the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Through his purchase of influence over the daily flow of information to American media consumers, a dizzying array of connections to the national security state, and a media empire that shields him from critical scrutiny, Pierre Omidyar has become one of the world’s most politically sophisticated data monarchs. by Alexander Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal Part 2 - The genesis of a private marketplace and surveillance apparatus “ The origin story of eBay is fairly well known, ” according to a 1999 Time Magazine profile spinning out the company’s “ small scale origins. ” Painting Omidyar as a high-tech Horatio Alger, Time wrote that “ other tech giants have their garages, eBay has its Pez dispenser. Or, rather, founder Pierre Omidyar’s then-fiancée didn’t have a Pez dispenser. ” As the story goes, Omidyar created eBay for his then-fiancée Pam as an online marketplace for her to improve her collection of Pez candy dispensers. According to the Time profile, “ eBay st...

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza suggested that the United States was behind the burning of a truck carrying US Aid which made international headlines, blaming Secretary of State and former CIA boss Mike Pompeo for staging a false flag. " The CIA expert in false flag operations, Pompeo, thinks he can fool the world with a truck set ablaze by his own agents in Colombia, " said Arreaza over Twitter on Saturday. " @SecPompeo and their assassins are desperate to fabricate a pretext for war, " Arreaza later tweeted, adding " If you want to find those who burnt the truck with fake humanitarian aid, look among your own employees. " Venezuelan television host Jorge Gestoso echoed Arreaza's sentiment, tweeting that the “ burned trucks with humanitarian aid is another attempt to ‘provoke the invasion’ using a ‘fake news’ false flag. ” Full report: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-24/venezuela-fm-...

Empire Files

U.S. representatives claimed their colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar, was anti-Semitic when she brought up AIPAC’s influence over members of Congress. by Alex Kotch Part 4 - The Defense Industry The influence of AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations impacts one of Washington’s biggest special-interest groups: the defense industry. As Sludge previously reported, both defense and pro-Israel interests have donated significant amounts of money to the campaign of Engel, whose committee has jurisdiction of arms exports. The top U.S. weapons manufacturers benefit from Israeli weapons purchases, made possible in part by American financial assistance. Engel was one of several Democrats to chastise Omar on Monday. In 2017, he co-sponsored an anti-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) bill in the House (Omar and Tlaib’s support for BDS is at the root of their colleagues’ criticisms of them). In line with AIPAC, Engel also opposed the 2010 Iran Deal and supported ...

globinfo freexchange We don't know what is most shocking: the fact that the US imperialists don't even bother to throw some pretexts before another invasion, or, the fact that most of us are getting used to it and hardly surprised? In his new book, Andrew McCabe, former FBI director, revealed that in a 2017 Oval Office meeting, Trump said that the US should go to war with Venezuela, essentially to grab the oil. As Aaron Maté tweeted: Page 136 of McCabe's new book, recounting a 2017 Oval Office meeting: "Then the president talked about Venezuela. That’s the country we should be going to war with, he said. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door." pic.twitter.com/RY39h1dXoc — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 18, 2019 Also, Maté brilliantly exposes the enormous hypocrisy of the neoliberal establishment: “ Trump’s war for Venezuela’s oil — via a coup attempt, economic warfare, & threat of...

The academic laboratory of the Venezuelan coup has the highest academic pedigree of all by Justin Podur As we watch a U.S.-backed coup unfold in a distant country, as in Venezuela today, our eyes are drawn to the diplomatic, military, and economic elements of the U.S. campaign. The picture of a scowling John Bolton with a big yellow notepad with the message “5,000 troops to Colombia” reveals the diplomatic and military elements. The New York Times headline “U.S. Sanctions Are Aimed at Venezuela’s Oil. Its Citizens May Suffer First” reveals the economic element. But U.S. foreign policy mobilizes every available resource for regime change and for counterinsurgency. Among those resources, you will always find academics. The pen may not always be mightier than the sword, but behind every U.S.-backed war on a foreign people there will be a body of scholarly work. The academic laboratory of the Venezuelan coup has the highest academic pedigree of all —...

Οι αρχές της Βενεζουέλας ανακάλυψαν στις 5 Φεβρουαρίου μία κρύπτη με όπλα και άλλο στρατιωτικό εξοπλισμό που έφτασαν στη χώρα μέσα σε ένα Boeing 767. Το φορτίο περιελάμβανε μεταξύ άλλων 19 όπλα και 90 στρατιωτικές κεραίες. Η συγκεκριμένη πτήση είχε φύγει στις 3 Φεβρουαρίου από το Μαϊάμι με προορισμό την Βαλένσια, στην επαρχία Καραμπόμπο της Βενεζουέλας. Οι αρχές της Βενεζουέλας κατηγόρησαν την CIA και ακροδεξιές ομάδες στο Μαϊάμι ότι εισήγαγαν λαθραία τα όπλα στη χώρα με στόχο να πυροδοτήσουν έναν εμφύλιο πόλεμο. Κάποιες μέρες αργότερα, δημοσιογράφοι του McClatchy στην Ουάσινγκτον είπαν ότι το αεροπλάνο πέταξε ανάμεσα στη Φιλαδέλφεια και το Μαϊάμι και κατά μήκος των ηπειρωτικών ΗΠΑ. Το McClatchy αποκάλυψε επίσης ότι το αεροπλάνο άρχισε ξαφνικά, από τον Ιανουάριο, να πραγματοποιεί συνεχή ταξίδια – 40 στον αριθμό – προς την Κολομβία και τη Βενεζουέλα, και σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις πάνω από μία φορές κατά τη διάρκεια της μέρας. Οι πτήσεις ξεκίνησαν αμέσως ...

Maria Faría, the daughter of a would-be Hugo Chávez assassin, illegally barged into Venezuela’s embassy in Costa Rica and declared herself ambassador. The embarrassing stunt highlighted everything wrong with Juan Guaidó’s reality-show government. by Anya Parampil Part 1 While tweeting that she had taken charge of Venezuela’s Embassy in Costa Rica on February 20, Maria Faría demonstrated that she was more familiar with the conventions of social media than those dictating international diplomacy. “ In fulfillment of the diplomatic functions, assigned by President Juan Guaido ”, tweeted Faría, referring to the US-appointed leader of Venezuela’s parallel coup government, “ we assume control of the administrative headquarters of the Embassy of Venezuela in San Jose ”. The surprise announcement came early Wednesday morning from inside the Embassy, leading many to wonder how Faría, or “@Mandyfaria26” — who describes herself in her Twitter bio as the “Diplomatic Represen...

globinfo freexchange Right after the seven neoliberal Blairites left the Labour party towards the formation of a new "independent" party, three Tories decided to join them. As the Guardian reported : “ Three Conservatives have quit their party to join the new Independent Group of MPs, declaring that hard Brexiters have taken over and that the modernising wing of the party has been 'destroyed'. Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen explained their decision to join the new group, founded this week by seven Labour MPs, who also left their party. ” It all happened too fast and someone would be rather naive to believe that these moves were not pre-agreed and fully coordinated. All the picks appear to be carefully selected. The establishment takes back those who has raised carefully with the 'principles' of the neoliberal ideology in order to save them from the collapsing conservative party and the Corbynism-'contaminated' ...

There is increasing desperation on the part of the “humanitarian” regime-change network to protect its influence and the power of its narratives, not just in Syria but in future conflicts. by Whitney Webb and Vanessa Beeley Part 1 Over the past few days, notable journalists and other figures in mainstream media have acknowledged that the alleged chemical weapons attack that occurred last April in the Damascus suburb of Douma, Syria was likely “ staged ” by “ activist ” groups such as the White Helmets. Their comments and investigations have largely vindicated the many journalists and academics who cast aspersions on the precipitous Western media campaign to blame that alleged attack on the Syrian government. Many of the dissenting voices were derided as “conspiracy theorists” or ignored entirely by mainstream sources. Yet, now that these revelations are being voiced by acceptable figures in mainstream media, those who have built their careers on promoting the White H...