CITIZENS COUNTER-PROPAGANDA

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Capitalism has always drowned and faltered on its unjust social relations. The outrageously lopsided way it distributes income, the product of society, continually augmented by advances in technology, is a contradiction that has no economic answers because it is really a question of power, a question of politics. The constant elimination of jobs by automation, and their hemorrhage toward cheap-labor zones cannot be “cured” by job training programs or even better education for all (as Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich, the main evangelist for this pseudo-solution, still preaches).

MAX PARRY—Through all its many significant faults, the People’s Republic has lifted nearly a billion people out of poverty since 1949 and while it is true there are still tens of millions who are poor, the Communist Party continues to organize the economy to eventually raise those remaining to a higher standard of living under the guide of its self-professed ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics.’

Russell Brand can be loud, abrasive, and certainly sometimes naive about his visions, likes and dislikes, (he’s still learning, or “awakening” as he might put it), but overall his heart and very fine mind are on the right track, and he’s using his celebrity to question the status quo. In that regard, especially when we consider the sheer number of decadent celebrities out there, doing fuckall for the world, he’s pretty unique. Quite often he’s also fulminatingly lucid and spot on. Hardly a blushing violet, he says things that desperately need to be said at the top of his lungs. More power to him.

RENEE PARSONS—Within days of signing the EO, Intel, Qualcomm and other US tech companies announced that they would cut off critical software and components to Huawei while Google, which has AI research centers built inside China’s information sphere, has suspended its ties to Huawei and dropped its technical support for Android. As the US telecom industry comply with the Order that “any Chinese equipment in the network could pose potential security concerns,” some US tech allies suspended their dealings with Huawei while some American chipmakers found ways around the ban by dropping the US-made label.