the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

globinfo freexchange And all of a sudden, the US president Donald Trump decided to withdraw the US troops from Syria, declaring victory over ISIS. No one, of course, understood why the ISIS was suddenly defeated now. So this must be a typical excuse by the American leadership to withdraw forces from a battlefield that it is no longer 'profitable' and affordable. Comparing with other, relatively recent cases, in which even the liberal establishment was calling Trump to bomb Syria, the reactions from the US political status were rather moderate. We would expect the media pundits and the corporate puppets of the US political scene to fire back against Trump with much more anger. It didn't happen. We will have to wait of course because the unpredictable Donnie may change his mind in the blink of an eye. And then, we will have to make a completely different discussion. Yet, if it's true, and the US troops will, indeed, leave Syria, it would be one of these

" The U.S. should be doing everything we can to support the ceasefire, not undermining it. Disgusting! " That was how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to news on Thursday that the Trump administration teamed up with Saudi Arabia to delay a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the Hodeidah ceasefire agreement reached last week. Arguing that the beseiged people of Yemen can't afford any more delays, Sanders noted that " 85,000 children have already starved to death " and " millions more face the prospect of famine and death " due to the years-long U.S.-backed Saudi assault. As the Guardian reported, Yemeni government officials warned that the Hodeidah ceasefire could quickly collapse if a Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement is not adopted soon. " A retired Dutch general, Patrick Cammaert, is on his way to Hodeidah to oversee a two-stage withdrawal of all troops from Hodeidah, but withou

President Donald Trump’s decision to declare ISIS defeated and order a full US withdrawal from Syria has been met with anger and disbelief by the Washington establishment that hoped for regime change in Damascus. Trump declared victory over Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) on Wednesday morning, as media reported that some 2,000 or so US troops will leave Syria within 60 to 100 days. Though Trump had openly spoken about wanting to leave Syria back in March, senior officials in his administration have said that US forces would stay there indefinitely. [...] Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), known as a foreign policy hawk, also disagreed with a withdrawal, calling it a “colossal” mistake and a “grave error that's going to have significant repercussions in the years and months to come.” Rubio echoed Lehrich’s assessment that the US withdrawal would turn Syria over to Russia and Iran, adding that it might lead to another conflict between Israel and the Ir

by Andre Damon Amid new exposures of Wall Street criminality, the White House’s mass imprisonment of immigrant children, and growing demands by US workers for decent wages, the US media was preoccupied Monday with the supposed efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin to make people believe that life in America is not a paradise. Throughout the day, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Google News all led with breathless stories about Russian efforts to “ sway American opinion and divide the country ” (in the words of the Times). The propaganda barrage was based on a set of reports submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee by organizations with close ties to the US state and intelligence apparatus. Like countless other stories about alleged Russian “disinformation,” Monday’s media blast followed a script. Reports and testimony from nominally independent organizations, which are, in reality, mouthpieces for the intelligence agencies, are commissioned b

The Guardian did not make a mistake in vilifying Assange without a shred of evidence. It did what it is designed to do, says Jonathan Cook. by Jonathan Cook Part 5 - A Pattern, Not an Aberration Despite all this, even analysts critical of The Guardian ’s behavior have shown a glaring failure to understand that its latest coverage represents not an aberration by the paper but decisively fits with a pattern. Glenn Greenwald, who once had an influential column in The Guardian until an apparent, though unacknowledged, falling out with his employer over the Edward Snowden revelations, wrote a series of baffling observations about The Guardian ’s latest story. First, he suggested it was simply evidence of The Guardian ’s long-standing (and well-documented) hostility towards Assange. “ The Guardian, an otherwise solid and reliable paper, has such a pervasive and unprofessionally personal hatred for Julian Assange that it has frequently dispensed with all journalist

Την ώρα που διαρρέουν όλο και περισσότερες πληροφορίες για την εγκληματικότητα της Wall Street, για τη φυλάκιση παιδιών μεταναστών στα σύνορα ΗΠΑ-Μεξικού με εντολή του Λευκού Οίκου, αλλά και για τα συνεχή αιτήματα αμερικανών εργατών για αξιοπρεπείς μισθούς, τα αμερικάνικα ΜΜΕ ανησυχούν ότι ο Βλαντιμίρ Πούτιν προσπαθεί να κάνει τους Αμερικανούς πολίτες να πιστέψουν ότι δεν ζουν σε ιδανικές συνθήκες. Οι New York Times, η Washington Post και τα Google News τη Δευτέρα κυριαρχούνταν από άρθρα σχετικά με τις προσπάθειες των Ρώσων να « αποπροσανατολίσουν την κοινή γνώμη και να διχάσουν την χώρα » (ακριβής διατύπωση των Times). Αυτό το μπαράζ προπαγάνδας βασίστηκε σε μια σειρά αναφορών που δόθηκαν στην Επιτροπή Πληροφοριών της Γερουσίας από οργανισμούς που τηρούν στενούς δεσμούς με το αμερικανικό κράτος και το σύστημα των υπηρεσιών ασφαλείας. Όπως συνέβαινε και με παλαιότερα άρθρα σχετικά με την υποτιθέμενη «ρωσική παραπληροφόρηση», τα αμερικανικά ΜΜΕ τη Δευτέρα ακολούθησ

Ο φασισμός είναι παιδί του καπιταλισμού και αδελφός του νεοσυντηρητισμού όσο και του νεοφιλελευθερισμού. Επί της ουσίας φασίστες, νεοσυντηρητικοί και νεοφιλελεύθεροι, έχουν παραπλήσιες αντιλήψεις για την κοινωνία, όσο και αν επιφανειακά διαφέρουν. Θέλουν μια ζούγκλα, όπου οι αδύναμοι καλώς μένουν απροστάτευτοι και οι ισχυρότεροι δίκαια τα παίρνουν όλα. Όλοι τους συμμερίζονται τη θεώρηση του κοινωνικού δαρβινισμού. του Σπύρου Μαρκέτου Μέρος 1ο - Φασισμός και Άκρα Δεξιά – Ενότητα και αντίθεση Λέγεται ότι ο Μεταξάς δεν ήταν φασίστας επειδή συγκρούστηκε με τον Άξονα. Ωστόσο το να μαλώνεις με φασίστες δεν σημαίνει υποχρεωτικά πως εσύ είσαι κάτι άλλο. Οι συγκρούσεις φασιστών με ακροδεξιούς ομογάλακτούς τους ή και με άλλους φασίστες δεν είναι σπάνιες ούτε πρέπει να μας εκπλήσσουν. Αντίθετα είναι αναπόφευκτες καθώς οι φασίστες προσπαθούν να στήσουν τον δικό τους πολιτικό χώρο. Κάποτε γίνονται εξαιρετικά άγριες· παράδειγμα, η Νύχτα των Μεγάλων Μαχαιριών το 1934, όταν ο

globinfo freexchange Άλλη μια άθλια παράσταση (μάλλον τη χειρότερη ως τώρα) έδωσε από το βήμα της βουλής ο αρχηγός της αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης, Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης. Δεν ξέρουμε αν ήταν δικής του έμπνευσης, ή αν το άθλιο θέαμα που παρακολουθήσαμε ήταν έμπνευση των επικοινωνιολόγων του. Αν ισχύει το δεύτερο, μάλλον πρέπει να τους απολύσει. Αν ισχύει το πρώτο, τότε το μόνο που κατάφερε ο Κυριάκος ήταν να φανερώσει οριστικά και αμετάκλητα τον μεγάλο εκνευρισμό του και ίσως και πανικό του. Γιατί, όμως, πανικοβάλεται ο Κυριάκος; Πρώτον, γιατί βλέπει ότι, έστω και σε αυτές τις άκρως αμφιλεγόμενες δημοσκοπήσεις, η ψαλίδα ΝΔ-ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, κλείνει. Δεύτερον, γιατί αντιλαμβάνεται ότι δεν είναι χρήσιμος πλέον σε κανέναν από τους έξω. Γιατί ο Τσίπρας έγινε το καλό και υπάκουο παιδί των Ευρωπαίων, αλλά και ο πιο πιστός υποτελής των Αμερικανών. Τρίτον και ίσως το κυριότερο, γιατί η πολιτική ένδεια της παράταξής του δεν έχει προηγούμενο. Πράγματι, η γαλάζια πα

From David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism Part 9 – General conditions and institutions behind the turn of the British public opinion towards neoliberalism The construction of consent in Britain occurred in a very different way. What happened in Kansas was quite different from what happened in Yorkshire. The cultural and political traditions were very different. In Britain, there is no Christian right to speak of to be mobilized into a moral majority. Corporate power there was little inclined to support overt political activism (its contributions to political parties were minimal), preferring instead to exercise influence through the networks of class and privilege that had long connected government, academia, the judiciary, and the permanent Civil Service (which at that time still maintained its tradition of independence) with the leaders of industry and finance. The political situation was also radically different, given that the Labour Party had larg

For centuries, the “left” hoped popular movements would lead to changes for the better. Today, many leftists seem terrified of popular movements for change, convinced “populism” must lead to “fascism.” But it needn’t be so, says Diana Johnstone. by Diana Johnstone Part 3 - Incoherent Energy Policies And the tax announced by the government – an additional 6.6 cents per liter for diesel and an additional 2.9 centers per liter of gasoline – are only the first steps in a series of planned increases over the next years. The measures are supposed to incite people to drive less or even better, to scrap their old vehicles and buy nice new electric cars. More and more “governance” is an exercise in social engineering by technocrats who know what is best. This particular exercise goes directly opposite to an earlier government measure of social engineering which used economic incitements to get people to buy cars running on diesel. Now the government has changed its mind. Over