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"Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable ... The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us."

-- John F. Kennedy

News and Opinion

Biden hit with backlash over removal of Pentagon’s top nuclear policy official

Lawmakers on both sides of nuclear weapons issues want answers after the lead Pentagon official overseeing the Nuclear Posture Review was ousted after nine months on the job and her position eliminated.

The Pentagon is saying the departure of Leonor Tomero, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, was due to a reorganization. However, non-proliferation advocates are questioning whether it was because Tomero was an advocate for nuclear restraint, and worry it could bias the review away from President Joe Biden’s pursuit of arms control.

“Congress needs to understand whether ideology played any role in Ms. Tomero’s dismissal,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a proponent of nuclear arms control and nonproliferation, wrote in a Sept. 24 letter to Biden that included nearly a dozen questions.

“I am also concerned that the sudden departure of a top appointee, charged with presenting you options on the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise, will result in a draft Nuclear Posture Review that reflects the Cold War era’s overreliance on nuclear weapons, rather than your lifetime of work championing policies that reduce nuclear weapons risks,” the senator added. ...

While on the campaign trail, Biden expressed a desire to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. strategy, and his website says their “sole purpose” is to deter and, if needed, retaliate against a nuclear attack. But there are heated divisions in Congress over the best response to Russian and Chinese nuclear behavior as well as the growing cost of the U.S. nuclear modernization program.

Assange Kidnapping Plot Sheds New Light On COMPLICITY Of Congress

US Afghanistan withdrawal a ‘logistical success but strategic failure’, Milley says

The withdrawal from Afghanistan and the evacuation of Kabul was “a logistical success but a strategic failure,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has told the Senate. Gen Mark Milley gave the stark assessment at an extraordinary hearing of the Senate armed services committee to examine the US departure, which also became a postmortem on the 20-year war that preceded it.

Milley appeared alongside the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the head of US Central Command, Gen Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie, in the most intense, heated cross-examination of the country’s military leadership in more than a decade. At one point, Milley was obliged to defend his loyalty to his country, in the face of allegations of insubordination in last weeks of the Trump administration, and to explain why he had not resigned in the course of the chaotic Afghan pullout. ...

Milley, Austin and McKenzie all confirmed that when the Biden administration was considering its policy on Afghanistan in its first few months in office, they had believed a small US force of about 2,500 should remain. None could explain Joe Biden’s claim in an interview last month that he had not received any such advice. “No one said that to me that I can recall,” Biden told ABC News on 19 August.

Top Gens. ADMIT They Wanted To Stay In Afghanistan, Fund Military Industrial Complex For ENDLESS War

North Korea says it fired new hypersonic missile into sea

North Korea has fired what it described as a hypersonic missile towards the sea off its east coast, as Pyongyang repeated a call for Washington and Seoul to scrap their “hostile policy” to restart talks.

On Wednesday, North Korea said it was a newly developed hypersonic missile. The official KCNA news agency said the launch was of “great strategic significance”, as the North seeks to increase its defence capabilities a “thousand-fold”.

The missile was launched from the central north province of Jagang at around 6.40am on Tuesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said. Japan’s defence ministry said it appeared to be a ballistic missile.

Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more nimble than ordinary ones, making them much harder for missile defence systems – on which the US is spending billions – to intercept.

Settlers storm Al-Aqsa mosque and raise Israeli flags

Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Monday stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City and raised Israeli flags, in a move seen as "provocative" by Palestinians. Over 770 Israeli settlers, accompanied by security officers, broke into the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Monday morning and again in the afternoon, local media reported.

They entered through the Moroccan Gate on the western side of the site, which the Israeli authorities have controlled since the beginning of the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967.

A settler raised an Israeli flag in the area outside Al-Aqsa Mosque, while Israeli police restricted Palestinians from entering the compound during the settlers' tour. One Palestinian man was arrested when he attempted to obstruct the settlers' tour by praying in their path.

Yanis Varoufakis on Angela Merkel’s Legacy, European Politics & the “Sordid Arms Race” on the Seas

North Carolina hospitals group has sacked employees who refused vaccines

A North Carolina hospital system has terminated about 175 employees in the latest in a slew of healthcare terminations due to Covid vaccine mandates, reports the Washington Post.

Novant Health, whose headquarters are about an hour and a half away from North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh, announced on Monday that it had fired the employees for failing to comply with the organization’s mandatory vaccine policy. “We stand by our decision to make the vaccine mandatory as we have a responsibility to protect our patients, visitors and team members, regardless of where they are in our health system,” said Novant Health in a statement.

The mass firing is one in a series of vaccine mandate terminations in the healthcare field. Previously, more than 150 healthcare workers employed at Houston Methodist Hospital were either fired or resigned after a hospital-wide vaccine mandate, one of the first vaccination requirements in a healthcare setting.

Originally, approximately 375 unvaccinated employees from Novant Health, spanning 15 hospitals and 800 clinics, were suspended for not getting vaccinated and given five days to comply. About 200 of the suspended employees received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by Friday, tweeted Novant Health spokesperson Megan Rivers, meaning 99% of Novant Health’s approximately 35,000 employees followed the vaccine mandate. The rest of the workers were dismissed, though an exact number has not been confirmed.

Covid: 37% of people have symptoms six months after infection

One in three people infected with coronavirus will experience at least one symptom of long Covid, a new study suggests. Much of the existing research into the condition – a mixture of symptoms reported by people often months after they were originally ill with Covid-19 – has been based either on self-reported symptoms or small studies.

Now researchers at the University of Oxford, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) have shed fresh light on the scale of the problem after studying more than 270,000 people recovering from coronavirus in the US. They found 37% of patients had at least one long Covid symptom diagnosed three to six months after infection. The most common symptoms were breathing problems, abdominal symptoms, fatigue, pain and anxiety or depression. ...

Severity of infection, age, and sex affected the likelihood of long Covid symptoms, according to the data from the US-based TriNetX electronic health record network. Long Covid symptoms were more frequent in those who had been hospitalised, and they were slightly more common in women, the study published in the journal PLOS Medicine showed.

Different factors also influenced which of the symptoms people were most likely to experience. For example, older people and men had more breathing difficulties and cognitive problems, whereas young people and women had more headaches, abdominal symptoms and anxiety or depression.

Covid can infect cells in pancreas that make insulin, research shows

Covid-19 can infect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and change their function, potentially explaining why some previously healthy people develop diabetes after catching the virus. Doctors are increasingly concerned about the growing number of patients who have developed diabetes either while infected with coronavirus, or shortly after recovering from it.

Various theories have been put forward to explain this increase. One is that the virus infects pancreatic cells via the same ACE2 receptor found on the surface of lung cells, and interferes with their ability to produce insulin – a hormone that helps the body to regulate levels of glucose in the blood; alternatively, an over exuberant antibody response to the virus could accidentally damage pancreatic cells, or inflammation elsewhere in the body may be making tissues less responsive to insulin.

To investigate, Prof Shuibing Chen at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York screened various cells and organoids – lab-grown clusters of cells that mimic the function of organs – to identify which could be infected by Covid. The results suggested that lung, colon, heart, liver, and pancreatic organoids could all be infected, as could dopamine-producing brain cells.

Further experiments revealed that insulin-producing beta cells within the pancreas were also susceptible, and that once infected, these cells produced less insulin, as well as hormones usually manufactured by different pancreatic cells.

Media IGNORES Insane Federal Reserve Corruption, Resignations

Elizabeth Warren tells Fed chair he is ‘dangerous’ and opposes renomination

Senator Elizabeth Warren called the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, “a dangerous man” on Tuesday and vowed to oppose his renomination.

In remarks during a hearing before the Senate banking committee, Warren said that under Powell the Fed had watered down post financial-crisis bank regulations and weakened the US banking system. “Your record gives me grave concerns,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “Over and over, you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed, and it’s why I will oppose your renomination.”

Powell did not respond.

Warren said deregulation could trigger a meltdown in financial markets similar to the one the US experienced during the 2008-09 crisis. She said Powell had been “lucky” that banks thus far had been able to avoid major problems.

“Hold the Line!”: Can Progressives Force Passage of $3.5T Package to Expand the Social Safety Net?

Bernie To House Progressives: Hold Strong

House progressives gathered privately on Tuesday afternoon and re-committed to blocking any effort to split the bipartisan infrastructure bill away from the broader reconciliation package, which includes the bulk of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. The pledge comes after Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened Monday to de-link the two, risking key elements of the Biden agenda. According to a public whip count, 24 House progressives have stated their commitment to vote against the infrastructure bill unless it is passed with the reconciliation bill. During the meeting, at least ten members of Congress not on the list also spoke in support of the strategy, pledging to vote no on Thursday if the bipartisan bill comes to the floor, two sources on the call said.

In response to questions from The American Prospect, The Intercept, and The Daily Poster, a handful of other Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) members, including Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., pronounced themselves on the fence leading up to the Thursday infrastructure vote.

In the meeting, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., the whip for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told members that she had just been on the phone with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., who warned that if progressives let the bipartisan bill go through, the Senate is unlikely to pass the reconciliation package. Two Democrats serving in swing districts made the same argument on the call, suggesting that anybody who believed the Senate would pass the reconciliation bill without its hand being forced was fooling themselves, and would wind up with no concrete achievements to run on for re-election.

On the call, more than two dozen members spoke, with not a single one saying they would vote yes on the bipartisan bill. Rep. Katie Porter of California, a so-called “frontliner” who represents a swing district, urged other frontliners to see the political upside in getting both pieces through, arguing that the reconciliation package would deliver immediate benefits. “Those are things that will immediately begin to improve the lives of Americans and will begin to immediately improve our economy,” Porter told the Washington Post in an interview Tuesday, making a similar point. “Democratic members, regardless of your district’s composition, this is what voters want.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., has refused to even offer a topline spending figure for the reconciliation bill, even after Biden asked him for one in a White House meeting last week.

Pelosi, Biden's INCOMPETENCE Makes Them Worse Than Obama

Sunrise Movement Warns of 'Betrayal' as Pelosi Bends Toward Corporate Democrats

The youth-led Sunrise Movement on Tuesday accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of "betrayal" after she walked back her promise to ensure that Democrats' reconciliation package passes Congress before the House votes on a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

"It's honestly absurd to us that Speaker Pelosi has gone back on her word and become a pawn for a small group of representatives bought out by the fossil fuel industry," Sunrise executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement, referring to conservative Democrats who favor the bipartisan bill, which climate groups have strongly criticized.

"Any Democrat who votes for the bipartisan bill ahead of reconciliation," Prakash added, "is doing it at the expense of our generation and we will not forget."

Prakash's comments came after Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly said during a private Democratic caucus meeting on Monday that "we can't be ready to say, 'Until the Senate passes the [reconciliation] bill, we can't do [the bipartisan measure]." The American Prospect's David Dayen described the House Speaker's remarks as an attempt to "bulldoze progressives." ...

According to Politico, "Pelosi and her leadership team—as well as progressive and moderate leaders—have been furiously working behind the scenes to come up with a compromise that all corners of the party can back."

"They hope that so-called 'framework' would be enough for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the Congressional Progressive Caucus chief, to steer liberals to vote for the infrastructure bill, avoiding a humiliating defeat for leadership and the White House on Thursday," the outlet reported.

But Jayapal stressed late Monday that she will not accept a mere "pinkie promise" from leadership on the reconciliation package, which congressional committees are working to finalize as conservative Democrats continue to gripe over proposed tax hikes on the rich, Medicare expansion, and other popular elements of the plan.

Krystal Ball to Dems: Stop SCREWING AROUND and MINT THE COIN

Will A New Political Movement DESTROY Corrupt Ruling Class in Rhode Island?

Air pollution likely cause of up to 6m premature births, study finds

Air pollution is likely to have been responsible for up to 6 million premature births and 3 million underweight babies worldwide every year, research shows. The analysis, which combines the results of multiple scientific studies, is the first to calculate the total global burden of outdoor and indoor air pollution combined.

Indoor pollution, mostly from cooking stoves burning solid fuel such as coal or wood, made up almost two-thirds of the total pollution burden on pregnancies in 2019, according to the latest findings. This is especially true in developing areas, such as in some parts of south-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

“At an individual level, indoor air pollution exposure appears to carry a much higher burden compared to outdoor levels,” said Rakesh Ghosh, an epidemiologist at University of California, San Francisco and lead researcher on the paper, published in the journal Plos Medicine. “So, minimising household pollution exposure, to the extent possible, should be part of the message during prenatal care, especially where household pollution is prevalent.” ...

For this study, Ghosh’s team examined 108 research papers on indoor and outdoor pollution in correlation with four main pregnancy risks – gestational age at birth, reduction in birthweight, low birth weight, and premature birth – for 204 countries. After controlling for risk factors such as pregnancy weight, smoking and alcohol use and nutrition, the researchers found air pollution was a leading cause of low birth weight and premature birth. The latter is a main cause of the 15 million newborn deaths worldwide each year.

Frustrated Tribal Leaders Urge Biden to Immediately Restore Bears Ears Monument

Amid increasing frustration, leaders of two Native American tribes are calling on President Joe Biden to "take immediate action" to restore and enlarge Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, according to a letter published Tuesday by The Washington Post.

In the letter, Hopi Tribal Vice Chair Clark W. Tenakhongva and Navajo Nation representative Henry Stevens Jr. note that eight months have passed since Biden, on his first day in office, signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to conduct a comprehensive review of former President Donald Trump's 85% reduction of the 1.35 million-acre reserve, the result of a December 2017 presidential proclamation.

They also point out that it has been three months since Interior Secretary Deb Haaland submitted a report on the matter to the president.

"Each day that passes without national monument protection for numerous sacred sites and irreplaceable cultural resources risks desecration, looting, vandalism, and misinformed visitation that inspired the creation of the Antiquities Act," the tribal leaders write, referring to the 1906 law designed to prevent the theft of Indigenous artifacts from archaeological sites.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which followed tribes in suing the Trump administration over the reduction:

The ancestral homeland of several Native American tribes—the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Pueblo of Zuni—Bears Ears National Monument encompasses thousands of sites, including dwellings, kivas, granaries, and rock art, that hold deep cultural and religious importance to the tribes today.

Bears Ears also represents one of the most pristine, road-free areas in the contiguous United States, featuring a rugged labyrinth of sandstone canyons, cliffs and rock arches, meadows, and desert mesas.

Trump's proclamation replaced Bears Ears with two smaller noncontiguous reserves while leaving the remainder of the former monument open to mining, fossil fuel extraction, road construction, and other harmful activities. A separate presidential proclamation issued at the same time slashed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, also in Utah, by nearly half. Between the two monuments, nearly two million acres of formerly Indigenous federal public lands were stripped of legal protection.

In their letter, Tenakhongva and Stevens decry developments including "new water wells to expand opportunities for cattle grazing and an increase in permitting for motorized recreation and hardening and expansion of campgrounds" carried out without tribes "being collaboratively engaged."

"We have tried to be patient and respectful as we await your decision on restoration," the leaders write. "However, the longer action is not taken, real harm, much permanent, is occurring on this sacred landscape."

On her first official trip as interior chief, Haaland—the nation's first-ever Native American U.S. Cabinet secretary—met with Indigenous leaders, who told her they want the monument expanded to 1.9 million acres, not simply returned to its original size. Bears Ears was established as a 1.35 million-acre reserve by then-President Barack Obama in December 2016.

"This landscape is home to many historical and cultural sites, plants, water, traditional medicines, and teachings for our people," Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said at the time. "It also provided refuge for our people in times of conflict. Bears Ears is sacred and it deserves to be protected."

Also of Interest

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

At UN, Israel’s Bennett Hints at Military Action Against Iran

To Disparage Taliban NYT, CNN Quote Hoax Twitter Account, Create Fake Story

Vaccine-Only Mandates as a Manifestation of the Bizarre Civil War-Stoking Impulses of the Professional-Managerial Class in the US

The Advantage of Permission & The Fall Of Oligarchies

In deep red West Virginia, Biden’s $3.5tn spending proposal is immensely popular

‘Manchin Has Taken the Lead in Diluting Ethics Provisions’

There Is No ‘Good’ Form Of Capitalism: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

‘Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis

‘False choice’: is deep-sea mining required for an electric vehicle revolution?

Gibraltar cave chamber discovery could shed light on Neanderthals’ culture

Ryan Grim: Top Military Generals Should Face CHARGES For PERJURY, LIES About War In Afghanistan

Kim Iversen: Iron Dome Funding BOOSTS U.S. Defense Industry PROFITS, AOC Tearfully Votes ‘Present’

Hunter Biden Emails REVEAL Offer To UNFREEZE $30B In Libyan Assets, Reporter Details Washington BLOB

hat tip peachcreek:

The Public Continues to Underestimate COVID’s Age Discrimination

A Little Night Music

Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too

Tampa Red - Boogie Woogie Dance

Tampa Red - I'm A Stranger Here

Tampa Red - Love With A Feeling

Tampa Red - You Got To Reap What You Sow

Tampa Red - Let Me Play With Your Poodle

Tampa Red - Let's get drunk and truck

Tampa Red - Don't You Lie to Me

Tampa Red - Midnight Boogie

Tampa Red - I'm Gonna Get High