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"Monopolies, oligarchy, the striving for domination and not for freedom, the exploitation of an increasing number of small or weak nations by a handful of the richest or most powerful nations -- all these have given birth to those distinctive characteristics of imperialism which compel us to define it as parasitic or decaying capitalism."

-- Vladimir Lenin

News and Opinion

Democrats Love Saying That AR-15s Should Only Be Used On Foreigners

Every time there’s a mass shooting in America with an AR-15, high-level Democrats line up to proclaim that those weapons should only ever be used to kill impoverished foreigners.

The latest example of this ongoing phenomenon was Illinois Senator and Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth telling the press that a recording from the July 4th Highland Park shooting which killed seven people and wounded dozens more reminded her of her combat experience overseas, saying the US needs to do better within its own borders.

“I just listened to the sound of that gunfire from one of the videos that was captured,” Duckworth said. “And let me tell you that the last time I heard a weapon with that capacity firing that rapidly on a Fourth of July was Iraq, it was not the United States of America. We can and we should and we will do better.”

This was not the first time Duckworth has repeated this demented Democratic Party refrain. Last month during the controversy which followed the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Duckworth tweeted, “I carried an M16 and M4 in the military, so let me be clear: High-powered rifles designed for our troops to engage an enemy with accurate, lethal fire at a velocity of 3,000 feet per second have no place on our streets. I fully support an assault weapons ban.”

Obviously American weapons of war kill far more people overseas than they do domestically, and those killings are done in wars of aggression for power and profit which are sold to the public with lies and propaganda, so they’ve got no higher moral standing than the killings of any mass shooter. But because the Democratic Party exists only to kill leftward movement in the United States and ensure the continual functioning of a globe-spanning empire, gun violence is seen at its highest echelons not as a moral issue which should be opposed everywhere but as a wedge issue which should be exploited for campaign donations.

We saw this illustrated in a notorious 2017 tweet from now-US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig which said, “I did not carry an assault weapon around a foreign country so I could come home and see them used to massacre my countrymen.”

Silly Republicans! Assault weapons are for killing foreign kids!

Another classic came from Instagram progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019: “Weapons of war, specifically designed to kill human beings en masse, should not be available for purchase.”

Cool beans, AOC. Leave the killing en masse to the American stormtroopers exterminating brown-skinned poor people for resource control.

We saw this “those bullets belong in foreign bodies” Democratic talking point seeded way back in 2013 by that masterful empire manager Barack Obama.

“These weapons of war, when combined with high-capacity magazines, have one purpose: to inflict maximum damage as quickly as possible,” reads an Obama White House statement. “They are designed for the battlefield, and they have no place on our streets, in our schools, or threatening our law enforcement officers.”

The line “Weapons of war have no place on our streets” would go on to be parroted, again and again and again, by Democratic Party candidates and officials for years. Hillary Clinton regurgitated it verbatim during her 2016 campaign. Biden said it on the campaign trail in 2019. We heard the slogan “Weapons of war have no place on our streets” repeated word-for-word by Democratic Party war hawks like Dianne Feinstein, Adam Schiff, and Seth Moulton.

“Weapons of war don’t belong on our streets.” You can learn so much about the Democratic Party’s true nature just from those eight words. Those weapons do not belong on our streets, they belong on someone else’s streets. Far away streets. The streets where our wars are. We shouldn’t have to see that stuff!

Some pundits take it a step further and call for the US to actually physically ship all the nation’s AR-15s overseas to be used in Washington’s proxy war in Ukraine:

Crazy thought, but those 20 million AR-15s now in this country could sure arm a lot of Ukrainians.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 7, 2022

That’s the Democratic Party for you. Progressive in the streets, murderous imperialists in the sheets. That unique brand of psychopathy that can posture and preen as a compassionate voice of sanity before the voting public, turn around and help gun down everyone in the Global South for crude oil and Raytheon profit margins, and then go to bed and not lose a wink’s sleep over it.

That’s the face of the Nice Guy Empire, also known as the rules-based international order, also known as the liberal world order, also known as the US-led world order. It presents the facade of humanitarianism and democratic ideals, but underneath the performance it’s just as savage and bloodthirsty as any other empire in history.

Interesting piece:

Inside Ukraine’s lobbying blitz in Washington

Ukraine has unleashed an incredible influence campaign in Washington. There’s a lag to the filing of lobbying disclosures. But even in the lead-up to the war last year, Ukraine’s lobbyists made more than 10,000 contacts with Congress, think tanks, and journalists. That’s higher than the well-funded lobbyists of Saudi Arabia, and experts on foreign lobbying told Vox they expect that this year’s number will grow much higher.

This spring, I’ve been invited to an elegant dinner with a parliamentary delegation and morning briefings (no breakfast, just coffee) at think tanks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator with Russia. Foreign policy reporters in DC have been inundated with requests. A journalist from another outlet, who asked for anonymity to be blunt, concurred: It’s been “a nonstop cycle” of Ukrainian visitors in Washington, they told me, “And think tanks that have basically become lobbyists but with a nonprofit status.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington and other parliamentarians pop up at foreign policy events. Their express purpose has been amplifying support for bigger weapons packages for Ukraine. The requests are very specific and have evolved as the war goes on: Right now, Kyiv wants F-16s and drones, more artillery and armored vehicles. The messages conveyed by Ukrainian politicians and members of the armed forces are remarkably disciplined.

Visiting officials and meals with journalists are part of how Washington works, and there’s an ecosystem of experienced power brokers operating largely within — but sometimes in the gray zone — of US laws regulating foreign influence. And Ukraine, of course, is under siege and has mobilized its most eloquent advocates to speak with Washington influencers. But the sheer intensity and coordination of the effort reveal how Ukraine views the US as an active participant in the war, and at times pushes the legal boundaries around foreign lobbying.

The number of firms registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients has exploded this summer. Six new firms registered in June alone, bringing the total to 24 firms or individuals now registered to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian clients, up from 11 registered to work for Ukraine last year. Ben Freeman, a researcher at the nonpartisan Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says that current Ukrainian efforts rank among the most active foreign government lobby he has ever analyzed. He is particularly surprised that major lobbying and comms shops in DC are giving their services away. “That’s just unheard of in the foreign lobbying space,” says Freeman, who authored the book The Foreign Policy Auction. “There’s no such thing as a free lobbyist in DC.”

Japan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Germany and UK. Global economic collapse

Switzerland resists Ukrainian plan to seize frozen Russian assets

Ukrainian plans to seize as much as $500bn (£418bn) in frozen Russian assets to fund the country’s recovery have met firm resistance from Switzerland, the hosts of an international two-day Ukraine recovery conference.

The Swiss president, Ignazio Cassis, pushed back on the plan, saying protection of property rights was fundamental in a liberal democracy. He underlined at a closing press conference the serious qualms of some leaders that proposals to confiscate Russian assets will set a dangerous precedent and needed specific legal justification.

“The right of ownership, the right of property is a fundamental right, a human right,” he said in Lugano, adding that such rights could be violated, as they had during the pandemic, but only so long as there was a legal basis.

He added: “You have to ensure the citizens are protected against the power of the state. This is what we call liberal democracies.”

Switzerland is one of many countries with tight banking secrecy laws that is not enthusiastic about seizing private property for political purposes.

NATO escalates and edges toward world war

Turkey seizes Russian ship carrying ‘stolen’ Ukrainian grain

A Russian-flagged ship carrying thousands of tonnes of grain is being held and investigated by Turkish authorities in the Black Sea port of Karasu over claims its cargo was stolen from Ukraine. Turkish customs officials acted after Kyiv claimed the Zhibek Zholy was illegally transporting 7,000 tonnes of grain out of Russian-occupied Berdiansk, a Ukrainian port in the south-east of the country.

Officials in Karasu said the ship was waiting off port while inquiries were undertaken into the provenance of the shipment. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, confirmed that the ship was Russian-flagged, but appeared to muddy the waters while claiming the Kremlin was seeking clarity on Monday. “The ship really is Russian-flagged, but I think it belongs to Kazakhstan and the cargo was being carried on a contract between Estonia and Turkey,” Lavrov told reporters.

Kyiv has accused Russia of stealing grain from occupied Ukrainian territory to sell on the international markets. ... Turkey was asked to “conduct an inspection of this sea vessel, seize samples of grain for forensic examination, demand information on the location of such grain”.

Ben & Jerry’s sues parent company over Israeli deal ‘to protect social integrity’

Ben & Jerry’s has sued its parent Unilever plc to block the sale of its Israeli business to a local licensee, saying it was inconsistent with its values to sell its ice-cream in the occupied West Bank.

The complaint filed in the US district court in Manhattan said the sale announced on 29 June threatened to undermine the integrity of the Ben & Jerry’s brand, which Ben & Jerry’s board retained independence to protect when Unilever acquired the company in 2000.

An injunction against transferring the business and related trademarks to Avi Zinger, who runs American Quality Products Ltd, was essential to “protect the brand and social integrity Ben & Jerry’s has spent decades building”, the complaint said.

Ben & Jerry’s said its board voted 5-2 to sue, with the two Unilever appointees dissenting.

Biden Blames GAS STATION OWNERS For High Prices, 2/3 Americans Experiencing FINANCIAL HARDSHIP

Nearly Two Dozen GOP States Attempting to Use Covid Relief Funds for Tax Cuts

Republican leaders in nearly two dozen U.S. states are attempting—potentially in violation of federal law—to use coronavirus relief funds approved by Congress last year to finance tax cuts instead of devoting the money to combating the ongoing pandemic and its economic consequences.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that GOP officials are working to subvert a provision in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that bars states from using money from a $350 billion Covid-19 aid program "to either directly or indirectly offset a reduction in the net tax revenue."

Last March, just days after President Joe Biden signed the ARP into law, 13 Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration over that provision, decrying it as an "unconstitutional assault on state sovereignty." In the nearly year and a half since the GOP officials filed suit, numerous Republican states have moved to slash taxes—often in ways that primarily benefit rich households and profitable businesses.

Whitney Tucker and Coty Novak of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted earlier this year that Iowa—one of the states that joined the legal action against the Biden administration—replaced its "graduated personal income tax with a flat 3.9% tax while retaining credits and deductions that would allow wealthy Iowans to pay even less."

"Lawmakers in multiple states are pushing deep tax cuts as states see stronger-than-expected revenues driven largely by the federal government's robust fiscal response to the Covid-19 recession," Tucker and Novak observed. "Iowa, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia are pushing for income tax cuts that would deliver outsized gains to wealthy residents and profitable corporations."

The Post's Tony Romm reported Tuesday that "as gas prices climbed toward record highs this May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) secured a pause on the state's fuel taxes—a $200 million plan he helped pay for with a pot of federal funds awarded earlier in the pandemic."

"More than a year after Congress approved a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, Republicans in nearly two dozen states have ratcheted up efforts to tap some of those funds for an unrelated purpose: paying for tax cuts," Romm wrote. "The moves have threatened to siphon off aid that might otherwise help states fight the pandemic, shore up their local economies, or prepare for a potential recession."

The Biden Treasury Department has emphasized that the ARP only prohibits states from using federal funds to pay for tax cuts, not from pursuing tax cuts at all.

But as Romm pointed out, Republican attorneys general are still fighting the law, claiming that it limits their states' fiscal flexibility.

"In a flurry of court filings, many of the states argued for the ability to move money around freely—plugging federal dollars into various parts of their budgets, for example, then using the savings to pay for state tax cuts," Romm reported. "Republicans have won nearly every federal lawsuit, convincing judge after judge that the rules are unconstitutional. The Treasury Department repeatedly has appealed, but the decisions for now have left the Biden administration unable to enforce the rules in much of the country."

Florida restores state abortion ban beyond 15 weeks after temporary halt

After a judge in Florida temporarily halted a state law banning abortions beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, a state appeal restored the ban on Tuesday.

Judge John C Cooper of an appellate court in Florida’s capital of Tallahassee ruled that the ban in question – enshrined in a bill that Republican lawmakers approved in April – violates privacy protections in the state constitution.

Cooper’s decision temporarily halted the ban, though it had no effect on a ban prohibiting abortions beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy. But the state’s appeal automatically ensured a stay on the temporary blocking of the more restrictive measure, meaning that ban still applies as the case continues playing out.

“The Florida constitution does not include – and has never included – a right to kill an innocent unborn child,” said a spokesperson for Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, last week.

The move is the latest in a series of conflicting state court rulings after the federal supreme court’s recent decision to overturn its landmark Roe v Wade ruling, which since 1973 had granted nationwide abortion rights. Abortion is now banned in at least eight states, with more bans expected to follow in the coming weeks.

Supreme Court security officer demands state officials crack down on protests outside of justices’ homes

On Saturday, Supreme Court Marshal Gail A. Curley sent letters to the Republican governors of Maryland and Virginia demanding that the states crack down on protests that have swelled outside of the homes of the Supreme Court’s right-wing members following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last month. Protests have remained a constant outside the homes of the court’s various far-right members in the months after a memo revealed the plan to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion.

In the letters, Curley, a West Point graduate and former military lawyer who has also been assigned the job of hunting down the source of the Supreme Court’s May memo leak, demanded that state officials in Maryland and Virginia “prohibit picketing at the homes of Supreme Court Justices.”

“For weeks on end,” she complained, “large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ homes” in the two jurisdictions. This, the officer claimed, “is exactly the kind of conduct that the [state and local] laws prohibit.”

For their part, the state governments have signaled their sympathy with the court’s ruling and the demand to end the protests. A joint letter issued by Republican governors Larry Hogan of Maryland and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia calls on the Department of Justice to “provide appropriate resources to safeguard the Justices and enforce the law as it is written.”

According to CBS Baltimore, a spokesperson for Republican Governor Larry Hogan raised issues with the “constitutionality” of the marshal’s demands only from the standpoint that the responsibility for guarding the justices lies with the federal government, not the state. The Hogan official said the state “has directed Maryland State Police to further review enforcement options that respect the First Amendment and the Constitution due to the fact that multiple federal entities refuse to act.”

Judicial Coup? SCOTUS Gerrymandering Case May Let GOP State Legislatures Control Federal Elections

Georgia grand jury subpoenas Trump lawyers over effort to overturn election

The special grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia has subpoenaed several of the former US president’s legal advisers and political allies.

Court documents show the Fulton county special grand jury has issued subpoenas to members of the Trump campaign legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina. ...

The latest round of subpoenas in the investigation indicates the grand jury is seeking additional information about Trump allies’ efforts to meddle with the Georgia results.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Giuliani repeatedly testified before Georgia legislators about his baseless claims of widespread fraud tainting the state’s results. Graham also reached out to Raffensperger days after the 2020 election and pressed him on whether he could reject all mailed-in votes cast in counties with higher levels of mismatched signatures on ballots. (Graham has denied that allegation.)

The grand jury will continue to gather information about Trump and his allies’ attempts to interfere with Georgia’s election results, and the group will then submit a report about whether the former president or any of his associates should face criminal charges over their efforts. Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis will make the final decision about filing charges in the case.

Democrats have a month to revive the climate deal our planet needs

On Thursday, the supreme court of the United States struck down the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, sharply limiting the federal government’s ability to fight climate change. With Earth’s temperature rising steadily, with the scientific community shouting at the top of its lungs for more aggressive action, with fires and hurricanes pushing entire regions beyond the bounds of human habitability, the court’s Republican-appointed supermajority has chosen to actively inhibit our ability to respond to the crisis. The decision was in keeping with the Republican party’s deepening climate nihilism: as the train careens off the rails, they strangle the conductor, destroy the brakes.

Though it’s been subtext since the advent of Maga, it is worth stating plainly what this ruling makes obvious: there is a death drive animating the modern conservative movement. It is merciless and strange and remarkably consistent. It stands on the side of whatever makes our country poorer, greedier, less safe and more desperate. It deregulates firearms after a massacre at an elementary school. It deregulates carbon after experts issue a “code red for humanity”. It forces mothers to bring their children to term, and then abandons those children to bullets, to wildfires, to grinding, generational poverty. Its pro-life policies seem to reverse precisely at the moment of birth. When it comes to living children, conservatism is a pro-death movement. ...

It would be a mistake to dismiss this as pure, self-dealing avarice. To at least some of the conservative stalwarts who spent decades orchestrating the decision, it represents a sincere vision of the good. The richest people in the world, loosed from the bounds of expertise, oversight or electoral accountability, imposing their will on a prostrate public. It is a clean, satisfying system. It activates something deep in the amygdala, a slavering, animal need for dominion. ...

Their nihilism has left the rest of us, the proverbial meek, increasingly desperate. Our ability to maintain a safe climate now rests on the Democrats passing clean energy investments through congressional budget reconciliation. They only have about five weeks left to do it. This will be the defining moment of Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s political careers. They cannot waffle. They cannot get distracted. They cannot take two weeks to digest the ruling. Their best people should be working around the clock to land a climate deal that can pass the Senate.

In the glare of history, failure on climate will overshadow any other fact about their tenure. Let’s hope they feel the heat as much as we do.

Utah’s Great Salt Lake hits new historic low amid drought in western US

The Great Salt Lake has hit a new historic low for the second time in less than a year, a dire milestone as the US west continues to weather a historic megadrought. The Utah department of natural resources said in a news release on Monday that the Great Salt Lake dipped over the weekend to 4,190.1ft (1,277.1 meters).

That is lower than the previous historic low set in October, which at the time matched a 170-year record low. Lake levels are expected to keep dropping until fall or winter, the agency said, as conditions exacerbated by the climate crisis continue to put a strain on water levels.

The giant lake near Salt Lake City is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi. Its dwindling water levels have put millions of migrating birds at risk and threaten a lake-based economy that is worth an estimated $1.3bn in mineral extraction, brine shrimp and recreation. The expanding amount of exposed lakebed could also send arsenic-laced dust into the air that millions breathe, scientists say.

California: explosive wildfire more than doubles in size overnight

An explosive wildfire that erupted in California on Fourth of July more than doubled in size overnight, quickly consuming more than 3,000 acres by Tuesday morning.

The fast-moving Electra fire, burning through the dried grasses and steep, rugged terrain east of Sacramento has forced hundreds of evacuations and continues to pose threats to critical power infrastructure according to officials with the California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire).

What caused the blaze, which ignited in the afternoon, is still under investigation but officials said fireworks or a barbecue could be a possibility. It is just one of dozens burning in the parched American west that is bracing for another intense wildfire season. With months left before wildfire activity typically peaks in the region, more than 4.5m acres have burned across the US – an amount more than double the 10-year average for this time of year, according to the national interagency fire center (NIFC).

Also of Interest

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

'Western' Media Spread Copium To Prolong The War In Ukraine

JOHN KIRIAKOU: Hold the Fireworks

Are We Heading Towards a Capitalist Supernova?

Atlanta Fed’s Model Forecasts GDP to Contract by -2.1 Percent in Second Quarter; Morgan Stanley Says S&P 500 Could Drop Another 22 Percent If that Happens

Ending Pandemic Aid Created A Disaster

Democrats Exposed By the End of Roe v. Wade

House Progressives Urge Reforms to 'Hold These Rogue Justices to Account'

After Roe, are Republicans willing to expand the social safety net?

'Win for Wildlife' as Federal Court Restores Endangered Species Protections Gutted by Trump

Crypto Company BUYS RadioShack With CRINGE Twitter Results

Hunter Biden LAPTOP Question Goes UNANSWERED By WH Press Sec Karine Jean-Pierre

A Little Night Music

Alfred 'Blues King' Harris - Sundown Boogie Blues

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - Gold Digger

Alfred 'Blues King' Harris - Sufficient clothes

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - Great Lakes Boogie

Alfred 'Blues King' Harris - Miss Darling

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - My Life Blues

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - Blues King Mango

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - Miss Ida (Alternate Take)

Alfred "Blues King" Harris - I Need You Pretty Baby For My Own