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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: John Primer

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist John Primer. Enjoy!

^{John Primer - She Do The Right Thing All Of The Time}

"US liberals in 2016: Wanting universal healthcare is a pie in the sky fantasy

US liberals in 2020: Wanting full student loan debt forgiveness is a pie in the sky fantasy

US liberals in 2024: Wanting your country not to commit genocide is a pie in the sky fantasy"

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Worthy & Unworthy Victims: Navalny & Lira

MintPress conducted a quantitative analysis of the media coverage of the two political figures who recently died in prison: Alexey Navalny and Gonzalo Lira. Both were controversial characters and critics of the governments that imprisoned them. Both died under suspicious circumstances (their families both maintain they were effectively murdered). And both died in the past six weeks, Navalny in February and Lira in January.

A crucial difference in their stories, however, is that Navalny perished in an Arctic penal colony after being arrested in Russia (an enemy state), while Lira’s life ended in a Ukrainian prison, abandoned by the pro-Kiev government in Washington, D.C.

The study compared the coverage of Navalny and Lira’s death in five leading outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, Fox News and CNN over six days. These outlets were chosen for their reach and influence and, together, could be said to reasonably represent the corporate media spectrum as a whole. In total, the five outlets collectively ran 731 articles or segments that discussed or mentioned Navalny’s death, including 151 from the Times, 75 from the Post, 177 from ABC, 215 from Fox, and 113 from CNN. This means that each organization studied ran more than one piece per hour.

This media storm stands in stark contrast to the Lira case, where the entire coverage of his death [by the five outlets in the study] boiled down to a single Fox News article. Moreover, the article in question described him as “spreading pro-Russian propaganda” in its headline, did not inform readers that there was anything suspicious about his death, and appeared to be doing its best to justify his treatment in the body of the article. Aside from that, there was radio silence.

It is perhaps understandable that Navalny’s death was covered in much greater detail than Lira’s. Navalny was a political leader known across Russia and the world who died just weeks before the country’s presidential elections. Yet Lira was far from unknown. News anchor Tucker Carlson, for example, devoted an entire show to his imprisonment, while high-profile figures like Twitter owner Elon Musk took up his cause.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has been repeatedly asked about Lira’s case and has failed to offer concrete answers. As an American living in Ukraine who took a pro-Russian line on the invasion, Lira built up a following of hundreds of thousands of people across his social media platforms.

As an American citizen who died while in the custody of a government that the U.S. has provided with tens of billions of dollars in aid, it could be argued that Lira’s case is particularly noteworthy for an American audience and should be given special attention. Moreover, Lira died more than one month before Navalny, meaning that the study compares more than 40 days of Lira coverage to just six days of coverage of Navalny’s death, making the disparity all the more glaring. ...

This study is certainly not arguing that Navalny’s death is not a newsworthy event, nor that Lira deserves equal or more coverage. Nor does it take any stance on Navalny or Lira as individuals or on the wider geopolitical tussle between the United States, Russia and Ukraine. It merely uses these stories as case studies to show that what makes it as “news” in establishment media is not random but the result of an intensely politicized process. In other words, when it comes to deaths, murders or assassinations, the media will likely only cover yours if there is something to be gained from it.

Israel Kills 104 Palestinians Waiting for Food Aid as U.N. Expert Accuses Israel of Starving Gaza

A Palestinian solution to greedflation:

Masked Men in Gaza Enforce Prices in Street Markets

Armed, masked men in Gaza have started patrols to stop traders profiteering in Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter from Israel's air and ground campaign, a member of the vigilante group said.

Nearly five months into the war, prices have soared in Gaza with all commercial imports cut off when hostilities began on Oct. 7, and only limited quantities of humanitarian aid coming in. ...

Photographs on social media showed men in ski masks with hoods pulled over their heads standing next to market stalls. In one photograph two of the men held assault rifles. In another photograph, six men brandished sticks. ...

A man who described himself as a member of the group, and whom Reuters contacted by phone, said their action was necessary to enforce law and order because police no longer patrolled the streets after being targeted by Israeli strikes.

Their actions were intended "to monitor the prices and punish those who exploit the needs of the people," said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing Israeli reprisals.

Senator Jeff Merkley: U.S. "Complicit in Starvation and Humanitarian Catastrophe" in Gaza

US regime washes hands of Gaza famine it enables

U.S. weighs airdropping aid into Gaza as land deliveries slow

The White House is exploring the possibility of airdropping aid from U.S. military planes into Gaza as deliveries by land become increasingly difficult, four U.S. officials told Axios.

The fact the Biden administration is even considering such a move underscores the growing concern within the White House about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, especially in the north where there is a growing threat of starvation, U.S. officials said.

"The situation is really bad. We are unable to get enough aid [in] by truck so we need desperate measures like airdrops," one U.S. official told Axios.

“Israel’s Starving Of Palestinians Is CLEARLY Genocide” Says United Nations

One in five pregnant women in Gaza clinic are malnourished, doctors warn

One in five pregnant women treated at a central Gaza clinic are malnourished, doctors have warned, as fuel and medical supply shortages closed the last hospital operating in the north of the strip. “Every day, we see women and children coming into our clinic suffering from acute malnutrition,” said Dr Maram, the lead physician for Project Hope.

The nonprofit organisation said 21% of pregnant women treated in the Deir al Balah clinic in the three weeks to 24 February were suffering from malnutrition, as were one in 10 of the children seen by its doctors there. “As infectious diseases spread in crammed areas and food becomes even scarcer, we will see more and more people going hungry – including the health workers who are trying to help. I worry every day that I won’t find anything to eat,” Dr Maram said.

Only a trickle of aid is reaching Gaza, even after the UN warned of “pockets of famine” and widespread hunger across the enclave. Over the past month, shipments have fallen by about half from January levels, to fewer than 100 trucks a day on average – or 2,300 for the whole month. The UN has said it is far short of the estimated 500 trucks needed each day to meet people’s basic needs.

The UN’s projections indicate that one in four households in Gaza, or more than half a million people, are “facing catastrophic conditions characterised by lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities”.

Dearborn Mayor MESSAGE To Biden: Ceasefire Or LOSE

Michigan anti-war campaign hails huge vote tally

A last-minute push by anti-war activists to reject President Joe Biden over his unwavering support for Israel far exceeded expectations in the Michigan Democratic party primary on Tuesday night.

Leaders from the grassroots campaign, called Listen to Michigan, said ahead of the primary that they would count 10,000 “uncommitted” votes – roughly Trump’s winning margin in Michigan eight years ago – as a victory.

Instead they surpassed that goal by an order of magnitude, earning the support of more than 100,000 Democrats who checked the “uncommitted” box, and 13% of votes overall. That should weigh heavily on Democrats, who could lose the pivotal state – and even the presidency – in November if these sentiments persist. Biden won Michigan by about 150,000 votes in 2020 – less than 3% of the overall vote.

It remains to be seen how many of the Michigan voters who withheld their support from Biden during the primary will abandon the president in the general election, where he will most likely face former president Donald Trump, whose brash Islamophobia and policies targeting Muslims defined his 2016 campaign and early presidency. ...

According to exit polling by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), 94% of Muslim voters who cast their ballots in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday voted “uncommitted”. There are about 200,000 registered Muslim voters in Michigan.

Michigan primary vote provides glimpse of mass opposition to Biden’s backing of Israeli genocide in Gaza

The Michigan presidential primary Tuesday gave a partial glimpse of the enormous opposition building up in the United States to the Biden administration’s all-out support and aid for the Israeli campaign of extermination and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population of Gaza.

More than 100,000 voters participating in the Democratic Party primary voted for “uncommitted” rather than Biden, in response to a campaign by Arab-American groups and others opposed to the genocide in Gaza. While opposition was the strongest in the two cities where Arab-Americans and Muslims constitute the majority, Dearborn and Hamtramck, there was a sizeable vote against Biden in Ann Arbor and East Lansing as well, two cities dominated by major universities. ...

The campaign for an “uncommitted” vote was backed by a handful of prominent Democrats like Representative Rashida Tlaib and former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke as a means of corralling the popular outrage over Gaza and containing it within the framework of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic campaign mobilized high-profile surrogates from Vice President Kamala Harris to Representative Ro Khanna, former chair of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, to oppose the “uncommitted” campaign. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer played the central role in this effort, although she was careful not to denounce the Democrats engaged in that effort or suggest they were “antisemitic” for raising the issue of Israeli complicity in genocide.

There was no doubt back-channel communication with the “dissident” Democrats to reinforce the division of labor between the open advocates of a vote for Biden and those who are working to divert popular anger over Gaza into safe political channels and a vote for Biden in November.

Whoopi Goldberg FLAMES 'Uncommitted' Dem Voters, Biden LOSES At Least One MI Delegate

Sam Husseini:

Arab Americans Can Help Defeat Both Biden & Trump

Many in the Democratic establishment and its many tentacles hope that the “uncommitted” vote in the Michigan Democratic primary yesterday was a good way to let people blow off steam. As often clownish Michael Moore on CNN stressed, he wants people to vote uncommitted “in the primary only.”

The corrupt DNC wants it to be a symbolic gesture they can pretend signifies a functioning democratic process — so now everybody, get behind President Joe Biden! ...

Doing just this to get Biden to stop the genocide while looking to vote for him in the general election is akin to Biden pretending to be upset and allegedly urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint as he hands him the bombs and vetoes U.N. resolutions. ...

And no one who has been paying attention thinks that former President Donald Trump can seriously be viewed as any sort of salvation. ... Rather than hem and haw over which of these horrors — two war criminals, Biden or Trump — may somehow be portrayed as tolerable to stop the other, Arab Americans — and indeed all Americans — should strive for paths out of this. ...

I don’t think Arab Americans should be saying they won’t vote for Biden. They and others should be imploring all: Why would ANYONE vote for someone who is overseeing genocide?!

NYT STANDS BY DEBUNKED IDF Propagandist Report

Houthis deny targeting underwater cables amid marine disaster warning

Houthi leaders have denied they have targeted critical underwater sea telecommunication cables, as Yemen’s UN-recognised government warned of an imminent marine environmental disaster if a cargo ship struck by the rebels last week was not quickly rescued.

The Rubymar, a Belize-flagged but British-owned bulk carrier, has been drifting in the Red Sea after it was struck by two missiles. The ship, which is feared to be in danger of sinking, is leaking an 18-mile oil spill and carrying 41,000 tonnes of volatile fertiliser.

The 22 February attack on the Rubymar inflicted the most significant damage so far on a commercial ship since the Houthis started targeting vessels in November. The Houthis say their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea are in solidarity with the stricken people of Gaza.

It has long been feared that the Houthis might extend their actions by disrupting internet traffic and cutting sea cables. Sixteen small fibre-optic lines across the bed of the Red Sea carry about 17% of all international data traffic, including trunk lines connecting Europe with India and east Asia.

It was reported on Monday that cables belonging to four big telecom networks – including the Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1), TGN Atlantic, Europe India Gateway and the Seacom system – have been damaged in recent months. The cause of the damage has not been identified and natural damage happens relatively regularly. Israeli media reports attributed the damage to Houthi actions, but Yemen’s Houthi-controlled communications ministry denied involvement.

Ukraine exposed as CIA-MI6 beachhead

European Official Says Everyone Knows There Are Western Special Operations Forces in Ukraine

In the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments about Western countries not ruling out sending troops to Ukraine, a European official speaking to Financial Times pointed out that Western special operations forces are already in the country.

“Everyone knows there are Western special forces in Ukraine — they’ve just not acknowledged it officially,” a senior European defense official said.

The Discord leaks revealed last year that as of March 2023, there were 97 NATO special operations soldiers in Ukraine, including 14 Americans and 50 British troops. The leak confirmed earlier reporting from The Intercept that said US special operations forces were on the ground, along with CIA operatives. It’s unclear if the number of NATO troops inside Ukraine has changed since the Discord leaks, but the comment from the European official confirms that they are still there in some capacity.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: US Misunderstands Russia

House and Senate negotiators reach agreement to prevent shutdown

With government funding set to partially expire on Friday, House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement to prevent a shutdown.

In a joint statement, congressional leaders of both parties confirmed that the House and the Senate would vote this week on a short-term funding bill to allow lawmakers more time to finalize full-year appropriations bills. The leaders said that negotiators have already reached a deal on six full-year spending bills for agriculture, and the remaining six bills are expected to be finalized before 22 March.

“To give the House and Senate appropriations committee adequate time to execute on this deal in principle, including drafting, preparing report language, scoring and other technical matters, and to allow members 72 hours to review, a short-term continuing resolution to fund agencies through March 8 and the 22 will be necessary, and voted on by the House and Senate this week,” the leaders said.

Funding had previously been set to expire at 12:01am on Saturday for roughly 20% of the federal government, and the remaining agencies only had enough money to last them through next Friday. If passed, the short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, would mark the fourth such stopgap measure approved since September.

Revealed: at least 22 Californians have died while being held face down by police since 2016

As far back as the 1990s, medical experts and law enforcement officials have been aware of the dangers of prone restraint. A number of organizations and law enforcement agencies, including the US Department of Justice, the Chicago police department and the New Orleans police department, warned officers of these dangers and advised them on how to minimize risks.

Many training manuals have since been updated to address the risks of prone restraint and the importance of using the recovery position. Ohio state police officers are forbidden from using prone restraint. A Nevada law forbids the practice. In California, a law that became effective in 2022, AB 490, bans any maneuvers that put people at risk of being unable to breathe due to the position of their body, or positional asphyxia, a common cause of death in prone restraint cases.

But a new review of law enforcement data shows that, despite growing awareness of the dangers of prone restraint, in California the problem is pervasive. After the passage of AB 71, in 2015, California began tracking data about when people died after police use of force. Between 2016 and 2022, at least 22 people have died in the state after being restrained stomach-down by law enforcement officers, according to a new analysis of currently available state use-of-force data by the California Reporting Project, the California Newsroom and the Guardian. Our examination also included police reports, death investigations, district attorney reviews, body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and lawsuits.

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Supreme court to hear Trump immunity claim in election interference case

The US supreme court agreed on Wednesday to take up the unprecedented claim that Donald Trump has absolute immunity from prosecution in the criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, throwing into jeopardy whether it goes to trial before the 2024 election.

The justices set oral arguments for the week of 22 April to consider a recent ruling by a three-judge panel at the US court of appeals for the DC circuit, which categorically rejected Trump’s immunity claim in a decision earlier this month.

Trump’s criminal case will remain on hold until the supreme court ultimately rules on the matter, inserting it into the politically charged position of potentially influencing whether Trump will go to trial before the presidential election in November.

The unsigned order said the court intended to address at oral arguments “whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office”.

Chris Hayes MELTS DOWN After SCOTUS Decides to Hear Trump Immunity Case

New York appeals judge denies Trump bid to pay $100m of $454m judgment

A New York appeals judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to pay just $100m of the $454m judgment for his New York fraud trial. Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals court to halt the collection of the rest of the amount, along with the judgment’s ban on Trump securing new loans from New York banks, until the appeal goes through.

On Wednesday, Judge Anil Singh appeared to have some sympathy for Trump, staying the ban over Trump from taking out loans from New York banks and another ban on him serving as an officer of a New York company, both for the next three years.

“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment, coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions, would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Michael Farina wrote. ...

Trump filed his appeal on Monday. His lawyers are asking the appellate division of the state’s trial court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction. Trump was not required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.

The Republican presidential frontrunner has until 25 March to secure a stay – a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals. Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he has now exercised, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount.

RFK Jr QUALIFIES For Ballot In KEY Battleground States

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Historic Texas wildfire consumes over 500,000 acres as blaze rages on

A historic wildfire in Texas continued to rage on Wednesday morning as firefighters work to contain the flames and survey damage. The Smokehouse Creek fire, the second largest wildfire in Texas to date, has consumed more than 500,000 acres in Texas’s Panhandle area since it ignited on Monday.

The fire is part of a cluster of blazes that have spun out of control. It is currently at 0% containment, with several Texas counties still evacuated amid growing flames.

Officials were starting to assess the damage and warned it could be extensive. The town of Fritch, with a population of fewer than 2,000 people, appeared to be hit hard.

The people in that area are probably not “prepared for what they’re going to see if they pull into town”, the Hutchinson county emergency management spokesperson, Deidra Thomas, said in a social media live stream. She compared the damage to a tornado.

The Smokehouse Creek fire began at 40,000 acres on Tuesday, quickly swelling by Wednesday morning, CNN reported. The fire has burned through an area more than half the size of Rhode Island, CNN further reported. The fire has largely spread given unseasonably warm temperatures and strong wind, propelling flames through dry, grassy areas.

Alberta to ban renewables on ‘prime’ land and preserve ‘pristine viewscapes’

Alberta will block renewable energy projects on “prime” agricultural land and limit the placement of wind turbines to preserve “pristine viewscapes”, a decision that increasingly pits the western Canadian province against environmental groups pushing green energy – and the companies investing in it.

The decision, announced by the premier, Danielle Smith, and utilities minister, Nathan Neudorf, on Wednesday, follows a controversial six-month ban on new renewable energy projects that is due to expire on 29 February. Alberta’s moratorium, announced in August, left energy companies uncertain about billions in future investment, even as the region, with its clear skies and an abundance of wind, led the country in new renewable projects.

Nearly a third of Alberta’s grid is now powered by renewables and the province has shifted away from coal at a far faster rate than expected. But Smith has pushed back against federal rules that aim to reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions of provincial power grids.

Last month, amid recording-breaking winter temperatures, Albertans were sent emergency alerts asking them to conserve power as the electrical grid buckled from the cold. Smith and others in the province used the cold snap to express skepticism about the feasibility of renewable energy.

Vanishing ice and snow: record warm winter wreaks havoc across US midwest

As a child in the 1990s, Joseph Kuzma remembers how he and his father would – around this time of year – drive their truck out on to Lake Erie and set up a mini camp right on the ice. “We’d stay out there all weekend in an ice shanty. Catch fish, cook it and sleep in bunks on the ice,” he said. He also recalled sitting next to his brother when he drove a dump truck from the nearby island of Put-In-Bay to the mainland atop the lake ice, remarking: “We would have 6in to 8in of ice.”

Back then, winters on Lake Erie’s western shores were filled with the buzzing of snowmobiles and airboats as ice fishers took to the frozen lake in the hope of catching prized walleye and perch. But in recent days, there’s been a very different sound in Port Clinton, Ohio: waves lapping against the pier rocks. That’s because the ice is nearly nonexistent. While ice cover across the Great Lakes – a network of five freshwater lakes about the size of the United Kingdom – has been declining since the early 1970s, this year it’s likely to reach an unprecedented low.

By mid-February, ice cover historically averages about 40%. This year it was about 4%. Even before the official end of winter on 19 March, three normally frigid cities – Grand Forks, North Dakota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota – have already recorded their warmest winter on record this year. Scientists say warming temperatures are a result of human-made climate change and are expected to continue rising for decades to come.

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Also of Interest

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

World Court Hearing on Legality of Israeli Occupation Ends Following Week of Testimony

What Aaron Bushnell Had to Teach Us

On Aaron Bushnell, Methinks The Israel Apologist Doth Protest Too Much

How the ADL’s Anti-Palestinian Advocacy Helped Shape U.S. Terror Laws

Palestine at Center of Local UK By-Election

The Most Likely “War” With Russia Scenario

Peinlich

‘When have we ever had democracy?’: is Thelma Cabrera Guatemala’s most surprising politician?

Everyone Knows That: can you identify the lost 80s hit baffling the internet?

IDF open fire on Gaza aid truck, killing over 100: 30K Gazans dead, Palestinian Health Ministry says

MSNBC COPES HARD After Biden REBUKE In Michigan

Ukr Defences Disintegrate, Rapid Rus Advance, 3 Key Villages Fall, Syrsky Blames Commanders; ATACMS

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A Little Night Music

John Primer - Crawlin' Kingsnake

John Primer - Blues Blues Blues

John Primer - I Called My Baby

John Primer - Chicago

John Primer - Confessing The Blues

John Primer - The Blues Is Alright

John Primer and Bob Corritore - The Gypsy Woman Told Me

Magic Slim & The Teardrops (w/ John Primer) - Gotta Love Somebody

John Primer & The Real Deal Blues Band 2023 12 03 "Full Show" Bradenton, Florida - Blues Festival

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