the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

An investigative analysis takes apart a hackneyed piece of propaganda authored by an international alt-right clique with links to the Pentagon.   by Raul Diego   Part 1 A now-deleted fact sheet published by the U.S. State Department on January 15, 2021, claimed that for over a year, “ the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin. ” The official release of that fact sheet focuses on the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV); a controversial research lab in the Hubei province of China which has been the target of well-earned suspicions over its work on bat-borne zoonotic diseases like SARS-CoV-2, better known as the COVID-19 coronavirus. Missing from the State Department’s missive is the intimate bond that this particular laboratory has to American scientific institutions and to a tight-knit group of individuals with direct links to the U.S. intelligence apparatus and the biodefense establis...

Ecuador’s presidential candidate Yaku Pérez supported coups in Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. His US-backed party Pachakutik and supposedly “left-wing” environmentalist campaign is being promoted by right-wing corporate lobbyists.   by Ben Norton  Part 2 - “Left-wing” support for right-wing coups in Latin America   Yaku Pérez Guartambel says he wants Ecuadorians to use fewer cars and plant more trees. With campaign photos often showing him riding a bicycle at rallies, Perez’s image seems custom tailored to appeal to the sensibility of Western green activists. Pérez is especially critical of the Correista movement for its reliance on extraction. He has proposed an end to mining in Ecuador and a restriction of oil extraction. Ecuador is a developing, formerly colonized country and thus relatively poor compared to Global North imperialist nations. But it has an advantage: large oil and mineral reserves. These resources have been key to the political and economic...

Secretive Cabinet Office 'Clearing House' for Freedom of Information requests also accused of “blacklisting” journalists; openDemocracy launching a legal bid for transparency   Peter Geoghegan/Jenna Corderoy/Lucas Amin   Part 4 - Long legal battle for transparency   openDemocracy first asked for copies of the Clearing House lists back in 2018. The Cabinet Office refused this Freedom of Information request but, 23 months later, in July 2020 the ICO finally decided that the lists – including the advice that the Cabinet Office provides on dealing with FOI requests – should be disclosed to the public.  While the Cabinet Office eventually disclosed some material from the Clearing House list, it is keeping its advice to departments secret and is appealing against the ICO’s decision. openDemocracy , represented by the law firm Leigh Day, will now be submitting evidence to an information tribunal hearing to determine whether this information about the Clearing House should ...

The US State Department is pushing a politicized vote recount, overseen by the coup-sponsoring OAS, after socialist Andrés Arauz won Ecuador’s election in a landslide. Meanwhile Colombia’s ex-president warns his country’s “radical right” is “interfering” with “slander” and a “dirty game.”   by Ben Norton  Part 1 A popular socialist candidate, Andrés Arauz, won the first round of Ecuador’s historic presidential election by a landslide on February 7. The leftist’s overwhelming victory prompted the US State Department, the right-wing government of neighboring Colombia, and the Organization of American States (OAS) to mobilize to prevent him from entering office. Arauz won the first round of the election with 33 percent of the vote, a full 13 percent greater than the second-place candidate, conservative banker Guillermo Lasso. His opponents are now seeking to force a vote recount under the supervision of the OAS, while simultaneously launching a smear campaign relying on blatant d...

Going Underground   Dr. Vandana Shiva speaks about the recent avalanche in Uttarakhand which has left hundreds missing and the causes behind it. How the World Bank’s actions in the 1991 was arguably the start of Indian farmers vs global capitalism. Why India’s farmers are organising en masse to oppose Modi’s neoliberal farming laws, 1 in 4 farmers on Earth being Indian. Multinational farming corporations and their war on India’s independent farmers. The history of the spread of GMO technology such as ‘Roundup’. Why a transition away from industrial farming back to small-scale farming is needed to fight climate change. 

The Grayzone   In a landmark ruling, the International Criminal Court has ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israel for war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. However, scholar and author Norman Finkelstein warns that the ICC decision, while historic, is unlikely to deliver justice.   According to Finkelstein, the Palestinian Authority's capitulation in the Oslo accords gives Israel room to flout the court's jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the reality of Israel today -- what the Israeli group B'Tselem recently called a "regime of Jewish supremacy" -- undermines any notion of a separate Palestinian state.  

The Grayzone   Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Prasanth Radhakrishnan, a New Delhi based journalist with Newclick.in and People's Dispatch , about the historic farmer strike currently sweeping India. Radhakrishnan explains why farmers are rising up, how they are organized, and how the neoliberal government of Narendra Modi has responded to the movement. Just one day after this interview, the Modi government raided the offices of Newsclick.in and detained its editors in what has been denounced as an act of intimidation against critical media.  

The main reason corporate Dems want so desperately to beat Trump in this election cycle   Neoliberal centrists and phony fascists as political tools of the capitalist classes in an escalating war     

It is now difficult to distinguish where the deep state ends and the fourth estate begins and Ben Nimmo’s move from NATO to NATO-aligned think tank to Facebook is just another example of this phenomenon.   by Alan Macleod   Part 1 Ben Nimmo, a former NATO press officer and current senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, has announced Facebook has hired him to “ lead global threat intelligence strategy against influence operations ” and “ emerging threats. ” Nimmo specifically named Russia, Iran and China as potential dangers to the platform. His announcement was greeted with joy by several NATO officials but was not met with such enthusiasm by others. “ More censorship on the way as the former NATO press officer turned Pentagon-funded ‘researcher’ who labeled real people as Russian bots and peddled disinformation to link Jeremy Corbyn to Russian active measures moves to big tech, ” responded investigative journalist Max Blumenthal. Nimmo’s questionable past certainly raise...

Redacted Tonight   Ollie Vargas joined Lee Camp on this episode of Moment of Clarity to discuss Ecuador's recent elections.