the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

globinfo freexchange Leo Panitch, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar at York University in Toronto, explains to Gregory Wilpert and the Real News , the huge difference between Left populism and Right populism and why, at the moment, the global neoliberal regime afraid the Left one much more: Populism in general needs to be understood as an appeal to the masses, to the working classes, to farmers, to peasants, etc., of a kind which targets the existing political and economic establishment, derides them, denigrates them, engages in promises to make those people's lives better, but does nothing to organize and mobilize them as powerful social forces from below. It's an attempt to ride on the discontent of the great mass of people in a way that doesn't increase their power vis-a-vis either the populace or the existing establishment. And to some extent, it may actually involve decreasing their power, insofar as it disorganizes their organizations, whether it

Cold War disinformation operations run by the CIA took the form of clandestinely placing stories in the media that were clearly untrue but designed to shift public perceptions. by Philip M. Giraldi When an intelligence agency arranges to disseminated fake news it is called “disinformation” and it is a subset of what is referred to as covert action, basically secret operations run in a foreign country to influence opinion or to disrupt the functioning of a government or group that is considered to be hostile. During the Cold War, disinformation operations were run by many of the leading players in both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and in the opposition Warsaw Pact. Sometimes the activity and the sponsorship were clearly visible, as when Radio Free Europe and Radio Moscow would exchange barbs about just how bad daily life was in the opposition alliance. Sometimes, however, it took the form of clandestinely placing stories in the media that were clearly untru

του Μενέλαου Γκίβαλου Η σύγχρονη πολιτική ιστορία της χώρας μας, ιδιαίτερα κατά τις τρεις τελευταίες δεκαετίες, συνδέθηκε, επηρεάστηκε και επικαθορίστηκε κάποιες φορές από τον κρίσιμο ρόλο και τις παρεμβάσεις που άσκησαν τα ΜΜΕ, τα οποία αποτέλεσαν τελικά ένα πανίσχυρο πλέγμα ιδεολογικών μηχανισμών, που διεκδίκησε και απέκτησε ένα δικό του «αυτόνομο» πεδίο πολιτικής εξουσίας. Η άνοδος και η επικυριαρχία του συστήματος της διαπλοκής, η ενσωμάτωση των παραδοσιακών κομμάτων της διακυβέρνησης (ΠΑΣΟΚ και ΝΔ) στο νεοφιλελεύθερο πρότυπο και ο μείζων ιδεολογικοπολιτικός ρόλος που διαδραμάτισαν τα συστημικά ΜΜΕ αποτελούν ένα σύνθετο και αδιαίρετο οργανικό σύνολο. Γι’ αυτό και κάθε προσέγγιση είναι υποχρεωμένη να διερευνά ταυτόχρονα και παράλληλα τους τρεις αυτούς κρίσιμους παράγοντες. Με κάποιο τρόπο, το Mega αποτελεί το αυθεντικότερο και εναργέστερο παράδειγμα αυτών των εξελίξεων. Συνιστά, κατά τη βεμπεριανή έκφραση, έναν «ιδεώδη» τύπο, τον «ιδεότυπο» του σύνθετο

Foreshadowed by his roots and bottle-rocket-like rise, Barack Obama’s legacy is one of betrayal and what might have been,… From the outset, he courted and was courted by the pillars of counter-revolution, his very blackness a cloak for his Manchurian mission. by Jon Jeter Part 2 - Harold Washington and his Chicago mini-revolution With his Motown baritone, the soaring cadence of a Baptist preacher — and a striking resemblance to Ossie Davis — a congressman representing Chicago’s 1st District, Harold Washington, had them at hello. As part of the Daley machine, Washington had dutifully complied with orders to shun Martin Luther King Jr’s 1966 visit to Chicago, but that experience — combined with the 1969 police assassination of the charismatic 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton — had caused Washington to defect. Still, Washington was a pragmatist and a mayoral bid struck him as a tad quixotic; he agreed to the campaign

The PayPal-offshoot Becomes a Weapon in the War Against Whistleblowers and WikiLeaks. The Palantir document notes that most well-known journalistic professionals “with a liberal bent . . .if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals.” WikiLeaks, the transparency organization known for publishing leaked documents that threaten the powerful, finds itself under pressure like never before, as does its editor-in-chief, Julian Assange. Now the fight to silence WikiLeaks is not only being waged by powerful government figures but also by the media, including outlets and organizations that have styled themselves as working to protect whistleblowers. Pierre Omidyar – eBay billionaire and PayPal’s long-time owner – holds considerable sway over several journalists and organizations that once championed WikiLeaks but now work for the Omidyar-owned publication, The Intercept. Thanks to his deep ties to the U.S. gover