the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

globinfo freexchange   Inside the storm of inflation, the European Central Bank suddenly thought that it would be a good idea to raise key interest rates for the first time in 11 years.  According to Deutsche Welle (DW) [emphasis added]:                       The ECB raised its negative benchmark deposit rate by 50 basis points from minus 0.5% to 0%, lifting the bank's deposit facility out of negative territory for the first time in eight years. The announcement came as a surprise as the bank had initially hinted that it would hike the rate by 25 basis points only .    It's remarkable that DW's analyst, Kristie Pladson, stated that " ... this is a historic decision they've taken now - first hike in eleven years, so, on that level, it's a little bit unclear exactly what effect it's going to have ... "   However, one thing ECB's move will surely affect, is money access for most of the Europeans. As Pladson says:                      ... what we do

The “Uber Files” leak reveals the power of the company’s multimillion-dollar lobbying effort — and how it worked with governments around the world to undercut workers’ rights.   by Paris Marx  Part 2 - Uber Sold Us a Lie In the early years of the 2010s, Uber was ascendant and much of the media couldn’t get enough of it. The company was showered with positive press that ignored the already obvious ways it was harming workers and communities for its own benefit. That allowed Kalanick to make a whole range of bold claims that made Uber sound not only like it was going to be great for us, but that technology was delivering a better future. As I outline in Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation, Uber was supposed to reduce car ownership, cut traffic congestion, make mobility more accessible for underserved communities, allow its drivers to make a good living, and be complimentary toward transit services — or so Kalanick claimed. It only took a few

by Alan Macleod   Part 4 - Hollywood: the military’s wingman   “Top Gun: Maverick” has been produced at a time when the United States is currently throttling Iran with illegal and deadly sanctions. In early 2020, the Trump administration assassinated top Iranian general and statesman Qassem Soleimani, and influential figures in the United States have called for an unprovoked nuclear attack on the country. Yet none of this context is mentioned, leaving the legality of the depicted attack unquestioned. As Stahl told MintPress , the basic assumption is that “ the U.S. has the right to violate international law and strike any country for any reason. ” “ Imagine if this film came out of Iran and was about striking an Israeli or U.S. nuclear facility, ” he said. “ Heads would explode with accusations of hard-line propaganda. ” Therefore, “Top Gun: Maverick” falls in line in promoting a remarkably militaristic society; one that spends almost as much on war as every other nation on Earth combi

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 in mind is

The Grayzone   A recent article in The Guardian parroted a US state-funded group's evidence-free allegations that The Grayzone ’s Aaron Maté -- who has reported extensively on the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal -- is " the most prolific spreader of disinformation " about Syria among a " network " of " conspiracy theorists. " Aaron called Guardian reporter Mark Townsend on the phone to ask him to substantiate these defamatory claims, and why he didn’t reach out before printing them. 

Caitlin Johnstone The biggest lie the hawks ever sold was that their militaristic policies prevent the problems they actually create. Militarizing against Russia caused this war. The war on terror created terror groups. Continuing the encirclement of China will likely lead to a nasty confrontation there.

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 2 - Two Lords A-Leaping Ian Austin and John Woodcock were both elected as MPs for Labour-held seats (Dudley North, 2005, and Barrow & Furness, 2010, respectively) but refused to accept Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of their party after 2015. Media coverage frequently depicted them as courageous dissidents, although their main political concern appeared to be support for Middle Eastern states responsible for gross violations of human rights, including Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Woodcock backed the Saudi invasion of Yemen and denounced Corbyn’s call for a freeze on arms sales to the Saudi war machine. Both MPs resigned from the Labour Party after the 2017 general election, having only held on to their

Even among Marx-friendly economists, the labor theory of value has fallen out of favor. But its technical validity is less important than the core message: workers are exploited because the value they create is undemocratically taken by capitalists. by Ben Burgis   Part 5 - Cohen’s Analysis of Working-Class Unfreedom To be clear, neither Marx nor Cohen thought that workers should receive the entire product of their labor. Marx argued that this would be both impractical and wrong for a variety of reasons. For one, what about upkeep of old factory equipment? Or about building new factories? What about “common needs” like schools and hospitals or the consumption needs of those unable to work? What makes the surrender of some of the value produced by workers or the value of the commodities they produce exploitation is that it’s surrendered not in some democratic process in which the beneficiaries have to make a convincing case but that it’s taken as a result of the power one class has over

Leaked emails reveal British journalist Paul Mason plotting with an intel contractor to destroy The Grayzone through “relentless deplatforming” and a “full nuclear legal” attack. The scheme is part of a wider planned assault on the UK left.   by Kit Klarenberg and Max Blumenthal Part 5 - Consulting Nina Jankowicz on paranoid scheme against Consortium News On April 8, Mason emailed Khan to express alarm about a piece in Consortium News , the independent news platform founded by the late Robert Parry in 1995, questioning the Western narrative of the Bucha massacre. “ Who’s behind Consortium News? ”, the subject header read. Assistance soon arrived from none other than Andy Pryce from the Counter Disinformation and Media Development unit at the UK Foreign Office. To learn more about Consortium News , Pryce had consulted Nina Jankowicz, then the chief of the Department of Homeland Security’s newly inaugurated Disinformation Governance Board. (Jankowicz would resign her post in disgrace jus

by Caitlin Johnstone  Genocide walrus John Bolton outright admitted to planning foreign coups with the US government in conversation with CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday. That's coups, plural. While arguing that the Capitol riot on January 6th of last year was not an attempted coup but rather just Trump stumbling around trying to look after his own interests, Bolton hastened to pull authority on the matter when Tapper suggested that he might not be correct about how coups work. “ I disagree with that, " Bolton said. " As somebody who has helped plan coups d’etat — not here, but, you know, other places — it takes a lot of work, and that’s not what [Trump] did. ” Places. Plural. Tapper just let Bolton's remark slide like he didn't just admit to something extraordinarily fiendish, but did eventually follow up with a request that the former National Security Advisor elaborate. “ I do want to ask a follow up, " Tapper said. " When we were talking about wha