches the class division in the US ruling class, something people should understand. With Biden, the older, more powerful wing of the establishment has regained full control. It represents the older, bigger fortunes and the new mega corporations of Silicon Valley. The “Managerial Wing” of the ruling class. Count here the Rockefellers, DuPonts, Carnegies, Jeff Bezos, the Big Tech billionaires, etc. Trump had the newer shorter-thinking capitalist mob only interested in short-term profits: The Home Dept, Hobby Lobby, Casino magnates, and so forth. Let’ call them the “entrepreneurial wing”. This clash remains unresolved.