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Showing posts with the label COVID-19

Greece: signs of a rigged election as the country officially enters a dark post-democracy

by system failure   The last four years with Kyriakos Mitsotakis in charge of Greece could be easily characterized as one of the worst periods in country's history since the fall of military junta in 1974.    From the beginning of his term, Mitsotakis took full control of the National Intelligence Service and the Athens News Agency. This was a first strong sign that his administration was about to be transformed eventually into a regime that would defy fundamental democratic principles.    Shortly after, Mitsotakis started to put his own people in key positions in Greece's national television and radio broadcaster. In this way, he managed to control the entire landscape of Greece's mainstream media as the big private TV stations that belong to the local oligarchs, did everything to bring him in power and fully support him to this day. Mitsotakis and his cabinet had also become the only option for the Brussels-Berlin directorate of the EU, as well as for the US imperialist b

Mitsotakis regime now goes after prosecutors who were investigating big scandals!

globinfo freexchange   The decline of the judicial system in Greece continues under the corrupted Mitsotakis regime. The situation now resembles a third-world country.  We saw recently that the regime went after top investigative journalists who, were investigating big scandals and especially the Novartis scandal. Now, the regime turned against the top anti-corruption prosecutor who was investigating the scandal! Eleni Touloupaki has been called yesterday by the judicial authorities to testify as a defendant!   As has been mentioned : While Novartis agreed in 2020 to pay US$347 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commision over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, in which it acknowledged making illegal payments to Greek healthcare providers and officials, Greece itself did little to hold the Swiss pharmaceutical company and the recipients of the bribes to account. Instead, prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki who was

It's getting worse: Mitsotakis regime targets top investigative journalists in Greece

globinfo freexchange   In November of the previous year we watched Mitsotakis regime in Greece taking steps to suppress further press freedom in the country, through some proposed amendments to Article 191 of the Criminal Code. The International Press Institute then concluded that " Rather than improving the existing Article 191 of the Criminal Code, which is already problematic, the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis would take a major step backwards if this law were eventually passed and send a worrying signal about the administration’s commitment to media freedom. " It seems that the regime is using now these changes (introduced on the pretext of "dangerous" misinformation related to COVID-19 pandemic and other issues) to go after top investigative journalists, who, were investigating big corruption scandals. Recently, investigative journalist Gianna Papadakou, was targeted for exposing officials believed to have received bribes from the Swiss pha

August 12, 2020: The day capitalism officially died and replaced by something even worse

globinfo freexchange   It was the 12th of August, 2020. Nine o'clock in the morning, in London, the news came out that the national income of Britain (GDP) had fallen by more than 20% . That had never happened before in the history of capitalism - British GDP falling by 21% or so in one year. It was not anticipated. The markets were expecting a fall of 8,9,10%. No one was expecting a 21% fall. Fifteen or sixteen minutes later, the London stock exchange went up by 3% . There can be no explanation of that along the lines of capitalism.     This is how the Greek economist, Yanis Varoufakis, described essentially the official death of capitalism and its replacement by something even worse. The thing he calls "technofeudalism". While Varoufakis in various discussions struggles to explain why capitalism is already dead, it's rather funny that people still willing to debate on something that's already dead (capitalism) against something that's far from being practi

Greece: Mitsotakis regime dives deeper into authoritarianism

globinfo freexchange   In a moment where Mitsotakis regime in Greece blatantly fails to respond to all the big challenges, and particularly the COVID-19 pandemic - which is out of control with the national health system now beyond its limits - the rise of prices and the terrible shape of the Greek economy in general (National Debt exceeds now 200% of GDP), the regime decided to pass another authoritarian law.   As we wrote in May, any big scandals, or cases of extreme police violence are coming on surface thanks to the social media and the independent press affiliated to the opposition. That's because the big media of the Greek oligarchy support the regime tooth and nail through an unprecedented propaganda, while the regime also controls the national public broadcaster (ERT) as it has put its own people in key positions.    As they regime increasingly fails to deal with the big problems (and refuses to reinforce the national health system in the peak of the pandemic), it becomes m

As the Left wins big in Chile, neoliberalism is about to suffer another decisive blow

globinfo freexchange   Sepúlveda Allende, a grandson of Chile’s legendary socialist President Salvador Allende, spoke with Ben Norton about the historic May 15/16 elections in which left-wing and independent candidates won two-thirds of the seats for a convention to rewrite the constitution, which dates back to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.   Allende described the political situation in Chile after the fall of Pinochet's brutal regime. This is an interesting period because it  proves that what happened in the entire West, happened in Chile too.  As he pointed out: When the dictatorship ended, there was a kind of alliance made between the parties that historically had represented certain parts of the old left, like the Socialist Party of Allende. Another that was newly formed in that moment, which had not existed before the coup, called the Party for Democracy, which had (ex-President) Ricardo Lagos, and had a lot of power in that moment. There is also the C

"The prices are going up quickly": Bulgarian PM reveals huge scandal around the negotiations between EU and Pfizer for the price of the COVID-19 vaccine

globinfo freexchange   It should be a big headline in every major media outlet. Yet, in the era of corporate feudalism (where the mainstream media are bought by big corporations), this story has passed almost unnoticed, despite the fact that it has been brought to light by a Prime Minister of a European country.   Almost buried in a "corner" of the Reuters website, the short report reveals that according to the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov, the EU is about to make a new deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, at a significantly increased price:   The bloc is seeking the new supply deal with the two companies for up to 1.8 billion vaccines, of which is 900 million optional, to be delivered in 2022 and 2023, Reuters reported on Friday. Borissov, speaking on Sunday, said the EU was negotiating the new contract at a price of 19.5 euros ($23.22) per dose. “The prices are going up quickly,” Borissov said during a trip to a village in southern Bulga

A high-tech giant deeply connected with US intelligence agencies behind a potential voter manipulation operation in Greece

globinfo freexchange   A disturbing revelation came on surface lately by the Greek independent press. And while it has been almost completely ignored by the big media in Greece, it has been extensively circulated and discussed throughout the Greek social media network.   According to an article on Sunday's (20 December) paper edition of the newspaper Documento , current Greek PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has kept secret from the public, the collaboration with a US high-tech giant with dark connections and activity.  The company is Palantir and it is well known for its involvement in huge scandals of interceptions coming from the NSA-Cambridge Analytica-Facebook complex.   With the permission of the Greek PM - who is taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic - Palantir is harvesting and analyzing data from Greek citizens. The government is collecting data today that may be proved useful tomorrow, as the scenario of a general election before the normal completion of Mitsotakis' admin

Confirmed: Biden never wanted the Green New Deal and now he has a perfect excuse to bury it

globinfo freexchange   In a revealing interview for the Greek radio-station Radio 98.4 , former Greek Minister of Finance and current DiEM25 leader, Yanis Varoufakis, spoke about the current situation in Greece under COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the result of the recent US general election.  The current Greek government ( one of the worst the last decades as it seems), receives a lot of negative criticism from the opposition and from the independent press in Greece, for the fact that it didn't take advantage of the first lock-down to reinforce Greece's public healthcare system.   It seems that during this second wave of the pandemic (and the second lock-down), the Greek government is losing control as the COVID-19 cases rise dramatically and the public healthcare system now operates close to its limits. Mitsotakis administration receives negative criticism for the fact it left the tourism sector open during the summer to protect specific private interests. Most importantly,

The time has come for neoliberalism to expose its true nature as a kind of refined fascism

globinfo freexchange In an interesting interview, Afshin Rattansi spoke with William Robinson, author of The Global Police State . They discussed how capitalism's crises have fuelled the rise of the global police state. The drastic inequality and poverty that has become a theme of modern capitalism which necessitates the global police state. Also, whether there is class warfare on the poor and the growing industry of militarism and oppression.   As Robinson points out: The global police state has been on full display in the United States in the uprising that took place in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. But the largest story here, of course, is the mega cities of the world. Not just the hot war zones such as in the middle east.     The mega cities of the world are now the theaters for this global police state. And it's where these inequalities are so incredibly acute. And so all of the panoply of what i'm referring to as global police state is unle

Neoliberal centrists and phony fascists as political tools of the capitalist classes in an escalating war

globinfo freexchange    The progressive movement has lost recently one of its pioneers. David Grabber was an American anthropologist, anarchist activist, leading figure in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and is sometimes credited with having coined the slogan "We are the 99%". In the following short analysis, Grabber describes almost perfectly the nature of the neoliberal centrism and how its carriers manipulate the masses. He also unveils the role of those to the right, which in the US is played politically by the Republican Party. As he points out:                            There's a symbiotic relationship between these centrists, who are just sort of sneering elitists and these guys who are the scam artists, who pretend to be locals, who pretend to be idiots, or pretend to be fascists. They're not even real fascists, they're kind of phoney fascists. They are trying to set up a situation where those are the only two viable political choices because they both

The main reason corporate Dems want so desperately to beat Trump in this election cycle

globinfo freexchange   As we explained previously, what we see now in the United States with Trump, is a counter-attack by the part of the American capital against the globalist faction. The faction that is primarily consisted by the liberal plutocracy. Therefore, as the capitalist class splits, the capitalists around Trump are now taking with them the most conservative part of the American society, as they need electoral power. They have the money and their own media network. Their first big victory was Trump in the US presidency and this explains why the liberal media attack him so hard and so frequently.   The COVID-19 pandemic added more chaos in the ongoing civil war between capitalists and (as always), the working class is paying the price for the additional mess.   The DNC establishment fought hard, one more time, to get rid of Bernie Sanders in order to impose its own - fully controllable and fully dedicated to the neoliberal status quo - Joe Biden/Kamala Harris duo. O