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"Capitol Hill is an assisted living facility for psychopaths. It’s where people who receive sexual gratification from dropping military explosives on civilians go to wait for the sweet embrace of death. The whole place smells like night terrors and urine."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Washington demands renewed bloodbath in Ukraine

This week, Ukraine began a major new phase of its offensive in the US-NATO war against Russia, resuming armored attacks against well-defended trenches. The New York Times reported, based on statements from US officials, that “the main thrust of Ukraine’s nearly two-month-old counteroffensive is now underway.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, “I can confirm that hostilities have intensified in a significant way,” saying a “large number” of Ukrainian armored vehicles were used, incurring “heavy losses.” ...

The latest escalation follows the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO members pledged to deploy tens of thousands of troops to Russia’s western borders and to massively increase military spending to finance the conflict with Russia and China. With the war going badly and public opposition in Ukraine growing, Ukrainian President Zelensky was given his marching orders at the summit: The offensive must continue, no matter the cost in human lives.

For months, the US media had promoted the “spring offensive” as a decisive turning point in the war that would deliver a shattering defeat for Russian forces. But the debacle has been so enormous that even the US media has been forced, after weeks of silence, to acknowledge it as a disaster. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported, “When Ukraine launched its big counteroffensive this spring, Western military officials knew Kyiv didn’t have all the training or weapons… that it needed to dislodge Russian forces. But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day." ...

The New York Times was even more direct in an article that was first buried, then heavily redacted. It reported on a Ukrainian unit with a “200 percent” casualty rate, meaning that all of its members were killed or injured, then replaced with recruits, all of whom were also killed or injured. It described young soldiers killed en masse, with “replacements often being older recruits who were forced into action.” ...

On Wednesday, the Biden administration ordered the US government to begin handing over documents to the International Criminal Court to facilitate the prosecution of Putin. This move follows extensive internal debate over whether this action would open up the United States, which has killed millions of people in criminal wars of aggression, to prosecution by the court, whose jurisdiction it does not recognize. The White House has decided, however, to move ahead with the prosecution, with the aim of upping the ante in the military conflict. A military defeat for Russia would mean, in other words, the prosecution of Putin at the hands of the American victors. The goal of this action is to preclude any negotiated settlement, which the United States has opposed from the beginning.

Counter-offensive reboot. Regime change in Moscow still the goal

Ukraine’s Parliament Votes to Extend Martial Law, Pushing Back Elections

Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday voted to extend martial law and general mobilization, a move that pushes back parliamentary elections that were scheduled for October.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said elections can’t happen under martial law because it’s prohibited under Ukraine’s constitution. ...

Ukraine’s martial law bans men ages 18-60 from leaving the country. In March 2022, Zelensky used his martial law powers to ban 11 opposition parties and nationalize TV media. The Ukrainian government has also seized control of several companies using wartime authorities.

Lithuania and Poland ‘may close Belarus borders’ due to Wagner fighters

Poland and Lithuania are considering closing their respective borders with Belarus amid concerns over the presence there of the Wagner mercenary group, a Lithuanian deputy interior minister said on Friday.

“The considerations are real. The possibility of closing the border exists,” Arnoldas Abramavicius told reporters.

Belarus has been hosting Wagner fighters after their short-lived rebellion against Russia’s top military brass.

Lithuania has repeatedly warned its western allies that Wagner mercenaries could disguise themselves as asylum seekers trying to cross Belarus’s borders with EU member states, or stage provocations involving refugees.

“It could be some groups of refugees, irregular migrants being transferred in order to cause some kind of unrest,” Abramavicius said. Poland’s ruling party chair, Jarosław Kaczyński, said on Friday that Wagner fighters were “not in Belarus for fun”.

Nanny nanny boo boo!

Ukraine moves Christmas date to 25 December in snub to Russia

Ukraine has moved its official Christmas holiday to 25 December in a break with the Russian Orthodox church, which celebrates it on 7 January.

The bill signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday highlights the deepening rift between churches in Kyiv and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of its pro-western neighbour.

“The relentless and successful struggle for their identity contributes to … the desire of every Ukrainian to live their own life with their own traditions and holidays,” reads an explanatory note to the bill on the parliament’s website. ...

The purpose of the new law was to “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations on 7 January”, the note said.

North Korea showcases attack drones during show of unity with China and Russia

North Korea has carried out demonstration flights of new military drones, state media reported, as leader Kim Jong-un shared centre stage with senior delegates from Russia and China in a show of unity at a parade in the capital.

State media said on Friday that Kim rolled out his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles during the “Victory Day” parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that stopped fighting in the Korean War.

Joining Kim were Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese ruling party official Li Hongzhong. Earlier, Shoigu gave Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which noted Pyongyang’s support for Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, adding that the Korean War had laid the foundation for good relations in confronting the west.

The North’s official Korean Central news agency said the parade featured ceremonial flights of newly developed surveillance and attack drones, which were first unveiled by state media this week as they reported on an arms exhibition attended by Kim and Shoigu. Some observers said the two models displayed resembled US Global Hawk and Reapers drones in terms of their visual appearance.

North Korean state media said Kim and Shoigu on Wednesday reached a consensus on unspecified military matters related to the “regional and international security environment”. Kim also took Shoigu to an arms exhibition that displayed his most powerful weaponry, including new Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that were flight-tested in recent months and demonstrated potential range to reach deep into the US mainland. Those ICBMs — the Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 — were rolled out as the finale of Thursday’s parade, the KCNA said.

Judge orders release of three of ‘Newburgh four’ and accuses FBI of ‘trolling for terrorists’

Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting were ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the role of the FBI in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down national guard planes.

Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen – three of the men known as the “Newburgh four” – were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught up more than a decade ago in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US district judge Colleen McMahon said on Thursday.

“The real lead conspirator was the United States,” McMahon wrote in granting the men’s request for compassionate release, effective in three months.

She said it was “heinous” of the men to agree to participate in what she called the government’s “made for TV movie”. But, the judge added, “the sentence was the product of a fictitious plot to do things that these men had never remotely contemplated, and that were never going to happen.”

She excoriated the government for sending “a villain” of an informant “to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might prove susceptible to an offer of much-needed cash in exchange for committing a faux crime”

Trump Charged With 3 ADDITIONAL Counts In Classified Documents Case

Trump faces more charges in classified documents case as second aide named

Federal prosecutors on Thursday expanded the indictment against Donald Trump for retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, unveiling new charges against him and an employee over an attempt to destroy surveillance footage. The new charges – filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Florida – were outlined in a superseding indictment that named Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira as the third co-defendant in the case. Trump’s valet Walt Nauta was previously indicted for obstruction with the former president last month.

Trump’s legal exposure in the classified documents case grew after he was accused of attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence, as well as an additional count under the Espionage Act for retaining a classified document about US plans to attack Iran that he discussed on tape at his Bedminster club in New Jersey.

The expanded indictment added a new section titled “The Attempt to Delete Security Camera Footage” that alleged in detail how Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing surveillance footage that prosecutors subpoenaed which showed boxes of classified documents being removed from the storage room.

According to the indictment, Trump seemingly instructed Nauta to unexpectedly travel to Mar-a-Lago to have the tapes destroyed. Nauta then enlisted the help of De Oliveira, and they walked to a security booth where the camera angles were displayed on monitors before walking down to the cameras and pointing them out with flashlights.

The following week, De Oliveira asked the director of IT at Mar-a-Lago, described as “Trump Employee 4” but understood to be Yuscil Taveras, how long surveillance footage was stored for and then told him “the boss” wanted the server deleted. When the director of IT replied that he did not know how to delete the server and suggested De Oliveira ask the security supervisor at the Trump Organization, De Olivera again insisted that “the boss” wanted the server deleted, the indictment said.

AOC DISMANTLED As Just Another Dem

Tim Scott criticizes Ron DeSantis for Florida teaching guidelines on slavery

The South Carolina senator Tim Scott criticized Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor also running for the Republican presidential nomination, for supporting new standards that require Florida teachers to tell middle school students people enslaved in the US developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit”.

“What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives,” Scott, the only Black Republican in the US Senate, told reporters on Thursday after a town hall event in Ankeny, Iowa.

“It was just devastating. So I would hope that every person in our country – and certainly running for president – would appreciate that.

“People have bad days. Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”

DeSantis, who has pursued a hard-right agenda in office that he is now attempting to replicate in the Republican primary, has faced criticism from Florida teachers, civil rights leaders and the White House.

‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

The era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record. ...

Guterres’s comments came after scientists confirmed on Thursday that the past three weeks have been the hottest since records began and July is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded. Global temperatures this month have shattered records, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, stoked by the burning of fossil fuels and spurring violent weather.

The steady rise in global average temperatures, driven by pollution that traps sunlight and acts like a greenhouse around the Earth, has made weather extremes worse. “Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame.

Guterres urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.

U.N. Warns: "The Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived"

Heat from extinct volcano could be piped into Dutch homes

Heat from an extinct volcano could be piped into homes under a plan in the Dutch city of Bolsward. The Netherlands may be known for windmills but Ynze Salverda is no fan of the wind turbines proliferating across the country. He believes sustainable energy could be generated underground using residual warmth from the Zuidwal volcano deep under the Wadden Sea.

“It started as a crazy idea,” said Salverda, a board member of Stichting Ontwikkeling Geothermie Friesland (Stogef), a community initiative. “These big wind turbines put a lot of pressure on our landscape but when there is no wind we have a problem. I have a background in the oil and gas world, I knew that there were a few volcanoes, and the [increased] temperature is going to the coast.”

The Netherlands’ history as a major gas extractor means it has huge amounts of subsurface data. “We found out that there is a layer of porous stone, it’s nice and warm, about 90C, so wouldn’t it be an idea to use geothermal energy,” he said. “We want to take it in our own hands and work with the local government. Just like food, we need energy to be reliable, affordable and it should not be commercialised. And that’s the whole idea.”

Using a geothermal “doublet” technique, water can be pumped up from the ground in a production well and the heat extracted in a heat exchanger before the water is reinjected via an injection well. The public energy company Energie Beheer Nederland believes 25% of Dutch heat demand could eventually be met by geothermal energy.

Also of Interest

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

Washington Post Still Covers Up U.S. War Crimes And Use Of Biological Weapons

Capitol Hill Is An Assisted Living Facility For Psychopaths: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Some Thoughts on the Russian End Game in Ukraine

Is British intelligence pushing a new war in Kosovo?

Bipartisan effort to claw back war powers from White House launched today

US Vets Try to Stop Students from Joining Up

Patrick Lawrence: No, The Truth About Biden Is Not Democratic

Private Equity Wreckers Come For Your Health Insurance

Rare stamp that offered fast track to heaven to go on display in UK

A Little Night Music

Tab Benoit - Blues So Bad

Tab Benoit - Night Train

Tab Benoit - Broke And Lonely

Tab Benoit - I Got Loaded

Tab Benoit - One Foot in the Bayou

Tab Benoit - Too Many Dirty Dishes

Tab Benoit - I Put A Spell On You

Tab Benoit - We Make A Good Gumbo

Tab Benoit - Hot Tamale Baby