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This evening's music features North Mississippi blues guitarist R.L.Burnside. Enjoy!

"A state is a power structure that promotes law inside but war outside. It is in its essence a very large gang. Internal laws of harmony maintain its power, and external acts of violence advance its power."

-- Peter Sjostedt-H

News and Opinion

Biden Threatens More Illegal War in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden’s decision to end the Afghan war – one that should never have been fought in the first place — was correct. Missing from the national discourse, however, is analysis of the illegality of the 2001 U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan (dubbed “Operation Enduring Freedom”) and resulting war crimes committed by four U.S. presidents and their top officials and lawyers. Once again, the United States has lost a war it started illegally. But as U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, the Biden administration continues to kill — and promises to persist in killing — Afghan people.

On Thursday, Aug. 26, Islamic State Khorasan (or ISIS-K) detonated a suicide bomb outside the Kabul airport. As many as 170 civilians and 13 U.S. service members were killed. BBC reporter Secunder Kermani cited eyewitnesses who said that a significant number of those killed were shot by U.S. troops “in the panic after the blast.” Indeed, The New York Times reported that Pentagon officials admitted “that some people killed outside the airport on Thursday might have been shot by American service members after the suicide bombing.” Nevertheless, on Aug. 27, Biden retaliated with a drone strike that apparently killed “an ISIS-K planner,” even though “there was no evidence so far that he was involved in the suicide bombing near the airport on Thursday.” The U.S. Central Command released a statement that said, “We know of no civilian casualties” from the U.S. drone strike. But according to The Guardian, an elder in Jalalabad reported that three civilians were killed and four were injured in the U.S. drone strike.

On Aug. 27, the United Nations Security Council issued a press statement affirming that “all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances, including those related to the protection of civilians.” The Council stated that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.” Moreover, the Council “reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law . . . threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.”

Nonetheless, on Aug. 29, Biden launched another drone strike against suspected members of ISIS-K, blowing up a vehicle apparently containing explosives. At least 10 members of the same family, including six children, were killed. The Central Command called the attack “a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul.” Biden’s administration has pledged to conduct “over-the-horizon” operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. plans to monitor terror threats with surveillance and execute air strikes from beyond Afghanistan’s borders, particularly in the Persian Gulf. But as the Security Council stated, all countries have a legal duty to comply with international law.

The United States must completely refrain from using military force in Afghanistan. As Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-California) said, “the answer cannot be more war and violence. The answer cannot be launching more ineffective and unaccountable counterterrorism operations.” Jacobs added that the United States “owe[s] it to all those who lost their lives to not commit the same mistakes” it made nearly 20 years ago after the September 11 attacks.

US defends strike that Afghan family says killed innocents

It felt like hell itself had opened up, said Ramal Ahmadi, who was watching cartoons with his nephew when a U.S. drone slammed into his family’s courtyard where just moments before there had been a noisy celebration to greet the family’s oldest brother. The last thing Ahmadi remembers was the sound of his brother’s car horn announcing his arrival and the squealing of the children. He says his mind “is not right” since that day. Sunday’s U.S. drone strike killed 10 members of his family, six of them children, Ahmadi said.

Senior U.S. military officials said the drone strike hit an Islamic State target and weakened the extremists’ ability to further disrupt the final phase of the U.S. withdrawal and evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan. Three days before the drone strike, an IS suicide bomber had attacked a crowded gate at Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and 169 Afghans. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that at least one of those killed in the drone strike was an Islamic State “facilitator.” ...

But an enraged Ahmadi family is demanding proof — and disputes that the car was carrying explosives. “They have to give us answers. Is our blood so worthless, we don’t even get an explanation?” Ahmadi asked. ...

Milley said Sunday’s strike was based on good intelligence, including a review of video. “We monitored that through various means and all of the engagement criteria were being met,” he said. “We went through the same level of rigor that we’ve done for years and we took a strike.”

A CIA Drone Analyst Apologizes to the People of Afghanistan

Heh, looks like the feelings of Brit war hawks are bruised:

UK defence secretary suggests US is no longer a superpower

Ben Wallace, Britain’s defence secretary, suggested the US could no longer be considered a superpower in an interview where he also contrasted his department’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis with that of the embattled Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The pointed comments – coming at a time of heightened transatlantic and domestic tensions over the messy retreat – feature in an interview in the Spectator magazine given days after the final western forces evacuated from Kabul.

Asked whether the exit from Afghanistan demonstrated the limits of British power on the world stage, Wallace started by saying, “It is obvious that Britain is not a superpower,” then appeared to switch his focus to the US. “But a superpower that is also not prepared to stick at something isn’t probably a superpower either. It is certainly not a global force, it’s just a big power,” the defence secretary added.

Afghanistan resistance fighters clash with Taliban in Panjshir valley

Taliban forces and fighters loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud battled in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley on Thursday, more than two weeks after the Islamist militia seized power, as Taliban leaders in the capital, Kabul, worked to form a government.

Panjshir is the last province resisting rule by the Taliban, who retook control of the country as US and foreign troops withdrew after 20 years of conflict following the September 11 attacks on the United States. Each side made competing claims about territorial gains and inflicting heavy casualties.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: “We started operations after negotiation with the local armed group failed.” Taliban fighters had entered Panjshir and taken control of some territory, he said. “They [the enemy] suffered heavy losses.”

A spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) rebel grouping said it had full control of all passes and entrances and had driven back efforts to take Shotul district. ...

Panjshir valley, north of Kabul in the Hindu Kush, was a resistance stronghold for decades, first against the Soviets in the 1980s, then against the Taliban in the 1990s. It is still dotted with rusting tanks from the fights of those decades.

Taliban expected to announce new government

The Taliban are expected to announce a new government in Afghanistan within hours, as chaos in the country deepened and aid experts warned of imminent economic collapse. More than two weeks after the Islamist militia seized control, sources told Agence-France Presse that the cabinet could be presented after morning prayers on Friday and Ahmadullah Muttaqi, a Taliban official, said on social media that a ceremony was being prepared at the presidential palace in Kabul.

The private broadcaster Tolo said an announcement was imminent. The movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, is expected to have ultimate power over a new governing council, with a president below him, Taliban officials have said.

The Islamist militants governed Afghanistan through an unelected leadership council, brutally enforcing a radical form of sharia law, from 1996 until 2001, when they were ousted by US-led forces. Since their return, they have promised a softer brand of rule. ...

Haibatullah, a religious scholar from Kandahar whose son was a suicide bomber, is expected to play a theocratic role similar to that played by Iran’s supreme leader. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder and deputy leader of the movement who was imprisoned in Pakistan, is likely to be appointed head of government. Other Taliban officials expected to hold senior positions include Sirajuddin Haqqani, another deputy leader, and Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Muhammad Omar, who died in 2013.

EU sets conditions for Taliban ties and Kabul presence

US used secret CIA base outside Kabul to evacuate Americans, 1,000 Afghan soldiers, families

The US reportedly used a secret CIA compound to rescue Americans, along with members of elite Afghan special forces, amid the chaos in and around the Kabul airport. The compound, known as the Eagle Base and located less than three miles north of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, was used to covertly get hundreds of US nationals and at least 1,000 Afghan commandos and their families out of the country, Politico reported, citing flight documents and three highly placed sources.

The evacuees were instructed to head out to the base in order to avoid security risks and the general chaos outside the airport, which was flooded by locals after the Afghan capital was seized by the Taliban on August 15. The diplomats communicated directly with US nationals, including when the embassy was urging Americans to stay away from the airport in the light of growing terrorist threats. Some people were flown from the base by helicopters to the Kabul airport and later airlifted to Germany, RT reported.

Glenn Greenwald: Obama Alum ADMITS To Trapping Edward Snowden In Moscow, Then LIED About It

AP sources: Intel shows extremists to attend Capitol rally

Far right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are planning to attend a rally later this month at the U.S. Capitol that is designed to demand “justice” for the hundreds of people who have been charged in connection with January’s insurrection, according to three people familiar with intelligence gathered by federal officials. ...

The planned Sept. 18 rally at the Capitol comes as a jittery Washington has seen a series of troubling one-off incidents — including, most recently, a man who parked a pickup truck near the Library of Congress and said he had a bomb and detonator. Among the most concerning events: A series of unexploded pipe bombs placed around the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection remain unexplained and no suspect has been charged.

FBI Used SPY PLANES To Surveil Suspected Extremist For 400+ Hours WITHOUT A Warrant

'Abolish the Senate': Manchin Blasted for Urging 'Pause' to Dems' $3.5T Spending Plan

With dozens dead across the Eastern United States in the wake of Hurricane Ida this week, Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday drew the ire of progressives by opposing Democrats' plan to quickly pass a $3.5 trillion package that would improve social programs and tackle the climate emergency.

The youth-led Sunrise Movement delivered a concise response to Manchin's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which the West Virginia Democrat outlined a position that jeopardizes not only the $3.5 trillion package his party aims to advance using the budget reconciliation process—due to the threat of a GOP filibuster in the Senate—but also a smaller bipartisan infrastructure bill.

"Abolish the Senate," said Sunrise Movement communications director Ellen Sciales, whose family home flooded late Wednesday as the remnants of Ida struck the Northeast.

Senate Democrats, including Manchin, approved the budget blueprint for the $3.5 trillion package in mid-August, and the House passed it along party lines nearly two weeks later. President Joe Biden supports Democrats' plans to swiftly pass both that package—for which party leaders are now crafting formal legislation—and the bipartisan bill.

However, Manchin argued in an op-ed described by critics as "laughable" that "instead of rushing to spend trillions on new government programs and additional stimulus funding, Congress should hit a strategic pause on the budget reconciliation legislation."

The right-wing Democrat—who has had a key role in negotiations with the White House about legislation investing in physical and human infrastructure—wrote in part:

A pause is warranted because it will provide more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic, and it will allow us to determine whether inflation is transitory or not. While some have suggested this reconciliation legislation must be passed now, I believe that making budgetary decisions under artificial political deadlines never leads to good policy or sound decisions. I have always said if I can't explain it, I can't vote for it, and I can't explain why my Democratic colleagues are rushing to spend $3.5 trillion.

Another reason to pause: We must allow for a complete reporting and analysis of the implications a multitrillion-dollar bill will have for this generation and the next. Such a strategic pause will allow every member of Congress to use the transparent committee process to debate: What should we fund, and what can we simply not afford?

I, for one, won't support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending, without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and debt have on existing government programs.

The Debt Collective pushed back on Twitter, declaring: "Debt is being weaponized here to commit extraordinary violence. Debt is being used as the alibi for mass extinction. Joe Manchin is using debt as a weapon and aiming it directly at your job, directly at your children, directly at our futures."

Citizens for Tax Justice said that "Sen. Manchin talks a lot about spending, the debt, and what we can and cannot afford, failing to mention even once that we could pay for it all by simply requiring the richest Americans and tax-dodging corporations to pay their fair share of taxes."

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) responded to the op-ed with photos of the damage that the storm and subsequent flooding did to his district overnight Wednesday. He asked, "How much destruction do we need to see before it's worth investing in our climate?"

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—who is among the progressives threatening to withhold support for the bipartisan bill unless lawmakers urgently advance the broader package—noted not only the impact of the storm but also fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil's reported lobbying of Manchin regarding infrastructure legislation.

Rather than Manchin's proposed pause on the popular reconciliation legislation, Ocasio-Cortez said, "maybe we hit the 'cancel' button on this so-called 'bipartisan' charade of an Exxon lobbyist-drafted infrastructure bill unless we actually pass a law that helps people's lives with healthcare expansion, childcare, climate action, etc."

As Common Dreams has reported, progressives have condemned the bipartisan measure for funding "false" climate solutions and pointed to it as proof that it is necessary to simultaneously advance a $3.5 trillion bill.

"Alternatively," Ocasio-Cortez added, "if we want to bring down the $3.5 [trillion] we can bring back taxing the rich and boosting IRS enforcement that [moderates] originally worked so hard to trim back!"

Writer Zach Carter suggested that Manchin's op-ed "is all-in for tanking the Biden presidency" and whatever strategy Biden and Democratic leadership are pursuing with him "isn't working."

"Manchin has had [about six] months to learn what this bill does," Carter noted. "He's been involved in serious negotiations over it all year. He now says that he has no idea what the bill does. And he thinks that's a smart thing to say in public."

"It's really not hard to figure out what's on the agenda," he added, pointing to a White House fact sheet. "The public can read about it on the internet. Manchin is begging people to believe that he's a fool."

Squad Won't Protest Pelosi Over Eviction Moratorium Extension

Staggering US wealth inequality heaps long-term harm on to minority children

African American children are suffering long-term disadvantages as a result of vast and growing disparities in the wealth of US families, with Black families with kids having access to barely 1 cent for every dollar enjoyed by their white counterparts.

The shocking racial wealth gap between families, and its impact on Black and Hispanic kids, is revealed in groundbreaking new research by scholars on US inequality. It shows that the basic wealth levels of families from different racial and ethnic backgrounds have diverged to such a stark degree in the past three decades that the future prospects of children from lower-wealth groups are likely to be grossly compromised.

In 2019, the median wealth level for a white family with children in the US was $63,838. The same statistic for a Black family with children was $808. Hispanic families with kids fare little better. They have a median wealth of $3,175, which equates to 5 cents for every dollar of wealth in an equivalent white household. “A relatively small group of parents – mostly white – control the lion’s share of the wealth available to children,” the authors conclude. ...

Christina Gibson-Davis, a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke University who is co-editor of the new research, pointed to one of its central findings – that wealth inequality between American families has become so extreme that 1% of parents control 44% of all wealth held by households with children, while the top 10% control 82%. “When the top 10% of parents control 82% of all the wealth in child households, that opens up opportunities and choices they make for their children that are not available to the bottom 90%,” Gibson-Davis said.

Such glaring disparities profoundly influence kids’ potential as they emerge into adulthood. They touch aspects of life that can make or break a child’s life, including the neighborhood they live in, the schools they attend, how secure they feel, how well they perform in exams, their behavioral record, and their health.

Statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee in Virginia’s capitol can be removed, court rules

The supreme court of Virginia ruled on Thursday that the state can take down an enormous statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee that became a symbol of racial injustice as it towered over Monument Avenue in the state’s capital for more than a century.

The court’s ruling came in two lawsuits filed by residents who attempted to block removal of the 21ft (6meter) bronze equestrian sculpture, which shows Lee in military attire atop a 40ft pedestal.

Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, announced his decision to remove it in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked protests over police brutality and racism in cities across the country, including Richmond. The nationally recognized statue became the center of a protest movement in Virginia after Floyd’s death and its base is now covered with graffiti.

Ex-prosecutor indicted for allegedly shielding men in Ahmaud Arbery case

A former Georgia prosecutor involved in the case of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing has been indicted on charges of misconduct for allegedly using her position to shield the men who chased and shot Arbery as he went for a run in February 2020. Jackie Johnson, a former district attorney on the Brunswick judicial circuit, was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday on charges of violating her oath of office and hindering a law enforcement officer.

Arbery was killed when a white father and son, Greg and Travis McMichael, armed themselves and pursued the 25-year-old black man in a pickup truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood outside the coastal city of Brunswick. ...

Greg McMichael had worked as an investigator in Johnson’s office, having retired in 2019. Evidence introduced in pre-trial hearings in the murder case shows he called Johnson’s cellphone and left her a voice message soon after the shooting occurred. “Jackie, this is Greg,” he said, according to a recording of the call included in the public case file. “Could you call me as soon as you possibly can? My son and I have been involved in a shooting and I need some advice right away.”

A record of Greg McMichael’s cellphone calls that day does not show that Johnson called him back.

The indictment says Johnson showed “favor and affection” toward Greg McMichael in the investigation and interfered with police officers at the scene by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest”.

Lee Merritt, an attorney for Arbery’s mother, said in a statement on Thursday that prosecutors “must be held accountable when they interfere with investigations in order to protect friends and law enforcement”.

TikTokers flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports and porn

Pro-choice users on TikTok and Reddit have launched a guerrilla effort to thwart Texas’s extreme new abortion law, flooding an online tip website that encourages people to report violators of the law with false reports, Shrek memes, and porn.

The law makes it illegal to help women in Texas access abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. To help enforce it, anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life established the digital tipline where people can send anonymous information about potential violations. “Any Texan can bring a lawsuit against an abortionist or someone aiding and abetting an abortion after six weeks,” the website reads, and those proved to be violating the law can be fined a minimum of $10,000. An online form allows anyone to submit an anonymous “report” of someone illegally obtaining an abortion, including a section where images can be uploaded for proof.

But pro-choice users had other ideas, bombarding the site with false reports and fabricated data through a campaign primarily organized on Reddit and TikTok. Though the site was launched a month ago, the fake reports came flooding in on the eve of the bill’s enactment. One TikTok user said they had submitted 742 fake reports of the governor Greg Abbott getting illegal abortions. In a tongue-in-cheek caption, the user encouraged others to do the same: “It would be a shame if TikTok crashed the ProLifeWhistleBlower website”.

Redditors said they had submitted reports blaming the state of Texas for facilitating abortions by having highways that allow people to travel to the procedure.

Dems Still Blaming Susan Sarandon For Current Failures!

Dems Stalled Abortion Protections In A Committee

The Supreme Court’s decision to let an extreme Texas anti-abortion law stand has touched off yet another round of outraged tweets, press releases, and declarations insinuating that while the situation is awful and while the court needs to be overhauled, there is nothing that can be done right now to halt America’s inexorable lurch toward the Republic of Gilead. This is, in a word, garbage — and it is garbage with a pernicious purpose. Yes, America needs presidents who appoint more sane Supreme Court justices over the next few decades. And yes, the initiatives to expand the court and time-limit judicial terms are important over the long haul. But as Texas empowers anti-abortion activists to become bounty hunters, something can be done in the here and now.

Democrats in Washington control Congress and the White House, two branches of government that have the power to preempt not only the Texas law, but also stop any copycat anti-abortion laws that other Republican states now race to pass. This is something Democratic lawmakers can do today — this very minute — to protect women’s health. They don’t have to wait 18 more days until their summer vacation is over, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested Thursday. They can do it right now. And if they once again opt to cite filibuster rules they have the power to change or if they manufacture some other fake reason for inaction — then they are willfully choosing to take the side of the anti-abortion extremists.

I suspect we’re going to look back at this moment, where a Democratic majority won’t end the filibuster and expand the court to protect voting rights and reproductive freedom, as the last window there was to hold this democracy thing together

— Joe Rospars (@rospars) September 2, 2021

The reason the Democrats have the power to invalidate the Texas law goes back to the underpinnings of Roe v. Wade. That case legalizing abortion became the law of the land through court precedent — an inherently fragile state of affairs that has now allowed five unelected extremists on the Supreme Court to wake up one day and decide to ignore it. They can do so because Roe’s precedent has never been explicitly legislated as a federal statutory protection. Yes, you read that right: Since the Roe decision in 1973, Democrats in Washington have never bothered to codify the precedent as a federal law, even when they have held both houses of Congress and the presidency. (Though some Democratic states have passed their own abortion protections.) The same story has now unfolded during the first seven months of the Biden presidency, allowing Texas Republicans and Supreme Court extremists to take advantage of the negligence. ...

There is already legislation introduced in Congress to [fix] this. It is called the Women’s Health Protection Act, it already has 48 sponsors in the Senate, and its core precepts are wildly popular according to survey data. ... And yet as Republican legislators in states across the country have been passing laws to try to restrict abortion, Democrats didn’t even introduce the latest version of this bill until June, even though there have been versions of it going back to at least 2013. And then, after Democrats finally introduced it again, the legislation has been languishing in a committee — all while Democrats have been raising money off their promises to protect a woman’s right to choose.

Climate crisis likely creating extreme winter weather events, says report

The climate crisis has not only been leaving deadly heatwaves and more destructive hurricanes in its wake, but also probably creating extreme winter weather events, according to a new report released on Thursday by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journal Science.

Climate change has long been associated with such extreme weather events as the hurricane that just struck the Gulf coast over the weekend, knocking out power for over a million people and leaving several people dead, and the deadly heatwaves across the Pacific north-west earlier this summer. But scientists have long wrestled with the connection between the uptick in such severe winter weather events as powerful snowfalls and atypical cold snaps across the northern hemisphere, and accelerated Arctic warming, or Arctic amplification, one of the hallmarks of global warming.

The new report, titled Linking Arctic variability and change with extreme winter weather in the United States, has helped to clarify that connection. Its authors argued that this type of Arctic change actually increased the chances of tightly spinning winds above the North Pole, known as the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex, being stretched and thus boosting the chances of extreme weather events in the US and beyond. ...

In the future, the study’s findings could have a major impact when it comes to warnings before extreme cold weather events. The report explained: “The identification of the precursor pattern to stretching events can potentially extend the warning lead time of cold extremes in Asia, Canada and the United States.” It could also help policymakers, like those in Texas, who typically have not been focused on preparing their infrastructure and residents for extreme cold, start to make important and potentially life-saving arrangements before the next major storm.

Why was Ida so devastating as it flooded the US Northeast?

'When We Drill, We Spill': Climate-Fueled Ida Behind Suspected Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico

As Louisiana residents and officials begin the recovery process in the wake of Hurricane Ida, environmental campaigners responded Thursday to reporting of a suspected oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by saying such scenes "are reminders that when we drill, we spill."

"On top of the devastation that people are still experiencing onshore, we are now learning about an oil slick in the Gulf, not far from the Louisiana coast," said Kelsey Lamp, Protect our Oceans campaign director with Environment America, in a statement.

"The Americans whose lives Ida has upended have enough to deal with already—they shouldn't have to worry about poisoned ocean life and polluted shorelines," she declared.

The campaigner's comments came in response to the Associated Press reviewing aerial survey imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing "what appears to be a miles-long oil slick near an offshore rig" following the Category 4 hurricane.

"The government imagery, along with additional photos taken by the AP from a helicopter Tuesday, also show Louisiana port facilities, oil refineries, and shipyards in the storm's path where the telltale rainbow sheen typical of oil and fuel spills is visible in the water of bays and bayous," the news outlet noted.

According to the AP:

Both state and federal regulators said Wednesday that they had been unable to reach the stricken area, citing challenging conditions in the disaster zone.

The NOAA photos show a black slick floating in the Gulf near a large rig with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling painted on its helipad. The company, based in Houston, did not respond to requests for comment by phone or email Wednesday.

Aerial photos taken by NOAA on Tuesday also show significant flooding to the massive Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery along the bank of the Mississippi River, just south of New Orleans. In some sections of the refinery, rainbow sheen is visible on the water leading toward the river.

Lamp said that "this is yet another reminder of the major risks posed by offshore drilling for dirty, dangerous fossil fuels we increasingly don't need because of our increased capacity for solar and other renewable energy."

"Simply put, when oil companies drill, they spill," she added. "That's why we are continuing to urge the Biden administration to consider the true cost of offshore drilling, and end the practice for good." ...

That potential spill isn't the only pollution generating concern after Ida, as the New York Times reported Wednesday:

A fertilizer plant battered by Hurricane Ida belched highly toxic anhydrous ammonia into the air. Two damaged gas pipelines leaked isobutane and propylene, flammable chemicals that are hazardous to human health. And a plastic plant that lost power in the storm's aftermath is emitting ethylene dichloride, yet another toxic substance.

Early incident reports filed with the federal authorities are starting to paint a clearer picture of the damage wrought by the hurricane to Louisiana's industrial corridor, complicating relief efforts and adding to the conditions that make it perilous for residents to return.

Shortly after Ida—which one reporter described as "the poster child for a climate change-driven disaster"—struck Louisiana, Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash charged that "Biden must declare a climate emergency to mobilize the federal government towards addressing these climate disasters and tackling the climate crisis head on."

Following the fatal flooding in and around New York City, the youth-led climate group pointed to the storm as evidence that the president and Congress can't compromise on a $3.5 trillion Build Back Better reconciliation package Democrats are developing to pass without GOP support.

"New York is collapsing, New Orleans is still powerless, our loved ones are still missing, and compromise on our infrastructure is still on the table. This is unacceptable," said Sunrise communications director Ellen Sciales, whose family home flooded late Wednesday. "We are running out of time to act on the climate crisis and we need a Green New Deal now."

Caldor fire: changing winds offer hope as firefighters battle blaze near Lake Tahoe

With winds finally turning in their favor, firefighters are throwing all their resources into boxing a California blaze burning mere miles from Lake Tahoe and neighboring Nevada. Three days of fiercely gusting winds had driven the Caldor fire east through the rugged Sierra Nevada, forcing tens of thousands of people from the region of forests, mountain hamlets, resorts and alpine lakes.

Overnight, thousands of firefighters from around the US battled the blaze, which by Thursday morning stretched across roughly 210,259 acres (850 sq km), and achieved 25% containment.

Winds were expected to calm heading into the weekend, although the humidity remained low and the eastern side of the vast wildfire was still burning trees and running through explosively dry grasslands into areas hard for firefighters to reach, authorities said. The blaze was also throwing sparks that caught trees and created spot fires up to a mile ahead of the main wall of flames. “We’re battling what we can battle and waiting for those winds to subside,” said Stephen Vollmer, a fire behavior analyst for the California department of forestry and fire protection.

Even so, the forecast made fire officials cautiously optimistic. Easing winds could allow fire crews to get into densely forested areas to begin clearing toppled trees and branches that had blocked routes to remote communities, thus making it safer for evacuees to return to areas that burned soon after the fire ignited on 14 August, Vollmer said.

Meanwhile, smoke from the fires is choking large parts of the west, and at times has reached across the country. Air quality in South Lake Tahoe became the most hazardous in the world, worrying researchers who said the toxic air caused by the wildfires is more hazardous to breathe than other types of air pollution. “Wildfire smoke has a different chemical composition and different health effects than traffic pollution,” said the UCLA environmental health professor Yifang Zhu in a statement. She has also studied how the thick haze can contribute to the spread of Covid. “People who are exposed to air pollution containing high levels of particulate matter are more susceptible to Covid,” she said.

Also of Interest

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

‘Blinded by police’: my search for fellow survivors of an alarming trend

The Newspaper That Smeared Corbyn & the Left

How elite US institutions created Afghanistan’s neoliberal President Ashraf Ghani, who stole $169 million from his country

Texas now has abortion ‘bounty hunters’: read Sonia Sotomayor’s scathing legal dissent

Texas’s Effective Anti-Abortion Law

Roe v Wade died with barely a whimper.

Meet The Censored: Ivermectin Critic David Fuller

On The Breeding Of Money

More than 40 killed in US north-east amid sudden heavy rains and flooding

‘I feel abandoned’: New Orleanians swelter through days without power

Louisiana Black-out: Not an Act of God, an Act of Entergy

'America Has a Monopoly Problem': Coalition Backs Legislation to Break Up Big Tech

A Little Night Music

R. L. Burnside - Rollin and Tumblin

R. L. Burnside - Someday Baby

R.L. Burnside - I'm Goin' With you Babe

R.L. Burnside on Late Night with Conan - Miss Maybelle

RL Burnside - 44 Pistol

R L Burnside - Fireman Ring The Bell

R L Burnside - Peaches

R L Burnside - Shake 'em On Down

R.L.Burnside - It's bad you know

R.L.Burnside - Old Black Mattie