the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Democracy Now!   Journalist Lynzy Billing's investigation for ProPublica details how CIA-backed death squads, known as Zero Units, have yet to be held accountable for killing hundreds of civilians during the U.S. War in Afghanistan.    The Afghan units, which were routinely accompanied by U.S. soldiers, became feared throughout rural Afghanistan for their brutal night raids, often descending upon villagers from helicopters and carrying out summary executions before disappearing.    Families of victims continue to demand answers, but since the operations were directed by the CIA rather than the military, there is almost no oversight or disclosure when things go wrong. “ Many people I spoke to feel that these operations … were counterproductive and actually had turned their families against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and against the U.S., ” says Billing. 

The Jimmy Dore Show  During the Trump presidency, as the bogus Russiagate accusations swirled, internal investigations were taking place behind the scenes, many of which produced a paper trail. Yet many of those documents remain under lock and key, restricted from public view by powerful individuals at various government agencies. But the results of many of those investigations may soon be made public, says former Trump administration official Kash Patel, and with them the prospects for a full accounting of how the massive Russiagate conspiracy theory was conjured up. Aaron Maté and Patel discuss the ways Gina Haspel, Rod Rosenstein and other Deep State figures maneuvered to keep the truth about Russiagate hidden.

The Grayzone   The Grayzone 's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate cover new Twitter leaks demonstrating a coordinated campaign between US intelligence, Democratic Party elites, and their corporate media lackeys to sell the public on the lie that Russian bots had infiltrated social media to influence the results of the 2016 election. 

Western sanctions led Russia to greatly increase trade with Asia, while devastating Europe’s economy. The US tech war against China is damaging its own industry.   by Renate Bridenthal  Part 1 Economic coercion, through the imposition of sanctions, is an act of war. Many of these sanctions have caused hardship, especially for the civilian populations of targeted countries. But just as a rifle recoils on the shooter’s shoulder, potentially causing injury, so too can sanctions backfire on the user. That is the title of a new book, “Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests.” This is not to say that sanctions don’t cause suffering, but they have a mere 13% success rate in altering a targeted state’s behavior in the way desired. The failure of sanctions has long been recognized, although that seems not to have dampened U.S. persistence in adding ever more of them. The blowback effect has begun, and more is predictably on the horizon. This present analysis will focus

by Kit Klarenberg    Part 4 - The Devil turns around Due to a highly successful mainstream media campaign over many years to demonize the government of Venezuela, and by extension its people, it is likely some American citizens will be entirely unsympathetic to Caracas’ plight, and approve of efforts to prevent the state bypassing sanctions. However, the ease with which Anomaly 6’s tools of mass surveillance could be domestically deployed, and the likelihood they already have, should give them pause. As I revealed in my initial report, Anomaly 6 can identify U.S. smartphone users by name, address and travel history. Another leaked sales presentation details how by linking a single anonymous individual’s smartphone signal recorded in North Korea to a network of hotels, schools, and other sites, the company determined with pinpoint accuracy their identity, marital status, where they worked and lived, the names of their children and the schools and universities at which they study, and m

At least 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the coup in Peru, backing President Pedro Castillo. The unelected regime, which has killed dozens of protesters, has the staunch support of the US and the region’s right wing.   by Ben Norton  Part 4 - 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean condemn Peru’s US-backed coup regime Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia published a joint statement supporting President Castillo, who they recognized was democratically elected by the people of Peru. “ For the world, it is not news that President Castillo Terrones, since the day of his election, was victim of anti-democratic harassment, ” they wrote. The government of Mexico’s left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) even announced a formal “pause” in its diplomatic relations with Peru’s unelected regime. Colombia’s President Petro denounced the ouster of Castillo as a “ parliamentary coup. ” He added that the putsch is a warning for all elected lef

Advancing global de-dollarization, China’s central bank is boosting its gold reserves while signing currency swap deals in yuan with countries like Argentina, encouraging the use of renminbi instead of US dollars.   by Ben Norton  Part 1 China’s central bank has taken a series of steps to accelerate the global drive toward de-dollarization, challenging the hegemony of the greenback. The People’s Bank of China is increasing the share of gold in its foreign-exchange reserves, bucking the US dollar, which has for decades been dominant in international central bank holdings. This January, China also signed an agreement with Argentina’s central bank for a currency swap deal, in which Beijing will provide 130 billion Chinese yuan (roughly $19 billion USD) to help Buenos Aires stabilize its currency and economy. The South American nation said it is “ committed to deepen the use of the RMB [renminbi] in the Argentine market for bilateral exchange ”. (Renminbi is the official name for the Chine

acTVism Munich    

Democracy Now!   Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is condemning thousands of supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace Sunday in a scene reminiscent of the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Rioters smashed windows, ransacked offices and set fire to a carpet inside the Congress building before authorities made over 400 arrests.    Bolsonaro has never formally conceded the race to third-term President Lula and fled to Florida, where he has reportedly met with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago, while his supporters have blockaded highways and set up protest encampments outside military bases and in the capital Brasília to protest what they falsely claim was a rigged election.    Update from Brazilian newspaper columnist and professor Thiago Amparo in São Paulo and reporter Michael Fox, host of the “Brazil on Fire” podcast. 

Glenn Greenwald