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This evening's music features Chicago blues musician Maurice John Vaughn. Enjoy!

"All of Creation’s a farce. Man was born as a joke. In his head his reason is buffeted Like wind-blown smoke. Life is a game. Everyone ridicules everyone else. But he who has the last laugh Laughs longest."

-- William Shakespeare

News and Opinion

Pfffftttt!!!

US says Chinese spy balloon downed in February did not collect information

The Chinese spy balloon shot down by a US fighter jet over the Atlantic in February did not collect intelligence as it flew across the United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

“It’s been our assessment now that it did not collect intelligence while it was transiting the United States or overflying the United States,” said a Pentagon spokesman, Pat Ryder. ...

It was shot down on 4 February just off the South Carolina coast, and was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean by the US military, which has been studying its contents since.

Aging Iraq Invaders Keep Accidentally Saying ‘Iraq’ Instead Of ‘Ukraine’

President Biden accidentally referred to Putin’s war in “Iraq” when answering questions from the press, a year after former president George W Bush made the same gaffe. Both men played crucial roles in the push to invade Iraq.

Asked on Wednesday whether the short-lived Prigozhin rebellion was a sign that Putin was weakening, Biden replied, “It’s hard to tell really. But he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq.”

During the 2020 presidential race, Current Affairs’ Nathan J Robinson wrote the following about Biden’s pivotal role in manufacturing support for the Iraq invasion:

In 2003, Biden was “a senator bullish about the push to war [in Iraq] who helped sell the Bush administration’s pitch to the American public,” who “voted for — and helped advance — the Bush agenda.” He was the war’s “most crucial” senate supporter. Biden repeated the myth that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, saying that “these weapons must be dislodged from Saddam Hussein, or Saddam Hussein must be dislodged from power.” The resulting war was one of the most deadly catastrophes in the history of U.S. foreign policy — the Iraqi death toll was in the hundreds of thousands or possibly even the millions, and 4,500 American troops died.

That Biden’s decomposing brain would find the word “Iraq” when reaching for the word which means “nation that has been illegally invaded by an evil government” is positively Freudian.

In May of last year during a speech in Dallas, George W Bush made a similar Freudian confession, saying, “The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of Ukraine.”

After correcting himself with a nervous chuckle, Bush broke the tension with the words, “Iraq too. Anyway.” He then quipped that he is 75 years old, leaning harder on his “Aw shucks gee willikers I’m such a goofball” persona than he ever has in his entire life.

I defy you to find me anything that is more quintessentially representative of the state of the US empire than these two clips. Two decaying empire managers fumbling around in their skulls for the name of nation that’s been invaded by murderous thugs, and coming up with the name of the nation they themselves invaded. It’s truly a thing of beauty.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that they’re trying to charge Putin with war crimes while these two mass murderers are walking free. As American law professor Dale Carpenter has said, “If citizens cannot trust that laws will be enforced in an evenhanded and honest fashion, they cannot be said to live under the rule of law. Instead, they live under the rule of men corrupted by the law.” This is all the more true of laws which would exist between nations.

It’s not a “whataboutism” to say it’s absurd to charge Putin with war crimes without charging men like Bush and Biden — it’s a completely devastating argument against the claim being made. If the law doesn’t apply to everyone, then it’s not the law, it’s just corruption. It’s a tool of the powerful.

This is hilarious:

John Kerry is on a tour flamboyantly depicting Russia as a rouge state for invading a sovereign country, only for French journalist @DariusRochebin to remind him the US has invaded multiple countries, and Kerry himself voted to authorize the Iraq War. Watch: https://t.co/i90JH3KAyO

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 26, 2023

US moves toward sending cluster bombs and long-range missiles to Ukraine

In a script repeated over and over again since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, the United States is moving to send a new set of weapons to Ukraine that it had previously ruled out. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, “Kyiv had received positive signs in recent weeks that the U.S. had come around on the ATACMS system,” a long-range missile system capable of striking deep inside Russian territory. ...

The Journal wrote that “Officials said that the matter is pending approval at the highest levels.” In other words, the decision to send the weapon system has already been made, and all that is being awaited is the decision on how best to announce the escalation to the public. In May, US President Joe Biden told journalists that the US was “not going to send rocket systems to Ukraine that can strike into Russia,” adding, “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders.”

In reality, the United States has already provided Ukraine with the ground-launched small-diameter bombs (GLSDB) with a range of 93 miles, while the US’s NATO ally Britain has sent Ukraine Storm Shadow missiles, which can reach over 180 miles. The US has given private authorization for Ukrainian strikes inside mainland Russia and publicly endorsed Ukrainian strikes inside Crimea. “Those are legitimate targets,” Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said. “Ukraine is hitting them. We are supporting that.”

The Journal explained that a factor in the expected announcement was the domestic political crisis inside Russia, which US military strategists claim was proof that their efforts to weaken Russia are working. “Amid the domestic turmoil in Russia, where over the weekend the founder of the Wagner mercenary force staged an abortive mutiny, US and European officials indicated that now might be the time to provide the more advanced weaponry,” the Journal wrote. ...

At the same time, both CNN and Politico report that the United States is moving closer toward announcing a decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, which are notorious for scattering unexploded bomblets that kill civilians for decades afterwards. They are infamous for maiming and killing children who attempt to play with them. Politico reported, “The Biden administration is actively considering sending cluster munitions to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s counteroffensive punch through Russia’s defenses, two US officials and a person familiar with the debate said.”

NATO to offer security 'promises' and Ukraine must keep fighting

Russia can no longer rely on agreements with West, Sergey Lavrov says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the relations between Russia and the West a "fight of worlds," because Moscow can no longer rely on previously achieved agreements, including legally binding ones.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has said it repeatedly that we are open for cooperation. But, in regards to our former Western partners, we can no longer rely on agreements with them, including legally binding ones. It is a ‘fight of worlds,’ of sorts," the minister said on Russian TV Wednesday.

Macron dances as France burns

France police shooting: violence erupts for a third consecutive night

Violence has erupted for a third consecutive night in France as Emmanuel Macron struggles to contain mounting anger after the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy of north African descent during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb.

The officer concerned was charged with voluntary homicide on Thursday and placed in provisional detention in the capital as an estimated 6,000 people marched through the streets of Nanterre in memory of the teenager, identified as Nahel M.

Carrying placards reading “Justice for Nahel” and led by his mother, protesters chanted “No justice, no peace” and “Police kill”. While it began peacefully, the afternoon march descended into violence, with police firing teargas at masked youths.

Despite government appeals for calm and vows that order would be restored, smoke from burning cars, bins and a local bank branch later billowed over the suburb’s streets, while as the night advanced violent skirmishes between rioters and police also broke out in Lille, Toulouse, Marseille and Montpellier.

The French president had held a morning crisis meeting with senior ministers after a second night of unrest and rioting across France in which public buildings were set on fire and cars torched in cities from Lille to Toulouse, as well as in the Paris suburbs. “The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations but also schools and town halls, and thus institutions of the republic – and these scenes are wholly unjustifiable,” Macron said.

Google to Block Local News Articles in Canada Over Law Targeting Big Tech

Google announced Thursday that it will block local news content from search results in Canada once a new law requiring it and Meta to pay media outlets for linking to articles goes into effect in about six months.

Meta said last week that it will pull journalistic content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada over the same law, known as Bill C-18 and the Online News Act.

"We have now informed the government that when the law takes effect, we unfortunately will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products in Canada," Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, the search engine's parent company, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

"We don't take this decision or its impacts lightly and believe it's important to be transparent with Canadian publishers and our users as early as possible," Walker added.

Canadian lawmakers enacted the Online News Act last Thursday. The Department of Canadian Heritage said in a statement that "digital platforms benefit from sharing news content on their platforms, both directly (advertising near news) and indirectly (user engagement, data refinement, subsequent targeted advertising)."

"This legislation requires dominant platforms to compensate Canadian news businesses fairly for their content by addressing the bargaining imbalance between the two parties," said the department.

Just hours after Bill C-18 was approved, Meta announced that "news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada" before the law takes effect.

Is Supreme Court's "Gay Wedding" Case Built on a Lie? Man at Center of Story is Married to a Woman

Key document may be fake in LGBTQ+ rights case before US supreme court

The veracity of a key document in a major LGBTQ+ rights case before the US supreme court has come under question, raising the possibility that important evidence cited in it might be wrong or even falsified.

The supreme court is expected to issue a ruling on Friday in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, which deals with a challenge to a Colorado law prohibiting public-serving businesses from discriminating against gay people as well as any statements announcing such a policy.

The suit centers on Lorie Smith, a website designer who does not want to provide her services for gay weddings because of her religious objections. In 2016, she says, a gay man named Stewart requested her services for help with his upcoming wedding. “We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website,” reads a message he apparently sent her through her website. In court filings, her lawyers produced a copy of the inquiry.

But Stewart, who requested his last name be withheld for privacy, said in an interview with the Guardian that he never sent the message, even though it correctly lists his email address and telephone number. He has also been happily married to a woman for the last 15 years, he said. The news was first reported by the New Republic. In fact, until he received a call this week from a reporter from the magazine, Stewart said had no idea he was somehow tied up in a case that had made it to the supreme court.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in Colleges But Keeps It for Military Academies

Biden, Dems In UPROAR Over SCOTUS Affirmative Action Ruling: 'Not A Normal Court'

The Supreme Court’s Next Gift For Its Billionaire Benefactors

The Supreme Court just agreed to hear a case next term that could preempt Congress and the Biden administration from instituting a federal wealth tax — another potentially lucrative gift for conservative justices’ billionaire benefactors and the super rich. A think tank affiliated with some of those benefactors recently pressed the court to accept the case and outlaw such taxes.

Days after the high court accepted the case, President Joe Biden reiterated his opposition to progressives’ demand that he add justices to the panel, which has a 6-3 conservative supermajority. “If we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it — maybe forever — in a way that is not healthy, that you can’t get back,” he declared.

The new case, Moore v. United States, is tailored to try to block Democrats’ promised agenda by defining what can — and cannot — count as taxable “income” under the Constitution. It specifically challenges a one-time levy on some shareholders for their foreign corporate earnings that was included in the 2017 Republican tax law.

The plaintiffs are a Washington state couple who faced a $15,000 tax bill under that provision for a stake they owned in an Indian company. They argue that their corporate earnings should not count as taxable income under the Constitution because they had not been distributed to shareholders as dividends. Tax law experts told The Lever that the petitioners' narrow definition of "income" misreads the historical record — and pointed to several past examples of Congress enacting similar taxes.

The real goal of the case is “to slam shut the door on a federal wealth tax,” as the couple’s lawyers wrote in a 2021 column. The couple’s petition to the Supreme Court expressly decries previous wealth tax proposals from Democrats, including Biden, and urges the justices to “head off a major constitutional clash down the line.”

Master Lock’s Milwaukee plant to close after 100 years and send jobs abroad

For over 100 years, the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee manufactured locks and security products. Now, what was for years the last remaining large manufacturing holdout on the north side of Milwaukee’s industrial sector, is being shut down after the company informed employees a phased shutdown will begin on 31 October 2023, with final operations halting by March 2024.

The plant employed more than 1,100 employees in the 1990s but the number of employees in the plant fell to about 270 in 2003 as Master Lock began offshoring jobs to Mexico and China.

That policy was reversed a few years later and then president Barack Obama visited the plant in February 2012, praising the company for reshoring jobs from China back to the US. Employment at the plant rebounded to more than 370 jobs by the end of 2010 and ticked up to 412 jobs in 2012.

Now employees noted the work will be sent abroad to Mexico and China again, where Master Lock has manufacturing plants. A subsidiary of Fortune Brands Innovations, Master Lock reported a record revenue of $860m in 2022 and its parent company has noted in investor materials plans to boost profits from $50m to $75m through “footprint improvements” that include the closure of the plant.

More than 400 jobs will be lost, including 330 workers represented by United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 469.

Los Angeles unhoused population reaches 75,000 amid humanitarian crisis

The unhoused population of Los Angeles has grown by 9%, with more than 75,000 people now experiencing homelessness across the county, according to data from the government’s annual count, released on Thursday.

The Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) report suggests that there was a sharper increase in homelessness this year compared with last year, when the agency estimated a 4% rise in the population. The agency count includes people living on the street and people in shelters.

While the overall population saw a 9% increase, there was a sharper increase in people considered “unsheltered”, defined as those living outside in tents, cars, RVs and other makeshift encampments. The unsheltered population increased by 14% from 2022 to 2023, with more than 50,156 people living outside, making up 70% of the overall homeless population. The number of homeless people living indoors in shelters has remained steady at roughly 20,000 people.

The counts are a rough estimate gathered between 24 to 26 January of this year, and the numbers have previously been found to be an undercount.

The data comes amid an escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the most populous county in America, which has prompted scrutiny from the United Nations and where an average of six unhoused people are now dying each day. Overdoses have been driving the sharp increase in fatalities of people living outside, along with heart disease, traffic accidents, homicides, hypothermia and heat exhaustion.

DeSantis says as US president he would eliminate IRS and other agencies

Ron DeSantis pledged on Wednesday that he would eliminate four federal agencies if he were elected president: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, and Department of Education.

“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” the Florida governor said in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. “If Congress won’t go that far, I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism that we see creeping into all institutions of American life.”

Presidential candidates have long tried to eliminate federal agencies, but cannot do so unilaterally, needing Congress to go along with the plan. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, had one of the most embarrassing moments in a presidential campaign in recent memory during a 2011 debate, when he forgot one of the agencies he wanted to eliminate. Donald Trump later tapped him to lead that agency, the Department of Energy.

DeSantis offered the proposals as he continues to significantly lag behind Donald Trump in polls for the GOP presidential nomination. The Florida governor is moving to run to the right of Trump on key issues, hoping to mobilize the GOP’s conservative base.

Hunter, Joe Biden's 'ORGANIZED CRIME' May Have Exceeded $40M In Overseas Cash: Rep Comer

Global heating making extreme rain and catastrophic flooding more likely

A warming world is transforming some major snowfalls over mountains into extreme rain, worsening both dangerous flooding like the type that devastated Pakistan last year as well as long-term water shortages, a new study has found. Using rain and snow measurements since 1950 and computer simulations for future climate, scientists calculated that for every degree Fahrenheit the world warms, extreme rainfall at higher elevation increases by 8.3% (15% for every degree Celsius), according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.

Heavy rain in mountains causes a lot more problems than big snow, including flooding, landslides and erosion, scientists said. And the rain is not conveniently stored away like snowpack that can recharge reservoirs in spring and summer. “It is not just a far-off problem that is projected to occur in the future, but the data is actually telling us that it’s already happening and we see that in the data over the past few decades,” said lead author Mohammed Ombadi, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory hydrologist and climate scientist.

As the world has warmed to the brink of the 1.5C (2.7F) internationally agreed threshold to stem the worst effects of climate change, this study shows “every degree [Celsius] matters because it comes with an additional 15% increase” in extreme rain over mountains, Ombadi said. That per-degree rainfall boost in the mountains is more than twice the increase the rest of the world gets from warming air holding more water.

The study looked at only the heaviest rains each year over six decades in the northern hemisphere, finding that as altitude rose, so did the turbocharging of rain. The biggest increase in rains were noticed at about 10,000ft (3,000 meters). That includes much of the American west, where Ombadi said “it’s very pronounced”, as well as parts of the Appalachian Mountains. Another big hotspot in Asia is the Himalayas, Tian Shan and Hindu Kush mountains, with the Alps also affected.

About one in four people on Earth live in an area close enough to the mountains or downhill that extreme rain and flooding would hit them, Ombadi said.

Extreme heatwaves spread as US told to expect hot and smoky summer

Extreme heatwaves are continuing to spread across the country as meteorologists warn Americans to prepare for a hot and smoky summer. With the 235 out-of-control Canadian wildfires showing no signs of dying down, smoke has drifted south into the US and shrouded multiple cities including Chicago and Detroit in a thick haze.

There are no signs of the relief coming for the next week or longer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center.

Numerous air quality alerts were issued on Wednesday across north-eastern states including Maryland and Virginia.

In total, at least 80 million Americans have been placed under excessive heat alerts.

Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: Russian (Melo)drama

We shouldn’t be cheering for state collapse in Russia

Records Destroyed of Starmer Trips to DC During Assange Case

‘It burns wild and free up there’: Canada fires force US crews to shift strategy

German Catholic church ‘dying painful death’ as 520,000 leave in a year

Farage canceled. Macron, Elton John concert. Lavrov doubts sanity of west. Bono, Elensky merch.

A Little Night Music

Maurice John Vaughn - I got money

Maurice John Vaughn - Generic Blues

Maurice John Vaughn - Nothing left to believe in

Maurice John Vaughn - Computer Took My Job

Maurice John Vaughn - Garbage Man Blues

Maurice John Vaughn - Two Can Play That Game

Maurice John Vaughn - Can't Nobody

Maurice John Vaughn - Travellin' Man

Maurice John Vaughn - I Want To Be Your Spy

Maurice John Vaughn - In The Midnight Hour