DANIELLE RYAN—In this rendition of history, the US almost unwittingly “allowed” itself to become an “accomplice” to plunder against its better nature. Foer writes of the era that it was a risky time when “Russian values” might be allowed to “infect” and weaken the “moral defense systems” of American politics and business. With such a corrupting influence, the US could never emerge “untainted.”
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MARGARET FLOWERS • KEVIN ZEESE— China is led by engineers and scientists, not by lawyers and business people. It approaches policy decisions through research and experimentation. Every city and every district is involved in some sort of experimentation including free trade zones, poverty reduction, and education reform. “There are pilot schools, pilot cities, pilot hospitals, pilot markets, pilot everything under the sun, the whole China is basically a giant portfolio of experiments, with mayors and provincial governors as Primary Investigators.” In this system, Hong Kong could be viewed as an experiment in neoliberal capitalism.
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Jeffrey Epstein and the Spectacle of Secrecy
16 minutes readED CURTIN—The ruling ideology since the fall of the Berlin Wall, or even earlier, is postmodernism. This is the ideological embellishment that the brutal neoliberal attack on Western societies’ welfare (that was launched in the late 1970s) required in order to attain a “human”, “liberal” and “progressive” face. This coalition between an economic policy that serves the interest of a tiny minority, and an ideology that appears to “include” everybody is what Nancy Fraser has aptly called “progressive neoliberalism”.
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ERIC ZUESSE—The U.S. regime’s sanctions against Venezuelans were aimed at producing such distress amongst the population so as to cause them not to vote for Maduro. It didn’t work. The sanctions had the intended effect of distressing Venezuelans, but this deprivation drove so many of the most anti-Maduro Venezuelans to leave the country so that the sanctions failed to force the expected “regime change.” It drove too many of his enemies out. The U.S. regime is therefore trying even-stronger measures to grab the country. Trump is dictating to Venezuela that “the dictatorship must end.” He has even chosen the person, Guaido, who is to replace the current nationally elected President, whom the U.S. regime has long been trying to oust.
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A 21st Century Cold War Calls for 21st Century Propaganda
38 minutes readRAINER SHEA—Fly and the other power players within the empire are attempting to influence world events by controlling the flow of information. It’s crucial to them that the Western public view the current geopolitical developments through the American-centric, pro-imperialist lens through which the government presents current events.