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This evening's music features zydeco accordianist and singer Lynn August. Enjoy!

"We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer 'To hell with them.' The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do."

-- Michael Foot

News and Opinion

For The First Time In History, Humanity Has A Single Common Foe

During a 1987 speech before the United Nations, Ronald Reagan spoke positively about the unifying effect that an alien invasion would have on humankind around the world.

“In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity,” Reagan said. “Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”

The “antagonisms of the moment” in Reagan’s case were the tail end of a cold war standoff with the USSR that had held humanity hostage to the threat of nuclear annihilation since the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb in 1949. Prior to that the antagonisms of the moment were the two world wars, and prior to that were countless conflicts between nations, kingdoms, civilizations and tribes stretching back past the horizon of recorded history.

Antagonisms have continued on from moment to moment to the present day, with a new multi-front cold war which could turn hot at any time already bringing the threat of nuclear armageddon back to the forefront after a brief intermission. Which is absolutely ridiculous, because, for the first time in history, humanity does have a common universal threat which should be bringing us together.

That threat comes to us not from outside ourselves as in Reagan’s hypothetical alien invasion scenario, but from within. For the first time in history humanity is being forcefully confronted with its own self-destructiveness, because we are driving ourselves to our own extinction.

Humanity has been at its own throat throughout all of known history, with violence, war and tyranny remaining a behavioral constant around the world for as far back as our records can show us. As soon as we became the new apex predator on the scene we ceased having to worry about being killed by hungry carnivores and instead worried primarily about being killed by other humans. Other humans who wanted our things. Other humans who wanted our land. Other humans who served a different ruler than us. Other humans who worshipped a different god than us. Other humans who espoused a different political ideology than us.

And while all that was going on, nature was just quietly doing its own thing in the background, unnoticed and unappreciated. Our biosphere had always been there, functioning in more or less the same way for as long as we could remember, so we mostly just took it for granted and focused our attention on the far more urgent task of killing and enslaving and oppressing and exploiting each other throughout the ages.

And now, suddenly, nature won’t let us ignore it anymore. Our biosphere is showing numerous and diverse signs of rapid deterioration and destabilization as a direct result of the competition-based models that have been driving human behavior in recent centuries, and if we don’t come together as a species to drastically change the way we’re collectively functioning on this planet we’re going to lose the only home we have.

We’re coming upon a point where humanity is going to have to unite to defend its home planet, not from extraterrestrial invaders, but from its own self-destructive impulses. We simply cannot keep harming and competing against each other any longer, not because it sucks but because it has become unsustainable. We’re being forced into a situation where we must transcend our self-destructive patterning and move into a new way of operating on this planet, or go extinct. We will annihilate ourselves by environmental destruction or nuclear war if we don’t drastically transform our behavioral patterns very soon.

In this sense we are being existentially confronted as a species by forces deep within ourselves. Deeply unconscious forces. Ancient forces. Forces which have been whipping around within us in some form since before our evolutionary ancestors first walked upright. For the first time in history we are approaching a point where we’ll be required to turn and face those forces consciously, head-on, as you would an enemy who threatens your very life. Because that’s exactly what they are.

Our common foe is any aspect of our species that is pointed at death, destruction, domination and exploitation instead of health and harmony. Some humans and some human institutions embody those forces much more severely than others, but they exist within us all. If we’re to rise to the occasion and drastically change our collective behavior, we’re going to have to uproot it all. Only then can we become a truly conscious species and proceed to the next stage in our adventure in this world.

Every species eventually hits a point where it must adapt to changing situations or go extinct. We’re arriving at ours currently. I don’t know exactly what it will look like if and when that adaptation occurs, but I think we can probably assume it would look like a rapid increase in awareness of the forces which drive our behavior, both individually and collectively.

Like an addict who has hit rock bottom, we’re going to be pressed hard to look at what makes us do the things we do. On an individual level that will come down to the psychological constructs and inner habits interwoven with the ego, which can be dispelled with rigorous inner examination. On a collective level it will come down to the systems, institutions and people who are keeping humanity locked in its self-destructive patterns, which can be dispelled through revolution of all varieties.

That seems to be what we’re headed toward as humanity begins to turn and face its collective enemy: either a massive explosion of consciousness, or a horrific self-inflicted extinction. But what we are definitely not headed toward is a future in which nuclear-armed powers continue ramping up aggressions against each other while ignoring the health of the biosphere we all rely on for survival. One way or the other, those days are coming to an end.

It’s no longer about nation versus nation, ruler versus ruler, group versus group, person versus person. It’s about humankind versus extinction. It’s a fight that can only have one winner, and it’s a fight we can only win together.

Rus Officials Say Major Rus Offensive Coming; Ukr Tries Fails Capture Rabotino; Zaluzhny Warns US

White House Tells Ukraine That Congress Will Back More War Spending

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the US has expressed to Ukraine and European allies that Congress will back the new spending on the war in Ukraine that President Biden has requested despite “dissonant” voices among Republicans.

An ambassador from an unnamed European country confirmed to Axios that his government had received that message from the US in recent days. Sullivan noted in his comments that there are still “strong” voices “in key leadership positions” in the Republican Party in Congress who favor continuing to fund the proxy war against Russia. ...

President Biden requested an additional $24 billion in the new Ukraine package, which would bring total spending on the war to about $137 billion if authorized. Biden’s request came after a CNN poll found 55% of Americans are opposed to Congress authorizing more spending on the conflict.

US to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in October

The United States will begin flight training for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in October, the Pentagon has announced.

The training would begin after the pilots receive English-language training next month, a Pentagon spokesman Brig Gen Pat Ryder said on Thursday. The flight training would take place at the Morris air national guard base in Tucson, Arizona, he added.

Several pilots and dozens of aircraft maintenance crew would take the training, Ryder added.

Last Sunday, Denmark and the Netherlands pledged to donate F-16s to Ukraine, fulfilling a longstanding wish by Ukraine that it says will help strengthen air defences and aid its counteroffensive against Russia’s 2022 invasion. Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, on Thursday said his country would also give Ukraine F-16s.

Denmark has begun training eight Ukrainian pilots in flying F-16s. They have arrived at the Danish military air base in Skrydstrup along with 65 personnel who will be trained in maintaining and servicing the jets.

Ukraine commits symbolic war against Crimea:

Ukraine celebrates independence day with first raid into Crimea

Ukrainian forces marked the country’s independence day with a naval raid into occupied Crimea, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukrainians for the defiance and courage that has won them global support in the fight with Russia. ...

Ukrainian troops landed on the western tip of Crimea, near the village of Olenivka, in the early hours of Thursday, defence intelligence said in a statement. They fought Russian troops and raised a Ukrainian flag, before all returned safely home.

It was the first time Ukrainian forces are known to have landed in Crimea since Putin ordered his forces over the border last year. They had to evade Russian defences on a long journey across the Black Sea, and then escape again after a skirmish.

A video mostly captured in blurry night vision showed Ukrainian fighters on boats, then attaching the country’s blue and yellow flag to a wooden building. ...

With a counteroffensive against Russian troops occupying southern and eastern Ukraine only creeping forward, Kyiv appears to be looking for other ways to put pressure on Putin and his military.

Western Hegemony FALLING APART, BRICS Now Controls 40% WORLD'S GDP & DE-DOLLARIZING

Brics to more than double with admission of six new countries

The Brics group of big emerging economies has announced the admission of six new members, in an attempt to reshape the global world order and provide a counterweight to the US and its allies.

From the beginning of next year, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE and Ethiopia will join the current five members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – it was announced at a summit in Johannesburg on Thursday.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, described the expansion as “historic”. He had been the leading proponent of the admission of new members, presenting an enlarged Brics as a way for the global south to have a stronger voice in world affairs.

It is unclear, however, how the expansion would significantly enhance the group’s clout on the global stage. That would depend on how far it will be able to act in unison, analysts said, and the group of new members has made it even more disparate, a mix of powerful autocracies with middle-income and developing democracies. ...

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the members had agreed on “the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the Brics expansion process”. Those criteria were not explained, however. Indonesia, for example, with a population of 274 million and a powerful force in Asia, applied to join but was not admitted.

BRICS Leaders Call for Democratic Global Order

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa set the tone for the BRICS summit in Johannesburg when he opened the gathering on Tuesday with calls for a more democratic global economic order with greater participation of countries from the Global South. He underlined that BRICS stands for inclusiveness and transparency in its development agenda and must continue to do so. Along with the heads of states of the existing BRICS members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — over 60 other countries participated in the 15th BRICS summit, which concludes Thursday

Chinese President Xi Jinping — in a speech delivered by China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao — highlighted the formal membership application of more than 20 countries and reiterated that China rejects the “exclusive blocs” mentality pursued by the West and called for expansion of BRICS. ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said his government fully supports the expansion of the bloc, adding that it welcomed “moving forward with consensus on this.” India also reiterated its proposal for the African Union’s membership in the G20.

In his speech, Xi emphasized that the BRICS model of development and growth is contrary to the West’s approach of hegemonization. Asserting that countries should have the freedom to pursue their own development model, Xi claimed that one country, “obsessed with maintaining hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple emerging markets and developing countries” — an obvious reference to the U.S. Xi noted that the world is forced to face a choice — between peace and stability and a new cold war — due to the hegemonic agenda pursued by the West, and pointed out that “hegemonism disrupts development, violates the nation’s right to prosperity and sovereign development.”

In Niger, Prigozhin’s death met with calls for Russian aid

CEOs of top 100 ‘low-wage’ US firms earn $601 for every $1 by worker

The CEOs of the top 100 companies paying the lowest wages made an average of $601 for every $1 earned by the average worker last year as executive compensation continued to climb to record highs.

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies singles out which 100 companies in the S&P 500 pay their workers the least, companies the report dubs the “low-wage 100”. These companies paid their employees – including workers outside the US and part-time workers – a median wage of $31,672 in 2022, while their CEOs took home an average $15.3m.

Many of these companies also invest millions each year in stock buybacks – when a company buys shares of its own stock as a way to boost stock prices and give more money to shareholders. Of the “low-wage 100”, 90 companies conducted stock buybacks, spending a collective $341.2bn buying their own shares from January 2020 to May 2023.

“This is really hard data that reinforces what is the major story in corporate America: instead of investing in their workforce or investment to be competitive, in the long term, they’ve been putting out huge sums to enrich their CEOs and their shareholders,” said Sarah Anderson, the report’s lead author. “These are sums that workers at these companies could not even wrap their minds around.”

Rightwing activist Leonard Leo under investigation in Washington DC

The attorney general of Washington DC is investigating Leonard Leo, the rightwing activist who has driven efforts to install judges on federal courts including the US supreme court, which he helped tip 6-3 in conservatives’ favour, Politico reported. Citing a source with direct knowledge, the site said the scope of the investigation mounted by the Democratic attorney general, Brian Schwalb, was unclear.

Leo is the driving force behind the Federalist Society, which the Harvard law professor Noah Feldman has called “a club for conservative and libertarian lawyers … focused on promoting conservative legal thought and filling the American judiciary with like-minded allies”. All six conservatives on the supreme court (three appointed under Donald Trump, with Leo’s active involvement), are current or former members.

Leo’s name has cropped up in reports alleging serious ethics violations by justices prominently including Clarence Thomas, the senior conservative on the court. Leo’s ballooning personal wealth and hugely successful fundraising has also been widely reported. Earlier this year, he made headlines with receipt of a $1.6bn giftfrom a single donor, believed to be the largest such gift on record.

In April, the Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, alleging Leo “caused” recently formed non-profits “to pay him (directly or indirectly) more than $73m over a six-year period from 2016 through 2021”. Groups offering consulting, research or public relations services, the complaint said, “may either not have provided those services at all or may have provided services at a level not commensurate with the payments received”.

MAUI Fires KILLED People Who OBEYED Govt Orders; Glenn Greenwald ASSAILS Media’s Biden Blindspot

Maui county sues Hawaiian Electric over wildfires that killed more than 100

Maui county sued the Hawaiian Electric company on Thursday over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The 8 August fire killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing. ...

Had the utility heeded weather service “warnings and de-energized their powerlines during the predicted high-wind gusts, this destruction could have been avoided”, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said the utility had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment”.

The utility knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation”, the lawsuit said. “Defendants also knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.”

Inmate P01135809: Trump Surrenders to Jail in Georgia, Booked on 13 Felony Counts

Donald Trump surrenders in Georgia on charges he sought to overturn 2020 election

Donald Trump surrendered at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, where he was processed as any criminal defendant and had his mugshot taken.

The former president’s brief booking marks yet another stunning moment in which the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 race was again under arrest in a major criminal case.

The booking came during the prime-time viewing hours for the cable news networks, a time slot that Trump is said to have insisted his lawyers negotiate with prosecutors in an apparent effort to discredit the charges and distract from the indignity of the surrender.

But Trump turned himself over to authorities without the special privileges afforded to him in his other criminal cases. In addition to the mugshot that he had desperately sought to avoid, he had his fingerprints taken and had his weight recorded as 215 pounds, according to online records. ...

Trump flew to Atlanta on a private plane from his Bedminster club in New Jersey, where he spends his summers, smiling and waving at cameras as he exited the flight. He then traveled to the Rice Street jail, located north-west of downtown, with a US Secret Service motorcade.

CIRCUS Erupts After Trump Mugshot Hits Internet: Fmr POTUS Slams 'POLITICAL PROSECUTION'

The US’s war on spotted lanternflies might be having an effect

It has been the target of an “if you see it, stomp it” campaign in the eastern US for several years. But now the spotted lanternfly – an elegant but invasive insect with distinctive red wings – might be on the decline in some areas. Harmless to humans, spotted lanternflies can damage trees and fruit crops, and feed on the sap of over 70 different species of host plants. They are now common across the north-east. In New York, red splats, from eager lanternfly stompers, are a frequent sight on sidewalks.

The population is seemingly down in some of the areas where they’ve been established the longest, like south-eastern Pennsylvania. They were first reported there in 2014.

“We think this is the result of exhausting the food supply,” said Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University. The lanternfly’s food of choice is tree of heaven, a plant that is also invasive. It has a higher concentration of sugars in its roots compared with trees like red maples, river birches and willows, making it attractive to the insect. “It’s where they get all their energy,” Hoover said. The state is currently on a mission to eradicate the tree.

While lanternfly sightings and surveys in Pennsylvania tallied roughly 9,000 insects in 2017, soaring to 150,000 in 2019, there has been a drastic drop in recent years. Some 61,000 were found in 2021, the latest year for which state data is available.

Scientists are split on the significance of these findings. Perhaps there is truly a decline, or perhaps the lower numbers simply mean that “folks are tired of letting us know about it”, said Jay Losiewicz, deputy communications director of the Pennsylvania department of agriculture.

Amazon’s emissions ‘doubled’ under first half of Bolsonaro presidency

The first half of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency was so destructive for the Amazon that it was comparable to the record 2016 El Niño drought and heatwave in terms of carbon emissions, according to scientists. Annual emissions from the world’s largest rainforest roughly doubled in 2019 and 2020, compared with the 2010 to 2018 average, according to a new study published in Nature, as swaths of forest were deliberately cleared and burned for cattle ranching and farming during the first two years of the far-right leader’s time in office.

While the amount of carbon that the Amazon absorbs and emits changes with weather cycles, generally sucking in more in wet years and less in dry periods, the study found that the rise in emissions under Bolsonaro had little to do with natural processes, but was instead caused by the systematic removal and downgrading of environmental law enforcement in Brazil.

Under Bolsonaro, the number and severity of fines for illegal deforestation by Brazilian authorities fell dramatically while fires and land-clearing soared, the study found. Carbon emissions increased from an annual average of 0.24 gigatonnes from 2010-18 to 0.44GtC in 2019 and 0.55GtC respectively.

The analysis, produced by many of the scientists who first established that the Amazon is now emitting more CO2 than it is able to absorb, warns that new areas of the forest have become a rising source of emissions, particularly the western Amazon, one of the most pristine parts of the basin, which has been targeted by land invaders and illegal miners. It adds to fears that the Amazon, which plays an important role in regulating the world’s climate, is approaching a tipping point after which it will no longer be able to sustain itself, which would have profound consequences for biodiversity and the climate.

The public needs to understand that this summer's brutal heatwave was Brought To You By Big Oil.

So we bought billboards in some of the hottest cities in America -- Phoenix, Fresno & Austin -- with exactly that message. #MakePollutersPay #BlameBigOil pic.twitter.com/lvtXU52aFn

— Jamie Henn (@jamieclimate) August 24, 2023

Loss of Antarctic ice decimates emperor penguin chicks, study says

Emperor penguins: thousands of chicks in Antarctica die due to record-low sea ice levels

Thousands of emperor penguin chicks across four colonies in Antarctica are believed to have died because of record-low sea ice levels that caused a “catastrophic breeding failure” in late 2022, according to new research.

Analysis of satellite images showed the break-up of usually stable sea ice and the disappearance of the colonies at a time when chicks had not yet grown their waterproof feathers.

Scientists have said emperor penguins face an uncertain future under global heating because they are so reliant on sea ice, which is projected to decline as the world’s oceans heat up.

The breeding failures in the Bellingshausen Sea were “without precedent”, the research said, as it was the first time multiple colonies across a large region had all failed in a single season.

Also of Interest

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

The People of Niger Want to Shatter Resignation

‘CACI Aided and Abetted the Torture of Our Clients’

Israelis flock to obtain foreign passports

Atlanta Prosector Fani Willis Sent Black Educators to Jail

Jonesing on Carbon

U.S. & France Pushing West Africa To Brink Of War!

Vivek Ramaswamy DESTROYS Ukraine War-Loving NEOCONS On Foreign Policy

HAWAII Death Toll Reaches 115, When Will Biden, EPA ACTUALLY HELP?!

A Little Night Music

Lynn August - Woke Up This Morning

Lynn August - All the Things I Did for You

Lynn August - Why You Want To Hurt A Man Like Me

Lynn August - Lead Me On

Lynn August - 58 Pink Cadillac

Lynn August - The Twist Set Me Free

Lynn August - Zydeco Bogaloo

Lynn August - Blind Man

Lynn August - Jure' #4

Lynn August - Railroad Blues