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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Buddy Guy

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Buddy Guy. Enjoy!

^{Buddy Guy - Hoochie Coochie Man, One Room Country Shack}

"Nothing predicts future behavior as much as past impunity."

-- Jane Mayer

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News and Opinion

Pentagon Blows Deadline to Explain US Role in Nigerian Airstrike That Killed 160 Civilians

The Pentagon's stated commitment to transparency on civilian casualties was questioned Tuesday in an Intercept report noting that the Department of Defense has failed to respond to a group of House Democrats who set a three-month deadline to explain the U.S. military's role in a 2017 Nigerian airstrike that killed more than 160 noncombatants.

On September 8, Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.)—the Protection of Civilians in Combat Caucus—sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin citing reporting that the U.S. military provided Nigerian forces with intelligence support ahead of a January 17, 2017 airstrike on a refugee camp in Rann, Borno state, in the country's northeastern corner.

Nigeria bombed the camp believing it was a base for Boko Haram fighters. More than 160 civilians died in the attack, including six Red Cross aid workers. A formerly classified U.S. military document obtained by The Intercept referred to the strike as a "U.S.-Nigerian" operation. Days after the attack, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) secretly ordered a probe of the airstrike.

The lawmakers asked what was the nature of U.S. involvement in the strike, whether the military provided intelligence or other support to its Nigerian partner, and other questions, asking Pentagon officials to reply "no later than 90 days" after they received the letter. That deadline was nearly two weeks ago.

"The Pentagon's failure to provide information and documents… to determine possible U.S. involvement in an airstrike that took many civilian lives in northeast Nigeria does not bode well for the U.S. government's expressed commitment to transparency and accountability," Human Rights Watch Nigeria researcher Anietie Ewang told The Intercept.

"It sends a worrisome message that, at minimum, the Defense Department is unwilling to engage on an issue affecting countless lives and may even reflect an attempt to evade responsibility," she added.

The Intercept's Nick Turse writes:

In August, the Pentagon unveiled a Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, which provides a blueprint for improving how the U.S. military addresses civilian harm. The plan calls for a new emphasis on the "proactive release of information" and "transparency regarding [Defense Department] policies and processes for mitigating and responding to civilian harm"—but not until next year.

The formerly secret AFRICOM document obtained by The Intercept, along with reporting by Nigerian journalists and interviews with experts, suggests that the U.S. may have launched this rare internal investigation because it secretly provided intelligence or other support to the Nigerian armed forces who carried out the deadly strike.

Asked to comment on the missed deadline, Pentagon spokesperson Col. Phillip Ventura told The Intercept that "I don't think we're going to get a lot of joy on this one."

US Military Thanks And Praises Retiring CNN “Journalist” For Her Service

The US military has been showering CNN’s retiring Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with effusive thanks and praise for her lifetime of service, giving some insight into the cozy working relationship between the media and the war machine inside the US empire.

“Today closes a remarkable career for CNN’s Barbara Starr, a leader in the Pentagon Press Corps,” reads a post by the Twitter account for US Central Command. “Her aggressive reporting and tireless commitment to the truth brought this Nation closer to its military. She will forever be missed.”

Starr received a standing ovation at a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday after Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder sang her praises and thanked her for two decades on the job.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to say farewell to our media colleague, Miss Barbara Starr,” Ryder said. “Barbara has reported for CNN for over 20 years, and has been a fixture in the Pentagon Press Corps, and today marks her final day with CNN after a storied and fully-impressive — excuse me — truly impressive career.”

“So Barbara, on behalf of Secretary of Defense Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley and the entire Department of Defense, I would like to extend a special congratulations and thank you for your many years of timely, insightful and important reporting on our nation’s most pressing defense issues,” Ryder continued. “And as someone who has worked with you for many of those last 20 years and someone who has had to take your late-night phone calls and emails and answer your tough, but fair questions, I can say from personal experience that the U.S. public and audiences worldwide have been well served by your in-depth reporting from the Pentagon, your journalistic integrity and your determination to tell the stories of service members worldwide, and to ensure the government and DOD remain transparent and accountable to the taxpayers and the American public they serve. Congratulations again, and we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”

“You know Department of Defense better then [sic] most. We will miss you ! Thanks for your service to our Democracy! Free Independent Press !”, retired lieutenant general Russel L. Honoré told Starr on Twitter.

I actually can’t think of a clearer sign that the US does not have a “free independent press” than for the US military to be gushing affectionately about the career of a longtime CNN Pentagon correspondent, myself. And I can’t think of a more disgraceful way for a journalist to retire than with a standing ovation at the Pentagon.

Surely there can be no clearer a mark of journalistic failure than being thanked by the US military for your lifetime of service. If your journalistic relationship with the corrupt and murderous US military was ever anything other than oppositional, and their feelings toward you anything but hostile, it’s because you were never a journalist. You were their PR agent.

And indeed one need only look at Starr’s output over the course of her career to know that this was the case. Watch her uncritically parroting US government claims about chemical weapons in Syria. Watch the infomercial-like way she reports on US “war on terror” activity in the Middle East. Watch her enthusing about what a “win” the capture of Muammar Gaddafi was for the United States. Watch her finger-wagging at the president of the Philippines after he verbally insulted the president of the United States. Compare the way she talks about allegations of Russian war crimes and US war crimes.

“I’ve been listening to her for years, and I can’t recall a single time she wasn’t just reading a Pentagon press release,” tweeted activist Steve Patt.

The US military has such adoration for Barbara Starr because she is a war propagandist, just like the rest of the mainstream western news media who report on US foreign policy. And the Pentagon was joined by Starr’s fellow propagandists in celebrating her storied career.

“You are so well-respected, not only here at CNN but in the broader community of journalists — I know how well-respected you are at the Pentagon,” anchor Erica Hill told Starr on CNN.

“CNN and our viewers have benefited greatly from her truly extraordinary reporting skills and her deep knowledge of the US military, that I truly appreciate as a former CNN correspondent myself,” said CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during his farewell to Starr.

“So well deserved. Barbara was one of the best journalists I worked with at CNN. A Pentagon legend,” tweeted Murdoch pundit Piers Morgan.

This is everything that is wrong with news media in the western world. Journalists are supposed to hold power to account with the light of truth, and that cannot happen if they are building warm, affectionate relationships with the people they’re meant to be aggressively scrutinizing. If the public is getting their information about the workings of the most powerful military force ever assembled by people who are friendly with and sympathetic to that military force, then they cannot possibly be getting accurate information about it. The press cannot possibly be ensuring that “the government and DOD remain transparent and accountable to the taxpayers and the American public they serve.”

And that is of course the point. The mass media of the western world do not exist to inform, they exist to misinform. To create a compliant and obedient populace who doesn’t interfere with the mechanisms of empire or the violence necessary for upholding it. To, as CENTCOM so aptly put it, bring the nation closer to its military.

That was Barbara Starr’s entire job, it will be the job of whoever replaces her, and it will be the job of everyone else in the Pentagon press room with them.

Biden, Congress FANGIRL Over Zelensky, Pledge UNLIMITED Aid; Tucker Slams Regime-Change War

‘You’ll never stand alone’: Biden pledges support to Zelenskiy during US visit

Joe Biden has promised Volodymyr Zelenskiy that “you will never stand alone” as the Ukrainian leader visited the White House in a bid to keep American weapons supplies flowing for the war against Russia.

Zelenskiy, wearing his now trademark green military-style trousers and shirt, welcomed the US support while warning that it was difficult to see an easy end to the conflict and that there “cannot be any just peace in a war that was imposed on us”. ...

At a press conference after the two hour meeting, Biden repeatedly affirmed the US’s commitment to Ukraine.

“You will never stand alone,” he said. “Because we understand in our bones that Ukraine’s fight is part of something much bigger. The American people know that if we stand by in the face of such blatant attacks on liberty and democracy, and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, the world would surely face worse consequences.” ...

Zelenskiy said he had come to Washington to thank the US for what he described as its crucial military assistance, and to ask for more. He also appealed to Congress to approve $45bn in military aid for next year, despite Republican scepticism, saying it was in the US’s interests to support Ukraine.

Russia advance on Kupiansk, Ukraine Power Shortages, Zelensky to US, Medvedev Meets Xi Jinping

Washington Is Prolonging Ukraine's Suffering

[I]nside the Biden administration, there is growing concern that the Ukrainian war effort will collapse under the weight of a Russian offensive. And as the ground in Southern Ukraine finally freezes, the administration’s fears are justified. In an interview published in the Economist, head of Ukraine’s armed forces General Valery Zaluzhny admitted that Russian mobilization and tactics are working. He even hinted that Ukrainian forces might be unable to withstand the coming Russian onslaught.

Yet, Zaluzhny rejected any notion of a negotiated settlement and instead pleaded for more equipment and support. He went on to insist that with 300 new tanks, 600 to 700 new infantry fighting vehicles, and 500 new Howitzers, he could still win the war with Russia. Truthfully, General Zaluzhny is not asking for assistance, he’s asking for a new army. Therein lies the greatest danger for Washington and its NATO allies.

When things go badly for Washington’s foreign policy, the true believers in the great cause always draw deeply from the well of ideological self-delusion to steel themselves for the final battle. Blinken, Klain, Austin, and the rest of the war party continue to pledge eternal support for Kiev regardless of the cost. Like the “best and the brightest” of the 1960s they are eager to sacrifice realism to wishful thinking, to wallow in the splash of publicity and self-promotion in one public visit to Ukraine after another. ...

The Biden administration’s unconditional support for the Zelensky regime in Kiev is reaching a strategic inflection point not unlike the one LBJ reached in 1965. Just as LBJ suddenly determined in 1964 that peace and security in Southeast Asia was a vital U.S. strategic interest, the Biden administration is making a similar argument now for Ukraine. Like South Vietnam in the 1960s, Ukraine is losing its war with Russia.

Ukraine’s hospitals and morgues are filled to capacity with wounded and dying Ukrainian soldiers. Washington’s proxy in Kiev has squandered its human capital and considerable Western aid in a series of self-defeating counter-offensives. Ukrainian soldiers manning the defensive lines facing Russian soldiers in Southern Ukraine are brave men, but they are not fools. The Spartans at Thermopylae were brave, and they still died. The real danger now is that Biden will soon appear on television to repeat LBJ’s performance in 1965, substituting the word "Ukraine" for "South Vietnam."

Belensky's speech to Congress, kisses Pelosi, good investment. Putin, Russia is fighting NATO.

Vladimir Putin promises army anything it asks for, as invasion enters 11th month

Vladimir Putin has pledged to give his army anything it asks for in a meeting with Russia’s top military officials as the war in Ukraine enters its 11th month.

Speaking in Moscow at the closing session of the expanded board of the ministry of defence, Putin said there were no “funding restrictions” for the military. “The country, the government will give everything that the army asks for. Everything,” the Russian president added.

Russia is expected to dramatically increase its spending on the military in the next two years, as Putin signals that he is preparing for a prolonged and costly war with Ukraine. Earlier this month, he said the conflict could turn into a “long-term process”, and the Kremlin shows no intention of climbing down from its maximalist goals of regime change in Ukraine. ...

Praising Russian troops as “heroes”, Putin said that half of the 300,000 mobilised soldiers were currently stationed away from the battlefield.

“This is a sufficient reserve for conducting the special military operation,” Putin said.

FORENSICS: NO EVIDENCE Russia Behind Nordstream Attack

U.S. Accuses U.N. of Yielding to Russian Threats Over Iran Drone Inquiry

The United States accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of "apparently yielding to Russian threats" and not sending officials to Ukraine to inspect drones used by Russia that Washington and others say were supplied by Iran.

Russia has denied its forces used Iranian drones in Ukraine and argues there is no mandate for U.N. officials to travel to Kyiv to investigate the origin of the drones. Iran has acknowledged it had supplied Moscow with drones, but said they were sent before Russia invaded its neighbor in February.

Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Ukraine say the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia violates a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution enshrining the Iran nuclear deal. They want Guterres to send officials to Kyiv to investigate.

"We regret that the U.N. has not moved to carry out a normal investigation of this reported violation," U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood told a Security Council meeting on Monday on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resolution.

80 FBI Agents Monitored Jokes On Twitter Full Time!

Former Texas officer gets nearly 12 years for fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson

A former Texas police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019 was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 12 years in prison for manslaughter.

Aaron Dean, 38, faced up to 20 years but the same jury that convicted him of manslaughter determined the sentence at 11 years, 10 months and 12 days.

The white Fort Worth officer shot the 28-year-old Black woman while responding to a call about an open front door. His guilty verdict was a rare conviction of an officer for killing someone also armed with a gun.

At trial, the primary dispute was whether Dean knew Jefferson was armed. Dean testified that he saw her weapon. Prosecutors claimed evidence showed otherwise.

Dean shot Jefferson on 12 October 2019, after a neighbor called a non-emergency police line to report that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open. She had been playing video games that night with her eight-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, and it emerged at trial that they left the doors open to vent smoke from hamburgers the boy burned. Zion, now 11, was in the room when his aunt was shot. He testified during the trial.

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IRS failed to conduct timely mandatory audits of Trump’s taxes while president

US tax authorities failed to audit Donald Trump for two years while he was in the White House, Democratic lawmakers said, despite a program that makes tax review of sitting presidents compulsory.

The claim, in a report issued by Democrats on the House ways and means committee voting to release six years of Trump’s tax returns, raises questions over statements made by Trump and members of his administration that he could not release his tax returns, a convention for aspiring and sitting presidents, because he was undergoing an Internal Revenue Service audit.

The new report suggests US tax authorities only began to audit Trump’s 2016 tax filings in 2019, more than two years into his presidency. The audit, a requirement dating back to the Nixon administration, came only after Democrats took control of the House and requested Trump’s tax information. ...

Despite a six-year, cat-and-mouse dispute over Trump’s taxes, an issue that reached the supreme court, the committee made no suggestion that Trump sought to lean on the IRS or discourage it from reviewing his paperwork.

"We Are at a Precipice as a Nation": Cornel West & Christina Greer on Jan. 6 Insurrection & More

Key Democratic Campaign Firms Ditch Newly Independent Sen. Sinema

While U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has declined to say whether she'll run in 2024 since leaving the Democratic Party earlier this month, political consultants are already making plans, with some firms now declining to work with the Arizona Independent, HuffPost revealed Wednesday.

"NGP VAN, which manages Democratic voter data, is set to cut off Sinema's access at the end of January, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation," the outlet reported, noting that the development is "likely to be a headache for Sinema, since it will make it more difficult to target voters for digital advertising, mailers, and door-knocking."

Though a spokesperson for Bonterra Tech, NGP VAN's parent company, declined to comment, HuffPost pointed out that other companies are making similar moves:

The ad makers who worked with her in 2018, Dixon/Davis Media Group, have split with her campaign. Two other Democratic sources said polling firm Impact Research made the same decision.

Both Dixon/Davis and Impact have the type of pedigree you would expect for firms that work with senators in key races. Dixon/Davis worked on President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, while Impact Research does polling for President Joe Biden. Both firms made the decision before Sinema's recent party switch.

A spokesperson for Sinema did not respond to an email seeking comment.

HuffPost's revelations come after Politico reported within hours of Sinema announcing her departure from the party that the progressive digital firm Authentic has dropped her as a client.

While Authentic declined to comment on that report and Sinema's office did not immediately respond, the firm faced an internal revolt earlier this year over its work for the senator.

According to internal union messages reviewed by Politico, Authentic employees said things like, "I am doing the devil's work," and "I feel sick about it tbh," shorthand for "to be honest."

Those messages, made public in February, reportedly stemmed from frustration with Sinema blocking federal voting rights legislation. She has faced intense criticism from Democratic lawmakers and voters over the past two years for obstructing various party priorities.

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Keystone pipeline raises concerns after third major spill in five years

The Keystone pipeline, which traverses 2,600 miles from western Canada through the central US, leaked an estimated 14,000 barrels of oil, more than half a million gallons, into a creek in Washington county, Kansas, on 7 December. The incident was the largest onshore oil spill since at least 2013, the Keystone pipeline’s third major spill in the last five years, and the largest since it began operating in 2010. It is also the case that previous estimates from earlier spills on the pipeline have turned out to be much larger than the initial estimates.

Four dead mammals and 71 dead fish were recovered from the latest spill site, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which is involved in cleanup efforts with the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), state and local agencies, the pipeline owner and operator TC Energy and the company’s contractors. About 5,500 barrels of oil and water and 5,000 cubic yards of oil-contaminated soil have been recovered in initial cleanup efforts.

Most of the undamaged parts of the pipeline resumed operations last week, as cleanup efforts and an investigation into the cause of the spill continue. On Tuesday it was reported that TC Energy had submitted its plan to regulators for fully restarting it. ...

About 22 oil spills have occurred on the Keystone pipeline in the past 12 years, with two other large incidents. TC Energy has only paid $300,000 in fines for previous spills on the Keystone pipeline, even if the spills caused more than $111m in property damage. ... After construction, the Keystone pipeline received numerous warnings from federal regulators about the lack of corrosion protection and deficiencies in corrosion control. The problems took years to be fixed. A recent US Government Accountability Office (GOA) report noted the Keystone pipeline’s safety record has been deteriorating and identified “construction issues”, resulting in large spills on the Keystone pipeline in 2017 and 2019.

Court Finds EPA Approval of Bee-Killing Sulfoxaflor Unlawful

In a major victory for pollinators and other wildlife, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's registration of the bee-killing insecticide sulfoxaflor is unlawful.

In response to a legal challenge brought by the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity, the court argued that the EPA's 2019 decision authorizing the expanded use of sulfoxaflor across more than 200 million acres of pollinator-attractive crops violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The court gave the agency 180 days to collect public comment and issue a new decision on the insecticide, which is produced by Corteva, formerly Dow AgroSciences.

"When an agency deliberately ignores Congress' legislative command, it undermines the will of the people and ultimately our constitutional structure of government," the court wrote in a strongly worded decision.

By routinely failing to protect endangered species when registering pesticides—thereby forcing the public to sue to obtain protections that should be automatic—EPA is "engaging in a whack-a-mole strategy for complying with the ESA," the court stated. ...

EPA originally approved sulfoxaflor in 2013, but thanks to an Earthjustice lawsuit filed on behalf of the Pollinator Stewardship Council and the American Beekeeper Federation, the 9th Circuit vacated that decision. The court ruled at the time that EPA failed to comply with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which requires all pesticide applications to prove they will not cause "unreasonable adverse effects on the environment."

"In 2016, EPA re-approved sulfoxaflor subject to significant restrictions to reduce the risk to honeybees and other pollinators," Earthjustice explained. "But in 2019, and without any public notice, EPA removed these restrictions and approved new uses for the bee-killing insecticide." In response, Earthjustice once again sued the agency, this time on behalf of the Pollinator Stewardship Council, the American Beekeeping Federation, and commercial beekeeper Jeffrey Anderson.

According to the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity, EPA's 2019 decision "to expand use of sulfoxaflor on a wide range of crops that attract bees, including soybeans, cotton, strawberries, squash, and citrus... came despite the fact that its own scientists found the insecticide could threaten honeybee colonies and other pollinators," including the imperiled monarch butterfly.

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Also of Interest

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

Russia Takes New Steps To Secure Its Western Border

Venezuela Condemns US Senate Passage of ‘Bolivar Act’

Meet the Grinch Stealing Social Security, the Future of Gen Y And Z

Spurred by Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Solar Soars by 50% in EU: Report

It’s Not Just About Climate Change, It’s About Ecological Collapse

Zelensky Makes Outrageous Demand During U.S. Visit – Biden Accommodates!

How Twitter & CIA Spread Pro-War Propaganda

Police SEIZE On Covid-19 Tech To Expand GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE: Report

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A Little Night Music

Buddy Guy in 1969 with Jack Bruce and Buddy Miles

Buddy Guy - Red House

Buddy Guy - Ten Years Ago

Buddy Guy - Can`t be Satisfied

Buddy Guy - First Time I Met The Blues

Buddy Guy 1965 - Out of Sight

Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive And Well

Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan - Medley

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Blues Band, Avery Fisher Hall, New York City - 1974

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