Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Wayne Bennett. Enjoy!

"Boris Johnson resigning would only be interesting in an alternate universe where there was some remote chance that he won’t be replaced by another depraved sociopath."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Glee in Russia and sadness in Ukraine as Boris Johnson quits

Boris Johnson’s downfall has been met with delight and ridicule in Moscow, while in Kyiv Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed sadness at the resignation of his key ally.

Johnson, who championed weapons transfers to Ukraine in the early stages of the war and was the first leader of a G7 country to visit Kyiv in April, has emerged as a much-loved figure in Ukraine. “We all heard this news [of Johnson’s resignation] with sadness,” Zelenskiy said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by phone. “Not only me, but also the entire Ukrainian society, which is very sympathetic to you." ...

In Russia Johnson’s support for Ukraine made him a frequent target for state media. The Kremlin described him as the “most active anti-Russian leader”.

“He doesn’t like us. We don’t like him either,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday morning. As news of Johnson’s looming resignation reached Moscow, other senior Russian officials and Kremlin-linked businesspeople used stronger words, saying he had finally got his reward for arming Ukraine against Russia.

“The moral of the story – do not seek to destroy Russia. Russia cannot be destroyed. You can break your teeth on it, and then choke on them,” the foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

Craig Murray: Boris Johnson & the UK Decline

Acres have been written in the mainstream media about Johnson’s lying and personal immorality, but there is very little serious effort to understand why so many in society have been prepared to tolerate this. The answer is that neo-liberalism has succeeded in destroying societal values, to the extent that anti-social and even sociopathic behavior no longer appears peculiar.

In a society where authority condones, and constructs a system to enable, personal fortunes of $200 billion or more while millions of children in the same country are genuinely hungry and poorly housed, what values is the socio-political structure telling people to hold? What value is placed on empathy? Ruthless ambition and resource grabbing is applauded, encouraged and held up as the model to be followed.

More and more, you are either part of the elite or you are struggling.

In the U.K., the Thatcherite dream of mass property ownership is abruptly canceled. Social mobility and meritocracy are changed from an opportunity for large scale social advancement by multitudes, into Hunger Games. Where significant numbers of young people see their best shot at financial comfort as selection for “Love Island,” how do we expect them to be repulsed that Johnson was having multiple affairs while his then wife was struggling with cancer? ...

Johnson is just a part of a process. As the power of an Empire disintegrates, so do its mores. Since the second world war, over 60 states have become independent of British rule. The pink bits on the map (“this colony is where your tapioca comes from”) they showed me so proudly at primary school have shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. Thank God children are no longer taught to sing “Over the seas there are little brown children” in need of conversion (I really was taught that, I am not making stuff up).

As the U.K.’s military, economic and political power have collapsed, so have its political mores — both for good and for bad. Johnson is but a turd spewed to the top of the gushing sewer of British decline.

Ukraine Demands $750 BILLION For Rebuild

Ukrainian diaspora urges Trudeau not to return turbine to Russia

Canada’s Ukrainian community has urged the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to refuse to compromise the country’s sanctions against Russia in order to return a turbine that Moscow says is critical for supplying natural gas to Germany.

Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom cut the capacity along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 40% of usual levels last month, citing the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germany’s Siemens Energy in Canada.

Canada has one of the world’s biggest Ukrainian diasporas outside of countries that border Ukraine and it has successfully pressured Ottawa to impose increasingly strict sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) national president, Alexandra Chyczij, urged Trudeau, in a letter on Wednesday, to see through Russia’s “obvious ploy” to divide Ukraine’s allies. ... “Any waiver of Canadian sanctions would be viewed as a capitulation to Russian blackmail and energy terrorism, and would only serve to embolden the Russian terrorist state,” Chyczij said. ...

The Russian embassy in Ottawa said Russia had no role to play in returning the turbine. “It is a problem between Canada and Germany,” the embassy said in a statement.

Ukraine Unleashes UNPRECEDENTED Lobby Campaign On DC Media Elites: Jonathan Guyer

Ukraine tensions run high as Lavrov flies into Bali for G20 foreign ministers summit

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has flown into the Indonesian island of Bali for a gathering of G20 foreign ministers, which is likely to be overshadowed by Moscow’s war in Ukraine and deep divisions within the bloc over how to respond to the crisis.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Lavrov and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi are all due to attend the gathering as concern among western governments mounts about the war’s impact on the cost of food and fuel, which has prompted the UN to warn of an “unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution”.

The gathering will mark the first time that Lavrov has met counterparts from nations that are strongly critical of the war.

Analysts question how much can be achieved by the G20, which is fraught with rifts over how to manage the war in Ukraine and its global impacts. While western members have accused Moscow of war crimes and imposed unprecedented sanctions, others – such as China, Indonesia, India and South Africa – have not adopted the same critical stance.

On Wednesday, Lavrov called on all parties in the world to make efforts to protect international laws, saying: “The world is evolving in a complicated manner.” Earlier in the week, China attacked the US and Nato, stating that Washington “observes international rules only as it sees fit”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that the “so-called rules-based international order is actually a family rule made by a handful of countries to serve the US self-interest”.

Rashida Tlaib Takes On NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, Goes After The Draconian ESPIONAGE ACT: Ryan Grim

Weapons Industry's $10 Million Investment in Congress Could Yield 450,000% Return

Military contractors give members of Congress millions of dollars in hopes of boosting the Pentagon budget—a practice that could have a huge payoff for the next fiscal year, according to an analysis published Thursday by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

The new report reveals the industry poured about $10.2 million into 2022 campaign and political action committee (PAC) contributions for members of key committees, and contractors could see a nearly 450,000% return on that investment.

The sector gave $2,990,252 to members of the House Armed Services Committee and $7,175,092 to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, or a total of $10,165,344 for this election cycle.

President Joe Biden requested an $813 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2023. The House committee in June voted to add about $37 billion, while the Senate panel last month voted for a $45 billion increase above the White House request.

As the Public Citizen report—which relies on campaign finance data from OpenSecrets.org—explains:

Notably, the average campaign contribution from the military-industrial complex to a member of the House or Senate Armed Services Committee who voted "yes" to increase military spending for FY23 is more than triple the average campaign contribution from the military-industrial complex to those who voted "no." Those who voted "yes" received average contributions of $151,722. Those who voted "no" received average contributions of $42,967.

The House committee's top recipients from the past two years who recently voted to boost the Pentagon budget were Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) at $404,525; Rob Wittman (R-Va.) at $237,799; Mike Turner (R-Ohio) at $150,950; Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) at $131,000; and Elaine Luria (D-Va.) at $127,743. Rogers is the panel's top Republican.

On the Senate side, the top recipients from the past six years who last month backed the budget increase were Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) at $874,876; Jack Reed (D-R.I.) at $822,757; Tim Kaine (D-Va.) at $616,152; Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) at $467,032; and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) at $409,842. Inhofe and Reed are respectively the committee's ranking member and chair.

"The military-industrial complex's campaign spending spree gives war profiteers an outsized influence over Pentagon funding votes," said report co-author Savannah Wooten, the People Over Pentagon campaign coordinator at Public Citizen, in a statement.

"It creates a self-fulfilling annual cycle where money from the industry begets money for the industry," she said. "Instead of working overtime to secure defense contractor profits, Congress should prioritize the true, urgent human needs of everyday people."

The report notes that "the military-industrial complex maintains a potent political influence machine that extends far beyond campaign spending, and there's no reason to doubt that the supporters of more Pentagon spending believe in what they are doing."

"But nor should anyone doubt that military-industrial complex campaign contributions both reward and encourage Congress to shovel money at the Pentagon—even as so many human needs and nonmilitary security interests (like addressing pandemics or climate chaos) remain desperately underfunded," the document adds.

Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all if our too-clever-by-half administration manages to implement its moronic ideas:

US, Allies Discussing Trying to Cap Russian Oil at $40-$60 Per Barrel

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the US and its allies have discussed trying to cap the price of Russian oil around $40-$60 per barrel as the West wants to limit Russia’s profits without sending the price of oil even higher. Oil is currently hovering around $100 per barrel on the global market.

But the US-proposed plan is doomed to fail as it requires Moscow’s cooperation, and experts are warning if Russia retaliates by cutting production, prices could skyrocket. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase said in the worst-case scenario, oil prices could soar to $380 per barrel.

Former Japan PM shot. UK power vacuum. Putin, 'West already lost.' Ukraine gold to Poland.

Colorado governor issues executive order to protect abortion access

The Democratic governor of Colorado has mandated that his state will not cooperate with any investigations into abortions led by other states. Jared Polis signed an executive order on Wednesday pledging that the western US state will not assist other states in criminal or civil investigations used to prevent people from accessing abortions.

The executive order adds protections for individuals and organizations that provide abortions, as well as for individuals obtaining an abortion, including people who have traveled from other states.

“We are taking needed action to protect and defend individual freedom and protect the privacy of Coloradans,” said Polis in a statement obtained by the Colorado Sun.

“This important step will ensure that Colorado’s thriving economy and workforce are not impacted based on personal health decisions that are wrongly being criminalized in other states.”

U.S. Accused of Whitewashing Israel's Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh Ahead of Biden's Middle East Trip

Police in Akron, Ohio continue rampage against anti-police violence protesters and journalists

With the blessing of Democratic Mayor Dan Horrigan, state and federal police forces have engaged in a multi-day terror campaign against anti-police violence protesters and journalists in the working class community of Akron, Ohio. For at least the third time this week, officers with the Akron Police Department deployed chemical weapons Wednesday against peaceful protesters demanding justice for Jayland Walker, who was killed by a hail of police bullets on June 27, and the release of those arrested while demonstrating over the previous three days.

In the last 36 hours multiple social media videos have emerged of police targeting peaceful protesters and journalists with tear gas even though they are committing no crimes. Despite a self-imposed media blackout by the capitalist media, firsthand accounts by victims detailing the police rampage have emerged exposing the brutality and criminality of the Akron police, which is common among police across the country.

On Wednesday night, following the lifting of a curfew imposed by Mayor Horrigan, dozens of protesters gathered outside the police headquarters in downtown Akron. They were met by riot police, who declared the peaceful protests “unlawful” despite no illegal or violent activity on the part of the protesters. After police told demonstrators to leave the area, social media videos show police deploying chemical spray against people who were simply on the sidewalk exercising their First Amendment rights.

These violent police state actions are part of a deluge of violence meted out by Ohio police forces aimed at silencing all those who are outraged by the wanton police murder of Walker, a 25-year-old African American worker who was gunned down by at least eight Akron police officers, who have yet to be identified. ...

In response to mass anger over Walker’s killing, the police have been given a blank check by Horrigan to crush any sign of popular opposition. Like the mass protests that emerged two years ago following the police murder of George Floyd, Horrigan and the rest of the ruling class are terrified that the vicious murder of Walker will expose the fact that more than two years after the killing of Floyd, the police, the front-line defenders of capitalist rule, continue to kill with impunity.

Officer who killed Tamir Rice quits after outcry over his hiring by small town

The police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice and was hired as the sole officer in a small Pennsylvania town earlier this week has now quit, it emerged on Thursday.

Following widespread outrage at Timothy Loehmann’s hiring, the former Cleveland police officer withdrew his application from the Tiago borough without working a shift for the town.

“The community spoke. They got their feelings out, and we listened to them and we’re going to react to it and that will be that,” said the Tiago borough council president, Steve Hazlett, to the Associated Press in a phone interview. “We thank the community for stepping forward and letting their voices be heard.”

Loehmann, who killed Tamir in 2014, was recently hired as the only police officer of Tioga, a township of about 700 people located in northern Pennsylvania, prompting outrage from local residents, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette first reported. ...

Loehmann was fired from the Cleveland police department in 2017 after fatally shooting Tamir. The boy was playing in a local park with a toy pellet gun when Loehmann shot him almost immediately after arriving to the scene.

Derek Chauvin gets separate 21-year sentence for violating George Floyd’s civil rights

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights. The former Minneapolis police officer is already serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence on state charges of murder and manslaughter over Floyds killing in May 2020.

The federal sentence announced on Thursday will run concurrently and will see Chauvin, 46, moved to a federal prison. US district judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence came after Chauvin had agreed to a plea deal that called for a sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years.

Federal prosecutors had sought the top end of that range, arguing that Chauvin, who is white, killed Floyd in cold blood when he pinned the Black man to the pavement outside a Minneapolis corner store on 25 May 2020, for more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe. ...

The judge called Chauvin‘s actions offensive and unconscionable. “I really don’t know why you did what you did … To put your knee on another person’s neck until they expire is wrong, and thus you need to be substantially punished,” Magnuson said. ...

Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for the three other officers who were on the scene of Floyd’s deadly arrest – Tou Thao, J Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane – who were convicted in February of federal civil rights charges.

Biden Accused of Lighting Fuse for 'One of the Nation's Biggest Carbon Bombs'

The Biden administration came under fire this week after paving the way for an oil railway that its own projections suggest would increase planet-heating pollution in the United States by almost 1%.

President Joe Biden "should be doing everything in his power to respond to the climate emergency, but he's about to light one of the nation's biggest carbon bombs," Deeda Seed, a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday in a statement.

"This is pouring another 5 billion gallons of oil on the fire every year and bulldozing a national forest in the process," Seed continued. "It's a horrifying step in the wrong direction."

On Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service rejected challenges to the Uinta Basin Railway, which is expected to quadruple oil extraction in northeast Utah's Uinta Basin by connecting its fracking operations to a transcontinental railroad network that would move hundreds of heated tank cars loaded with waxy crude through the Colorado Rockies en route to Gulf Coast refineries each day.

If completed, the railway would provide enough transportation capacity to increase production from roughly 85,000 barrels per day to 350,000 barrels per day, "amounting to up to 53 million tons of annual carbon pollution—as much or more than what's produced by the nation's three largest power plants," the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment explained.

"Sending tens of millions of barrels of crude oil each year from Utah to the Houston area for refining would be equivalent to adding a new refinery to the region, which already exceeds national pollution standards," the groups added.

Despite acknowledging that the project would increase nationwide greenhouse gas emissions by 0.8% at a time when scientists warn that global emissions must be halved by 2030 to stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis, the Forest Service argued that constructing 88 miles of rail line to transport fossil fuels is in the public interest.

The agency issued a special use permit for the roughly 12 miles of tracks that would cross the Ashley National Forest in Utah, dismissing opponents' objections to cutting through public lands protected by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Although the oil trains pose a heightened risk of fires and spills, including along the vulnerable Colorado River that provides drinking water for 40 million people, federal regulators ordered Ashley National Forest officials to issue a right-of-way that would enable construction to begin next year.

Utah Sierra Club director Carly Ferro characterized the Forest Service's move to expand polluting activities "into an area that's protecting an ecosystem critical to public and environmental health" as "an egregious decision that exacerbates climate change instead of addressing the impacts we're feeling right here at home."

The Biden administration's decision to greenlight the Uinta Basin Railway came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court's reactionary majority sharply curtailed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate power plant emissions, which prompted progressives to demand stronger executive action on climate from the White House.

It also came less than two weeks after U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack directed the Forest Service to "take bold actions" to "address the climate crisis."

"Secretary Vilsack was right to call for bold climate action but unleashing this destructive flood of oil is climate cowardice," said Jonny Vasic, executive director of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. "This area is already facing water and air quality issues."

More than 100 environmental groups representing millions of people urged Vilsack in January to prevent construction of the Uinta Basin Railway by blocking the proposed right-of-way through Ashley National Forest, to no avail.

The federal government's own environmental analysis shows that the project would cause irreparable harm to biodiversity, digging up Utah streams in more than 400 locations and stripping bare 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat, including areas crucial to the survival of pronghorn, mule deer, and greater sage grouse.

Dozens of counties and local governments in Colorado have also voiced opposition to oil railway, with several asking U.S. Sens Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) to do everything in their power to stop it.

In a Colorado Sun opinion piece published just three days before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board's (STB) mid-December approval of the Uinta Basin Railway, Seed wrote that "there is no such thing as a safe oil train."

If the railway is built, she noted, "all routes lead through Colorado." Each day, up to 10 two-mile-long trains hauling crude oil would whizz through mountains, valleys, and towns along the Western Slope and through cities in the Front Range.

The oil trains would travel "along the Union Pacific mainline, paralleling the Colorado River almost to its headwaters," Seed pointed out. "The trains will follow the Fraser River to Denver, where they'll head south through Colorado Springs and Pueblo toward refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. This will pose a tremendous health and safety threat to Coloradans and the state's remarkable wildlife and wild places."

In February, a coalition of environmental and public health groups sued the STB, accusing the agency of violating the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately account for the life-threatening consequences of adding 53 million tons of carbon dioxide per year to the atmosphere by extracting and refining 350,000 barrels of oil per day from the Uinta Basin.

The pending lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, also accuses the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect rare plants that the Uinta Basin Railway is set to destroy.

Ferro said that "we will stay resilient in the face of the increasingly devastating consequences of the climate and extinction crises by fighting this project."

Appeals Court Affirms Pesticide Giants Liable for Dicamba Drift

An advocacy group on Thursday welcomed an appeals court ruling that, while tossing out a $60 million award to a Missouri peach farmer whose trees were killed by the herbicide dicamba, did not challenge a federal jury's 2020 verdict that the weedkiller's manufacturers are responsible.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis ruled that chemical giants Monsanto—acquired by Bayer AG in 2018—and BASF are liable for damage to Bill Bader's peach groves caused by dicamba, leaving in place a $15 million judgment for nonpunitive damages.

However, the court ordered a new trial to determine punitive damages to be assessed against each company separately. Punitive damages worth $60 million, a reduction from the jury's original award of $250 million, were dismissed pending the new trial.

"The appeals court correctly held Monsanto and BASF responsible for unprecedented damage to Bader's peach orchard from dicamba drift. But this is just the beginning," said Meredith Stevenson, staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that filed an amicus brief in support of Bader.

"The destruction to Bader's orchards provides just a single example of the widespread harm inflicted on thousands of farmers and the environment from Monsanto's negligence and EPA's refusal to cancel its dicamba approval," she added. "We will continue to fight to prevent continued harm to millions of acres of cropland, hundreds of endangered species, parks, wildlife refuges, and other natural areas from dicamba."

‘All that’s needed is a spark’: why the US may be headed for a summer of mega-fire

Following an explosive spring that unleashed major wildfires from the US south-west to Alaska, the west is now bracing for a summer of blazes as the parched landscapes risk turning into tinderboxes.

Fire activity is expected to increase in several US states over the coming months, according to a newly released outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), with parts of the Pacific north-west, northern California, Texas, Hawaii and Alaska forecast to be among those hardest hit by fire conditions in the months ahead.

The severity of the emergency will depend on four key factors: drought, dried fuels, windy or warm weather, and of course, ignitions. But the climate crisis and human-caused warming has turned up the dial on risk-factors with more intense conditions and a greater frequency with which these conditions align. “No matter which way you slice it, it is going to be bad,” said Jim Wollmann, a meteorologist at the NIFC.

Already, the amount of acreage burned by this point in the year has eclipsed previous years, standing at roughly 220% higher than the 10-year average. In New Mexico in April, a blaze that started as a controlled burn escaped containment before it spread quickly and burned for months, consuming large swaths of land and hundreds of homes and other buildings. In Alaska, fires sparked by lightning strikes and fueled by unusually hot and dry conditions have torched more than 2m acres in recent weeks, a first for the state this early in the season. ...

With the hottest months ahead for most of the west, these stresses may only be the beginning – the desiccated landscapes are primed to burn. Decades of fire suppression has left ample vegetation to burn, while timber harvesting that targets the oldest trees has impacted resiliency in forests. Meanwhile, even after the record rains that flooded parts of Yellowstone and south-central Montana, more than 75% of the west is in drought, with exceptional drought conditions plaguing areas including most of California, the Great Basin and Texas.

Also of Interest

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

UK Bill Threatens Journalists With Life in Prison

Bye Bye Boris. I Hope We Will Never Hear Again Of You.

German government’s energy policy means billions in aid for corporations, unbearable costs for consumers

EU chief warns of danger of complete cut-off of Russian gas

UK To Swap Out Top Sociopath For A Different Sociopath: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Candidate to Lead Israeli Military Wants to Ramp Up Assassinations of IRGC Leaders

Democrats propose blocks on Biden security pacts with Saudi Arabia, UAE

Media Support ‘Self-Determination’ for US Allies, Not Enemies

The bitter fight to stop a 2,000-mile carbon pipeline

Venezuela Indigenous leader’s killing terrifies defenders of Amazon lands

Act of God? Who toppled Georgia’s ‘satanic’ standing stones?

Assassination: Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe Shot Dead. Will Killing Push Japan Further to the Right?

A Little Night Music

Bobby Blue Bland with Wayne Bennett - Stormy Monday Blues

Bobby Blue Bland with Wayne Bennett - Soon As The Weather Breaks

Wayne Bennett - Rockin'

Mighty Sam McClain With Wayne Bennett - Fannie Mae/The Blues Is Alright

Bobby 'Blue' Bland with Wayne Bennett - Driftin' Blues

Jimmy McCracklin, Ry Cooder and Wayne Bennett - After Hours

Jimmy McCracklin, Ry Cooder and Wayne Bennett - The Walk

Bobby Blue Bland with Wayne Bennett - Call on Me, Ain't Nothin You Can Do, Further on the Road, I Pity The Fool

Bobby Blue Bland with Wayne Bennett - I Intend to Take Your Place, Share Your Love With Me

Mighty Sam McClain With Wayne Bennett - Everyday I Have The Blues

Big Mojo Elem/Wayne Bennett/Fred Below/Willie James Lyons - Every Night And Every Day