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"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."

-- E. O. Wilson

News and Opinion

Worth a click and a full read:

Chris Hedges: The United States of Paralysis

Political paralysis is snuffing out what is left of our anemic democracy. It is the paralysis of doing nothing while the ruling oligarchs, who have increased their wealth by nearly a third since the pandemic began and by close to 90 percent over the past decade, orchestrate virtual tax boycotts as millions of Americans go into bankruptcy to pay medical bills, mortgages, credit card debt, student debt, car loans and soaring utility bills demanded by a system that has privatized nearly every aspect of our lives. ...

Democracies are not slain by reactionary buffoons like Donald Trump, who was routinely sued for failing to pay workers and contractors and whose fictional television persona was sold to a gullible electorate, or shallow politicians like Joe Biden, whose political career has been devoted to serving corporate donors. These politicians provide a false comfort of individualizing our crises, as if removing this public figure or censoring that group will save us.

Democracies are slain when a tiny cabal, in our case corporate, seizes control of the economy, culture and the political system and distorts them to exclusively serve its own interests. The institutions that should provide redress to the public become parodies of themselves, atrophy and die. How else to explain legislative bodies that can only unite to pass austerity programs, tax cuts for the billionaire class, bloated police and military budgets and reduce social spending? How else to explain courts that strip workers and citizens of their most basic rights? How else to explain a system of public education where the poor are, at best, taught basic numerical literacy and the rich send their children to private schools and universities with endowments in the billions of dollars?

Democracies are slain with false promises and hollow platitudes. Biden told us as a candidate he would raise the minimum wage to $15 and hand out $2,000 stimulus checks. He told us his American Jobs Plan would create “millions of good jobs.” He told us he would strengthen collective bargaining and ensure universal pre-kindergarten, universal paid family and medical leave, and free community college. He promised a publicly funded option for healthcare. He promised not to drill on federal lands and to promote a “green energy revolution and environmental justice.” None of that happened.

But, by now, most people have figured out the game. Why not vote for Trump and his grandiose, fantasy-driven promises? Are they any less real than those peddled by Biden and the Democrats? Why pay homage to a political system that is about betrayal? Why not sever yourself from the rational world that has only brought misery? Why pay fealty to old truths that have become hypocritical banalities? Why not blow the whole thing up? As research by professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page underscores, our political system has turned the consent of the governed into a cruel joke. “The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence,” they write. ...

Capitalism is antithetical to creating and sustaining social bonds. Its core attributes — relationships that are transactional and temporary, prioritizing self-advancement through manipulating and exploiting others and the insatiable lust for profit — eliminates democratic space. The obliteration of all restraints on capitalism, from organized labor to government oversight and regulation, has left us at the mercy of predatory forces that, by nature, exploit human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.

Max Blumenthal: 'There Is NO END GAME' In US PROXY WAR With China, Russia Via Ukraine

Brazil’s Lula digs heels on Ukraine war during Iberian trip

Brazil’s president is touring the Iberian peninsula in an attempt to boost ties with the EU, but his persistent claims that both Russia and Ukraine are responsible for the ongoing war highlight the bloc’s difficulty in winning over the global south.

During his stay in Portugal, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that Ukraine “does not want to stop” the war and insisted peace talks should begin, even though Moscow continues its missile attacks on civilian targets and Russian troops are still occupying parts of Ukraine.

Lula’s rhetoric on the war, which the US earlier condemned as “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda”, has underscored the challenge facing the EU and its allies at it struggles to build a global coalition seeking to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, and exposed its lack of political influence over swaths of the non-western world.

While Lula made clear that he condemned the invasion of a sovereign state, he did not disavow comments made last week in the United Arab Emirates that Russia and Ukraine bore joint responsibility and that the US and EU were “contributing” to the conflict. ...

The global response to the war in Ukraine has provided a startling wake-up call to EU diplomats who have failed to convince major nations in Latin America, Africa and south-east Asia to oppose Moscow’s invasion.

US War Propaganda Exposed w/ Ray McGovern, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen

Afghanistan Watchdog Says ‘You’re Gonna See Pilferage’ of Ukraine Aid

The watchdog for US spending on Afghanistan told Responsible Statecraft in an interview that he expects “pilferage” of US aid to Ukraine.

John Sopko, who has served as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) since 2012, said that he personally favored creating a similar position for US spending on the war in Ukraine.

Explaining why more oversight on the Ukraine policy is needed, Sopko pointed to the fact that the US has already authorized $113 billion in spending. “That money is flowing like manna from the sky. If you don’t get in there soon, you’re gonna see pilferage,” he said.

Sopko said he was not just concerned about military assistance to Ukraine but also aid disbursed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “We’ve always had more problems with AID. In Afghanistan, my experience with them is they have not been a very well-run organization,” he said.

‘What?!’ Orbán throws cold water on Ukraine’s NATO hopes

Hungary’s troubled relationship with neighboring Ukraine spiraled again Friday as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán dismissed the country’s NATO dreams with a one-word tweet.

“What?!” the prime minister exclaimed in a Twitter post responding to a POLITICO article on NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s declaration in Kyiv on Thursday that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.”

Relations between Budapest and Kyiv are tense. Hungary spent years blocking high-level NATO sessions with Ukrainian officials, ostensibly over concerns about the rights of Hungarian speakers in western Ukraine.

And despite condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion, Hungary has refused to send weapons to aid its neighbor. Senior Hungarian officials, meanwhile, continue to regularly visit Moscow and maintain close ties to the Kremlin. At the same time, Hungary joining Turkey in blocking Sweden’s NATO bid has frustrated Western capitals.

Why is Facebook censoring Sy Hersh’s NordStream report?

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. policy toward the conflict has inter-mingled uneasily with the U.S. government’s growing convergence with the social media platforms that make up today’s digital public square.

Tech companies have selectively relaxed their bans on violent and hate speech to align with Ukraine’s war effort, shuttered the accounts of media outlets critical of the war and U.S. policy to it, and seen a vast army of bots push content supporting Ukraine and its NATO partners. And now, Facebook is actively censoring and discouraging the sharing of Seymour Hersh’s reporting on the alleged U.S. role in the attack on the Nordstream pipelines. ...

Besides labeling the post as false, Facebook also sent me a notification roughly 10 hours later informing me about the notice they’d added and that I had shared something that “includes information that independent fact-checkers said was partly false.” Facebook cautions that “people who repeatedly share false information might have their posts moved lower in News Feed,” suggesting that if I go on to share any other reporting that’s been challenged by fact-checkers, I’ll be punished by having my account’s reach throttled. ...

This attempt to hobble the spread of Hersh’s story on Facebook is a small taste of the alarming implications of when tech censorship combines with government pressure, and suggests how easily independent reporting can be throttled while allowing official misinformation to proliferate. By stifling open, public debate about an issue of such grave and urgent importance, the result is not just threatening to a free press, but to U.S. democracy more broadly.

Jeffrey Sachs on China's "Historic" Push for Multipolar World to End U.S. Domination

EU’s Borrell Tells European Governments to Send Ships to Taiwan Strait

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has called on European countries to send warships through the Taiwan Strait, patrols that Beijing would view as provocations.

“Europe must in fact be very present on this issue [of Taiwan], which concerns us economically, commercially and technologically,” Borrell wrote in an op-ed for the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

“That is why I call on European navies to patrol the Taiwan Strait to signify Europe’s commitment to freedom of navigation in this absolutely crucial area. At the same time, we must be vigilant against provocations and overbidding,” he added.

Borrell’s comments appear to be a rebuke to French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning that Europe should not follow the US into a conflict with China over Taiwan.

Steely will: French bang pots, pans in fresh pension protest

UN urged to reject antisemitism definition over ‘misuse’ to shield Israel

More than 100 Israeli and international civil society organisations have asked the United Nations to reject a controversial definition of antisemitism because it is being “misused” to protect Israel from legitimate criticism.

The groups have written to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, saying he should resist pressure from Israel to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “working definition of antisemitism”. The definition has been accepted by the US state department, several European governments including the UK and Germany, and EU bodies after strong lobbying by pro-Israel groups and others.

“Adoption of the definition by governments and institutions is often framed as an essential step in efforts to combat antisemitism. In practice, however, the IHRA definition has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and sometimes suppress, non-violent protest, activism and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism, including in the US and Europe,” the letter said.

Signatories include Israel’s largest human rights group, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups.

Some of the signatories are concerned that if Guterres formally adopts the IHRA definition it will be used to curb criticisms of Israeli policies by UN bodies including the special rapporteur for the occupied territories. The letter notes that application of the definition has been widely criticised including by Ken Stern who, as the American Jewish Committee’s antisemitism expert, led its drafting two decades ago. Earlier this year, Stern successfully urged the American Bar Association against adopting the definition because it has been used as “a blunt instrument to label anyone an antisemite”.

Wall Street FREAKS Over Debt Ceiling Fight

First Republic Bank saw deposits fall by over $100bn as it scrambles to stabilize

First Republic Bank’s deposits fell by over $100 bn in the first quarter and it said it was exploring options including restructuring its balance sheet, overshadowing market-beating profit and sending its shares down 21% after the bell on Monday.

The results mark the most important quarter for the troubled bank as it prepares to increase insured deposits, cut borrowings from the Federal Reserve Bank and loan balances, it said, while aiming to layoff nearly 20-25% in the second quarter.

“We’re taking steps to meaningfully reduce our expenses to align with our focus on reducing the size of the balance sheet,” an executive said in a post-earnings call, which ran for less than 15 min and ended without executives taking questions.

First Republic came into intense focus after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank collapsed last month, shaking the confidence in US regional banks and prompting customers to move billions of dollars to bigger institutions. ...

Deposits fell to $104.47bn from $176.43bn in the fourth quarter despite the lender getting a $30-bn lifeline in combined deposits from US banking behemoths, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Excluding the help from major banks, the decline in deposits was almost $102bn.

The REAL Reasons Fox FIRED Tucker

Senator calls on Republican mega-donor to explain Clarence Thomas gifts

The Democratic chairperson of the US Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden, has written to the Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow demanding an end to “unacceptable” secrecy around his gifts to the conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.

“The secrecy surrounding your dealings with Justice Thomas is simply unacceptable,” Wyden, from Oregon, wrote in the open letter.

“The American public deserves a full accounting of the full extent of your largesse towards Justice Thomas, including whether these gifts complied with all relevant federal tax and ethics laws.”

NEERA TANDEN To Replace Susan Rice As Domestic Policy Chief? Biden TROLLING The Left?

Calls to ban books hit highest level ever recorded in the US

Juno Dawson’s This Book Is Gay was among the books most requested for removal or restriction in libraries in the US in 2022, according to new data on banned books.

The list of books, released by the American Library Association (ALA) to mark the start of National Libraries Week, shows that titles were challenged most often because they contained LGBTQ+ representation or content that the complainants deemed sexually explicit. ...

The ALA tracks requests for the removal of books in libraries across the US, and said in 2022 it had seen the highest number of reports of calls to remove or restrict books since it began compiling data more than 20 years ago. The data is compiled from reports filed to the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom by library professionals and from news stories published throughout the US.

Last year, there were requests to ban 2,571 titles; this is up 38% from 1,858 titles in 2021. Most of the books for which removal requests were made, said the ALA, were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour.

Fmr Cop Kim Potter RELEASED EARLY After Serving 16 Mos For Killing Unarmed Daunte Wright

Officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor hired by sheriff’s office in Kentucky

The former Louisville police officer who fatally shot Breonna Taylor has a new job in law enforcement in a county north-east of the Kentucky city.

The Carroll county sheriff’s office on Saturday confirmed the hiring of Myles Cosgrove, who was fired from the Louisville Metro police department in January 2021 for violating use-of-force procedures and failing to use a body camera during the raid on Taylor’s apartment, WHAS-TV reported.

Taylor, a Black woman, was killed on 13 March 2020 by police executing a narcotics search warrant. None of the three white officers who fired into Taylor’s home were charged by a grand jury in connection with her death. The chief deputy in Carroll county, Robert Miller, pointed to that fact in reference to Cosgrove’s hiring.

A protest in Carroll county was planned on Monday in response to his hiring.

Investigators said that Cosgrove fired 16 rounds into the apartment after the front door was breached and that Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot at them. Federal ballistics experts said they believe the shot that killed Taylor came from Cosgrove.

Top Biden Op CAUGHT SMEARING Hunter Biden Laptop

EPA accused of failing to regulate use of toxic herbicides despite court order

The US Environmental Protection Agency has in effect ignored a 2020 federal court order prohibiting the use of Monsanto and other producers’ toxic dicamba-based herbicides that are destroying millions of acres of cropland, harming endangered species and increasing cancer risks for farmers, new fillings in the lawsuit charge.

Instead of permanently yanking the products from the market after the 2020 order, the EPA only required industry to add further application instructions to the herbicides’ labels before reapproving the products.

A late 2021 EPA investigation found the same problems persist even with new directions added to the label, but the agency still allows Monsanto, BASF and other producers to continue using dicamba.

“The new litigation was prompted by the EPA’s decision to ignore the court’s ruling and move forward with reapproving the pesticide,” plaintiffs in the lawsuit wrote in a statement. “In re-approving dicamba, the EPA once again failed to weigh the true costs to farmers and the environment.”

The fillings are a continuation of the 2020 lawsuit, which was brought by the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America. The groups are asking the court to again order the EPA to rescind approval of the controversial products.

US supreme court denies oil companies’ bid to move venue of climate lawsuits

The US supreme court on Monday declined to hear bids by major oil companies to move a growing wave of climate lawsuits from state courts to federal courts. The appeals to move the venue of the lawsuits were made by Exxon Mobil Corp, Suncor Energy Inc and Chevron Corp.

The justices turned away five appeals by the oil companies of lower court decisions that determined that the lawsuits belonged in state court, a venue often seen as more favorable to plaintiffs than federal court. The lawsuits were filed by the state of Rhode Island and municipalities or counties in Maryland, Colorado, California and Hawaii.

Numerous state and local governments have pursued climate-related litigation against oil companies and the eventual rulings in the cases could help determine whether such lawsuits must be waged in federal courts or at the state level.

Monday’s decision by the supreme court was welcomed by climate experts.

Scientists discover why sea urchins are dying off from US to the Caribbean

Marine biologists at a Florida university say they have solved the mystery of a mass die-off of long-spined sea urchins from the US to the Caribbean.

The scientists blame a microscopic, single-cell parasite for the die-off, which took hold early last year. Affected Diadema antillarum urchins lose their spines and suction, then succumb to disease.

The researchers, from Tampa’s University of South Florida (USF), also suspect the organism, a ciliate known as philaster, may have been responsible for wiping out about 98% of sea urchins in a similar episode in the region in the 1980s. ...

They identified the culprit by collecting samples from 23 sites around the Caribbean, including Aruba, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and observing organisms attached to the sea urchins, which are known as the “lawnmowers” of coral reefs for their ability to consume decay-causing algae.

They were able to prove philaster was to blame by placing the organism in tanks with healthy, laboratory grown urchins and watching about 60% of the sample die with the same symptoms exhibited in the marine environment.

Also of Interest

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

Scott Ritter: Syria Comes in From the Cold

Why Kim Dotcom Connects The DNC Email Leak To The Murder Of Seth Rich (Updated)

China Is Winning The Electric Vehicle Race. Why And What Does It Show?

The EARN IT Bill Is Back, Seeking To Scan Our Messages and Photos

The University Of California Bails Out Eviction-Happy Private Equity

'Historic Victory': Amazon Contractor Delivery Drivers Join Teamsters

Biden Admin Further Endorses Disastrous Mountain Valley Pipeline While Claiming to Support Environmental Justice

AOC Calls For Government Censorship Of Fox News

A Little Night Music

Little Sonny - I love you baby until the day i die

Little Sonny - The Creeper Returns

Little Sonny - Don't Ask Me No Questions

Little Sonny - Memphis B-K (Instrumental)

Little Sonny - My Woman Is Good To Me

Little Sonny - Eli's Pork Chop

Little Sonny - I gotta find my baby

Little Sonny - It's Hard Going Up But Twice As Hard Coming Down

Little Sonny - Love Shock

Little Sonny - You Can Be Replaced