the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

I wrote this for the Guardian in 2014 when the coup junta in Kiev declared war on its Russian-speaking population in the Donbass. https://t.co/0i6LzgCD1v — John Pilger (@johnpilger) September 24, 2022

The Grayzone   Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and ex-Marines intelligence officer, addresses reports that now-former UK PM Boris Johnson pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reject peace talks with Russia this April, and explains how the war will devastate European economies as it drags on.  

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 Jimmy Dore Show   Joe Biden never talks about Julian Assange, not that the American press ever bother to ask. Quite the opposite from Biden is Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who has been a forceful and outspoken voice demanding that Assange be freed. In other ways as well, AMLO has taken a more oppositional stance toward Mexico’s neighbor to the north than any other Mexican president in recent memory. 

by Jonathan Cook   Part 2 - Wall-to-wall eulogies   There are reasons a critical gaze is needed right now, as the British public is corralled into reverential mourning. The wall-to-wall eulogies are intended to fill our nostrils with the perfume of nostalgia to cover the stench of a rotting institution, one at the heart of the very establishment doing the eulogising. The demand is that everyone shows respect for the Queen and her family and that now is not the time for criticism or even analysis. Indeed, the Royal Family have every right to be left in peace to grieve. But privacy is not what they, or the establishment they belong to, crave. The Royals’ loss is public in every sense. There will be a lavish state funeral, paid for by the taxpayer. There will be an equally lavish coronation of her son, Charles, also paid for by the taxpayer. And in the meantime, the British public will be force-fed the same official messages by every TV channel – not neutrally, impartially or objectively,

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a “destabilising factor” for the country and citizens cannot stand his “authoritarian” attitude, senior socialist lawmaker Michalis Katrinis told EURACTIV after it was unveiled that the secret services bugged the phone of Greek socialist opposition leader and MEP Nikos Androulakis.   by Sarantis Michalopoulos   Part 3 - The next day ‘does not include’ Mitsotakis   Opposition parties have asked Mitsotakis to resign and call snap elections, but the conservative leader insists that he will complete his term. The next general elections are due in 2023, and the new electoral law suggests that a coalition government will be needed, a practice almost unknown to Greek politicians who are used to single-party governments. Potential scenarios are circulating in Athens, and Greek socialists will play a kingmaker role between the ruling New Democracy and the main opposition Syriza party (EU Left). However, they have not revealed their cards yet. Asked if

DiEM25   Winter Is Coming…and Europe is facing a full-blown energy crisis. Power companies are hiking the price of electricity, making a tough winter even worse. And this time, it’s not just the poorest who are affected. The middle class is also feeling the squeeze. How much of this is due to how our politicians have set up Europe’s energy market, and how much to corporate greed? What other factors are at play? And how can we get out of this mess?  

What a disgrace, @BBC . Monarchy in Greece was abolished in 1974. This clown is nobody's crown prince. We are not a British colony either. pic.twitter.com/axdo2LtXfq — Nikos Papadojannis (@N_Papadojannis) September 18, 2022

globinfo freexchange   Speaking at the Greek radio broadcaster Real FM 107,1, the Greek economist, Yanis Varoufakis, revealed the real reason behind the outrageously high natural gas prices, which can't be justified only by the war in Ukraine and Putin's actions to cut supplies to Europe.    As he pointed out, the biggest part of the rise of natural gas prices is due to the stock market games. Prices should rise by 80% at most, not 800%. The rest of this hyper-profit is because big companies have already bought quantities of natural gas for the next two years. So, they don't sell it now in order to boost its price and sell it later at much higher price.    Yet, the worst part of the story is that these financial games often create bubbles - similar to the Lehman Brothers bubble in 2008 that led to the Wall Street collapse - so we are now to the point where the German government is forced to subsidize big companies with billions, exactly because they play these risky financ

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 5 - Identity politics   Accusations such as antisemitism are now a common weapon in the arsenal of the establishment. The right wing has learnt that identity politics is the soft underbelly of much of the left, and that – in the face of no resistance – political attacks can easily be hidden under the cloak of personal perceptions, “legitimate concerns” and “lived experience”. Due to the subjectivist nature of such politics, any individual or self-proclaimed representative of the oppressed can end up making whatever accusations they like, often dressed up in inflammatory and moralistic language. And woe betide those who dare to challenge this, or who seek to bring out the political nature of such attacks. This

The Grayzone   Veteran antiwar activists Medea Benjamin and Tighe Berry speak to Max Blumenthal about Code Pink's new campaign for negotiations between the US and Russia over Ukraine and a halt to billions in military aid. Benjamin and Berry discuss the chilly reception their advocacy received from even some progressive Democratic members of Congress and critique "America First" Republicans that claim to oppose the Ukraine proxy war. Benjamin and Berry also discuss the state of the US antiwar movement and the arbitrary post-1/6 restrictions which prevent the public from entering the US Capitol building to lobby members of Congress.

Multipolarista   In his 1956 book "The Power Elite," New Left sociologist C. Wright Mills detailed how decision-making in the United States is not democratic; it is determined by (1) Wall Street capitalists and large corporations, (2) the Pentagon and military-industrial complex, and (3) the corrupt political class.

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

Multipolarista   Economist Michael Hudson responds to French President Macron announcing the "end of abundance," explaining how wealthy capitalist oligarchs are profiting while Europe destroys its own economy on behalf of NATO.      Related:   US imperialists sacrifice their European branch on the altar of their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine

by Jonathan Cook   Part 1   Anyone in the UK who imagined they lived in a representative democracy – one in which leaders are elected and accountable to the people – will be in for a rude awakening over the next days and weeks. TV schedules have been swept aside. Presenters must wear black and talk in hushed tones. Front pages are uniformly somber. Britain’s media speak with a single, respectful voice about the Queen and her unimpeachable legacy. Westminster, meanwhile, has been stripped of left and right. The Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties have set aside politics to grieve as one. Even the Scottish nationalists – supposedly trying to rid themselves of the yoke of centuries of English rule presided over by the monarch – appear to be in effusive mourning.  The world’s urgent problems – from the war in Europe to a looming climate catastrophe – are no longer of interest or relevance. They can wait till Britons emerge from a more pressing national trauma. Domestically, t

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a “destabilising factor” for the country and citizens cannot stand his “authoritarian” attitude, senior socialist lawmaker Michalis Katrinis told EURACTIV after it was unveiled that the secret services bugged the phone of Greek socialist opposition leader and MEP Nikos Androulakis.   by Sarantis Michalopoulos   Part 2 - ‘Protecting’ the company which bought Predator   In July, the European Parliament services also found that there was an attempt to bug Androulakis’ phone with the illegal Predator spyware. A couple of months earlier, it was revealed that journalist Thanasis Koukakis was targeted by Predator, another nail in the coffin of the country’s dismal media freedom record under Mitsotakis. For Katrinis, the government is “protecting” the company that purchased the illegal surveillance spyware. “ A month after the scandal was revealed, no search has been made at the offices of the company that trades Predator, ” Katrinis said, adding tha

#Greece 🇬🇷: RSF denounces as scandalous the exclusion of the journalists subjected to spying, @nasoskook & @Malichudis , from the Greek parliamentary inquiry into surveillance & #PredatorGate launched recently. The Parliament must audition the victims & make all hearings public. pic.twitter.com/O9BRAGVxXn — RSF (@RSF_inter) September 9, 2022

A lawmaker in Greece's main opposition party filed a complaint with the top court's prosecutor on Friday over what he said were repeated attempts to infect his mobile phone with the Predator malware, the latest incident in a phonetapping scandal. Last month, Greek lawmakers voted in favour of setting up an inquiry commission to probe the phone tapping of a political opposition leader that led Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to sack the head of the country's intelligence service (EYP).   The scandal over the wiretapping of Nikos Androulakis, leader of the socialist PASOK party, Greece's third-largest political party, has turned up the heat on the conservative premier who brought EYP under his control after taking office three years ago. On Friday, Christos Spirtzis, a former minister and close associate of SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras, said that last November two attempts to hack his phone were made via suspicious text messages prompting him to click on links. 

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 4 - Smears and slanders   In truth, the response to the right wing’s shenanigans should have come years ago. The original leaked report came out as the Corbyn leadership was leaving the building – but this was too little, too late. Even when they were in the driving seat, however, the left leaders failed to advance the struggle against the right in the party in any meaningful way. Indeed, they even hindered efforts by rank-and-file activists to do so. Attempts by grassroots members to introduce mandatory reselection, for example, were thwarted by the leader’s office. At the same time, the left leaders pursued a policy of appeasement and conciliation, hoping to placate and pacify the right wing. In doing so, th

failed evolution UK ruined the opportunity to elect one of the best PMs that would really work for the people: Jeremy Corbyn. Instead, the country got now one of the worst PMs ever: Liz Truss.

The Jimmy Dore Show  Did you know that back in April, just a couple of months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two warring sides had come to a tentative agreement to halt hostilities with Russian troops returning to the Donbass and Ukraine agreeing to remain neutral and not join NATO? Except that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson jetted into Kyiv to persuade Zelensky’s government to scuttle the deal, which is precisely what it did. And now that Russia has seized even more Ukrainian territory, that deal is off the table.

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals   Attacks launched from populated civilian areas       Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians    Part 5 - Indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces   Many of the Russian strikes that Amnesty International documented in recent months were carried out with inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally banned cluster munitions, or with other explosive weapons with wide area effects. Others used guided weapons with varying levels of accuracy; in some cases, the weapons were precise enough to target specific objects. The Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks. All parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and take all feasible precautions, including in choice of wea

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 Real News Network   Throughout the Ukraine war, Western news outlets have mindlessly parroted the opinions of a ruling elite and overseen a public discourse that is often unhinged from the real world.   Patrick Lawrence was a correspondent and columnist for nearly 30 years for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune and The New Yorker . He is the author of Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World and Time No Longer: America After the American Century . 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a “destabilising factor” for the country and citizens cannot stand his “authoritarian” attitude, senior socialist lawmaker Michalis Katrinis told EURACTIV after it was unveiled that the secret services bugged the phone of Greek socialist opposition leader and MEP Nikos Androulakis.   by Sarantis Michalopoulos   Part 1   The Greek “Watergate” as described by international media caused a political earthquake in the Mediterranean country, sparking resignations from the prime minister’s secretary general and nephew, Grigoris Dimitriadis and secret services chief Panagiotis Kontoleon. “ Also, the resignation of the PM’s nephew and closest associate raises many questions since it was not done for reasons of avoiding the toxic atmosphere, as was initially said. The sacrifice of Mr. Dimitriadis probably hides a lot and remains to be investigated, ” Katrinis noted. Mitsotakis, however, is hanging on for dear life. “ Mitsotakis is now a destabilising f

Multipolarista   A discussion of US universities and academics and how they fail to grapple with imperialism and state criminality. 

theAnalysis-news   “ It’s beyond lunacy, ” say Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg. In their 90s, the two men tirelessly fight to warn people of the need for urgent action to deal with climate change and the threat of nuclear war. Joining Paul Jay, they discuss the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the war in Ukraine, and the climate crisis.

Gorbachev died. His legacy? Russia's GDP dropped by 40%. Real wages halved. Poverty ballooned from 2.2 million in 1987-88 to 66 million in 1993-95. Millions died under the brutal regime of privatization and shock therapy. Half a million women were trafficked into sexual slavery. pic.twitter.com/2GSvSqFlQ2 — Paweł Wargan (@pawelwargan) August 30, 2022

The long-delayed Forde report was finally released earlier this week. Commissioned by the Labour Party as an independent inquiry into the findings of the 2020 leaked report (aka ‘LabourLeaks’), Forde confirms what many on the left have known all along.   by Socialist Appeal  Part 3 - Factionalism   Inevitably, however, the Forde report itself is also a stitch-up. It attempts to declare a plague on both houses, implying that the left wing of the party was equally responsible for “factionalism” as the right. Yet all of the attacks described are those of the right’s against the left! The report claims that right-wing staffers and MPs did not “intentionally” seek to torpedo the party’s chances in the 2017 general election. Yet, it confirms that they did secretly divert funds away from winnable seats, and that the factional chaos they created injured Labour’s campaign. At times, the report even downplays or cushions the vile nature of the Blairite backstabbers’ behaviour. This is an effort

The Grayzone   Aaron Mate joins Max Blumenthal to discuss backlash caused by US Secretary of State Tony Blinken's trip to Africa, the Biden administration's threats against African nations for their diplomatic relations with Russia, and the history of US meddling on the continent. 

Multipolarista   France’s President Emmanuel Macron, a former banker, warned " we are living the end of what could have seemed an era of abundance. " Western wars and sanctions are boomeranging back at home. The neoliberal phase of capitalism is collapsing. Neoliberalism has lost the key pillars it was built on: cheap energy and raw materials from Russia, cheap labor and consumer goods from China, an unsustainable bubble of household debt, low to zero interest rates, and Washington's ability to organize regime-change operations in any country where a government tried a socialistic or state-led economic model.

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals   Attacks launched from populated civilian areas       Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians    Part 4 - Military bases in schools   The Ukrainian military has routinely set up bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv area. Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict  began, but in most cases the buildings were located close to populated civilian neighbourhoods At 22 out of 29 schools visited, Amnesty International researchers either found soldiers using the premises or found evidence of current or prior military activity – including the presence of military fatigues, discarded munitions, army ration packets and military vehicles. Russian forces struck many of the schools used by Ukrainian forces. In at least three towns, after Russian bombardment of the schools, Ukrainian soldiers m

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

failed evolution   Και απ'ότι φαίνεται, μάλλον θα φύγει νύχτα. Δεν υπάρχει προηγούμενο στα παγκόσμια χρονικά, προέδρου ή πρωθυπουργού να μην έχει παραιτηθεί μετά από τέτοιου μεγέθους σκάνδαλο, όπως αυτό των υποκλοπών του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη.   Και αυτή η πρωτοφανής δημοκρατική εκτροπή, επιβεβαίωσε με τον πιο εμφατικό τρόπο το γεγονός ότι έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα καθεστώς.   Μια από τις πιο αυταρχικές και αλαζονικές φιγούρες στο ρόλο του πρωθυπουργού της χώρας, προσπάθησε να δικαιολογήσει τα αδικαιολόγητα με ψέματα και φθηνά κόλπα. Συμπεριφέρθηκε χειρότερα και από 10χρονο παιδάκι που προσπαθεί με μπαγαποντιές να βρεθεί σε πλεονεκτική θέση και να αποφύγει την τιμωρία.   Δεν υπάρχει επίσης προηγούμενο, στελέχη της παράταξής του καθεστώτος να χειροκροτούν όρθια έναν τέτοιο θλιβερό αρχηγό, μετά από τέτοιο ρεκόρ ψεμάτων μέσα στη βουλή, το οποίο επιβεβαιώθηκε από μια σειρά απανωτών διαψεύσεων.  Τα στελέχη του κόμματος της δεξιάς υπέγραψαν την πολιτική τους καταδίκη, αφού αποδέχθηκαν

In Liberalism and Its Discontents, Francis Fukuyama diagnoses the political and psychological malaise caused by capitalism. His analysis makes one thing clear: liberalism is incapable of addressing the social, economic, and ecological crises it faces.    by Samuel McIlhagga  Part 5 - But What Is Classical Liberalism?   Fukuyama admits that what he calls classical liberalism has historically specific connotations, yet still decides to use it to attempt to describe an ideal liberalism untainted by recent transformations. This is an odd position for a Hegelian to take. The German philosopher famously insisted that the specific form that society took should not be understood as an aberration or deviation from an ideal; ideals that could not be actualized were instead untimely. As Hegel states in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), “ What is rational is actual; and what is actual is rational. ” Absent in the theories of contemporary defenders of liberalism is Hegel’s cold but cl