---

---

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Victoria Spivey

---

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early blues and jazz singer Victoria Spivey. Enjoy!

^{Victoria Spivey - Organ Grinder Blues}

“Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”

-- George F. Kennan

---

News and Opinion

Worth a full read:

Patrick Lawrence: The USA’s Soviet-Style President

Joe Biden announces — via a video, not in person so we can see him live — that he will run for reelection in 2024. Immediately we read that Forty-Six is playing his cards close to his chest, letting his record speak for itself — a daring proposition — and has no plans to begin campaigning in earnest, not even in those states we commonly refer to as “swing.” ... Get ready, readers. We are in for 19 months of relentless, insultingly transparent spin, propaganda, and lies of omission, by way of which a senile, patently incompetent man will be offered to us as the president for another four years. ...

You won’t see much of Biden during the coming campaign season. He will make the minimum of public appearances, and they will be brief. He will not answer many questions — mine, yours, or any journalist’s. And those he does answer will be carefully vetted replies written on index cards, as is already the practice. Already we are advised the Democratic National Committee will hold no primary debates.

Last week The New York Post gave us a preview of things to come. The Post, you will recall, broke the Hunter Biden laptop story shortly before the 2020 elections. Those exclusives were discredited as Russian disinformation until Biden won, whereupon the Post was vindicated. Put it out of your mind that the chicanery of three years ago was any kind of one-off. ... Two days after its journalists were excluded from a Biden presser, they reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to give the House Oversight Committee a file containing evidence that Biden was allegedly accepting bribes during his years as Barack Obama’s veep. It was during those years, of course, that Hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company and Joe carried the Obama regime’s Ukraine portfolio. You can read all about the Ukraine-related corruption of Biden père et fils on the latter’s laptop. You just can’t read about it in the liberal press.

The FBI’s stonewalling is a hangover consequence of the Russiagate years, I will remind you. It was during that scoundrel time that the Democratic Party, the national security apparatus, law enforcement and the press made common cause in the service of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency. Brazen refusals to abide by the law have been common as dirt ever since. You have to read the agency’s response to the House request to get the full, appalling picture. Here’s the good part:

“… keeping this kind of source information free from the perception or reality of improper influence — and preventing the redirection of this information for non-law enforcement or non-intelligence uses — is necessary for the FBI’s effective execution of our law enforcement and national security responsibilities.”

Take your time, I had to read it three times, too. ... Pulling this wad of execrable verbiage apart, the agency charged with enforcing federal law just told the House two things. One, we can’t give out information related to “improper influence” involving a figure holding high office even if the evidence we have proves it. “Free from the perception or reality…” Think about that. Two, and this is even wilder, the F.B.I. just told elected lawmakers that information it possesses about Biden’s corruption has no pertinence or application outside of the national security apparatus. In other words, evidence of bribes Biden accepted is none of the Congress’s or the public’s business. ...

Biden is not running for president. He is better understood as a creation of the Democratic machine and whose function is to front for the Deep State while it gets a declining empire’s work done. His obvious incapacities are just right for the job. Remote, unanswerable and unanswering, Biden seems to me the U.S.’s first fully Soviet-style president. During his 2020 campaigns I compared him with Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, the two dottering Soviet general-secretaries who preceded Mikhail Gorbachev. Then a reader pointed out this was unfair to Andropov and Chernenko, given what they got done in the late Soviet Union on the domestic side. I stood corrected. But I still wonder how many steps away Biden may be from the taxidermist.

30 Patriot missiles in 2 minutes. Zelensky returns to Kiev

Russia’s most potent hypersonic weapon neutralised, says Ukraine

Ukraine has said it has neutralised the Kremlin’s most potent hypersonic weapon, shooting down six out of six Kinzhal missiles launched at Kyiv, but hours later it emerged the intense night-time attack had damaged a Patriot air defence system.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air command, said Moscow had also bombarded the capital with nine Kalibr missiles and three ballistic rockets, as well as six attack drones and three reconnaissance drones. All were shot down, he said, thwarting what he called “air terrorism”.

But the attack appeared to have damaged a US-made Patriot air defence battery, US sources told CNN later on Tuesday. Officials warned the system may have to be withdrawn entirely depending on the level of damage it had sustained. An assessment was ongoing, they added.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the ministry of defence in Moscow said it had destroyed a US-supplied Patriot air defence battery. Serious damage to a Patriot would be a major blow to Ukraine’s air defences. Two Patriots, one donated by the US and one by Germany, arrived in the country around mid April, and have already been targeted previously by Russian missiles, in an effort to eliminate them. Although considered particularly effective, the Patriot is a relatively static air defence system, and is considered potentially vulnerable to high speed missiles.

Russia Hits US-Made Patriot Air Defense System in Kyiv

Russia’s military said Tuesday that it hit a US-made Patriot air defense system in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with a hypersonic missile, which was later confirmed by a US official.

“A high-precision strike by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile system hit a US-made Patriot air defense system,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.

A US official told CNN that a Patriot system in Kyiv was likely damaged but not destroyed by a Russian missile barrage. The US is assessing the damage to see if the system needs to be taken out of Ukraine for repairs.

UK and Netherlands agree ‘international coalition’ to help Ukraine procure F-16 jets

Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch leader Mark Rutte have agreed to build an “international coalition” to help procure F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine, the British government has announced. A Downing Street spokesperson said Sunak and Rutte “would work to build an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets”. ...

The statement on Tuesday came a day after Ukraine’s president hinted that Kyiv could soon receive F-16 fighter jets, saying he was hopeful of “very important” decisions on the subject with the help of the UK. ... Standing next to Sunak after the meeting, Zelenskiy said they had discussed fighter planes “because we can’t control the sky”, and was positive about persuading the US and other western nations to supply aircraft.

“We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think, very important decisions, but we have to work a little bit more on it,” he said. At the meeting, Britain also promised to supply “hundreds of attack drones”.

‘Absolutely Intolerable’: China’s Military Responds to US Military Aid for Taiwan, Troop Deployments

On Tuesday, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) responded to US plans to provide Taiwan with $500 million in unprecedented military aid and reports that said hundreds of US troops have been deployed to the island, warning it will “firmly crush attempts at external interference.” ...

According to a PLA press release, PLA spokesman Col. Tan Kefe said attempts “of the US side to turn back the wheel of history on the Taiwan question are absolutely intolerable.” ...

Tan noted that Washington severing diplomatic relations with Taipei, ending its Mutual Defense Treaty with the island, and withdrawing troops were “the preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US.”

He called on the US to stop increasing support for Taiwan and “reiterated that the Chinese PLA will continue to strengthen military training and combat readiness, firmly crush ‘Taiwan independence’ attempts and external interference in any form, and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Chinese embassy calls Liz Truss’s trip to Taiwan a ‘dangerous political stunt’

Liz Truss’s trip to Taiwan this week is a “dangerous political stunt”, the Chinese embassy in London has said, as the former prime minister prepares to call on Rishi Sunak to declare Beijing a “threat” to UK security.

She is expected to use a speech in Taipei City on Wednesday to challenge the prime minister to deliver on his rhetoric during last summer’s Conservative party leadership contest, when he declared China “the biggest-long term threat to Britain”. He also promised to close all 30 of the UK’s Confucius Institutes, which promote Chinese culture on campus in higher education and in some British schools.

In a pre-briefed extract of her speech to the Prospect Foundation, Truss is expected to say: “Last summer the now British prime minister described China as ‘the biggest long-term threat to Britain’, and said the Confucius Institutes should be closed. He was right and we need to see those policies enacted urgently.

“The UK’s integrated review needs to be amended to state clearly that China is a threat. Confucius Institutes should be closed down immediately. Instead, the service could be provided by organisations with the support of Hong Kong nationals and Taiwanese nationals who have come to the UK, on a free basis.”

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said Truss’s visit to Taiwan was a “dangerous political show which will do nothing but harm to the UK”. The statement on the embassy website added: “We urge the relevant British politician to correct her wrongdoing, stop making political shows with the Taiwan question and stop conniving at and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces.”

US Corn Industry Faces Tough Times In Its Two Largest Export Markets, China and Mexico

The United States Department of Agriculture is projecting record bumper crops for both corn and soybeans in 2023. Domestic corn production is estimated to reach 15.265 billion bushels, up 1.535 billion on 2022’s record harvest, largely due to increased planted area. But as supply surges, US corn growers face the prospect of slumping demand in its second biggest export market, China, as well as stiffening regulatory challenges in Mexico, its largest market. Between them China and Mexico accounted for just over half of all overseas purchases of US corn in the last crop marketing year (Sept. 1 2021- Aug. 31 2022).

China has been gradually reducing its corn imports from the US due to a combination of weak domestic demand and cheaper supplies from Brazil. Until recently, China imported roughly 70% of its corn from the US and roughly 30% from Ukraine, according to Brazilian grain exporters group Anec. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has, unsurprisingly, tried to find new suppliers to reduce its dependence on US and Ukrainian producers. Two of the countries it has turned to are fellow BRICS members Brazil and South Africa, Africa’s largest corn grower.

The results are already being felt. As Reuters reported in early May, Chinese buyers cancelled  832,000 tons of orders in the last three weeks of April alone. That was enough to push US corn exports to their lowest weekly total on record.

“China has made a strategic decision that rather than deal with the United States and our political differences, they will just buy from Brazil,” said Jim Gerlach, president of broker A/C Trading in Indiana.

MTG v FBI: Congresswoman Introduces ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT Against Director Christopher Wray

North Carolina bans abortion at 12 weeks, overriding Democratic governor’s veto

North Carolina has passed legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy after the state’s Republican-controlled general assembly successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto Tuesday evening.

The house completed the second and final part of the override with a vote of 72-58.

The move is expected to deal a fresh blow to one of the last bastions of abortion access in the south, which has been significantly curtailed after the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year.

Roy Cooper, a Democrat, had honored a vow he made to North Carolinians to protect reproductive rights by vetoing SB 20 during a public rally in Raleigh on Saturday, which was attended by thousands. But in separate votes Tuesday, the state senate and house cleared the path to put new restrictions into place.

Last week, Republicans had rushed the bill through the house, drawing criticism from other legislators and abortion rights advocates. The 46-page bill, in addition to banning abortion after 12 weeks, extends the waiting period for people seeking abortions to 72 hours, requires providers to send sensitive information to the state department of health and human services, and requires clinics to obtain special licensing that would result in clinic closures throughout the state.

“The Budget Farce”: Robert Kuttner on Why Biden Admin Can’t Give In to GOP Demands to Gut Safety Net

GOP plans to cut defense suddenly lost in debt ceiling debate

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s back was against the wall during the January House speakership fight, he struck a deal with GOP holdouts, which would have, among other things, capped discretionary spending at 2022 levels. At the time, McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he was open to defense budget cuts, a proposal then pushed as a bargaining chip by those Republican holdouts, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas). The ongoing debt ceiling negotiations and the looming default date offer the first test of how sincere these calls were. Republican members of Congress have so far held firm that any debt ceiling increase must be accompanied by spending cuts, but talk of the DoD budget being on the table has been completely absent from the public debate. ...

The Republican debt ceiling bill, entitled the “Limit, Save, and Grow Act,” which passed the House in late April, raises the borrowing limit into next year and caps federal spending at Fiscal Year 2022 levels. Republicans have pledged to focus cuts on programs relating to federal health care, education, and labor programs — but ultimately, they leave defense untouched in these conversations. “Given how it is structured, McCarthy’s proposal dashes the hopes of advocates of reining in the Pentagon’s bloated budget, while prompting a sigh of relief from the Pentagon, its contractors, and their allies in Congress,” wrote the Quincy Institute’s Bill Hartung in Forbes last month. ...

The defense budget accounts for approximately 44 percent of discretionary spending. If, as expected, the Republican budget reduction proposal does not include the Pentagon, domestic programs would have to be cut by up to 27 percent, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “The debt ceiling debacle has proven to be little more than political grandstanding on defense. It takes up almost half of discretionary spending – it is simply not possible to take defense off the table and discuss spending cuts in good faith,” Julia Gledhill, a defense analyst on the Project of Government Oversight, told RS. ...

If Republicans successfully strike a deal and manage to implement a cap on discretionary spending, perhaps it will lead to a debate over the Pentagon budget. Even if it does get to that point, however, Caldwell says, “that debate will primarily be centered around how large of a budget increase the Defense Department should get as opposed to how to cut overall levels of defense spending.”

As GOP Aims to Punish Poor, CBO Says Extending Trump Tax Cuts for Rich Would Add $3.5 Trillion to Deficit

While congressional Republicans hold the global economy hostage by refusing to raise the U.S. debt ceiling without major spending cuts that would hurt the working class, a federal analysis revealed Tuesday that GOP plans to extend tax 2017 breaks for the wealthy could add nearly $3.5 trillion to the nation's deficit.

The relevant section of the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report focuses on the potential extensions of policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which Republican lawmakers passed and then-President Donald Trump signed in late 2017.

Just extending the TCJA's changes to individual income tax provisions would cost almost $2.5 trillion through 2033, according to the CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation. Debt service costs would tack on another $278 billion.

If three other policies—higher estate and gift tax exemptions, changes to the tax treatment of investment costs, and certain business tax provisions—are extended plus debt service costs are included, the total hits nearly $3.5 trillion.

Baltimore teenager hospitalized after being shot in the back running from police

On Thursday, May 11, Baltimore Police Officer Cedric Elleby shot 17-year-old Mekhi Franklin in Southwest Baltimore, Maryland. Franklin was critically wounded and had to be hospitalized for his injuries. He remained in critical condition for several days, and had to have his spleen and left kidney surgically removed. Elleby was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting.

According to the Baltimore Banner, Franklin’s mother Kiera was not allowed to see her son in the hospital initially and had to wait for a police escort. In an interview with the paper she said, “I’m feeling like my son was shot like a dog by Baltimore Police. Now I can’t talk to my son.” She said further that the police would not tell her whether her son had been charged with a crime or would be charged. Franklin further told WJZ that her son had been shot in the back, “One bullet almost hit his spleen, and the other bullet went through his bladder.”

In a statement to the press, Deputy Commissioner Richard Worley said the officer approached the teen because “they believed [he] was displaying the characteristics of an armed person.” Worley refused to elaborate on this vague justification for the shooting. Seeking to further shield the officer, Worley stated, “we just know [Franklin] was running with the weapon and he basically ignored several commands to drop the weapon.” ...

Witnesses to the shooting and the events leading up to it contradicted almost everything the police claimed. Speaking to the Baltimore Sun, Daquan Young, a friend of the teen, said Elleby sat down next to Franklin for ten minutes, before the boy got up and walked away, leading Elleby to pursue him. Young and Devon Smith, another witness, both told the Sun they did not see Franklin holding a gun while running. Smith added that he did not hear the officer tell Franklin to drop the weapon. Both witnesses stated Franklin was shot in the back.

Multiple witnesses said the officer had been harassing Franklin both immediately prior to the shooting and in previous incidents. “This happened previously with the same police officer,” Franklin’s mother told WJZ. Franklin’s friend Young told the Sun that the same officer had approached him the day before, calling him names, and telling him that “he needed to lose weight.” Many witnesses demanded the body camera footage be released, indicating that it would contradict the police’s account.

---

---

RFK Jr On Covid, Ukraine, Border, Nuclear Power And MORE

---

---

Plastic pollution could be slashed by 80% by 2040, UN says

Global plastic pollution could be slashed by 80% by 2040, according to a report from the UN Environment Programme (Unep). The changes needed are major, but are also practical and affordable, the agency said. The first step is to eliminate unnecessary plastics, such as excessive packaging, the report said. Then next steps are to increase the reuse of plastics, such as refillable bottles, boosting recycling and replace plastics with greener alternatives.

Such a shift, driven by government policies and changes in the plastic industry, would mean plastic pollution would drop to about 40m tons in 2040, rather than 227m tons if no action is taken. The changes would bring benefits worth trillions of dollars between now and 2040, the report said, by reducing the damage caused by plastics to health, the climate and the environment.

Plastic now contaminates the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People consume microplastics via food and water, as well as breathing them in, and the particles have been found in people’s blood and breast milk.

In March 2022, 193 countries agreed to end plastic pollution, with negotiations on a legally binding agreement by 2024 now under way, hosted by Unep. The second round of negotiations starts on 29 May. The world currently produces 430m tons of plastics a year, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste. Production is set to triple by 2060 on current trends.

“The way we produce, use and dispose of plastics is polluting ecosystems, creating risks for human health and destabilising the climate,” said Inger Andersen, Unep’s executive director. “This report lays out a roadmap to dramatically reduce these risks through adopting a circular approach that keeps plastics out of ecosystems, out of our bodies and in the economy.

EPA finally wakes up with stiff new climate rules

In the past month, an avalanche of anti-pollution rules, targeting everything from toxic drinking water to planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, have been issued by the agency. Belatedly, the sizable weight of the US federal government is being thrown at longstanding environmental crises, including the climate emergency. On Thursday, the EPA’s month of frenzied activity was crowned by the toughest ever limits upon carbon pollution from America’s power sector, with large, existing coal and gas plants told they must slash their emissions by 90% or face being shut down.

The measure will, the EPA says, wipe out more than 600m tons of carbon emissions over the next two decades, about double what the entire UK emits each year. But even this wasn’t the biggest pollution reduction announced in recent weeks.

In April, new emissions standards for cars and trucks will eliminate an expected 9bn tons of CO₂ by the mid-point of the century, while separate rules issued late last year aim to slash hydrofluorocarbons, planet-heating gases used widely in refrigeration and air conditioning, by 4.6bn tons in the same timeframe. Methane, another highly potent greenhouse gas, will be curtailed by 810m tons over the next decade in another EPA edict.

In just a few short months the EPA, diminished and demoralized under Donald Trump, has flexed its regulatory muscles to the extent that 15bn tons of greenhouse gases – equivalent to about three times the US’s carbon pollution, or nearly half of the entire world’s annual fossil fuel emissions – are set to be prevented, transforming the power basis of Americans’ cars and homes in the process.

“They have really hit full throttle. I mean, some of these things have been in train for decades,” said Thomas Burke, who was senior science adviser at the EPA during Barack Obama’s administration. “These rules are essential if the US is going to address the climate crisis and so the past month has been very encouraging. The agency seems to be on the rebound.” If last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with its $370bn in clean energy subsidies and enticements for electric car buyers, was the carrot to reducing emissions, the EPA now appears to be bringing a hefty stick.

Canada: dry weather and shifting winds threaten to spread Alberta wildfires

Tinder-dry weather and shifting winds in western Canada have elevated the risk of spreading wildfires in the province of Alberta where thousands have already been forced from their homes.

About 90 wildfires are active in Alberta, with 23 out of control, according to the provincial government. At one point the fires pushed more than 30,000 people out of their homes while oil and gas producers shut in at least 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 3.7% of national production.

Evacuation orders and alerts have also been sounded in the neighboring province of British Columbia, where some 60 wildfires are active.

“The arrival of sustained winds from the north has resulted in aggressive fire behavior on all wildfires within the North Peace Region,” the BC wildfire service said late on Monday.

---

Also of Interest

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

US Values, Verities & Global Failure

Hungary Blocks Next Tranche of EU Off-Budget Military Support for Ukraine

Ukraine - Air Defense Lessons (Updated)

‘Death Outlives War’: Analysis Estimates Post-9/11 ​US Conflicts Killed Over 4.5 Million

Report: US and Syria Engaged in Negotiations in Oman

China Has A Huge Lead In Patents

Democratic Party Abandons Democracy Once Again

Serial Ethical Lapses at the Federal Reserve Will Come Under Scrutiny in a Senate Hearing Tomorrow

No one has accepted real responsibility for the East Palestine disaster

Could handbags be the haute couture solution to Florida’s python problem?

Reclaim Osage: Mike Africa Jr. on Push to Buy Back MOVE House 38 Years After Philly Police Bombed It

Pentagon Opens New PROPAGANDA Office

French PM Borne meets unions in bid to defuse tensions over pension reforms

More TWITTER FILES Coming?! Michael Shellenberger On Elon Musk’s PLANS

The Durham Report and coverup. Where is Professor Mifsud?

---

A Little Night Music

Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson - Dope Head Blues

Victoria Spivey w/Tampa Red & Georgia Tom - Don't Trust Nobody Blues

Victoria Spivey - Furniture Man Blues

Victoria Spivey -The Alligator Pond Went Dry

Victoria Spivey & ?he Chicago Four - Detroit Moan

Victoria Spivey and her Hallelujah Boys - Black Snake Swing

Victoria Spivey - Murder in the First Degree

Victoria Spivey - How Do They Do It That Way (Alternate Take)

Victoria Spivey - Dig Me

---