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This evening's music features blues singer and slide guitarist Mississippi Fred McDowell. Enjoy!

"To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war."

-- Winston Churchill

News and Opinion

Biden says he won’t send US troops to Ukraine to deter Russian threat

Joe Biden has said that he is not considering sending US troops to defend Ukraine in response to a Russian military buildup on the country’s borders. “That is not on the table,” he told reporters on Wednesday, one day after speaking directly with Vladimir Putin in an effort to avert a military crisis. ...

Biden also said that he was hoping to announce “meetings at a higher level” between Russia and at least four Nato members in an effort to address the Kremlin’s complaints about the military alliance. Biden said he hoped to be able to announce the meetings by Friday. The talks would include “at least four of our major Nato allies and Russia to discuss the future of Russia’s concerns relative to Nato writ large and … bringing down the temperature along the Eastern Front”.

Those talks could match the “discussion of strategic security on the continent” that Kremlin said it was expecting in remarks after the high-stakes talks between Biden and Putin. “I want to emphasise once again: the talks were very open, substantive, and I would say constructive. In any case, I hope the US side feels the same way about the results of our meeting,” Putin told reporters on Wednesday. “We can continue this dialogue. It seems to me that’s the main thing.”

Biden and Putin appeared to make little headway during their virtual summit on Tuesday, trading accusations over the Russian military buildup near Ukraine and the potential for new economic sanctions against Moscow. The US had not indicated it is ready to hold the same negotiations that the Kremlin wants. But the Kremlin statements indicate that Russia is not yet abandoning talks, while leaving an estimated 100,000 troops within striking distance of Ukraine.

Biden's DANGEROUS Foreign Policy On Ukraine, Saudi Arabia

CIA Director Says US Intelligence Hasn’t Concluded Russia Will Invade Ukraine

CIA Director William Burns on Monday said US intelligence agencies haven’t concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin has plans to invade Ukraine, contradicting recent media reports that said otherwise.

“We don’t know that Putin has made up his mind to use force,” Burns told The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit.

Last week, The Washington Post reported that US intelligence had found Russia has “plans” to invade Ukraine in early 2022. The media reports have added to the hysteria over the Ukraine situation, which could be used to justify more military aid to Ukraine and more US troops in the region.

Putin sets a new red line on NATO expansion

It is possible to actually measure Washington’s dishonesty. How big is it? It’s about 600 miles. In 1990, according to declassified documents, Secretary of State James Baker assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch” east of Germany. Thirty years ago, that was Russia’s red line.

On December 2, that red line moved from one inch to 600 miles as Vladimir Putin said he would now seek a promise that NATO would not expand further east to Ukraine.

Since these assurances, NATO has wandered its way through Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and Poland. Six hundred miles of broken pledges have brought the U.S. and NATO to the border of Ukraine.

On September 1, President Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Biden used code words for NATO encroachment when he pledged his “support for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations” and American support for Ukraine’s “being completely integrated in Europe.” He then announced “a new $60 million security assistance package” in addition to the $400 million in security assistance the U.S. has already provided Ukraine this year.

Having retreated 600 miles from Gorbachev’s red line, Putin drew a new red line on December 2, seeking “reliable and long-term security guarantees.” Those guarantees “would exclude any further NATO moves eastward and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory.”

Putin is keenly aware that the red line has moved east 600 miles. At the Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2007, Putin asked the world, “And what happened to the assurances our Western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them. But I will allow myself to remind this audience what was said. I would like to quote the speech of NATO General Secretary Mr. Woerner in Brussels on 17 May 1990. He said at the time that: ‘the fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.’ Where are these guarantees?”

“An Outrage”: House Passes Largest Military Budget in Generations Despite End of Afghanistan War

'Reckless Misuse of Resources': House Approves $778 Billion Military Budget

In bipartisan fashion, the U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday passed a sprawling military policy bill that contains nearly twice as much funding on an annual basis as Democrats' flagship social spending and climate bill.

That reality led Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, to slam the $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act as "a reckless misuse of resources, a windfall for war profiteers, and proof positive that most in Congress have little concern for the actual security of people in the United States or around the world."

"Little could be more revealing of our nation's broken budget priorities," Miles added, "than the fact that this rubberstamp of three-quarters of a trillion dollars for warmaking was prioritized and will soon pass with bipartisan support, while the Build Back Better Act—which would invest in meeting real human needs—has been watered down and pushed to the back burner."

The House passed the NDAA Tuesday night by a vote of 363-70, with the measure ultimately receiving more votes from Republicans than Democrats even though the latter control the chamber and led negotiations over the bill. Of the 70 no votes, 51 were Democrats.

In a tweet explaining his vote against the NDAA, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wrote that "it is astounding how quickly Congress moves weapons but we can't ensure housing, care, and justice for our veterans, nor invest in robust jobs programs for districts like mine."

"There was no CBO score needed," Bowman added, a jab at conservative Democrats who have complained incessantly about the size of the Build Back Better Act without raising similar concerns about the bloated military budget.

"No concern about the deficit," Bowman continued. "No mention of inflation."

The House-passed NDAA includes $25 billion more in spending than President Joe Biden requested in his budget blueprint earlier this year. As Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) pointed out, it would cost the federal government roughly $22.5 billion to fund 12 weeks of paid family leave for a year.

According to Defense News, the legislation in its current form contains "12 F/A-18 Super Hornets that were not requested; five more Boeing F-15EX jets than the request for 17 total; and 13 ships total—including two attack submarines and two destroyers―for five more than the request."

Additionally, as Miles noted, the bill "fails to end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen, excludes critical measures to rein in out-of-control executive war powers, and doubles down on a dangerous Cold War mindset towards China" with $7.1 billion for the so-called Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which progressives have deemed an "anti-China slush fund."

Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement that “as the national debate centers around how much is 'too much' to be spending on the true needs of the American people, it is unconscionable to approve three-quarters of a trillion dollars for war-making."

"What possible justification is there for throwing $768 billion at the Pentagon at the very same moment that we're being told there isn't enough money to provide dental care to seniors, establish a paid family leave, or provide free community college?" Weissman asked. "Why is there more money for the military-industrial complex—providing no additional protection for our national security and arguably diminishing it—at the same time the U.S. is refusing to spend the $25 billion needed to make enough additional vaccines to vaccinate the world?”

The NDAA now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass over the objections of progressives such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who have introduced amendments aimed at bringing the bill's spending levels back into line with Biden's request and redirecting 1% of Pentagon spending to global climate programs.

"Cutting the Pentagon’s budget could help fight threats like Covid, climate change, and more," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said following his no vote on the NDAA. "Our work to cut the Pentagon's budget and reallocate funds to help communities across the country is just beginning. The fight doesn't end tonight."

No evidence Iran has decided to weaponize nuclear program, CIA chief says

The head of the Central Intelligence Agency said Monday that the United States does not have evidence that Iran has made a decision to weaponize its nuclear program.

The US spy agency “doesn’t see any evidence that Iran’s Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] has made a decision to move to weaponize,” CIA Director William Burns told the Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council, according to CBS News.

The American Psychological Association Still Owes Guantanamo's Victims an Apology

Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the years since January 11, 2002, nearly 800 “detainees”—few with any meaningful connections to international terrorism—have been imprisoned there, where they have been subjected to abuse and, in some cases, torture. From the outset, members of my own profession—psychologists—played key roles in operations at Guantanamo, CIA “black sites,” and other overseas detention facilities. Their involvement included designing and implementing inhumane conditions of confinement and brutal techniques of interrogation.

Among the most pervasive of the methods used were solitary confinement, where prolonged isolation could extend for weeks or months, sometimes in empty cells and total darkness; sleep deprivation, in which prisoners were kept awake for days at a time by bright lights, loud music, intermittent slaps, or other noxious means; sexual and cultural humiliation, including forced nudity and sexually provocative and insulting behavior by interrogators; and the use of threats to generate fears of injury and death, ranging from snarling military dogs to confinement in coffin-like boxes to mock executions.

This, then, was the context six years ago when an extensive independent investigation uncovered compelling evidence that leaders of the American Psychological Association (APA)—the world’s largest organization of psychologists—had failed to adequately defend the profession’s fundamental do-no-harm ethical principles. Instead, they had opted to support and preserve the continuing involvement of psychologists in these operations, despite mounting reports of their complicity in “war on terror” excesses. In response to the investigation’s disturbing findings, the APA instituted a series of valuable ethics reforms and apologized to its membership and to psychologists worldwide for having abandoned the profession’s core values.

But the APA’s leadership has failed to issue the most important apology of all: to the hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere who have suffered grievous harm as the association pursued a misguided agenda. Whereas other human rights organizations decried the Bush Administration’s violations of international law and basic decency, the APA maintained that the participation of psychologists kept these much-maligned detention and interrogation operations “safe, legal, ethical, and effective." Rather than using its influence in the nation’s corridors of power to demand better protection for these prisoners, the APA chose to cast doubt on credible reports implicating psychologists in abusive and torturous treatment.

An official apology from the APA to the predominantly Muslim prisoners—and their families and communities—who have been victimized by the cruel, inhuman, and degrading misuse of psychological practice is now long overdue. The continuing absence of such an apology raises the worrisome prospect that the APA, after all these years, still remains unwilling to fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for the dire consequences linked to its apparent prioritization of political expediency and other considerations over professional ethics and human rights.

Psychologists and the APA should certainly understand the lasting impact of the extreme abuse suffered by many war-on-terror prisoners. Indeed, the deep psychic wounds of those tortured can persist without end. Survivors of psychological torture often experience overwhelming feelings of helplessness, shame, and disconnection from other people, the result of harrowing mistreatment at the hands of another human being. They can be haunted by post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression; by flashbacks and nightmares and by feelings that safety and solace are impossible to achieve.

These harms are vivid reminders that the victims of abuse and torture at Guantanamo deserve more than an apology. They are entitled to support for their long-term rehabilitation, and the APA should work to make this a reality. With both trauma-related expertise and considerable financial resources, the association is well-positioned to facilitate assistance to former prisoners and their families who are interested in obtaining mental health care. Substantial recurring contributions to organizations that provide relevant services should become a regular part of the APA’s own annual giving. Undoubtedly, the association should also join other human rights groups in publicly calling for the permanent closure of Guantanamo.

Beyond the benefits to Guantanamo’s survivors, an apology and related ameliorative actions can serve to demonstrate an ongoing commitment by the APA to remembering and repairing its past transgressions—and to avoiding them in the future.

Chilean presidential candidate’s father was member of Nazi party

The German-born father of Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast was a member of the Nazi party, according to a recently unearthed document – revelations that appear at odds with the far-right candidate’s own statements about his father’s military service during the second world war.

German officials have confirmed that an ID card in the country’s federal archive shows that an 18-year-old named Michael Kast joined the National Socialist German Workers’ party, or NSDAP, in September 1942, at the height of Hitler’s war on the Soviet Union.

While the federal archive couldn’t confirm whether Kast was the presidential contender’s father, the date and place of birth listed on the card matches that of Kast’s father, who died in 2014. A copy of the ID card, identified with the membership number 9271831, was previously posted on social media on 1 December by Chilean journalist Mauricio Weibel.

The ID card’s emergence adds a new twist to a highly charged presidential runoff billed on both sides as a battle of extremes and marked by a steady flow of disinformation that has distorted the record and campaign pledges of Kast’s opponent. ...

The latest opinion polls give a slight edge in the runoff to Boric, who has pivoted to the center to galvanize support from voters fearful of a return to the country’s tumultuous past. “This backs up Boric’s framing of the race as a dichotomy between fascism and democracy,” Jennifer Pribble, a Chile expert at the University of Richmond, said of the older Kast’s wartime record. “To the extent Kast seems to be hiding some element of his family’s history, it plays into that narrative.”

Victory for US immigration judges as Biden administration recognizes union

In a stunning victory, US immigration judges have settled a tense dispute with Joe Biden’s administration over their effort to restore union rights taken away from them under Donald Trump. Biden’s Department of Justice agreed on Tuesday to recognize the union as the exclusive representative for the nation’s immigration judges and follow the terms of their collective bargaining agreement, at least for the time being.

Days before reaching the settlement, the head of the federal immigration judges’ union had accused the Biden administration of “doubling down” on its predecessor’s efforts to freeze out their association even as they struggle with a backlog of almost 1.5m court cases and staff shortages, which exacerbate due process concerns in their courts. ...

Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ), had declared herself “mystified” that Biden’s Department of Justice would not negotiate with her members despite the US president vocally and frequently touting his support for workers’ representation. ... After what she described as “decades” of relatively smooth relations between the NAIJ and the Department of Justice, Donald Trump capped four years of rightwing immigration policy by successfully petitioning to strip hundreds of immigration judges of their right to unionize. ...

The justice department did clear the way in June for the judges’ union to at least ask for its rights back when the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) – home to the country’s immigration courts – withdrew opposition to the NAIJ’s motion for reconsideration. However, Tsankov said the administration had still been refusing to negotiate, which led the NAIJ to accuse the EOIR of unfair labor practices.

In a formal response to the complaint, EOIR stated that “in essence, the NAIJ is defunct”. Administration officials went so far as to file a motion to dismiss the NAIJ’s grievances about unfair labor practices, though the motion was denied. But on Tuesday, the administration changed its tune, agreeing to recognize the union and make other concessions in exchange for the NAIJ withdrawing its charges of unfair labor practices. The administration will continue to recognize the union unless the FLRA denies the motion for reconsideration.

Kellogg to replace 1,400 strikers as deal is rejected

Kellogg has said it is permanently replacing 1,400 workers who have been on strike since October, a decision that comes as the majority of its cereal plant workforce rejected a deal that would have provided 3% raises. The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said an overwhelming majority of workers had voted down the five-year offer.

The decision follows months of bitter disagreement between the company and the union. The rejected offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the workers’ current healthcare benefits. But workers say they deserve significant raises because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week, and they kept the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Employees have been striking since 5 October at plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. They make all of the company’s well-known brands of cereal, including Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes. The strike is expected to continue. ...

Kellogg said it would now move forward with plans to start hiring permanent replacements for the striking workers. The company has already been using salaried employees and outside workers to keep the plants operating during the strike.

“While certainly not the result we had hoped for, we must take the necessary steps to ensure business continuity,” said Chris Hood, president of Kellogg North America. “We have an obligation to our customers and consumers to continue to provide the cereals that they know and love.”

“Your Debt Is Someone Else’s Asset”: Calls Mount to Cancel Debt & Halt Wealth Transfer to the Rich

Biden Should Cancel Student Debt or Watch $85 Billion Evaporate From US Economy: Analysis

With a suspension of student loan payments scheduled to end early next year, three congressional Democrats on Wednesday cited a new economic analysis as they urged President Joe Biden to immediately cancel $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

The new analysis by the Roosevelt Institute—referenced in a letter that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) sent to the White House—details the positive effects of canceling student loan debt, as well as the negative consequences that can be expected if Biden chooses not to do so.

According to the report, if Biden sticks to his plan to restart student loan payments on February 1, 2022, the budgets of more than 18 million borrowers will take a collective hit of roughly $7 billion per month, draining $85 billion from the U.S. economy next year.

By contrast, if the president cancels $50,000 in student loan debt per person, which he has the legal authority to do, it could add more than $173 billion to the nation's GDP in the first year alone.

Surprise Medical Bills Coming to an End?

Daunte Wright killing: ex-officer Kim Potter violated her training, say prosecutors

The suburban Minneapolis police officer who killed Daunte Wright violated her training and “betrayed a 20-year-old kid” when she shot him with a handgun instead of a Taser during a traffic stop, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge began her opening statement at former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter’s manslaughter trial by telling jurors that a police officer’s fundamental duty is to protect the sanctity of life. She also said Potter had received extensive training, including in risks of firing the wrong weapon. “This is exactly what she had been trained for years to prevent,” prosecutor Erin Eldridge said. “But on April 11, she betrayed her badge and she failed Daunte Wright.”

Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Wright’s death in Brooklyn Center. Potter is white and Wright was Black. The former officer, who resigned two days after the shooting, has said she meant to use her Taser on Wright after he tried to drive away from a traffic stop as officers tried to arrest him, but that she grabbed her handgun instead. ...

A mostly white jury was seated last week in a case that sparked angry demonstrations outside the Brooklyn Center police station last spring. Those demonstrations, with protesters frequently clashing with police in riot gear, happened as former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin was on trial just 10 miles (16 kilometers) away for killing George Floyd.

Potter was training a new officer when they pulled Wright over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, according to a criminal complaint.

California could become ‘sanctuary’ for care amid threat to abortion access

California could become a “sanctuary” for people seeking reproductive care if the supreme court overturns Roe v Wade and dramatically curtails abortion access in the US.

The California Future of Abortion Council, made up of more than 40 abortion providers and advocacy groups, and lawmakers on Wednesday released a list of 45 recommendations for California to consider if the high court overturns the 48-year-old decision that forbids states from outlawing abortion.

The recommendations, crafted with help from some of the state’s most important policymakers, include possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people from other states. With an estimated $31bn surplus next year, the state has money in its coffers to fund abortion services for patients from other states.

“We’ll be a sanctuary,” said Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, adding he’s aware patients will likely travel to the state from elsewhere to seek abortions. “We are looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.” ...

The state has already seen the effect of abortion bans in other states. In 2020, Planned Parenthood, which comprises about half of California’s abortion clinics, said it served 7,000 people from other states. California affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, also reported a slight increase in patients from Texas when a law in that state outlawing the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect.

28 Years Of NAFTA: How It DESTROYED Dems, Elected Trump

Liberals SILENT As Biden Admin Persecutes Assange, Donziger

Microplastics cause damage to human cells, study shows

Microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory at the levels known to be eaten by people via their food, a study has found. The harm included cell death and allergic reactions and the research is the first to show this happens at levels relevant to human exposure. However, the health impact to the human body is uncertain because it is not known how long microplastics remain in the body before being excreted.

Microplastics pollution has contaminated the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People were already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in.

The research analysed 17 previous studies which looked at the toxicological impacts of microplastics on human cell lines. The scientists compared the level of microplastics at which damage was caused to the cells with the levels consumed by people through contaminated drinking water, seafood and table salt. They found specific types of harm – cell death, allergic response, and damage to cell walls – were caused by the levels of microplastics that people ingest.

“Harmful effects on cells are in many cases the initiating event for health effects,” said Evangelos Danopoulos, of Hull York Medical School, UK, and who led the research published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. “We should be concerned. Right now, there isn’t really a way to protect ourselves.”

Biden order would make US government carbon neutral by 2050

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order to make the federal government carbon-neutral by 2050, aiming for a 65% reduction in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and an all-electric fleet of car and trucks five years later.

The White House said the order shows how the government will “leverage its scale and procurement power to lead by example in tackling the climate crisis.” The order will reduce emissions across federal operations, as part of a government-wide effort to confront climate change.

“As the single largest land owner, energy consumer and employer in the nation, the federal government can catalyze private-sector investment and expand the economy and American industry by transforming how we build, buy and manage electricity, vehicles, buildings and other operations to be clean and sustainable,″ the order said.

It directs that government buildings use 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030; that the U.S. fleet of cars and trucks become all-electric by 2035; and that federal contracts for goods and services be carbon-free by 2050. Government buildings should be carbon-free by 2045, including a 50% emissions cut by 2032, Biden said.

'Like a Teenager Promising to Clean Their Room in 30 Years': Biden Net-Zero Climate Goal for 2050 Ridiculed

Progressive climate campaigners on Wednesday overwhelmingly called U.S. President Joe Biden's plan for the federal government to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 an inadequate attempt to address the worsening climate emergency.

The White House said an executive order signed by Biden "demonstrates how the United States will leverage its scale and procurement power to lead by example in tackling the climate crisis," and will "reduce emissions across federal operations, invest in American clean energy industries and manufacturing, and create clean, healthy, and resilient communities."

Biden's order aims for the federal government to run on carbon-free electricity by the end of the decade, a step toward realizing a 65% reduction in emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

To help achieve this, the government would end purchases of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, transition to a "net-zero emissions building portfolio by 2045, including a 50% emissions reduction by 2032," as well as implement a "Buy Clean" policy "to promote use of construction materials with lower embodied emissions."

Mitch Jones, managing director of advocacy programs at Food & Water Watch, said in a statement that "while this executive order lays out noteworthy investments in solar energy and important changes in transportation and energy efficiency, their effectiveness is undermined by the White House's failures to address the root cause of the climate crisis: Fossil fuel development."

Jones continued:

If Biden was actually serious about tackling the climate crisis, he would ban new oil and gas extraction on federal lands like he repeatedly promised to do. Instead, the White House continues to approve new drilling and fracking projects on public lands, and just conducted a massive sale of offshore drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration also seems eager to expand the export of fossil fuels, creating new sources of climate, air, and water pollution at home.

"The focus on 'net-zero' and zero-emissions goals leaves the door open for expensive and dirty energy infrastructure including nuclear and fossil fuel-based hydrogen," Jones added. "We need President Biden to stop pushing policies that will keep us hooked on dirty energy."

Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that "2050 is an extremely weak goal for the federal government to free itself from climate-heating pollution."

"It ignores existing technology and adds decades to GSA's own commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2025," he said, a reference to the U.S. General Service Administration's April 2021 decarbonization plan.

"This is like a teenager promising to clean their room in 30 years," Snape added. "We need action now."

Also of Interest

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

Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court Throws Ball Back to Biden

US Hegemony Doesn’t Make The World More Peaceful, It Makes It More Dangerous

Will Democracy Summit Address US Role in Supporting Authoritarianism?

Understanding What Happened in Ukraine in 2014

Democratic Party Betrayal, Abortion, and the Supreme Court

‘We’re losing IQ points’: the lead poisoning crisis unfolding among US children

Plastics Use in Farming Threatens Food Safety and Human Health, FAO Warns

How Europe’s “Shadow Immigration System” Pays Libyan Militias to Jail Migrants in Brutal Conditions

Fragmented French left rebuffs Hidalgo's call for single presidential challenger

Krystal Ball: Media LAMENTS Bad Biden Coverage Will END DEMOCRACY

Ryan Grim: Medicare Is Being Privatized On Biden’s Watch, Insurance Industry SALIVATES

Sen. Whitehouse: US Financial Institutions SUPPORT Corruption From Foreign Kleptocrats & Oligarchs

A Little Night Music

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Goin Down to the River

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Mercy

Mississippi Fred McDowell - When I Lay My Burden Down

Mississippi Fred McDowell - My Babe

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Freight Train Blues

Fred McDowell - Soon One Morning

Mississippi Fred McDowell - You gotta move

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning

Mississippi Fred McDowell - White Lightnin'

Mississippi Fred McDowell - The Train I Ride