Noul Pat al lui Procust şi noua morală politică europeană

Ciudate timpuri trăim şi stranii perspective ni se deschid în faţa existenţei europene, în condiţiile în care liderii politici nu încetează să pledeze electoral despre nevoia de solidaritate europeană. Departe de a mai convinge pe cineva, efectul începe să fie chiar o afundare în ridicol şi desuetudine (ceea ce nu ar fi ceva nou în cazul multora dintre ei) şi o demonstraţie a faliei care începe să se confirme la nivelul construcţiei europene.

États-Unis: une armée d’un autre genre?

C’est l’une des premières mesures prises par Joe Biden : annuler l’interdiction édictée par Donald Trump de s’engager dans l’armée sous une “identité de genre”, celle que les transgenres peuvent faire reconnaître à l’état-civil. Les soldats qui n’auraient pas passé le cap peuvent aussi, désormais, se faire opérer aux frais de l’institution.

À peine finie la cérémonie de son investiture, qui a nécessité le déploiement de 25 000 soldats de la garde nationale le 20 janvier 2021, Joe Biden, le nouveau président américain et commandant en chef des armées, a pris une décision : celle d’annuler l’interdiction pour les personnes transgenres de s’engager sous leur « identité de genre » (celle qu’ils ont choisie). Cet interdit édicté par Donald Trump dès 2017 avait été validé par la Cour suprême en 2019.

G-7 Aftermath: Western Leaders in Search of New Animosities

To Recall Active Attendance of Former British Colonialism

The G-7 used to be G-8 inclusive of Russia, but it shrinked to being the “West and America First” and anything else is a matter of opinion to be relevant for global peace and harmony. We, the People of the world are constantly becoming victim of modern ignorance, rooted insolence of withered expectations and growing indifference to much desired international cooperation and working together for peace, intelligence and goodness of humanity. While common masses who are victimized by the atrocities of the few against all – war is not the means to peacemaking and cutting short stupidity and evil-mongering against the global mankind – the real inhabitants of Earth and extended Universal harmony.

Più respiro e più futuro per l’Unione. Evviva i quasi Eurobond

Sempre vero che la foresta, quando cresce, fa meno rumore del singolo albero in caduta. Ma è destinata a durare, e magari cambiare l’ecosistema.

Martedì l’Europa ha ‘piantato’ quasi in sordina – per quanto fragoroso era stato nella primavera 2020 il dibattito sulla possibile mutualizzazione del debito anti-Covid – il primo bond del Next Generation Eu, il programma comune per ricostruire con intenti sostenibili l’economia dell’Unione. La Commissione ha raccolto 20 miliardi di euro con un titolo decennale per il quale la richiesta degli investitori è stata sette volte tanto, segno che l’interesse dei mercati per un’obbligazione europea ‘tripla A’ è grande. Entro l’anno i miliardi saranno oltre 100. Serviranno a finanziare le sovvenzioni e i prestiti destinati agli Stati membri nel 2021 per realizzare i progetti inseriti nei Piani nazionali dei Ventisette.

The Insurgency Against Big Oil

While Australian politicians languish in a world blotched by climate change scepticism and fossil fuel love-ins, global oil and gas companies have been shaken. Three titans of oil fame – Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron – faced a range of decisions in May that promise to dramatically shape their future operations. The point is not negligible, given that this triarchy produced, between 1988 and 2015, 5% of total global scope 1 and 3 emissions.

Living with World’s End in Plain Sight

Groton and New London, Connecticut, are home to about 65,000 people, three colleges, the Coast Guard Academy, 15 nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed submarines capable of destroying the world many times over, and General Dynamics’ Electric Boat, a multi-billion-dollar private corporation that offers stock options to its shareholders and mega-salaries to its top executives as it pockets taxpayer dollars and manufactures yet more of those stealthy, potentially world-ending machines. Whew! That was a long sentence!

When a President Lies

“Did you, too, O friend,
suppose democracy was only for
elections, for politics, and for a party name?”

– Walt Whitman, “Democratic Vistas” (1871)

Joe Biden received much media praise for his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on June 16th. However, little attention has been paid to an issue posed by an Associate Press reporter in a press conference following the meeting: “U.S. intelligence has said that Russia tried to interfere in the last two presidential elections, and that Russia groups are behind hacks like SolarWinds and some of the ransomware attacks you just mentioned.”

Capital, Profits and Wages in 2021

Long before Karl Marx and Jenet Yellen, some might have suspected that there are three elements that define the core of capitalism. These are, of course, capital. But capitalism is also a system that is defined by profits – commonly camouflaged as shareholder values – as well as wages.

From Smith to Yellen the existence of these three fundamentals was never threatened. Yet the relationship between the three has altered somewhat in recent years. This is the argument of Belgian economist Jan Eeckhout.

Head of U.S. Intelligence: We May Never Know COVID-19’s Origin

On the menu today: Avril Haines, the U.S. director of national intelligence, ominously declares in an interview that the U.S. intelligence community is no closer to determining how the COVID-19 pandemic began, and may never know with certainty; the need to end the crisis mentality on evictions; and Vice President Kamala Harris apparently thinks she’s “winning” something by refusing to spend a day visiting the border.

20 Years of Hijacking Human Rights: The Lasting Impact of Durban – watch

20 Years of Hijacking Human Rights

Marking 20 years since the UN Durban Conference, Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor hosted an online event on Wednesday, titled “20 Years of Hijacking Human Rights: The Lasting Impact of Durban,” bringing together experts who discussed the enduring influence of the original Durban conference and NGO campaign to delegitimize Israel.