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This evening's music features Motown soul band Junior Walker & The Allstars. Enjoy!

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."

-- General "Buck" Turgidson

News and Opinion

NATO powers move to send long-range missiles to Ukraine

On Tuesday, a UK defense official confirmed to the Washington Post that Britain is preparing to send long-range missiles to Ukraine capable of striking Crimea. The British official who spoke to the Post explained that this action would set the stage for other NATO members to provide long-range missiles of their own.

“It’s a position the United Kingdom can uniquely do… We know that if we give something it makes it slightly easier for others,” he said. “There is definitely a different risk tolerance among different countries. We’re often in an earlier place.”

The Post noted that “Pentagon officials expressed no concern when asked about the prospect of Britain sending long-range missiles to Ukraine.” This announcement is meant to clear the way for the provision of the long-range ATACMS missile by the United States, as well as the announcement, long in preparation, that the United States would send F-16 fighter jets.

The move by the key US ally marks another action that NATO officials had previously unconditionally ruled out. Last May, US President Joe Biden categorically declared, “We are not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that strike into Russia.”

The Post made clear, however, that the UK’s weapons systems would be used to attack Crimea. It wrote, “The distance between Ukrainian-held territory and Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city and the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, is within the range” of the storm shadow long-range missile.

Zelensky to BBC, Ukraine needs more time. Zaluzhny, NATO no show. Syrsky, busy in Bakhmut

Trump REFUSES To Side With Ukraine: 'I Want People To Stop Dying'

US, UK Vow to Keep Supporting Ukraine Regardless of Counteroffensive

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British counterpart, James Cleverly, vowed on Tuesday that the US and Britain will continue supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia regardless of the result of Kyiv’s expected counteroffensive.

“We need to continue to support them, irrespective of whether this forthcoming offensive generates huge gains on the battlefield, because until this conflict is resolved and resolved properly, it is not over,” Cleverly said at a joint press conference with Blinken in Washington.

Blinken strongly backed Cleverly’s comments. “I can only violently agree with my friend and strongly endorse what he’s just said. We have exactly the same perspective,” he said.

Vladimir Putin's Speech at the Victory Parade on Red Square

Citizens of Russia,

Dear veterans,

Comrade soldiers and sailors, sergeants and warrant officers, midshipmen and sergeant majors,

Comrade officers, generals and admirals,

Soldiers and commanders participating in the special military operation,

Happy Victory Day!

Happy holiday that commemorates the honour of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who glorified and immortalised their names by defending our Fatherland. They saved the humankind from Nazism through immeasurable courage and immense sacrifice.

Today, our civilisation is at a crucial turning point. A real war is being waged against our country again but we have countered international terrorism and will defend the people of Donbass and safeguard our security.

For us, for Russia, there are no unfriendly or hostile nations either in the west or in the east. Just like the vast majority of people on the planet, we want to see a peaceful, free and stable future.

We believe that any ideology of superiority is abhorrent, criminal and deadly by its nature. However, the Western globalist elites keep speaking about their exceptionalism, pit nations against each other and split societies, provoke bloody conflicts and coups, sow hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism, destroy family and traditional values which make us human. They do all that so as to keep dictating and imposing their will, their rights and rules on peoples, which in reality is a system of plundering, violence and suppression.

They seem to have forgotten what the Nazis’ insane claims of global dominance led to. They forgot who destroyed that monstrous, total evil, who stood up for their native land and did not spare their lives to liberate the peoples of Europe.

We see how in certain countries they ruthlessly and cold-bloodedly destroy memorials to Soviet soldiers, demolish monuments to great commanders, create a real cult of the Nazis and their proxies, erase and demonise the memory of true heroes. Such profanation of the feat and sacrifices of the victorious generation is also a crime, an outright revanchism on the part of those who were cynically and blatantly preparing a new march on Russia and who brought together neo-Nazi scum from around the world for this.

Their goal – and there is nothing new about it – is to break apart and destroy our country, to make null and void the outcomes of World War II, to completely break down the system of global security and international law, to choke off any sovereign centres of development.

Boundless ambition, arrogance and impunity inevitably lead to tragedies. This is the reason for the catastrophe the Ukrainian people are going through. They have become hostage to the coup d’état and the resulting criminal regime of its Western masters, collateral damage in the implementation of their cruel and self-serving plans.

The memory of defenders of the Fatherland is sacred for us in Russia, and we cherish it in our hearts. We give credit to members of the Resistance who bravely fought Nazism as well as the troops of the allied armies of the United States, Great Britain and other countries. We remember and honour the feat of Chinese soldiers in the fight against Japanese militarism.

I strongly believe that the experience of solidarity and partnership during the years of fighting a common threat is our invaluable heritage and a secure foothold now when the unstoppable movement is gaining momentum towards a more just multipolar world, a world based on the principles of trust and indivisible security, of equal opportunities for a genuine and free development of all nations and peoples.

It is crucial that leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States have gathered here in Moscow today. I see it as appreciation of the feat of our ancestors: they fought and won together since all the peoples of the USSR contributed to our common Victory.

We will always remember that. We bow our heads in cherished memory of those who lost their lives during the war, the memory of sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, husbands, wives, sisters and friends.

I declare a minute of silence.

(A minute of silence.)

Citizens of Russia,

The battles that were decisive for our Motherland always became patriotic, national and sacred. We are faithful to our ancestors’ legacy and have a deep and clear awareness of what it means to be up to the mark of their military, labour and moral achievements.

We take pride in the participants in the special military operation, all those fighting on the frontlines, those who deliver supplies to the front and save the wounded under fire. Your combat activities now are of paramount importance. The country’s security depends on you today as does the future of our statehood and our people. You commendably perform your combat duty fighting for Russia. Your families, children and friends stand behind you. They are waiting for you. I am sure you can feel their unfailing love.

The entire country has united to support our heroes. Everyone is ready to help, everyone prays for you.

Comrades, friends, dear veterans,

Today, every family in our country honours Great Patriotic War participants, remembers their family members and their heroes, and lays flowers to military memorials.

We are standing on Red Square, a place which remembers retainers of Yury Dolgoruky and Dmitry Donskoy, the people’s militia of Minin and Pozharsky, soldiers of Peter the Great and Kutuzov, the military parades of 1941 and 1945.

Today we have here participants in the special military operation – regular servicemen and those who joined the army ranks during the partial mobilisation, troops of the Lugansk and Donetsk corps, many volunteer units, personnel of the National Guard, Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service, Emergencies Ministry and other security agencies and services.

My greetings to all of you, friends. My greetings to everyone who is fighting for Russia in the battlefield, who is now in the line of duty.

Our heroic ancestors proved during the Great Patriotic War that nothing can beat our strong, powerful and reliable unity. There is nothing stronger than our love for the Motherland.

For Russia! For our glorious Armed Forces! For Victory!

Hooray!

Grab your salt shaker, from The Guardian propaganda rag:

Russians near Bakhmut have retreated by up to 2km, Ukrainian official says

A Ukrainian military unit has said it has routed a Russian infantry brigade from frontline territory near Bakhmut, claiming to corroborate an account by the head of Russia’s Wagner group that the Russian forces had fled.

Later on Wednesday, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated by up to 2km (1.2 miles) as the result of counterattacks. He did not give details. ...

The Wagner boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has repeatedly accused Moscow’s regular armed forces of failing to adequately support his men, said on Tuesday that the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions. “Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away 3 sq km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men,” Prigozhin said.

A Year After Israeli Sniper Kills Shireen Abu Akleh, No Justice for Palestinian-American Journalist

US inflation beat forecasts in April but remained high at 4.9%

The price of goods and services in the US remained stubbornly high in April, rising 4.9.% from a year ago, the labor department reported on Wednesday,

The annual rate of inflation has fallen sharply since hitting a 40-year high of 9.1% last June. April’s rise nearly matched the 5% rise recorded in March. It was the 10th consecutive month the rate has declined, but prices are still rising at a rate that is more than twice the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% a year.

The latest consumer price index (CPI) – a widely followed measure of the costs for goods and services in the US economy – showed prices rising 0.4% over the month, up from a 0.1% increase in March.

Housing costs were the largest contributor to the monthly increase, followed by increases in the index for used cars and trucks and the index for gasoline. After stripping out the volatile prices of food and energy, prices rose 0.4% in April, as they did in March.

Pressure builds as North Carolina set to override abortion ban veto

With time running out to convince lawmakers to withdraw support for an abortion ban recently passed by the state legislature, advocates in North Carolina are intensifying their pressure campaign with protests and pleas to legislators. Demonstrators rallied in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sunday to denounce the passage of SB 20, a new measure that bans abortion after 12 weeks, by Republican legislators.

North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, has vowed to veto the measure, and is expected to do so in the coming days. Although Republican lawmakers currently hold a veto-proof majority, advocates are hoping to use the time before the bill returns to the legislature to convince lawmakers to change their minds. Only one Republican would need to vote against an override to sink the bill.

The bill passed both chambers of the North Carolina legislature in a process criticized by many as rushed. While the bill is more permissive than the outright bans in many other states in the region, reproductive rights supporters have criticized other provisions of the law for creating unnecessary barriers for people seeking care.

An extended waiting period, for example, requires patients to attend three in-person appointments – two before a medication or surgical abortion and one follow-up – each 72 hours apart. Advocates and providers say the provision places a burden on patients with limited access to transportation or who have work or childcare obligations, and that it could push someone beyond the 12-week limit.

The bill also includes a requirement that providers send information about patients to the state’s department of health and human services and requires clinics to acquire licensing as “ambulatory surgical centers”, a lengthy and expensive process that several of the state’s abortion providers say could require them to close.

US lawmakers call to modernize Osha as hundreds die on the job each day

Every day 343 workers die from hazardous working conditions in the US. In 2021, the latest year with data available, 5,190 workers in the US were killed on the job and an estimated 120,000 deaths were attributed to occupational diseases. Since 1970, more than 429,000 workers have been killed on the job, but only 128 of those cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Osha). ...

Democratic congressmen Joe Courtney and Bobby Scott have co-authored the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which was reintroduced to Congress on 28 April, on Workers’ Memorial Day.

“The history of Osha shows that there really is a systemic problem in terms of that mission of getting the rules aligned with the evolving technology that goes into a whole host of sectors in the US economy, whether it’s home construction, healthcare settings, manufacturing, the new processes, the new chemicals, the new machinery that as part of a very dynamic economy, it’s just kind of rocketed past the Osha rules that are in place to protect people,” said Courtney. “It’s just really trying to get a system of workforce protection that is really connected to the actual workplaces that people are going to every day in the 21st century.”

The bill includes expanding Osha coverage to the estimated 8 million state and local government workers in 24 states not currently covered by Osha, reinstating an employer record-keeping rule of illnesses and injuries rolled back under the Trump administration, providing authority for increased civil penalties for serious Osha violations, and authorizing felony penalties against employers who knowingly commit Osha violations that result in the death or serious harm of a worker. The bill would also establish rights for families who lose a loved one to a workplace fatality and require Osha to investigate all cases of death or serious injury that occur in a workplace.

California to pay $24m in record civil rights settlement over man’s in-custody death

California will pay a $24m civil rights settlement to the family of a man who died in police custody after screaming “I can’t breathe” as multiple officers restrained him while trying to take a blood sample, lawyers said Tuesday.

Seven California highway patrol (CHP) officers and a nurse were charged with involuntary manslaughter earlier this year in connection with the 2020 death of Edward Bronstein, 38. ...

The Los Angeles county coroner said Bronstein’s death was caused by “acute methamphetamine intoxication during restraint by law enforcement”. The report lists Bronstein’s race as white.

Bronstein was taken into custody following a traffic stop on suspicion of driving under the influence on 31 March 2020. He died at a highway patrol station in Altadena, north of downtown Los Angeles, less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minnesota as he, too, repeatedly told officers, “I can’t breathe.”

George Gascón, the LA county district attorney, said while announcing the criminal charges in March that the highway patrol officers failed Bronstein, “and their failure was criminally negligent, causing his death”. A nearly 18-minute video showing the officers’ treatment of Bronstein was released last year after a judge’s order in the family’s federal lawsuit alleging excessive force and a violation of civil rights.

Trump Sexual Assault Case Is A Pure Democratic Hit Job

CNN BOTCHES Townhall Takedown of Trump: Kaitlin Collins Questioning BACKFIRES?

Microbes discovered that can digest plastics at low temperatures

Microbes that can digest plastics at low temperatures have been discovered by scientists in the Alps and the Arctic, which could be a valuable tool in recycling.

Many microorganisms that can do this have already been found, but they can usually only work at temperatures above 30C (86F). This means that using them in industrial practice is prohibitively expensive because of the heating required. It also means using them is not carbon neutral.

Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute WSL have found microbes that can do this at 15C, which could lead to a breakthrough in microbial recycling. Their findings have been published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

Dr Joel Rüthi from WSL and colleagues sampled 19 strains of bacteria and 15 of fungi growing on free-lying or intentionally buried plastic kept in the ground for one year in Greenland, Svalbard and Switzerland. They let the microbes grow as single-strain cultures in the laboratory in darkness at 15C and tested them to see if they could digest different types of plastic. ...

The plastics tested included non-biodegradable polyethylene (PE) and the biodegradable polyester-polyurethane (PUR) as well as two commercially available biodegradable mixtures of polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA). None of the strains were able to digest PE, even after 126 days of incubation on these plastics. But 19 strains (56%), including 11 fungi and eight bacteria, were able to digest PUR at 15C, while 14 fungi and three bacteria were able to digest the plastic mixtures of PBAT and PLA.

US Has Already Seen 7 Different Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters This Year: NOAA

Seven different billion-dollar or more extreme weather events struck the U.S. during the first four months of 2023.

That's one of the "notable" findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) April State of the Climate report, released Monday.

"The number of billion dollar disasters so far in 2023 is significant," NOAA wrote. "Only 2017 and 2020 had more during this timeframe, with eight separate disasters recorded in the January-April period."

(1 of 5) JUST IN for #April 2023: Extreme weather strikes — 7 separate billion-dollar disasters so far in 2023.

Temps across much of the eastern U.S. have been well above normal all year.

More from our April #StateofClimate Report: https://t.co/RD24HWUnLW@NOAANCEI #Climate pic.twitter.com/bbZHIkTzQw

— NOAA (@NOAA) May 8, 2023

In total, the extreme weather events killed 97 people and caused more than $19 billion in damages. They come as the nation has seen 60 such disasters in the past three years, the most in that timeframe since record-keeping began in 1980, The Weather Channel reported.

The costliest and deadliest events so far this year were two severe weather outbreaks in the Southeast as well as the ongoing flooding in California from a series of atmospheric rivers that brought heavy rain and record snow, according to NOAA.

Between March 2 and 3, at least 33 tornadoes touched down as part of a severe weather outbreak in the Southern Plains, Southeast, and Ohio Valley, The Weather Channel reported. Together, these storms claimed 13 lives and cost $4.5 billion, NOAA calculated.

A second "historic" tornado outbreak in the central U.S. on March 31 and April 1 generated at least 145 tornadoes that killed 33 people and cost $4.3 billion.

Storms in California, meanwhile, killed 22 people and cost $3.5 billion from late December to March, though they also helped to relieve the state's drought with record snowfall and plentiful rain.

"Flooding impacted many homes, businesses, levees, agriculture, and other infrastructure particularly across central California," NOAA wrote.

The other billion-or-more-dollar disasters included a winter storm and cold snap that froze the Northeast from February 2 to 5, costing $1.6 billion and claiming one life; another tornado outbreak that brought more than 40 twisters to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee from March 24 to 26, killing 23 and causing $1.9 billion in damage; a severe weather outbreak in central and southern states from April 4 to 6 that included more than 35 tornadoes, killed five, and cost $2.2 billion; and another severe weather outbreak in the central and southern states on April 15 that cost $1 billion.

In general, scientists have concluded that the climate crisis—driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels—makes several types of extreme weather events either more frequent or severe or both.

"The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country," the authors of the Fourth National Climate Assessment wrote. "More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities."

In particular, warmer temperatures are increasing the likelihood of extreme precipitation events, and this holds true for California's atmospheric rivers.

"Atmospheric rivers are becoming more intense with climate change because they're holding more moisture," University of Minnesota extreme weather expert Katerina Gonzales told Scientific American in January.

Many of 2023's billion-dollar disasters have involved tornadoes, and scientists know less about the climate footprints on these particularly dangerous storms, as CNN noted. However, a study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in January found that supercells—the kind of thunderstorms that birth most deadly tornadoes and dangerous hail—are likely to become more frequent as the planet warms, shift their range eastward, and occur outside the bounds of the traditional storm season.

"These results suggest the potential for more significant tornadoes, hail, and extreme rainfall that, when combined with an increasingly vulnerable society, may produce disastrous consequences," the study authors wrote.

Tornado alley is already expanding from the Great Plains into the Midwest and Southeast, where the storms have the chance to do more damage.

"There's been explosive growth in the south in recent years and that unfortunately means we are turning up both the number of tornadoes in this area and the number of people exposed to them," Walker Ashley, lead author on the January study, told The Guardian. "This has consequences—we are all paying that through premiums and government grants as we've collectively determined it's OK to live in risky areas. We will need to think about building better and smarter, thinking more about how resilient the roof and garage doors are, for example, to live with these impacts. Because they are not going away."

Another signal of climate change in the latest NOAA report is the unseasonably warm winter many states experienced.

"So far, 2023 stands out for the remarkable warmth that covered many parts of the U.S., with some states seeing their warmest January—April period on record," NOAA said.

Also of Interest

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

Getting the defense budget right: A (real) grand total, over $1.4 trillion

This Civilization Is Mentally Ill: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Kent State: The School Shooting the Government Doesn't Want You to Remember

South Korea’s Pivot to Conflict

Europe Needs To Re-evaluate Its Importance And Its American Vassalization

'Very volatile situation' in Pakistan in wake of arrest of former PM Imran Khan

The Murder of Jordan Neely Abetted by Eric Adams, Worst Black Mayor in the Country

‘Like Nagasaki’: devastating wildfires will only get worse, new book warns

A Little Night Music

Jr. Walker and the All-Stars - Shotgun

Junior Walker & The Allstars - (I'm A) Roadrunner

Jr Walker And The All Stars - Gotta Hold On To This Feeling

Jr Walker And The All Stars - Shoot Your Shot

Jr Walker And The All Stars - Cleo's Mood/Cleo's Back

Jr Walker And The All Stars - Do The Boomerang

Jr Walker And The All Stars - Pucker Up Buttercup

Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Home Cookin'

Jr. Walker & The All Stars - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)