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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: O.V. Wright

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer O.V. Wright. Enjoy!

^{O.V. Wright - Afflicted}

"It’s crazy how US empire managers are talking about war with China more as a probability than a possibility, and it’s also crazy how they’re talking about it like it’s just something that would passively happen (like rain or an earthquake) instead of something they’re knowingly accelerating toward.

It’s like saying “Yeah unfortunately it looks increasingly probable that I’m going to get into a fight with the guy sitting in front of me on the plane, he really takes exception to the way I keep slapping the back of his head,” or “It appears that I’ll be crashing into the brick wall up ahead in a few seconds; there is nothing I can do about this problem but keep my foot on the gas and brace for impact.”

If there’s a war between the US alliance and China it won’t be something that just passively “happens”, it will be the result of US empire managers knowingly choosing to steer things in that direction day after day, year after year, while refusing every off-ramp that comes up."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Europe leads record rise in global military spending to $2.2 trillion as governments prepare for world war

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) “Trends in Military Expenditure” briefing for 2022 is a chilling document, charting the gathering storm clouds of a third world war. A global military spend of over $2.2 trillion—the highest level ever recorded by the organisation—shows the world’s governments are preparing for conflict on a scale not seen since 1945. The combined arsenals of artillery and tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft, warships and missiles, including nuclear weapons, are enough to raze society to the ground several times over. And they are being readied for action.

Military spending increased by 3.7 percent in real terms over 2021, the sharpest rise in 30 years, despite high rates of inflation. SIPRI writes, “Without adjusting for inflation, spending grew by 6.5 percent in 2022—the biggest year-on-year nominal increase in global military spending since 2010.” United States spending of $877 billion—39 percent of the global total, three times the spend of second-place China—confirms Washington’s place as the world’s leading warmonger and instigator of military aggression. But by far the fastest increase in spending (13 percent) was among US allies in Europe. At the centre of two world wars, the continent is once again being turned into an armed camp.

The scale of the proxy war being waged by NATO against Russia through Ukraine is enormous. Ukraine’s own military spending for 2022 catapulted the country from the 36th largest armed forces budget in 2021 to the 11th largest in 2022—at $44 billion, 34 percent of its annual GDP. But this is only half the story. SIPRI says it is not able to provide “an accurate assessment of the total amount of financial military aid to Ukraine,” giving an estimate of “at least $30 billion in 2022.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced this month that the current nominal figure was over $70 billion.

Whichever figure is closer to the truth for 2022, Ukraine’s military budget last year not only outstripped all NATO powers except the US, it was at least close to and potentially significantly higher than Russia’s $86.4 billion budget, even following Moscow’s 9.2 own percent increase.

The sums of money involved are staggering. Central and Western European military budgets climbed to a combined $345 billion, 30 percent higher than a decade ago and surpassing the level of 1989, at the end of the Cold War. Wealth that could alleviate many of the worst crises affecting human civilization is spent every year preparing for wars that threaten to end its existence in a nuclear Armageddon. The increases so far are only a down payment on what is to come, as each country is drawn more and more fully into the maelstrom.

Xi Jinping-Zelensky call raises the stakes for Ukraine and Europe

China's Xi PUSHES Zelensky To Negotiate

Xi Jinping to send Chinese peace talks delegation to Ukraine

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will send a delegation to Ukraine to hold talks with all parties on resolving the conflict there, after his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, since Russia invaded in February 2022.

According to Chinese state media, Xi made the offer during a telephone call on Wednesday with Zelenskiy and offered to help facilitate peace talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible.

Xi also appeared to pledge China would remain neutral in the conflict, saying Beijing “will neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to the fire, let alone take advantage of the crisis to profit”, according to CCTV.

Zelenskiy described the phone call, said by aides to be almost an hour, as “long and meaningful” and said the two had discussed “possible cooperation to reach a fair and sustainable peace”.

But he insisted Ukraine would not give up on lost territory: “There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises. The territorial integrity of Ukraine must be restored within the 1991 borders,” he said in readout of the call on Telegram.

Ukraine Casualties FIVE TIMES Higher Than Reported

War of Attrition in Ukraine at Tipping Point

Ukraine is hemorrhaging. It is in the nature of attritional wars that at some point, the weaker side breaks and thereupon, the end comes very fast. This is how it was in Syria where — once the five-year old Battle of Aleppo was won in December 2016 — government forces swept through the country in a string of military victories bringing the curtain down on the conflict.

The attritional war in Ukraine may look “stalemated” but the clincher will be which side is inflicting the greater casualties. There is no question that the massive military, intelligence, financial and economic assistance by the West notwithstanding, Russian forces have ground down the Ukrainian side all along the line of contact.

The Russian ambassador to the U.K. recently said the ratio of losses in the attrition war is roughly seven Ukrainian soldiers to every Russian soldier. To put things in perspective, Western media reports estimate that around 35,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be involved in the upcoming counter-offensive along the 950-km frontline while Putin is on record that the Russian reserve forces on the frontline come to 160,000 soldiers.

The Ukrainian air defense system is in a critical state. Russians have a predominance of artillery and have heavily fortified the frontline in the recent five-to-six months with multiple layers of defense such as mines, earthworks and bollards to impede advancing tanks.

This is a desperate gambit for Ukraine, which has lost a large share of its most experienced soldiers (estimated 120,000 casualties), to take on the Russians who have superiority in missiles, air defense, artillery and, above all, trained manpower.

House Resolution Would Declare US Policy Is to Seek Ukrainian Victory

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) is planning to introduce a resolution in the House that would declare it is US policy to seek a Ukrainian victory against Russia, which includes returning all Russian-controlled territory to Kyiv, including Crimea.

According to Yahoo News, the resolution “affirms that it is the policy of the United States to see Ukraine victorious against the invasion and restored to its internationally recognized 1991 borders.”

The resolution will be co-sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and will need to make it through the House Foreign Affairs Committee before being put to the floor for a full House vote. The committee is chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who has been calling on President Biden to arm Ukraine with longer-range weapons that can launch strikes on Crimea.

Wow, what a toad! Check for warts after you shake his hand.

South Korea’s Yoon Says US Spying Won’t Impact Ties

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told NBC News that the recent leak of Pentagon documents that exposed US spying on Seoul would not impact ties between the two nations.

“I believe that this matter is no reason to shake the ironclad trust that supports the US-South Korea alliance because it is based on shared values like freedom,” Yoon said.

The leaked documents enraged South Korea’s opposition, but Yoon’s government has downplayed the spying as it seeks to strengthen the US-South Korean military alliance. Yoon arrived in the US on Monday and is due to hold a summit with President Biden on Wednesday and will address Congress on Thursday.

US and South Korea issue nuclear warning to Pyongyang as they reaffirm alliance

The presidents of the US and South Korea have reaffirmed their alliance, agreeing that nuclear armed submarines would resume port visits and threatening a “swift, overwhelming and decisive response” to any North Korean nuclear attack, including retaliation in kind by the US.

The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, said that response would include US nuclear weapons, making explicit an element of the alliance that normally remains unspoken.

Yoon and Joe Biden issued a joint declaration marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance, during a visit by the South Korean leader to Washington on Wednesday.

“A North Korean nuclear attack against the US or its partners is unacceptable, and would result in the end of whatever regime took the action,” Biden said.

“I have absolute authority, and sole authority, to launch a nuclear weapon, but what the declaration means is that we will consult with our allies, if any action is so called for.”

Jair Bolsonaro questioned by police investigating Brazil coup attempt

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ridiculed by his political opponents after he was questioned by federal police as part of a criminal investigation into January’s alleged coup attempt and claimed he had shared a video questioning last year’s election result “by mistake”.

Bolsonaro spent more than two hours in the company of police investigators on Wednesday morning, nearly four months after thousands of hardcore supporters ran riot in the capital, Brasília, in what the new administration called a botched coup intended to reinstall the far-right former army captain as president. ...

Speaking earlier this week, Lula’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said he believed “traitorous” army generals were involved in the conspiracy. “They go around calling themselves patriots but they are traitors,” Dino said.

Bolsonaro was forced to appear before police officials on Wednesday morning over a video he shared on Facebook two days after the 8 January uprising that claimed – without proof – that the election he lost had been rigged by electoral authorities.

Brazilian media reports claimed Bolsonaro told investigators he had republished the video by mistake and while under the effect of morphine he had received after being taken to hospital in the US.

The Monroe Doctrine, Revisited: How 200 Years of U.S. Policy Have Helped to Destabilize the Americas

'MAGA Economic Sabotage': 217 House Republicans Pass Debt Ceiling Bill With Harmful Cuts

A wide range of advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday fiercely denounced Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for narrowly passing their "debt ceiling scam" containing "extreme, harmful cuts against average Americans to protect billionaire tax breaks."

The so-called the Limit, Save, Grow Act was unveiled last week by GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and passed 217-215, with just four Republicans—Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), and Matt Gaetz (Fla.)—joining Democratic opponents and three lawmakers not voting.

Although the House GOP bill would raise the federal government's arbitrary borrowing limit, averting a first-ever default that would be catastrophic for the U.S. and global economies, the legislation would also cap spending over the next decade, impose fossil fuel-friendly energy policies, restrict regulations, add work requirements for social programs, block President Joe Biden's contested student debt relief plan, and repeal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funds intended to reduce tax-dodging.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has already said the bill is "dead on arrival" in the upper chamber and Biden has also slammed Republicans' attempted cuts, but given the risks of both the proposal and a potential default, critics still shared their outrage over the vote.

"Nearly every Republican in the U.S. House just voted to slash the already inadequate funding of the Social Security Administration (SSA)," said Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson in a statement.

"Cuts to SSA are cuts to Social Security, and we will hold every single one of these members accountable," he added. "This vote shows that Republicans are united in support of cutting Social Security, while Democrats are united in support of a clean debt limit increase with no cuts to Social Security or any other benefits."

Also noting that the "dangerous" bill includes SSA cuts, whihc would force office closures and layoffs, delaying services for seniors, Alliance for Retired Americans executive director Richard Fiesta asserted that "a political party's budget reflects its values, and clearly the GOP does not value older Americans."

"The bill also slashes food assistance for more than 1 million low-income seniors—many of whom rely on government food programs to get their only meal of the day," he said. "It will cut oversight of nursing homes, putting thousands of the most vulnerable seniors at risk of living in alarming and unsanitary conditions. This is reckless and irresponsible."

"In addition, this bill jeopardizes millions of Americans' multiemployer pensions that are guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation," Fiesta continued. "Finally, it would lead to the eviction of at least 430,000 low-income families from Section 8 housing, 80% of which are headed by seniors."

Republican Debt Bill BARELY Passes As Crisis Looms

Democrats condemn Roberts’ refusal to testify over US supreme court ethics row

Democrats and progressives reacted angrily after John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, declined an invitation to testify before the Senate judiciary committee about corruption allegations against members of his court.

Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut senator, said: “The marble pillars of the supreme court and platitudes about its independence no longer provide refuge. He must face the nation.”

Sheldon Whitehouse, from Rhode Island, said: “The gaping hole in today’s response from Roberts … is that it overlooks the complete failure of process regarding ethics questions involving the justices. When there’s no ref, there’s no rule.” ...

In a letter to Durbin on Tuesday evening, Roberts “respectfully declined” the Democrat’s invitation to testify on 2 May, citing concerns regarding the separation of powers and attaching “a statement of ethics and principles and practices to which all current members of the supreme court subscribe”.

Durbin said: “I am surprised that the chief justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious.” Supreme court justices are subject to federal ethics rules but essentially govern themselves.

Atlanta shuts down strategic park in ‘Cop City’ protest movement

Children and parents from a couple of Atlanta private schools recently showed up at city hall during a school day to urge city council members not to go ahead with “Cop City”, a $90m police and fire department training base planned in a forest that has become a center of controversy in the US and overseas.

On Monday college students at Emory University, Georgia Tech and other Atlanta schools protested the gigantic project, holding up signs, handing out leaflets and giving speeches. They tried to camp overnight at Emory, but were forced off by Atlanta police early Tuesday morning.

But while the protests against Cop City go on, the project is making headway and a key stretch of public land nearby is no longer accessible to people seeking to defend the forest. For the first time in nearly two years of opposition to Cop City, the public park part of South River Forest south-east of Atlanta has been shut down, allegedly for the public’s safety.

Opponents say the move is yet another example of the heavy-handed crackdown by law enforcement and local officials, who have sought to portray the protesters as “domestic terrorists” and have used a variety of methods to disrupt opposition groups. Dekalb county officials have no timeline for reopening the park.

The park’s secondary-growth forest is where police shot and killed activist Manuel Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita”, on 18 January, catapulting the fight over Cop City into global headlines. It is also where dozens of people were arrested on 5 March during a music festival and charged with domestic terrorism and where almost all the movement’s “tree sitters” have camped.

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Trump lawyers say Mar-a-Lago boxes contained foreign leader briefings

Donald Trump’s lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation found the 15 boxes the former president returned to the National Archives a year after the end of his presidency mostly contained briefings for calls with foreign leaders, according to a new letter they sent to Congress.

The majority of the letter – seen by the Guardian and earlier reported by CNN – served to characterize Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents as inadvertent, and due to White House staffers sweeping all documents into boxes during a chaotic departure at the end of the administration.

But the 10-page letter that was sent to the House and Senate intelligence committees also revealed the order in which the documents were placed, as well as their contents, inside 15 boxes the National Archives struggled to retrieve for months and precipitated the criminal investigation.

The investigation into Trump’s potential retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice led by special counsel Jack Smith is ongoing, though it may be near its end given prosecutors have subpoenaed almost everyone who conceivably could have knowledge of the matter.

Trump’s two main lawyers involved in the documents investigation – Tim Parlatore and Jim Trusty – in late December last year formally asked the National Archives for access to the 15 boxes that Trump had returned through the relevant provision in the Presidential Records Act.

Kamala Kicks Off 2024 With NONSENSE

Donald Trump raped me, writer E Jean Carroll testifies in New York court

The advice columnist E Jean Carroll told a New York jury on Wednesday that Donald Trump raped her, leaving her unable to have a romantic relationship, and then “shattered my reputation” by denying the attack occurred.

Carroll testified in her civil lawsuit seeking damages for battery – after Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her in a New York department store changing room in 1996 – and for defamation, after he accused her of lying and perpetrating a hoax when she went public with her accusations in a book.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation. I’m here to try and get my life back,” she told the jury.

Trump denies the accusations.

Before Carroll testified, Judge Lewis Kaplan warned Trump may have crossed the line into jury-tampering after the former president posted an attack on his social media site, Truth Social, calling Carroll’s accusations a “made-up SCAM” and a “witch-hunt”. Kaplan called Trump’s post “entirely inappropriate” and warned they could become “a potential source of liability” for him.

Montana Republicans bar transgender lawmaker from the statehouse floor

Montana Republicans have barred the transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the statehouse floor for the rest of the session after she told colleagues they would have “blood on your hands” if they voted to ban gender-affirming medical care for trans children.

Under the terms of the punishment, Zephyr will still be able to vote remotely but will be unable to participate in debates for the remainder of the 90-day legislative session. The Democratic representative had been forbidden from speaking for the past week over her comments, which Republicans said violated decorum.

The decision to silence Zephyr had already drawn protests that brought the statehouse to a halt on Monday as demonstrators demanded Zephyr be allowed to speak. Republicans accused Zephyr of placing lawmakers and staff at risk of harm for disrupting house proceedings by inciting protests in the chamber.

In a defiant speech on Wednesday before lawmakers voted, Zephyr said she was taking a stand for the LGBTQ+ community, her constituents in Missoula and “democracy itself”.

She accused the Republican house speaker, Matt Regier, of taking away the voices of her 11,000 constituents and attempting to drive “a nail in the coffin of democracy” by silencing her. “If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, then all you’re doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression,” she said.

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Record ocean temperatures put Earth in ‘uncharted territory’, say scientists

Temperatures in the world’s oceans have broken fresh records, testing new highs for more than a month in an “unprecedented” run that has led to scientists stating the Earth has reached “uncharted territory” in the climate crisis.

The rapid acceleration of ocean temperatures in the last month is an anomaly that scientists have yet to explain. Data collated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), known as the Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) series, gathered by satellites and buoys, has shown temperatures higher than in any previous year, in a series stretching back to 1981, continuously over the past 42 days.

The world is thought to be on the brink of an El Niño weather event this year – a cyclical weather system in the Pacific, that has a warming impact globally. But the El Niño system is yet to develop, so this oscillation cannot explain the recent rapid heating, at a time of year when ocean temperatures are normally declining from their annual March and April peaks.

Prof Mike Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey said: “This has got scientists scratching their heads. The fact that it is warming as much as it has been is a real surprise, and very concerning. It could be a short-lived extreme high, or it could be the start of something much more serious.”

Warming oceans are a concern for many reasons. Seawater takes up more space at higher temperatures, accelerating sea level rise, and warmer water at the poles accelerates the melting of the ice caps. Hotter temperatures can also be dire for marine ecosystems, as it can be difficult or impossible for species to adapt. Corals in particular can suffer devastating bleaching. Some scientists fear that the rapid warming could be a sign of the climate crisis progressing at a faster rate than predicted.

Rare white killer-whale calf spotted off California coast

A rare white orca calf has been spotted off the coast of southern California.

In a video captured on Monday by a whale-watching tour company, Newport Coastal Adventures, the white calf was seen swimming with six other orcas near Newport Harbour.

The three-year old was initially spotted by a Long Beach whale-watching company, which then told Newport Coastal Adventures of the sighting, Fox 5 reported.

“On just a few hours’ notice, we loaded three boats for a special trip and drove 50 miles before we finally found the CA216 pod,” Newport Coastal Adventures wrote in a caption alongside footage of the calf.

The calf is completely white except for a greyish dorsal fin and head. The tour group named it “Frosty”, due to its “unusually light skin…[the] result of a rare genetic condition”.

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Also of Interest

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

US Presidential Elections Are Children’s Entertainment: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Matt Taibbi: Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex

Western Media’s Peculiar Incuriosity About Nord Stream

Ukraine Plans for World War III

Did Bellingcat get Ukrainian forces killed?

How Elites Liquidate National Advantage (Fall Of The American Empire)

Losing ‘Deterrence’: How Palestinian, Arab Resistance Changed Rules of War With Israel

Why Americans Are Shot at the "Wrong House"

Income Tax Withholding Payments Stumble Again, Signaling Job Weakness. Will the Fed Start to Consider Backing Off?

Did a Military Lab Spill Anthrax Into Public Waterways? New Book Reveals Details of a US Leak

Most of EU delegation to crucial fishing talks made up of fishery lobbyists

Medea Benjamin: Pentagon Leaks Show Ukraine War Is a Stalemate. Why Won't the U.S. Push for Peace?

Journo CAUGHT Feeding Biden Question

RFK, Marianne SURGE Against Biden

Nate Silver OUT As 2010's Media DIES

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol addresses US Congress

Tucker NOT Actually Fired! Reports Megyn Kelly

When Harry Belafonte Ripped Obama & Hillary TO THEIR FACES!

Fake congresswoman calls to jail journalist Matt Taibbi

Marjorie Taylor Greene On Rising: Fox News CAVED To Woke Mob, SILENCED Tucker Carlson

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A Little Night Music

O.V. Wright - A Nickel And A Nail'

O.V. Wright - There Goes My Used to Be

O.V. Wright - 8 Men 4 Women

O.V. Wright - I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled And Crazy

O. V. Wright - Motherless Child

The Keys & O.V. Wright - That's How Strong My Love Is

O. V. Wright - Born All Over

O. V. Wright - Everybody Knows (The River Song)

O. V. Wright - Oh Baby Mine

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