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"It says so much about the madness of our species that half the controversies surrounding this war exist because we made up a rule that killing people with chemical and biological weapons is illegal but killing them with bullets and military explosives is perfectly fine."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

The Awesome Power Of US Propaganda

The hawks from the first cold war claimed the collapse of the Soviet Union vindicated their brinkmanship, which meant all those nuclear close calls we had during that period were worth it, but it turns out all that happened was a short break before resuming the insane nuclear brinkmanship.

We see now that this is set up to go on for a very, very long time. This completely invalidates the belief that these “great power competition” games of nuclear chicken are sane and worthwhile, because if you keep rolling the dice on nuclear war day after day and year after year, eventually they’re going to come up snake eyes. The only sane choice on the table is therefore to move into a cooperative, friendly relationship with these powers, because facts in evidence show very clearly that trying to dominate and subvert each other will keep going and going until it eventually results in a nuclear conflict.

We came close to wiping ourselves out many times during the last cold war; very close in some cases (look up Vasili Arkhipov). And now we’re back at the most dangerous levels of nuclear brinkmanship since the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is unsustainable.

NATO plays Russian roulette with nuclear weapons

Three weeks into the Ukraine war, all of the sides involved are taking ever greater risks. The hitherto unthinkable, a nuclear exchange in Europe, is being openly considered and built up as a threat. Voices of caution, restraint and appeals to reason have largely fallen silent. Despite the looming catastrophe, NATO is not prepared to compromise.

In a televised speech the day before the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president Vladimir Putin had already issued this threat: “Whoever tries to get in our way and create further threats to our country and our people must know that Russia’s response will come immediately and will lead to consequences without precedent in history. All the necessary decisions have been taken. I hope you hear my words.”

This was a clear reference to Russia’s nuclear arsenal which, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, consists of more than 6,000 warheads, 900 of which are immediately operational, according to NATO. Instead of de-escalating the situation, however, NATO has poured oil onto the fire. It has categorically rejected Putin’s request for security guarantees, which the latter—following decades of NATO eastward expansion, extensive NATO manoeuvres along the Russian border and direct NATO interference in Ukraine and Georgia—must have taken as an existential threat.

Since the beginning of the war, NATO has done everything in its power to cut off any chance of retreat for Putin—ranging from draconian economic sanctions to the threat of dragging him before an international tribunal. NATO is not waging war itself in name only. It is flooding Ukraine with high-tech weapons, concentrating its own troops on the border and intervening ever more directly in the war.

So far, the alliance has shied away from open military action against Russia. On March 11, US President Joe Biden insisted on Twitter that “we will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full might of a united and galvanized NATO.” He rejected direct military intervention in Ukraine, however, writing: “A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III. And something we must strive to prevent.”

But even this hurdle is disappearing rapidly.

Ben Norton: War in a Multipolar World

This is a really interesting article worth a click and a full read, here's a taste to get you started:

THE ANGRY ARAB: The Middle East & the War in Ukraine

It is premature to determine the exact shape of the world in the wake of the Russian military intervention in the Ukraine. At the risk of repeating dreaded cliches, it is clear that the world order has been irrevocably altered. The post-cold war era is over, forever. The U.S. established global supremacy after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and ensured that NATO would form a security siege around Russia to keep it weak and vulnerable — and to maintain American hegemony throughout the continent. Never has America been challenged in such a direct and focused way as by Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

The old rules that the U.S. imposed — by force — will be no more. While China has been cautious in expressing support for Russia in its official pronouncements, its media have been clear in refuting U.S. propaganda claims. The reverberations of the cataclysmic event will be felt for years to come and will affect regional and international conflicts. The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war will also be felt in the Middle East, which has a long history of involvement in the Soviet and Russian-U.S. rivalry.

Despite U.S. pressure, no Arab states are participating in the economic war on Russia by imposing sanctions, joining most of Latin America and Africa, as well as Iran, India, Pakistan and China. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have resisted U.S. pressure to pump more oil to make up for the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports. Most significantly, Riyadh is in talks with China to trade some of its oil in yuan, which would deal a blow to the U.S. dollar that is used in 80 percent of world oil sales. Until now, the Saudis have exclusively used the dollar.

Moscow is trying to defeat the West’s ferocious economic assault on Russia by creating a separate economic and financial system with China. Arab nations could play an important part in it, effectively turning their backs on the U.S. (In a sign of the Gulf’s coolness to Washington, The Wall Street Journal, for instance, reported that Emirati and Saudi leaders have refused to take Biden’s phone calls.)

Allegations of bioweapon labs: UN Council to discuss Putin's accusations

Here is a small part of a more detailed article which makes some good points:

The US arming of Ukraine and the preparations for war

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden gave a speech announcing the deployment of $1 billion in weapons to Ukraine, including combat drones and long-range anti-aircraft systems, for use in Ukraine’s war with Russia. Making no mention of ongoing efforts to find a diplomatic settlement to the war, Biden warned that the United States should be prepared for “a long and difficult battle.” ...

But the most significant aspect of the speech was Biden’s statement regarding the background of the war, which exposes the extent to which the US had systematically prepared Ukraine for the conflict with Russia. Biden presented a narrative of a years-long proxy conflict, in which the United States has been pumping billions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine. “In fact, we started our assistance to Ukraine before this war began,” Biden said.

We sent Ukraine more security assistance last year—$650 million in weapons, including anti-air and anti-armor equipment before the invasion—more than we had ever provided before. So when the invasion began, they already had in their hands the kinds of weapons they needed to counter Russian advances.

And once the war started, we immediately rushed $350 million in additional aid to further address their needs: hundreds of anti-air systems, thousands of anti-tank weapons, transport helicopters, armed patrol boats, and other high-mobility vehicles, radar systems that help track incoming artillery and unmanned drones, secure communications equipment and tactical gear, satellite imagery and—and analysis capacity. And it’s clearly helped Ukraine inflict dramatic losses on Russian forces.

These statements refute the media’s presentation of Ukraine as a small and hapless nation suddenly set upon by a ruthless larger power. The Ukrainian military, assisted by US advisers working within the country, was ready for war, which the Biden administration instigated. Ukrainian civilians caught in the crossfire were written off as the expendable losses of US imperialism’s anti-Russia strategy. The very fact that Ukraine is not a member of NATO has allowed it to be used as a proxy, armed to the teeth and used to bait the Russian government into its disastrous and deadly invasion.

...

In 2013, then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland reported that the United States had spent $5 billion to help Ukraine “achieve its European aspirations and other goals.” The outcome of this influx of cash and more direct forms of intervention by the imperialist powers was the 2014 US-backed coup, led by fascist forces like Svoboda and the Right Sector. ...

The Biden administration refused to accept Russia’s demands for security guarantees, goading Russia to take this action. As Biden declared in December, “I don’t accept anybody’s red lines.” This antecedent history explains the confidence with which the White House predicted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As Biden put it on January 20, “My guess is he will move in. He has to do something.” If Biden was able to predict this situation so directly, it was because his administration worked to bring about this outcome.

Russia's post-1991 'illusions' about the West are over, Lavrov says

Veterans for Peace Warns Biden That 'A No-Fly Zone Is an Act of War'

As Russia's brutal assault on Ukraine continued Thursday, an anti-war group and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar reiterated demands for de-escalation and reminded President Joe Biden that declaring a no-fly zone would mean the United States entering the war, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

While Biden and NATO have so far resisted calls—including from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—to declare a no-fly zone (NFZ) over Ukraine, as the civilian death toll and damage to infrastructure have grown, so has the pressure on the U.S. leader and the military alliance to do more.

Both Veterans for Peace and the Minnesota Democrat—who spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday—emphasized that enforcing an NFZ would require shooting down Russian aircraft.

"A no-fly zone would mean direct combat between the U.S. and Russia, leading to a wider European war involving countries with nuclear power," said Veterans for Peace executive director Garett Reppenhagen in a statement. "We need de-escalation and diplomacy to bring this terrible war to an end as soon as possible."

Recalling that the strategy was used in parts of Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, Bosnia in 1992, and Libya in 2011, the organization's statement noted that "those crises were situations in which the U.S. and NATO used their superior air power to stymie the air defenses of the countries they were attacking."

Robert Prokop, a member of the peace group, said that "for several years during the 1990s, my job at the Pentagon was to help enforce the Southern NFZ over Iraq."

"A no-fly zone is an act of war—nothing less," he declared. "It is lethal ordinance falling, not just on equipment, but on human beings. We all need to be crystal clear about this with elected officials and the general public."

What happens when a major economy can’t pay its debts in dollars? Russia is about to show us

As of Wednesday Russia has been scheduled to pay investors holding two dollar-denominated government bonds $117m in interest payments. It will likely make the payments, but probably in roubles rather than dollars. Some of Russia’s debt contracts permit such an arrangement; the two bonds in question do not. Russia has a grace period of 30 days within which to make payments in the normal fashion. If it fails to do so, it is likely to be declared in default by its creditor.

Sovereign defaults send shockwaves through the global financial system. They signal that a debtor at the very apex of the monetary system – a government – is either unwilling or unable to meet its obligations. Since, in a modern monetary system, government debt is generally treated as the ultimate safe asset, this is a shock that goes beyond the arena of high finance. ... Only a few short months ago Russia was a top-rated sovereign debtor. It had only $38bn in foreign currency debt outstanding, of which only $20bn was owned by foreign investors – a tiny amount for a trillion-dollar economy. The payment that is due now, $117m, is a small fraction of what Russia continues to earn every day for its oil and gas exports. For gas alone, Russia was a fortnight ago earning more than $700m a day.

Russia will pay in its local currency not because it is unable to find $117m, or because it has unilaterally decided that these debts are odious and should not be serviced. It is not paying its foreign creditors because it is locked in an asymmetrical proxy war with the west, a struggle in which the latter has chosen to weaponise the financial system. ... Since only the US, which consumes hardly any Russian oil, has so far imposed an embargo on Russian energy exports, Russia continues to earn hard currency. Having piled up its foreign exchange earnings, it has enough foreign exchange reserves to settle its entire foreign currency debt outright more than 12 times over. Russia’s problem is not financial but political. It cannot access its hundreds of billions in foreign exchange reserves because of European and American sanctions. For its part, it has barred foreign investors from selling their Russian investments. And when it makes the $117m payment in roubles, it is not obvious that its foreign creditors will be able to set up bank accounts in Russia into which to receive them.

To treat this as a regular default is to engage in a charade: it is a tit-for-tat measure in a financial war. Given the sanctions we have imposed, it is frankly silly to expect anything less.

Kamala & Pelosi Embarrassing Attempt To Explain Ukraine

Progressives Hand Biden List of 55 Executive Actions Because 'Working People Can't Wait'

With the pivotal midterm elections looming, the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday unveiled a slate of more than 50 executive actions it is urging President Joe Biden to pursue as much of his domestic policy agenda remains stalled in Congress—thanks in large part to right-wing members of his own party.

The CPC's new list of executive order recommendations is broad in scope, aiming to address a variety of pressing issues including sky-high drug prices, the worsening climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, mounting student loan debt, and a rigged tax system—priorities that Biden vowed to tackle on the campaign trail in 2020.

While Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the CPC chair, has said she would prefer ambitious legislation such as the Build Back Better package to more limited executive orders, that bill is dead in the Senate due to opposition from Republicans and corporate-backed Democrats such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), leaving the president with few other options to advance his popular agenda.

Failure to act boldly, Jayapal and other progressives have warned, could spell disaster for Democrats in the fast-approaching midterms.

"Congress continues to push for a robust reconciliation package that can pass both chambers, and the Progressive Caucus remains fully committed to delivering as much of the president's agenda as we can through legislation," Jayapal said in a statement Thursday. "But we know working people can't wait for relief from rising costs—and that Democrats must use all the tools available to provide it, quickly."

Included among the 98-member CPC's list of 55 proposed executive orders are steps Biden can take unilaterally to:

Protect seniors' ability to manage their own care in traditional Medicare by quickly transitioning away from the ACO REACH pilot program;

Dramatically lower costs of essential drugs like insulin, naloxone, hepatitis C drugs, HIV/AIDS drugs, Xtandi, EpiPens, and inhalers;

Expand public manufacturing capacity for Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutic production;

Put money back in the pockets of millions of Americans who are stuck in the student debt trap... by using existing administrative authority under section 432(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel federal student loan debt;

Give millions of workers more take-home pay by strengthening outdated overtime protections;

Stop the expansion of private prisons to detain immigrants;

Declare a National Climate Emergency and invoke authorities under the Defense Production Act and Trade Expansion Act, mobilizing domestic industry to manufacture affordable renewable energy technologies with good-paying union jobs;

Declare a ban on new fossil fuel leases on federal lands and waters and in environmental justice communities;

Raise billions by closing the carried interest loophole that lets Wall Street executives managing other peoples' money disguise part of their salary as investment returns to cut their taxes; and

Reverse Trump administration regulations that further expanded the offshore tax loopholes created by the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

ADL leaders debated ending police delegations to Israel, memo reveals

Senior leaders of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the US-based non-profit organization known for combatting antisemitism and tracking extremism, debated whether to end a controversial program that connects American law enforcement officers with police leaders and members of the military in Israel, a 2020 internal document reveals. The ADL, which works closely with US police on trainings related to bias and hate crimes, has for years run a program that sends delegations from US law enforcement departments to Israel to “study first-hand Israel’s tactics and strategies to combat terrorism”. The trips have long faced criticism from US civil rights groups, who argue that the trainings could encourage US police to further militarize their forces and exacerbate police violence.

A draft memo obtained by the Guardian and Jewish Currents shows that amid the George Floyd protests in 2020, two ADL executives questioned whether the trips could make American officers “more likely to use force” and contribute to the “problem” of police brutality. They considered advocating for the termination of the program. “In light of the very real police brutality at the hands of militarized police forces in the US, we must ask ourselves difficult questions, like whether we are contributing to the problem,” wrote George Selim, an ADL senior vice-president, and Greg Ehrie, VP for law enforcement and analysis, on 9 June in the draft memo. “We must ask ourselves why it is necessary for American police, enforcing American laws, would need to [sic] meet with members of the Israeli military. We must ask ourselves if, upon returning home, those we train are more likely to use force. We hope that that is not accurate.” ...

Asked about the document this week, Selim said the memo was an “early draft” written before the ADL had made a final assessment. Selim said he and Ehrie had conducted a “thorough assessment of the program” after writing the draft memo, and that their final recommendation was “to continue the program with updated curriculum and content in order to increase the value and impact of this type of law enforcement engagement”. ...

Activists have protested against the ADL’s Israel trips through a campaign called Deadly Exchange. In 2020, a coalition of activist groups – including the Movement for Black Lives, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center – also launched a “Drop the ADL” campaign, citing its ties to law enforcement.

California man died screaming ‘I can’t breathe’ as police restrained him, video shows

A southern California man died nearly two years ago as he screamed “I can’t breathe” while multiple officers restrained him as they tried to take a blood sample, according to records and a video.

Edward Bronstein, 38, was taken into custody by California highway patrol (CHP) officers on 31 March 2020 following a traffic stop. Bronstein died less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis as he, too, repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe.”

A nearly 18-minute video, taken by a CHP sergeant at the Altadena station, was released on Tuesday after a judge’s order to make it public. Bronstein’s family has filed a federal lawsuit against the officers, alleging excessive force and a violation of civil rights. The family is also calling for the officers to be criminally charged by the Los Angeles county district attorney.

The LA county coroner’s office ruled Bronstein’s cause of death as “acute methamphetamine intoxication during restraint by law enforcement”. A copy of the autopsy report was not immediately available. “When the nation was in an uproar over the George Floyd tragedy, we had no idea this had also happened to Mr Bronstein,” said Luis Carrillo, an attorney for Bronstein’s family.

A spokesperson for the LA county district attorney’s office said “the matter remains under review”.

Bernie Insiders Give Thumbs Up to Ro Khanna 2024 Presidential Run

Progressive U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna is being encouraged by leading figures behind Sen. Bernie Sanders' back-to-back Democratic presidential bids to launch his own run for the White House in 2024 should President Joe Biden not seek another term, Politico reported Thursday.

Khanna (D-Calif.), a 45-year-old, Philadelphia-born and Justice Democrat-backed lawmaker, has represented Silicon Valley since 2017. He also served as the national co-chair for Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign.

Key voices nudging Khanna to make a presidential run, according to the new reporting, include Sanders' former presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver and the Vermont senator's senior adviser Mark Longabaugh.

Weaver told the outlet that Khanna "would have tremendous appeal among people who supported Bernie," while Longabauch said the California congressman "would be a very effective candidate" who brings a "very powerful" message about restructuring the economy for greater wealth distribution throughout the U.S. Khanna would also be able to grow the "big tent" that is the Democratic Party, according to Longabaugh.

Politico also referenced support for Khanna from Larry Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolution—the progressive organizing group that emerged from Sanders' 2016 presidential run. Cohen told The Washington Post last year that if Biden doesn't run in 2024, "I think absolutely there'll be progressives—at least one."

Khanna, for his part, told Politico he was not going to run for the president in 2024—though he didn't make a statement rejecting a future bid—and reiterated his support for Biden if the president runs again in the next cycle.

Khanna and Sanders are generally aligned politically and have joined together on a number of bills, including a War Powers Resolution to block U.S. military participation in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Like Sanders, Khanna has also called for a Medicare for All healthcare system, blasted Big Oil over alleged price gouging and its climate disinformation campaign, criticized the Pentagon's bloated budget, stressed the need for protected and expanded Social Security, and demanded robust Covid-19 relief for economically devastated Americans.

The California Democrat has also come under scrutiny for being one of the biggest stock traders in Congress in 2021, though he recently indicated support for banning federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks.

Khanna also set off a deluge of criticism from the left, when, in 2018, he initially endorsed incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley of New York as he faced a progressive primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ultimately won.

Under pressure, Khanna ultimately gave a dual endorsement to both Crowley and Ocasio-Cortez.

Biden DOJ: Hunter Laptop REAL, Investigation Underway

Great Barrier Reef hit by sixth mass bleaching event, leading coral scientist says

One of the world’s leading coral scientists claims a sixth mass bleaching event is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef, with official monitoring flights now under way all along the Queensland coastline. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has confirmed monitoring flights are being conducted “along the length and breadth” of the 2,300km world heritage reef. ...

Prof Terry Hughes, a leading expert on coral bleaching at James Cook University, said he had received a “flood of reports from the field” of bleached corals in the last two weeks. Rising ocean temperatures driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases have caused five mass bleaching events along the reef in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020.

Hughes told the Guardian he believes a sixth mass bleaching event is now unfolding, and that it was not mild or local.

The amount of heat stress over the reef tends to peak in early to mid-March each year but scientists began to worry as early as December after water temperatures rose to record levels for that month. Hughes said: “We all breathed a sigh of relief because corals that were pale in December regained their colour in January and February. But in the last three weeks there have been reports of moderate to strong bleaching all along the reef.”

Observations from the Bureau of Meteorology show water temperatures at between 1C and 2C above average across wide areas of the reef.

Money might save your property, but who wants to live in a country where the poor drown and the rich are saved?

Imagine a future even more dystopian than the present – a world where catastrophic climate change meets catastrophic income inequality. In this near future, floods and fires get more intense and the government’s response remains sluggish. So the wealthy take matters into their own hands. They leave the poor to use the degraded public emergency services, while the rich are rescued by private means – a fleet of helicopters to get them to safety, private firefighters to protect their homes, the use of satellite phones and access to secure food sources and fresh water.

It’s not such a leap. The rich are already buying their way out of the pointy end of the climate crisis. In 2018 when wildfires tore through California, Kim Kardashian’s mansion was reportedly saved by private firefighters, operated by her insurance company. The rich are also buying their way out of the climate emergency with elaborate contingency plans. You see it with the PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel buying a very large bolthole in New Zealand, and wealthy Australians buying land in Tasmania to escape the worst ravages of climate change. ...

The story of the Kardashian’s home being saved from fire is not a freaky celebrity one-off – it’s the canary in the neoliberal coalmine, it’s the “story of the ramifications of economic disparity in this country”, wrote the Atlantic.

People buy safety in the US – not just safety from climate change, but safety from each other. They install elaborate security systems, or live in gated communities, and in the case of the University of Chicago, amass one of the largest private police forces in the US to protect students and university property. ...

Perhaps you’re looking around where you live right now, and doing a form of disaster prepping in your head. You might be noticing the summers getting drier or once in 500 year floods occurring every few years, and you might be thinking: how am I going to save and protect my property? And how am I going to save and protect myself and my family? When you prep, you do so as an individual or family unit. You do not prep your entire region, and as a result many in your community will get left behind. We have to bring prepping into the commons (the degraded commons, but one that exists nonetheless), so we can all prep together. ...

Money might save your house, but do you really want to live in a country where the poor drown and the rich are saved?

Also of Interest

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

The Awesome Power Of US Propaganda: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Defying Pressure, Koch Industries Continues to Operate in Russia

Graham introduces resolution urging Biden to help send jets to Ukraine

John Helmer: “Zelensky Himself Is Now in Polish Hands;” March 15 Summit with Polish, Czech, and Slovenian Prime Ministers in Przemysl, Poland, Not Kiev

Neo-Nazis In Ukraine Fake Incidents To Gain More 'Western' Support - Updated

The Chris Hedges Report

Greenwald: The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic

Verizon Sends In The Union Busters

The man who could help big oil derail America’s climate fight

Is Joe Manchin Lucy or the Football?

Sinema REFUSED To Wear Mask Around President, Biden: Totally "PERPLEXED" By Her

A Little Night Music

Johnny Winter - Oh My Darling

Johnny Winter - Mean Town Blues

Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter - Tobacco Road

Johnny Winter - Dust My Broom

Johnny Winter - Highway 61 Revisited

Johnny Winter - I Got Love If You Want It

Johnny Winter - Stray Cat Blues

Johnny Winter - You Keep Sayin' That You're Leavin'

Johnny Winter - Red House

Johnny Winter - Live @ Massey Hall, Toronto 1983