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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Jimmy Nelson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jump blues singer Jimmy Nelson. Enjoy!

^{Jimmy "T99" Nelson - I Sat And Cried}

"The real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions that appear to be both neutral and independent, to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence that has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them."

-- Michel Foucault

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News and Opinion

One in five US adults condone ‘justified’ political violence, mega-survey finds

One in five adults in the United States, equivalent to about 50 million people, believe that political violence is justified at least in some circumstances, a new mega-survey has found. A team of medical and public health scientists at the University of California, Davis enlisted the opinions of almost 9,000 people across the country to explore how far willingness to engage in political violence now goes.

They discovered that mistrust and alienation from democratic institutions have reached such a peak that substantial minorities of the American people now endorse violence as a means towards political ends. “The prospect of large-scale violence in the near future is entirely plausible,” the scientists warn.

A hardcore rump of the US population, the survey recorded – amounting to 3% or by extrapolation 7 million people – believe that political violence is usually or always justified. Almost one in four of the respondents – equivalent to more than 60 million Americans – could conceive of violence being justified “to preserve an American way of life based on western European traditions”. Most alarmingly, 7.1% said that they would be willing to kill a person to advance an important political goal. The UC Davis team points out that, extrapolated to US society at large, that is the equivalent of 18 million Americans.

The study, Views of American Democracy and Society and Support for Political Violence, was led by Garen Wintemute, Sonia Robinson and Andrew Crawford and has been published on the preprint server MedRxiv. Over three weeks beginning on 3 May, the UC Davis researchers gathered the views of a representative sample of 8,620 people nationwide.

Guantanamo: Yemeni detainee cleared for release after 20 years

A Yemeni national who has been detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay for 20 years has been cleared for release but will remain imprisoned until he is transferred out of prison.

Khalid Ahmed Qasim was cleared for release on Tuesday by a unanimous decision from the Periodic Review Board - a group of six federal US agencies. The review board reported that Qasim had made "threatening statements" within the last year but deemed that any threat could be mitigated, considering his "low level of training and lack of a leadership role" in either al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Qasim has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since May 2002, making him one of the longest-detained persons at the prison.

"We're thrilled that after two decades imprisoned without charge or trial, Khalid has finally been cleared for release and can start to focus on his life after release," Mark Maher, Qasim's attorney, said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Khalid was a young man when he was detained and has developed into a talented artist and writer. He has a lot to offer the world, and we look forward to the day when he is finally free."

Biden: Military say a Pelosi Taiwan trip 'not a good idea'

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. military officials believe it's “not a good idea” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan at the moment.

Biden's comments in an exchange with reporters came a day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would take “resolute and strong measures” should Pelosi proceed with reported plans to visit Taiwan in the coming weeks.

“Well, I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now," Biden said in response to a question about Pelosi's reported trip. “But I don’t know what the status of it is.”

The president stopped short of suggesting that Pelosi not travel to Taiwan.

Pelosi was originally scheduled to visit in April but had to postpone after she tested positive for COVID-19. She would be the highest-ranking American lawmaker to visit the close U.S. ally since Newt Gingrich, a Republican, traveled there 25 years ago when he was House speaker.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Pelosi planned to move forward with her postponed visit to Taipei in the next month. Her office declined to comment, saying the office does not confirm or deny the speaker’s international travel in advance, due to longstanding security protocols.

Germany on edge as Russia resumes 'unstable' gas supplies to Europe

Zelensky’s Sacking of Senior Officials Raises Corruption Concerns

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Western officials always cited corruption in Ukraine as the reason why Kyiv couldn’t join NATO or the EU. After the invasion, those concerns appeared to fall by the wayside as the US and its allies shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons and economic aid into Ukraine.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent firing of two senior officials has brought the issue back up. Zelensky sacked his top prosecutor and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) over allegations that many people in their departments were collaborating with Russia.

A Western official close to the Ukrainian government told Politico that Zelensky’s move appears to move away from the EU’s request for Ukraine to crack down on corruption and allow its law enforcement agencies to be more independent. Many anti-corruption activists believe the firings were an example of Zelensky using his wartime powers to consolidate more control.

Key Bridge in Kherson Region 'Badly Damaged' by Ukraine Shelling

Ukrainian shelling badly damaged the crucial Antonivskyi bridge in the Russia-controlled Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed regional authorities said on Wednesday.

The bridge - one of only two crossing points for Russian forces to territory they have occupied on the western bank of the vast Dnipro river in southern Ukraine - has been a key target for Ukrainian forces in recent days, with Kyiv using high-precision U.S.-supplied rockets to try to destroy it.

The Russian-backed head of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, closed the bridge to cargo traffic on Wednesday morning in what he called a "temporary restriction" to allow repair works.

Passenger cars were still able to use the bridge, which is more than a kilometre long, Saldo said in an "urgent appeal" published on social media.

Matt Taibbi: New Defense Bill Crammed With POLITICAL PORK Quietly Passes House

Biden Ripped for $1 Billion UAE Arms Deal Days After Khashoggi Lawyer Sentenced

Progressives this week decried the Biden administration's approval of a nearly $1 billion weapons support deal with the United Arab Emirates—a move that came days after an Abu Dhabi court controversially sentenced a Virginia civil rights lawyer to three years in prison.

The U.S. State Department's approval of the $980.4 million agreement for "upgrades and sustainment" of the UAE's fleet of Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport planes was announced Tuesday, two days after the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court sentenced Asim Ghafoor to three years behind bars, a fine of over $816,000, and deportation upon completion of his sentence for alleged money laundering and tax evasion.

Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen who previously represented murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was arrested Thursday at Dubai International Airport while en route to Turkey to attend a family wedding, the group Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN)—on whose board Ghafoor serves—said Friday.

The U.S.-UAE deal was announced days after Biden met with and praised leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, countries accused of perpetrating human rights violations ranging from war crimes and apartheid to the killing, and persecution of U.S. citizens. ...

Meanwhile, Cengiz said in a statement Tuesday that she believes Ghafoor's prosecution was politically motivated.

"I have an ongoing civil lawsuit against the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and his co-conspirators in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The trial begins soon," she explained. "Asim Ghafoor is part of DAWN's legal team in this lawsuit. I am concerned that the UAE has jailed Asim to intimidate the legal team and myself, and anyone who calls for democracy in the Middle East."

Abby Martin: What Corporate Media IGNORED About Biden's Trip To Israel

Erdogan asks Russia and Iran to back Turkey’s incursion into Syria

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has used trilateral talks with his Iranian and Russian counterparts in Tehran to make the case for a further Turkish incursion into north-western Syria.

Erdogan cited Kurdish forces in Tel Rifaat and Manbij, two towns in north-west Syria where Russian and Iranian forces are present, as justification for Turkey extending its zone of control in the country. “What we expect from Iran and Russia is to support Turkey in its fight against terrorist organisations,” he told a press conference following the meeting.

The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Erdogan against a further invasion during talks at his office, stating that “a military incursion of Syria will benefit terrorists”.

The visit to Tehran provided Erdogan with an opportunity to reaffirm ties to both Tehran and Moscow, along with plentiful opportunities to court Moscow’s cooperation on key issues.

Italy’s president dissolves parliament, paving way for early elections

Arrivederci Draghi. Putin 'golden billion' & end of globalism. Boris, Hasta la vista baby.

Goodbye Prime Minister Goldman Sachs!

Italy’s Mario Draghi expected to resign as prime minister

Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, is expected to confirm his resignation after three key parties in his broad coalition did not participate in a confidence vote on the conditions he set for his government continuing.

The former European Central Bank chief told the senate earlier on Wednesday that the survival of his unity administration hinged on “rebuilding the pact of trust” and spirit of cooperation of its early months, and asked for a vote on this basis.

Draghi offered his resignation last week after the Five Star Movement (M5S), a key component of his broad coalition, snubbed a vote on a €26bn cost of living package.

His resignation was rejected by the president, Sergio Mattarella, who asked him to address parliament in an attempt to avert what would be the collapse of Italy’s third government in three years.

The move instead widened the rifts between the squabbling parties, with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia demanding a new Draghi government without M5S.

AOC's SCOTUS Stunt Reveals Politicians Have Become INFLUENCERS—And Nothing More: Angie Speaks

Postal Service to Boost Electric Vehicle Purchases After Backlash

Pressure from progressive advocacy groups and lawmakers bore fruit on Wednesday when the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would be making 40% of its new delivery vehicles electric, up from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's initial plan to electrify just 10% of the mail agency's aging fleet.

The news comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed in late April by a coalition of environmental organizations that accused the USPS of conducting an unlawfully shoddy analysis of the widely condemned plan's climate impacts. More than a dozen state attorney generals and the United Auto Workers (UAW) also sued to halt DeJoy's anti-green and anti-labor procurement scheme pending a comprehensive review of its ecological and public health consequences.

"Public pressure works, and today's announcement from the Postal Service is proof of that," Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement. "The agency's original plan for a fleet of 90% fossil fuel trucks should have never been a consideration."

"Still, making only half of its delivery fleet electric does not go far enough to address climate change or improve air quality in neighborhoods across the nation," said García. "There is also no guarantee in today's announcement that union workers will be building these pollution-free vehicles."

"This is an opportunity to transform the postal fleet to be 100% union-built electric vehicles," she added. "We won't settle for anything less."

Buying Mexican Blood

In the year since the United States blocked Mexicans from entering the country to sell their blood, the two global pharmaceutical companies that operate the largest number of plasma clinics along the border say they have seen a sharp drop in supply.

In a suit challenging the ban, the companies acknowledged for the first time the extent to which Mexicans visiting the U.S. on short-term visas contribute to the world’s supply of blood plasma. In court filings, the companies revealed that up to 10 percent of the blood plasma collected in the U.S. — millions of liters a year — came from Mexicans who crossed the border with visas that allow brief visits for business and tourism.

The legal challenge by Spain-based Grifols and CSL of Australia relates to an announcement last June that U.S. Customs and Border Protection doesn’t permit Mexican citizens to cross into the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood plasma. The suit was initially dismissed by a federal judge but reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The drug companies’ lawyers have said in court filings that the sharp reduction in Mexicans selling blood to the border clinics is contributing to a worldwide shortage of plasma and is “precipitating a worldwide public-health crisis that is costing patients dearly.”

ProPublica, ARD German TV and Searchlight New Mexico reported in 2019 that thousands of Mexicans were crossing the border to donate blood as often as twice a week, earning as much as $400 per month. Selling blood has been illegal in Mexico since 1987. Many countries place strict limits on blood donations — Germany, for example, allows a maximum of 60 donations per year with intensive checkups before every fifth donation. But the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require comparable donor checkups and allows people visiting American clinics to sell their blood twice a week, or up to 104 times a year.

Appeals Court Greenlights Georgia's 6-Week Abortion Ban

Abortion rights defenders on Wednesday were down but determined after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction on Georgia's six-week abortion ban, allowing the draconian law to take immediate effect.

Writing for a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge William Pryor said that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling voiding nearly 50 years of constitutional abortion rights "makes clear that no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them."

Pryor—a George W. Bush appointee who once called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law"—added that "it is hard to see any vagueness" in H.B. 481, the 2019 Georgia anti-choice law that "defines a natural person to include unborn humans in the womb at any stage of development."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Georgia's new law is different from other states' "heartbeat" statutes because it includes so-called personhood provisions, where rights are extended to an embryo once fetal cardiac activity can be detected. Parents would be able to claim a fetus, once a heartbeat is detected, on their state income taxes as a dependent, and the measure would also require state officials to count an unborn child toward Georgia's population. Mothers can also file for child support once cardiac activity is detected.

Experts have noted that fetal "heartbeat" laws are inherently flawed, as what's being detected in a six-week-old fetus is little more than cells and electrical activity.

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked enforcement of Arizona's so-called "personhood" law.

The implementation of Georgia's six-week ban comes as an effort to codify reproductive rights nationwide via the House-approved Women's Health Protection Act has stalled amid opposition from Senate Republicans and right-wing Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Denver Cops Fire Wildly Into Crowd Of People

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Aipac hails Democrat’s defeat for not being sufficiently pro-Israel

Pro-Israel groups have heralded the defeat of a leading Democratic contender for Congress after pouring millions of dollars into blocking her election, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Israeli government policies.

Donna Edwards, who was for months the favourite to win the primary for a safe seat in Maryland, lost to Glenn Ivey on Tuesday after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and allied groups waded into the race.

Aipac proclaimed Ivey’s victory, by 51% to 35%, as evidence that “being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics”.

Edwards’s defeat will be taken as a warning by other Democratic contenders not to criticise Israeli policies, or risk a well-funded campaign against them.

Aipac and its allies spent nearly $7m through political action committees to block Edwards, who served eight years as the first Black woman elected to Congress from Maryland before losing a bid for the Senate in 2016.

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Brandon will mouth the words, but won't step up with the actions:

Biden unveils extreme heat plan – but doesn’t declare climate emergency

Facing the disintegration of his climate agenda as ferocious heatwaves hit large parts of the world, Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to push billions of dollars to US cities and states to help them cope better with extreme heat.

The president stopped short, however, of declaring a climate emergency.

Biden outlined the new actions in a speech on Wednesday at a former coal plant in Massachusetts, which is now part of an offshore windfarm project.

“As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger,” Biden said. “And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger. The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake.” ...

Biden’s actions include $2.3bn in funding to help communities prepare for heatwaves, droughts and floods, new guidance that allows the federal government to help provide cooling centers and air conditioning, and new planned offshore wind energy leases for the Gulf of Mexico coast.

With Congress Unwilling to Act, Pressure Grows on Biden to Declare National Climate Emergency

Disappointed by Climate Speech, Activists Say People Are Dying 'While Biden Dithers'

Climate campaigners expressed frustration Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden announced new climate actions but refused to declare a national emergency, despite mounting public and political pressure.

"Biden's failure to declare a state of emergency today is an insult to the millions of working people and frontline communities living the devastating reality of global heating, environmental racism, and climate breakdown," said People's Action climate justice organizer Ben Ishibashi.

The administration, he argued, "must do more than rattle off talking points about things the federal government is already doing or offer Band-Aid-level measures." ...

The organizer's criticism and demand for more were echoed by other activists—including the Center for Biological Diversity's Jean Su, who said that "the world's burning up from California to Croatia, and right now Biden's fighting fire with the trickle from a garden hose."

"Declaring a climate emergency will unleash the full force of Biden's executive powers to combat climate chaos and signal the climate leadership we so desperately need," explained Su, whose group released a report on the topic earlier this year.

"With congressional action closed off, bold action from Biden is the only hope for truly lifesaving action to curb the deadly fossil fuels scorching the planet," she warned. "Limited action on renewables without curbing fossil fuels is like tuning up the engine while the car barrels off a cliff."

Paper Straws Are Not Enough. Only "System Change" Can Halt Climate Crisis, Says George Monbiot

Alarm as fastest growing US cities risk becoming unlivable from climate crisis

The ferocious heatwave that is gripping much of the US south and west has highlighted an uncomfortable, ominous trend – people are continuing to flock to the cities that risk becoming unlivable due to the climate crisis.

Some of the fastest-growing cities in the US are among those being roasted by record temperatures that are baking more than 100 million Americans under some sort of extreme heat warning. More than a dozen wildfires are engulfing areas from Texas to California and Alaska, with electricity blackouts feared for places where the grid is coming under severe strain.

San Antonio, Texas, which added more to its population than any other US city in the year to July 2021, has already had more than a dozen days over 100F this summer and hit 104F on Tuesday.

Phoenix, Arizona, second on the population growth rankings compiled by the US census, also hit 104F on Tuesday and has suffered a record number of heat-related deaths this year. Meanwhile, Fort Worth, Texas, third on the population growth list, has a “red flag” warning in place amid temperatures that have reached 109F this week.

Cities that stretch across the “sun belt” of the southern and south-western US have in recent years enjoyed population booms, with people lured by the promise of cheap yet expansive properties, warm winters and plentiful jobs, with several large corporations shifting their bases to states with low taxes and cheaper cost of living. But this growth is now clashing with the reality of the climate emergency, with parts of the sun belt enduring the worst drought in more than 1,000 years, record wildfires and punishing heat that is triggering a range of medical conditions, as well as excess deaths.

US launches environmental study for Thirty Meter telescope on Mauna Kea

The National Science Foundation will examine the environmental impacts of a proposed optical telescope on the summit of Hawaii’s tallest mountain, a project that has faced strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the area sacred.

Native Hawaiians have long protested the plan to build what would be one of the world’s largest optical telescopes on Mauna Kea, and say the $2.65bn project will further defile an area already harmed by a dozen other observatories.

The National Science Foundation on Tuesday published a notice of its plans to prepare an environmental impact statement for the $2.65bn Thirty Meter telescope, along with another proposed telescope on Spain’s Canary Islands. It will host several meetings on the Big Island of Hawaii in August and said only after it considers public input, the environmental review and the project’s technical readiness, will it decide whether to fund the project.

The international consortium of scientists behind the effort, the TMT International Observatory (TIO), have been moving forward with plans to build the telescope on Mauna Kea for more than a decade and in 2010 completed an environmental study required by Hawaii law for construction on the summit. TIO has proposed constructing the telescope on the Spanish island of La Palma off Africa’s western coast if it cannot build in Hawaii.

The latest study is required under US law in order for the National Science Foundation to invest in the project. TIO, a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and government-backed research institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan, plans to obtain $800m, 30% of the estimated cost of construction, from the US government, according to a report.

US cities refusing to replace toxic lead water pipes unless residents pay

Elena Bautista didn’t pay much attention to the work crews that rolled down her street last year. They planned to remove water pipes made of lead, a toxin that can permanently damage children’s brains. But they skipped the tenement building where Bautista and her two kids lived.

They dug up pipes only at the homes of those who paid or took out loans for thousands of dollars, as well as under the public streets. Worse, the removal work risked causing a significant spike of toxic water for weeks, maybe months, in the homes of those unable to pay for it.

Bautista lives in Providence, Rhode Island, a city with a history of severe lead problems, yet this practice is happening all over the US. Pipes made of lead, a material not safe in any amount, supply tap water to millions of homes such as Bautista’s. To completely halt contamination, there is no other option but to rip the lead pipes out of the ground and change them for a different material.

But according to a Guardian investigation, some US cities are now essentially telling residents: pay up for the replacement or get more poison in your water. ...

Joe Biden has promised to rid the nation’s drinking water of lead contamination. Yet a massive 2021 infrastructure spending package approved by Congress contained only enough federal funding to replace a third of the country’s lead lines – leaving cities to figure the rest out for themselves.

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Also of Interest

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

Lavrov - Extended Range Weapons In Ukraine Will Lead To More Loss Of Its Land

The British Coup That Wasn’t Quite?

European states commit to climate inaction as heat wave begins to recede

The Manchin Aide Turned Corporate Shill

As police crack down on homelessness, unhoused end up in Mojave desert

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time review – novelist gets a heartfelt portrait

Cenk Uygur Falls For AOC’s Invisible Handcuffs Stunt

Boris, Petkov, Draghi. Regime change in the Collective West w/iEarlGrey

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A Little Night Music

Jimmy "T99" Nelson - T 99 Blues

Jimmy (T99) Nelson - Free And Easy Mind

Jimmy "T99" Nelson - Meet Me With Your Black Dress On

Jimmy "T-99" Nelson - Sweetest Little Girl

Jimmy T99 Nelson - She Was So Good To Me, What Was I Supposed To Do?

Jimmy T99 Nelson - The Wheel

Jimmy "T-99" Nelson - Little Miss Teasin' Brown

Jimmy "T-99" Nelson - Rich Little Girl

Jimmy "T-99" Nelson - Unlock The Lock

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