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The convergence of naked self-interest prevalent in mainstream media and their liberal (and usually clueless) audiences’ comfortable view of corporate fascism are accelerating their drive to censor not just dissenters from the official narrative, but all “upstart” competitors (such as popular YouTubers) capable of competing with them in audience reach. This cynical process is liable to be turbocharged under Biden and the Democrats. Welcome to Orwell 2.0.

PEPE ESCOBAR—The “unknown unknown”, to evoke notorious neo-con Donald Rumsfeld, is whether the exasperated plebs will eventually reach for the pitchforks – and make the 0.0001% feudal hacienda ungovernable. And then there’s a literally smokin’ element – those half a billion guns out there.

The 0.0001% knows for sure that Trump, after all, was never a radical revolutionary change agent. Inchoately, he channeled Red America’s hopes and fears. But instead of the promised glitzy palace adorned with gold, what he delivered was a shack in the desert.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Despite his sophisticated understanding of politics and history, Hedges is sometimes reluctant to use an outright anti-capitalist framework to analyze the challenges confronting ordinary people, and while sometimes praising the Communists for their contributions to the anti-corporate struggle, he manages, like many liberals, to praise and curse at the same time. He retains a rather left-liberal attitude toward Marxism in general, and a rather simplisitic vision of actually existing socialism, beginning of course with the Soviet Union, which he seems to regard as some sort of tyranny.

We speak with former CIA analyst-turned-dissident Ray McGovern about the institutions that truly govern the United States, comprising the MICIMATT, or Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank Complex. We discuss how the CIA popularized the “conspiracy theory” smear to discredit US government critics, as well as Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol riot, Russiagate lies and the DNC “hack,” JFK, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the new cold war on Russia and China, and the Joe Biden administration. ||| Moderate Rebels ||| Please consider supporting us on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/ModerateRebels

On this show this week, Chris Hedges talks to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald about the incoming Biden administration and what it will mean for a country in crisis, ravaged by a pandemic it cannot control, hostage to corporate power and bifurcated into warring factions. Glenn Greenwald is the author of several bestsellers, including How Would a Patriot Act? and With Liberty and Justice for Some. His most recent book is No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.