The Evening Blues - 11-15-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features delta blues singer and guitarist Mississippi John Hurt. Enjoy!
Mississippi John Hurt - CC Rider
"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
-- Steven Wright
News and Opinion
Reed/Inhofe Amendment Would Open Floodgates for War Profiteers
If the powerful leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senators Jack Reed (D) and Jim Inhofe (R), have their way, Congress will soon invoke wartime emergency powers to build up even greater stockpiles of Pentagon weapons. The amendment is supposedly designed to facilitate replenishing the weapons the United States has sent to Ukraine, but a look at the wish list contemplated in this amendment reveals a different story.
Reed and Inhofe’s idea is to tuck their wartime amendment into the FY2023 National Defense Appropriation Act (NDAA) that will be passed during the lameduck session before the end of the year. The amendment sailed through the Armed Services Committee in mid-October and, if it becomes law, the Department of Defense will be allowed to lock in multi-year contracts and award non-competitive contracts to arms manufacturers for Ukraine-related weapons.
If the Reed/Inhofe amendment is really aimed at replenishing the Pentagon’s supplies, then why do the quantities in its wish list vastly surpass those sent to Ukraine?
Let’s do the comparison:
The current star of U.S. military aid to Ukraine is Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS rocket system, the same weapon U.S. Marines used to help reduce much of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, to rubble in 2017. The U.S. has only sent 38 HIMARS systems to Ukraine, but Senators Reed and Inhofe plan to “reorder” 700 of them, with 100,000 rockets, which could cost up to $4 billion. Another artillery weapon provided to Ukraine is the M777 155 mm howitzer. To “replace” the 142 M777s sent to Ukraine, the senators plan to order 1,000 of them, at an estimated cost of $3.7 billion, from BAE Systems. HIMARS launchers can also fire Lockheed Martin’s long-range (up to 190 miles) MGM-140 ATACMS missiles, which the U.S. has not sent to Ukraine. In fact the U.S. has only ever fired 560 of them, mostly at Iraq in 2003. The even longer-range “Precision Strike Missile,” formerly prohibited under the INF Treaty renounced by Trump, will start replacing the ATACMS in 2023, yet the Reed-Inhofe Amendment would buy 6,000 ATACMS, 10 times more than the U.S. has ever used, at an estimated cost of $600 million. Reed and Inhofe plan to buy 20,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from Raytheon. But Congress already spent $340 million for 2,800 Stingers to replace the 1,400 sent to Ukraine. Reed and Inhofe’s amendment will “re-replenish” the Pentagon’s stocks 14 times over, which could cost $2.4 billion. The United States has supplied Ukraine with only two Harpoon anti-ship missile systems—already a provocative escalation—but the amendment includes 1,000 Boeing Harpoon missiles (at about $1.4 billion) and 800 newer Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles (about $1.8 billion), the Pentagon’s replacement for the Harpoon. The Patriot air defense system is another weapon the U.S. has not sent to Ukraine, because each system can cost a billion dollars and the basic training course for technicians to maintain and repair it takes more than a year to complete. And yet the Inhofe-Reed wish list includes 10,000 Patriot missiles, plus launchers, which could add up to $30 billion. ATACMS, Harpoons and Stingers are all weapons the Pentagon was already phasing out, so why spend billions of dollars to buy thousands of them now? What is this really all about? Is this amendment a particularly egregious example of war profiteering by the military-industrial-Congressional complex? Or is the United States really preparing to fight a major ground war against Russia?
Our best judgment is that both are true.
Looking at the weapons list, military analyst and retired Marine Colonel Mark Cancian noted: “This isn’t replacing what we’ve given [Ukraine]. It’s building stockpiles for a major ground war [with Russia] in the future. This is not the list you would use for China. For China we’d have a very different list.”
President Biden says he will not send U.S. troops to fight Russia because that would be World War III. But the longer the war goes on and the more it escalates, the more it becomes clear that U.S. forces are directly involved in many aspects of the war: helping to plan Ukrainian operations; providing satellite-based intelligence; waging cyber warfare; and operating covertly inside Ukraine as special operations forces and CIA paramilitaries. Now Russia has accused British special operations forces of direct roles in a maritime drone attack on Sevastopol and the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
As U.S. involvement in the war has escalated despite Biden’s broken promises, the Pentagon must have drawn up contingency plans for a full-scale war between the United States and Russia. If those plans are ever executed, and if they do not immediately trigger a world-ending nuclear war, they will require vast quantities of specific weapons, and that is the purpose of the Reed-Inhofe stockpiles.
At the same time, the amendment seems to respond to complaints by the weapons manufacturers that the Pentagon was “moving too slowly” in spending the vast sums appropriated for Ukraine. While over $20 billion has been allocated for weapons, contracts to actually buy weapons for Ukraine and replace the ones sent there so far totaled only $2.7 billion by early November.
So the expected arms sales bonanza had not yet materialized, and the weapons makers were getting impatient. With the rest of the world increasingly calling for diplomatic negotiations, if Congress didn’t get moving, the war might be over before the arms makers’ much-anticipated jackpot ever arrived.
Mark Cancian explained to DefenseNews, “We’ve been hearing from industry, when we talk to them about this issue, that they want to see a demand signal.”
When the Reed-Inhofe Amendment sailed through committee in mid-October, it was clearly the “demand signal” the merchants of death were looking for. The stock prices of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics took off like anti-aircraft missiles, exploding to all-time highs by the end of the month.
Julia Gledhill, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, decried the wartime emergency provisions in the amendment, saying it “further deteriorates already weak guardrails in place to prevent corporate price gouging of the military.”
Opening the doors to multi-year, non-competitive, multi-billion dollar military contracts shows how the American people are trapped in a vicious spiral of war and military spending. Each new war becomes a pretext for further increases in military spending, much of it unrelated to the current war that provides cover for the increase. Military budget analyst Carl Conetta demonstrated (see Executive Summary) in 2010, after years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, that “those operations account(ed) for only 52% of the surge” in U.S. military spending during that period.
Andrew Lautz of the National Taxpayers’ Union now calculates that the base Pentagon budget will exceed $1 trillion per year by 2027, five years earlier than projected by the Congressional Budget Office. But if we factor in at least $230 billion per year in military-related costs in the budgets of other departments, like Energy (for nuclear weapons), Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Justice (FBI cybersecurity), and State, national insecurity spending has already hit the trillion dollar per year mark, gobbling up two-thirds of annual discretionary spending.
America’s exorbitant investment in each new generation of weapons makes it nearly impossible for politicians of either party to recognize, let alone admit to the public, that American weapons and wars have been the cause of many of the world’s problems, not the solution, and that they cannot solve the latest foreign policy crisis either.
Senators Reed and Inhofe will defend their amendment as a prudent step to deter and prepare for a Russian escalation of the war, but the spiral of escalation we are locked into is not one-sided. It is the result of escalatory actions by both sides, and the huge arms build-up authorized by this amendment is a dangerously provocative escalation by the U.S. side that will increase the danger of the World War that President Biden has promised to avoid
After the catastrophic wars and ballooning U.S. military budgets of the past 25 years, we should be wise by now to the escalatory nature of the vicious spiral in which we are caught. And after flirting with Armageddon for 45 years in the last Cold War, we should also be wise to the existential danger of engaging in this kind of brinkmanship with nuclear-armed Russia. So, if we are wise, we will oppose the Reed/Inhofe Amendment.
LEAKED: Pentagon Wants Ukraine Peace Deal NOW!
Blinken, Sullivan Don’t Agree With Milley’s Push for Diplomacy on Ukraine War
While Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has publicly voiced support for diplomacy between Ukraine and Russia, other Biden administration officials are against the idea, CNN reported on Friday.
Citing unnamed administration officials, the report said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan disagree with Milley and don’t think it’s time to make a serious push for peace talks. ...
The CNN report said that Milley has in recent weeks “led a strong push to seek a diplomatic solution” to the fighting. But his position is not a popular one in the administration, and one official said that the State Department has the opposite view of Milley.
The report reads: “One official explained that the State Department is on the opposite side of the pole from Milley. That dynamic has led to a unique situation where military brass are more fervently pushing for diplomacy than US diplomats.”
Russia Launches Missile Attack. Patrushev, West Plans Russia Break up; West Fails to Isolate Russia
CIA director meets Russian counterpart as US denies secret peace talks
The CIA director, Bill Burns, met his Russian counterpart in Ankara on Monday in a rare high-level meeting, but the US insists it is not engaged in secret peace talks with Moscow without Ukrainian officials being present. The meeting in the Turkish capital with the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, followed speculation that some senior US figures would like Ukraine to enter negotiations with the Kremlin to end the war.
US officials said the main purpose of the encounter was to convey “a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia” and to discuss the cases of Americans held in detention in the country. They emphasised that Burns was “not conducting negotiations of any kind” and “not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine” – after a leak from the Kremlin in the aftermath of Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant first reported that a meeting was taking place between the US and Russia in Ankara, and said Naryshkin would be present. The newspaper said it did not know the purpose of the discussion. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he could neither confirm nor deny reports, before the US confirmed that Burns, the person normally used by Joe Biden for backchannel discussions, would be present at the meeting. ...
Last week speculation emerged that some senior White House advisers would prefer to see an end to the fighting. Gen Mark Milley, the US’s top military officer, said he believed Ukraine had fought the Russian military to a standstill and there were “possibilities here for some diplomatic solutions”. But the US agreed to send a further $400m (£340m) of military aid to Ukraine, taking the total to $18.9bn since January 2021 – and Biden insisted at the G20 summit there were no secret negotiations going on.
Scott Ritter: Ukraine cannot win this war. It's a 'fantasy.'
“Dark ships” emerge from the shadow of the Nord Stream pipeline mystery
The first gas leaks on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea were detected in the early hours of September 26, pouring up to 400,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere. Officials immediately suspected sabotage of the international pipeline. New analysis seen by WIRED shows that two large ships, with their trackers off, appeared around the leak sites in the days immediately before they were detected.
According to the analysis by satellite data monitoring firm SpaceKnow, the two “dark ships,” each measuring around 95 to 130 meters long, passed within several miles of the Nord Stream 2 leak sites. “We have detected some dark ships, meaning vessels that were of a significant size, that were passing through that area of interest,” says Jerry Javornicky, the CEO and cofounder of SpaceKnow. “They had their beacons off, meaning there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to keep their location information and general information hidden from the world,” Javornicky adds. ...
Once it gathered archive images of the area, SpaceKnow created a series of polygons around the gas leak sites. The smallest of these, around 400 square meters, covered the immediate blast area, and larger areas of interest covered several kilometers. In the weeks leading up to the explosions, SpaceKnow detected 25 ships passing through the region, from “cargo ships to multipurpose larger ships,” Javornicky says. In total, 23 of these vessels had their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders turned on. Two did not have AIS data turned on, and these ships passed the area during the days immediately ahead of the leaks being detected.
CNN Banned From Ukraine After Showing N@zi Salute
Biden DENIES Cold War With China, Backs Away FROM THE BRINK On Taiwan In Meeting With Xi
Xi Tells Biden Current State of US-China Relations Not in Anyone’s Interest
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday held a long-awaited in-person meeting in Bali, Indonesia, amid simmering tensions between the US and China. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s readout of the meeting, Xi’s message to Biden was that the current state of US-China relations is in nobody’s interest.
The readout said that Xi stressed the two powers should work together to put relations back on track and that China does not seek to supplant the US as the world’s leading power. ...
According to the White House, President Biden told Xi that the US will “continue to compete vigorously” with China, signaling the US doesn’t plan to change course. US officials said before the meeting that the talks will be more about managing tensions rather than resolving issues.
Warren Says Debt Ceiling Should Be Abolished to End GOP Threat to 'Blow Up the Economy'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday said congressional Democrats should use the upcoming lame-duck session to eliminate the U.S. debt ceiling for good, warning that leaving the borrowing limit intact gives Republicans an opening to hold the economy hostage.
"I'd get rid of the debt ceiling altogether," Warren (D-Mass.) told NBC's Chuck Todd, arguing that the arbitrary limit "serves no function except to create leverage for people who are willing to blow up the economy."
"And that's the problem we've got right now," Warren continued. "Many of these new Republicans who are coming in are people who are coming in with exactly one goal: Get Donald Trump elected in 2024. And they see that if they can create chaos in the economy, then they think that may move Donald Trump one inch closer to election. So, we've got to take that away from them, take care during the lame duck—take care of raising the debt limit or getting rid of it altogether."
The U.S. is expected to reach the debt ceiling—which dictates how much money the Treasury Department can borrow to meet the country's obligations—at some point early next year, once again raising the prospect of a default that would be disastrous for the U.S. economy, wiping out millions of jobs and eliminating trillions of dollars in household wealth.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she supports congressional action to raise the debt ceiling during the lame-duck session. Yellen has previously backed calls to completely abolish the debt ceiling, a proposal that President Joe Biden opposes.
"I think it's just compromising the credit of the United States," Yellen said Sunday. "Casting doubt on the willingness of the United States to pay its debt is a devastating economic self-inflicted blow."
In the run-up to last week's midterm elections, top Republicans in the House—including the lawmaker in line for speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—suggested they would be willing to use the debt ceiling as leverage to pursue cuts to Social Security, Medicare, climate investments, and potentially other spending.
Israel will not cooperate with FBI inquiry into killing of Palestinian American journalist
Israel has said it will not cooperate with an FBI investigation into the killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli army.
Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, denounced the inquiry as “interference in Israel’s internal affairs” and said he “made it clear to the American representatives that we stand behind the IDF [Israel defence forces] soldiers, that we will not cooperate with any external investigation”.
“The decision of the US Department of Justice to investigate the unfortunate death of Shireen Abu Akleh is a grave mistake. The IDF conducted an independent and professional investigation, which was presented to the Americans who shared the details,” Gantz said.
But an outright failure to cooperate would complicate relations with Washington and reinforce claims of an Israeli cover-up of Abu Akleh’s death as she reported on a military raid on the West Bank city of Jenin in May.
The FBI investigation comes after months of pressure from the highly respected Al-Jazeera journalist’s family, who accused the Biden administration of “skulking toward the erasure of any wrongdoing by Israeli forces”. The family was backed by dozens of members of Congress.
Global corporations ‘cheating public out of billions in tax’, say campaigners
Governments around the world could reap almost $90bn a year extra in tax if they made public their data on the extent to which multinational companies use tax havens, an advocacy group reports. The Tax Justice Network said states were depriving themselves of $89bn (£75bn) a year by allowing some of the world’s biggest companies anonymity over the way they conduct their tax affairs.
In its State of Tax Justice 2022 report, the TJN called for an end to the concession made to multinational companies that they would not be named and shamed if they provided information about shifting profits into tax havens under a global initiative – country-by-country reporting – pioneered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. ...
Rachel Etter-Phoya, a senior researcher at the Tax Justice Network, said: “The OECD concession to corporate tax abuse is a political choice to turn a blind eye. Our governments patronise us with talk about making ‘tough decisions’ to deal with the global cost of living crisis, then choose to stay quiet about multinational corporations that have privately confessed to cheating the public out of billions in tax.
“They’re choosing to protect the cherries on the cakes of the richest corporations while people worry about putting food on the table. Our message to governments is clear: stop the cover-up, to lift living standards up.
Google will pay $392m to 40 states in largest ever US privacy settlement
Google has agreed to a $391.5m settlement with 40 states to resolve an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced on Monday.
The states’ investigation was sparked by a 2018 Associated Press story, which found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking by disabling a feature the company called “location history”.
The attorneys general called the settlement a historic win for consumers, and the largest multi-state settlement in US history dealing with privacy.
It comes at a time of mounting unease over privacy and surveillance by tech companies that has drawn growing outrage from politicians and scrutiny by regulators. The supreme court’s ruling in June ending the constitutional protections for abortion raised potential privacy concerns for women seeking the procedure or related information online.
“This $391.5m settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology,” said Connecticut attorney general William Tong in a statement. “Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects, and there are so many reasons why a consumer may opt-out of tracking.”
Amid Eli Lilly-Twitter Fiasco, Groups Call for End to Insulin Price Gouging
Dozens of progressive advocacy groups marked World Diabetes Day on Monday by urging Congress to pass legislation that would ensure people in the United States have access to the insulin on which their survival depends and prevent Big Pharma from price gouging on the lifesaving medicine.
In a letter addressed to Senate and House leaders, Public Citizen, T1International, and more than 50 other organizations wrote: "World Diabetes Day marks the birthday of Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin and famously sold its patent for $1 and stated, 'Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.' Despite its discovery more than 100 years ago and the generosity of Banting and the co-inventors, many people living in the United States still struggle to afford access to the insulin they need."
The letter was released amid a high-profile conflict between Twitter and the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Last week, a user exploited Twitter CEO Elon Musk's hastily overhauled verification process to create an account posing as Eli Lilly's official page. The user proceeded to fire off a tweet declaring that "insulin is free now," causing Eli Lilly's share price to drop and drawing fresh attention to the sky-high price of the medicine in the U.S. ...
It started Thursday afternoon when an account using Eli Lilly's name and logo tweeted: "We are excited to announce insulin is free now."
As The Washington Post reported:
The tweet carried a blue "verified" check mark, a badge that Twitter had used for years to signal an account’s authenticity—and that Twitter's new billionaire owner, Elon Musk, had, while declaring "power to the people!" suddenly opened to anyone, regardless of their identity, as long as they paid $8.
But the tweet was a fake—one of what became a fast-multiplying horde of impersonated businesses, political leaders, government agencies, and celebrities. By the time Twitter had removed the tweet, more than six hours later, the account had inspired other fake Eli Lilly copycats and been viewed millions of times.
After its stock tanked, the company issued the following message from its official account: "We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account."
Some social media users celebrated, writing that the fake account "just cost Eli Lilly billions," and suggesting that "whoever bought that Eli Lilly blue check has to hold the title for spending the most consequential $8 in modern human history."
Sanders used it as an occasion for political education, saying on Friday that "Eli Lilly should apologize for increasing the price of insulin by over 1,200% since 1996 to $275 while it costs less than $10 to manufacture."
"The inventors of insulin sold their patents in 1923 for $1 to save lives, not to make Eli Lilly's CEO obscenely rich," Sanders added.
Sanders went on to spotlight the price of insulin in various countries, asserting that "no one should be forced to take out their wallets for insulin—a lifesaving drug that was invented nearly 100 years ago."
America Is A Mafia State Run By Democrats & Republicans
Fresh Call to Impeach Clarence Thomas After Latest Ruling on Jan. 6 Insurrection
A long-standing call for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to face impeachment proceedings was renewed Monday after the right-wing judge indicated in an unsigned dissent that he would have blocked enforcement of the House January 6 panel's subpoena for the communications records of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.
The House committee investigating the deadly January 6 insurrection "is seeking Ward's records related to her role in former President Donald Trump's effort to steal the 2020 election as a fake elector casting ballots in the Electoral College for Trump," HuffPost reported.
n a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the panel to obtain Ward's phone records, rejecting the Arizona GOP chair's appeal. Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito joined Thomas in dissenting.
This marked the second time Thomas has tried to hinder the committee's probe of the Trump-led effort to remain in office despite his 2020 election loss—a plot in which Thomas' wife, right-wing activist Ginni Thomas, played a major role.
Thomas in January was the only justice to vote against the release of White House records to the panel. Two months later, text messages between former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ginni Thomas showed that she had been in communication with Trump's team about efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Weeks later, it was revealed that Ginni Thomas had lobbied Republican lawmakers in Arizona and other states to reject Biden's electors and appoint fake ones who would support Trump. Since late March, congressional Democrats have called on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself, resign, or be impeached for apparently trying to shield his wife's anti-democratic political activities from scrutiny.
"His wife, Ginni Thomas, pressured Arizona officials to illegally overturn Trump's loss," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a D.C.-based watchdog, noted Monday. "It's absurd that Thomas did not recuse."
"Justice Thomas must face an impeachment inquiry," the pro-democracy advocacy group Free Speech for People tweeted.
A petition calling for the impeachment of Clarence Thomas has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures since details about Ginni Thomas' direct participation in Trump's failed coup were first made public.
Tulsi Gabbard: Democracy Is DEAD As Long As BIG TECH & Democrats Continue To Collude
Methane emissions from 15 meat and dairy companies rival those of the EU
The combined methane emissions of 15 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies are higher than those of several of the world’s largest countries, including Russia, Canada and Australia, according to a new study. The analysis from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Changing Markets Foundation found that emissions by the companies – five meat and 10 dairy corporations – equate to more than 80% of the European Union’s entire methane footprint and account for 11.1% of the world’s livestock-related methane emissions. ...
Researchers admit in the report that a lack of transparency from the companies makes it difficult to accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions. Results were estimated based on publicly available data on meat and milk production and regional livestock practices.
The report comes as the Cop27 climate conference unfolds in Egypt, where politicians and corporate leaders are discussing the role of agriculture and face accusations they are failing to consider meaningful solutions.
If the 15 companies were treated as a country, the report noted, it would be the 10th-largest greenhouse gas-emitting jurisdiction in the world. Their combined emissions outpace those of oil companies such as ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, researchers found. Researchers singled out individual livestock companies such as JBS, the world’s largest meat company, and the French dairy giant Danone. JBS’s methane emissions “far outpace all other companies”, according to the report, exceeding the combined livestock emissions of France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
The world’s second-largest meat company, Tyson, produces approximately as much livestock methane as Russia, researchers said, and Dairy Farmers of America produces as much as the United Kingdom.
Vanessa Nakate Condemns Fossil Fuel Lobbying at U.N. Climate Talks as Climate Crisis Ravages Africa
Peruvian Amazon Indigenous leaders to lobby banks to cut ties with state oil firm
Native leaders from the Peruvian Amazon are to travel to the US this week to lobby banks to cut financial ties with Peru’s state oil company, Petroperú. Leaders from the Achuar and Wampis peoples say the state company is responsible for oil spills in their territory that violate their human rights by polluting their water sources and irreparably damaging their fishing and hunting grounds.
They are also demanding the Peruvian government and banks stop oil exploration and investment in all Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon, the second largest part of the rainforest after Brazil. Nelton Yankur, the president of the Achuar Federation, said Petroperú had “caused so much damage to our population” over 40 years of drilling for oil and transporting it through their territory.
Yankur and other Indigenous leaders said they would meet representatives of Citibank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC in New York, with JP Morgan in Washington DC, and Bank of America in Lima. The Indigenous leaders say they want to set out the social, legal and environmental risks of financing or investing in Petroperú. Those risks are highlighted in a report by the NGO Amazon Watch, which was presented at New York Climate Week in September.
Petroperú reported in September it intended to seek $1.6bn in investment to reinitiate drilling and oil extraction in the Amazon.
“On this trip to the United States we want to warn the banks not to finance Petroperú, because [it] does not act responsibly and has left environmental damage in our territory,” said Yankur, who represents Indigenous people living on the Pastaza River in Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazon region.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Kherson, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Under-the-Radar Electrical War
U.S.-Russian Intelligence Chiefs Discuss Ukraine
WaPo Neocon Josh Rogin: Republicans Responsible for Ukraine Loss
Hungary infuriates EU with block on €18B Ukraine aid
The Real Insulin Stock Collapse
They Keep Us Focused On Decoy Dichotomies: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Afghan supreme leader orders full implementation of sharia law
Fish fossils show first cooking may have been 600,000 years earlier than thought
NY DEM DISASTER? Republicans FLIP 4 House Seats After Dems ATTACKED The Left
A Little Night Music
Mississippi John Hurt - Stagolee
Mississippi John Hurt - Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
Mississippi John Hurt - Salty Dog Blues
Mississippi John Hurt - Blind Man Sit In The Way And Cried
Mississippi John Hurt - Where Shall I Be
Mississippi John Hurt - I'm Satisfied
Mississippi John Hurt - Pay Day
Mississippi John Hurt - Louis Collins
Mississippi John Hurt - Spike driver blues
Mississippi John Hurt - Folk Songs and Blues
Comments
Good evening, Joe
Excellent round-up of the days news and analysis.
Happening now---100 Russian missiles arrived in UKR.
The NY Times says most of them were shot down. LOL
However, the lights, heat, and water are out over all of Ukraine. From Lvov in the West to Kiev and Kharkov in the North and including Odessa, Kherson and every other familiar city.
https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1592534452831412224
And yes, another False Flag situation. Poland is claiming that Russia fired 2 missiles that landed in Poland. This has been disputed by Russia.
The Russians say that the fragments of the missile appearing on TV and social media do not come from any Russian weapons, and The Pentagon says there is no information that whatever was found came from Russia.
This was the largest missile strike since February 24 and may herald in the ground war.
Ukraine expects its first freeze in a few days.
NYCVG
Freezing-out Ukraine and Poland
May be the best cold remedy at this point.
They seem to be running a fever.
Thanks for the updates.
I care, but not so much for the news streams.
Remember this
everything the government tells us is nothing but propaganda.
Milley is playing the good cop while Blinken/Sullivan play the bad cop.
Why in the world would anyone think we want peace when at the
G19, G20they tried cancelling Lavrov and told the world that no one would meet
with Putin.
and amerika would start WWIII over this
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Cat is out of the bag!
watch out you doggers
good laugh
thx
Funny clip
Yes, I am aware that we do not get accurate information or complete information on anything from our government and the media.
That's why I try to share what I see actually happening.
US so intent on hurting Russia in all American eyes that they seem to be missing the larger points.
Pepe Escobar describes the world that is on its way:
Russia, India, China, Iran: The Quad That really Matters
"It was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to express what was really significant at the end of the summit.
While praising the “inclusive, open, equal structure of security and cooperation at ASEAN”, Lavrov stressed how Europe and NATO “want to militarize the region in order to contain Russia and China’s interests in the Indo-Pacific.”
"A manifestation of this policy is how “AUKUS is openly aiming at confrontation in the South China Sea,” he said."
Full essay at The Cradle and The Saker.
NYCVG
I just left shitlib central after reading about this attack
by Russia. First off it was a deliberate attack, but Russia is so incompetent that they don’t know where their bombs ends up and besides they are still running out of bombs to shoot. Oh yeah and they are only targeting civilian infrastructure and not the electric grid that has plunged most of Ukraine into darkness.
Now Biden has to send Ukraine big bombs so they can hit inside Russia and especially the Kerch bridge. Guess the lead dumbshit doesn’t remember that Russia only started hitting the grid after the first attempt at taking out the Kirch bridge. And one of the anti war spokesmen says that it’s time to put a no fly zone over Ukraine. Advocating for an increase in war should mean that you give up your anti war creds. Oh well at least the pentagon is saying that they have no evidence that it was a Russia bomb that hit Poland so there’s that. I’m thinking more of a false flag to get NATO to get involved.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
False Flag
is most likely explanation.
That will only stop if the American public stops falling for the nonsense that is served up.
What is the chance of that?
NYCVG
One look at shitlib central
will tell you how slim that chance is. 5 or just examples of daily 2 minutes of hate. And some of the most misinformed people on the planet.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening nycvg...
heh, ukraine has been begging for missiles, and they've finally arrived. oops, from the wrong side.
it seems that no matter how effective the ukronazis air defenses are claimed to be, the russians seem to have little trouble taking out their dual-use infrastructure whenever they please.
i guess we'll see how well propaganda stands up to persistent destruction of infrastructure.
Not even close
is my guess.
Ukraine cannot withstand much more of this because after a point the damage makes repairing difficult. Or impossible.
Same goes for the bridge to Crimea.
It is all a very bad deteriorating trip in the wrong direction.
NYCVG
John Hurts and soda eye
Per Caitlyn in your links ..
May we all continue to create a necessary public nuisance and live in, umm, peace?
thanks joe
John Hurts and soda eye - outrageous ++ ;-) n/t
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
glad you got it
sometimes my thinking is outrageous
but if anyone gets it, then OK!
thx
evening qms...
well, looks like the uk has finished circling the drain and is somewhere in the sewer pipes, now. i guess amnesty better get to work. pfffffttt!
there are unsubstantiated reports
that the UK no longer exists
maybe the drain pipes have clogged?
Has anyone heard about this on the MSM?
I'll bet that the answer is a big NO
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIONDwLxiac]
The amerikan government is nothing but totally corrupt.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
do not watch msm for mental health reasons
but that is not a source for the truer functionings of muricen ideals anyway
you watch so I don't have to
thx
Actually I don't!
I have others that I turn to get the 411.
Comedians, podcasts, youtubers, rumblers, spotifiers
substackers, etc.etc.etc.
At my age I don't want to get fooled again
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzLs-xSss0]
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Likewise
I'm shooowaaahh
oops need the headphones for that one
don't want to scare the fish
a Ponzi?
Major connections to the Democrats.
All I knew. Jimmy's tape is very informative.
Yikes!!!!!
NYCVG
More than likely it was both a Ponzi and
money laundering operation all wrapped into one.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
evening ggersh...
i haven't seen anything in the msm yet, but i haven't been looking very hard. i guess we'll see if anything shows up. if jimmy's information is good, it looks like somebody's got some splainin' to do.
Lol…remember when CBS had to retract their story on
Weapons for Ukraine not making it to the front? Gotta wonder now if they were ever bought. But since republicans didn’t take the senate I’m doubting that there will be any investigations into the money laundering scheme just like we will never hear the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Weird how the FBI sat on the information on what was found on it over a year before the election. Gotta wonder about that.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
so why does the nutzi zelensky not want peace?
pretend, for a moment, it is a kind of bank.
and war is a deposit in the clepto-account
therefore peace is a withdrawal of funds
ie: loss of revenue
which leaves their balance sheet in the red
war is money, money is about war
They don't, it's kabuki theater
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-unveils-37bn-more-emergency-uk...
These people want peace, highly doubtful
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
heh...
my guess is that elensky realizes that as soon as his local nutzis are no longer occupied fighting russians, they will be coming after him.
Isn't it the spiders that eat their mates
after breeding? One would hope the 'higher' brain functioning humans
have better ideas. But then, we are talking about the Ukie/US MIC here.
So yeah, they are predatory. And whelensky better watch his ass.
Just speculation
I've been wondering why the Russian military hadn't taken out all the road and rail bridges on the Dnieper River that divides Ukraine. The Ukrainians have to rely on re-supply solely from Poland which is in the far western region around Lviv and Lutsk. All of their war materiel MUST cross the Dneiper River on it's way to the eastern Oblasts where all the fighting has been occurring. The only exception to this was the Kherson region.
Now that the Russians have blown the bridges and retreated from the Kherson region that lies to the west, the entire military conflict between Russia and Ukraine will now be confined to the eastern portion which is effectively separated by Dnieper River which runs the entire length of the country from Belarus to the Black Sea.
At this point, the 50-60 thousand Ukrainian forces in Kherson are said to be moving towards the Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Donetsk region in order to attack the Russians and attempt to cut of the land bridge to Crimea towards Melitopol. This will mean that the bulk of the Ukrainian forces, possibly in excess of 85-90% will be located to the eastern bank of the Dnieper requiring daily supplies of war materiel's coming from Poland, 700 or 800 miles away. Meanwhile the Russians will have continuous supplies coming direct from Russia, 50 to 100 miles with no barriers to transport.
If Russia were to destroy EVERY bridge across the Dneiper River it would effectively destroy the Ukrainian military. Today, the Russians have fired about 100 missiles further crippling Ukraine's power grid just when temperatures have fallen to sub-zero. Taking out the entirety of the bridges over the Dnieper River would be simple for them.
The Russians could then enter Ukraine west of Kiev, travel south relatively unhindered for 300 miles and take Odessa and retake Kherson. (Ukrainian troops have already been scavenged from there). I've already seen the buildup of tanks, weapons and troops that were previously sent to Belarus in the last 2 months. The Ukrainians are also building a wall there so they know that that area is extremely vulnerable.
Do you think that this is General Sergei Surovikin's plan for the coming winter/spring?
interesting question
my guess is Rus knows the probable outcome of the long game already planned, so
taking out bridges will only entail rebuilding them in the future when the Ukes fold.
this is not to say the Ukes will not destroy any and everything on their retreat
but I suspect the Ukes are not planning any kind of retreat yet, as long as they
continue to get western arms and ammunitions. They will push ahead until they
run out of western support, or they run out of soldiers. If so, a reinforced NATO
with US support will come in to do more damage. Picture a slaughter house.
There is no 'end game' here. Unless draining the west of military supplies is a
convoluted purpose? In that case, the west loses, but arms manufacturers win.
cause Poland per zerohedge
The Russians will only have to rebuild
the two Kherson bridges they have already disabled. They don't care about the Ukrainian bridges that are not on Russian land.
The Ukrainians fighting on the east side of the Dneiper will NOT be able to get supplies from the west. I see a panic ensuing in the Ukrainian military as the Russians slowly cut of supplies coming from Poland as the bridges get destroyed.
BTW, it is now impossible for Ukraine to rebuild it's energy system anytime soon.
yeah, about the Ukes power grid
for some odd reason, it seems to be down -played or overlooked in western media
can get some info from RT, but hey, what's a transfer station or a few transformers
in the bigger scheme of things anyway? (that was intentional sarcasm)
Thing is, all those bazillions we send to the Ukes disappears. And they are now
mostly without power and fuel supplies coming on winter. Food is probably next.
So, of course, the logical move is to send more bazillions for democracy and freedom.
(Another sarcastic reference)
Oh, the people don't have power, water, heat or food? Donut matter. They got guns
and money. Right bidden and congress?
You may be
on to something.
Russia and Belarus entering from Belarus and traveling south...
Cutting off all resupply.
Alternatively, UKR trapped in Kherson, encircled. Easy targets for the Russian Air Force manuoevers.
NYCVG
evening cb...
i would expect that if this conflict is extended into the spring, that by then russia will have tired of the ukronazis insolence and will run a combined arms campaign with close air support, demolishing anything that looks like it is offering resistance. i would guess that they would then look for the paths of most intense resistance and crush them.
Good evening Joe et. y'all. Thanks for the evening blues.
Mississippi John Hurt always fantastic. His "Richland Woman" off the Folk Songs Album is really above and beyond, though I must admit that I have a certain fondness for Maria D'Amato's version from the early Kweskin days.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
heh, i've always been partial to bonnie raitt's version ...
have a great evening!
Excellent rendition. BTW, apropos the opening quotation
otters are weasels, mustelidae, as they say.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Stay tuned for this story
MoA says that this is fake news. There are conflicting stories about how the woman died and why she was arrested in the first place. But I’m betting that there is a good chance that we are in some way responsible for the protests because when are we not involved in protests in the Middle East and against regimes that we don’t like?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
evening snoopy...
yeah, i've been starting to hear about a prison massacre, but i usually wait for a while before i pay such news much attention since so much of it turns out to be pure propaganda. i certainly hope that there is no truth to the story.
thanks for sharing your disinformation link
forewarned is four armed, like an orangutang
if you don't smell the BS in that one, you may
be qualified for a job in the CIA/CNN/WSN as an
intrepid reporter of semi-factual propaganda.
Seriously though, what kinda brain dead banana
believes this stuff? 100,000 babies heads rolling
out of incubators high on Viagra cause of arabs.
Guess Iran is now the next target after Russia, China and Venezuela?
Jeepers creepers.
"The Quad That Matters"
is what Pepe Escobar calls Russia, China, India and Iraq.
So far only India has not had the US PR cannons trained on it.
It remains all about the oil which means all about the $$$$ and all about the Power.
NYCVG
Western countries are shaking their fingers at iran
And Abd calling them out for human rights abuses for their violence against the protesters. I’ve seen how the finger waggers treat their citizens who protest against their governments and they have no room to talk. From Ferguson on the American cops beat the crap out of anyone who doesn’t mind them. But it’s gone on longer than that…the civil rights protests were absolutely brutal. There must be a mirror shortage.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Mississippi John was awesome. Great style of fingerpicking, and real flowing. A beautiful sound he made. Great singing too. I can't recall how many 'StaggerLees' I have known... quite a few... Thanks for the great soundscape!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
hurt was an amazing fingerpicker who made it sound easy. i've seen a lot of people try to replicate his style, but few who got his feel.
have a great evening!
I'm sick of
hearing about the freaking Ukrainians. Don't like anything about them they suck. When will the US stop fighting proxy wars with asshole fascists cause Russia? Dag
how many more decades do we have to continue this left over cold war? bs.
Your complaint puts me in mind of Oscar Wilde
Your complaint puts me in mind of Oscar Wilde,
whose dying words on this earth have always resonated with me:
"Either this wallpaper goes, or I do."
I hope to make them my last words, as well.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Matched only by Ned Kelly on the gallows -
"such is life"
Thanks for the Wilde humor
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening shaz...
i'm with you. this shitty war may be helping many of our fellow citizens learn geography, but it's not doing a damned thing for me.
have a great evening!
this song
Zelensky has the gaul to say this?
Umm it wasn’t Russia that failed to uphold the Minsk agreement and continued to bomb and kill its own citizens. Poroshenko admitted that he just signed the agreement in order to give Ukraine time to gear up for war against the Donbas and then Russia and we helped arm, train and built up defenses in Ukraine for the 8 years it was in effect.
Too bad that our media stenographers don’t tell us the truth about what led to this war.
And that Zelensky was voted in because he said that he would uphold it and end the war against its people. I wonder if that would make a difference for the people who support Ukraine?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
heh...
i doubt it. they have alternative facts.
Alternative facts abound
There is no real news anymore, or maybe there never was. Why do people support Ukraine? Have they read about the asshole who runs it, or is it a case of Russia hating? Why Russia? They are usually scoffed at. People seem to prefer to get their 'facts' from the masters of spin and false bs. provided by the official sources of propagandists/politicians and dubious internet/news sites. There is no news. Who knows when things get this crazy as far as getting any truth.
https://youtu.be/X1GOF4G_Qj8
evening again shaz...
heh, the only truth that you can count on is that which you carry within you. any other truth that comes your way is a bonus.
have a good one.