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Showing posts from August, 2022

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Gorbachev died. His legacy? Russia's GDP dropped by 40%. Real wages halved. Poverty ballooned from 2.2 million in 1987-88 to 66 million in 1993-95. Millions died under the brutal regime of privatization and shock therapy. Half a million women were trafficked into sexual slavery. pic.twitter.com/2GSvSqFlQ2 — Paweł Wargan (@pawelwargan) August 30, 2022

The Forde report and the lessons of the Corbyn movement

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 3 - Factionalism   Inevitably, however, the Forde report itself is also a stitch-up. It attempts to declare a plague on both houses, implying that the left wing of the party was equally responsible for “factionalism” as the right. Yet all of the attacks described are those of the right’s against the left! The report claims that right-wing staffers and MPs did not “intentionally” seek to torpedo the party’s chances in the 2017 general election. Yet, it confirms that they did secretly divert funds away from winnable seats, and that the factional chaos they created injured Labour’s campaign. At times, the report even downplays or cushions the vile nature of the Blairite backstabbers’ behaviour. This...

Africa rebukes Blinken and Biden's meddling

The Grayzone   Aaron Mate joins Max Blumenthal to discuss backlash caused by US Secretary of State Tony Blinken's trip to Africa, the Biden administration's threats against African nations for their diplomatic relations with Russia, and the history of US meddling on the continent. 

West's neoliberal 'age of abundance' is over, as war and sanctions boomerang home

Multipolarista   France’s President Emmanuel Macron, a former banker, warned " we are living the end of what could have seemed an era of abundance. " Western wars and sanctions are boomeranging back at home. The neoliberal phase of capitalism is collapsing. Neoliberalism has lost the key pillars it was built on: cheap energy and raw materials from Russia, cheap labor and consumer goods from China, an unsustainable bubble of household debt, low to zero interest rates, and Washington's ability to organize regime-change operations in any country where a government tried a socialistic or state-led economic model.

Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals   Attacks launched from populated civilian areas       Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians    Part 4 - Military bases in schools   The Ukrainian military has routinely set up bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv area. Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict  began, but in most cases the buildings were located close to populated civilian neighbourhoods At 22 out of 29 schools visited, Amnesty International researchers either found soldiers using the premises or found evidence of current or prior military activity – including the presence of military fatigues, discarded munitions, army ration packets and military vehicles. Russian forces struck many of the schools used by Ukrainian forces. In at least three towns, after Russian bomb...

Day 1237: Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution   On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges.   The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.   The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future.   And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had...

Καληνύχτα σας κύριε Μητσοτάκη ...

failed evolution   Και απ'ότι φαίνεται, μάλλον θα φύγει νύχτα. Δεν υπάρχει προηγούμενο στα παγκόσμια χρονικά, προέδρου ή πρωθυπουργού να μην έχει παραιτηθεί μετά από τέτοιου μεγέθους σκάνδαλο, όπως αυτό των υποκλοπών του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη.   Και αυτή η πρωτοφανής δημοκρατική εκτροπή, επιβεβαίωσε με τον πιο εμφατικό τρόπο το γεγονός ότι έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα καθεστώς.   Μια από τις πιο αυταρχικές και αλαζονικές φιγούρες στο ρόλο του πρωθυπουργού της χώρας, προσπάθησε να δικαιολογήσει τα αδικαιολόγητα με ψέματα και φθηνά κόλπα. Συμπεριφέρθηκε χειρότερα και από 10χρονο παιδάκι που προσπαθεί με μπαγαποντιές να βρεθεί σε πλεονεκτική θέση και να αποφύγει την τιμωρία.   Δεν υπάρχει επίσης προηγούμενο, στελέχη της παράταξής του καθεστώτος να χειροκροτούν όρθια έναν τέτοιο θλιβερό αρχηγό, μετά από τέτοιο ρεκόρ ψεμάτων μέσα στη βουλή, το οποίο επιβεβαιώθηκε από μια σειρά απανωτών διαψεύσεων.  Τα στελέχη του κόμματος της δεξιάς υπέγραψαν την πολιτική τους καταδίκ...

Francis Fukuyama is right: Socialism is the only alternative to liberalism

In Liberalism and Its Discontents, Francis Fukuyama diagnoses the political and psychological malaise caused by capitalism. His analysis makes one thing clear: liberalism is incapable of addressing the social, economic, and ecological crises it faces.    by Samuel McIlhagga  Part 5 - But What Is Classical Liberalism?   Fukuyama admits that what he calls classical liberalism has historically specific connotations, yet still decides to use it to attempt to describe an ideal liberalism untainted by recent transformations. This is an odd position for a Hegelian to take. The German philosopher famously insisted that the specific form that society took should not be understood as an aberration or deviation from an ideal; ideals that could not be actualized were instead untimely. As Hegel states in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), “ What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational. ” Absent in the theories of contemporary defenders of liberalism is ...

DC rally: Hands off Assange!

On October 8, 2022, supporters of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in England will join hands to form a human chain surrounding Parliament in London. In solidarity, US-based supporters will hold a rally at the Department of Justice in Washington DC, calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop the charges against Assange.     https://assangedefense.org/event/dc-rally-hands-off-assange/

Mitsotakis seeks to deflect parliamentary attacks over Greek spy scandal

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday sought to deflect increasingly heated attacks in parliament over a spiraling phone-tapping scandal by accusing unidentified foreign entities of trying to destabilize the country amid an energy crisis and increased threats from Turkey. Earlier this month, Greece's spy chief and the government's general secretary lost their jobs after revelations that the phone of an opposition leader, Nikos Androulakis, had been tapped. In a labyrinthine case, Mitsotakis' center-right government admits that the intelligence service conducted this legal wiretapping, but is denying any involvement with what it calls separate illegal cases, in which Androulakis and journalists were bugged with spy software called Predator.  During a heated parliamentary session on Friday, Mitsotakis dug in and refused to answer the key question of why the phone of Androulakis, head of the center-left Pasok party, had been bugged. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the b...

Africa chooses China over the US in Taiwan dispute

The Jimmy Dore Show   In the ongoing dispute over Taiwan between the United States and China, virtually every African nation has sided with China, snubbing the US and seemingly indicating that future alliances with China are more important than ongoing colonial, imperialist relationships with the United States. 

The Forde report and the lessons of the Corbyn movement

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 2 - Sabotage and purges   The Forde report confirms that party staff were largely hostile to Corbyn and the left, as Corbyn’s politics were “ out of step ” with the “ predominant political view ” of the well-heeled bureaucrats at Labour HQ. The right-controlled party apparatus denied left activists membership, and suspended and expelled thousands, as part of their vicious attack on Corbyn supporters. Amongst themselves, they referred to their hostile activities as “ trot busting ”. These Blairite apparatchiks also dragged their feet and refused to cooperate with the leaders’ office. And along with the PLP, they incessantly briefed bile to the right-wing press, all in order to achieve their goal o...

Four times the US gov‘t nearly killed us all with nuclear Armageddon

by Lee Camp   Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan to try to start a proxy war with China helped remind a lot of Americans that our “leaders” do not have our best interests at heart and, in fact, willfully push us all toward nuclear Armageddon. Of course, this is just the latest moment when the U.S. empire has nearly caused a doomsday scenario. Here are some of the other greatest hits over the past 70 years. One night in 1961, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on North Carolina! A B-52 crashed in the middle of the night in Faro, North Carolina, but it was more than just a downed aircraft. As National Geographic magazine reported, “ …somewhere out there in the winter darkness lay… the remains of two 3.8-megaton thermonuclear atomic bombs. Each contained more firepower than the combined destructive force of every explosion caused by humans from the beginning of time to the end of World War II .” This was a time before most people had color TVs, but we were creating bombs that explode in...

Biden threatens Mexico over oil!

The Jimmy Dore Show   The Mexican government controls the Mexican oil industry through Pemex, a state-owned enterprise, and subsidizes energy to reduce the cost to average Mexicans. But that doesn’t help International fossil fuel conglomerates like Exxon and Chevron, so the Biden administration is preparing to slap tariffs on Mexico in order for force President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) to bring gas prices up and in line with what the American companies charge.  

Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals   Attacks launched from populated civilian areas       Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians    Part 3 - Military bases in hospitals   Amnesty International researchers witnessed Ukrainian forces using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations. In two towns, dozens of soldiers were resting, milling about, and eating meals in hospitals. In another town, soldiers were firing from near the hospital. A Russian air strike on 28 April injured two employees at a medical laboratory in a suburb of Kharkiv after Ukrainian forces had set up a base in the compound. Using hospitals for military purposes is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Source, links, further info: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/08/ukraine-ukrainian-fighting-tactics-endanger-civilians/ [ 1 ][ 2 ...

Day 1230: Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution   On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges.   The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.   The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future.   And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had...

Μεγαλώνει το άγχος για τους ολιγάρχες που βλέπουν το Μητσοτακικό καθεστώς να καταρρέει χωρίς εναλλακτικές στον ορίζοντα

globinfo freexchange   Το μέγα σκάνδαλο των υποκλοπών ήταν απλά το κερασάκι στην τούρτα που σφράγισε την κατάρρευση του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη η οποία είχε ήδη δρομολογηθεί. Η πρωθυπουργία του Κούλη έχει ημερομηνία λήξης και όσοι πιστεύουν στα σοβαρά ότι η ΝΔ μπορεί να κερδίσει ξανά εκλογές με αυτόν στο τιμόνι, μάλλον έχουν χάσει την επαφή με την πραγματικότητα.  Βέβαια ο Κούλης δεν έχει κανένα πρόβλημα, ούτε και τον ενδιαφέρει ιδιαίτερα, αφού η αποστολή του ήταν να περάσει ότι αντιλαϊκό μέτρο μπορούσε να περάσει, υπέρ των οικονομικών συμφερόντων που τον έφεραν στην εξουσία. Αυτή ήταν η αποστολή του και ίσως να έδωσε στους ολιγάρχες παραπάνω απ'όσα περίμεναν μετά το ξεδιάντροπο ολικό ξεπούλημα της ΔΕΗ που εδραίωσε το καρτέλ της ενέργειας και το επέτρεψε να κάνει πάρτι στις πλάτες των καταναλωτών, σημειώνοντας υπερκέρδη και μοιράζοντας ασύλληπτα μπόνους στα μεγαλοστελέχη. Και το απέδειξε βέβαια ότι δεν τον νοιάζει τίποτα, αφού εν μέσω θύελλας που ξέσπασε από το σκάνδαλο των υποκ...

Francis Fukuyama is right: Socialism is the only alternative to liberalism

In Liberalism and Its Discontents, Francis Fukuyama diagnoses the political and psychological malaise caused by capitalism. His analysis makes one thing clear: liberalism is incapable of addressing the social, economic, and ecological crises it faces.    by Samuel McIlhagga  Part 4 - Liberalism in Peril   Indeed, Liberalism and Its Discontents , much like its Freudian forebear, argues that liberal democracy’s two adversaries, “populist conservatism” and “progressivism,” are not outside threats but outgrowths of the liberal tradition itself. As Fukuyama states in his first chapter, “What is Classical Liberalism” — the threat comes from internal economic and social corruptions within liberalism rather than from outside competing models or inherent material contradictions.                            On the right, autonomy meant primarily the right...

Western govt-funded neocon group smears independent journalist Benjamin Norton for reporting Ukraine facts they don't like

Multipolarista   Multipolarista editor Benjamin Norton responds to smears from a neoconservative think tank funded by Western governments and corporations, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), which attacked him over his factual journalism reporting on NATO support for far-right extremists in Ukraine.

The British establishment chose Boris Johnson as its weapon to defeat the Left

Boris Johnson’s disastrous time in office has spluttered to an ignominious conclusion. Many of those now deploring his record sided with Johnson when it really mattered because they wanted to block a left-wing government that could transform British society.   by Daniel Finn   Part 6 - That’s Why They Pay Them the Big Bucks The Conservative victory in December 2019 was so decisive that it came to seem inevitable with the benefit of hindsight. However, that clearly wasn’t the way Johnson’s supporters in the media saw things while the election campaign was still in progress. The 2017 result had been a major shock to the system, and there was evidently a nagging fear that it might happen again. As a result, the right-wing press threw caution to the wind, even promoting far-right, antisemitic conspiracy theories that were directly sourced from neo-Nazi groups in a bid to tarnish Labour. Journalists who were nominally supposed to be impartial displayed the same recklessness. D...

US debt held by the Federal Reserve surpassed 25% of GDP in 2021!

globinfo freexchange According to the economic database of St. Louis Federal Reserve (FRED), the US debt held by the Federal Reserve surpassed the unthinkable percentage of 25% of GDP (25.48%) for the first time in the third quarter of 2021! We observe that from the beginning of the related recorded data in 1970, the US debt held by the Federal Reserve remains almost flat and at much lower levels (~ 3.5%-5.5% of GDP). And this is the case even during the recession right after the 1973 oil crisis depicted by the shaded area in the graph.   Then, during the big financial meltdown of 2007-2008, we observe a shallow dive of the debt. After that period, we can see clearly that the US debt held by the Federal Reverse breaks one record after another, reaching unprecedented levels.   For the first time, the debt surpasses 10% of GDP in the second quarter of 2011 (10.41%), and in the first quarter of 2014 surpasses 15% of GDP (15.25%). Then, we have a dive in the third quarter of 2019...

The Forde report and the lessons of the Corbyn movement

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 1   Forde’s findings also completely vindicate Jeremy Corbyn’s own statement, which resulted in his suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) – a suspension that still stands to this day. Corbyn correctly asserted that allegations of antisemitism were used factionally by the right wing of the Labour Party, and that the previous left leadership had been continually sabotaged by Blairite bureaucrats and right-wing MPs. The wrecking behaviour of these gangsters began from day one of Corbyn’s time as Labour leader. The ruling class and their agents within the party could not tolerate Labour being anything other than a safe instrument for capitalism. And they were ruthless in their mission ...

Mexico’s President gives Joe Biden a big history lesson

Latin American nations are putting themselves on the front line for the sovereignty of certain countries, and are backing progressive processes in others   by Rodrigo Guillot   Part 3 - The political vanguard of the Continent López Obrador has not only established himself as the political reference point for the Latin American left but has also been leading the process of integration in the south of the region through the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit and his diplomacy in Central America.    He has managed to undermine the interventionist capacity of the United States without losing the friendly relationship with Mexico’s northern neighbor, as this official visit to the United States demonstrates.    Besides this, Mexico has proposed solutions to inflation and the global ailments caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war, encouraging its US counterpart to follow Mexico’s political economy. Latin America and the Caribb...

Kim Iversen wasn't allowed to interview Anthony Fauci!

Russell Brand   Russell Brand spoke to Kim Iversen about her departure from The Hill amid being told she wasn't allowed to interview Anthony Fauci.    

Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals   Attacks launched from populated civilian areas       Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians    Part 2 - Launching strikes from populated civilian areas   Survivors and witnesses of Russian strikes in the Donbas, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions told Amnesty International researchers that the Ukrainian military had been operating near their homes around the time of the strikes, exposing the areas to retaliatory fire from Russian forces. Amnesty International researchers witnessed such conduct in numerous locations. International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas. Other obligations to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity o...

Day 1223: Julian Assange still in prison and under slow-motion execution by the Anglo-American imperialist criminals

failed evolution   On 11 April 2019, the Ecuadorian government of traitor Lenin Moreno, invited the Metropolitan Police into the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and they arrested Julian Assange . Since then, Assange is kept in Belmarsh high security prison in London, without actual charges.   The real reason world's number one political prisoner is still kept in this high security prison, is because he exposed horrendous war crimes carried out by the US imperialists and their allies.   The ruthless Western imperialist regime wants to punish the No1 real journalist in the world and make him an example for any Whistleblower or real journalist who will attempt to expose its big crimes in the future.   And the Anglo-American axis has now become officially a fascist coalition , framed by the rest of its Western pets. UK's Home Secretary Priti Patel, one of the most ruthless ever, decided to extradite Julian Assange to US. No surprise of course. The only question we had...