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This evening's music features Texas blues singer and piano player Mercy Dee Walton. Enjoy!

“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”

-- Arthur C. Clarke

News and Opinion

Chris Hedges' latest. It's more than worth a full read.

Extinction Rebellion

There is one desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe, implement radical measures to halt carbon emissions by 2025 and empower an independent citizens committee to oversee the termination of our 150-year binge on fossil fuels. If we do not do this, we will face mass death.

The British-based group Extinction Rebellion has called for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience on April 15 in capitals around the world to reverse our “one-way track to extinction.” I do not know if this effort will succeed. But I do know it is the only mechanism left to force action by the ruling elites, who, although global warming has been well documented for at least three decades, have refused to carry out the measures needed to protect the planet and the human race. These elites, for this reason alone, are illegitimate. They must be replaced. ...

“The intelligent people on the political left have woken up to the fact that we’ve got an existential emergency that could destroy human society in the next 10 years,” he said. “It’s in the cards. A lot of us have already gone through the grief process. But these [newly awakened] people just had that enlightenment. They’re in shock. They’re maintaining a veneer of ‘It’s sort of OK.’ This is what the Green Deal [a United Kingdom government policy initiative] is about. It is an attempt to pretend that industrialization can stay the same. We can all still be wealthy. We can all still have great jobs. It is like Roosevelt’s New Deal. But the New Deal was based on the idea that we can carry on plundering nature and nothing’s going to happen. Maybe that was right in the 1930s. But it’s not right anymore. It’s a matter of physics and biology. We simply cannot maintain these levels of consumption. They haven’t reckoned with that. One of the main reasons the climate debate has not gotten into a serious mode over the last 30 years is because people who are in charge of informing the public are terrified of telling the public that they can’t have the high consumer lifestyle anymore. It’s a taboo. But like any addiction, there comes a moment of truth. We’re there now.”

Venezuela: US increasingly isolated as allies warn against use of military force

US vice-president Mike Pence has repeated a veiled threat of military intervention in Venezuela, but Washington appeared increasingly isolated in its willingness to contemplate using force to oust President Nicolás Maduro. Both European powers and some of Donald Trump’s key Latin American allies – all of whom have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader – warned that they would oppose sending troops into the country. ...

An invasion would be complicated and bloody, with a strong chance of sliding into protracted civil war. Venezuela has armed forces that are more than 300,000 strong, thousands more members of pro-government gangs or guerrilla groups, complex terrain – and a government that still has some support from international partners including China and Russia.

Brazil’s vice-president, retired general Hamilton Mourão, said on Monday that under no circumstances would his country allow the United States to intervene militarily from Brazilian territory, even though the country’s rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro has previously vowed to do “everything for democracy to be re-established” in Venezuela.

Colombian president Iván Duque, has also now ruled out intervention, according to sources in his administration. Chile and Peru were also among other regional powers opposing military action on Monday. There was similar concern across the Atlantic, where European nations including Spain and Germany made clear they considered the deployment of troops a line that should not be crossed.

Spec ops in Puerto Rico, army in Colombia: US is 'preparing for a military invasion' in Venezuela

Mainstream media reporting from CNN, mostly crap - here is the useful part:

US flying more reconnaissance flights off Venezuela, military sources say

The US military has flown an increased number of reconnaissance flights in international airspace off the coast of Venezuela during the last several days to gather classified intelligence about the embattled government of President Nicholas Maduro, according to two US defense officials.

The officials would not detail which US military aircraft are being used, but the Navy and Air Force maintain several large fixed-wing aircraft capable of intercepting communications and monitoring the status of weaponry.

Massive Protest in Support of the Bolivarian Revolution Largely Ignored

Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif Resigns Hours After Meeting With US Peace Delegation

We are deeply saddened by the resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday afternoon, which occurred just hours after he met with our 28-person American peace delegation led by CODEPINK: Women for Peace. Zarif talked at length about how dissatisfied the Iranian people had become with the Iran nuclear agreement, and the pressure this put on him. He said that when the agreement was signed in 2015 over 80 percent of the Iranian people supported it, as they hoped it would bring Iran back into the international community and improve their economy.

Instead, President Trump quit the agreement and implemented even more sanctions on Iran and on any international company that has economic dealings with Iran. Now just 51 percent of Iranians think the nuclear agreement is a good idea because it has brought no economic relief to the Iranian people. Zarif expressed frustration with the Europeans, who say they want to salvage the deal but refuse to provide real economic relief.

We left the meeting feeling so impressed by the depth of Zarif’s knowledge, his diplomatic skills and his commitment to finding peaceful ways to deal with conflicts—including his efforts to solve the crisis in Yemen. We also left understanding the difficult position he was in, having staked his reputation on the success of the nuclear deal.

What's the US reaction to Zarif's resignation?

Kim Jong-un arrives in Vietnam for second summit with Donald Trump

Kim Jong-un has arrived in Vietnam, transferring from train to car for the final leg of his overland trip to Hanoi where the North Korean leader is scheduled to have a private dinner and meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Kim will meet the US president for a brief one-on-one conversation, followed by a social dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Their meeting comes eight months after the historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, which failed to produce concrete results on a path to denuclearisation. ...

There is no real expectation the second meeting will bring a final deal on ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons that threaten the US, but there are some hopes it could lead to a declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is at last formally over.

Pakistan claims Indian jets launched attack across Kashmir border

Pakistan says several Indian aircraft have breached the ceasefire line in disputed Kashmir and released payloads as they escaped back over the border. The alleged early morning operation, which the Pakistanis say caused no casualties or damage, comes amid the highest tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours in years, after a suicide attack on a paramilitary convoy that killed at least 40 security personnel earlier this month.

India has said Islamabad had a “direct hand” in the attack, which was claimed by the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. Pakistan denies any involvement. Delhi has yet to respond to the statement but sources told an Indian news agency that 12 fighter jets had crossed into Pakistani territory and destroyed a militant training camp.

Pakistan’s armed forces spokesman major-general Asif Ghafoor said on Tuesday morning there had been contact between the two countries’ aircraft after a breach by the Indian side. “Indian Air Force violated Line of Control,” Ghafoor tweeted around 5am local time. “Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. Indian aircrafts gone back.”

Jeremy Corbyn: we’ll back a second referendum to stop Tory no-deal Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn has finally thrown his party’s weight behind a second EU referendum, backing moves for a fresh poll with remain on the ballot paper if Labour should fail to get its own version of a Brexit deal passed this week. The decision to give the party’s backing to a second referendum follows a concerted push by the shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, and deputy leader, Tom Watson, who fear any further delay could have led to more defections to the breakaway Independent Group (TIG), whose members all back a second referendum.

Although the move has delighted MPs who are backing the People’s Vote campaign, Corbyn is likely to face determined opposition from dozens of MPs in leave seats if the party whips to back a second referendum, including a significant number of frontbenchers. The former shadow minister Lucy Powell said she believed at least 25 MPs would vote against any whip to back a second referendum, meaning that it would face an uphill struggle to pass the Commons without significant Conservative support. ...

Corbyn told MPs the party would back a fresh poll as a final resort in order to stop “a damaging Tory Brexit being forced on the country”. Speaking to MPs on Monday night, a week after seven MPs who backed a referendum quit the party, Corbyn said that Labour would first table its own version of a Brexit deal, including a permanent customs union.

That amendment is set to be tabled to the government’s Brexit motion on Wednesday, when Labour will also whip to back another amendment tabled by Yvette Cooper and the Tory Oliver Letwin, which would legislate for a delay to the UK’s exit date in order to avoid no deal.

Brexit deadlock: British PM proposes vote on delaying exit

MPs offered vote on no-deal Brexit and possible delay

Theresa May has promised MPs the chance to reject a no-deal Brexit and possibly delay the departure date, while repeatedly declining to say whether or not she and the government would support such moves. In a significant first concession that Brexit could take place after 29 March, following months of insistence the deadline could not be shifted, May sought to appease restive Conservative backbenchers, but prompted concern from pro-Brexit MPs. ...

Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister was yet again trying to run down the clock to pressure parliament into backing her deal, calling this “grotesquely reckless”.

Making a statement to the Commons after her talks with EU leaders in Egypt, May reiterated her pledge to give MPs a meaningful vote on a revised Brexit deal by 12 March. If this did not happen or if it was voted down, then by 13 March MPs would be able to vote on a motion that would seek their “explicit consent” for a no-deal departure, the prime minister said.

If MPs voted against this, then on 14 March a motion would be put to the Commons offering the option of a “short, limited extension to article 50” beyond 29 March, which would need the approval of the EU. The concession on the departure date follows intense pressure from remain-minded Conservatives, with a number of ministers having pledged to resign if necessary to avert the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Brexit 'Absolute deadline' for deal in 23 days, say EU sources

The UK risks hurtling into “guaranteed no deal” if MPs fail to back a Brexit agreement at the end of a short extension period, according to senior EU sources. Theresa May promised MPs on Tuesday that she would seek a “short, limited extension to article 50” beyond 29 March if parliament refuses to back her withdrawal agreement and votes against leaving without a deal.

Brussels insiders fear that scenario raises the risk of no deal in the summer. “It will be a no-return situation,” a senior diplomat told the Guardian. “If there is no solution [by the end of June] it is a guaranteed no deal.”

The midsummer crash landing would happen because the UK would not have taken part in European elections.

Most EU officials think 1 July is the last day the UK could remain an EU member state without having taken part in European elections. A three-month extension of article 50 to the end of June, coupled with missing the European elections in May, would make it legally impossible for the UK to continue as a member state, say official sources. The new parliament begins its work on 2 July.

Economic Update: Fantasy, Comedy, Tragedy: Delivering the News Today

Democrats prepare to vote to reverse Trump's border wall emergency call

Democrats are moving quickly to try to roll back Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to siphon billions of dollars from the military to fund construction of a fence along the US-Mexico border.

The Democratic-controlled House is set to vote on Tuesday afternoon on legislation to revoke Trump’s executive order from earlier this month. It is expected to pass, sending it to the Republican-held Senate, where it would take only a handful of GOP defections to pass it.

Trump could use his first-ever veto to kill the measure if it passes Congress, but the White House is seeking to minimize defections among the president’s Republican allies to avoid embarrassment.

The vote could be challenging for Republican lawmakers who view themselves as conservative protectors of the constitution and the powers of the federal purse that are reserved for Congress. But Republican vote counters are confident that the tally will not get near the two-thirds that would overturn a Trump veto.

Incarceration Is a Deadly Health Risk: Former Chief Medical Officer of NYC Jails Speaks Out

Judge rules Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri cannot resume abortions

Planned Parenthood cannot resume abortions at a clinic in central Missouri after a federal judge ruled that state restrictions were not “undue” burdens on women seeking abortions.

Current Missouri law requires clinics that provide abortions to have physicians with so-called admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The Columbia clinic has been unable to secure a physician with those privileges after a panel of medical staff at University of Missouri Health Care decided to stop offering the privileges in 2015 during a Republican-led legislative investigation on abortion in the state.

The clinic filed a motion in December asking for an exemption from that requirement so the Columbia clinic could resume abortions. St Louis has the only clinic able to offer abortions in the state.

AOC, Sanders, and Warren Are the Real Centrists Because They Speak for Most Americans

Google the words “moderate” or “centrist” and a small group of names will instantly appear: Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Joe Biden, and, yes, Howard Schultz. Bloomberg is considered a “centrist thought leader” (Vanity Fair). Klobuchar is the “straight-shooting pragmatist” (Time). Biden is the “quintessential centrist” (CNN) and the “last hurrah for moderate Democrats” (New York magazine). Shultz is gifted with high-profile interview slots to make his “centrist independent” pitch to voters.

Now Google the freshman House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s been dubbed a member of the “loony left” (Washington Post), a “progressive firebrand” (Reuters), and a “liberal bomb thrower” (New York Times).

Got that? Biden, Schultz and Co., we are told, sit firmly in the middle of American politics; Ocasio-Cortez stands far out on its fringes. This is a brazen distortion of reality, a shameless and demonstrable lie that is repeated day after day in newspaper op-eds and cable news headlines.

“It’s easy to call what AOC is doing as far-lefty, but nothing could be farther from the truth,” Nick Hanauer, the venture capitalist and progressive activist, told MSNBC in January. “When you advocate for economic policies that benefit the broad majority of citizens, that’s true centrism. What Howard Schultz represents, the centrism that he represents, is really just trickle-down economics.” ...

The inconvenient truth that our lazy media elites do so much to ignore is that Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and Warren are much closer in their views to the vast majority of ordinary Americans than the Bloombergs or the Bidens. They are the true centrists, the real moderates; they represent the actual political middle.

Sanders Tackles Democratic Socialism, Racial Inequality, the 'Fraud' of Trump, the 'Existential' Climate Crisis, and Much More During CNN Town Hall

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) covered the issues of democratic socialism, Trump's endless lying, racial inequality and reparations for slavery, Medicare for All, what he called the "existential crisis" of climate change, student debt, foreign policy and U.S. military intervention, and much else during Monday night's town hall event hosted by CNN.

Evidence of Human-Caused Climate Crisis Has Now Reached 'Gold Standard'-Level Certainty, Scientists Say

Most Americans now recognize the scientific community's consensus that human activity is fueling the climate crisis, according to polls—but for those who are still unconvinced of the conclusion reached by 97 percent of climate scientists, a new study makes an even more definite assertion.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California found that the information available can now be classified as "five-sigma"—a standard in the scientific community meaning that there is a one-in-a-million chance that the same data would be observable if humans were not causing the planet to grow warmer through activities like fossil fuel extraction. The classification represents a "gold standard" level of certainty.

"The narrative out there that scientists don't know the cause of climate change is wrong," Benjamin Santer, who led the study, told Reuters. "We do.”

Scientists applied the same "five-sigma" measure to research confirming the existence of the Higgs boson subatomic particle in 2012, a finding that was received with applause from the science community and the press.

The report, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change, builds on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report from 2013, which found that it was "extremely likely" that humans were causing the climate crisis—with a 95 percent chance.

'A World Without Clouds. Think About That a Minute': New Study Details Possibility of Devastating Climate Feedback Loop

As people across the globe mobilize to demand bold action to combat the climate crisis and scientific findings about looming "environmental breakdown" pile up, a startling new study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience warns that human-caused global warming could cause stratocumulus clouds to totally disappear in as little as a century, triggering up to 8°C (14°F) of additional warming.

Stratocumulus clouds cover about two-thirds of the Earth and help keep it cool by reflecting solar radiation back to space. Recent research has suggested that planetary warming correlates with greater cloud loss, stoking fears about a feedback loop that could spell disaster.

BREAKING: A new simulation has revealed that global warming could cause stratocumulus clouds to disappear in as little as a century, which would add 8°C (14°F) of extra warming. https://t.co/MbNqDO89bQ pic.twitter.com/doy03rTVBF

— Quanta Magazine (@QuantaMagazine) February 25, 2019

The study elicited alarm from climate campaigners along with calls for the "radical, disruptive changes" to society's energy and economic systems that scientists and experts have repeatedly said are necessary to prevent climate catastrophe. ... [A]s MIT professor Thomas Levenson put it: "The really terrifying aspect of this research is the reminder that we do not yet know all the ways catastrophic outcomes can emerge from this uncontrolled experiment on our only habitat."

Democrats Across the Country Are Getting Hounded by Voters for Shying Away From the Green New Deal

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein may feel like she was treated unfairly by young activists who have hammered her for not backing the Green New Deal resolution, but she has plenty of company. In upstate New York, Utah, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, voters who feel a much greater sense of urgency than their elected officials have been reacting furiously to politicians who say that the attempt to turn the fossil fuel-based economy around in the next 12 years simply isn’t realistic.

Rep. Antonio Delgado, the freshman from New York’s 19th District, was pressed repeatedly by constituents over his half-hearted support for the effort. He doesn’t support the Green New Deal, he told constituents at a town hall on February 16, though he noted that he backed certain aspects of the bill. Delgado said that he’s more interested in solutions that address the issues around climate change that can be solved now and that the bill as written does not sufficiently lay out a path for that kind of approach to the inevitability of climate crisis.

Democrats, especially freshmen in the House, are having to face voters in their districts who find the lack of action on climate change to be a major issue for the new representatives. And those complaints aren’t coming from blue districts — as with Delgado, freshmen Democrats from purple districts are facing resistance from constituents over their hesitancy to endorse progressive programs. Republicans aren’t immune either. On Monday morning, roughly 250 young activists from the Sunrise Movement occupied the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with 35 getting arrested.

The main rhetorical device that Democratic skeptics of the Green New Deal have been employing begins with a confident assertion that they believe in climate science and that the crisis must be taken seriously, and they admire the ambition of the Green New Deal. But, they add, the resolution just can’t pass a Republican Senate or be signed by President Donald Trump. ... Many Democrats, some of whom are vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, are deflecting calls from the party’s base to come out forcefully in favor of policies like Medicare for All, free four-year college, and the Green New Deal, that, while popular, would still require major political battles to get through Congress.

By asserting their support of the broad principles undergirding the policies while rejecting the actual nuts and bolts of the legislation, Democrats are trying to have it both ways: keeping rhetorically in tune with the desires of the base but protecting the interests of the party’s powerful establishment donor class in their actions. On Sunday night, Ocasio-Cortez responded to Feinstein, saying on Instagram Live and repeating later on Twitter that “Climate delayers are the new climate deniers.”

Costa Rica unveils plan to achieve zero emissions by 2050 in climate change fight

Costa Rica has launched an economy-wide plan to “decarbonize” the country by 2050, as the Central American nation aims to show other nations what is possible to address climate change. Environment minister, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, said that if the plan is achieved, his grandchildren in 2035 will have the same carbon footprint as his grandparents did in the 1940s – and by 2050 his grandchildren will have none at all. ...

But Jairo Quirós, an electrical energy researcher at the University of Costa Rica, warned the plan would be challenging, and “should be viewed with some caution”. Under the roadmap launched Sunday, Costa Rica by 2050 would achieve “zero net emissions”, meaning it would produce no more emissions than it can offset through things such as maintaining and expanding its extensive forests. Such emission cuts are key to holding increases in global temperature to well under 2C (3.6F), the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

Also of Interest

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

Venezuela - No, The "Responsibility To Protect" Does Not Apply

Notes From the Streets of Venezuela—The People Are Resilient in the Face of Foreign Intervention

The Judiciary Won't Save American Democracy

Bernie Sanders Asks the Right Question on Reparations: What Does It Mean?

Inside the Extremist Group That Dreams of Ruling Ukraine

Survival of the Richest

Corporate Media 'Culpable,' Say Women's Rights Advocates, for Bolstering Trump's Abortion Lies

Monsanto: judge threatens to 'shut down' cancer patient's lawyer

The Inevitable Death of Natural Gas as a ‘Bridge Fuel’

A Little Night Music

Mercy Dee - Romp & Stomp Blues

Mercy Dee Walton - I been a fool

Mercy Dee Walton - Stubborn Woman

Mercy Dee - Five Card Hand

Mercy Dee - Lonesome Cabin Blues

Mercy Dee Walton - My Woman And The Devil

Mercy Dee And Lady Fox - Get to gettin'

Mercy Dee Walton - Trying to Kick the Habit

Mercy Dee Walton - The Main Event