Ryan Grim in The Intercept ponders the vacuum of achievements by progressive American activist groups despite the largely receptive climate within government halls. Grim finds the source of this non-performance lies in their obsessive focus on petty – but typically vicious –intra-organization politics.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


