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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Sly And The Family Stone

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Funk/r&b group Sly And The Family Stone. Enjoy!

^{Sly And The Family Stone - I Want To Take You Higher}

"The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times."

-- Marshall McLuhan

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News and Opinion

The US Cries About War Crimes While Imprisoning A Journalist For Exposing Its War Crimes

In what his lawyers have described as a “brief but significant moment in the case,” a British magistrates’ court has signed off on Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States, bringing the WikiLeaks founder one step closer to a US trial under the Espionage Act which threatens press freedoms worldwide.

The extradition case now goes to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for approval, which will likely be forthcoming as Patel is a reliably loyal empire manager. After that point, Assange’s legal team will be able to launch an appeal.

This is happening at the same time the United States and the United Kingdom are loudly demanding accountability for alleged war crimes by the Russian military in Ukraine, which is interesting because attempting to bring accountability for war crimes is precisely why Julian Assange is in prison.

“He is a war criminal,” President Biden said of Vladimir Putin following allegations of war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine earlier this month. “I think it is a war crime. … He should be held accountable.”

And that’s all I’d like to say here today, really. That this discrepancy is very interesting.

I mean, can we take a moment to deeply appreciate the irony of this? Because it’s so obscene and outrageous it’s actually hard to take in unless you really let it absorb. The most powerful government in the world, which serves as the hub of the most powerful empire that has ever existed, is working to extradite a journalist for exposing its war crimes while simultaneously rending its garments over war crime allegations against another government.

I mean, damn. You would think a power structure that had recently been caught red-handed committing war crimes and is currently in the process of imprisoning a journalist for exposing those war crimes would at least have the sense not to yell too loudly about war crimes for a little while. But this is how confident the empire is in its ability to control the narrative.

Really take it in. Really digest it. The more you think about it, the freakier it gets. Not only is the empire persecuting a journalist for exposing its war crimes while at the same time demanding that others be held accountable for war crimes, it is also attacking the free press for reporting the truth about the powerful while at the very same time engaging in a massive propaganda operation which holds that it is involved in Ukraine to protect its freedom and democracy.

I mean, the gall. The absolute temerity. The balls on this empire, man.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Assange exposed many ugly realities about the powerful in his work with WikiLeaks, but everything that he has managed to expose thereafter simply by forcing them to prosecute him far surpasses the revelations in those publications.

If the highest form of journalism is exposing the darkest secrets of the most powerful people in the world, then Julian Assange is the highest form of journalist.

Glenn Greenwald, worth a click and a read:

Former Intelligence Officials, Citing Russia, Say Big Tech Monopoly Power is Vital to National Security

A group of former intelligence and national security officials on Monday issued a jointly signed letter warning that pending legislative attempts to restrict or break up the power of Big Tech monopolies — Facebook, Google, and Amazon — would jeopardize national security because, they argue, their centralized censorship power is crucial to advancing U.S. foreign policy. The majority of this letter is devoted to repeatedly invoking the grave threat allegedly posed to the U.S. by Russia as illustrated by the invasion of Ukraine, and it repeatedly points to the dangers of Putin and the Kremlin to justify the need to preserve Big Tech's power in its maximalist form. Any attempts to restrict Big Tech's monopolistic power would therefore undermine the U.S. fight against Moscow.

While one of their central claims is that Big Tech monopoly power is necessary to combat (i.e., censor) “foreign disinformation,” several of these officials are themselves leading disinformation agents: many were the same former intelligence officials who signed the now-infamous-and-debunked pre-election letter fraudulently claiming that the authentic Hunter Biden emails had the "hallmarks” of Russia disinformation (former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Obama CIA Director Michael Morrell, former Obama CIA/Pentagon chief Leon Panetta). Others who signed this new letter have strong financial ties to the Big Tech corporations whose power they are defending in the name of national security (Morrell, Panetta, former Bush National Security Adviser Fran Townsend).

The ostensible purpose of the letter is to warn of the national security dangers from two different bipartisan bills — one pending in the Senate, the other in the House — that would prohibit Big Tech monopolies from using their vertical power to "discriminate” against competitors (the way Google, for instance, uses its search engine business to bury the videos of competitors to its YouTube property, such as Rumble, or the way Google and Apple use their stores and Amazon uses its domination over hosting services to destroy competitors). One bill in the Senate is co-sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), and has attracted ample support in both parties, as has a similar House bill co-sponsored by House Antitrust Committee Chair David Cicilline (D-RI) and ranking member Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO). The amount of bipartisan support each bill has garnered — and the widespread animosity toward Big Tech reflected by this Congressional support — has shocked Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook lobbyists, who are accustomed to getting their way in Washington with lavish donations to the key politicians in each party.

This letter by former national security officials is, in one sense, an act of desperation. The bills have received the support of the key committees with jurisdiction over antitrust and Big Tech. In the Senate, five conservative Republican Committee members who have been outspoken critics of Big Tech power — Grassley, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MI), Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) — joined with Democrats to ensure the passage of one bill out of the Judiciary Committee by a 16-6 vote, with a companion bill passing that Committee with the support of 20 of twenty-two Senators. As The Intercept's Sara Sirota and Ryan Grim report: “Both bills have Big Tech reeling” since “a floor vote would likely be a blowout for Big Tech.”

The extreme animus harbored by large parts of the left and right toward Big Tech make it very difficult for any lawmaker to go on record in opposition to these proposed bills if they are forced to publicly take a position in a floor vote. Many Senators with financial ties to Big Tech — including the two California Senate Democrats who represent Silicon Valley and are recipients of their largesse (Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla) — have expressed reservations about these reform efforts and have refused to co-sponsor the bill, yet still voted YES when forced to vote in Committee. This shows that public pressure to rein in Big Tech is becoming too large to enable Silicon Valley to force lawmakers to ignore their constituents’ wishes with lobbyist donations. These politicians will work behind the scenes to kill efforts to rein in Big Tech, but will not vote against such efforts if forced to take a public position.

As a result, Big Tech's last hope is to keep the bill from reaching the floor where Senators would be forced to go on record, a goal they hope will be advanced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York due to his close ties to Silicon Valley. “Both [Schumer's] children are on the payroll of companies the proposals would seek to rein in,” reported The New York Post: “Jessica Schumer is a registered lobbyist at Amazon, according to New York state records. Alison Schumer works at Facebook as a product marketing manager.” Despite that, Schumer claimed to The Intercept that he supports both bills and will vote in favor of them, even though he has engaged in maneuvers to impede the bills from getting a full floor vote.

[Much more at the link. -js]

Intense Battles in Donbass, Endgame in Azovstal, As Inflation Storm Clouds Gather over the West

From The Guardian's propaganda mill:

Russia tests nuclear-capable missile in warning to enemies

Russia has said it had test-launched its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a new addition to its nuclear arsenal, which Vladimir Putin said would give Moscow’s enemies something to think about.

The Russian president was shown on television being told by the military that the missile had been launched from Plesetsk in the north-west and hit targets in the Kamchatka peninsula in the far east.

“The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defence. It has no analogues in the world and will not have for a long time to come,” Putin said.

Putin stops Azovstal assault. GL collective west silence. Putin's BIG warning Sarmat ICBM.

More from The Guardian's propaganda mill:

Ukrainian commander in Mariupol says forces ‘facing last days, if not hours’

A Ukrainian marine commander fighting in Mariupol has said his forces are “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”, as another Russian ultimatum to the remaining Ukrainian troops in the besieged port city to surrender or die expired with no mass capitulation.

“The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna, a commander from the 36th separate marine brigade, said in a video message posted on Facebook. “We appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state.”

Vastly outnumbered Ukrainian forces have formed a stubborn pocket of resistance in the Azovstal iron and steelworks – a sprawling mass of tunnels and workshops spread over four square miles in the south-east of the city and the last holdout of troops defending Mariupol.

Russian-backed separatists said shortly before a 2pm (11am GMT) Wednesday deadline that just five people had surrendered. Similar surrender demands earlier this week were ignored.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said an estimated 1,000 civilians were sheltering at the plant. He said he remained ready to swap Russian prisoners of war in exchange for safe passage for the trapped civilians and Ukrainian soldiers.

Worth a full read, much more at the link:

Zelensky’s Hardline Internal Purge

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has framed his country’s war against Russia as a battle for democracy itself. In a carefully choreographed address to U.S. Congress on March 16, Zelensky stated, “Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided. The destiny of our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.” U.S. corporate media has responded by showering Zelensky with fawning press, driving a campaign for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and inspiring a flamboyant musical tribute to himself and the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Grammy awards ceremony on April 3.

Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia. “There is one less traitor in Ukraine,” Internal Affairs Ministry adviser Anton Geraschenko stated in an endorsement of the murder of a Ukrainian mayor accused of collaborating with Russia.

Zelensky has further exploited the atmosphere of war to outlaw an array of opposition parties and order the arrest of his leading rivals. His authoritarian decrees have triggered the disappearance, torture and even murder of an array of human rights activists, communist and leftist organizers, journalists and government officials accused of “pro-Russian” sympathies. The Ukrainian SBU security services have served as the enforcement arm of the officially authorized campaign of repression. With training from the C.I.A. and close coordination with Ukraine’s state-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries, the SBU has spent the past weeks filling its vast archipelago of torture dungeons with political dissidents.

On the battlefield, meanwhile, the Ukrainian military has engaged in a series of atrocities against captured Russian troops and proudly exhibited its sadistic acts on social media. Here too, the perpetrators of human rights abuses appear to have received approval from the upper echelons of Ukrainian leadership.

While Zelensky spouts bromides about the defense of democracy before worshipful Western audiences, he is using the war as a theater for enacting a blood-drenched purge of political rivals, dissidents and critics.

Russians Are “Different & Don’t Value Human Life” Says German Pundit

US, UK and Canada walk out of G20 meeting over war in Ukraine

The UK, US and Canada have staged a coordinated walkout of a G20 meeting in protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amid growing risks of division between leading nations hitting the world economy. Representatives from the three countries left the session as Russian delegates spoke at the meeting in Washington. ...

The walkout at the session, which was taking place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings, came amid growing fears that a breakdown in international relations would severely undermine the global economy’s recovery from the pandemic and add to soaring inflation, pushing millions more people into poverty worldwide.

In comments made shortly before the protest, the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, warned 75 years of development gains were being put at risk by a splintering of international cooperation. Asked about reports of a potential walkout at the G20 meeting, Georgieva said the world had reached a “watershed moment” for global partnerships to tackle a range of issues including the pandemic, war in Ukraine, the climate emergency and rising poverty.

“There are clearly very, very unsettling facts we have to deal with. I can say honestly I never thought that I would live through another war in Europe on the scale this one takes place,” she said. “We also recognise how interdependent we are. Just make the list of questions – no country can solve [them] on its own. It is so obvious that cooperation must and will continue.”

Zelensky Singles Out Russian Oil As “Blood Oil” With Straight Face

Coalition Demands End to US Military Support for Saudi-Led War on Yemen

More than five dozen advocacy groups on Wednesday pressured Congress to cut off U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war and blockade on Yemen, highlighting that it "has helped cause the deaths of nearly half a million people and pushed millions more to the edge of starvation."

The groups' letter to Congress—led by Churches for Middle East Peace, Demand Progress, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), MoveOn, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation—comes in the midst of a two-month truce.

The signatories are calling on lawmakers to co-sponsor a forthcoming War Powers Resolution from Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), declaring that "Congress must reassert its Article I war powers, terminate U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia's war and blockade, and do everything it can to support the Yemen truce."

Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at FCNL, said in a statement Wednesday that "the recently announced nationwide truce between Yemen's warring parties offers hope that an end to the seven-year conflict might finally be possible."

"Congress must help prevent backsliding by Saudi Arabia, which has driven so much of the violence through indiscriminate airstrikes and crippling blockade, by passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution and blocking U.S. military support for any renewed hostilities," he added. "Congressional pressure is critical right now to keep the warring parties at the bargaining table and off the battlefield."

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began waging war on Yemen when then-U.S. President Barack Obama was in office and continued to do so throughout former President Donald Trump's tenure.

When President Joe Biden took office, "he committed to ending U.S. support for the Saudi-UAE-led coalition's brutal war on Yemen," noted Demand Progress foreign policy campaigner Cavan Kharrazian. "Unfortunately, the U.S. continues to provide critical support for the coalition's war effort and blockade, which has led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises." ...

Representatives for groups that signed on to the letter expressed disappointment with the current administration.

"Although President Biden initially seemed to signal that he would end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen, it has become clear that his administration is not committed to constraining Saudi aggression," said Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. "If it were, we should have observed Saudi airstrikes on Yemen decline under Biden, and instead they have risen."

"U.S. support for the Saudi war continues despite a growing recognition that the U.S.-Saudi relationship is deeply dysfunctional and fails to serve U.S. interests," she added. "For this reason, it is imperative that Congress pass a War Powers Resolution, to remind the executive branch of Congress' constitutional authority and role as a voice for the American people."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), also emphasized the responsibility of Congress, noting that "from Obama to Trump to Biden," successive administrations "have skirted our constitution to pursue the war in Yemen without seeking congressional approval."

"This ill-considered venture has led not only to devastating consequences for Yemen's people, but endangered our military forces and our nation, making us legitimate targets for counterattack," she said. "It's time to put an end to short-sighted, reckless miscalculations on the decision to go to war: We need to reaffirm this decision must always rest in the hands of the people's Congress by passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution."

French presidential election: Leftist electors will be key to determine winner

Macron and Le Pen go head-to-head in French presidential debate

It was billed as a match between two presidential candidates – one who inspired fear and the other loathing. In the much-anticipated debate on Wednesday night, Marine Le Pen set out to show the French should not be afraid to give her a chance to run the country, while Emmanuel Macron was determined to fix his image of the man the French love to hate.

Above all, both were anxious to show they understood the daily lives and worries of their compatriots over a range of subjects including the effects of the war in Ukraine, healthcare, pensions, Covid, Europe, taxes, immigration, ecology and the cost of living. ...

The face-off was a challenge for both. Le Pen could not stop herself smirking and appearing to mock Macron as he spoke, and Macron could not shake his habit of explaining policies in detail in headteacher fashion. ...

The latest opinion poll from Ipsos suggests Macron has a 12 point lead over Le Pen for the second-round vote, with him winning with 56% and her on 44%, with a 1.1% margin of error. However, 13% of those voters did not say for whom they would vote. Of those who said they would abstain or vote blank, 43% said they may change their mind on the day.

‘Brazil needs fixing’: Lula confirms comeback run against Bolsonaro

The former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has confirmed he will kickstart his campaign to reclaim the presidency from his right-wing adversary Jair Bolsonaro next month, comparing their rivalry to a clash of the titans between Liverpool and Manchester City. ...

Tuesday night the veteran leftist finally confirmed he would activate his political comeback on 7 May. ... After launching his candidacy Lula said he would begin touring the South American country, which appears to be emerging from one of the world’s most severe Covid outbreaks. “Brazil needs fixing,” Lula, a two-term president from 2003 to 2011, tweeted after his announcement.

With just under six months until the 2 October election, polls put Lula ahead of Bolsonaro, a Trump-style populist who critics blame for soaring Amazon deforestation, undermining democracy, and a disastrous response to a coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 660,000 people.

“Lula’s the favourite, there’s no doubt about it … because in any poll you look at 60% of voters say they reject Bolsonaro,” said Thomas Traumann, a Rio-based political observer. “This is a government that, objectively, is a failure. It didn’t bring economic growth, it didn’t improve people’s lives, it had 660,000 deaths during the pandemic,” Traumann added.

Yet despite those failures, Bolsonaro has risen in the polls in recent weeks – partly thanks to billions of pounds of welfare payments being doled out to the poor – suggesting the race may be far closer than many progressives had hoped.

Amazon Union Organizer Responds To Liberal Critics

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BERNIE SANDERS Will Run For President If Biden BOWS Out: Memo

Sanders Has 'Not Ruled Out' 2024 White House Run: Memo

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has not ruled out a third run for the White House if President Joe Biden does not run in 2024, according to a top aide's campaign memo viewed by The Washington Post.

"In the event of an open 2024 Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Sanders has not ruled out another run for president, so we advise that you answer any questions about 2024 with that in mind," Faiz Shakir, the independent senator from Vermont's 2020 campaign manager, wrote in the memo to political allies.

The Post reports that "the memo was shared by a person with direct knowledge of its contents on the condition of anonymity because it was not released publicly, and confirmed by a second person with direct knowledge of the contents."

Sanders spokesperson Mike Casca told the Post that "while it's frustrating this private memo leaked to the media, the central fact remains true, which is that Sen. Sanders is the most popular officeholder in the country."

According to recent YouGov America polling, 80-year-old Sanders is the most popular currently serving politician in the United States, with a 48% positive opinion rating. Biden trails at 42%, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 38% and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who are tied at 37%.

In April 2020, Sanders ended his second consecutive attempt to represent a party whose establishment was accused of being primarily focused on ensuring that the democratic socialist never became its presidential nominee. The following month, Sanders said there was only a "very, very slim chance" that he would ever run for president again.

Big Crypto THROWS MONEY At Dem Establishment

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Protected areas don’t always benefit wildlife, global study finds

National parks and other protected areas have had mixed success in conserving wildlife, according to the largest ever global study of their effects. Using wetland bird data from 1,506 protected areas around the world, scientists analysed the trends of more than 27,000 populations, and found that increased provision for the birds had not necessarily helped.

Researchers said the study, published today in the journal Nature, has important implications for the movement to protect 30% of the Earth for wildlife by the end of the decade. The results show that managing parks to protect species and their habitats is crucial, and that without such management parks are more likely to be ineffective.

“We know that protected areas can prevent habitat loss, especially in terms of stopping deforestation,” said lead author Dr Hannah Wauchope of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter University. “However, we have much less understanding of how protected areas help wildlife. Our study shows that, while many protected areas are working well, many others are failing to have a positive effect. We need more focus on ensuring areas are well-managed to benefit biodiversity.”

Governments are currently negotiating this decade’s targets to protect biodiversity, with dozens of countries signing up to a target to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. While this study only looked at waterbirds, scientists said their abundance, ability to colonise and leave locations quickly, and the quality of data meant they were a good proxy for other wildlife.

“We are not saying protected areas don’t work,” Wauchope said. “The key point is that their impacts vary hugely, and the biggest thing this depends on is whether they are managed with species in mind – we can’t just expect protected areas to work without appropriate management. It also appears that larger protected areas tend to be better than smaller ones.”

Biden launches $6bn effort to save America’s distressed nuclear plants

The Biden administration is launching a $6bn effort to rescue nuclear power plants at risk of closing, citing the need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change.

On Tuesday, a certification and bidding process opened for a civil nuclear credit program that is intended to bail out financially distressed owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, the US energy department told the Associated Press exclusively, shortly before the official announcement. It’s the largest federal investment in saving financially distressed nuclear reactors.

Owners or operators of nuclear power reactors that are expected to shut down for economic reasons can apply for funding to avoid closing prematurely. The first round of awards will prioritize reactors that have already announced plans to close.

The second round will be opened up to more economically at-risk facilities. The program was funded through Joe Biden’s $1tn infrastructure deal, which he signed into law in November.

‘Wall of fire’ sends residents of more than 700 homes fleeing in Arizona

An Arizona wildfire tripled in size on Wednesday to more than 19,000 acres, a day after heavy winds kicked up a towering wall of flames outside a northern Arizona tourist and college town.

Flames as high as 100ft raced through an area of scattered homes, dry grass and Ponderosa pine trees on the outskirts of Flagstaff as wind gusts of up to 50mph pushed the Tunnel fire over a major highway. The blaze has ripped through two dozen structures and sent residents of more than 700 homes scrambling to flee.

Weather conditions were more favorable on Wednesday, with light breezes before a predicted return to stronger winds on Thursday “approaching a critical level”, said Mark Stubblefield, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff. No significant precipitation is in the forecast into next week, Stubblefield said.

Coconino county officials said during an evening news conference on Tuesday that 766 homes and 1,000 animals had been evacuated. About 250 structures remained threatened in the area popular with hikers and off-road vehicle users and where astronauts have trained amid volcanic cinder pits. ... The fire was moving north-east away from the more heavily populated areas of Flagstaff, home to Northern Arizona University, and toward Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, said the Coconino national forest spokesman, Brady Smith. ...

The fire started on Sunday afternoon 14 miles north-east of Flagstaff, an area hard hit by recent wildfire seasons. Investigators do not know yet what caused it and have yet to corral any part of the blaze.

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Also of Interest

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

Matt Taibbi: America’s Intellectual No-Fly Zone

Sen. Coons tries to claw back message about using US troops to ‘stop Putin’

We Want YOU to Keep The War Going

Some Of The Weapons Delivered To Ukraine Will Be Used Against Us

Joker America

Jerusalem PR Firm, 33 AD

The Ukraine Crisis Can't Save Biden

Amid Backlash, Democrats Consider Banning Consultants From Anti-Union Activity

Move over, Giuliani: how loopholes sparked a golden age of cannabis in New York

Sea-farmed supercrop: how seaweed could transform the way we live

Database Shows Rich Governments Funding Fossil Fuels Over Clean Energy

Tulsi Gabbard Sends CEASE & DESIST To Romney, Olbermann Over ‘Treason’ SMEAR

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A Little Night Music

Sly & Family Stone - You Can Make It If You Try

Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music

Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday people

Sly & The Family Stone - Frisky

Sly & The Family Stone - Sex Machine

Sly & The Family Stone - Runnin' Away

Sly Stone - Stand Tokyo

Sly And The Family Stone - In Time

Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

Sly & The Family Stone - Woodstock 1969

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