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“A dull, decent people, cherishing and fortifying their dullness behind a quarter of a million bayonets.”

-- George Orwell

News and Opinion

You Can’t Fight White Supremacy With White Supremacy

“Democracy has prevailed,” President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, reflecting a theme of normalization that the longtime Washington insider sought to portray throughout the day’s pageantry. His aim, according to the Washington Post’s coverage (1/20/21), was to prove with his administration that “the past four years represented an aberration rather than an enduring rift in the national fabric.” ...

Livestream news coverage was full of references to the white nationalist siege of the Capitol on January 6—but in the rearview mirror, as an isolated instance unconnected to the last four years of rising right-wing violence, let alone the 400 years of racist violence that Biden gave a nod to in his speech. The Washington Post (1/20/21) said this about the relationship of the two events: “The decision by Biden and Harris to still take their oaths of office outside and at the Capitol was itself an act of defiance in the aftermath of the hours-long riot.”

“Defiance” made possible by a show of force: 25,000 National Guard troops, thousands of police officers, miles of fencing and razor wire, a city and its halls of government quite literally occupied.

Media found it “surreal” (New York Times, 1/20/21), “evocative of a war zone” (AP, 1/20/21) and contributing to an inauguration “unlike any other” (CNN, 1/21/21)—but none of them had the courage or clarity to say that military occupation is hardly the sign of a rebounding democracy. Indeed, the scandal of warehousing troops in a parking garage (here, for instance) got way more ink than the fundamental contradiction of a democratic government needing war-zone level protection from its own citizens.

The corporate media’s untroubled response to the military and (so-called) law enforcement presence at the inauguration reflects a deeply rooted bias that comes from their collective alignment with the ruling class; that is, segments of society whose interests are served by police and military forces. In the US specifically, policing is rooted in the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the subjugation of Africans and African-descended people, and the repression of workers’ movements. But the default reflex among corporate media, in step with the dominant US narrative, is to see cops and soldiers as good guys, and their presence as benign and reassuring. Even if, as in this case, that presence also seems odd, it still does not seem ominous. This bias creates multiple blind spots, and forecloses accurate analyses of events in which these forces play a central role. ...

Having misdiagnosed the siege of the Capitol as a security problem, media went on to report uncritically on the increased security that was the primary response. Politico (1/20/21), for instance, said, “Current and former officials agree that there needs to be some kind of NSC-driven process to address the rising threat.” The story was framed entirely by this security lens, with references to increased personnel, “new legal tools” and cybersecurity initiatives.

It’s worth asking how increasing the scale of repressive government tactics—from police and military presence to a new round of surveillance and expanded law enforcement powers—will effectively combat a movement built on the same anti-democratic values. But since media don’t see the military and police this way, such an interrogation is impossible for them, and is nowhere to be found in the aftermath of the January 6 attack.

Current and former police and military members made up a disproportionate part of the insurrectionists, and the National Guard removed 12 people from the inauguration security because of their extremist views. The Venn diagram of white nationalists and military and law enforcement personnel has always had a significant overlap. Equally importantly, these institutions function structurally to reinforce white supremacy. All of this makes the increased security response to the Capitol siege seem ineffective, at best—and, at worst, actively enabling further right-wing attacks.

Though individual articles mentioned the Capitol Police members who let the insurrectionists past barriers and the one who took a selfie with them, you’ll search in vain for corporate media articles about the larger question of whether white-supremacist sympathetic forces can thwart white supremacist violence.

By contrast, Prism (1/19/21), self-described as “a BIPOC-led nonprofit news outlet that centers the people, places and issues currently underreported by national media,” reported on abolitionist perspectives on the siege, and raised the question, “Would the breach at the Capitol…have happened without police?”

Trump’s impeachment won’t resolve US national security state’s massive failure

Democratic Fascists Prepare to Drop the Hammer

The U.S. corporate ruling class finally has its “Reichstag fire” to justify suspension of constitutional liberties under cover of “national emergency.” There is, of course, no imminent threat to the U.S. state and its structures. The rightwing mob that broke through the U.S. Capitol’s remarkably thin blue line of defense on January 6th was visibly amazed at the ease of their penetration of the building, and clearly had no plan for what to do once they found themselves inside. However, the same corporate news media that spent four years convincing Americans that “the Russians” were bringing down “our democracy” through brilliant deployment of $100,000 in Facebook ads, now shrieks that free speech is poisoning the body politic. The great threat to the “stability” of American institutions is the proliferation of speech that does not conform to the corporate version of reality. Free speech must be brought “to heel” – as Hillary Clinton would put it.

The Reichstag fire that consumed the German national parliament in February of 1933 -- supposedly set by a Jewish communist -- allowed Adolph Hitler to turn his November 1932 electoral victory into a mandate to smash all opposition to Nazification of the country. From that point on, no worldview was permissible in Germany except Hitler’s own. The U.S. ruling class, beset by real crises of its own making at home and abroad, is desperate to regain control of the national and global narrative. ...

What Obama and his corporate Democratic colleagues were determined to “protect” is the continuity of U.S. never-ending war policies abroad and the “Race to the Bottom” austerity regime at home. As real crises multiply, the first line of capitalist defense is the corporate narrative that deflects blame from the system, itself. But counternarratives of the Right and Left have found deep traction in social and online media whose audiences often dwarf CNN viewership. Thus, the oligarchs, whose obscene wealth multiplies by the day, are unable to halt by normal means the public’s consumption of narratives that question the corporate order. The ruling class’s crisis of legitimacy must be made to appear as a patriotic defense of American institutions and “values” – of truth, itself -- requiring restraint of critical speech and deep surveillance of suspected dissidents. The proof of the threat is displayed on the streets of Washington, DC, where 25,000 troops remain on guard against invisible enemies.

Although corporate media claim that Donald Trump’s antics in the White House have necessitated curtailment of free speech rights, it was clear to us at Black Agenda Report four years ago that the corporate Democrats were preparing to muzzle dissent. On November 30, 2016, after the Washington Post published a list of 200 web sites slandered as “Russian propaganda outlets and sympathizers,” including Black Agenda Report, I wrote: “Had Clinton won the election, she would have begun a campaign of repression against the Left along the same national security lines as the Washington Post article, with that paper probably leading the propaganda charge.” The BAR article was titled, “Fascism with a Democratic Party Face” – a fascism that grows out of the neoliberal corporate order in crisis. As we wrote:

“Donald Trump’s fascism is largely the residue of the fascism of apartheid America, under Jim Crow, which had many of the characteristics of – and in some ways presaged – the ‘classic’ fascism of pre-World War Two Europe. The establishment corporate Democratic and Republican brand of fascism is far more racially, sexually and culturally inclusive, but just as ruthless. And, at this moment in history, the corporate Democratic fascists are the more aggressively warlike brand.”

Proud Boys Hate Group Leader Enrique Tarrio Was “Prolific” FBI & Police Informant

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was an FBI informant

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.

In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.

Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,’” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.” ...

Tarrio, 36, is a high-profile figure who organizes and leads the rightwing Proud Boys in their confrontations with those they believe to be antifa, short for “anti-fascism”, an amorphous leftist movement. The Proud Boys were involved in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.

The records uncovered by Reuters are startling because they show that a leader of a far-right group now under intense scrutiny by law enforcement was previously an active collaborator with criminal investigators.

Homeland security warns of heightened domestic terror threat after US Capitol attack

The US Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday issued a national terrorism bulletin warning of the lingering potential for violence from people motivated by anti-government sentiment after Joe Biden’s election. The bulletin suggests the riot by a mob of Donald Trump supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January may embolden extremists and set the stage for additional attacks.

DHS did not cite any specific plots, but pointed to “a heightened threat environment across the United States” that it believes “will persist” for weeks.

It is not uncommon for the federal government to warn local law enforcement through bulletins about the prospect for violence tied to a particular event or date, such as the Fourth of July holiday. But this particular bulletin, issued through the department’s national terrorism advisory system, is notable because it effectively places the Biden administration into the politically charged debate over how to describe or characterize acts motivated by political ideology and suggests that it sees violence aimed at overturning the election as akin to terrorism. ...

“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” the bulletin said.

No action taken against Republican who indicated support for executing Pelosi

Republican leadership in the House of Representatives took no immediate action against Marjorie Taylor Greene after the Georgia congresswoman was revealed to have indicated support for executing Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

On Wednesday morning, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, had said only that he “planned to have a conversation” with Greene. The congresswoman’s committee assignments have not yet been announced. Greene has said she will sit on the education panel.

On Tuesday, CNN reported actions by Greene on social media in 2018 and 2019. In one, she “liked” a comment on a discussion of how to remove Pelosi, the House Speaker, which said “a bullet to the head would be quicker”. Greene also liked comments about executing FBI agents for being part of the “Deep State”. That conspiracy theory holds that bureaucrats and intelligence agents worked to thwart Donald Trump. A key propagator, the former White House strategist Steve Bannon, has said the theory is for “nut cases”

CNN also reported that in 2018, in an answer to a commenter on her own post about the Iran nuclear deal who asked “now do we get to hang” Obama and Clinton, Greene wrote: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

On Wednesday, Clinton said: “This woman should be on a watch list. Not in Congress.” Greene replied: “Actually, you should be in jail.”

NEW Effort To BAR Trump From Office Forever Takes Hold, Will GOP Go Along?

Coronavirus: most Americans must wait months for vaccine, taskforce warns

Americans will have to wait “months” before everyone who wants a Covid-19 vaccine can get one and funding from Congress is “essential”, the White House coronavirus taskforce has warned – in its first public briefing under Joe Biden. ...

“The White House respects and will follow the science, and the scientists will speak independently,” Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for Covid response, told reporters. “Right now, I want to level with the public that we’re facing two constraining factors. The first is getting supply quickly enough and the second is getting the ability to administer the vaccines quickly once they’re produced and sent out to the sites.”

Slavitt added: “We are taking action to increase supply and increase capacity but, even so, it will be months before everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.”

On Tuesday the president announced plans to buy an extra 200m vaccine doses from Moderna and Pfizer. And Slavitt said the taskforce had identified 12 areas where Biden has authorised use of the Defense Production Act – a law that directs private companies to prioritise orders from the federal government – to boost production. But the White House says it cannot resolve the crisis alone.

Biden has proposed $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill to Congress that includes funding to administer vaccines, increase testing and help schools and businesses reopen. But numerous Republicans have already raised objections, raising fears of political gridlock stalling the rescue effort.

Krystal and Saagar: Progressives DEMAND More Checks BUT Won’t Withhold Votes

Dems Say No Stimulus Checks Until March -- GENERAL STRIKE Time!

'Not Just Bad Economics, But Terrible Politics': Khanna Warns Democrats Against Restricting Eligibility for $1,400 Checks

Progressive Congressman Ro Khanna on Wednesday cautioned President Joe Biden and the Democratic leadership against further restricting eligibility for any future round of direct coronavirus relief payments, warning that excluding many struggling middle-class Americans from checks would be misguided and politically disastrous.

"This is not just bad economics, but terrible politics," Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to a new analysis that argues providing stimulus checks only to households that earn less than $75,000 a year would be better for families and the overall economy, given that higher earners are more likely to save the money or use it to pay off debts.

Khanna contended that such an approach would backfire, fueling the widespread view that the federal government doesn't care about the middle class.

"Have we learned nothing?" the California Democrat asked. ...

Where were these studies when the Fed lent companies money to pay dividends or executives? Did we look at the impact on consumer spending? But suddenly economists are opposed to middle class families paying off credit card, mortgage, & student loans! https://t.co/y5kEH6Xci3

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 27, 2021

Progressives, already frustrated that Biden is calling for $1,400 checks instead of the promised $2,000, were quick to reject any additional means testing.

"The $2,000 checks initiative does not have to go down the same way the public option went down. The president and congressional Democrats do not have to do what weak-kneed, wimpy Democrats of the past have so often done," argued The Daily Poster's David Sirota. "They do not have to negotiate against themselves, word-parse their way out of campaign pledges and delude themselves into thinking that Republicans are good-faith legislative partners."

"They could instead try to use their election mandate—and the weakened state of the GOP—to demand full survival checks," Sirota added, "rather than pretending that bad-faith Republican senators have any standing to make policy arguments."

Fred Hampton/Black Panthers Joined White Bigots In Class Unity w/ Daryl Davis

Biden administration pauses UAE, Saudi arms sales amid broader review

The Biden administration is temporarily freezing several arms sales that were approved by the Trump administration, including fighter jets for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and bombs for Saudi Arabia, amid a review of the sales.

The State Department confirmed a pause in “some” pending arms transfers Wednesday, a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s confirmation, framing the move as a routine practice for a new administration.

“The department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending U.S. defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review,” a State Department spokesperson said. ...

The spokesperson did not specify which sales are being paused, but The Wall Street Journal reported the UAE and Saudi sales were among those under review.

Dr. Trita Parsi: How Israel Could Imperil Biden Efforts On Iran

Senate Confirms Antony Blinken As Secretary of State

The Senate confirmed Antony Blinken to be President Biden’s secretary of state on Tuesday in a vote of 78 to 22, with every Democratic senator voting in favor of Blinken.

Blinken is a long-time advisor of President Biden and has a long history of pushing for US intervention in places like Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Throughout the years, the two have disagreed on issues, with Blinken usually being the more hawkish voice.

Krystal Ball: GameStop And The Ecstasy Of Making Elites Pay

The lesson of today is that wall street billionaires aren't the smartest guys in the room. They're the greediest and they own the government

— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) January 27, 2021

White House ‘monitoring’ GameStop share surge as US hedge fund pulls out

The White House has said it is “monitoring” the extraordinary surge in the share price of ailing video games retailer GameStop and other companies amid a surge of bets by small investors discussing their investments online. Wednesday’s announcement by the press secretary, Jen Psaki, came as the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission said they were “aware of and actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility in the options and equities markets”.

GameStop’s shares have soared this year as an army of small investors have bought in, hoping to profit off Wall Street bets that the company’s share price will fall. The company’s shares soared another 135% on Wednesday to over $347, up from $3 last April.

The battle between Wall Street and small investors who have gathered on Reddit to discuss tactics and celebrate their recent successes intensified on Wednesday when a US hedge fund that has invested heavily betting on the failure of the struggling video game store pulled out, costing the financial firm a fortune.

Melvin Capital Management, one of a number of Wall Street firms that stood to make money for investors if GameStop’s shares plummet, has told CNBC it has closed out its short position after taking a huge loss. The hedge fund, which has lost 30% of the $12.5bn (£9.1bn) it manages this year, was outmanoeuvred by an army of Reddit users from the forum “Wall Street Bets”. The group sought to punish the financial giants betting against GameStop by sending the chain’s shares soaring.

Saagar Enjeti: Wall Street Elites REGULATE, DEPLATFORM Redditors Who BEAT THEM On GameStop

BREAKING: A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would make D.C. the 51st state.

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) January 27, 2021

Biden signals radical shift from Trump era with executive orders on climate change

Joe Biden has warned the climate crisis poses an “existential threat” to the world as he unveiled a radical change in direction from the Trump era by halting fossil fuel activity on public lands and directing the US government to start a full-frontal effort to lower planet-heating emissions. “We have already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis, we can’t wait any longer,” the US president said as he signed a battery of executive orders on Wednesday. “We see it with our own eyes, we feel it in our bones. It’s time to act.”

Biden has instructed the US government to pause and review all oil and gas drilling on federal land, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and transform the government’s vast fleet of cars and trucks into electric vehicles, in a sweeping new set of climate executive orders. “We desperately need unified national response to the climate crisis, because there is a climate crisis,” Biden said.

He pledged to put “environmental justice” at the center “of all we do” to help mitigate the disproportionate effects of climate change on Black and brown communities in the US, with policy and funding changes. The president framed the actions as a remedy to pandemic-driven unemployment as well as an environmental benefit.

Biden said that millions of well-paid jobs would flow from investments in clean energy such as solar and wind, as well as energy efficiency measures for homes and the clean-up of former oil wells. “These aren’t pie in the sky dreams, they are concrete actionable solutions,” the president said.

Denouncing 'Handouts to Big Oil,' Biden Calls on Congress to End $40 Billion in Taxpayer Subsidies for Fossil Fuels

In a speech Wednesday outlining his new executive actions aimed at confronting the "existential threat" of the climate crisis, President Joe Biden said he plans to ask the Democrat-controlled Congress to pass legislation eliminating the tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies the federal government continues to hand Big Oil even as the planetary emergency wreaks havoc in the U.S. and across the globe.

"Unlike previous administrations, I don't think the federal government should give handouts to Big Oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies," said Biden. "I'm gonna be going to the Congress and asking them to eliminate those subsidies."

While the president did not offer specifics on what he would want a potential bill to look like, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and other progressive lawmakers introduced legislation last year that proposed ending direct federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and "abolishing dozens of tax loopholes, subsidies, and other special interest giveaways littered throughout the federal tax code."

The lawmakers estimated the End Polluter Welfare Act would save taxpayers up to $150 billion over the next decade.

Climate crisis: world is at its hottest for at least 12,000 years

The planet is hotter now than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to research.

Analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data on that far back is less certain.

The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving a longstanding puzzle known as the “Holocene temperature conundrum”. Climate models have indicated continuous warming since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago and the Holocene period began. But temperature estimates derived from fossil shells showed a peak of warming 6,000 years ago and then a cooling, until the industrial revolution sent carbon emissions soaring.

This conflict undermined confidence in the climate models and the shell data. But it was found that the shell data reflected only hotter summers and missed colder winters, and so was giving misleadingly high annual temperatures.

“We demonstrate that global average annual temperature has been rising over the last 12,000 years, contrary to previous results,” said Samantha Bova, at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in the US, who led the research. “This means that the modern, human-caused global warming period is accelerating a long-term increase in global temperatures, making today completely uncharted territory. It changes the baseline and emphasises just how critical it is to take our situation seriously.”

Global shark and ray population crashed more than 70% in past 50 years – study

The global population of sharks and rays has crashed by more than 70% in the past 50 years, researchers have determined for the first time, with massive ongoing losses pushing many species towards extinction.

A huge increase in fishing since 1970 has ravaged the abundance of sharks and rays in our oceans, with previously widespread species such as hammerhead sharks now facing the threat of being wiped out, the study found. Half of the world’s 31 oceanic shark species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The giant manta ray is also endangered.

“The decline isn’t stopping, which is a problem,” said Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada who was lead author of the study, published in Nature. “Everything in our oceans is so depleted now. We need proactive measures to prevent total collapse, this should be a wake up call for policy makers.”

Using a raft of previous studies and catch data, the researchers compiled the first global census for shark and ray species, finding there has been an overall 71% decline since 1970. The losses could be even deeper in reality, with insufficient data to chart population trends back to the 1950s, when the explosion in mass industrialized fishing started.

While sharks and rays can be affected by ship strikes, oil and gas drilling and, increasingly, the climate crisis, the researchers said that overfishing was the primary cause of decline. It has been previously estimated that 100 million sharks are killed by humans every year, overwhelming their slow reproductive capacity to replenish numbers.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Read My Lips: $2,000 Now

Caitlin Johnstone: Biden Takes Two Small Steps Toward Ending Yemen War. Keep Up The Pressure!

The Free, Diverse Internet In America Is Coming To An End

SolarWinds Is Not the 'Hack of the Century.' It’s Blowback for the NSA's Longtime Dominance of Cyberspace

Internet Defenders Warn Against Gutting of Section 230—Key Law for Online Speech

Critics Pan McConnell Threat to Sabotage Senate If Democrats Target Filibuster

Rebekah Mercer Raised Specter of “Armed Conflict” in 2019 Book

US Media Require No Evidence for Claims of Electoral Fraud—in Venezuela

‘We’re Not Controlling It in Our Schools’: Covid Safety Lapses Abound Across US

More Cyber Crimes, Attributed To Russia, Are Shown To Have Come From Elsewhere

Billionaires Gone Wild: Pandemic Profiteering By the Numbers

Keiser Report | Inflation Rhymes with the 1970s

Civil Rights Leaders Join With Far Right To Shut Down Vegas Strip w/ Daryl Davis

Krystal and Saagar: Biden Brother CAUGHT Using Family Name In Law Firm Advertisement

Rising: Pelosi CALLED OUT For Corrupt Tesla Stock Dealings

A Little Night Music

Jackie Brenston - Trouble Up The Road

Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats - Starvation

Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats - Come Back Where You Belong

Jackie Brenston & Edna McRaney - Hi Ho Baby

Jackie Brenston - My Real Gone Rocket

Jackie Brenston - Blues Got Me Again

Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats - Juiced

Jackie Brenston - Much Later

Jackie Brenston - Gonna Wait For My Chance

Jackie Brenston - Down In My Heart