Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. Enjoy!

"The only thing dumber than the risks our leaders are taking with our world is the reasons why they are taking those risks. It’s not for anything more noble or righteous than the desire to rule the world. Just stupid, garden variety power hunger."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Blinken Holds First Call With Lavrov Since February, Ceasefires Not Discussed

During a news conference on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he held a call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on a potential bilateral prisoner exchange. A State Department official said the call lasted approximately 25 minutes. Washington and Moscow’s top diplomats discussed the Ukrainian grain export deal brokered by the UN and Turkey with Kiev and Moscow. Reportedly, also part of their dialogue was the role U.S. sanctions play in preventing the movement of Russian food supplies and fertilizer. This is the first time Blinken has spoken to Lavrov since February 15^th, more than a week before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Five months into this war, amid the economic turmoil the American led sanctions blitz has caused, there is no indication that Blinken attempted to push for a ceasefire or negotiations to end the conflict.

Russia Readies Knock Out Blow in Donbass, China Strongest Warnings as Pelosi Mulls Trip to Taiwan

Anti-War Voices Warn Against 'Insanely Provocative' Pelosi Visit to Taiwan

As U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi departs Friday for an Asian trip that may include a stop in Taiwan, anti-war voices are sounding the alarm over a visit they say would needlessly provoke China during a time of already heightened global tensions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

CodePink's Marcy Winograd told Common Dreams that "there is no need to be so provocative, to jeopardize U.S. relations with a country of 1.4 billion people, the world's largest exporter, and holder of a trillion dollars in U.S. debt. Surely the speaker has a Zoom account."

In a joint statement with Jim Carpenter, with whom she co-chairs the foreign policy team at Progressive Democrats of America, Winograd noted that "since 1979, the United States—to keep the peace—has recognized the government in Beijing as the only legitimate Chinese government."

"A trip to Taiwan by the most powerful member of Congress undermines that long-standing U.S. policy and increases the risk of another war," they added. "Chinese officials have warned of serious consequences should Pelosi make the trip and the Pentagon is preparing warships and fighter jets in anticipation of her trip."

According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping—who has made China-Taiwan reunification a top priority—sternly warned President Joe Biden during a lengthy phone call Thursday that "those who play with fire will eventually get burned" and that the United States would "bear the consequences" of a Pelosi (D-Calif.) visit to the island.

It is not yet clear whether Pelosi (D-Calif.) will visit Taiwan during an Asian tour that includes planned stops in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore. The 82-year-old congresswoman has deflected queries on the topic, telling reporters Wednesday that "I never talk about my travel. It's a danger to me."

Pelosi brushed off Chinese concerns about U.S. meddling by claiming she wasn't going to Taiwan to support the island's independence, an issue she said is "up to Taiwan to decide."

However, critics point to Pelosi's long record of antagonizing China. They also note the United States' intervention during the Chinese Civil War on behalf of the anti-communist forces that would later rule Taiwan through mass murder and repression, as well as the decades of subsequent U.S. efforts to destablize China's communist government, as reasons to be wary of any visit to Taiwan.

Biden administration officials have reportedly been working behind the scenes to convince Pelosi of the potential dangers of visiting Taiwan, which the Chinese government and most of the international community including the United States considers part of China. Biden has admitted that U.S. military officials believe "it's not a good idea" for Pelosi to visit Taiwan right now.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang also denounced news that Pelosi might visit Taiwan, warning such a move would "severely undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations, and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces."

"If the U.S. were to insist on going down the wrong path, China will take resolute and strong measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Zhao added.

Chinese commentators have been even more assertive, with Hu Xijin, a columnist for state-owned Global Times, tweeting Friday that "if U.S. fighter jets escort Pelosi's plane into Taiwan, it is invasion" and the Chinese military "has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi's plane and the U.S. fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction."

"If ineffective," Hu added, "then shoot them down."

Nancy Pelosi starts Asian tour, remains silent on possible stop in Taiwan

Is a China Crisis Now Inevitable?

What happens in August will have much of the world’s attention: will Rep. Nancy Pelosi defer to the Pentagon’s admonition that this is “not a good idea” and cancel the trip—or ignore Xi’s threats and visit Taiwan, potentially sparking a military clash in the Taiwan Strait? The stakes couldn’t be higher. As the United States and China careen towards a potential showdown over Pelosi’s proposed visit, much of establishment Washington wants to resolve the issue with its knee-jerk favorite tool: flexing military muscles. Over-reliance on coercion as the lead tool in international relations has served U.S. interests poorly over the past two decades.

Especially at a time of economic turmoil in much of the Western world – along with the persistent threat of the war between Ukraine and Russia spilling over the borders into NATO territory – the United States cannot afford to see its already-tense relationship with China devolve into a potential military clash. Yet hawks in both Washington and Beijing seem intent on pushing the envelope of such risk. Speaker Pelosi’s potential visit to Taipei is the latest flashpoint, but far from the only one by U.S. and allied leaders in recent months.

Over the past number of months, a raft of former high-ranking U.S. officials has visited Taiwan. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, along with former Deputy National Security Advisor and Undersecretary of Defense Meghan O’Sullivan and Michelle Flournoy, went at Biden’s behest in February. In March, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the trip, and earlier this month, former Secretary of Defense Mike Esper did the same. On Thursday, a rare high-level visit from Japanese lawmakers and two former ministers of defense met with the Taiwanese president discussing regional security.

China, which has long claimed it views such high-level visits as contributing to “separatist” elements on Taiwan in seeking independence, has reacted with unusually strong vitriol against reports that Pelosi may visit Taipei. ...

Owing to [...] volatile conditions in and around the Taiwan Straits, the wisest thing the Administration and Pelosi could do is to scotch the trip. Face-saving ways can be found – such as “postponing the trip until a later time” – but this specific trip should be canceled for one overriding reason: the risk to American security represented by Pelosi’s visit is in no way commensurate with any potential benefit to the U.S. In fact, there is virtually no upside for America with this visit. As pointed out above, there has been no shortage of official and semi-official contacts between Washington and Taipei recently that no additional benefit could accrue to the U.S. by adding the Speaker of the House to the list.

Germany’s war offensive: Berlin approves delivery of 100 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine

According to media reports, Germany’s federal government has approved the delivery of 100 self-propelled howitzer 2000s to Ukraine. Berlin will thereby increase its already massive weapons deployments many times over. A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs estimated the cost of the howitzers at €1.7 billion. So far, Berlin has supplied arms worth €600 million to Kiev.

The massive deal was concluded behind the scenes two weeks ago. According to information provided by Der Spiegel, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, headed by Robert Habeck (Green Party), granted the German armaments group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) a permit for the production of the howitzers on July 13. Only two days earlier, KMW submitted the relevant permit request. At KMW, “the production of the weapon systems should now be started immediately.”

The immediate aim of the delivery of howitzers is to escalate the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and to ensure it continues over a long period of time. “The production of the howitzers is expected to last for several years, so it is primarily a question of strengthening the Ukrainian army in the long term,” commented Der Spiegel. However, the units already delivered are now playing a role on the front.

A report on the official website of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) praised the effectiveness of howitzers. “Where they are deployed regionally, they increase the combat worthiness of the Ukrainian armed forces by their range, by their combat power, by their tactical capabilities and also by modern ammunition,” stated Colonel Dietmar Felber, who trains Ukrainian soldiers in Idar-Oberstein on howitzers.

The entire report underscores the central and active role of the Bundeswehr in the war in Ukraine. The training of the Ukrainian soldiers has been “continuing at full throttle,” and the Ukrainian artillery soldiers trained by him are now on the front line, Felber boasted. “We have connections to this battalion. They were in combat from the beginning, and they are successful in combat,” he remarked. This creates “a feeling of satisfaction and above all of pride.” Statements such as these make clear the militaristic and criminal tradition the ruling class is reconnecting with. Eighty-one years after the Wehrmacht’s war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, German soldiers and politicians rejoice in the deaths of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

Much more at the link to the Grayzone:

Zelensky frees convicted child rapists, torturers to reinforce depleted military

After banning virtually his entire political opposition, publishing a blacklist of foreign journalists and academics accused of advancing “Russian propaganda,” and ramming through a law exempting 70% of Ukrainians from workplace protections, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy has freed from prison fascist militants convicted of some of the most heinous crimes the country has seen since World War II.

According to a July 11 report in Ukrainian media, Ruslan Onishenko, commander of the now-disbanded Tornado Battalion, was freed as part of President Zelensky’s scheme to release prisoners with combat experience. Along with an unwavering commitment to fascism, Onishenko is known as a psychopathic sadist who was involved in sexually assaulting children, brutally torturing prisoners, and murder.

Onishenko’s release follows a February 27 order by Zelensky to free other convicted former Tornado members like Danil “Mujahed” Lyashuk, a fanatic from Belarus who has openly emulated ISIS and boasted of torturing captives for sheer enjoyment. According to Zelensky‘s decree, prisoners with combat experience would be allowed to “compensate for their guilt” by fighting in the “hottest spots.” ...

Zelensky’s move is not just a signal of desperation as his military is ground down by Russian forces in the east. It extends the virtual impunity that Ukrainian battalions infested with hardened criminals and neo-Nazis have enjoyed for over eight years as official enforcers of the post-Maidan regime’s rule.

Russia claims five injured in Ukraine drone attack on Black Sea fleet HQ

Russia has claimed that its Black Sea fleet headquarters in Sevastopol have been hit by a Ukrainian drone strike, wounding five people and prompting officials to cancel festivities planned for Navy Day. The attack was reported by Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of the local Russian administration in Sevastopol in Crimea, which was occupied and then annexed in 2014. ...

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, Natalia Gumenyuk, did not confirm Ukrainian involvement in the strike. But she said Ukraine was conducting operations to liberate Russian-occupied areas by targeting Russian military facilities inside Ukraine, not Russia, and that it considered Crimea part of Ukraine.

“Ukraine’s armed forces are carrying out activities to liberate our occupied territories, using the weapons models that are available for this purpose. Our targets are exclusively the military facilities of the Russian Federation. We do not strike on the territory of the Russian Federation. Crimea is Ukraine,” she said.

Kosovo clashes. Vucic calls for peace, Serbia ready to protect Serbs. Boris' NATO problem

Workers to Strike Arms Manufacturer

On Monday, 2,500 workers who make fighter jets, missiles and drones for Boeing in the St. Louis area are set to strike. It would be the largest strike at the aerospace giant since 2008 and the biggest manufacturing strike since last year’s showdown at John Deere. The major issues also mirror the Deere fight: a two-tier wage regime and a disappearing retirement system. Like the Deere strikers, the Boeing workers are revisiting concessions they took in their last round of negotiations — in Boeing’s case, a whopping eight years ago. Those givebacks look different against the backdrop of rising inflation and after years of immiseration.

“We were essential workers throughout the pandemic,” says Josh Arnold, a shop steward with Machinists Lodge 837B. “I know personally of three members who died of Covid. They came to work, got sick, went home and died.

“We didn’t get any hazard pay. We got no ‘thanks for risking your life to keep the business running’ luncheon. We got masks and hand sanitizer. It’s our blood and our bones sacrificed on the altar of Boeing’s profits.”

Per the Machinists press releases and local reporting, the top item provoking the strike is Boeing’s move to gut workers’ 401k. The company is seeking to reduce its contributions to workers’ retirement funds. Currently the company contributes 4 percent of an employee’s salary, plus it matches 75 percent of employee contributions up to 8 percent. The new Boeing proposal is to eliminate the company’s automatic contribution and match employee contributions up to 10 percent.

For the past eight years, the contractual starting wage for several Boeing jobs — titles like housekeeper, garage attendant, crater and packer — has been less than $12 an hour. Their pay rate is up to $15 now, thanks to an executive order from President Joe Biden mandating that all federal contractors, including Boeing, must institute a $15 minimum wage. Still, it’s hard to set aside 10 percent of $15 an hour for retirement. Low wages and disappearing retirement security are legacies of the 2014 contract, negotiated in just eight days and spanning eight years. That’s when Boeing eliminated pensions and imposed a two-tier wage scale. ...

The strike is set to begin Aug. 1. Stewards are distributing picketing assignments; the company is preparing management scab assignments.

Australia urged to prove it is a safe nuclear custodian as Aukus comes under scrutiny at UN

Australia needs to step up in the fight to stop nuclear conflict, and to prove to the world it is a safe nuclear custodian, a new report argues. The report by the Australia Institute comes ahead of a major global conference that starts on Monday in New York, where Australia’s Aukus submarine deal will come under scrutiny.

The report argues it is time to revive the UN non-proliferation treaty, which was struck after the Cuban missile crisis and in the midst of the cold war, and aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and to achieve complete disarmament.

Allan Behm, the Australia Institute’s director of international and security affairs, said the treaty was “in trouble”. It was not just the “nuclear pariah states” and the nuclear threats from theRussian president, Vladimir Putin, in the context of the war in Ukraine, he said, but also the threat of a domino effect if the mainstream nuclear powers see no option but to follow other countries in nuclear expansion. Australia should “play a truly constructive role in highly uncertain times”, Behm argued, and work with other countries on “verifiable disarmament”.

Separately, the UN has set up a taskforce to ensure Australia’s plan to buy nuclear powered submarines from either the US or the UK will not breach the treaty.

Aukus was formed in part to counter China’s rise in the region, and China has been fiercely critical of it. Now, two thinktanks linked to the Chinese government have accused Australia of harbouring a desire for nuclear weapons, and declared Aukus will trigger a nuclear arms race and violate the treaty because it will likely use weapons-grade uranium to power the boats.

Elected officials get protection funds so that they can continue their acts of violence against the American people including enforced poverty, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, climate vulnerability and police brutality.

US faces new era of political violence as threats against lawmakers rise

Members of the US House of Representatives will now receive up to $10,000 to upgrade security at their homes in the face of rising threats against lawmakers, the House sergeant at arms announced last week, in yet another sign that American politics has entered a dangerous, violent new phase.

As support for political violence appears to be on the rise in the US, experts warn that such threats endanger the health of America’s democracy. But they say the country still has time to tamp down violent rhetoric if political leaders, particularly those in the Republican party, stand up and condemn this alarming behavior.

The announcement over increasing security for people in Congress came days after a man attacked Lee Zeldin, a New York congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate, with a sharp object during a campaign event.

Two weeks before that, a man was arrested outside the home of Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for allegedly shouting racist obscenities and threatening to kill her. Last month, authorities filed federal charges against a man who they say traveled from California to Maryland with the intent of murdering the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh. ...

Recent polls show an increasing number of Americans are comfortable with political violence, although there is a wide range of opinions on the type of violence that is acceptable.

How Bill Gates, Larry Summers Behind Manchin Dem Climate Deal

With Sinema Opposing Tax Hikes for Rich, Progressives Say Carried Interest Provision Must Stay in IRA

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has not said yet whether she will support the Inflation Reduction Act, the $739 billion package hammered out by Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and announced last Thursday, but as she reviewed the 725-page bill over the weekend, reports suggested she is likely to object to a $14 billion provision taking aim at the preferential tax rates for wealthy investors—who make up a large portion of her donor base.

Sinema (D-Ariz.) has long objected to the closure of the carried interest loophole, which pertains to the percentage of profits hedge fund managers keep from investments. The profits are taxed at a rate of about 20% compared to the 37% top tax rate for ordinary income.

The bill would not entirely close the loophole, but would lengthen "the amount of time that you have to hold the investment for it to qualify as a capital gain," making it harder for wealthy investors to benefit.

Sinema counts private equity firms among her top contributors, with the securities and investment sector donating more than $2.2 million to her since 2017, according to OpenSecrets.

The American Investment Council, which represents private equity firms including Sinema contributor Blackstone, quickly came out against the carried interest provision, claiming it would harm small businesses' ability to "survive and grow" because "74% of private equity investment went to small businesses last year."

Considering the Arizona lawmaker's objections to closing the loophole, Business Insider reported, "It's possible Democrats will wait days, if not weeks before Sinema breaks her silence on the package."

Climate Coalition to Biden and Schumer: Reject 'Fossil Fuel Expansion' in Manchin Deal

A climate justice coalition sent a letter Friday imploring President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to reject any proposed fossil fuel expansion during negotiations over the latest iteration of the Democratic Party's reconciliation bill.

"Permitting new fossil fuel projects will further entrench us in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come—and constitutes a violent betrayal of your pledge to combat environmental racism and destruction," more than 350 organizations representing millions of people wrote to Biden and Schumer, the powerful Democrat from New York.

Any new fossil fuel projects, the groups added, will "lock workers into a dying industry and delay the growth in sectors that will support jobs of the future."

The letter calling on Biden and Schumer to "hold the line against fossil fuel expansion" comes in the wake of this week's surprise announcement that conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W-Va.) has agreed to support a filibuster-proof economic and climate package known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

While the IRA would unleash $369 billion in climate-related public funding over the next decade in the form of subsidies for clean energy production and tax incentives for carbon capture and other contentious technologies—an unprecedented sum yet a miniscule fraction of the nation's annual military spending—it also includes significant giveaways to Manchin's allies and financial backers in the oil and gas industry. ...

The Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Justice Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Greenpeace USA, Indigenous Environmental Network, Our Revolution, the Sunrise Movement, and other groups behind Friday's letter to Biden and Schumer wrote that "any approval of new fossil fuel projects or fast-tracking of fossil fuel permitting is incompatible with climate leadership."

"Oil, gas, and coal production are the core drivers of the climate and extinction crises," states the letter. "There can be no new fossil fuel leases, exports, or infrastructure if we have any hope of preventing ever-worsening climate crises, catastrophic floods, deadly wildfires, and more—all of which are ripping across the country as we speak," the letter continues, echoing numerous expert warnings about the need to keep polluting fuels in the ground to have a chance of averting the planetary emergency's most dire impacts.

Court Rejects Google's Attempt to Dismiss Rumble's Antitrust Lawsuit, Ensuring Vast Discovery

A federal district court in California on Friday denied Google's motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the Silicon Valley giant is violating federal antitrust laws by preventing fair competition against its YouTube video platform. The lawsuit against Google, which has owned YouTube since its 2006 purchase for $1.65 billion, was brought in early 2021 by Rumble, the free speech competitor to YouTube. Its central claim is that Google's abuse of its monopolistic stranglehold on search engines to destroy all competitors to its various other platforms is illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which makes it unlawful to “monopolize, or attempt to monopolize…any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.”

It is rare for antitrust suits against the four Big Tech corporate giants (Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon) to avoid early motions to dismiss. Friday's decision against Google ensures that the suit now proceeds to the discovery stage, where Rumble will have the right to obtain from Google a broad and sweeping range of information about its practices, including internal documents on Google's algorithmic manipulation of its search engine and the onerous requirements it imposes on companies dependent upon its infrastructure to all but force customers to use YouTube.

Founded in 2013, Rumble began experiencing explosive growth in the run-up to the 2020 election. Americans were encountering escalating and aggressive Big Tech censorship of political content as the election approached. Conservative politicians, followed by a wide range of heterodox voices on the right and left, began migrating by the millions away from Google's YouTube to Rumble, which has promised and provided far more permissive free speech rights. That was at the time when Google and other Big Tech platforms — at the urging of the Democratic-controlled Congress — began aggressively increasing its censorship of political video content on YouTube in the name of combatting “disinformation” and “hate speech.” ...

Though Rumble's audience size is still significantly smaller than YouTube's, the threat posed by Rumble to YouTube is real. Rumble's imminent merger with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CF Acquisition Corp. VI will effectively make Rumble a public company and is likely to arm it with far greater capital to compete even more robustly with YouTube. But the major obstacle to competing with Big Tech giants generally, and Google specifically, is that these companies have acquired such extreme market dominance in so many key areas of the internet that they abuse that power to prevent competition and crush any competitors who pose a challenge. That these four Big Tech giants are classic monopolies in violation of the antitrust law was the emphatic conclusion of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law's comprehensive 2020 report, a conclusion that now has ample support from leading members of both parties.

The lawsuit brought by Rumble against Google is designed to ensure free and fair competition, so that the public is not effectively forced to use YouTube but can instead fairly choose among Google's competitors as well. The primary allegation is that Google abuses its power as the dominant search engine and destroys free competition for online video platforms by manipulating its algorithms to prevent YouTube's competitors, including Rumble, from being found by the public. Attempts to find Rumble videos through Google searches are purposely thwarted by burying Rumble's videos and instead redirecting the user to YouTube, the lawsuit alleges. Google's “chokehold on search is impenetrable, and that chokehold allows it to continue unfairly and unlawfully to self-preference YouTube over its rivals, including Rumble, and to monopolize the online video platform market.”

"Mother Country Radicals": Weather Underground's Bernardine Dohrn & Bill Ayers's Son Makes Podcast

75% Of DEMS Say NO To Biden 2024

‘Soon it will be unrecognisable’: total climate meltdown cannot be stopped, says expert

The publication of Bill McGuire’s latest book, Hothouse Earth, could not be more timely. Appearing in the shops this week, it will be perused by sweltering customers who have just endured record high temperatures across the UK and now face the prospect of weeks of drought to add to their discomfort. And this is just the beginning, insists McGuire, who is emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. As he makes clear in his uncompromising depiction of the coming climatic catastrophe, we have – for far too long – ignored explicit warnings that rising carbon emissions are dangerously heating the Earth. Now we are going to pay the price for our complacency in the form of storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves that will easily surpass current extremes.

The crucial point, he argues, is that there is now no chance of us avoiding a perilous, all-pervasive climate breakdown. We have passed the point of no return and can expect a future in which lethal heatwaves and temperatures in excess of 50C (120F) are common in the tropics; where summers at temperate latitudes will invariably be baking hot, and where our oceans are destined to become warm and acidic. “A child born in 2020 will face a far more hostile world that its grandparents did,” McGuire insists.

In this respect, the volcanologist, who was also a member of the UK government’s Natural Hazard Working Group, takes an extreme position. Most other climate experts still maintain we have time left, although not very much, to bring about meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. A rapid drive to net zero and the halting of global warming is still within our grasp, they say. Such claims are dismissed by McGuire. “I know a lot of people working in climate science who say one thing in public but a very different thing in private. In confidence, they are all much more scared about the future we face, but they won’t admit that in public. I call this climate appeasement and I believe it only makes things worse. The world needs to know how bad things are going to get before we can hope to start to tackle the crisis.”

McGuire finished writing Hothouse Earth at the end of 2021. He includes many of the record high temperatures that had just afflicted the planet, including extremes that had struck the UK. A few months after he completed his manuscript, and as publication loomed, he found that many of those records had already been broken. “That is the trouble with writing a book about climate breakdown,” says McGuire. “By the time it is published it is already out of date. That is how fast things are moving.”

WH Spokesman Salivates About Fighting Wars Over Climate Change

California and Montana wildfires explode in size, forcing evacuation orders

Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size amid windy, hot conditions, forcing evacuation orders as they quickly encroached on neighborhoods.

In California’s Klamath national forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 sq mile (1 sq km) to scorching as much as 62 sq miles (160 sqkm) by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials. The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames. At least 2,000 people were told to evacuate.

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 sq miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. And roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose fire in the Salmon-Challis national forest charred more than 67.5 sq miles in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 17% contained.

A significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the US Forest Service for the region. “It’s a very dangerous fire, the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn’t burned in a while,“ he said. “It’s continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we’re in triple digit temperatures,“ said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest. ...

With red flag warnings into effect for the region and lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the region’s fires, said Stokesberry, the US Forest Service spokesman.

Kentucky grapples with effect of climate crisis as floods leave trail of devastation

As the flash floods in Kentucky claim lives and continue to leave behind a trail of devastation, residents and officials in the state are increasingly grappling with the costly impacts of the climate crisis. Earlier this week, the state saw eight to 10 inches of rainfall in a 24-year period, marking what experts are calling a 1-in-1,000 year rain event. Amid the onslaught of rain and catastrophic flash flooding, at least 26 people have died while dozens more are reported injured.

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear has warned that the death toll will likely continue to rise as officials struggle to reach certain areas of the state that have been badly affected by the floods. On Sunday morning he told NBC it was raining hard in the region and there are renewed warnings of additional flooding. On Thursday, Beshear said that the flooding was the worst that he has seen in his lifetime. “I wish I could tell you why we keep getting hit here in Kentucky. I wish I could tell you why areas where people may not have much continue to get hit and lose everything. I can’t give you the why, but I know what we do in response to it. And the answer is everything we can,” he said.

However, to climate scientists, the answer to such frequent and drastic weather events can be attributed to climate change that has largely been human-caused and expedited.

Jonathan Overpeck, an earth and environmental sciences professor at the University of Michigan, explained that because human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels have significantly warmed the atmosphere in recent years, the atmosphere now holds more moisture than it used to. As a result, whenever rainfall occurs, it is more drastic.

“This means the risk of flooding is going up dramatically over much of the planet where people live, and Kentucky is one of those places. The evidence is clear that climate change is a growing problem for Kentucky and the surrounding region–more floods like this week, and more floods when wetter tropical storms track north over the state,” Overpeck told Inside Climate News.

Also of Interest

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

For Warmongers It’s Always 1938: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

How China Warns Of Pelosi's Taiwan Trip

What Presidents Say Does Not Matter. It Is The Execution Of Policies That Counts.

In The US You Can’t Witness An Execution If Your Skirt Is Too Revealing

Ukrainian claim 'looted' grain reached Lebanon met with acrimony and denial

Wall Street Megabanks’ Multi-Billion Dollar Blunders Suggest Money Controls as Good as George Bailey’s Uncle Billy

“I’ve Delivered”: New Disclosures Demolish President Biden’s Denials on Hunter Dealings

Major Handouts in Manchin Deal 'Delighting' Oil and Gas Industry

Nightly News Fails to Connect Gas Price Surge and Climate Crisis

Nitrogen crisis from jam-packed livestock operations has ‘paralyzed' Dutch economy

Texas Cop Assaults Citizen, Police Chief Lies About It

Pelosi, Carville DEFEND Dems Backing 'Stop The Steal' Candidates

Americans Are Fleeing The U.S. & Moving To Europe

A Little Night Music

Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Prove It On Me Blues

Ma Rainey & Louis Armstrong - Counting The Blues

Ma Rainey - See See Rider Blues

Ma Rainey - Bo-Weavil Blues

Ma Rainey - Moonshine Blues

Ma Rainey - Jealous Hearted Blues

Ma Rainey - Four Day Honory Scat

Ma Rainey - Leavin' This Morning

Ma Rainey - Ma Rainey's Mystery Record