Mamdani-RibbenTrump Pact
Plus, the DC Nat. Guard Shooter’s CIA connection, and how Epstein helped Israel sell spyware to other countries.
This article is part of a digest series delivered every Thursday, highlighting what I find to be the most interesting stories covering politics, working class struggles, and international current events of the week, along with my own brief commentary.
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This Turkey Day, as you glob on morsels of juicy bird meat, consider diving into some of the stories below so that you can be better equipped to stir a different kind of pot with family over dinner.
And, sorry to be a buzzkill, but as the United States sponsors the continued destruction of indigenous peoples abroad, realize that the cultural sanitization of Thanksgiving’s sordid legacy has, in part, given consent to such atrocities.
But hey, Happy Thanksgiving!
🗽 Zohran Mamdani Knew How to Handle Donald Trump
Peter Dreier/Jacobin
I will admit that I was intrigued to see where the meeting between Mamdani and Trump would go. Even prior to the meeting, I had an inkling about something that Dreier highlights in his piece: Trump is largely a transactional, ideologically incoherent political agent who can be charmed into embodying the political will of the people closest to him.
Some are calling Mamdani’s chumminess with Trump a betrayal. Personally, I think it a good thing that he has disarmed their ability to wield his image as a nationwide cudgel against the Democratic Party (a strategy which would largely backfire, anyway, as Mamdani and his platform resonate far beyond NYC’s borders). More importantly, he has disarmed one of the chief obstructionists to his agenda while capitulating on virtually nothing. And if nothing else, there is something rich about receiving an endorsement from your political enemy on the same day where so many in his party, including leadership, joined hands with Republicans to pass a resolution “condemning socialism” for what feels like the umpteenth time.
There are elements of his mayoral transition that I would be remiss not to raise an eyebrow to (the retention of the former police chief, certain appointments stemming from the real estate lobby), and I’m under no illusion that, in his capacity as mayor of NYC, he will he usher in some kind of nationwide class awakening. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how far an undeniably savvy lefty politico can take his agenda within the limited and fragile confines of his own New York City-sized experiment.
🕵️♂️ Jeffrey Epstein Helped Israel Sell a Surveillance State to Côte d’Ivoire
Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim/Drop Site News
This bombshell reporting from Drop Site News details a tenebrous network of profiteering that existed between disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and private and state Israeli military technology firms. All parties involved worked together to sell Israeli spyware and security agreements to multiple countries, including the Ivory Coast, which is highlighted in this piece.
🇦🇫 Inside the CIA’s Secret Afghan Army
Kevin Maurer/Rolling Stone
As details come to light about the DC National Guard shooter, it is becoming increasingly evident that the man is a microcosm of the continued blowback of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal was a member of a vicious, CIA-organized death squad organized to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan. This Rolling Stone piece details via first hand accounts the gruesome nature of frontline service while alluding to accusations of human rights violations perpetrated by the group, including the extrajudicial killing of civilians.
🏚️ ‘We gave everything’: Afghan allies abandoned by U.S. share fears of life under Taliban
Nick Schifrin and Sonia Kopelev/PBS
Unlike Rahmanullah, many Afghans have not been so lucky to be granted refuge in the United States. This PBS mini documentary provides some insight into the grueling revenge being inflicted upon collaborators abandoned by the United States after the country’s withdrawal from the Afghanistan.