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Slavoj Žižek: Democratic Left, not liberal establishment, can defeat Trump

Part 2 - Different views Let us begin by comparing what Trump uttered with what his partners said. When Trump and May were asked by a journalist what they think about the flow of immigrants to Europe, Trump brutally and honestly rendered his populist anti-immigrant position: immigrants are a threat to the European way of life; they are destabilizing the safety of our countries and bringing violence and intolerance. So, we should keep them out. A careful listener could easily notice that Theresa May said exactly the same thing, just in a more diplomatic and "civilized" way: immigrants bring diversity, they contribute to our welfare, but we should carefully check whom we let in. Thus, we received a clear taste of the choice which is more and more the only one presented to us: direct populist barbarism or a more civilized version of the same politics, barbarism with a human face. Generally, the reactions to Trump from all across the spectrum, including Republicans

WikiLeaks paper shows France & UK pioneers behind Libya breakup

On March 16, 2016 WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for over 30 thousand emails & email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents span from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the US State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. More PDFs were made available on February 29, 2016, and a set of additional 995 emails was imported up to February 2, 2018. globinfo freexchange A letter from Clintons' top advisor Sidney Blumenthal to Hillary Clinton in early March, 2012, reveals that two of the Western neocolonial powers, France and UK, were trying to breakup Libya in order to secure a privileged place upon the Libyan corpse for their big companies. It appears that both Sarkozy and Cameron, as well as their intelligence s

White Helmets coming ‘home’: West & Israel provide ‘exceptional’ rescue strategy for NATO's ghosts

History appears to repeat itself as Israel conducts an “exceptional” rescue of extremist militants and their White Helmet “mannequins” from southern Syria – at the urgent request of NATO member states. The military alliance’s member states just conducted a novel version of Operation Paperclip in Southern Syria but, instead of resettling Nazi war criminals to develop a weapon’s program in the US, they will resettle Al Qaeda militants and their auxiliaries. Indeed, the latter’s role has been to corroborate alleged tales of chemical weapons use by Syria – to justify the intervention of the US coalition, both by proxy and directly, against a sovereign nation. Post World War II, the US imported Nazi scientists to prevent them falling into the hands of Soviet forces. Decades later America and its allies are extricating their client extremists, who are operating undercover in Syria, from the threat of discovery by approaching Syrian and Russian forces. Israel,

US to sanction Turkey unless American pastor freed

US Vice President Mike Pence has threatened NATO ally Turkey with economic sanctions over a detained American pastor held on terror and espionage charges, AP reported. If Ankara does not take immediate action to free Andrew Craig Brunson, the US “ will impose severe economic sanctions on Turkey, ” Pence said in Washington on Thursday at the end of a three-day conference on religious freedom. Brunson, 50, an evangelical Christian pastor originally from North Carolina, was let out of jail Wednesday, after 1 1/2 years, to serve house arrest, according to Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency. President Donald Trump said on Twitter last week that the pastor’s detention was “ a total disgrace. ” https://www.rt.com/newsline/434349-us-pastor-turkey-pence/

BRICS countries the engine that powers global economic growth

Unilateralism, coming particularly from the US, brings the “ great growth nations ” of BRICS closer and helps them strengthen ties, the CEO of global internet and media group Naspers, Bob van Dijk, told RT. The BRICS group unites the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The countries represent more than 40 percent of the world’s population. “ Most of the growth in the world comes from these markets… I think, together they can achieve so much, ” van Dijk told RT in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, echoing the words of Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to the businessman, 90 percent of the company’s revenues come from BRICS countries. “ We are really a BRICS’ online company, ” he said, explaining that all of the five nations are very important for the business. “ We look for growth opportunities. So, what we find tremendously exciting about BRICS markets is… that economic growth in the wo

Twitter under fire on European Commission hypocrisy to 'stand with the Greek people'

globinfo freexchange One of the Troika members that destroyed the Greek economy by imposing a devastating IMF-type neoliberal program to save the banks, hypocritically sent its solidarity to Greece via Twitter for the unimaginable tragedy caused by the recent wildfires. Immediately, Twitter flooded by responses of anger for the unspeakable hypocrisy. Take a small taste of the responses by angry Greeks and Europeans: Increasing EU funding to Greece will be much more efficient than just "standing" with Greece !!! — Dr. Ghazi Ben Ahmed (@Gbaghazi) July 25, 2018 See this question regarding your possible responsibilty https://t.co/xqbQP4PVF7 and this tweet https://t.co/zq7FRg0lGD by @ronanburtenshaw "The EU’s austerity package forced #Greece to cut €34 million from its #fire service in its latest budget" — Anand (@Anandstweets) July 25, 2018 Mais quelle hypocrisie ! — Jean-Baptiste Dumont (@jeanbap) July 25, 2018

Argentina's economy contracts by 5.8% amid austerity

The decrease in economic activity in Argentina is recorded as the country applies IMF-sponsored austerity policies. Argentina’s Statistics and Census agency, the Indec, announced Tuesday that economic activity contracted by 5.8 percent this May in comparison to the same month last year. The report published by Indec also revealed economic activity decreased by 1.4 percent in comparison to April. Reuters had projected an interannual contraction of 1.8 percent for May, and economic contraction is expected to deepen. Marco Peña, President Mauricio Macri’s chief of staff, said Tuesday “ the next months will me more recessive, cold and stormy. ” According to analysts the contraction is due primarily to the drought that affected the country’s agricultural sector, which has an economic contraction of 35.2 percent, fishing with a drop of 29.2 percent and transport and communications with 4.9 percent contraction. However another important source of

Οργή στο Twitter για τα «κροκοδείλια δάκρυα» της ΕΕ που διέλυσε τον κρατικό μηχανισμό

Εκατοντάδες επικριτικά σχόλια δέχεται από το πρωί ο λογαριασμός της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής, που εξέφρασε τα συλλυπητήρια της Κομισιόν για την τραγωδία στην Ελλάδα. Χρήστες από την Ελλάδα και το εξωτερικό απαντούν ότι η ΕΕ φέρει τεράστια ευθύνη για τα μέτρα λιτότητας που είχαν καταστροφικά αποτελέσματα στην ικανότητα του κρατικού μηχανισμού της Ελλάδας να αντεπεξέλθει σε μια τόσο μεγάλη καταστροφή. Δεκάδες μηνύματα κάνουν λόγο για την ανάγκη άμεσης ελάφρυνσης του χρέους και παροχής οικονομικής βοήθειας στην Ελλάδα ενώ δεν λείπουν και αυτοί που χαρακτηρίζουν την ευρωπαϊκή πολιτική απέναντι στη χώρα μας σαν έγκλημα κατά της ανθρωπότητας. Λίγες ώρες νωρίτερα με προκλητική ανάρτησή της στο Twitter η πρεσβεία της Ολλανδίας είχε αναφέρει ότι « Η Ρωσία δεν σας διέσωσε τρεις φορές (όπως εμείς) ». Με τον τρόπο αυτό απαντούσε σε σχόλιο Έλληνα χρήστη από τη Νέα Υόρκη που υποστήριζε ότι σε αντίθεση με την πρόταση της Ρωσίας να προσφέρει στην Ελλάδα μέσα πυρόσβεσης, η ΕΕ

Ecuador embraces neoliberal reform and US interests

Part 5 - Who Wins? Capital, whether national or transnational, stands to win. Ecuador’s economic elites, who have mostly been satisfied with importing goods will win if an FTA is signed with the U.S. because they will avoid paying import taxes. Investors who will pay no income tax will win. Many more will lose. Pence’s announcement that “ the U.S. will also work with Ecuador to confront the menace of drug trafficking and criminal organizations ” is no good news for the people who live in Ecuador’s northern border. If U.S. cooperation with Colombia and Mexico are any indication, then these areas will likely see an increase in state and non-state violence. Furthermore, as the state’s budget shrinks, Ecuadoreans will lose access to free public education and health. Many have already lost access to social programs like the human development bonus, and the Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion has reported a cutback of US$10 million in their budg

IMF mafia ready to repeat the big crime in Argentina

globinfo freexchange Michael Hudson spoke with Sharmini Peries of the Real News , about the IMF returning to the crime scene called Argentina. The criminal organization of the global neoliberal regime continues its devastating work around the world. Its mission (as always) is to secure the interests of the global financial mafia and the local oligarchies, by destroying entire national economies and lives of the ordinary people. As Hudson pointed out: The neoliberal policy has its aim rolling back any of the wage increases in employment that Mrs. Kirschner, the former president, implied, as part of the class war. So, in order to shrink the economy, you have to basically cut back business, cut back employment. And so, the purpose of the IMF loan was to enable the wealthy Argentinians, the oligarchy that’s run the country for a century, to get all its money out and run. Like almost all IMF loans, the purpose is to subsidize capital flight o