CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM

GLENN GREENWALD— System Update with Glenn Greenwald. On this week’s episode of System Update, Glenn Greenwald talks to journalist Vincent Bevins about his newly launched book, The Jakarta Method. The book examines the series of mass murder programs engineered by the CIA with the purported goal of fighting communism during the Cold War, and how the consequences of these programs shape the global order — and U.S. politics — to this day.

We live in an age where most Marxist or progressive academics who dare to challenge the status quo are fired, sidelined, driven out of academia or simply deemed irrelevant. Only a fool would pretend that academic repression isn’t a reality. Yet, when it comes to the brave, bold and challenging works Furr has published, critics universally dismiss them without reviewing the evidence he presents. In discussions, I have never heard them say, “No Professor Furr, I disagree with your thesis statement, and wish to make a counter-thesis. Here are my facts, arguments and sources backing it up.” Instead, what I hear over and over is his work dismissed as “absurd,” “insane,” or Furr himself labeled as a “crackpot” or “Stalinist.” There is almost always an attempt to link his methods of research to anti-Semites and fascists, or even outright call him a “Holocaust denier,” implicitly comparing Soviet history with Nazi Germany.

Why do his critics almost universally behave in this manner? The answer is simply: because they can’t refute anything he says.

It’s called “regulatory capture,” and even cynics would be shocked at the level of corruption running rampant at the United States Food and Drug Administration. Did you know that Big Pharma funds 75% of the drug approval research that goes on at the FDA, and in return for those hundreds of millions of dollars can get “expedited” service? And the revolving door between the FDA and large pharmaceutical concerns spins like an out-of-control merry-go-round. It all adds up to a regulatory system built to benefit Big Pharma at major cost to everyday Americans – both in terms of taxes and healthcare outcomes. Jimmy and comedian Kurt Metzger discuss this incredibly corrupt relationship between the FDA and Big Pharma.

Brutal monster, tyrant and sadist or moderniser, victor and reformer – it’s hard to find a more controversial figure in Russian history than Joseph Stalin. And while successive Russian leaders have approached his legacy differently, it remains as divisive today as ever. Can Russia come to terms with its dramatic past and is it possible to achieve closure, considering the mark this towering figure has left on the Russian people and national psyche? Oksana is joined by Stephen Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University, to examine these issues.

It’s called “regulatory capture,” and even cynics would be shocked at the level of corruption running rampant at the United States Food and Drug Administration. Did you know that Big Pharma funds 75% of the drug approval research that goes on at the FDA, and in return for those hundreds of millions of dollars can get “expedited” service? And the revolving door between the FDA and large pharmaceutical concerns spins like an out-of-control merry-go-round. It all adds up to a regulatory system built to benefit Big Pharma at major cost to everyday Americans – both in terms of taxes and healthcare outcomes. Jimmy and comedian Kurt Metzger discuss this incredibly corrupt relationship between the FDA and Big Pharma.