Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features San Francisco r&b singer Sugarpie Desanto. Enjoy!

"The money power preys on the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes."

-- Abraham Lincoln

News and Opinion

US Sold Weapons to Roughly 60% of World's Authoritarian Nations in 2022

President Joe Biden claims that the United States is leading "democracies" in a fight against "autocracies" to establish a peaceful international order, but his administration approved weapons sales to nearly three-fifths of the world's authoritarian countries in 2022.

That's according to a new analysis conducted by Security Policy Reform Institute co-founder Stephen Semler and published Thursday in The Intercept.

The U.S. has been the world's largest arms dealer since the end of the Cold War. Data released in March showed that the U.S. accounted for 40% of global weapons exports from 2018 to 2022.

As Semler explained:

In general, these exports are funded through grants or sales. There are two pathways for the latter category: foreign military sales and direct commercial sales.

The U.S. government acts as an intermediary for FMS acquisitions: It buys the materiel from a company first and then delivers the goods to the foreign recipient. DCS acquisitions are more straightforward: They're the result of an agreement between a U.S. company and a foreign government. Both categories of sales require the government's approval.

Country-level data for last year's DCS authorizations was released in late April through the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. FMS figures for fiscal year 2022 were released earlier this year through the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency. According to their data, a total of 142 countries and territories bought weapons from the U.S. in 2022, for a total of $85 billion in bilateral sales.

To determine how many of those governments were democratic and how many were autocratic, Semler relied on data from the Varieties of Democracy project at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, which uses a classification system called Regimes of the World.

"Of the 84 countries codified as autocracies under the Regimes of the World system in 2022, the United States sold weapons to at least 48, or 57%, of them," Semler wrote. "The 'at least' qualifier is necessary because several factors frustrate the accurate tracking of U.S. weapons sales. The State Department's report of commercial arms sales during the fiscal year makes prodigious use of 'various' in its recipients category; as a result, the specific recipients for nearly $11 billion in weapons sales are not disclosed."

"The Regimes of the World system is just one of the several indices that measure democracy worldwide, but running the same analysis with other popular indices produces similar results," Semler observed. "For example, Freedom House listed 195 countries and for each one labeled whether it qualified as an electoral democracy in its annual Freedom in the World report. Of the 85 countries Freedom House did not designate as an electoral democracy, the United States sold weapons to 49, or 58%, of them in fiscal year 2022."

Despite the White House's lofty rhetoric, it is actively bolstering the military power of a majority of the world's authoritarian countries, from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to dozens of others, including some overlooked by researchers at the University of Gothenburg.

For instance, the Varieties of Democracy project characterizes Israel as a "liberal democracy" even though human rights groups around the world have condemned it as a decidedly anti-democratic apartheid state. Washington, meanwhile, showers Israel with $3.8 billion in military support each year, resources that the government uses to violently dispossess and frequently kill Palestinians at will.

As Semler put it Saturday in his "Speaking Security" newsletter, "These findings fly in the face of Biden's preferred framing of international politics as a "battle between democracies and autocracies."

The president's narrative "lends itself more to a self-righteous foreign policy than an honest or productive one," Semler argued. "Dividing the world between democratic and autocratic countries—in the spirit of 'with us or against us'—makes conflict more likely and has had a chilling effect on calls for diplomacy and détente. It's also harder to cooperate with the international community while insisting you're locked in an existential fight with roughly half of them."

Russian Advances, Ukr Attacks Slacken; DU Shells Khmelnitsky Explosion, Erdogan Set for Reelection

Ukraine fires first UK-supplied long-range missiles into Russian-held territory

Russia confirmed Saturday that long-range air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missile supplied by Britain struck two industrial sites in the Russian-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Defence ministry said the missiles hit a plant producing polymers and a meat-processing factory on Friday. Other sources, including Britain’s Telegraph citing “local media”, said the strikes “hit a Russian supply depot and a military command centre 80 miles behind the front line.”

The Telegraph reported that at least one other missile system not previously known to be used by the Ukrainians is now operational. “Analysts also said that at least one US MALD decoy missile, which carries no explosive warhead but uses sophisticated electronics to distract defence systems, had been fired in the attacks.”

Last Thursday, after media reported that Britain was ready to authorise shipment of the long-range missiles, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told MPs, “All I can say is that, having technically cleared the hurdles, and as everyone talks about an expected counter-offence, now is the right time to gift these to Ukraine, and they are now going into or are in the country.” The technical problem Wallace referred to was how—given its size and weight—the Storm Shadow could be mounted to Ukrainian war planes not designed to carry the weapon. Wallace did not reveal the number of long-range missiles sent, but it is understood Britain has a stockpile of between 700 and 1,000. ...

The supply of the missiles threatens incalculable consequences. Ukraine is now capable of striking Russian-held Crimea, where Moscow bases its Black Sea fleet. The missile’s range officially exceeds 250km (155 miles) but other estimates given, including by French President Emmanuel Macron, suggest it may have a maximum range of 250, or even 350 miles. ...

Russia’s foreign ministry responded by declaring Friday, “We see this decision as an extremely hostile step from London, aimed at further pumping weapons into Ukraine and leading to a serious escalation of the situation.” A Kremlin spokesperson said, “It will demand an appropriate response from our military, who will definitely make the decisions that are required in military terms” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had reacted “quite negatively” to the news.

LEAKED DOCS: Zelensky Plots NATO Pipeline Bombing

Washington Will Increase Military Presence in the Persian Gulf

National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby announced a plan to expand America’s military posture in the Middle East. The move comes as Washington hijacked an Iranian fuel tanker, provoking Iran to seize two ships in the Persian Gulf.

Kirby told reporters on Friday , “Today, the Department of Defense will be making a series of moves to bolster our defensive posture in the [Persian] Gulf.” The NSC spokesperson did not specify what additional forces will be deployed to the region. He said, “US central command will provide additional details on those reinforcements in coming days.”

The US and Iran began seizing commercial vessels in recent weeks. In April, Washington seized the Suez Rajan, a tanker carrying Iranian oil to China. Five days later, Iran confiscated a US-bound Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker, the Advantage Sweet, in the Persian Gulf. ... On May 3, Iranian forces took control over a second ship in the Gulf. ...

The Navy claims Iran has interfered with at least 15 commercial ships over the past two years. However, the US and Israel have seized over a dozen Iranian vessels in recent years.

Ongoing Catastrophe: Israel Threatens New Expulsions as Palestinians, UN Mark 75th Nakba Anniversary

Imran Khan accuses Pakistan’s military of ordering his arrest

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has escalated his criticism of the country’s powerful military, accusing the head of the army of harbouring a “personal grudge” against him and ordering his arrest and a crackdown on his party.

“It is personal. It’s got nothing to do with national interest,” Khan told the Guardian in an interview at his home in Lahore, after a dramatic week in which he was arrested at Islamabad’s high court by almost 100 paramilitary officers on Tuesday and held in police custody, in connection with a land corruption case.“Without any doubt, the military is behind my arrest,” he said. “Pakistan is now being run by the army chief. The crackdown on us is by the army chief.”

Arrests of political rivals are nothing new in Pakistan – when Khan was prime minister, several senior opposition leaders were jailed, some for more than a year – but such anti-military rhetoric is unprecedented in Pakistan’s politics, where the army has long been seen as the country’s kingmaker and exerts enormous power.

Khan was released from police custody on Friday evening, after supreme court judges ruled that his arrest was “illegal and invalid” and the high court granted him bail.

Known for his populist politics and firebrand speeches, Khan, 70, fell out spectacularly with his former military allies after he accused them of orchestrating his removal from power in April last year. He has since accused them of two attempts on his life.

Turkey Presidential Election Heads to Runoff as Erdoğan Faces Toughest Challenge of 2-Decade Rule

Turkish election could go to second round as Erdogan attempts to claim victory

Record high turnout in a tightly fought election has presented the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the greatest challenge to his leadership in two decades, with signs that the vote was heading for a runoff even as Erdogan attempted to claim victory before an official vote count had ended. Speaking to a jubilant crowd of supporters, an energised and delighted Erdogan declared: “The fact that the election results have not yet been finalised does not diminish the fact that our nation’s choice is clearly in favor of us.”

Despite Turkey’s supreme election council, the YSK, declaring that the count had not yet finished in either the parliamentary or presidential election, Erdogan claimed his alliance had won a majority. “We believe I will finish with above 50 percent in the first round,” he added, projecting an outright win the presidential election without the need for a run-off.

Erdogan’s rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, hit back in a more subdued speech: “Despite all of his lies and attacks, Erdogan did not receive the desired outcome. No one should be enthusiastic about this being a done deal. The election is not won on the balcony,” he said.

He added: “We will definitely, definitely win this election in the second round. Everyone will see it. Preliminary results show that Erdogan did not receive the public confidence vote that he expected. The need for a change in society exceeds 50%. The AKP’s loss of votes demonstrates this too. The process of entering [election] data is ongoing. If the nation opts for a second round, it is more than welcome.”

Did you ever read that part of the bible where Jesus thanked a Samaritan for killing a bunch of romans? Yeah, me neither.

Legal defense fund raises over $1m for accused in Jordan Neely subway death

An online fundraiser for Daniel Penny, who placed fellow subway rider Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in a case that has come to symbolize fears over crime, racism and vigilantism, has raised more than $1m for his legal defense.

The fundraiser for Daniel Penny, a white former marine, who was charged on Friday with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Neely, who is Black, is on GiveSendGo. The Christian fundraising website has also hosted drives for rightwing vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse and far-right groups, including January 6 insurrectionists. ...

Penny has attracted the support of a broad swathe of the US right, including senior Republicans like rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who called Penny a “good Samaritan” for his actions.

Latest arrests of ‘Cop City’ protesters ‘feel like overreach’, experts say

Three activists have been arrested in confusing circumstances and charged under a little-known Georgia law – an apparent tightening of the state’s criminal justice system in response to a movement opposing the building of a huge police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” near Atlanta. “Cop City” has sparked a broad-based protest movement in Atlanta and elsewhere, drawing global headlines when one environmental activist was shot and killed by police.

The latest arrests are “stunning and feel like overreach”, said Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. They come under a law making it a felony to intimidate a law enforcement officer, and are in response to a printed flyer. “It raises serious first amendment concerns,” the ACLU of Georgia wrote in an email. “It is also part of a broader pattern of the state of Georgia weaponizing the criminal code to unconditionally protect law enforcement and to silence speech critical of the government.”

Caroline Hart Tennenbaum and Abeeku Osei Vassall, of Atlanta, and Julia Dupuis, of Fullerton, California, were arrested 28 April, after leaving a flyer on mailboxes in Cartersville, a Georgia town about 45 miles north-west of Atlanta. The flyer, exclusively obtained by the Guardian, called a policeman who lived in the neighborhood a “murderer” for participating in the 18 January shooting and killing of activist Manuel Paez Terán.

Local police initially charged the three with stalking, a misdemeanor, according to the county sheriff’s report. The activists heard officers debating whether to arrest them, with one asking another, “Isn’t this freedom of speech?” according to Lyra Foster, an attorney defending the arrestees. But the sheriff’s department was soon “advised that GBI [Georgia bureau of investigation] and FBI agents would be en route to interview the suspects”, according to the report. The arrestees declined to be interviewed without a lawyer. Felony charges were added at some point. ...

The day after the arrests, all three were placed in solitary confinement without explanation, and left there for nearly four days, said Caroline Verhagen, mother of Dupuis. Georgia’s deputy attorney general, John Fowler, will be prosecuting the charges – an indicator of the state’s approach to the case.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley downplays federal abortion ban

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has distanced herself from calls for a federal abortion ban, saying that to promise such a universal barrier to terminations would be to lie to the American people.

In an interview with CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Haley declined to follow some of her other potential Republican rivals for the presidency by backing a nationwide ban through congressional legislation. Instead, she said it is up to each state to set its own limit on abortion. “There are some states that have been pro-life – I welcome that,” she said. “There are some states that have erred on the side of abortion – I wish that wasn’t the case. We need to make sure that people’s voices are heard.”

Haley, 51, is firmly in the anti-abortion wing of the Republican party and has the track record to prove it. As South Carolina governor, she signed into law a provision that bans abortions after 20 weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest. That law went into effect after the decision by the US supreme court last June to overturn the nationwide right to an abortion.

Despite her hardline position, the Republican presidential candidate is now attempting to soften that image by detaching herself from talk of a federal ban. The disappointing result of the party in last November’s midterm elections was widely attributed to Republican messaging on abortion, which stands starkly out of line with the broad pro-choice sentiments of American public opinion.

Feinstein Staff COVERED UP Dementia For Years

Oceans have been absorbing the world’s extra heat. But there’s a huge payback

By the end of March, the surface temperature of the world’s oceans was above anything seen in the 40 years that satellites have been measuring it. Records were “headed off the charts” and, as the heat refused to fade for more than a month, the Earth marched into “uncharted territory”, scientists said.

The temperature at the ocean’s surface – like on land – is being pushed higher by global heating but can jump around from one year to the next as weather systems come and go. But in the 2km below the surface, that variability is almost nowhere to be seen. The rising heat down there has been on a relentless climb for decades, thanks to burning fossil fuels.

“The heat-holding capacity of the ocean is mammoth,” says Dr Paul Durack, a research scientist specialising in ocean measurements and modelling at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “The ocean captures more than 90% of the imbalance of energy that we’re creating because of anthropogenic climate change.” The ocean is much less reflective than the land and soaks up more of the direct energy from sunlight.

But as greenhouse gases trap more of the energy that’s reflected back – allowing less to escape to space – the ocean tries to balance itself with the heat in the atmosphere above. A technical chart in a chapter of the latest UN climate assessment laid out the unfathomable heat gain. Between 1971 and 2018, the ocean had gained 396 zettajoules of heat. How much heat is that? Scientists have calculated it is the equivalent energy of more than 25bn Hiroshima atomic bombs. And that heat gain is accelerating. ...

Dr Bernadette Sloyan researches changes in the ocean at Australia’s CSIRO government science agency and spends her days analysing ocean data. ... Sloyan says the ocean has acted like the planet’s air conditioner, relentlessly absorbing extra heat. “But that air conditioner isn’t just passive. It is not a free service. Adding that heat has come with ocean acidification, rising sea levels and changes in the frequency of extreme weather.”

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Fell 68% in April Compared With Last Year

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest decreased by 68% this April compared with last year, according to preliminary government data published Friday.

The finding reflects positively on the administration of leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to make the destruction of the crucial ecosystem "a thing of the past."

As Reuters reported:

Official data from space research agency INPE showed that 328.71 square km (126.92 square miles) were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon last month, below the historical average of 455.75 square km for the month.

That interrupted two consecutive months of higher deforestation, with land clearing so far this year now down 40.4% to 1,173 square km.

Lula's victory last October over Brazil's far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was hailed as a critical step toward rescuing the Amazon from more severe and possibly irreversible damage.

Also of Interest

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

False Claims About Russia Continue To Cloud The 'West's' Vision

They Are Propagandizing For Nazis But Won't Tell You That

Craig Murray: Extreme Policing

‘Ecuador & Assange: The Back Story’

Ideological Echo Chambers Are Making Us All Stupid: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Understanding The Highly Complex World Of Western China Analysis

You Don’t Have To Choose Between Happiness And Being Informed

The Imprisoned Journalist The U.S. DOESN’T Want You To Know About

RFK Jr Trails Biden By ONE POINT In New Rasmussen Survey Of General Electorate

Debt Ceiling Talks To Resume TOMORROW As Dems DEMAND Biden Consider 14th Amendment

How GREEDFLATION Destroyed The Working Class: Analysis

A Little Night Music

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Soulful Dress

Sugarpie Desanto - Going Back To Where I Belong

Sugarpie Desanto - I Want To Know

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Go Go Power

Sugarpie Desanto - Can't Let You Go

Sugarpie Desanto - Open Your Heart

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Baby It Ain't Right

Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto - Do I Make Myself Clear

Sugar Pie DeSanto - A Little Taste Of Soul

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Slip-In Mules (No High Heel Sneakers)

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Use What You Got