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“bureaucrat: (n.) career sadist who uses red tape to immobilize victims.”

-- Sol Luckman

News and Opinion

Senator Menendez: I want all Russians to feel the pain

In an online talk with Washington Post opinion writer Jonathon Capehart today, Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) gave an update on the status of his Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act of 2022, or as he’s calling it, the “Mother of All Sanctions” bill.

His bill would place broad sanctions on Russian banks, state-owned enterprises, energy firms, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if the Biden administration deems that Russia is engaged in a significant escalation of hostilities in Ukraine. Menendez who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the Senate is still in the middle of “intensive negotiations,” and that “there are a few items that we are trying to meet the challenge of finding a pathway forward to reconcile different views.”

But he was blunt about the goal of the measure, which he distinguished from previous sanctions bills: “they would be devastating to the Russian economy,” adding that “every Russian would feel it at the end of the day.”

Russia and Belarus begin military drills near Belarusian border with Ukraine

Russia and Belarus have begun joint military exercises close to the Belarusian border with Ukraine, part of 10 days of drills seen as a significant element in the Kremlin’s menacing posture towards its neighbour.

Up to 30,000 Russian troops, as well as almost all of the Belarusian armed forces, are taking part in the drills, which began on Thursday. They come at a time when Russia has also amassed forces along its own border with Ukraine, and in the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Much of the equipment for the drills has travelled thousands of miles across Russia. Russia’s defence ministry said one of its S-400 missile defence systems had been activated in Belarus close to the border with Ukraine. ...

Ukraine has responded with 10 days of drills of its own. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian land forces, said about 10,000 troops were involved in Ukraine’s exercises. “We have specifically moved training of the armed forces towards the most dangerous lines of possible enemy offence,” he said on Wednesday. ...

Separately, Russia is preparing for missile tests in the Black Sea next week, manoeuvres that Ukraine says will make shipping impossible in both the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. On Thursday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the exercises showed “blatant disregard for the rules and principles of international law”.

New Russian deployments detected by satellite

NATO, Ukraine, Russia stage military exercises amid US-promoted war hysteria

More military forces will be engaged in simulated combat across Eastern Europe Thursday than at any time in recent history, as NATO, Ukraine and Russia all begin military exercises involving tens of thousands of soldiers. The Russian exercise in neighboring Belarus is long-planned, and is scheduled to end on February 20, a date reaffirmed by Russian officials after French President Emmanuel Macron portrayed it as a concession won by his diplomatic foray to Moscow. Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Macron’s claims, saying there had never been any plans to extend the exercises or deploy Russian troops permanently on the Belarus-Ukraine border.

Peskov said the maneuvers in Belarus were doubly necessary because of “unprecedented security threats” against the two countries. He cited “blackmail and pressure” by the western powers who were arming Ukraine. ...

The NATO and Ukrainian exercises have been organized suddenly, in a provocative manner, as part of the ongoing campaign of war hysteria, spearheaded by the Biden administration, Boris Johnson in Britain and the corporate media in both countries. Several thousand US paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division are deploying into southeast Poland, near the border with Belarus and Ukraine, and will simulate combat parachute drops in the coming days, the Pentagon announced, without giving an exact date. Hundreds more US soldiers began arriving Wednesday in Romania, redeployed from a base in Germany.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, in an “exclusive” story, i.e., an authorized leak from the Pentagon, that the US forces in Poland were there to receive a possible surge of Americans fleeing the Ukraine in the wake of a Russian invasion. It noted that the officer in charge of the operation, Major General C. D. Donahue, had previously commanded US forces at the Kabul airport during the mass evacuation last August. The portrayal of the 82nd Airborne as a group of Mother Teresas setting up tents and stockpiling food, water and bedding for refugees hardly squares with the historical role of that division as the spearhead of countless US military attacks. The paratroopers are far more likely to act as an offensive force, although the Journal article hastened to reassure its readers: “The troops aren’t authorized to enter Ukraine and won’t evacuate Americans or fly aircraft missions from inside Ukraine, officials said.”

In Estonia, British and Estonian forces began a simulated tank battle within sight of the Russian border, only a short drive from Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg. Under the name Leningrad, that city endured a nearly three-year siege by Nazi armies during World War II, in which more than a million Soviet citizens died.

'This Invasion of Our Privacy Must Stop,' Says ACLU After CIA Domestic Spying Revelations

The ACLU was among those expressing grave concern Thursday night after a pair of Democrats in the U.S. Senate revealed troubling evidence that the CIA has conducted bulk surveillance of the American people without their knowledge and with little oversight.

Following release of a letter about the spy agency's bulk collection program declassified at the behest of Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Or.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the ACLU said there should be serious concern that "the CIA has been secretly conducting massive surveillance programs that capture Americans' private information."

The previously undisclosed domestic spying by the CIA, added the group, "is done without any court approval, and with few, if any, safeguards imposed by Congress to protect our civil liberties."

According to a statement put out by Wyden and Heinrich, the two senators "requested the declassification of a report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board [PCLOB] on a CIA bulk collection program, in a letter sent April 13, 2021. The letter, which was declassified and made public [Thursday] reveals that 'the CIA has secretly conducted its own bulk program,' authorized under Executive Order 12333, rather than the laws passed by Congress."

What the newly-declassified documents demonstrate, said Wyden and Heinrich, "is that many of the same concerns that Americans have about their privacy and civil liberties also apply to how the CIA collects and handles information under executive order and outside the FISA law," referring to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which governs many aspects of how U.S. intelligence agencies deploy their surveillance capabilities.

"In particular," the lawmakers continued, "these documents reveal serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans, the same issue that has generated bipartisan concern in the FISA context."

While the April, 2021 declassified letter to CIA director William Burns from Wyden and Heinrich was declassified, key portions remain redacted. And while the senators welcomed the new disclosures, they said much more must be done by the CIA and the PCLOB so that the American people better understand the nature of the surveillance they may be under and that adequate oversight by Congress can occur.

Havana syndrome has ‘dramatically hurt’ morale, US diplomats say

The spread of Havana syndrome has “dramatically hurt” morale in the US diplomatic corps and affected recruitment, according to the head of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA).

Eric Rubin, whose association represents nearly 17,000 current and former diplomats and foreign aid workers, said it was getting harder to find young people to work abroad, because of concerns about Havana syndrome – and about whether the government would look after them if they got sick.

“People have suffered real trauma and real injury, and it has dramatically hurt our morale, our readiness, our ability to recruit new members in the foreign service,” Rubin told the first medical symposium on the syndrome since it began affecting US diplomats and intelligence officers in 2016, organised by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The cause of the syndrome, which involves long-term loss of balance and cognitive function, remains a mystery. A report by a US intelligence panel of experts last week found that pulsed electromagnetic energy and ultrasound were plausible causes in at least some cases.

A CIA assessment made public last month however determined that the majority of the thousand possible cases reported were most likely not the result of a global campaign by a foreign power, while in some two dozen incidents the cause could not be explained.

US inflation hits highest level in 40 years in January as prices rise 7.5% from 2021

Inflation in the US climbed to its highest level in 40 years in January, with prices rising by 7.5% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday. The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) survey – which measures the costs of a wide variety of goods – was the largest since February 1982. CPI rose 0.6% from December, higher than expected but still down significantly from last October when inflation rose 0.9% on a monthly basis. ...

Price rises for food, electricity, and shelter were the largest contributors to the increase. The food index rose 0.9% in January following a 0.5% increase in December. The energy index also increased 0.9% over the month. After stripping out food and fuel – whose prices are volatile – inflation still climbed 6% on an annual basis. A nationwide shortage of used cars also continued to drive the rise. Used cars prices were 40.5% higher in January compared to a year ago. Housing costs rose 4.4% from a year ago.

How Corporate Media Became A Misinformation Machine

Critics Warn of 'Lethal Impact on Privacy' as Senate Advances EARN IT Act

Digital rights advocates on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advance of a controversial bill that would purportedly hold tech companies accountable for sexually exploitative content, but that one prominent opponent said would "have a lethal impact on privacy, security, and free speech."

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act which among other provisions, would end tech companies' immunity under Section 230 for knowingly transmitting images of child sex abuse on their platforms—during a markup hearing.

Critics—who include some progressive U.S. lawmakers as well as advocacy groups like ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and the Sex Workers Project—have condemned the proposed legislation, which Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) described as "SESTA-FOSTA on steroids."

SESTA-FOSTA, which was meant to combat online sex trafficking, has widely been viewed as a failure, with Wyden claiming that "it increased sex trafficking. It increased violence against sex workers. It didn't even stop ads."

The Washington Post reports:

Under the EARN IT Act, tech companies would lose some long-standing protections they enjoy under a legal shield called Section 230, opening them up to more lawsuits over posts of child sexual abuse material on their platforms. The bill, which was first introduced in 2020, would also create a national commission of law enforcement, abuse survivors, and industry experts to develop best practices to address child abuse online.

The bill is "calibrated to really stop the most detestable and despicable kinds of child abuse involving really horrific pornographic images that follow these kids all their lives," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who co-sponsored the legislation with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The bill has been backed by lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as groups representing law enforcement and sexual exploitation survivors.

On Wednesday, more than 60 advocacy groups sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee arguing that the EARN IT Act would imperil encryption and free speech, while actually making it more difficult to protect children from online abuse and disproportionately affecting marginalized communities.

Parker Higgins, advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned this week that, if passed, the measure "would constrain existing legal safe harbors, incentivizing platforms to overzealously restrict the kinds of content that users can post and share."

Higgins said the reintroduced version of the EARN IT Act "is in some ways worse than the draft that attracted such vehement pushback two years ago, but could be rushed through to a vote before meaningful opposition can reassemble."

"Expert analysis suggests it would be worse than useless at its stated goals," he added. "Though nominally aimed at reducing the spread of child sexual abuse material online, it could exacerbate that problem."

Target directing store managers to prevent workers from unionizing

Leaked training documents from Target, one of the largest retailers in the US, reveal how the company is directing management at stores to prevent workers from organizing unions.

At the end of January 2022, Target emailed store management new training guidelines on labor relations to complete, prompting managers to look for warning signs of worker and labor union organizing within their stores and coordinate with corporate human resources to quell union organizing campaigns. ...

The training includes a question-and-answer section on different theoretical scenarios prompting managers to take actions in response to union organizing signs, such as surveilling workers’ participation on worker-related blogs or pages on social media, and notifying human resources for guidance on proper action.

Texas law causes abortions to drop by 60% as people seek care in other states

Abortions performed by registered providers in Texas fell by 60% in the first month after the state passed the most restrictive abortion law in the US in decades, according to new figures.

Nearly 2,200 abortions were reported by Texas providers in September after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and when many do not know they are pregnant. The law is without exception in cases of rape or incest.

The figures were released this month by the Texas health and human services commission. In August, there had been more than 5,400 abortions statewide. State health officials said more data will be released on a monthly basis.

The numbers offer a fuller picture of the sharp drop in patients that Texas doctors have described in their clinics over the past five months, during which time courts have repeatedly allowed the restrictions to stay in place. It has left some Texas patients traveling hundreds of miles to clinics in neighboring states or farther, causing a backlog of appointments in those places.

The supreme court is helping consolidate white political power in America

On Tuesday, the US supreme court in its Merrill v Milligan decision, upheld Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional map, which see Black people represented in only 14% of congressional districts, despite making up about 27% of Alabama’s population. This ruling is reminiscent of the holding in the supreme court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision that Black people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”. Even though the two cases addressed two different situations, the overall disregard of the rights of Black people in America by the highest court in the country is the same.

And just as the Dred Scott decision laid the groundwork for similar rulings that led to the continuation of white political power at the expense of Black political power, so too does the Miller case lay the groundwork for ending voting rights and political power for Black people in this country and a path towards white political power at all levels of government.

Some reading this will gasp and accuse us of misusing an explosive pre-reconstruction case to make a racially charged argument. But the reality is that the conservative gang of justices, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, had already joined its pre-1954 brethren who had indoctrinated Jim Crow policies and the disenfranchisement of Black voters.

First through the supreme court’s abolition of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in the 2013 Shelby v Holder, another Alabama case, they empowered every Republican-controlled state to enact a series of voter suppression laws targeting Black people with surgical precision. Next, through the 2018 Abbott v Perez case, the court took its first stab at the second protective tool in the VRA, section 2 by ruling to keep in place a blatantly racially gerrymandered map in Texas through what Justice Sonia Sotomayor called “a disregard of both precedent and facts at the cost of democracy”. Then again, in 2021, in the Brnovich v DNC case, the court finally took the knockout punch to the remaining power left in the VRA’s Section 2, by leaving two Arizona bills in place, which as noted by Justice Elena Kagan in her dissent, “disproportionally affected minority citizens’ right to vote”.

So, Tuesday’s Merrill case is just a link in a chain of US supreme court decisions meant to end Black voting protections and political power in this country. Even though Chief Justice Roberts did not join his usual comrades, he signaled in his dissent that he intends to shred what is left of Section 2 when the full case reaches the supreme court.

Look out for Nancy Pelosi's Gazpacho Police! Nacho average bunch of fascists.

Just to clear things up, @RepMTG

Gazpacho: a vegetable-based Spanish cold soup
Gestapo: Nazi Germany's secret police pic.twitter.com/T9q76r706G

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) February 9, 2022

Trump ally vows to block ‘the left’ from overseeing key Georgia elections

A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia has said he would not let “any of the left” run elections in his state, adding repeatedly that it would happen “over my dead body” and underscoring the violent tone that has come to shape discourse around democracy in America.

Former Senator David Perdue railed against his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, in a video of a speech given on 4 February in Fayette county. Abrams, a voting rights activist, would be the first Black governor in the state’s history if elected.

Perdue, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, told his supporters: “My vision for Georgia is this: over my dead body would I ever, ever turn an election process over to Stacey Abrams or any of that woke mob ever again.” ...

The Georgia governor’s race is among the most closely-watched elections this year and a likely key battleground in the upcoming 2024 election. It played a vital role in president Joe Biden’s 2020 victory as he flipped the state, and it was also crucial to winning Democratic control of the senate when the party won two run-off elections there.

That outsized role has seen Georgia become a ground zero for the national fight over voting rights and for Republicans’ baseless claims that the state’s election process was somehow fraudulent. It has also sparked a fierce fight for the office of the secretary of state, which helps run Georgia’s elections. The seat is currently held by Republican Brad Raffensperger.

US Lawmakers With Pipeline Stocks Profit as Gas Exports to Europe Soar

Amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which could have far-reaching implications for energy markets in central Europe, U.S. President Joe Biden has increased gas exports to Germany and surrounding countries, benefiting members of Congress who own—and are buying up more—stock in pipeline and tanker companies.

That's according to new reporting published Wednesday by the nonprofit investigative outlet Sludge, which previously identified at least 28 U.S. senators and 100 House members whose households own stock in oil and gas companies or hold other investments in the fossil fuel industry.

Journalist David Moore noted that "the fossil fuel industry rushed to link domestic gas exports with European security," citing a recent blog post by an operative from the American Petroleum Institute (API)—Big Oil's most powerful lobbying group—and the Wall Street Journal's reactionary editorial page.

Several members of Congress have sought to take advantage of surging liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports by significantly increasing "their investments in energy companies, especially pipeline companies and midstream service providers that transmit fossil gas to export terminals," wrote Moore.

[See article for details on the assortment of individual crooked congressional wretches squeezing some sweet stock profits out of this situation. -js]

Gray wolf federal protections removed by Trump restored across much of US

Federal protections for gray wolves were restored across much of the US on Thursday, after their removal in the waning days of the Trump administration exposed the predators to hunting that critics said would undermine their rebound from widespread extermination early last century.

US district judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, said the US Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the midwest and portions of the west without protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Wildlife advocates had sued the agency last year. The ruling does not directly affect wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and portions of several adjacent states. Those animals remain under state jurisdiction after federal protections in that region were lifted by Congress last decade.

Attorneys for the Biden administration defended the Trump rule that removed protections, arguing wolves were resilient enough to bounce back even if their numbers dropped sharply due to intensive hunting.

At stake is the future of a species whose recovery from near-extinction has been heralded as an historic conservation success. That recovery has brought bitter blowback from hunters and farmers angered over wolf attacks on big game herds and livestock. They contend protections are no longer warranted.

‘Loophole’ allowing for deforestation on soya farms in Brazil’s Amazon

More than 400 sq miles (1,000 sq km) of Amazon rainforest has been felled to expand farms growing soya in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in a 10-year period, despite an agreement to protect it, according to a new investigation.

In 2006, the landmark Amazon soy moratorium was introduced banning the sale of soya grown on land deforested after 2008. From 2004 to 2012, the clearing of trees in the Amazon fell by 84%.

But in recent years deforestation has climbed steeply, reaching a 15-year high last year – encouraged, campaigners say, by President Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-conservationist rhetoric and policies.

With the moratorium applying only to soya, farmers have been able to sell the crop as deforestation-free, while still clearing land for cattle, maize or other commodities.

One in three Americans have detectable levels of toxic weedkiller, study finds

One in three people across America have detectable levels of a toxic herbicide linked to cancers, birth defects and hormonal imbalances, a major nationwide survey has found.

Human exposure to the herbicide 2,4-D has substantially risen amid expanding use among farmers despite a multitude of health and environmental concerns, according to the first nationally representative study evaluating the footprint of the chemical.

The herbicide was developed in the mid-1940s and quickly became the go-to weedkiller for farmers focused on increasing crop yields, while also gaining popularity among gardeners looking for a pristine lawn. Its popularity dipped in favor of Roundup (glyphosate) and genetically modified cotton and soyabeans resistant to this herbicide, but it has seen a resurgence since the spread of Roundup-resistant weeds. ...

Researchers from George Washington university examined the urine samples of 14,395 people (aged six and older) from all walks of life who take part in the annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They looked for biomarkers to the pesticide, and compared the exposure levels detected with the use of 2,4-D from 2001 until 2014.

As the pesticide grew in popularity among farmers and gardeners, so did evidence of human exposure, rising from a low of 17% in 2001-02 to a high of almost 40% a decade later. Exposure to high levels of 2,4-D, an ingredient of Agent Orange used against civilians during the Vietnam war, has been linked to cancers including leukemia in children, birth defects and reproductive problems among other health issues.

Also of Interest

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

How the Establishment Functions

Human Rights Groups Agree: Apartheid Is Exactly What Israel Is Doing

Yemen: January Saw Highest Civilian Casualties in Saudi Air War Since 2016

Biden has merely rebranded the brutal war against Yemen

Dumping on Germany: Do US pundits ever consider the cost?

The Mediocracy Of 'Global Britain'

Despite Pledge, Biden Still Fighting Student Debtors In Court

Activist Group Reports that Fed Chair Powell Traded During FOMC Restricted Periods: We Fact-Checked It and It’s True

Justin Trudeau's Ceausescu Moment

Leftist President of Honduras Blocks Indigenous Community's Eviction

Koala listed as endangered after Australian governments fail to halt its decline

Democracy Now goes after Joe Rogan

Rogan: The Hard Truth

Trudeau Slammed Over COVID Mandate as Freedom Convoy Gathers Support

DEMOCRATS Watch Tucker Carlson More Than MSNBC or CNN

A Little Night Music

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - How Do I Let a Good Man Down?

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Get Up And Get Out

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - This Land Is Our Land

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Stranger to My Happiness

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Pass Me By

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Keep on Looking

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Tell Me

Tedeschi Trucks Band w/ Sharon Jones and Doyle Bramhall II - Bring It On Home To Me

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Midnight Rider

Tedeschi Trucks Band w/ Sharon Jones and Doyle Bramhall II - Tell Mama

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings live Rockpalast 2010