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'Establishment Pick' Tom Perez elected DNC chair

Perez supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership and believes the 2016 Democratic Primary was not rigged against Sen. Bernie Sanders Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez was elected as the chair of the Democratic National Committee, DNC, on Saturday, defeating Rep. Keith Ellison. Perez, who began working for former U.S. President Barack Obama's administration in 2013, defeated Ellison 235 to 200 votes on a second ballot. “ With hard work and a hell of a lot of organizing, we will turn this party around, ” Perez said on Saturday, the Washington Post reports. Immediately after Perez won, nine Ellison supporters chanted “ power of the people, not big money, ” marching out of the room, the Washington Post also reports. The son of Dominican immigrants is seen by many as an establishment pick. Receiving support from former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Perez supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP, and believes the 2016 Democratic Primary was no

Foreign-funded NGOs in Ecuador: Trojan Horse for intervention?

Ecuador has come under fire for scrutinizing non-profits like Accion Ecologica, many of whom get millions from Europe and North America. Part 7 - Case Closed? When Accion Ecologica testified before the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of the Environment, it argued that it had been doing the same work — protecting the rainforest — for decades, always in a peaceful manner. The evidence presented showing they provoked violence through a series of tweets in and around the time of violent clashes was “ a bit absurd, very absurd, ” said Almeida. In the end, the government’s case did not hold, and the Environment Ministry concluded there was not enough credible evidence to shut down the group. Accion Ecologica credited "pressure" from its supporters, as its representatives continue to urge for a deregulation of NGOs. “ It’s not only NGOs, but also any organization that will be at risk, especially their right to free expression and the right to free

Varoufakis describes how Merkel sacrificed Greece to save the Franco-German banks

A short story of how an entire nation was sacrificed to save the banksters globinfo freexchange Former Greek Minister of Finance with Tsipras Administration, Yanis Varoufakis, gave another interesting interview on Greek TV recently, revealing further interesting details about the Greek situation and the European situation after the eruption of the 2007-08 major financial crisis, Brexit, refugee issue and the rise of Far Right in Europe. In a small part of the interview, Varoufakis told the short story of how the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, sacrificed an entire nation (Greece), in order to rescue the German and the French bankers. This explains also why the French president, François Hollande, was only pretending that he was on the side of Greece, while in reality he was hiding behind Merkel and did nothing to protect the country from the orchestrated destruction imposed by IMF, ECB and the European Commission. As he said: The reason for th

Ένα μικρό δείγμα της απόλυτης σύγχυσης της μετριοπαθούς Αριστεράς

globinfo freexchange Το πάνελ της εκπομπής Παρεμβάσεις , στις 22 Φεβρουαρίου, περιλάμβανε μεταξύ άλλων και τον Θόδωρο Μαργαρίτη, Μέλος Κ.Σ. της Δημοκρατικής Συμπαράταξης. Οι τοποθετήσεις του σε κάποιο σημείο της εκπομπής έχουν ενδιαφέρον, γιατί δείχνουν το βαθμό της ιδεολογικής (και όχι μόνο) σύγχυσης της μετριοπαθούς Αριστεράς, κυρίως λόγω του γεγονότος ότι το ιδεολογικό DNA της έχει εμποτιστεί σε βάθος με τα νεοφιλελεύθερα αφηγήματα και επομένως έχει μεταλλαχθεί πλήρως, όπως έγινε με τους Σοσιαλδημοκράτες εδώ και μερικές δεκαετίες. Αναφερόμενος στην αξιωματική αντιπολίτευση, ο Μαργαρίτης έκανε μια σωστή διαπίστωση σχετικά με το τι ακριβώς πρεσβεύει σήμερα:        Η ΝΔ όντας οργανικό κομμάτι του Ευρωπαϊκού Λαϊκού Κόμματος (ΕΛΚ), ανεξάρτητα των προθέσεών της, είναι δεσμευμένη ιδεολογικά και πολιτικά στο δόγμα της λιτότητας που είναι η βασική φιλοσοφία του νεοφιλελευθερισμού, του ΕΛΚ και της Μέρκελ.      Δυστυχώς, η ΝΔ βρίσκεται σε μια πολιτική οικογένεια πο

Former IMF chief and dozens of former bank execs just got sentenced to jail

But will they actually warm a bench in a Spanish prison? The unimaginable just happened in Spain: two former bank CEOs, Miguel Blesa (CEO of Caja Madrid) and Rodrigo Rato (CEO of Bankia) were just awarded prison sentences of six years and four-and-a-half years, respectively, for misappropriation of company funds. Rato was also Managing Director of the IMF from 2003 to 2007. He was succeeded by another luminary, Dominique Strauss Kahn. Now, the question on everyone’s mind is will Blesa and Rato actually serve the sentence (more on that later). Dozens more former Caja Madrid senior executives, most of whom are closely connected to either, or both, of the country’s two main political parties and/or unions also face three to six years in prison. They were found guilty by Spain’s National High Court of misusing company credit cards. Those cards drained money directly from the scarce funds of Caja Madrid, which at the height of Spain’s banking crisis was m

Iraqi forces free Mosul airport from ISIS militants

Iraq Iraqi security forces on Thursday retook control of Mosul international airport after heavy clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a security source said. Federal police and elite interior ministry units, known as Rapid Response, have completely liberated the airport in southern Mosul after several hours of fierce clashes with the IS militants, Lt. Gen. Raid Shakir Jawdat, the commander of the federal police forces, told Xinhua. The troops also freed the adjacent compound of a sugar plant and its residential buildings, Jawdat said. The battles in the perimeter and airport left 30 IS militants killed and dozens of others wounded, in addition to arresting 20 militants, including non-Iraqi Arabs and foreigners, Jawdat said. The airport facilities and runway were badly damaged, as the extremist militants bombed all the buildings before they withdrew, he added. Meanwhile, the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) special forces seized part of

ISIS announces withdrawing from Syria's al-Bab

Syria The Islamic State (IS) group announced its withdrawal from the city of al-Bab, which has been taken by the Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels on Thursday, according to pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV. The withdrawal of the IS from al-Bab, its largest stronghold in northern Syria near the Turkish borders, came after 100 days of battles against the Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels fighting in an operation called the Euphrates Shield. The IS claimed it had killed 400 Turkish soldiers and rebel fighters. For the Turks, capturing the northern part of the city cuts the way in the face of the growing Kurdish influence in northern Syria, a red line drawn by Turkey. The Syrian army succeeded recently to besiege al-Bab from its southern edge, a move to prevent IS fighters to withdraw toward other stronghold in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, or the northern city of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror-designated group. Observe

China sees biggest overseas returning wave in recent years

At the National Science and Technology Awards Conference held in Beijing on January, 2017, Ren Xiaobin and his team won the second prize in the 2016 National Natural Science Award. " It is the best time to do scientific research in China, " said Ren. " China has a larger stage which provides more chances and room for growth. We can expand our ability and achieve greater value of life. " No one would expect Ren to achieve so much from nothing in only nine years. As one of the second batch of experts enlisted in the national "Recruitment Program of Global Experts", or Thousand Talents Program, he returned from Japan to establish the Frontier Institute of Science and Technology in Xi'an Jiaotong University and lead a group of young people to conduct research on intelligent material. Ren is just one of the many outstanding examples of many overseas returnees. Since the program was introduced in 2008, more than 40,000 high-lev

US drug overdose deaths doubled since 1999

New figures by the US government show the rate of fatal drug overdoses in the United States more than doubled since 1999, as authorities in several parts of the country grapple with America’s continuing opioid epidemic. Rates of fatal drug overdoses have dramatically increased since 1999, rising from 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people to 16.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday. Opioids killed more than 33,000 Americans in 2015, more than any year on record, the CDC said, which estimates that 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. That number is higher than the rate of death for suicides in the US, 13.4 deaths per 100,000, or the rate of death from car accidents, 11.1 deaths per 100,000 residents. The CDC report also shows that the number of deadly heroin overdoses in the United States more than quadrupled from 2010 to 2015. But the increase was not all due to opioids, the percent of

Turkey shifting to open prisons amid jail overcrowding

Turkey says prisoners serving lighter sentences would be transferred to open prisons amid reports of jail overcrowding since Ankara began its crackdown in the wake of the failed coup of July 2016. Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday that “ there is some overcrowding due to the fight against terror, ” adding that major crimes such as terrorism, organized crime or child abuse, would be excluded from the reassignment policy. He said the prisoners would not be granted amnesty, and the length of the jail sentence would not change. On February 22, the Turkish Ministry of Justice revised its regulation, allowing for convicts with sentences shorter than 10 years who achieve at least one month of good behavior to be reassigned to more comfortable open prisons. Ankara has so far arrested over 41,000 people and sacked more than 100,000 others, including military personnel, judges, and teachers, over suspected links to US-based cleric Fethullah