CAPITALIST SYSTEMIC POVERTY

CYNTHIA CHUNG—The people of Donbass have understandably asked for independence from Ukraine, yet the Ukrainian government has refused to allow this nor intervene for a peaceful resolution. What does this mean? The war can only end when one side is fully dead.

Not only is it publicly known that the US and NATO have been funding and training neo-Nazis, but they have also been supplying a massive supply of arms (as previously mentioned). It got to such a point where in 2018, Congress had to ban the United States from sending further arms to Ukraine militia linked to neo-Nazis, specifically mentioning the Azov Battalion. For some reason this ban was to only last for three years thus it is apparently fair game now? But you may say, what about Russia’s crimes against the Ukrainian people, aren’t they far worse than even vicious neo-Nazis? Namely the bombing of the Mariupol theater and the Bucha massacre. Thorough journalistic investigations have already been done on the former, which can be found here, that conclusively shows the bombing of the Mariupol theater was a false-flag. Ditto for the Bucha “massacre”.

Last Wednesday, 4 May 2022, Caleb Maupin filed what is surely one of his most important chats, covering, as usual, a variety of topics, but the outstanding part comprised a couple of subjects rarely discussed with such honesty and lucidity, namely, the issues that define what is being “on the left” in the US, and the urgent need for a completely new approach to regain relevancy. Up to this point, says Maupin, the Right is eating our lunch. While the left has spent much of its political capital on what he defines as depressing and even pessimistic “causes” (abortion rights, overpopulation, anti-imperialist struggles, environmental destruction, etc.), all of which are valid and even urgent, Maupin notes that they also usually trigger a negative reaction in the working class, thereby opening the door to the Right, with its misty-eyed hymns to family, patriotism, praise for the invididual, “democracy”, “freedom”, “free enterprise”, and so on.

Amazon union organizer Christian Smalls appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program to discuss his recent success winning a pro-union vote at the online retailer’s Staten Island warehouse. Not everyone was happy about the interview, with noted liberals insisting that Carlson is such a repulsive figure that no amount of publicity to the unionizing efforts is worth making an appearance on his program. Jimmy and American comedian Kurt Metzger discuss why Smalls is right to ignore the wailing from the liberal commentariat.

KARL NORTH—What the pandemic caper revealed when its lies were fully exposed was a gamut of corruption that showed just how powerful big pharma actually is. The corruption encompassed a range of agencies from the World Health organization, to the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control, the Health and Human Services Agency including its research arm, and the National Institute of Health. It showed that the corruption reached into the Patent Office, university departments and scientific journals. All in all, it is astonishing that the US public has been persuaded to live with what can only be described as a political economy of legalized racketeering.

John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors. A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.