Geopolitical Outlook

"Imperialism, or the domination of finance capital, is that highest stage of capitalism in which this separation reaches vast proportions. The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means that a small number of financially “powerful” states stand out among all the rest. " —V.I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism . Ch. 3. At the time of this writing, most people by now are probably aware of the news story surrounding the "controversy" of a Reddit-based community called 'WallStreetBets' buying stocks on GameStop (and AMC) [1], hurting Wall Street short-selling hedge fund managers' profits in the process and pushing Melvin Capital to the brink of bankruptcy. These short-selling [2] billionaire investors have lost a staggering $70.8 billion during the month of January, 2021 [3]; this was partly because of a very determined group of small, amateur...

"Comrades, it is impossible to imagine the dreadful situation in the typhus regions, where the population is broken, weakened, without material resources, where all life, all public life ceases. To this we say, “ Comrades, we must concentrate everything on this problem. Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice!” " - V.I. Lenin, "Seventh All-Russia Congress Of Soviets." 5-9 December 1919 These remarks by Lenin were made during a time when the Soviet Republic, in it's very early days, still had a decrepit and severely neglected medical system, and an impoverished population that was overwhelmingly in ill health. All of these things were inherited from the old Tsarist regime. In 1918, months after the Bolsheviks successfully seized power, the Spanish Flu had reached Russian shores, largely due to the fact that WWI Russian prisoners of war had brought the disease home with them after being released by Germany. They saw 150 Spanish Flu...