Contradictions of Modern Russia! (19.7.2023)

Modern Russians are living in a Western economic system, following a Western religion and expressing a Western form of fascism – but the ‘liberalism’ Russia is opposing today was developed in the West between 1917-1991! A similar argument can be made for the ‘decadence’ associated with the ‘Weimar Republic’ (1918-1933) – a process which involved a ‘mirroring’ within German society of the apparent ‘freedom’ perceived as existing in the USSR! Russia has been historically responsible for most of the ills it has been suffering since betraying its own Socialist Revolution in 1991! Spouting fascist rhetoric and threatening warfare is the behaviour of the far-right – and makes Russia no better than the Neo-Nazi Ukraine it is opposing!

World Insights: Fentanyl – Solely A Homegrown US problem – So Why Blame China? (19.7.2023)

CHEAP, ABUNDANT STREET DRUGS

Fentanyl and its derivatives sufentanil, alfentanil and remifentanil are all synthetic phenypiperidine drugs, which are synthetic opioid receptor agonists.

A painkiller for countless patients, fentanyl has many side effects. The drug has gradually become a menace to social security across the United States, a society long plagued by opioid addiction and abuse.

Statistics by the Council on Foreign Relations in April indicated that opioids, primarily fentanyl, are the leading cause of U.S. overdose deaths, which have roughly quadrupled over the last ten years for which data is fully available. In 2021, the death toll surged to 80,411, more than 10 times the number of U.S. military service members killed in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There have been three waves of opioid abuse in U.S. society, with fentanyl being the “main character” of the third wave.