Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Clyde Copeland. Enjoy!

“It is not desired that ordinary people should think for themselves, because it is felt that people who think for themselves are awkward to manage and cause administrative problems.”

-- Bertrand Russell

News and Opinion

Protest And Dissent Can Absolutely Push The Empire To Retreat On Gaza

It is entirely possible for the surging anti-genocide protest movement and its accompanying zeitgeist in the general public to push the empire to retreat on Gaza. The imperial murder machine has many strengths, but it also has weaknesses.

The globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around Washington has invested in perception management more heavily than any other empire in history — that’s what you’re seeing with all the mass media propaganda, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, oligarch-funded think tanks, and mainstream culture manufacturing in New York and Hollywood. By using mass-scale psychological manipulation via the most sophisticated perception management system that has ever existed, the US-centralized empire is able to manufacture support for its agendas at home and abroad while dissuading the public from protest and revolution.

This is an immense strength, but it’s also a weakness. Its so-called “soft power” narrative manipulation systems allow for an immense amount of control while still creating the illusion of freedom and democracy, thereby suppressing public desire to overthrow what would otherwise be perceived as a murderous and exploitative oppressor, but its heavy reliance on perception management means it can’t afford to be seen in too negative a light without causing widespread distrust in its propaganda machine.

If too many people realize that their government is psychopathic and their news media and other indoctrination systems have been lying to them about it all their lives, the empire will lose the ability to propagandize them, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you. If too many people wake up from the propaganda matrix it won’t have any effect any longer, and without their propaganda our rulers cannot rule, because that’s the entire control system upon which their rule is premised.

The empire therefore needs to tread very carefully when public opinion starts to turn against it, and retreat whenever public trust in imperial institutions would be compromised too severely for the empire to continue on a given path. It simply cannot afford to wake the public up from the propaganda-induced coma it has spent generations lulling them into.

What this means is that the empire can be pressured into retreat simply by spreading enough awareness and sowing enough opposition to its depraved actions. If enough eyes open to the truth of what’s happening in Gaza, there’s no amount of geostrategic middle east agendas or Israel lobby funding that can outweigh the empire’s existential need to prevent a mass-scale awakening from the mainstream imperial worldview and a transition into widespread revolutionary consciousness. The empire would necessarily need to step back before things reached that point, because its very existence depends on it.

The empire has been walking that line this entire time. Whenever you see it doing things like stepping back from regime change invasions of Cuba or Syria or refraining from going as authoritarian as it could go on a given issue, it isn’t because the empire suddenly evolved a conscience. It’s because it hasn’t yet succeeded in manufacturing public consent for such agendas, and imposing them before the public has been manipulated into accepting them would snap them out of the matrix of psychological control. They work so hard to manufacture public consent because they absolutely need it.

So the empire can be pressured on Gaza and on every other issue if enough people put enough energy into spreading awareness of the truth. That’s why the empire managers are freaking out about this new protest movement right now; they understand the absolutely fundamental role that narrative control plays in the existence of imperial power structures, and how much they stand to lose if it is taken away.

And hopefully it will be. Hopefully one day, maybe even soon, we will see people begin unplugging their brains from the matrix of imperial mind control at so widespread a scale that no amount of retreating and backpedaling can save the empire from the people collectively deciding they’ll have none of its murderous tyranny anymore. From there it will lose its allies and assets abroad, it will succumb to revolutionary sentiments at home, and the people can start working toward building a healthy world together.

‘Israel is implementing the final soluti**’

‘We will fight with our fingernails’ says Netanyahu after US threat to curb arms

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will stand alone and “fight with our fingernails” in defiance of US threats to further restrict arms deliveries if Israeli forces proceed with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was speaking on Thursday after Israeli and Hamas delegations left the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo. It was unclear whether the talks had broken down or simply paused. Hamas said early on Friday that the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands, while Israel has claimed that Hamas’ version of a deal fell far short of its requirements. The failure to reach an agreement in this week’s round of meetings raised fears of an imminent Israeli attack on Rafah.

Netanyahu appeared to shrug off a public warning from the US president, Joe Biden, the previous night that if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a major offensive on the city the US would not provide bombs and artillery shells to support the operation.

“If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails,” Netanyahu said. He noted that Israel was approaching the 76th anniversary of its independence, which it had to fight for. “We did not have weapons,” he said, referring to the 1948 war. “There was an arms embargo on Israel, but with great strength of spirit, heroism and unity among us – we were victorious.”

The prime minister sounded a more conciliatory note towards Biden in an hour-long interview with an American self-help guru and talkshow host, Phil McGraw, known as Dr Phil. “We often had our agreements but we’ve had our disagreements. We’ve been able to overcome them,” Netanyahu said of the bilateral relations on the Dr Phil Primetime show. “I hope we can overcome them now, but we will do what we have to do to protect our country,” he said.

Biden Under ATTACK From ALL Sides On ISRAEL; NETANYAHU Says He Will Go At HAMAS Solo

Does Israel need more US arms for a Rafah offensive?

The volume of US military aid to Israel since 7 October last year suggests the intensity of the assault on Gaza would not have been possible without the continued supply of American bombs, shells and other munitions, some of which the US president, Joe Biden, is now threatening to halt after seven months of the fighting. ...

The question is, without the larger US bombs, how many do the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have stockpiled? It is not a question that is easy to answer. In response to the 7 October attack the US opened up access to its own arms stockpile in Israel, WRSA-I, which could have had up to $4.4bn worth of munitions of various types in it, according to a congressional research estimate.

The reality is that the limited category of weapons covered by the Biden pause leaves other weapons types apparently available to Israel, including tank rounds and artillery shells. Israel’s air force remains largely unaffected; 25 more F-35 fighters were approved for sale in March, part of a deal authorised by Congress in 2008.

In the short term, Israel is almost certainly able to go ahead, if it chooses to, with its threatened offensive in Rafah, despite the acute humanitarian crisis it is almost certain to cause among the million Palestinians desperately sheltering there. But that would risk deepening the military supply rift with the US.

Biden spent months funding and arming this government while shredding America’s credibility in the process. Here’s how Israel’s national security minister repaid the favor. https://t.co/dzt865Yp63

— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) May 9, 2024

Yep, now Biden is Hamas too. Can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/VSdJg5uBz4

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 9, 2024

More than 100,000 flee Rafah as Israel steps up strikes, says UN

More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah after Israel intensified its bombardment, UN officials have said, in the largest movement of population in Gaza for many months.

Humanitarian officials are tracking the number of people fleeing Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, where more than 1 million people displaced from elsewhere in the territory have been sheltering. The numbers are expected to rise, with deep concern among aid officials on Thursday that the newly displaced people will end up in makeshift encampments without any services, living in the rubble of their former homes without “basic essentials necessary for life”.

One UN official in Rafah said: “There is a lot of fear and trepidation. The roads are very congested with cars, donkey carts, trolleys, pickup trucks and people walking. Some have already been displaced multiple times and are trying to take material for shelter with them, which isn’t easy; others are moving for the first time.

“We could be talking about 300,000 within a few days. The problem is there is basically nowhere that kind of number of people can go which is safe and equipped to provide basic essentials necessary for life.”

The attempts to evacuate came as a senior Israeli official told Reuters that the latest round of indirect negotiations in Cairo to halt hostilities had ended and Israel would proceed with its operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned.

US-Israel Relationship: Who’s Calling the Shots?

UNICEF Warns Area Israel Pushing Rafah Residents to Is 'Not Safe'

As Israel's tanks and warplanes continued attacking eastern Rafah on Thursday amid fears of a full-scale invasion, United Nations leaders warned that the area to which Israeli forces are directing Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip city is unsafe.

The Israel Defense Forces this week has circulated a map and claimed that "the IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza. This expanded humanitarian area includes field hospitals, tents, and increased amounts of food, water, medication, and additional supplies."

However, in an interview published Wednesday, Tess Ingram of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that "the area that they're being directed to evacuate to is not safe. It's not safe because there aren't the services there to meet their basic needs, water, toilets, shelter."

"But it's also not safe because we know that that area has been subject to strikes despite being a so-called safe zone. So we're really concerned about that impact of a ground offensive on one of the most densely populated areas in the world," she told The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.

Rafah was home to about a quarter-million people before October 7, but since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has called a "plausibly" genocidal assault on Gaza—killing at least 34,904 Palestinians and wounding another 78,514 as of Thursday—the city's population has swelled to over 1.4 million.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said last week that a major military operation against the crowded city "would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe" for the young people there, explaining that "nearly all of the some 600,000 children now crammed into Rafah are either injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities."

Noting that "many of them have been displaced multiple times already," Ingram, who recently returned from Gaza, similarly told Scahill that "they're exhausted, traumatized, sick, hungry, and their ability to safely evacuate is limited."

Despite warnings from humanitarian leaders and the U.S. government—which has continued to arm the IDF throughout the war—Israeli forces attacked Rafah this week and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt, further restricting aid delivery.

U.S. President Joe Biden previously called attacking Rafah a "red line." While criticizing the IDF assault on the city Wednesday, the American leader was accused of "moving the goal post" because he merely threatened to cut off arms if Israel pursued a major invasion, rather than stopping the flow of arms immediately.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear on Thursday that he has no intention of backing down, saying in a video message in Hebrew that "if we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone."

Russell said in a statement Thursday that "the intensification of military operations in the Rafah area and the closure of key border crossings into southern Gaza have severed our access to fuel, threatening to grind humanitarian operations to a halt."

According to the UNICEF chief:

If the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings are not reopened to fuel and humanitarian supplies, the consequences will be felt almost immediately: Life support services for premature babies will lose power; children and families will become dehydrated or consume dangerous water; sewage will overflow and spread disease further. Simply put, lost time will soon become lost lives.

I strongly urge the relevant authorities to provide humanitarian actors with actionable measures and concrete assurances to facilitate safe and secure movement of humanitarian cargo, via all routes, into and within the Gaza Strip.

"I am also deeply concerned about the movement of civilians in Gaza to unsafe areas," Russell continued. "In response to evacuation orders in eastern Rafah, at least 80,000 people have reportedly fled the area, with many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi and among the ruins of Khan Younis. We have been warning for months that Al-Mawasi is not a safe option. It is a narrow strip of beach on the coast that lacks the basic infrastructure—like toilets and running water—needed to sustain the population."

Plus, as Scott Anderson, deputy director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, toldPolitico on Wednesday, "there's already 450,000 people in that general area. It is crowded."

Anderson also warned about dwindling supplies, saying that "we're down to no fuel. We're basically out. We've kept enough to meet the minimum security standards we have to meet for the U.N. so we can continue to stay here. But we're down to that level. Some hospitals will start shutting down their generators in three days if we don't get fuel in."

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, stressed in a Thursday statement that "civilians must be protected and have their basic needs met, whether they move or stay."

While warning that "Israel's latest evacuation orders and their ground operations will bring more death and displacement," Griffiths also said that "we remain committed to providing aid to people, regardless of where they are."

"The decisions that are made today and their consequences in human suffering will be remembered by the generation that follows us," he concluded. "Let us be ready for their reproaches."

'Inexcusable': Amnesty Slams Biden Admin for Delaying Report on Israel's Use of US Weapons

A leading human rights organization on Wednesday slammed the Biden administration's decision to indefinitely delay the release of a report on whether Israel and other U.S. allies are using American weaponry in compliance with international law.

"The Biden administration had months to put together a report on information they should already be collecting—whether grave human rights violations and other serious violations of international law are being committed using U.S.-provided weapons in seven conflicts around the world," said Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at Amnesty International USA. "They must release it urgently."

"This is especially urgent," Klasing added, "given the Israeli military's ground operation in Rafah, in the occupied Gaza Strip, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians, including 600,000 children, are sheltering. Burying the head in the sand tactic doesn't make the violations of the government of Israel go away."

Required under a White House policy implemented in February, the report was supposed to be delivered to Congress on May 8.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday that the administration will "have it up in the coming days," but declined to offer a specific timeline.

U.S. President Joe Biden admitted in a CNN interview Wednesday that the Israeli military has killed civilians in Gaza with American-made bombs—something human rights organizations like Amnesty have been documenting for months.

In a research brief submitted to the Biden administration last week, Amnesty detailed three cases in which Israel's military has used U.S.-made weapons in violation of international law. In October, Israeli forces used Joint Direct Attack Munitions manufactured by Boeing to carry out airstrikes on two Gaza homes, killing 43 civilians—including 19 children and 14 women.

While applauding Biden's decision to halt a shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel as it attacks Rafah, Amnesty said Wednesday that it was "inexcusable" for the State Department to postpone the long-awaited report.

"It is overdue for President Biden to end U.S. complicity with the government of Israel's grave violations of international law," said Klasing. "Tough conversations with counterparts in Israel are tragically and clearly not doing the job—violations continue unabated, and civilians are paying the price with their lives."

It's unclear why the administration was unable to meet its own deadline for providing U.S. lawmakers with the report on Israel's use of American weaponry.

Kevin Martin, the president of Peace Action, argued in an op-ed for Common Dreams on Thursday that the delay "reflects internal divisions within the State Department not just about Israel's fallacious claim of compliance, but what to recommend to the executive branch in terms of possible action against Israel."

An internal State Department memo that leaked last month showed that officials at four of the department's bureaus did not believe the Israeli government's written assurances that its use of American weaponry in Gaza has followed international law.

Several State Department officials have resigned since October over the Biden administration's decision to arm Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,900 people and sparked an appalling humanitarian crisis.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, said Thursday that the Biden administration's "suspension of massive bombs to Israel is an important but long-overdue acknowledgment that Israel has been using American weapons to indiscriminately kill Palestinian civilians in violation of the most basic laws of war."

"Suspending all weapons transfers to Israel shouldn't be a political tactic," said Whitson, "but rather adhering to long-standing laws that prohibit arming abusers."

Unrwa Jerusalem HQ closed after ‘Israeli extremist’ arson attack

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has temporarily closed its East Jerusalem headquarters after “Israeli extremists” set fire to the perimeter following weeks of repeated attacks. "This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the Unrwa headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem,” the head of the agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X, lamenting that it was the second attack on the compound in a matter of days. He said: “A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting ‘Burn down the United Nations’.”

Unrwa and staff from other UN agencies were on the compound, which has on its grounds petrol and diesel stations for a fleet of UN cars. “While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas,” Lazzaroni said, adding that Unrwa staff had put out the fire themselves.

The attack came after two months of “Israeli extremists staging protests outside the Unrwa compound”, he said. One protest earlier this week “became violent when demonstrators threw stones at UN staff and at the buildings of the compound”, he said.

Thursday’s arson attempts marked “an outrageous development”, Lazzarini said. “Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk”.

“In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our compound until proper security is restored.” The Unrwa chief said that “over the past months, UN staff have regularly been subjected to harassment and intimidation”.

“Our compound has been seriously vandalised and damaged. On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns.”

12 Arrested Outside NYC's New School as First Faculty-Led Gaza Solidarity Encampment Continues

More than 800 faculty and staff at UCLA call for chancellor’s resignation

More than 800 faculty and staff at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have called for the chancellor’s resignation following attacks by counter-protesters on pro-Palestinian student demonstrators and a violent police raid of the Gaza solidarity encampment on campus last week.

More than a hundred professors and other teaching staff gathered on Thursday to deliver a letter in support of their students engaged in pro-Palestinian activism, demanding Gene Block immediately step down as chancellor and an academic senate vote of no confidence in him. The letter also called for authorities to drop all charges against students, staff and faculty who were involved in the encampment.

The mass faculty action at one of the most prominent public universities in the US comes as campuses across the country have been roiled by pro-Palestinian encampment demonstrations and aggressive law enforcement crackdowns during graduation season.

Holding signs that said “Take a walk, Block”, “UCLA faculty and staff … stand with our students” and “Disclose & Divest”, professors from across departments recounted the brutal violence by counter-demonstrators on 30 April as police failed to intervene, and the subsequent mass arrests of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

“We are outraged at the university’s failure to protect its students from vigilante and police violence and its refusal to uphold its stated values as made evident in the forcible removal and arrest of peacefully protesting students, faculty and staff,” said Dan Froot, a UCLA world arts and cultures and dance professor representing senate faculty from his department.

New York sees first US faculty-led Gaza protest encampment at the New School

The first faculty-led Gaza solidarity encampment protest in the US was established on Wednesday night at New York’s New School campus. Nearly two dozen professors and lecturers at the New York City college pitched tents and unrolled sleeping bags in the lobby of an academic building located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan in support of their students, and against Israel’s attack on Gaza and their university’s financial ties to Israel.

The move comes after New York police raided the student encampment protest at the college on 3 May, which led to the arrests of more than 40 students. Arrested students were also subsequently suspended from school. Despite the incident, dissent continues to grow on the urban campus.

Sunil, a New School faculty member in protest who only gave his first name, told the local news station Spectrum News NY1: “Faculty knew that we had to step up – not just to make sure that this could not happen again, but the students’ demands that they fought so hard for, risked their lives and their careers and futures, that was not in vain.

“I’m seeing dead children on my screen every day. I’m seeing bodies pile up in the streets. I’m seeing mass starvation. So what are you seeing and how is that acceptable?” Sunil said. ...

In a statement on Thursday, the New School said it would not pursue criminal charges against the student protesters who were arrested on 3 May. “We have contacted and written a letter to the District Attorney requesting that all charges be dropped,” the statement said. It added that it would also be looking at its investments and reactivating a college committee to examine the issue of divestment.

Half of Gaza's water sites destroyed or damaged by Israel, satellite analysis reveals

More than half of Gaza's water facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Israel since 7 October, new satellite analysis has revealed.

According to the BBC, 53 percent of the 603 water facilities in the Gaza Strip have either been damaged or destroyed during Israel's war on Gaza.

Most of the sites that are affected are in northern Gaza and Khan Younis, which have been heavily targeted by Israel in its indiscriminate attack on the Gaza Strip.

Additionally, four of the six wastewater treatment plants in the Palestinian territory have been damaged or destroyed, with the remaining two being shut down because of lack of supplies entering Gaza, according to an aid agency quoted by the BBC.

The BBC also noted that some damage to sites may not be visible from satellites, and that other sites may not be fully operational due to lack of fuel supplies.

Democrats back ultra-right House Speaker: A bipartisan coalition for war and repression

Wednesday’s vote in the US House of Representatives, with overwhelming bipartisan support to keep ultra-right Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson in office as Speaker, signifies the formation of a coalition government in all but name. Democrats and Republicans have joined forces on the basis of a common program of war abroad and mass repression at home. ... Even more significant than the vote itself was the political basis on which it was carried out. Democrats were explicitly repaying Johnson for his agreeing to bring up for a vote the long-delayed supplemental funding bill to provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. ...

Johnson is the most reactionary Speaker in modern US history—a Christian fundamentalist who opposes abortion, favors religion in the public schools and supports massive cuts in public social spending. After the defeat of the motion to vacate, he declared, “I am a lifelong, movement, conservative Republican, and I intend to continue to govern in accordance with those core principles.” ...

The Democrats are quite prepared to support an arch-reactionary Speaker so long as he rubberstamps the financing of the US-NATO war against Russia and the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. At the ceremony Tuesday marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Biden and Johnson stood side by side, each displaying a photograph of Jewish children murdered by the Nazis—as though this somehow justified the Israeli military’s murder of more than 10,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.

The domestic side of this bipartisan alliance is equally sinister. Johnson and Biden came together last month to back the passage of legislation to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act, which gives a legal stamp of approval to widespread NSA spying on Americans. And they are now backing the crackdown on student protesters against the Gaza genocide. House hearings have featured bullying of university presidents and school chiefs by both Republicans and Democrats, demanding an even more ferocious repression of students and other demonstrators and the police shutdown of campus encampments.

This line-up from Biden and Jeffries to Johnson and Trump, in support of war abroad and the build-up of a police state at home, has vital political lessons. It explodes the fiction, peddled endlessly by the Biden reelection campaign, that he is the last bulwark of the American people against the right-wing threat to democracy. It shows the falsity of all the claims by the media apologists for the Democratic Party, as well as pseudo-left groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, that Biden represents a “lesser evil” to Trump and the Republicans in the 2024 elections.

Rus Kharkov Advance, US Passes Ukr Project NATO, Desperate Zelensky Exiles Zaluzhny, Fires Security

Dennis Thompson, drummer in rock band MC5, dies aged 75

Dennis Thompson, the drummer for influential Detroit rock band MC5, has died at the age of 75.

Thompson, who was the last surviving member of the group after the death of guitarist Wayne Kramer in February, died in a Michigan nursing home on Thursday. He had been recovering after a heart attack in April, his son Chris McNulty told Detroit News. ...

MC5 were an incendiary force in their city’s music scene, with their 1969 debut album, Kick Out the Jams, being a live recording from Detroit’s Grande Ballroom where the band made their name. Thompson’s sound would influence scores of punk and metal drummers that came after him.

MC5 are set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. Thompson’s son McNulty told Detroit News that when his father heard, he said: “It’s about fuckin’ time.”

Hunter Biden loses bid to dismiss gun charges, clearing way for June trial

A federal appeals court panel rejected a bid by Hunter Biden dismiss criminal gun charges, clearing the way for the trial of Joe Biden’s son to proceed, a first for the child of a sitting president.

A three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the third circuit in Philadelphia said Hunter Biden could not appeal because the lower court had not yet entered a final judgment in the case.

Shortly after the appeals court ruled, the US district judge Maryellen Noreika ordered the trial of up to six days to begin on 3 June in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hunter Biden’s legal team said they will ask the full appeals court in Philadelphia to review the panel’s decision.

Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere

The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.

The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was 4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO₂ levels over a 12-month period.

The increase has been spurred, scientists say, by the periodic El Niño climate event, which has now waned, as well as the ongoing and increasing amounts of greenhouse gases expelled into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

“It’s really significant to see the pace of the increase over the first four months of this year, which is also a record,” said Ralph Keeling, director of the CO2 Program at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We aren’t just breaking records in CO2 concentrations, but also the record in how fast it is rising.”

The global CO₂ readings have been taken from a station perched upon the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii since the measurements began in 1958 under Keeling’s father, Charles. The concentrations of CO₂ have increased each year since, as the heat-trapping gas continues to progressively accumulate due to rampant emissions from power plants, cars, trucks and other sources, with last year hitting a new global record in annual emissions.

Vermont poised to become first US state to charge big oil for climate damage

Vermont is poised to pass a groundbreaking measure forcing major polluting companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis, in a move being closely watched by other states including New York and California. Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, which forces companies to pay for toxic waste cleanup, the climate superfund bill would charge major fossil fuel companies doing business within the state billions of dollars for their past emissions. The measure would make Vermont the first US state to hold fossil fuel companies liable for their planet-heating pollution. ...

Advocates for the Vermont bill notched a major win on Friday when the state’s house of representatives advanced the measure with a preliminary vote of 100-33 – enough support to overcome a potential veto by the state’s Republican governor, Phil Scott. On Monday, the bill passed the House in a 94-38 vote.

Within the next week, it will receive a final vote in the senate, where it received preliminary approval on a 26-3 vote last month. It will then head to Governor Scott’s desk for final approval; if he shoots it down, supporters are confident that they have the votes to override a veto. ...

The legislation would compel Vermont’s state treasurer, Mike Pieciak – who supports the effort – to set up a fund for climate damages. To do so, he would be required to determine how much money to collect to pay for climate-related impacts to Vermont’s public health, biodiversity, economic development and other damages. (The bill text does not include a specific figure to be collected, but an initial rough estimate from the Vermont Public Interest Research Group suggests the figure could be as much as $2.5 bn.)

The state would also have to work with scientists to figure out how much of that damage is attributable to climate change. Then, officials would calculate how much each major oil and gas company within the state contributed to it, based on the emissions from their products between 1995 and 2024. To do so, they would use the Carbon Majors database – an account of the world’s largest polluters’ contributions to the climate crisis.

Trump promised to scrap climate laws if US oil bosses donated $1bn

Donald Trump dangled a brazen “deal” in front of some of the top US oil bosses last month, proposing that they give him $1bn for his White House re-election campaign and vowing that once back in office he would instantly tear up Joe Biden’s environmental regulations and prevent any new ones, according to a bombshell new report. According to the Washington Post, the former US president made his jaw-dropping pitch, which the paper described as “remarkably blunt and transactional”, at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home and club.

In front of more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, he promised to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, remove hurdles to drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, and reverse new rules designed to cut car pollution. He would also overturn the Biden administration’s decision in January to pause new natural gas export permits which have been denounced as “climate bombs”.

“You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump said, according to the Post, citing an unnamed dinner attendee. ...

For their part, executives in big oil companies have been preparing for a possible Trump second term by drafting executive orders designed to be ready to sign as soon as he returns to office. Politico reported this week that the executives have clubbed together to produce off-the-shelf policies on increasing natural gas exports, supercharging drilling and extending offshore oil leases.

Also of Interest

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

As Biden Warns Against Rafah Invasion, AIPAC Pushes Congress to Support Israel’s Operation

On Campus Gaza Protests, Media Let Police Tell the Story—Even When They’re Wrong

Patrick Lawrence: University—An Attack on Intelligence

NATO To Officially Reject Ukraine Intervention

Abortion rights activists worry about Democrats piggybacking on the cause

Mexico GM Corn Case Update: U.S. Assertions Rebutted by Civil Society Experts

Glenn Greenwald Vs Ilya Shapiro On Campus Crackdowns

‘Finding the Money’ The Documentary That Has DC POWER Brokers On Edge

Republican Senators: 'NO FLY LIST' For Protestors

End of US Hegemony - Jack Matlock (Ambassador to the USSR), Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

A Little Night Music

Johnny Copeland - Houston

Johnny Copeland - There's A Blessing

Johnny Copeland - Honky Tonkin'

Johnny Copeland - Coming To See About You

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Johnny Copeland Look At Little Sister Live In Montreux

Johnny Copeland - Ghetto Child

Johnny Copeland - I Wish I Was Single

Johnny Copeland - Blues Ain't Nothin'

Johnny Copeland - Everybody Wants A Piece Of Me

Johnny Copeland - Live at the Lone Star Cafe, NYC [1991]