MICHAEL K SMITH—Over the years Noam Chomsky has advanced a scathing indictment of U.S. elections, saying that they are really more “public relations extravaganzas” than ideological contests, that they therefore mean very little, especially at the national level; that he himself votes “less and less” at that level; that the system is not generating issues that resonate with the public; that there really aren’t any political parties, but only “candidate producing organizations” driven by marketing concerns; that the quadrennial farce that plays out at the presidential level is worth no more than “five minutes time,” and this, only to determine which candidate represents the greater threat, in order to vote against him; and that, in view of all this we should reserve our main political energy for vastly more meaningful work, such as popular education, union organizing, and cultural resistance.
US EXCEPTIONALISM
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PATRICE GREANVILLE—Defenders of capitalism like to think that its “congruency with human nature” explains its “longevity” —three centuries and counting—a coy way of saying it has not been overthrown yet or disintegrated from its own numerous flaws, crimes, and contradictions. For if this premise were true how do we explain the astonishing longevity of previous systems, some lasting thousands of years? Wouldn’t that fact attest to their congruency with human nature? Ot are we to believe that those multitudes of generations before ours were less than human? And if the explanation to that is that “human nature” evolved, changed, etc., what made it change except its enveloping culture, as E,K Hunt and others have pointed out?
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Chile Update: The constituent process on the tightrope …
19 minutes readNELLY CARCAMO—One thing was clear, that “the agreement for peace and a new constitution” was not born to deepen democracy, nor to abandon the notion of a subsidiary State, nor to strengthen the fundamental rights of the people. Nor was it intended to establish effective legal guarantees to protect, for example, economic, social and cultural rights. Therefore, that agreement from above, was simply a desperate exit to buy time.
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Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s Anti-China Campaign Strategy is Part of a Broader Imperialist War Against China
23 minutes readDANNY HAIPHONG—Make no mistake, all sides of the U.S. political class agree that China is an existential threat to the continued rule of finance and monopoly capital. Imperialism has been in a state of economic stagnation for decades. China’s push for a multipolar world has strengthened alongside its growing share of the global economy. In many ways, China is a more attractive partner than the United States or its imperial allies in the West. While imperialism demands that developing nations bow to the dictates of international finance and the private profits of foreign firms, China promotes a model of shared growth that privileges “win-win” cooperation. Instead of bombs and burdensome debt, China supports infrastructure projects and other key drivers of economic growth in exchange for natural resources needed to develop its own economy.
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Whitney Webb is joined today by author and researcher Douglas Valentine. Doug is the author of 4 excellent books, of which “The Phoenix Program: America’s Use of Terror in Vietnam” is particularly relevant to what is taking place today. Whitney and Doug discuss what took place all those years ago in Vietnam, the subversive efforts led by the CIA, and how it seems to be the groundwork for what is being implemented today under the guise of COVID-19.