BRITISH/ EU/ NATO COMPLICITY

KARL SANCHEZ—Professors Hudson and Wolff have discussed the upcoming US Election on several previous occasions with Nima, while this session specifically focuses on US political dynamics, issues foreign and domestic that are being completely ignored, and what the outcomes might be depending on who is declared the winner. And no, there’s no talk of the election being stolen by on side or the other or what the social response might be depending on who wins. The number of excellent ideas and insights are too many to list. Dr. Wolff carries the show because he has somewhat better insights and is able to articulate them better. Dr. Wolff provides one of the more interesting points that’s revealed at the 19:00 mark of the 80-minute podcast:

The Hegelian Moment of American Politics: Cold War Isolationism of the Other as the initial thesis has matured and become its antithesis: the isolation of the US as it’s now the Other compared with the Global Majority.

BILLY BOB—So, what can the US do to contain China?  Is it possible for the US to contain China without causing great harm to the global economy and plunging humanity into a period of tremendous depression and upheaval?  Of course not.  China is the single biggest manufacturing superpower on the planet.  They are the number one trading partner for over 120 countries.  If China is to be contained, the global economy must suffer.

So “sooner rather than later” and “the global economy will necessarily suffer if China is to be contained” are the two assumptions which provide the foundation for the rest of my analysis.

RAINER SHEA—Last week’s BRICS summit provided a clearer sense of who will join in on the war against the U.S. empire, and who will acquiesce to the empire. Brazil, led by the supposedly anti-imperialist Lula, vetoed the entry of Venezuela into BRICS. And fascist India blocked the entry of Pakistan and Turkey, which was less surprising but still a setback. These developments represent a major twist, because there’s evidence that the U.S. color revolution apparatus has intended to target Brazil and India in the past; a report from last summer by the neocon think tank the Eurasia Group listed these countries as among the geopolitical “swing states,” the players that have potential to come into China’s orbit. After the work that Modi and Lula just did to assist in the hybrid war against BRICS, it’s less likely that Washington will try to overthrow them, because they’ve shown themselves to be valuable assets.

JOHN VAROLI—Trump won’t scale back the empire. He is obsessed with American “greatness”, which means that the U.S. will continue to destabilize the international order, enhancing our status as a pariah nation. (Yes, most of the world hates us). Whoever wins the presidential race, the loser will be the human race.

EDITOR—Socialist activist Kshama Sawant lays out a new, better formulated strategy for third parties seeking to demolish the reigning and stunningly corrupt duopoly: Not to act simply as “alternative parties,” but as “oppositional parties” at all times. The 2024 election, with its horrific historical backdrop of two major wars (one an indisputable and revolting genocide in Palestine supported by the US political and media establishment), imploding governance in the US and much of vassal Europe, and an incurable economic crisis detonated by imperialism’s inability to resolve the overproduction crisis, offers third parties like Jill Stein’s Green Party a unique opportunity to test this approach by helping defeat the candidacy of Democrat party nominee Kamala Harris, says Kshama Sawant. And we think she is absolutely right.  People who regard themselves as on “the left” must completely abandon the duopoly, and avoid the Democrat Party curse, the proven historical graveyard of all progressive movements.