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This evening's music features early jazz/blues composer Perry Bradford. Enjoy!

“The concept of good versus evil is a handy construct for framing a narrative. When you see someone applying that concept to real-world events, however, be aware that you're in the presence of a peddler of fiction.”

-- Stewart Stafford

News and Opinion

China rattled by calls for Japan to host US nuclear weapons

China has reacted angrily to calls by Japan’s influential former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, for Tokyo to consider hosting US nuclear weapons in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising concern over Chinese aggression towards Taiwan. Abe, who presided over record defence budgets before resigning in 2020, said Japan should cast off taboos surrounding its possession of nuclear weapons following the outbreak of war in Europe.

“In Nato, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy take part in nuclear sharing, hosting American nuclear weapons,” Abe said in a TV interview, according to Nikkei Asia. “We need to understand how security is maintained around the world and not consider it taboo to have an open discussion. ...

Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters in Beijing: “Japanese politicians have frequently spread fallacies related to Taiwan and even blatantly made false remarks that violate the nation’s three non-nuclear principles. “We strongly ask Japan to deeply reflect on its history”, Wang added, and warned Tokyo to “be cautious in words and deeds on the Taiwan issue to stop provoking trouble”.

Under Abe, a conservative whose lifelong political ambition is to revise Japan’s “pacifist” constitution, said any conflict involving China and Taiwan would also constitute an emergency for Japan. ...

China’s state-run tabloid Global Times accused Abe of attempting to “unlock” Japanese militarism. “It is not only ironic, but also a huge real risk, that a group of people in the only country in the world that was bombed by atomic bombs would call for an invitation to the culprit to deploy nuclear weapons in their own territory,” it said in an editorial.

Russia holds drills with nuclear subs, land-based missiles

Russian nuclear submarines sailed off for drills in the Barents Sea and mobile missile launchers roamed snow forests Tuesday in Siberia after President Vladimir Putin ordered his nation’s nuclear forces put on high alert over tensions with the West over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Northern Fleet said in a statement that several of its nuclear submarines were involved in exercises designed to “train maneuvering in stormy conditions.” It said several warships tasked with protecting northwest Russia’s Kola Peninsula, where several naval bases are located, would join the maneuvers.

In the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, units of the Strategic Missile Forces dispersed Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers in forests to practice secret deployment, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The military didn’t say whether the drills were linked to Putin’s order on Sunday to put the country’s nuclear forces on high alert amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also was unclear whether the exercises represented a change in the country’s normal nuclear training activities or posture.

Putin’s decree applied to all parts of the Russian nuclear triad, which like in the U.S., consists of nuclear submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-tipped land-based ICBMs and nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

CrossTalk | Changed world

China signals willingness to mediate in Ukraine-Russia war

China has signalled its willingness to play a mediator role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as the war entered its sixth day.

In his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, since the outbreak of the war, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Tuesday that Beijing “laments” the outbreak of the conflict and is “extremely concerned” about the harm to civilians, according to a Chinese readout.

State-owned China Central Television said Kuleba asked China to use its influence to help mediate in its conflict with Russia. It added that Kuleba “asked for help in finding a diplomatic solution”.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the call was initiated by the Ukrainian side. The two foreign ministers also discussed evacuation of Chinese nationals from Ukraine, with 6,000 Chinese citizens living, working and studying there, according to official figures.

War in Ukraine: Ankara closes Bosphorus, Dardanelles straits to warships

Russia Warns Kyiv Residents to Leave Homes Ahead of Bombing Blitz

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday warned Kyiv residents to leave their homes immediately as Russia's forces advanced on the Ukrainian capital and announced plans to bomb targets in the city.

In a statement, Russia's Defense Ministry said the military intends to strike the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the 72nd Center for Information and Psychological Operations (PSO) in Kyiv.

"In order to thwart informational attacks against Russia, [Russian forces] will strike technological objects of the SBU and the 72nd Main PSO Center in Kyiv," the ministry said. "We urge Ukrainian citizens involved by Ukrainian nationalists in provocations against Russia, as well as Kyiv residents living near relay stations, to leave their homes."

Shortly following the Russian Defense Ministry's warning, one Ukrainian media outlet reported that an explosion was heard in Kyiv, where Ukrainian forces have thus far beaten back Russia's incursion attempts.

Video footage from Kyiv showed residents scrambling to flee on Tuesday as Russia's 40-mile-long convoy of tanks and armored vehicles approached the city.

Ukraine says Russia targeting civilians as missiles hit Kyiv TV tower

Russia is planning a major psychological operation to try to persuade Ukrainians to capitulate, and is targeting civilians with missile strikes in an attempt to demoralise the population, the government in Kyiv, Ukraine, has said.

Two Russian missiles struck the TV tower in the Ukrainian capital, knocking out some access to news and broadcasts. Late in the evening more explosions were reported in residential neighbourhoods in Kyiv and Kharkiv. ...

Five people were killed and five others injured in the attack on the Kyiv TV tower. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed that the tower was offline, its substation and hardware having been damaged. Engineers would try to fix the tower and broadcasts would restart as soon as possible, he said.

Kim Iversen: ”Ukraine Will Be Wrecked." OMINOUS Warnings Of NATO-Provoked War Given For DECADES

Vast Russian military convoy may be harbinger of a siege of Kyiv

In the satellite image, the trees of the forest just north of the Ukrainian village of Rudnya-Shpylivska – population 107 – appear as if you could brush them with your hand. ... Dead centre of the picture, circulated by the satellite company Maxar Technologies on Sunday, a small clearing is visible, and next to it, on the road heading south towards the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a small proportion of a vast convoy of Russian military vehicles – estimated to be 40 miles long – accompanied by 15,000 troops. In places, the military vehicles can be seen three abreast, almost blocking the road. ...

And in some images released by Maxar on Monday, troops appeared to have arrived at where they would halt, deploying in camps outside the city, including in and around the town of Zdvyzhivka, to the north of Kyiv. All have been assembled for what western intelligence agencies and analysts believe is an imminent attempt to close Russia’s military encirclement of Kyiv and put the city under siege in its latest attempt to topple Ukraine’s government and install a Kremlin-friendly regime.

The presence of the convoy, growing and intact, prompts several conclusions as things stand. Despite its scale and the way it has blocked the road for miles, it appears largely unmolested. This suggests Ukraine’s air force is no longer sufficiently intact to target it in a meaningful way and that Ukraine has not been able to bring drones, used successfully elsewhere, to hit it. ...

There is mounting, urgent concern among western officials that Russian forces are planning to employ siege tactics against Kyiv, cutting off supplies and routes in and out, before moving in. ...

As a picture emerges of how a full-scale Russian ground assault on Kyiv could begin, Russia’s Tass and RIA news agencies quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying it planned to strike the headquarters of Ukraine’s security service and special operations unit, allegedly to prevent “information attacks” on Russia. The ministry urged people near the sites to leave the areas.

Filipino Scholar Walden Bello on Why the Global South Is Suspicious of U.S. Motives in Ukraine War

EU crushes Ukrainian hopes of immediate bloc membership amid Russian invasion

The EU on Monday poured cold water on a plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for "immediate" membership to the bloc for his country as Kyiv battled a Russian invasion.

EU officials stressed that the adherence procedure takes years, dampening Ukraine's hopes that suddenly becoming part of the European club could help it better cope with the Russian onslaught and speed up military, financial and political support.

Several officials walked back a comment by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that appeared to hold out the prospect of Ukraine being admitted.

War in Ukraine: World's largest container lines suspend shipping to Russia

Jail Time for Czechs Agreeing With Russian Intervention

The Supreme State Prosecutor of the Czech Republic has warned its citizens that they can wind up in jail if they utter agreement with Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

“The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office considers it necessary to inform citizens that the current situation associated with the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine may have implications for their freedom of expression,” began a statement from the office, dated Feb. 26.

“If someone publicly (including demonstrations, the Internet or social networks) agreed (accepted or supported the Russian Federation’s attacks on Ukraine) or expressed support or praised the leaders of the Russian Federation in this regard, they could also face criminal liability under certain conditions,” the statement says.

The laws the statement cites include prohibition against “approving of a criminal offense” and “denying, questioning, approving and justifying genocide.” The Czech Republic is a member of both the European Union and NATO. ...

Radio Prague International reported that police have begun to monitor online communications to look for offenders.

As Biden Touts Anti-Russia Response in SOTU, U.S. Remains Addicted to Fossil Fuels That Drive War

US and 30 allied countries to release 60m barrels of oil amid price surge

The United States and 30 countries have agreed to release 60m barrels of oil from their strategic reserves to stabilise global energy markets, the US Department of Energy said on Tuesday, as oil prices surged to a seven-year high.

The move, ahead of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress, failed to calm fears about supply disruption from the Ukraine crisis and sanctions against Russia. US stock markets fell sharply even after the news.

Oil prices surged after the announcement, with US crude hitting its highest level since June 2014 as Russia bears down on Ukraine’s capital.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, jumped 11.3% to $106.50 a barrel before dropping back to $105. International benchmark Brent crude advanced 9.5% to trade at $107 – the highest since July 2014 – before falling to $103.

The price surge marks a return to oil prices pushing through the $100-mark since last Thursday when Russia invaded Ukraine. An energy squeeze in what is already a tight market has some analysts fearing oil could top $150 in the coming months.

Biden To Corporate Class: Lower COSTS, Not Wages If You Want To Fight Inflation

California could grant fast food workers unprecedented power

Fast food workers in California are fighting to pass a first of its kind bill that would provide employees with the power to negotiate wages and possibly improve working condition standards across the industry.

The Fast Recovery Act, or AB 257, would create a statewide fast food sector council that would include workers, state regulators, franchises and their parent companies and set wage and other standards for the industry. The act would also hold franchises and their parent corporations more accountable to labor laws.

Workers say the legislation is a means to fight low pay, poor working conditions, and a lack of safety protections – problems that have long plagued the industry but that workers say have worsened during the pandemic.

“There are a lot of laws protecting workers but nobody is implementing or doing anything about it. We are essential workers but not treated like that. With the Fast Recovery Act, we’ll be heard. We’ll sit down at the same table with all the franchises and say if there is a law protecting workers, it has to be followed and applied,” said Maria Yolanda Torres, who has worked at a Subway store in San Jose, California, since May 2018.

Biden TURNS BACK on Student Debt, SOTU RECYCLED List Of Broken Promises: Briahna Joy Gray

Republicans and Joe Manchin block Senate bill to secure abortion rights

A bill to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law was blocked by Senate Republicans on Monday. Although Democrats expected the bill to fail, they brought the measure forward at a perilous moment for abortion rights, to ensure votes were recorded.

The supreme court is expected in June to decide a Mississippi case which could severely curtail or gut abortion rights nationally.

On Monday, Democrats were 14 votes shy of the 60 needed to bring the bill to the floor for debate. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, was the only Democrat to join Republicans.

Six of Donald Trump’s lawyers subpoenaed by Capitol attack panel

The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has issued new subpoenas to lawyers for Donald Trump suspected to be involved in efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

The subpoenas – authorized hours before Biden’s first State of the Union address – targeted documents and testimony from Cleta Mitchell, Kurt Olsen, Katherine Freiss, Phillip Kline, Kenneth Chesebro and the pro-Trump One America News host Christina Bobb.

“The select committee is seeking information about attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of electoral votes and any efforts to corruptly change the outcome of the 2020 election,” said Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the panel.

“The six individuals we’ve subpoenaed today all have knowledge related to those matters and will help the select committee better understand all the various strategies employed to potentially affect the outcome of the election,” Thompson said.

The subpoenas reflect the panel’s focus on Trump’s schemes to stop Biden’s certification from taking place, so that the former president’s associates could buy time to co-opt state legislatures to send Trump slates of electors to return him to office.

California debates naming heatwaves to underscore deadly risk of extreme heat

Climate scientists from around the world issued dire warnings on Monday, in the latest IPCC report on the dangers posed in the unfolding climate crisis. Among them is extreme heat, a crisis that on average already claims more American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.

Though the impact is already being felt, heatwaves are largely silent killers. Often, the toll is tallied far into the aftermath of an event and is vastly undercounted. Unlike fires and floods that produce immediate and visible destruction, heat’s harmful effects can seem more subtle – even if they are in fact more deadly. ...

Policymakers and environmentalists are looking for better ways to close the gap in the public’s perception of the risks, especially in the American west where landscapes are rapidly warming. Some are pushing for new ranking systems to help elevate awareness around the issue or assign heatwaves names, much like federal agencies do for hurricanes.

“We need a shock to the system,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, the senior vice-president and director of the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. The organization, which focuses on policy solutions to the climate crisis, has advocated heatwave naming along with number categories as a way to add urgency to the growing disasters. “If you go into the hospital now and are suffering from heat they will say you have kidney failure or heart failure” she says. “There are so many areas now we need to culturally shift that context of heat.”

The group advised California on new legislation introduced last year, which would make it the first state to implement a naming and ranking system like the organizational system for categorizing storms dating back in the 1800s. Athens, Greece and Seville, Spain will roll out similar programs later this year.

How one of Florida’s most beloved animals may be close to climate extinction

When Hurricane Irma ravaged south Florida in September 2017 it inundated homes, knocked out electricity for millions and killed more than 30 people. The devastation was not confined to humans, however.

In the Florida Keys, one of the state’s most beloved animals also took a beating: the Key deer, a small subspecies of white-tailed deer that evolved in peaceful isolation on the islands and is now protected under the Endangered Species Act. Irma drowned them, slammed them into buildings and dragged them out to sea. “With Irma, we probably lost about 30% of the deer,” said Nova Silvy, a zoologist who has studied the deer since the 1960s on Big Pine Key, where most of them live.

Though the deer population has largely bounced back, the hurricane’s toll foreshadowed the dangerous future faced by this animal. In the coming century, the impacts of the climate crisis, especially sea level rise, will probably inundate many of the Florida Keys, including the endangered deer’s core habitat on Big Pine Key and neighboring islands.

Despite this bleak outlook, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which administers the Endangered Species Act, has been working on proposals in recent years that would strip the Key deer of its endangered species status – even as the agency’s own scientists have highlighted the threat of rising sea levels to the deer’s habitat, according to records obtained by the Guardian and Type Investigations.

These efforts began under the Trump administration, which oversaw a concerted effort to remove protections for imperiled species, and they have outraged conservationists as well as some former FWS officials, who have opposed the agency’s attempt to remove protections for the Key deer.

Also of Interest

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

Every US Enemy Is Hitler: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Disarming Ukraine - Day 6

Defending Freedom And Democracy Sure Requires An Awful Lot Of Censorship

'Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier' is actually Palestine's Ahed Tamimi

“Ukrainians Only”: Nigerian Student Fleeing War Describes Rampant Racism Against Africans at Border

Biden VOWS To Make Russia PAY In State Of The Union Address

A Little Night Music

Sippie Wallace w/ Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools - Section Hand Blues

Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools - Original Black Bottom Dance

(Perry Bradford's) Original Jazz Hounds - I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle

Ethel Ridley & Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools - If Anybody Here Wants a Real Kind Mamma

(Perry Bradford's) Gulf Coast Seven - Memphis Tennessee

(Perry Bradford's) Original Jazz Hounds on Columbia - Slow Down

(Perry Bradford's) Georgia Strutters - Georgia Grind

(Perry Bradford's) Gulf Coast Seven - Papa Better Watch Your Step

Alberta Hunter w/Perry Bradford's Mean Four - Take That Thing Away

Perry Bradford & His Gang - All That I Had Is Gone

Perry Bradford & The Georgia Strutters - Wasn't It Nice?

Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds - Crazy Blues