French police attack Yellow Vests protesters in rally against Macron’s economic policies

French police have attacked Yellow Vests protesters, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of demonstrators, who took to the streets to denounce French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies and pension reform.

French police attack Yellow Vests protesters in rally against Macron’s economic policies

Related:

Emmanuel Macron presses ahead with pension reform as French discontent swells

Macron: French health sector problems could deepen in coming years

Capitalism’s Court Jester: Slavoj Žižek

One of the most prominent intellectuals in the contemporary world was named to the list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012. He shares this distinction with the likes of Dick Cheney, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Mossad director Meir Dagan. The theorist’s best idea—according to this well-known publication that is a virtual arm of the U.S. State Department—is that “the big revolution the left is waiting for will never come.”

Capitalism’s Court Jester: Slavoj Žižek

Related:

Upcoming: Gabriel Rockhill | Why Slavoj Žižek is Capitalism’s Court Jester (YouTube)

The Rational Destruction of Yugoslavia

Today’s Russia Is Upholding the Best of the Soviet Legacy

By Victoria Nikiforova – Dec 5, 2022

The following essay is written and published by a columnist at Russia’s main state media outlet, RIA Novosti. The essay provides an overview of the achievements and the lasting legacy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for today’s Russia and for the world. It is not a comprehensive history of the USSR; that is for historians to continue to write and debate. The essay’s most salient feature is the insight into the thinking of the people of the Russian Federation at this very turbulent turning point in their history.

The essay voices the wholesale loss of positive expectations of the Russian Federation people for the Western imperialist countries as the latter escalate their drive to isolate and weaken their country and its government. Many other such writings are appearing in Russian media. Altogether, they reflect a deepening understanding in Russian society that world imperialism—headed by the United States and including the major powers of Europe and Japan–is very much alive, dangerous, and, quite literally, out to get them. There is a profound upheaval taking place in the political thinking and the aspirations of the many peoples of the Russian Federation.

Today’s Russia Is Upholding the Best of the Soviet Legacy

Colombia’s First Leftist President Charts a New Path on Venezuela + Government of Venezuela and Opposition Resume Mexico Talks

Colombia’s First Leftist President Charts a New Path on Venezuela

While critics derided the meeting as just another propaganda spectacle for Maduro, Petro has sent a signal to opposition parties in Colombia and the international community, particularly the United States, to rethink its approach if they hope to improve relations and achieve a successful political transition in Venezuela.

Related:

The recognition of Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela will end in 2023, according to two sources close to the opposition

Guaidó’s possible change of status occurs just as the opposition coalition establishes the rules to select the unitary candidate who will compete in the next presidential elections in 2024.

So Biden can support a new interim president for Venezuela.

Government of Venezuela and Opposition Resume Mexico Talks: What Is on the Table? (+Alex Saab)

Still skeptical of Gustavo Petro.

The Failed Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Marxist Analysis

By Carlos L. Garrido – Sep 9, 2022

A recent study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry sent shockwaves across the scientific community and popular outlets as it disproved the predominant “serotonin hypothesis” of depression. In just two weeks since its publication it has been accessed by nearly half a million people and the subject of dozens of subsequent articles. The researchers analyzed a total of seventeen systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and other large studies focused on the following six tenets pertinent to the “serotonin hypothesis” of depression:

The Failed Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Marxist Analysis

Americans Can Now Expect to Live Three Years Less than Cubans

Americans Can Now Expect to Live Three Years Less than Cubans

Source: Ian Bremmer

The decline means that several countries have caught up with or surpassed the U.S. According to World Bank data, Cuba’s life expectancy is 78.9, and China’s is 77.1, although both figures are from 2020 rather than 2021.

Other countries that are ahead of the U.S. in terms of life expectancy include: Colombia, Uruguay and Chile; Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico; and Turkey, Greece and Albania.

Cubans have access to free healthcare, which is one of the key socialist principles. The country has a high ratio of medical professionals and focuses on prevention and primary care.

Related:

List of countries with universal health care

US Coerces UN Human Rights Chief Following Xinjiang China Visit

Jun 11, 2022 — In the wake of the UN human rights chief’s visit to Xinjiang, China – the Western media and US government-funded organizations have concluded that the UN is not sufficiently repeating Western claims about China’s alleged treatment of its Uyghur minority.

In reality, the US is spreading false narratives about China just as it did regarding Iraq in 2003 – all to undermine and isolate China on the global stage in a bid to prevent it from surpassing the US, and because the US is not capable of competing with China fairly.

US Coerces UN Human Rights Chief Following Xinjiang China Visit (Odysse) — The New Atlas on YouTube

Sources:

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