[-] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago

Read Settlers by J Sakai, the entire book addresses this one question for white USians.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Thanks for pointing out the issue! That makes a lot more sense.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I kinda agree, but there must have been some practicality issues with doing so.

Buses can take the new bridge. Also, there's already rail between the 2 cities. Here's Baidu Maps' options for the trip:

~~It is kinda annoying that the trip is 30 minutes by car, but at least 1 hr 30 minutes by high speed rail and costs 100+ yuan.~~ See qwename's comment for more accurate info ⬇️

[-] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

This is kinda an old article from 2021. Eventually China will have to raise the retirement age due to an aging population.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago

Fucking parasites. I know China already has laws against capital flight, but increasing their strength would never hurt. Why would you ever let people make money in your country, with your infrastructure, then have them fuck off as soon as you ask for some of it back?

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Fnally, my anime knowledge is coming in handy.

Crunchyroll is like Netflix, but dedicated to anime. They used to compete with Funimation, a rival anime streaming service owned by Sony, but then Sony bought Crunchyroll also and merged the two under the Crunchyroll name. Together, they now own 90%+ of the Western anime streaming market. Predictably, Crunchyroll's prices have ticked steadily upward since.

Not only does this hurt consumers, it also harms animators and voice actors. Because there's no competition, Crunchyroll can lowball animation studios, which is one reason why Japanese animators are so overworked and underpaid. Similarly, Crunchyroll despises all unions, and since they're the only game in town, most voice actors are forced to go unionless and accept shittier pay. This keeps unions in the animation industry perpetually weak.

The only things stopping Crunchyroll from becoming a full monopoly is the well-developed pirating industry around anime. Netflix, Disney Plus, and HIDIVE are technically competitors also, but each have glaring issues. Netflix is even more shit, Disney Plus buries anime in their catalog so you can't find them, and HIDIVE is too small to be worth paying for.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Simple, really. If black/brown, shoot. If white, don't shoot.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

There are various tools you can use to strip metadata from the final image if you want to.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If you play Fursan Al-Aqsa, then turn to leftism, I think it's possible. Unfortunately, most gamers are pissed at much dumber things such as complaining about in-game females not being naked enough.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If you VPN into Russia and check the Russia Ministry of Defense website (https://eng.mil.ru/), they post daily and weekly reports on the progress of the SMO. If you add up all the Ukrainian troop deaths in their report from 22 – 28 June 2024, you get 13820 deaths in the week, which averages to ~2000 per day. Russia also lists a bunch of armored vehicles and aircraft they blew up, I do not know if casualties from them were included in the troop death counts.

Here's the full report if anyone's interested:

From 22 June to 28 June 2024, the Russian Armed Forces have carried out 17 group strikes with high-precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles. Enemy energy facilities, infrastructure of military airfields, logistics centres for storing weapons delivered by Western countries to the AFU, as well as assembly and storage facilities for attack unmanned aerial vehicles and uncrewed boats.

Temporary deployment areas of AFU troops and foreign mercenaries have been also hit.

Over the past week, the units of the Sever Group of Forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy defence and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one marine brigade, and three territorial defence brigades.

The AFU losses were up to 1,560 Ukrainian troops, 12 armoured fighting vehicles, and 43 motor vehicles.

In the course of counter-battery warfare, 33 field artillery guns, including seven foreign-made howitzers, three Nota electronic warfare stations, Bukovel-AD, and two U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar stations have been eliminated.

The units of the Zapad Group of Forces have improved the tactical situation and inflicted fire damage on four mechanised and two tank brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as on two territorial defence brigades. Six counter-attacks of AFU assault detachments have been repelled.

The AFU losses were up to 3,230 Ukrainian troops, four armoured fighting vehicles, 40 motor vehicles, three Grad MLRS combat vehicles, 24 field artillery guns, six of them were U.S.-made.

In addition, three U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 and AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery warfare radars, as well as 11 field ammunition depots have been destroyed.

The units of the Yug Group of Forces have liberated Razdolovka (Donetsk People's Republic) and seized more advantageous lines.

The strikes have been delivered at manpower and hardware of the three mechanised, two airmobile, and two air assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The AFU losses were up to 4,410 Ukrainian troops, two tanks, eight armoured fighting vehicles, 48 motor vehicles, and 39 field artillery guns, including 11 U.S.-made M777 and M198 howitzers.

In addition, seven Anklav, Bukovel electronic warfare stations, and 25 field ammunition depots have been destroyed.

The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces have improved the situation along the front line and defeated units of four mechanised, two infantry formations of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades. Enemy 39 counter-attacks have been repelled in this direction during the week.

The AFU losses were up to 2950 troops, three tanks, six armoured fighting vehicles, including two U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 30 motor vehicles, and 42 field artillery guns, including six U.S.-made M777 howitzers.

The units of the Vostok Group of Forces have improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of two brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, three formations of the Territorial Defence and two National Guard brigades.

The AFU losses were up to 930 Ukrainian troops, six armoured fighting vehicles, 36 motor vehicles, and 19 field artillery guns, including six UK-made FH-70 howitzers.

The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have defeated units of two formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and three brigades of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence.

The AFU losses were up to 740 Ukrainian troops, three tanks, two armoured fighting vehicles, 48 motor vehicles, and 23 field artillery guns, 11 of them were foreign-made.

In addition, eight Anklav, Bukovel electronic warfare stations, and six ammunition depots have been destroyed.

Operational-Tactical Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have destroyed six M142 HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system launchers, one M270 MLRS launcher, and one transport and loader vehicle together with foreign specialists who ensured their use, as well as three P-18 air target detection and tracking radars.

Air defence facilities have shot down two Ukrainian Air Force's MiG-29 aircraft, 589 unmanned aerial vehicles, six U.S.-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, eight U.S.-made Patriot anti-aircraft guided missiles, one U.S.-made HARM anti-radiation missile, and 61 U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, Czech-made Vampire and Olkha projectiles.

Over the past week, 56 Ukrainian servicemen have surrendered on the line of contact.

In total, 615 airplanes and 276 helicopters, 26,777 unmanned aerial vehicles, 533 air defence missile systems, 16,446 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,357 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 11,020 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 23,049 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

United Fruit Co. IS Chiquita. Don't let their rebrand fool you into forgetting their criminal history.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

They gotta pad those falling GDP numbers.

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Belly of the Beast is a Cuba-based journalism collective trying to provide a counterweight to anti-Cuba propaganda.

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TLDR: Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty spy ship in 1967 during the Six-Day War, with the intention of sinking it, for 3 reasons:

  1. To stop the ship's crew from informing the USA that Israel had started the Six-Day War via their surprise attack on Egypt
  2. To stop the ship from overhearing their plans to invade the Golan Heights, which might prompt the USA to stop them and slow their acquisition of more Lebensraum
  3. As a Gulf of Tonkin style false-flag operation, with the goal of pinning blame on the Egyptians for sinking the ship in order to get the US to help them invade Egypt for even more Lebensraum.

After failing to sink the ship, which would have killed all crew and witnesses, Israel used AIPAC and associated organizations to lobby for the view of the attack as an "Israeli mistake".


The Israel-USA relationship seems mutually parasitic. The USA uses Israel as a military base, but gets to use Israeli settlers surrounding it as human shields. In return, Israel can kill Americans for their own goals.

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Acquiring nukes seems like the best way for any country to protect themselves against outside interference.

We know that as soon as Gaddafi decommissioned his nukes, Libya was targeted and invaded. If Iraq actually did have nukes, the USA wouldn't have been so brazen to invade.

China, Russia, and North Korea's acquisitions of nukes are also some of the main reasons why they are not easy targets for direct US invasion.

If Iran had nukes, it would drastically limit Israel's ability to indiscriminately attack Iranian assets.

Western policies against nuclear proliferation always seem to target the countries that need them the most to ensure national sovereignty, and never refer to their own nukes.

For example, they always fearmonger about "rogue states" like North Korea getting nukes, while being perfectly okay with Israel's own nukes. It might be best if these policies are ignored entirely.

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TLDR: China is the only significant force in renewables adoption in the world, because the country uses central planning to advance its environmental objectives. The West's reliance on the profit motive to drive green energy is not working and will not work because renewables are not profitable enough.

This article is the most positive I have ever seen any mainstream news be towards China and central planning. I don't think there is a single "but at what cost" statement in the entire article. Frankly, I'm impressed this managed to get past the TIME editors.

The author, Brett Christophers, wrote The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet and Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World, and Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?, among others, published via Verso Books.

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TLDR:

The sale has already happened. Norfolk Southern bribed Cincinnati politicians and funded shittons of ads to trick Cincinnati citizens to sell their government-owned railroad to them for cheap.

More info:

The Cincinatti government possessed the last municipally owned interstate railroad in the USA, running from Cincinnati, Ohio to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It leased the railroad to Norfolk Southern (of East Palestine disaster fame) for $25 million per year, and it was indispensable for Norfolk Southern's operations.

Norfolk Southern (NS) funded a PAC, Building Cincinnati’s Future, and donated tons to the Cincinnati mayor's election campaign. Together, they made tons of ads to convince Cincinnati citizens to sell the railroad for $1.6 billion to NS, to be put in an investment trust fund.

If you calculate from the previous per-year lease, Cincinnati would have made that $1.6 billion off of the lease anyways after 64 years. A report commissioned by Cincinnati even showed that due to the railroad's importance to NS's operations and NS's impressive financial profits, the city could actually get away with raising the lease to ~$70 million per year. At that rate, the city would have made $1.6 billion back in less than 23 years. Even better, the city would have been able to continue making money on the railroad forever, and be able to raise the lease to match inflation, thus making even more money.

Now that the city has sold the railroad, it has lost that guaranteed income stream forever. That $1.6 billion now sits in "The Building Our Future Trust Fund", and the city will try to make money from it by paying professional money managers to invest in the unstable market. Data shows that more than 90 percent of professional money managers underperform the market in the long term. Not only that, these Wall Street bankers will take a cut of the money that belongs to the people of Cincinnati for the privilege of doing so. If the fund does end up losing value, the city receives nothing.

Any person with basic money sense knows that a stable asset that makes guaranteed money over time is better than a random lump sum which may or may not perform well when invested into stocks and bonds. After all, its why landlords buy and rent houses instead of just flipping them.

Along with the loss in money, Cincinnati has also lost the ability to use access to the railroad as leverage to force NS to do good stuff. For instance, they could have forced NS to add safety features, modernize the track, and let Amtrack run on the line. Now, NS is free to pour toxic waste all along the right-of-way, and the city can't do anything about it.

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The fact this guy was on the record for such heinous crimes, yet got such a generous deal from the government, virtually guarantees he is some sort of CIA informant or COINTELPRO-type agent.

Make sure to verify your information sources!

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Ernesto "Che" Guevara

If you are capable of trembling with indignation each time that an injustice is committed anywhere in the world, we are comrades.

— Che Guevara. (1964). Quoted in Guerrillas in Power: The Course of the Cuban Revolution (1971) by K. S. Karol

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger, and disease he witnessed. His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the Capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later in Mexico City, Guevara met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to [[r.TheDeprogram Cuba|Cuba]] aboard the yacht Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

After the Cuban Revolution, Guevara played key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian land reform as Minister of Industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both President of the National Bank and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban Socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Additionally, Guevara was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal guerrilla warfare manual, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism–Leninism led him to posit that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism, and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedies being proletarian internationalism and world revolution.

Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment continental revolutions across both Africa and South America, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.

Additional Resources

You can find his writings in the Marxist Internet Archive: https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/index.htm

Video Essays:

Books, Articles, or Essays:

  • Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life | Jon Lee Anderson (1997)

Podcasts:

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Cuba

The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was a Communist revolution which aimed to address issues of inequality, poverty, and national self-determination. Under Castro's leadership, the Cuban government nationalized industries, implemented land reforms, and initiated programs to improve healthcare and education access.

Brief History

Slavery was introduced to Cuba by the Spanish during the early 16th century. African slaves were brought to the island to work on sugar plantations, which became the backbone of the Cuban economy. The brutal conditions of slavery led to various slave rebellions and uprisings throughout the colonial period.

In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in Spain ceding control of Cuba to the United States.

The majority of workers in Cuban sugar plantations during this period were either former slaves or descendants of enslaved Africans. Despite the official abolition of slavery in 1886, workers faced extreme economic exploitation. They were trapped in a cycle of poverty, with low wages and limited opportunities for social and economic mobility. The patronato system emerged, where former slaves and their descendants continued to work on the plantations under debt peonage, a form of economic bondage.

In 1952, Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup, suspending the Cuban Constitution and ruling as a dictator. Batista's regime was backed by influential Cuban elites, including large landowners, sugar magnates, and business tycoons who benefited from Batista's policies. The U.S. provided military aid and economic support to Batista's military dictatorship.

...as Castro's revolutionary threat became progressively more potent... the Batista regime sought to counter it with a campaign of terror. As regime-inspired terrorism mounted, anti-Batista groups engaged in counter terrorism against regime supporters and by mid-1958 killings had become widespread and general throughout the country. The regime's campaign of terror got out of control and the government in Havana probably had no clear idea of how many killings the police and army forces were committing. Similarly, the anti-Batista forces--which by mid-1958 had the support of 80 to 90 percent of the population-- had little control over the acts of counterterrorism being committed against pro-Batista elements throughout the country.

...the large-scale campaigns of murders and terrorism characteristic of the last years of the Batista regime have not occurred during the Castro regime.

— CIA. (1965, declassified 2005). Political Murders in Cuba: Batista Era Compared With Castro Regime

The Embargo

The majority of Cubans support Castro... The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship... it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

— Lester D. Mallory. (1960). 499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)

Later that year, the Eisenhower administration instituted the embargo which persists to this day, over 60 years later.

The non-binding resolution [calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba] was approved by 185 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel... It was the 30th time the United Nations has voted to end the embargo... The trade embargo was put in place following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and has remained largely unchanged, though some elements were stiffened by Trump.

— Reuters. (2022). Cuba and U.S. spar over U.N. resolution calling to end embargo

Castro Stole My Stuff

The US claims that it has instituted a policy of tightening the economic noose around Cuba with the Helms-Burton bill on the grounds that Cuba refuses to compensate US companies following nationalisation of their property. This is patently untrue, as Cuba not only successfully negotiated compensation agreements with other countries, but has and is ready to negotiate with the US.

— S. J. Noumoff. (1998). The Hypocrisy of Helms-Burton: The History of Cuban Compensation

Doctors

Despite the challenges posed by the embargo, Cuba has the most doctors per capita in the world and recently surpassed the US in life expectancy.

  • The Truth About Cuban Doctors | BadEmpanada (2020)
  • [[Meet the U.S. Students Studying Medicine For Free in Cuba - YouTube]] | BreakThrough News (2022)

Democracy

Participatory Democracy in action: LGBT rights

Prior to the revolution, homosexuality was stigmatized and criminalized in Cuba, reflecting the prevailing attitudes of the time. Unfortunately, the revolutionary government under Fidel Castro initially continued this stance. However, Cuba's stance on LGBT rights has evolved to the point where it has become a symbol of progress within the Latin American context. In 2010, Fidel Castro himself admitted that the persecution of homosexuals in the early years of the revolution was a mistake:

If anyone is responsible, it's me.

— Fidel Castro. (2010). I am responsible for the persecution of homosexuals that took place in Cuba: Fidel Castro

In 2022, Cuba became the first Latin American country to mark LGBT History Month. Now, Pride parades in Havana are held every May, to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and attendance grows every year. Cuba also passed one of the most progressive Family Codes in the entire world:

The Family Code not only protects the most vulnerable in Cuba, it protects the course of Cuban socialism. Writing the referendum involved the whole population throughout the processes of drafting and amending. It went through 25 revisions over the course of 3 ½ years.

After the referendum was introduced in 2019, Cuba carried out a nationwide process of education and outreach. Discussions took place in every workplace, organization, neighborhood and community group. To keep all Cubans well-informed, people took the discussions to rural areas and to those who do not have internet access.

The Family Code was approved by Cubans 2 to 1. A large percentage of Cubans, 74%, took part in the vote...

In Workers World Sept. 25, 2022, Minnie Bruce Pratt wrote, “Nearly 6.5 million Cubans took part in more than 79,000 meetings facilitated by the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees to Defend the Revolution and other community organizations. Over 400,000 proposals were offered by the people; these were submitted to the National Assembly of People’s Power for evaluation, and a revised draft was returned to the people for further discussion and proposals...

Cubans are very proud of what they call participatory democracy, the process they used to introduce and pass the referendum. It is an example to the world and a lesson in democratic centralism.

— Lyn Neeley. (2023). Cuba’s new Family Code, a law of love

Additional Resources

Video Essays:

Podcasts:

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The Information Research Department (IRD)

The Wikipedia article for this organization is damning enough:

The IRD was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and information to anti-communist politicians, academics, and writers, and to use weaponised information, but also disinformation and "fake news" to attack not only its original targets but also certain socialists and anti-colonial movements. Soon after its creation, the IRD broke away from focusing solely on Soviet matters and began to publish pro-colonial propaganda intended to suppress pro-independence revolutions in Asia, Africa, Ireland, and the Middle East. The IRD was heavily involved in the publishing of books, newspapers, leaflets, journals, and even created publishing houses to act as propaganda fronts, such as Ampersand Limited. Operating for 29 years, the IRD is known as the longest-running covert government propaganda department in British history, the largest branch of the Foreign Office, and the first major anglophone propaganda offensive against the USSR since the end of World War II. By the 1970s, the IRD was performing military intelligence tasks for the British Military in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

The IRD was the government department to which George Orwell submitted his list of suspected Communists (Orwell's list), including many prominent people such as Charlie Chaplin, Paul Robeson, and Michael Redgrave. With the help of Orwell's widow Sonia Orwell and his former publisher Fredric Warburg, the IRD gained the foreign rights to much of Orwell's work and spent years distributing Animal Farm onto every continent, translating Orwell's works into 20 different languages, funding the creation of an animated feature film based on Animal Farm, and working with the CIA to create the feature-length Animal Farm animated movie, the first of its kind in British history. Many historians have noted how Orwell's literary reputation can largely be credited to joint propaganda operations between the IRD and CIA. The IRD heavily marketed Animal Farm for audiences in the middle-east in an attempt to sway Arab nationalism and independence activists from seeking Soviet aid, as it was believed by IRD agents that a story featuring pigs as the villains would appeal highly towards Muslim audiences. The IRD funded the activities of many authors including Arthur Koestler, Bertrand Russell, and Robert Conquest.

Internationally, IRD agents took part in many historic events, including Britain's entry into the European Economic Community, the Korean War, the Suez Crisis, the Malayan Emergency, The Troubles, the Mau Mau Uprising, Cyprus Emergency, and the Sino-Indian War. Other IRD activities included forging letters and posters, conducting smear attacks against British trade unionists, and attacking opponents of the British military by planting fake news stories in the British press. Some of these fabricated stories the IRD created included accusations that Irish republicans were killing dogs by setting them on fire, and falsely accusing EOKA members of raping schoolgirls.

Although the existence of the IRD was successfully kept hidden from the British public until the 1970s, the Soviet Union had always been aware of its existence, for Guy Burgess had been posted to IRD for a period of two months in 1948. Burgess was later sacked by the IRD's founder Christopher Mayhew, who accused him of being "dirty, drunk and idle". The IRD closed its operations in 1977 after its existence was discovered by British journalists after an investigation into a heavy amount of anti-Soviet propaganda being published by academics belonging to St Antony's College, Oxford. An exposé published in The Guardian titled by David Leigh "Death of the Department that Never Was", became the first public acknowledgement of the IRD's existence.

— Wikipedia. Information Research Department

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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

The CFR is a powerful and influential organization, sometimes called "Wall Street's Think Tank", which represents the interests of the capitalist ruling class in the United States and plays a significant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy in favour of corporate and imperialistic interests, while downplaying the needs of the working class and other marginalized groups. Founded in 1921, the CFR is a private non-profit headquartered in New York City. Its funding comes from membership dues, corporate sponsorships, foundation grants, and individual donations.

Membership is by invitation only (typically proposed by current CFR members), prospective members must undergo a rigorous nomination and vetting process based on their expertise, experience, and potential contributions to the CFR's mission.

  • Imperialist: The recommendations made by the CFR often reflect imperialistic goals aimed at maintaining and expanding U.S. global dominance. It advocates for military interventions, economic sanctions, and other measures that serve the interests of multinational corporations and the capitalist ruling class, even at the expense of other nations and peoples.
  • Influential: Government officials, policymakers, and media outlets have very close ties to the CFR. The organization's concerning influence on foreign policy decisions leads to policies that prioritize capitalist interests over broader social and humanitarian concerns.
  • Undemocratic: There is a lack of transparency and democratic accountability in the CFR's operations. The organization is not subject to public scrutiny or electoral processes, allowing its members to exert considerable influence on U.S. foreign policy behind closed doors.
  • Neoliberal: The CFR's policy recommendations tend to align with neoliberal economic principles, advocating for free trade, deregulation, and privatization. This approach is seen as promoting corporate interests at the expense of workers' rights, social welfare, and economic equality.

In the Whitehouse

Biden's current administration is comprised of a (perhaps) shocking number of CFR members:

The CFR is funded and led by members of the old plutocracy. For example, David Rockefeller was the CFR’s chair for fifteen years and has been its leading financial donor historically. No less than seventeen Biden team members (out of thirty total, or 56.7 percent) are members of, have close family ties to, or are otherwise connected to the CFR (see box on page 3). These include: vice president Kamala Harris; secretary of state Antony Blinken; secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen; secretary of defense Lloyd Austin; CIA head William J. Burns; national security advisor Jake Sullivan; secretary of agriculture Thomas Vilsack; secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo; secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas; chief of staff Ron Klain; climate envoy John Kerry; domestic council chief Susan Rice; Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt M. Campbell; ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield; chief of Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse; director of science and technology Eric S. Lander; and counselor Jeffery Zients. All have at least a minimum level of commitment to the CFR, in the sense of having the necessary connections, making the effort needed to become a member, and paying expensive annual dues. Several of this group are especially close to the Council. For example, Blinken is not only a CFR member, but his wife, father, and uncle are also members. Since 2004, Blinken has also often donated to the Council’s annual fund drive. Kerry, a Boston Brahman member of the old money plutocracy whose family wealth exceeds a billion dollars, has at least four other family members in the CFR. Rouse has been a director of the Council since 2018. Vilsack was the cochair of a CFR independent task force study group in 2007. Many have spoken at CFR meetings, such as Mayorkas in June 2011.

Vice President Harris and Chief of Staff Klain are the only ones of the seventeen listed in the box on page 3 who are not members but are tied to the CFR by family. Harris’s sister Maya, who was her campaign manager, has been a Council member since 2013. Klain’s wife, Monica Media, was elected to CFR membership in 2016.3

Although not currently a CFR member, National Security Advisor Sullivan also has close ties to the Council. In recent years, he has written no less than five articles for the CFR’s in-house journal Foreign Affairs, and spoken at the CFR’s New York headquarters.

Finally, Biden himself was allowed to write an article for Foreign Affairs during the presidential campaign. Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren were the only presidential candidates invited to advertise themselves and their ideas in Foreign Affairs during the 2019–20 election period.

— Lawrence Shoup. (2021). The Council on Foreign Relations, the Biden Team, and Key Policy Outcomes

Additional Resources

view more: next ›

Comprehensive49

joined 1 year ago