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"Benito Mussolini created the word 'fascism.' He defined it as 'the merging of the state and the corporation.' He also said a more accurate word would be 'corporatism.' This was the definition in Webster's up until 1987 when a corporation bought Webster's and changed it to exclude any mention of corporations."

-- Adam McKay

News and Opinion

When Billionaires And The Government Work Together To Control Information

Facebook restricted visibility of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead-up to the 2020 election after receiving counsel from the FBI, according to Facebook/Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“So we took a different path than Twitter,” Zuckerberg said during a Thursday appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. “Basically the background here is the FBI, I think basically came to us — some folks on our team and was like, ‘Hey, um, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert. There was the — we thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump of — that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant.’”

Zuckerberg said a decision was made to restrict that information on Facebook’s multibillion-user platform. He said that unlike Twitter, which banned the sharing of the article entirely, Facebook opted for the somewhat subtler option of censorship by algorithm.

“The distribution on Facebook was decreased,” he said, adding when pressed by Rogan that the decreased visibility of the article happened to a “meaningful” extent.

As we’ve discussed previously, censorship by algorithm is becoming the preferred censorship method on large Silicon Valley platforms because it can be done to far more people with far less objection than outright de-platforming and bans.

In addition to being censored across social media platforms, the Hunter Biden laptop story was first ignored and dismissed by the mainstream news media, then spun as a Russian disinfo operation. Those media outlets eventually came around to admitting that the leaked emails were probably authentic, and Hunter Biden tacitly authenticated them himself when he acknowledged that the information “could” have come from his laptop. Nothing that came from that laptop was anywhere near as scandalous as the unified front presented by the news media and Silicon Valley in reducing the political impact of an October surprise before a presidential election.

And now we know that the reason the world’s largest social media platform censored that particular story was because they were cautioned by the FBI against allowing such information to circulate. How many of those other institutions suppressed that news story because they were told to by the FBI or other government agencies? How often are US government agencies involving themselves in the act of censorship? What other information is being suppressed in this or similar ways? What other information will be suppressed in the future?

Because of the veils of government and corporate secrecy which obscure our view of the behaviors of power, we don’t get to have answers to these questions. All we get to have is what oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg choose to tell us, in whatever way and to whatever extent they choose to tell us about them.

But even what we’ve been told is pretty ugly. A government agency and a social media platform of unprecedented influence teaming up together to silence impactful political speech is censorship by any sane definition. Mainstream liberals can come up with all kinds of arguments for why the continually expanding justifications for online censorship are fine and normal and not really censorship, but are they able to maintain those justifications when government agencies are actively involved? Is it really better when political speech is being censored by a collaboration of government operatives and billionaires than censored directly by the government alone?

Alan MacLeod has been putting out a number of reports with Mintpress News documenting the way many veterans from the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies have been recruited to work for tech companies like Google/YouTube, Facebook/Meta, and Twitter. The intimacy with which these government and corporate entities are working together is growing closer and closer, and they’re making less and less effort to conceal it.

In a power structure without clear boundaries separating corporations from the government, corporate censorship is state censorship. The mightiest power structure on earth is growing more and more brazen and shameless about this reality.

You know you are living in an oligarchy when Mark Zuckerberg has more political influence over your country than any elected official. Democracy is an illusion. Those who live under the US empire are a propagandized and politically impotent population who only think they are free because they’ve been given the illusion of freedom, and less and less effort is being made to sustain that illusion.

We are ruled by unelected sociopaths who have no wisdom, no compassion, and no intention of ever relinquishing their rule. This will continue unless and until enough of us wake up to what’s going on to stop them.

FBI Admits 'ROUTINELY' Works With Social Media Companies To Censor

Here's the useful part of an otherwise mixed quality article:

Will Six Months of War in Ukraine Turn Into Six Years?

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that Washington will fund an additional $3 billion in military aid for Ukraine. On the surface, this may seem like business as usual. After all, the United States has sent 19 separate tranches of military support since the war began, and Congress has already approved funding for at least another $10 billion worth of arms.

But this latest transfer is not like its predecessors. So far, most of the aid that Washington has provided came via drawdowns of the Pentagon’s own stockpiles. The package announced Wednesday will instead rely on new contracts with weapons manufacturers, meaning that its contents won’t reach Ukraine for a while yet.

In other words, Biden is signaling that his administration intends to measure this war in years, not months. The president said as much in a statement Wednesday in which he argued that the weapons will help ensure that Ukraine “can continue to defend itself over the long term.”

Liz Truss says she is 'ready' to make decisions about using nuclear warfare. #TimesRadio pic.twitter.com/ILnW7XQ1LY

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) August 23, 2022

Russia Repels Ukraine Attacks in Kherson, Advances Kodema & Donetsk; EU Continues Slide into Crisis

NYT: Russian Annexation Plans Pressure Zelensky To Retake Territory Soon

The New York Times reports Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing pressure on multiple fronts to launch a counter-offensive and bring the war to a military end. Russia is planning a series of referendums, and likely annexations, of captured territory in the coming months. A former defense minister is publicly warning Kiev that war fatigue could set in.

Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk issued the call for Zelensky to launch the offensive in Ukrainska Pravda. "The very difficult state of our economy, the constant risks of air and missile attacks and the general fatigue of the population from the difficulties of war will work against Ukraine."

He argued for Ukrainian forces to go on the offensive and end the war quickly. Zagorodnyuk said, "it makes no sense to drag out the war for years and compete to see who will run out of resources first." It is unclear if Kiev’s forces are capable of offensive operations as Russian soldiers have continued to slowly advance.

French PM says companies may face energy ‘rationing’ this winter

US warships sail through Taiwan Strait for first time since Pelosi visit

The US Navy said two warships were sailing through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in the first such operation since heightened tensions with China over the Taiwan visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville were conducting a “routine Taiwan Strait transit”, the US 7th fleet said in a statement.

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it said. “The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows.”

US warships, and on occasion those from allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have routinely sailed through the strait in recent years, drawing Beijing’s anger.

China’s military said on Sunday it was monitoring the US vessels sailing through the Taiwan Strait, maintaining a high alert and ready to defeat any provocations.

Biden Becomes Third President In A Row To Bomb Syria

Israeli Ex-Diplomat Says Growing Acknowledgement of Apartheid 'Must Be Wakeup Call'

Two Israeli ex-diplomats late this week publicly criticized their government's apartheid policies against Palestinians, with one former negotiator of the Oslo Accords calling the growing use of the word around the world a "wakeup call" that must not be ignored.

Speaking Thursday at a United Nations Security Council session examining the long-term impacts of maintaining the status quo in illegally occupied Palestine, the former Oslo negotiator, Daniel Levy—who now heads the U.S./Middle East Project—said that denying basic human rights to Palestinians "will never be a recipe for achieving sustainable security."

"We know of certain developments that can at the same time be both politically uncomfortable and politically salient," he added. "The increasingly weighty body of scholarly, legal, and public opinion that has designated Israel to be perpetrating apartheid in the territories under its control is just such a development."

"A designation made by Palestinian scholars and institutes, later examined by and endorsed by the Israeli human rights community led by B'Tselem, has now become the legal designation made by Human Rights Watch and this year by Amnesty International," Levy said.

Many Palestinians and individuals ranging from the late South African bishop and human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to United Nations special rapporteurs have for decades called Israel's policies and actions in Palestine apartheid.

In recent years, a growing number of politicians, local and regional governments, civil society organizations, religious groups, artists, academics, journalists, and others around the world have spoken out against the crime of Israeli apartheid. These include an increasing number of Israelis and Jews outside Israel, including in the United States, where a 2021 Jewish Electoral Institute survey found that 1 in 4 American Jews believes Israel is an apartheid state.

Noting that numerous African, Arab, and other U.N. member states "all referenced this apartheid situation," Levy contended that "it will come as little surprise if this echoes and resonates in parts of the world that have experienced apartheid and settler colonialism and have gone through decolonization."

"It is a paradigm that will also bring the discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel into sharper relief," he added. "It must be a wakeup call."

Levy wasn't alone in sounding the alarm on Israeli apartheid this week. In an interview with Ben Lynfield published by Plus 61J Media on Friday, former Israeli diplomat Alon Liel—who served in South Africa during the rule of that country's Israeli-backed apartheid regime—said Israel's designation of six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations followed a familiar pattern.

"It brings me back to apartheid South Africa and I am ashamed. These are my memories of South Africa, the chasing of the people of the struggle," added Liel, who last year joined another former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Ilan Baruch, in condemning Israeli apartheid.

"I was among those people who thought our alliance with apartheid is wrong morally, though beneficial financially, and I was among those diplomats fighting against it," he continued. "Now I see our soldiers doing what the South African police and army used to do during the 1970s and 1980s."

Liel added that "if there were governments calling their ambassadors back to Europe for consultations, Israel would behave differently. But nothing like this is happening."

"As long as the Europeans don't take concrete measures on the diplomatic, security, and economic level, Israel doesn't give a damn," he said. "It feels very confident that this anti-human rights behavior will have no cost politically in the international arena."

The former diplomat added that Israel's policies and actions will eventually have negative consequences.

"The demolition of houses, transfer in Masafer Yatta, the arrests, the blockade [of Gaza], all of this is accumulating," he noted. "And then there are the killings. We have an average of one Palestinian killed a day. Hundreds are killed every year, whether it's from an operation in Gaza or the routine operations and daily clashes."

"This aggressive behavior, without any real threat or existential threat, will in the long run further affect the image of Israel, making it be seen in public opinion as a trigger-happy country, a violent country and a country that doesn't care about human rights," Liel predicted. "This will have certain prices in the long run."

Serbia and Kosovo reach free movement agreement

Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on an arrangement for free movement between their countries, the EU’s foreign policy chief announced Saturday. Serbia agreed to abolish its entry-exit document for Kosovo ID holders, and Kosovo agreed to not introduce them for Serbian ID holders, said Josep Borrell. ...

Petar Petković, the head of Serbia’s office for Kosovo, welcomed the free movement deal. “We have managed to ensure peace and stability on the territory of Kosovo and to preserve Serbian ID cards for Serbs” living in Kosovo “and thus also the presence of the Serbian state on this territory”, he said. ...

Serbia deeply resents Kosovo’s breakaway status and has never recognised its independence. Serbs in northern Kosovo have long refused to acknowledge Pristina’s authority and have largely remained loyal to the Serbian government in Belgrade.

The Brussels meeting was called to try to defuse antagonism between the Balkan neighbours that had led to violent incidents in northern Kosovo in recent weeks.

'A True Danger to the Public Post Office': DeJoy Moves to Consolidate USPS Facilities

Postal union officials are sounding the alarm about the potentially damaging impacts of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's effort to consolidate post offices across the U.S. as part of his widely condemned 10-year plan to reshape the public mail agency.

Government Executive reported Friday that "more than 200 post offices and other U.S. Postal Service facilities are set to shed some of their operations as soon as this year as the mailing agency seeks to consolidate those functions at larger buildings, according to documents shared by management."

"The changes will mean letter carriers no longer go to their local facility to pick up mail for their route, instead traveling farther distances after starting at a consolidated location. The impacted post offices will still conduct their retail operations, but many of the back-end functions will be stripped away and relocated," the outlet noted. "The impacted sites are located in Georgia, New York, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Kentucky, Washington, North Carolina, Indiana, and Arkansas. The initial consolidations are expected to begin as soon as next month."

Unions representing postal workers have accused USPS management of keeping them in the dark about the consolidation plan, an integral component of DeJoy's strategy for the next decade.

Charlie Cash, the industrial relations director at the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union (APWU), wrote in a message to members on Thursday that "we do not know much more than what is already published in the public domain."

Cash said that he and other APWU leaders spoke with postal management last month "in what we thought was a meeting to discuss the 'mega-plants'" that DeJoy—a Trump donor and former logistics executive—is seeking to establish as alternatives to smaller postal facilities spread out across the nation.

"Instead we were ambushed with the [Sortation and Delivery Center] concept," Cash continued, referring to DeJoy's strategy. "We voiced various concerns, especially on the timeline and how we were not given an opportunity for input."

"We have not been given the number of employees impacted," Cash added. "We do not have enough information to make a determination of how this will impact service to the public."

Chuck Zlatkin, legislative and political director for the New York Metro Area Postal Union, expressed similar concerns in a Twitter post late Friday.

"How many post offices will be closed?" Zlatkin asked. "How many clerks and drivers will lose jobs? DeJoy's Great Consolidation is a true danger to the public post office."

Late last month, DeJoy—who has been mired in scandal throughout his tenure as postmaster general—laid out his plan to cut 50,000 USPS jobs in the coming years, an announcement that also drew backlash from the APWU.

DeJoy has remained in his post and vowed to stay for a "long time" despite Democratic control of the White House, which has authority over the postal board that can fire the postmaster general.

While Biden appointees constitute a majority of the Postal Service Board of Governors, one of the body's Democrats—Donald Moak—has joined the board's Republicans in supporting DeJoy.

But Moak's term, along with that of Republican William Zollars, expires in December, giving Biden an opportunity to nominate their replacements and secure enough votes to oust DeJoy.

In a letter earlier this month urging Biden to choose progressive replacements for Moak and Zollars, a coalition of 83 advocacy groups noted that "despite the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA), DeJoy still plans to raise postage prices at 'uncomfortable rates' around the country."

"Additionally, numerous post office locations are set to be shuttered under his 10-year restructuring plan, potentially impacting thousands of employees during a time of economic crisis," the groups continued. "After DeJoy's numerous failings at the helm, it is imperative that we have a strong, full, and reform-oriented Postal Board of Governors in place to hold him accountable to the true mission and public service goals of the USPS."

CA Gov. Newsom Threatens to Veto Farmworker Union Bill as He Buys $14.5M Vineyard in Napa Valley

'This Is Nuts': Critics React as Fed Chair Justifies Coming 'Pain' for Working Families

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a closely watched speech Friday that the U.S. central bank is ready to inflict "pain" on households as it continues to fight inflation, remarks that drew widespread backlash from experts who warned the Fed appears poised to spark a devastating recession and mass layoffs.

Addressing a symposium of financial elites gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said that "there will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions"—euphemistic phrasing for higher unemployment—as the Fed aggressively jacks up interest rates, slowing demand across the economy by making borrowing more expensive.

"While higher interest rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses," Powell continued.

But the Fed chief argued that such pain would be worth it because "a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain."

Economist Robert Reich, the former U.S. labor secretary, responded bluntly to Powell's comments: "This is nuts."

"True, inflation is near a four-decade high," Reich wrote in a blog post. "But the Fed's aggressive effort to tame it through steep interest rate hikes—the fastest series of rate hikes since the early 1980s—is raising the risk of recession. If it raises rates again in September by another three-quarters of a point, which seems likely given Powell's remarks today, the risk becomes larger."

"The pain is already being felt across the land," Reich added. "Most Americans aren't getting inflation-adjusted wage increases, which means they're becoming poorer."

Powell's speech was seen by many observers as his most hawkish message yet as the central bank attempts to rein in inflation with a blunt tool that is unlikely to mitigate the causes of price surges in the U.S. and globally, something the Fed chair has openly admitted to lawmakers.

Powell's speech was seen by many observers as his most hawkish message yet as the central bank attempts to rein in inflation with a blunt tool that is unlikely to mitigate the causes of price surges in the U.S. and globally, something the Fed chair has openly admitted to lawmakers.

"The Fed's problem remains that constraining demand can't do anything about the primary drivers of inflation—supply chain snarls, the war in Ukraine, and corporate profiteering," tweeted Claire Guzdar of the Groundwork Collaborative. "Our problem remains that the Fed apparently won't stop raising rates until millions more are unemployed."

Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork's chief economist, echoed that message, noting that "aggressive rate hikes can't address the root causes of inflation."

"Mass unemployment is not the path forward to a healthy and inclusive economy," Mabud added. "Let's be clear: aggressive rate hikes aim to bring down prices by increasing unemployment. Fed Chair Powell is ready to throw workers under the bus to save the 'economy.' But we are the economy."

The Fed has thus far shown no indication that it's prepared to change course despite evidence of slowing economic growth, decelerating wage increases, and cooling inflation.

As CNBC reported Friday ahead of Powell's address, the Fed's preferred inflation measure showed that price pressures eased in July, building on better-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released earlier this month.

But in his speech Friday, Powell said he and other central bank officials are drawing on lessons learned from high inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, when then-Fed Chair Paul Volcker infamously imposed high interest rates that hurled the economy into recession and sent unemployment soaring.

"The successful Volcker disinflation in the early 1980s followed multiple failed attempts to lower inflation over the previous 15 years," Powell said. "A lengthy period of very restrictive monetary policy was ultimately needed to stem the high inflation and start the process of getting inflation down to the low and stable levels that were the norm until the spring of last year. Our aim is to avoid that outcome by acting with resolve now."

William Spriggs, chief economist at the AFL-CIO, warned in a social media post Friday that Powell's speech is "bad news."

"Two straight quarters of falling GDP, falling real disposable income, falling real wages, falling government expenditures and the Federal Reserve, in the face of these headwinds, continued global supply shocks, and weakened world growth, is seeing ghosts," Spriggs wrote.

Fed Chair: 'PAIN' COMING As They Induce Recession

Pledging “pain,” Federal Reserve declares war on the working class

In his speech Friday at the Federal Reserve’s annual summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made one thing clear: America’s financial oligarchy is determined to make the working class bear the cost of the deepening economic crisis. Speaking more bluntly than he has previously, Powell pledged that the US central bank would sustain higher interest rates in the name of fighting inflation, with increased unemployment and economic “pain” to be expected as the consequences. The Fed is widely anticipated to again raise rates by 0.5 to 0.75 percentage points in September.

“Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below-trend growth,” Powell said. “Moreover, there will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions. While higher interest rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses.” Behind the Fed chair’s grey-hued euphemisms stands a ruthless class policy. With “softening of labor market conditions,” Powell is describing a deliberate jobs bloodbath, in which higher rates will encourage mass layoffs and the inevitable calamity this entails for workers and their families. It will mean staggering rises in poverty, hunger, substance abuse, foreclosures, homelessness and suicides, under conditions of an already acute social crisis.

There can be no doubt that the target of the “pain” Powell is referring to is the working class.

Powell bemoaned a so-called “out of balance” labor market and outsized demand for workers, saying, “The labor market is particularly strong, but it is clearly out of balance, with demand for workers substantially exceeding the supply of available workers.” This cynical argument—that a labor shortage and overly large wage increases are the primary drivers of inflation—defies the most basic economic logic. If the cause of high inflation in the United States were wage increases, then workers’ wages would be rising at a level comparable to, or higher than, the level of inflation.

Workers’ pay has risen in nominal terms far below the rate of inflation, resulting in a 3 percent decline in real wages over the course of the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, falling as much as 5 percent in some states. In reality, corporate price gouging, not wage growth, has been the primary factor driving inflation, an April study by the Economic Policy Institute found. Meanwhile, corporate profits continue to set record after record.

Profit margins at non-financial corporations have hit a 72-year high, according to data released Thursday by the US Commerce Department, reaching 15.5 percent for the first time since 1950. Profits increased 8.1 percent over the past year, even after accounting for higher capital stock replacement costs from inflation.

1 In 6 Americans Can’t Pay Their Energy Bills!

‘I have to carry my baby to bury my baby’: woman denied abortion for fetus with fatal condition

An expectant Louisiana woman who is carrying a skull-less fetus that would die almost immediately after birth has cemented plans to travel to North Carolina to terminate her pregnancy, she said on Friday.

Nancy Davis, 36, has been facing a choice of either carrying the fetus to term or traveling several states away for an abortion after she says her local medical provider would not perform the procedure amid confusion over whether the state’s abortion ban outlawed it.

Standing on the steps of Louisiana’s capitol building in her home town of Baton Rouge, Davis announced that her trip would be next week. The trip is being financed by more than $30,000 in donations raised by an online GoFundMe campaign that was launched after she went public with her plight earlier this month.

Her lawyer, the prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, also called on Louisiana’s lawmakers to at least clarify the wording of their abortion ban – or to repeal it altogether – to prevent anyone else there from enduring what Davis and her family had during the last several weeks. He said the state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, should call a special legislative session in advance of the regular one scheduled to begin in April of next year to do that if necessary.

“Louisiana lawmakers inflicted unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk upon this beautiful mother,” Crump said, gesturing at Davis, who was accompanied on Friday by her partner, Shedric Cole, their young daughter and her two stepchildren. “They replaced care with confusion, privacy with politics and options with ideology.

Naturally, these Democrats won't discuss their own transgressions against democracy, blocking third parties from ballot access or extensive gerrymandering - as if democracy hadn't already been lost.

‘The US could lose the right to vote within months’: Top official warns on threat to democracy

Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, is warning anyone who will listen that the fate of free and fair elections in the United States hangs in the balance in this November’s midterm contests.

In many of the most competitive races for offices with authority over US elections, Republicans nominated candidates who have embraced or echoed Donald Trump’s myth of a stolen election in 2020.

Griswold, who chairs the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (Dass) and is running for re-election, is urging Americans to pay attention to the once-sleepy down-ballot contests for secretary of state – lest they lose their democracy.

“What we can expect from the extreme Republicans running across this country is to undermine free and fair elections for the American people, strip Americans of the right to vote, refuse to address security breaches and, unfortunately, be more beholden to Mar-a-Lago than the American people,” Griswold, 37, said in an interview with the Guardian.

Having failed to overturn the 2020 vote, Trump and his loyalists are now strategically targeting positions that will play a critical role in supervising the next presidential election, turning many of the 27 secretary of state contests this year into expensive, partisan showdowns. If these Trump-backed candidates are elected, Griswold fears that they would weaponize their posts, either by sowing doubts about the results of an election their party loses – or by trying to subvert it outright.

Judge SIDES WITH Trump In FBI Raid

Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era felony voting law is constitutional, federal court rules

A Jim Crow-era provision of the Mississippi constitution designed to disfranchise Black voters is constitutional, a federal appellate court ruled on Wednesday.

The case deals with a provision of the Mississippi constitution, Section 241, that lays out specific crimes that cause its citizens to permanently lose the right to vote. Mississippi officials initially adopted the provision at a constitutional convention in 1890, choosing crimes such as theft, arson, embezzlement and bigamy that they believed African Americans were more likely to commit. “We came here to exclude the Negro,” said the convention’s president. “Nothing short of this will answer.”

A majority of judges on the US court of appeals for the fifth circuit did not dispute that the original provision was racist and unconstitutional. But they said Mississippi had since “cleansed” the provision of its “discriminatory taint” by tweaking the provision twice in the 20th century. Voters removed burglary from the list of disfranchising crimes in 1950 and added murder and rape to the list in 1968.

“Plaintiffs failed to meet their burden of showing that the current version of Section 241 was motivated by discriminatory intent. In addition, Mississippi has conclusively shown that any taint associated with Section 241 has been cured,” a majority of justices for the fifth circuit, one of the most conservative in the US, wrote in an opinion. The challengers in the case have said they plan to appeal the ruling to the US supreme court.

The decision will allow Mississippi to continue to enforce an extremely harsh policy when it comes to voting rights for those with certain felony convictions. Ten per cent of the state’s voting age population – the highest rate in the country – cannot vote because of a felony conviction, according to an estimate by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice non-profit. That includes 16% of the Black voting age population. The vast majority of people disenfranchised in the state have completed their criminal sentence.

Time running out to protect world’s oceans, conservationists say as UN treaty talks stall

A fifth round of negotiations for a UN ocean treaty to protect and manage the high seas failed to reach an agreement on Friday in New York. The treaty has been described as “the most significant ocean protection agreement for four decades”. It seeks to protect 30% of the world’s oceans – 11m sq km – by 2030, and would provide a legally binding mechanism for safeguarding the high seas – areas that lie beyond national jurisdictions more than 200 nautical miles from shore.

A group of more than 50 countries known as the High Ambition Coalition committed last year to protect 30% of the planet’s land and sea by 2030. But without an agreement, these pledges have no legal basis in the high seas, which cover almost half of the earth’s surface and account for two-thirds of the global ocean. ...

A further round of negotiations will be necessary, and unless an emergency meeting was convened it was unlikely the treaty would be finalised in 2022, Greenpeace said. “Time has all but run out,” said Laura Meller of Greenpeace in a statement. “Failure to deliver a treaty at these talks jeopardises the livelihoods and food security of billions of people around the world. “Members of the High Ambition Coalition and countries like the USA have moved too slowly to find compromises, despite their commitments,” she said.

Mississippi governor declares state of emergency ahead of massive flooding

Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the state braces itself for massive flooding that was predicted for Monday.

“If predictions prove accurate, the Pearl River is expected to crest on Monday, August 29th, at 36 feet,” several feet over what is considered a major flood stage, Reeves said. “This is 24 hours sooner than originally predicted.”

Usually, a flood stage is considered “major” at 26ft, CNN reports. However, the state’s current flood warnings estimate floods to reach 34ft in certain areas, while others are likely to see 35.8ft of water, threatening homes and businesses in areas that were damaged by severe flooding in 2020 as the global climate crisis continues fueling extreme weather. “If your home flooded in 2020, there is a high probab[ility] it will happen again,” Reeves said.

"Climate Apartheid": Pakistan, Contributing Less Than 1% of Global Emissions, Ravaged by Floods

Pakistan declares floods a ‘climate catastrophe’ as death toll tops 1,000

A Pakistani minister has called the country’s deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe” and “a climate dystopia at our doorstep” as officials said deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan had passed 1,000 since mid-June.

Flash floods, which have intensified in recent days, have swept away villages, roads, bridges, people, livestock and crops across all four provinces. Pakistan has appealed for international help as soldiers and rescue workers have evacuated stranded people to relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced people.

The country’s National Disaster Management Authority said on Sunday the death toll from the monsoon rains had reached 1,033, with 119 killed in the previous 24 hours. It said this year’s floods were comparable with those of 2010 – the worst on record – when more than 2,000 people died and nearly a fifth of the country was under water.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, pleaded for help in a visit to badly hit Balochistan province. “I have never seen such flood in my personal and professional life. All four corners of Pakistan are under water. I request people to come ahead and help.”

Sherry Rehman, a senator and Pakistan’s climate change minister, said Pakistan was experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the hardest in the decade. We are at the moment at the ground zero of the frontline of extreme weather events, in an unrelenting cascade of heatwaves, forest fires, flash floods, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events, and now the monster monsoon of the decade is wreaking nonstop havoc throughout the country,” she said in a video posted on Twitter.

Also of Interest

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

‘It’s a deal with the devil’: outrage in Appalachia over Manchin’s ‘vile’ pipeline plan

The Western Narrative on Russia & China

Who assassinated Darya Dugina?

Putin & the Emerging Order

Ukraine - 'Game Changing' Policy Moves That Ain't Game Changing

Biden Receives Bipartisan Criticism for Bombing Syria

Greek ‘Watergate’ phone-tapping scandal puts added pressure on PM

'Historic Victory': Chipotle Workers in Michigan Vote to Form Fastfood Chain's First Union

How Climate Change Spurs Megadroughts

The Chinese and European Droughts & What They Mean For the Future

Media Celebrates DIVERSE FED Screwing You Over

Populists DOMINATE As Voters REJECT Clintonian Politics

National Security Lawyer: Why Trump WILL BE Indicted

End of abundance w/Gonzalo Lira (livestream)

A Little Night Music

Bumble Bee Slim - Can't You Trust Me No More

Bumble Bee Slim - Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes

Bumble Bee Slim - No Woman No Nickel

Bumble Bee Slim - B and O Blues

Bumble Bee Slim - Rough Rugged Road Blues

Bumble Bee Slim - Everybody's Fishing

Bumble Bee Slim - Meet Me In The Bottom

Bumble Bee Slim - Driftin' Blues

Bumble Bee Slim - Ida Red