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"It is like the man who became short-sighted and refused to wear glasses, saying there was nothing wrong with him, but that the trouble was that the recent papers were so badly printed."

-- Maurice Nicoll

News and Opinion

A ‘Victorious’ Afghanistan Withdrawal Was Impossible to Achieve

The US government watchdog for Afghanistan released its final lessons learned report on Tuesday that said a “victorious US withdrawal” was impossible due to unrealistic and shortsighted goals set by Washington.

Since its inception in 2008, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has documented the corruption and waste involved in Washington’s failed nation-building project in Afghanistan. The report released Tuesday says that US officials never took seriously what it would take to establish a sustainable government in Afghanistan.

"Not My Fault" Says Biden & Kamala On Afghanistan

Kim Iversen: George W. Bush ENSURED War Will NEVER End, Biden USHERS In A.I. Generation Of Warfare

Now Would Be A Great Time For George W Bush To Shut The Fuck Up

George W Bush has issued a statement on the situation in Afghanistan, and there are not enough shoes in the world to adequately respond to it.

“Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness,” the Hague fugitive writes. “Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much.”

Bush tells the US Armed Forces, diplomatic corps, and intelligence community how proud he and his wife are of their “sacrifice” and “courage” and that they “kept America safe” and “made America proud” with their decades-long occupation which accomplished literally nothing besides making horrible people very rich. And, it won’t surprise you to learn, the statement contains exactly zero apologies to anyone for anything.

Can you believe this person? Imagine being George W Bush in the middle of August 2021 and saying to yourself, “I know just what people need: a pep talk on Afghanistan from me, George W Bush!”

I mean, the gall. The absolute gall.

This is after all the same man who ordered the disastrous invasion in the first place under the justification of the plot hole-riddled 9/11 narrative after already having decided to oust the Taliban a month before the towers came down. The same man who rejected the Taliban’s offer to turn over Osama Bin Laden in October 2001 if the US would just show proof that he is guilty and end its bombing campaign. The same man who repeatedly rejected Taliban offers to surrender after the invasion began. The same man who initiated decades of lies about what was happening in Afghanistan in order to justify an occupation maintained for power and profit.

And after all that phony hand-wringing about “the oppressed people of Afghanistan“, the United States is after twenty years of occupation leaving the Afghan people the single most miserable population of any nation on earth. After all that phony hand-wringing about “the Taliban’s war on women“, Afghanistan has remained the worst place in the world to be a woman throughout the entirety of the occupation.

And it is entirely the fault of the US-centralized empire. The Taliban only came to power in the first place because the US backed their predecessors (whom they also actively radicalized) against the Soviet Union and its leftist Afghan allies in the eighties, then Bush invaded and rained explosives from the sky for twenty years, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

After four decades of interventionism and two decades of full-scale occupation following generations of shocking savagery and terrorism being inflicted upon the Afghan people by the British, it is perfectly fair to say that one hundred percent of Afghanistan’s problems today can be blamed entirely on the US and its allies.

So now, as the nation reverts back to Taliban control after a long and sadistic intermission and many Afghans are so fearful that some fell to their deaths desperately clinging to departing US military planes, it would be a fantastic time for George W Bush to shut the fuck up.

But George W Bush did not shut the fuck up. Not only did George W Bush not shut the fuck up, but Bush administration war architects like John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz are being interviewed by the mass media for their opinions on whether it was wise to finally end one of Bush’s wars. Bolton was given a platform on NPR to tell the world that the withdrawal is a “catastrophic failure of American leadership” and that the US should intervene to oust the Taliban once again. Wolfowitz was interviewed by BBC Radio where he said he feels “deep trepidation” about the withdrawal and called it a boon to China and to terrorists everywhere.

Yeah that’s sane and normal. Hello I’m a very serious newscaster; now here to explain what’s happening in Afghanistan let’s turn to a Bush administration PNAC neocon who’s helped create mountains of corpses and who is literally always wrong about literally everything. This could only happen in a media environment where blatant war propaganda is routinely disguised as news reporting.

What the US empire has done to Afghanistan is unforgivable. Utterly unforgivable. Never forgive those monsters. Never forget what they did to that poor country. Never forget that the next time you are asked to support another act of US military interventionism it will with absolute certainty be based on lies, fail to accomplish what its proponents claim, end in disaster, result in many broken promises to all parties involved, cost trillions of dollars, and benefit nobody but the very worst among us.

“People Are Thirsty for Peace”: Afghans Wary of Taliban as Group Vows to Uphold Rights

Taliban seek no ‘revenge’ and all Afghans will be ‘forgiven’

The Taliban have said they seek no “revenge” on opponents and that everyone will be “forgiven”, during the first press conference held by the hardline Islamist group since taking power in Kabul on Sunday. Saying the group did not seek “internal or external enemies”, their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters invited to the media centre used by the former Afghan government that the group wanted to “congratulate the [Afghan] nation” for its victory.

“We assure you that nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped,” he said, despite reports from different parts of the country that Taliban fighters were doing precisely that. He encouraged people who had fled to the airport with their families to return. Mujahid added a vaguely worded pledge to honour women’s rights and allow them to work, but within the group’s interpretation of Islamic law, and said private media would be permitted to “remain independent” if journalists “did not work against national values”.

There were a series of assurances apparently aimed at the international community, including a promise to end the narcotics trade from Afghanistan and to prevent the country being used as a base by terrorist groups to attack other countries.

Earlier Germany announced it had halted development aid to Afghanistan over the Taliban takeover. Such aid is a crucial source of funding for the country, and the Taliban’s efforts to project a milder version of themselves may be aimed at ensuring that money continues to flow. ...

The Taliban has declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government on Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed since their brutal rule of the country in the late 1990s.

Ex-Official Matthew Hoh, Who Resigned over Afghan War, Says U.S. Mistakes Helped Taliban Gain Power

Amazing. Taliban spokesperson is saying that ALL Afghans, even those who worked with the US and fought the Taliban, have amnesty and will not be harmed. Can we believe this? Not sure, esp. as there are many rogue elements. But it is great he is saying this. @Zabehulah_M33

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) August 17, 2021

Biden sets aside $500m to fund ‘unexpected’ Afghan refugee needs

Joe Biden has authorized up to $500m from an emergency fund to meet “unexpected urgent” refugee needs stemming from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, including for Afghan special immigration visa (SIV) applicants, the White House said. The US is preparing to begin evacuating thousands of Afghan SIV applicants who risk retaliation from Taliban militants who have taken over the country, because they worked for the US government. ...

In a memo to his secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, Biden wrote: “Such assistance may be provided on a bilateral or multilateral basis as appropriate, including through contributions to international organizations and through funding to other nongovernmental organizations, governments, and United States departments and agencies.” ...

Elsewhere, Uganda said it had agreed to take in temporarily 2,000 refugees from Afghanistan. The east African nation hosts about 1.4 million refugees, most from South Sudan. “The request was made yesterday by the US government to [President Yoweri Museveni] and he has given them an OK to bring 2,000 refugees to Uganda,” Esther Anyakun Davinia, Uganda’s junior minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, told Reuters.

“They are going to be here temporarily for three months before the US government resettles them elsewhere.”

Albania and Kosovo have also accepted requests to temporarily take in Afghan refugees.

Stop repeating the lie that the US "spent trillions on Afghanistan and got nothing." The war was NEVER about "nation building"—it was about *exploitation*.

80-90% of US "investment" in (exploiting) Afghanistan returned to the US economy.

The US pillaged, not funded, Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/VPgCV2W6CN

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 17, 2021

Progressive Critics Say Investors in US Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War

As the hawks who have been lying about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan for two decades continue to peddle fantasies in the midst of a Taliban takeover and American evacuation of Kabul, progressive critics on Tuesday reminded the world who has benefited from the "endless war."

"Entrenching U.S. forces in Afghanistan was the military-industrial complex's business plan for 20+ years," declared the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Public Citizen.

"Hawks and defense contractors co-opted the needs of the Afghan people in order to line their own pockets," the group added. "Never has it been more important to end war profiteering."

In a Tuesday morning tweet, Public Citizen highlighted returns on defense stocks over the past 20 years—as calculated in a "jaw-dropping" analysis by The Intercept—and asserted that "the military-industrial complex got exactly what it wanted out of this war."

The Intercept's Jon Schwarz examined returns on stocks of the five biggest defense contractors: Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics.

Schwarz found that a $10,000 investment in stock evenly split across those five companies on the day in 2001 that then-President Georg W. Bush signed the authorization preceding the U.S. invasion would be worth $97,295 this week, not adjusted for inflation, taxes, or fees.

According to The Intercept:

This is a far greater return than was available in the overall stock market over the same period. $10,000 invested in an S&P 500 index fund on September 18, 2001, would now be worth $61,613.

That is, defense stocks outperformed the stock market overall by 58% during the Afghanistan War.

"These numbers suggest that it is incorrect to conclude that the Taliban's immediate takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.'s departure means that the Afghanistan War was a failure," Schwarz added. "On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most powerful people in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Notably, the boards of directors of all five defense contractors include retired top-level military officers."

Ron Paul Predicted Afghan Debacle Ten Years Ago

Pakistan divided over success of Taliban in Afghanistan

The statement came from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), otherwise known as the Pakistani Taliban, congratulating the Afghan Taliban on their “blessed victory”. For many, Tuesday’s message was an ominous sign of what the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could mean for Pakistan. While politicians, clerics, military officers and even the prime minister, Imran Khan, were among those in Pakistan celebrating the establishment of Taliban rule – Khan describing it as Afghanistan breaking “the shackles of slavery” – there are deep concerns that it will embolden powerful Islamic militant organisations operating in Pakistan.

These militant groups are fighting for Pakistan to adopt a similar model of strict and repressive Islamic governance seen under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, and which many believe will once again be imposed.

“The Taliban takeover will empower all extremist-religious elements in Pakistan” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an author and political analyst. “The next few months will probably be peaceful in comparison to what lies ahead in Afghanistan but then extremism will start. If the Taliban succeed in any form, it will give militants reason to argue for an Islamic system to govern Pakistan.”

TTP, which is a banned militant group in Pakistan responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks, had already been making a resurgence recently. The group is an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban and their ties and shared ideology are undeniable; in the past, senior Taliban figures have been made TTP leaders.

Bolivia’s interim government tortured and executed opponents, report says

Bolivia’s recent interim government came to power by sidestepping constitutional rules for presidential succession and persecuted opponents with “systematic torture” and “summary executions” by security forces in the tumultuous aftermath of Evo Morales’s resignation in 2019, according to a new report by independent human rights experts.

The scathing 471-page report is the most comprehensive yet to examine the events surrounding the disputed 2019 presidential vote, when Morales’s narrow election to an unprecedented fourth term triggered widespread protests spurred by strong international allegations of voting fraud – claims later questioned by foreign electoral experts.

The report, presented Tuesday in La Paz in an event attended by the new president, Luís Arce, was commissioned by the Organization of American States (OAS) review chief human rights watchdog under an agreement with the former interim government led by Jeanine Áñez.

The five-member panel’s findings of widespread abuses by security forces acting under the conservative interim government’s direction is likely to embolden leftist supporters of Morales and Arce, who have long maintained Áñez seized power through a coup tacitly backed by the Trump administration. It is also likely to undercut criticism by the Biden administration and others suggesting that the jailing of Áñez on sedition and terrorism charges tied to the unrest was politically motivated. ...

The new report, which was the result of eight months of research partly funded by the US government and the Ford Foundation, is careful not to endorse claims of a coup against Morales. But it does question the legitimacy of Áñez’s ascent to power, pointing out that her election to the head of the senate and then to interim president lacked the quorum required by Bolivia’s constitution after several of Morales’s allies in the legislature resigned in protest.

Peru minister resigns after suggesting Shining Path rebels had CIA support

Peru’s foreign minister has resigned after footage emerged in which he suggested that a Maoist rebel group that killed tens of thousands of Peruvians had received support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), making him the first cabinet member to fall under leftist President Pedro Castillo.

Hector Bejar, 85, who in his youth participated in a socialist guerrilla movement, had said he believed the Shining Path rebel group had emerged in part because of backing from the US Central Intelligence Agency. About 70,000 people are estimated to have died as government forces battled the Shining Path in the 1980s and early 1990s in large swaths of the country.

“I’m convinced, although I can’t prove it, that the Shining Path was in large part created by the CIA and (other) intelligence services,” Bejar had said in a video dated last year. Bejar has a PhD in sociology and has worked as a university professor. The foreign minister’s departure is likely to add more political uncertainty to an administration already navigating a highly volatile and polarized first few weeks that saw the country’s sol currency fall to record lows against the dollar.

Texas governor Abbott, who fought mask mandates, tests positive for Covid

Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds. Abbott, a Republican, is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said in a statement. He is taking a monoclonal antibody treatment and isolating in the governor’s mansion. ...

Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for the coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Pediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class. Abbott has restricted cities, counties, school districts and public health authorities from requiring masks or Covid-19 vaccines. And when officials in Texas’s major cities defied his order, the state supreme court barred their local mask mandates – at least temporarily.

The governor has kept a busy social calendar ahead of next year’s primary election, when he faces Republican challengers even further to his right. ... On Monday – less than 24 hours before testing positive for Covid-19 – he tweeted photos of himself waving to a room packed with seniors, almost no masks in sight. ... Abbott posted another series of photos with Texas musician Jimmie Vaughan on Tuesday afternoon, shortly before his diagnosis was announced.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Tests Positive for Coronavirus After Banning Mask & Vaccine Mandates

Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise

Health officials in Texas said they have asked the federal government for five mortuary trucks, as Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise in the state. ...

Texas officials said they requested the trucks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Fema, as a “precaution”, given rapid and widespread Covid-19 transmission.

“We haven’t gotten any local requests but we want to be ready with the Covid cases in the state,” Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas health department, told NBC News. “We didn’t want to wait.”

Covid-19 deaths in Texas have tripled in the last two weeks, growing to 89 a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the pandemic’s worst peak in the January, Covid-19 killed 351 people in Texas on average a day. More than 54,000 people in Texas have died of Covid-19.

Other health systems have also sounded the alarm. The University of Mississippi Medical Center said the Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse would set up a 30- to 50-bed field hospital in a parking garage, after a health official said the “failure of the hospital system in Mississippi” was imminent.

US experts expected to recommend Covid booster shots for all

All Americans should have Covid-19 vaccine booster shots eight months after they received their second dose, experts are expected to recommend, as officials race to stop the Delta variant spreading across the country. Federal health officials are watching the rising case numbers in the US very closely and are considering whether extra shots for the vaccinated will be needed before winter.

They are also looking at countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January, and boosters for older adults were recommended.

An announcement on the US booster recommendation is expected in the coming days, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Doses would begin to be administered widely once the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approves the vaccines. Pfizer boosters could be approved in the coming weeks. ...

The US has enough domestic supply to deliver boosters to Americans should they be recommended by health officials.

'No Time for Amateur Hour': Pelosi Signals Plan to Steamroll Right-Wing Dems

Progressives commended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for signaling late Monday that she does not intend to cede to conservative Democrats who are demanding passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bill before any vote on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, a centerpiece of the party's social spending and climate agenda.

"This is no time for amateur hour," Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly said during a private call with her leadership team, in an apparent reference to the nine conservative House Democrats who are publicly threatening to tank the budget resolution that—if passed—will set the stage for the construction of a sweeping reconciliation bill.

The nine Democrats, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, want the House to pass a widely criticized $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill before considering the budget resolution, which the Senate approved last Wednesday. ...

According to Politico, which first reported Pelosi's comments on the Monday night call, the House Speaker plans to "put the budget resolution on the floor next week and dare moderates to vote no," an approach that progressives applauded. ...

Politico noted that it's not clear how conservative Democrats will respond to Pelosi's expected "forceful" maneuver.

"Right now there are 11 Democrats—including the nine who publicly signed the letter led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.)—who are signaling to leadership they will vote against the budget resolution unless the House is allowed an immediate, up-or-down vote on the Senate infrastructure bill," the outlet reported.

Briahna Joy Gray: Is Pelosi Pulling A FORCE THE VOTE On Moderate Dems?

Much more at the link:

Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast ‘poses major environmental risk’

ExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found. Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases.

By 2025, the company expects to produce 800,000 barrels of oil a day, surpassing estimates for its entire oil and natural gas production in the south-western US Permian basin by 100,000 barrels that year. Guyana would then represent Exxon’s largest single source of fossil fuel production anywhere in the world.

But experts claim that Exxon in Guyana appears to be taking advantage of an unprepared government in one of the lowest-income nations in South America, allowing the company to skirt necessary oversight. Worse, they also believe the company’s safety plans are inadequate and dangerous.

A top engineer who studies oil industry disasters, as well as a former government regulator, have leveled criticisms at Exxon. They say workers’ lives, public health and Guyana’s oceans and fisheries – which locals rely on heavily– are all at stake. “Exxon is only going to be here for 20 to 25 years,” said Vincent Adams, Guyana’s former environment chief. “When they make all their billions, and they’re ready to pack up and they’re gone, we’ve got to deal with the mess.”

Environmental campaigners and activist shareholders suggest Exxon also cannot reconcile the project with its public commitments to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

Joining Fight Against Line 3, Health Professionals Urge Biden to Block Project

U.S. doctors, nurses, and other health professionals came together Tuesday for a national day of solidarity against Line 3 that included various events and a letter calling on President Joe Biden to block Enbridge's tar sands project.

The health professionals are pressuring Biden to "take action that climate science demands, listen to the voices of Indigenous frontline leaders," and reverse the federal government's permitting of Line 3 under former President Donald Trump.

Their call echoes demands of Indigenous and climate activists who have long fought against the Canadian company's effort to replace an aging pipeline with one that would have the capacity to transport 760,000 barrels daily.

Noting the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the latest climate science that was released last week, the health professionals write to Biden:

We applaud you for rejoining the Paris climate agreement and canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline. We now call on you to revoke the permits for the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline expansion in Minnesota. Line 3 will carry the same product as the Keystone XL Pipeline, dirty tar sands oil. If it is put into operation, Line 3 will accelerate the damage to our climate, releasing carbon emissions equivalent to that of 50 coal plants, every year.​​ This is in stark contrast to your stated goal to reach a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. We have neither the carbon budget nor financial budget to continue investing in fossil fuel infrastructure if we want to meet that ambitious but necessary goal. We also don't have the time—as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres stated, the IPCC report "...must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet."

The letter was spearheaded by Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate and signed by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Medical Society Consortium on Climate Change and Health, Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, and multiple state groups.

Individual health professionals also spoke out against Line 3 on Tuesday.

This town is the first in America to ban new gas stations – is the tide turning?

Emily Bit remembers a time when she didn’t feel the constant threat of climate change. Her family lives in American Canyon, in southern Napa county, California, a state now being hit by record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” she said. These days her family has to evacuate their home every summer. ... Now, she and fellow student activists are working to break one big link in the fossil fuel chain that is driving climate change: gas stations. There are two proposed new gas stations in her town she wants scrapped. “We don’t need them,” she said. ...

In March, Petaluma in Sonoma county became the first city in the US to ban future gas station construction or any new pumps on existing sites. In July Sonoma county’s Regional Climate Protection Authority voted to explore ways to support the nine cities in the county considering bans of their own. A final vote on the resolution is scheduled for September.

It’s the beginning of what could be a seismic shift. California now has the highest sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country. Close to 11% of all new car sales were electric in the first three months of this year and in 2020 the governor, Gavin Newsom, ordered all new cars and passenger trucks sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. General Motors and others have pledges to have an all electric vehicle lineup by 2035.

But nationally, just 2.3% of new US car sales in 2020 were plug-in compared to 74.8% in Norway, the country with the highest percentage of adoption. The US had about 276m vehicles registered on its highways in 2019, EVs represent a tiny fraction of that and, given the importance of the second hand market, they are likely to remain so for decades to come without drastic federal action. ...

The number of gas stations is declining – there were more than 200,000 in 1994 – but the size of gas stations is increasing as “mom and pop” stops give way to massive fueling sites owned by supermarket chains hoping to lure in shoppers with cheap gas. ... Now there are an estimated 168,000 stations across the country.

California wildfire crisis escalates amid extreme winds

Surging wildfire tears through northern California town and threatens others

Critically dangerous fire weather was forecast across northern California from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday evening, threatening to intensify several large blazes and increasing the risk of new ones, as a small rural town in the Sierra Nevada was ravaged by a fire that grew with devastating speed. The Caldor fire, which erupted over the weekend, exploded in size on Tuesday and ran through the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying many buildings and forcing residents to leave. Two were injured. Officials estimated that the blaze had blown through 30,000 acres – up from 6,500 acres reported by the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) earlier that day. ...

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings in the region, extending across several western states, noting the potential for rapid spread of fire with a perilous trifecta of low humidity, extremely dry vegetation, and wind gusts of up to 35mph.

On Tuesday evening, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) began shutting off power to about 51,000 customers in 18 northern California counties. The utility said it was starting the shutoffs as a precaution, to prevent gusting winds from damaging power lines and sparking blazes. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in several areas and close to 17,000 people have now been forced to leave their homes, according to the California office of emergency services. ...

The wind also drove more extreme activity by the Dixie fire – the country’s largest blaze and the biggest single wildfire in California history – as the flames surged through the Sierra Nevada range closer to the city of Susanville, home to roughly 18,000 people. New evacuation orders were also issued in Lassen county for residents just west of Highway 395. ... The behemoth blaze, which is 31% contained, swelled by about 40,000 acres Monday night and was more than 604,500 acres by Tuesday afternoon.

Also of Interest

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

Where Best to Ride Out the Climate Apocalypse?

When Will We Stop Letting Our Presidents Lie America Into Wars?

New US Air Force Secretary Wants to ‘Scare’ China

The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris

Afghanistan - Taliban Press Conference Notes

The Afghanistan War And The Dissenters We Should've Listened To

Arizona is 8th state to weigh sanctioning Ben & Jerry’s over settlement boycott

Biden Is Bringing Financial Crisis Guys from the New York Fed’s Markets Group to His Administration: Should We Worry?

'Hard to Imagine Worse Idea': Biden to Resume Fossil Fuel Leases on Public Lands and Waters

Tropical Storm Grace’s heavy rains pour misery on Haiti earthquake survivors

Meet US govt-backed regime-change guru Gene Sharp, mastermind of soft coups

A Little Night Music

Hank Ballard - Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go

The Midnighters - Open Up Your Back Door

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - Teardrops On Your Letter

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - I'm Going Back To The House On The Hill

Hank Ballard & Midnighters - Work With Me Annie

Hank Ballard & Midnighters - Sexy Ways

Hank Ballard & Midnighters - Annie Had A Baby

Hank Ballard - The Twist

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters Tore Up Over You