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“We humans are naturally disposed to worship gods and heroes, to build our pantheons and valhallas. I would rather see that impulse directed into the adoration of daft singers, thicko footballers and air-headed screen actors than into the veneration of dogmatic zealots, fanatical preachers, militant politicians and rabid cultural commentators.”

-- Stephen Fry

News and Opinion

Bono Is Doing Illustrations For The Atlantic Now, Because Everything’s Fake And Stupid

So U2 singer Bono is literally just doing illustrations for the imperialist propaganda rag The Atlantic now, because that’s the sort of thing that happens in a dystopian civilization during the death throes of a globe-spanning empire.

A Washington Post article titled “Bono likes to sketch Atlantic covers, so the magazine hired him” reports that “Bono is into Atlantic cover fanfic — so much so that he was invited to illustrate the magazine’s June cover featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bono’s latest contribution to the mountain of cringe-inducing Zelensky moments we’ve been seeing for the past year provides a cover image for an article by lifelong war propagandists Anne Applebaum and Jeffrey Goldberg. The article endorses a Ukrainian offensive to recapture Crimea, which experts largely agree would be the move most likely to trigger a nuclear war in this conflict.

“Sometimes, the war is described as a battle between autocracy and democracy, or between dictatorship and freedom. In truth, the differences between the two opponents are not merely ideological, but also sociological. Ukraine’s struggle against Russia pits a heterarchy against a hierarchy. An open, networked, flexible society—one that is both stronger at the grassroots level and more deeply integrated with Washington, Brussels, and Silicon Valley than anyone realized—is fighting a very large, very corrupt, top-down state. On one side, farmers defend their land and 20‑something engineers build eyes in the sky, using tools that would be familiar to 20‑something engineers anywhere else. On the other side, commanders send waves of poorly armed conscripts to be slaughtered—just as Stalin once sent shtrafbats, penal battalions, against the Nazis—under the leadership of a dictator obsessed with ancient bones. ‘The choice,’ Zelensky told us, ‘is between freedom and fear.’”

New from me~

Bono is into Atlantic cover fanfic. So the magazine hired him: https://t.co/cSHYxyRjCe

— Elahe Izadi | الهه (@ElaheIzadi) May 1, 2023

Many westerners felt their first stirrings of youthful rebellious passions while listening to U2 songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, but nowadays Bono’s voice is heard saying that he has “grown very fond” of war criminal George W Bush, praising capitalism at the World Economic Forum, teaming up with warmonger Lindsey Graham to promote US empire narratives about Syria, and  singing “Stand by Ukraine” in support of US empire narratives in a Kyiv subway. And just when it looks like he can’t become any more of a tool of the empire, he gets hired by one of the world’s worst militarist smut rags to draw a cover image of Zelensky.

Because that’s just how things go in a highly controlled society where mainstream culture is designed to serve the powerful. A society where the minds of the public are continually being shaped by mass-scale psychological manipulation to ensure that they keep thinking, speaking, working, consuming and voting in ways which serve the rich and powerful. Everything that gets elevated to the top of mainstream attention facilitates this agenda (or is at least harmless to it), and as soon as it becomes potentially threatening to this agenda it is either corrected or marginalized away from mainstream attention.

This dynamic can cause some truly jaw-dropping flotsam and jetsam to surface in the roilings of our cultural waters, like Simpsons characters waving Ukrainian flags, or an opera about a drone operator sponsored by General Dynamics.

Here’s Responsible Statecraft’s Connor Echols on that last one:

This fall, DC denizens will be treated to the world premiere of “Grounded,” an opera following an Air Force ace named Jess whose unexpected pregnancy forces her to leave behind her beloved F-16 and join the “chair force.”

Throughout the show, the “hot shot” pilot wrestles with the mental impact of firing rockets from a drone in Afghanistan from a trailer in Las Vegas. “As Jess tracks terrorists by day and rocks her daughter to sleep by night, the boundary between her worlds becomes dangerously permeable,” an ad tells us.

The production is brought to you by presenting sponsor General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest weapons companies (and, wouldn’t you know it, the maker of Jess’s favorite plane). Playwright George Brant wrote the libretto, which will be brought to life by mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo and Tony-winning composer Jeanine Tesori.

You’ll also see things like “humanitarian intervention” champion Samantha Power enthusiastically tweeting about the collaboration between the Sesame Street franchise and the CIA cutout USAID in Iraq:

Great to hear from Basma & Jad about the new friends they’re making in Iraq through Ahlan Simsim—a @USAID & @SesameWorkshop early learning activity that promotes inclusion, respect, and understanding by showing children from all different backgrounds coming together. pic.twitter.com/BtFfDH6So9

— Samantha Power (@PowerUSAID) April 19, 2023

You see things like this all the time under the shadow of the US empire, and individually they don’t look like much, but once you start noticing them you come to recognize them as symptoms of the profoundly diseased civilization that we are living in. One where our heart strings are pulled in the most obnoxious ways imaginable to get us to support capitalism, empire and oligarchy, where we are manipulated into espousing values systems which benefit powerful sociopaths under the cover of noble-sounding causes. Where we are trained like rats to support systems that are driving our species toward extinction because our rulers gave lip service to humanitarianism and waved a rainbow flag.

This is what dystopia looks like. Like a bunch of thought-controlled automatons mindlessly marching toward ecocide and omnicide to a beat played out by screens who tell them every day and in every way that there is no higher purpose than this. Like military industrial complex-funded feminist rock operas about drone operators and Cookie Monster helping Samantha Power psychologically colonize Iraqi children. Like Bono coming home from singing a heartfelt number about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr to illustrate a cover for a war propaganda piece in The Atlantic.

It’s like they’re pouring concrete over our hearts. Sewing blindfolds over our souls. Numbing us, distracting us, sedating us, so that the local riff raff won’t interfere in the workings of the imperial machine. They’re killing off something beautiful and sacred in humanity, and they’re doing it to roll out some of the ugliest visions this planet has ever seen.

Russia Mulls Response Kremlin Drone Attack, Repels Attacks; Nuclear War Risks Grow Over US Missiles

Kremlin drone strike: Zelenskiy denies Russian claim Ukraine attempted to kill Putin

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denied Russian claims that Ukraine was involved in a drone attack on the Kremlin that was intended to kill the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president said on Wednesday: “We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory and defend our towns and cities.” “We leave it to the tribunal,” he added.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that two drones had been used in the attack, but that they had been disabled by Russian defences. It has vowed to take retaliatory measures.

Hours later, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv for the fourth time in seven days, and explosions were heard in the southern port city of Odesa. The US embassy in Ukraine warned its citizens in the country that there was an “ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks, including in Kyiv and Kyiv oblast [regions]”.

In a statement published on its website, the Kremlin stated it considered the attack a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president of the Russian Federation.

“Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the vehicles were put out of action,” the Kremlin press service said. It said that debris from the drone “fell on the territory of the Kremlin”.

CNN Claims Putin Drone Attack Is FALSE FLAG

Rep. McCaul Says US Support for Ukraine Depends on Counteroffensive

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday that future US support for Ukraine depends on Kyiv’s looming counteroffensive.

“I think there’s going to be a lot riding on the line with this counteroffensive,” McCaul told Bloomberg. “If Ukraine is successful in the eyes of the American people and the world, I think it will be a game-changer for continued support. If they are not, that will also have an impact, in a negative way, though.”

Ukraine Vows It Won’t Give Up Bakhmut

Ukraine’s military on Tuesday vowed to continue defending Bakhmut as Russian officials claim Russian forces now control nearly 90% of the eastern Donbas city.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, made the pledge while visiting troops on the frontlines in Bakhmut. “We will continue, despite all the forecasts and advice, to hold Bakhmut, destroying Wagner and other most combat-capable units of the Russian army,” he said.

After his trip to the frontline, Syrskyi said in a statement that “together with the commanders, we have made a number of necessary decisions aimed at ensuring the effective defense and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy.”

US in Talks on Establishing Military Bases in Finland

The US and Finland are working out a deal that would allow the US to establish a military presence in the Nordic country, as Helsinki is now a member of NATO.

According to Newsweek, Finnish Foreign Ministry official Mikael Antell confirmed the two nations are negotiating a Defense Cooperation Agreement that may allow for the construction of significant military infrastructure on Finnish soil.

The potential agreement would not include nuclear weapons, although Finnish officials have previously not ruled out hosting nukes. The US has nuclear weapons stationed in five NATO countries under the alliance’s nuclear sharing program but not in any nations that became members after the end of the Cold War.

Anger at painful legacy of Japanese colonisation runs deep in South Korea

U.N. Body Demands Release of Guantánamo Prisoner Who Was Tortured by the C.I.A.

A U.N. human rights panel has urged the United States to immediately release Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay and the first detainee waterboarded by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also said that after studying other cases at Guantánamo over the past 15 years, it had seen a pattern that could “constitute crimes against humanity.”

The prisoner, whose real name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Husayn, was captured in a raid in Pakistan in 2002 and has been held at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba without charges since 2006. The United States has argued that its basis for holding him indefinitely in the war against terrorism is that, although he was never a member of Al Qaeda, he helped jihadists reach Afghanistan for training before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The body, which has no enforcement mechanism, also found that Abu Zubaydah had been denied a meaningful review of his detention and so was being unlawfully held. “The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Zubaydah immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” the group said in an opinion.

Biden May Declare Debt Ceiling UNCONSTITUTIONAL

US Federal Reserve votes to increase interest rates to 16-year high

The US Federal Reserve voted to increase interest rates to a 16-year high on Wednesday, even as a banking crisis has left the economy wobbling.

The quarter-point rise in the Fed’s benchmark interest rate was the 10th hike since March 2022, when interest rates were zero and the Fed started its rapid inflation-fighting campaign. The interest rate now stands at 5% to 5.25%.

The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, has consistently argued that the central bank must prioritize bringing down inflation, which hit a 40-year high in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the Fed said the banking system was “sound and resilient”.

“Tighter credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation. The extent of these effects remains uncertain. The committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” said the Fed.

US investigation uncovers two 10-year-olds working at Kentucky McDonald’s

A US department of labor investigation uncovered child labor violations at three McDonald’s locations in Kentucky, which included finding two 10-year-olds working unpaid, sometimes until 2am.

The three McDonald’s franchisees cited in the investigation own a total of 62 locations across Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio, and were found to employ 305 children working more than legally permitted hours and performing job tasks prohibited by law for their age.

Civil penalties totaling $212,754 were issued against the franchisees for the violations.

The franchisees include Bauer Food, based in Louisville; Archways Richwood, based in Walton, Kentucky; and Bell Restaurant Group, also based in Louisville. About 93% of McDonald’s locations worldwide are operated by franchisees.

The investigation found the franchisees employed 14- and 15-year-olds who were working outside of and over the number of hours minors are permitted to work, and exceeding the daily and weekly limits – including cases where the workers were on the job during school hours.

The news comes as states across the US have moved to relax child labor laws.

Ilhan Omar condemns US’s failure to act since George Floyd: ‘A broken system’

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar condemned the United States’ failure to curb police violence, saying in an interview with the Guardian that brutality against Black Americans had escalated since George Floyd’s murder. “Regardless of the heightened scrutiny and spotlight on state-sanctioned violence on to Black bodies, it still continues to happen at the same rate, if not higher,” the Democratic representative said on Tuesday. “We are not in a good place.”

Omar spoke by phone from Minnesota on Tuesday after a United Nations human rights group visited her district as part of a two-week tour of US cities focused on police killings and racism in the US criminal legal system. The UN experts heard emotional testimony in Minneapolis from families of people killed by police and formerly incarcerated people who were subject to solitary confinement as youth and continue to suffer from the trauma.

On Wednesday, Omar is also proposing a House resolution condemning police brutality worldwide, calling for reallocating funding in the US toward mental health programs, counseling and violence prevention; ending the use of militarized equipment and police tactics in the US and abroad; and prohibiting the sales of arms, ammunition and “less-lethal” equipment to countries with documented human rights violations.

“The United States has always professed these values of human rights and rarely subjects itself in the scrutiny of these systems that we support internationally,” said Omar, the deputy chair of the congressional progressive caucus, who has championed criminal justice reforms. The representative, a frequent target of Republicans and rightwing media, has previously introduced legislation to criminalize violence against protesters, investigate police misuse of force and to restrict the use of no-knock warrants.

Marine Kills Mentally Ill Man In 15-Min CHOKEHOLD In NYC Subway, NO CHARGES Announced

Outrage simmers in New York after the killing of Jordan Neely on a subway train

A protest on a downtown Manhattan subway platform over the death of a man suffering an apparent mental health episode aboard a train turned into an angry confrontation over policing and social welfare priorities in New York City on Wednesday. Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused man who had at one time earned a living in the city as a skilled Michael Jackson impersonator who performed in Times Square, died on Monday afternoon after a confrontation with a fellow passenger.

According to police officials and video, Neely had been harassing passengers on the subway and making threats when he was placed in a minutes-long headlock by a 24-year-old former US Marine. By the time the train pulled into Broadway-Lafayette, a stop that borders the SoHo and NoliTa neighborhoods, Neely was no longer conscious. He was later pronounced dead in hospital. The city’s medical examiner is investigating the cause of death.

Juan Alberto Vazquez, the reporter who captured the incident, told the New York Post that Neely was screaming “in an aggressive manner” and complained of hunger and thirst but had not physically attacked anyone. Vazquez said the 24-year-old man approached Neely after he threw his jacket to the ground. When the video starts Neely was already on the subway car’s floor, with the man’s left arm around Neely’s neck. A second man holds his arms and a third held down his shoulder. After briefly trying to free himself he eventually goes limp.

Forty-eight hours later, Neely’s death, and the response to it, threatens to become a flash-point highlighting what some say is a semi-sanctioned vigilante response to homelessness and the mental health crisis, with others defending the actions of the Marine who had asked fellow passengers to call 911.

Media Says Biden Debate Push Is RIGHT WING

Fungal attacks threaten global food supply, say experts

Fast-rising fungal attacks on the world’s most important crops threaten the planet’s future food supply, scientists have said, warning that failing to tackle fungal pathogens could lead to a “global health catastrophe”.

Fungi are already by far the biggest destroyer of crops. They are highly resilient, travel long distances on the wind and can feast on large fields of a single crop. They are also extremely adaptable and many have developed resistance to common fungicides.

The impact of fungal disease is expected to worsen, the researchers say, as the climate crisis results in temperatures rising and fungal infections moving steadily polewards. Since the 1990s, fungal pathogens have been moving to higher latitudes at a rate of about 7km a year. Wheat stem rust infections, normally found in the tropics, have already been reported in England and Ireland.

Higher temperatures also drive the emergence of new variants of the fungal pathogens, while more extreme storms can spread their spores further afield, the scientists say. ... The scientists said there was also a risk that global heating would increase the heat tolerance of fungi, raising the possibility of them hopping hosts to infect warm-blooded animals and humans.

UN warns heat records could be broken as chance of El Niño rises

The chance of an El Niño weather phenomenon developing in the coming months has risen, the United Nations has said, warning that it could fuel higher global temperatures and possibly new heat records. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday that it now estimated there was a 60% chance that El Niño would develop by the end of July, and an 80% chance it would do so by the end of September.

“This will change the weather and climate patterns worldwide,” Wilfran Moufouma Okia, the head of the WMO’s regional climate prediction services division, told reporters in Geneva.

El Niño, which is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere, last occurred in 2018-19.

Since 2020 though, the world has been hit with an exceptionally long La Niña – El Niño’s cooling opposite – which ended earlier this year, giving way to the current neutral conditions. And yet, the UN has said the last eight years were the warmest ever recorded, despite La Niña’s cooling effect stretching over nearly half that period. Without that weather phenomenon, the warming situation could have been even worse.

Greenpeace USA Wins Free Speech Battle Against Canadian Logging Giant’s $100M SLAPP Lawsuit

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Julian Assange and World Press Freedom Day

Biden Administration CONFRONTED About Julian Assange!

If Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange

Patrick Lawrence: Europe’s Fate

Short Sellers Cratered Silvergate Bank and First Republic; They’re Now Targeting PacWest and Numerous Other Regional Banks

Recovery of ancient DNA identifies 20,000-year-old pendant’s owner

ANOTHER Bank On Verge Of Collapse

Bill Gates Caught AGAIN With Epstein

BOMBSHELL? FBI Has Evidence Of Joe Biden’s ‘CRIMINAL BRIBERY SCHEME’ As Veep, GOP Claim

Tucker Carlson May WALK AWAY From Fox Contract, Forfeit MILLIONS To Host 2024 Debate: Report

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Liggins - Saturday Nite Boogie Woogie Man

Jimmy Liggins - I Ain't Drunk

Jimmy Liggins - That's What's Knockin' Me Out

Jimmy Liggins and his Drops of Joy - Train Blues

Jimmy Liggins - Come Back Home

Jimmy Liggins - Talking That Talk

Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy - Lookin' For My Baby

Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy - Ada From Decatur

Jimmy Liggins - Knocked Out

Jimmy Liggins & His Drops of Joy - I Can't Stop It