Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues banjo and jug player Gus Cannon. Enjoy!

"All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means."

-- Zhou Enlai

News and Opinion

US and Canada follow EU and UK in sanctioning Chinese officials over Xinjiang

Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose parallel sanctions on senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in the first such western action against Beijing since Joe Biden took office.

The move also marked the first time in three decades that the UK or the EU had punished China for human rights abuses, and both will now be working hard to contain the potential political and economic fallout. China hit back immediately, blacklisting MEPs, European diplomats and thinktanks.

The US and Canada also imposed sanctions on several senior Chinese officials as part of the coordinated pressure campaign.

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said China’s treatment of the Uighur minority was “the largest mass detention of an ethnic and religious group since the second world war”. Evidence of repression in Xinjiang “is clear as it is sobering”, he said. ...

“Amid growing international condemnation, [China] continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “We will continue to stand with our allies around the world in calling for an immediate end to the PRC’s crimes and for justice for the many victims.”

Much more at the link:

‘Independent’ report claiming Uyghur genocide brought to you by sham university, neocon ideologues lobbying to ‘punish’ China

Throughout March 2021, headlines in corporate media outlets from CNN to The Guardian blared about the release of the “first independent report” to authoritatively determine that the Chinese government has violated “each and every act” of the United Nations convention against genocide, and therefore “bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs.” The report, published on March 8 by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, follows a last-minute accusation made in January by the outgoing Trump administration, along with similar declarations by the Dutch and Canadian Parliaments. It was published shortly after the release of a remarkably similar report on February 8 that was commissioned by the US government-backed World Uyghur Congress, and which alleged that there is a “credible case” against the Chinese government for genocide.

CNN, The Guardian, AFP, and the CBC hailed the March 8 Newlines report as an “independent analysis” and a “landmark legal report” that involved “dozens of international experts.” Samantha Power, the Biden administration’s nominee to direct the US Agency for International Development (USAID), also promoted it: “This report shows how this [genocide] is precisely what China is doing with the Uighurs,” the notorious humanitarian interventionist stated.

The report’s authors have insisted that they are “impartial” and are “not advocating any course of action whatsoever.” But a closer look at the report and the institutions behind it reveals its authors’ claims of “independence” and “expertise” to be a blatant deception. Indeed, the report’s principal author, Yonah Diamond, recently called on the Biden administration to unilaterally “confront,” and “punish” China for supposedly committing genocide, and expand sanctions against the country. Meanwhile, the think tanks behind the report have advocated fervently for the West to “combat” and sanction China, and have promoted US regime change policies targeting Syria, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia.

A majority of the report’s “expert” signatories are members of the Newlines Institute and the Wallenberg Centre. Others are members of the hawkish Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, former US State Department officials, and ardent supporters of US military interventionism. The report relies most substantially on the “expertise” of Adrian Zenz, the far-right evangelical ideologue, whose “scholarship” on China has been demonstrated to be deeply flawed, riddled with falsehoods and dishonest statistical manipulation.

The reliance on the voluminous but demonstrably fraudulent work of Zenz is not surprising, given that the report was financed by the Newlines Institute’s parent organization, the Fairfax University of America (FXUA). FXUA is a disgraced institution that state regulators moved to shut down in 2019 after finding that its “teachers weren’t qualified to teach their assigned courses”, academic quality was “patently deficient,” and plagiarism was “rampant” and ignored. Just days before the Newlines Institute published its “expert” report accusing China of genocide, an advisory board to the US Department of Education recommended terminating recognition of FXUA’s accreditor, placing its license in jeopardy.

Ex-Ambassador Robert Ford on the US role in Syria's 10-year war

'Everything is on the table': Senate prepares for showdown over filibuster

The US Senate is rapidly hurtling towards a high-stakes showdown over the filibuster, a once arcane procedural maneuver that stands in the way of Democratic efforts to pass sweeping voting rights legislation, among other measures. ...

And the problem for Democrats is that there is no consensus in the Senate caucus about what, exactly, they should do about the filibuster. Some Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona the most prominent among them, are staunchly opposed to getting rid of the procedure entirely, saying it guarantees the minority has input into lawmaking. That means Senate Democrats will probably have to find some way of moderating the rule to allow them to pass legislation. ...

There are a range of ideas floating around. One that seems to be gathering support is the so-called talking filibuster. It would require senators who want to filibuster a bill to actually speak on the floor for the entire time they want to hold up the legislation. Other ideas include exempting voting rights legislation from the filibuster or lowering the 60-vote threshold to move forward.

“Everything is on the table,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said on Wednesday.

Joe Biden has long opposed getting rid of the filibuster. But this week he energized advocates by endorsing the talking filibuster. ... Manchin said on Thursday that he welcomed Biden’s stance on the issue.

Bernie Pushes Dem Propaganda About $1400 Checks

Progressives Demand Permanent Repeal of 'Self-Defeating' Paygo Law as Automatic Medicare Cuts Loom

The leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus is calling for permanent repeal of a notorious 2010 law that is threatening to inflict deep, automatic cuts to Medicare and other safety net programs following passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan earlier this month.

On Friday, the House of Representatives—with the support of just 29 Republicans—approved legislation that would exempt the coronavirus relief package from a law known as statutory Paygo, which requires deficit spending to be offset by cuts to government programs. The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act was enacted in 2010 with the support of the then-Democratic Congress and former President Barack Obama.

While Paygo rules were waived in coronavirus relief bills approved during the Trump presidency, congressional Democrats' use of the arcane budget reconciliation process to pass the American Rescue Plan over unified Republican obstruction prevented inclusion of a waiver this time around, setting the stage for tens of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, farm subsidies, and other programs if the Senate fails to act.

"We're pleased that the House voted today to waive statutory Paygo for the American Rescue Plan Act to prevent damaging, self-defeating, and wholly unnecessary cuts to Medicare and other programs," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement. "We urge the Senate to follow the House's lead and act swiftly to waive statutory Paygo."

But Jayapal stressed that the House bill—which also pushes off a separate 2% cut to Medicare set for April 1—is just a temporary solution to a problem that will continue cropping up without complete repeal of the 2010 law.

"It's long past time for Congress to end statutory Paygo permanently," said Jayapal. "The austerity politics of the last several decades have been an unmitigated failure—hollowing out programs that families rely on and leaving millions unable to afford the basics."

"Congress should never have to choose between protecting programs like Medicare and lifting families out of poverty or providing urgently needed assistance to working people facing unprecedented economic hardship," the Washington Democrat continued. "At the Progressive Caucus, we will keep fighting to end statutory Paygo for good so that Congress can focus on what really matters: empowering and investing in working people across this nation."

To pass the House legislation, the Senate Democratic caucus will need to win the support of at least 10 Republicans as long as the 60-vote legislative filibuster remains intact. But judging by overwhelming opposition to the Paygo waiver bill among House Republicans—127 members of the GOP caucus voted no—Senate Democrats could have difficulty obtaining the necessary votes.

Amazon Intimidates Workers Amid Historic Alabama Union Vote as Jeff Bezos Makes $7 Million an Hour

Senate confirms Boston mayor Marty Walsh as Biden's labor secretary

Marty Walsh has been confirmed as the next US labor secretary, bringing Joe Biden’s cabinet a step nearer to completion. The Senate voted 68-29 to confirm the Democrat, currently the mayor of Boston.

Aside from Walsh, there are a few finishing touches left for Biden’s cabinet-level appointees. The Senate has yet to confirm Eric Lander as Biden’s top science adviser, and the White House still hasn’t named anyone to head his budget office, after Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination amid controversy. The White House is facing pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill to name Shalanda Young, the current nominee for deputy budget director, to the top role.

Biden’s cabinet may be nearly complete but the work of building his administration is just beginning, as the president still has hundreds of key presidential appointments to make to fill out the federal government.

Biden has about 1,250 federal positions that require Senate confirmation, ranging from the head of the obscure Railroad Retirement Board to more urgent department positions such as assistant and deputy secretaries. Of the 790 being tracked by the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan good-government group, 23 appointees have been confirmed by the Senate, 39 are being considered by the Senate, and 466 positions have no named nominee.

Matt Karp: DISMANTLING Media Narrative That Biden Bill Is Social Democracy

With Butch Lewis Act, Workers Won Major Victory for Right to Secure Retirement

Tucked into the American Rescue Plan — the coronavirus stimulus that passed in early March — is the greatest victory for American workers in recent memory: the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act. The law constitutes a massive rescue for the 10 million members and retirees of oft-underfunded labor-management multiemployer pension funds, which in recent years have threatened dramatic cuts for hundreds of thousands of pensioners and reduced, sometimes substantially, the benefits of tens of thousands. Now those 10 million workers will see their benefits protected for, at minimum, the next 30 years. Pension funds that had already cut benefits for their members will pay back workers the amount that they were cut, with some retirees expecting checks in excess of $15,000. The result is an affirmation of the right to a secure retirement, arguably the biggest win for labor in Congress since the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993.

Wall Street-driven changes in the economy and in pension fund investment management have devastated the funds in recent years, as private equity-backed companies have gone bankrupt and stopped their contributions to the funds and pension funds have loaded up on risky new strategies in foreign stocks, active management, real estate, and private equity. While a systematic study of multiemployer fund performance has not been done, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found in 2018 that public sector pensions had lost out on $600 billion worth of returns due to Wall Street-driven risky investment. ...

The rescue doesn’t include any deeper look at what created the multiemployer crisis to begin with, however. The combination of the declining power of labor and the financialization of the economy wreaked havoc for the Central States fund in particular as employers stopped making contributions to the fund and risky Wall Street investment strategies led it to market-trailing returns. “Goldman Sachs & Northern Trust got $41M to manage workers’ pension funds, & they recklessly gambled it on junk bonds & toxic mortgages,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in an April 2016 tweet. A 2018 investigation into the plan’s investment management by the Government Accountability Office soft-pedaled Goldman’s role, declining to investigate Goldman’s decision to have the fund purchase $43 million in Goldman stocks and bonds or substantively investigate the funds’ poor performance in the financial crisis. The attention did help the fund move to a more prudent portfolio management strategy focused on blue-chip stocks and bonds. ...

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is currently headed by Gordon Hartogensis, Mitch McConnell’s brother-in-law, has been notoriously reticent to investigate the investments made by underfunded and failing pension plans. Two of McConnell’s top five contributors from 2015 to 2020 were employees of the Blackstone Group and KKR, private equity firms which collect enormous fees from pension funds, according to data collected by Opensecrets.org. “The regulators have never been around to look at the high fees and performance issues in these plans,” added Chris Tobe, a financial analyst and former public pension trustee in Kentucky.

“Shameful”: Amid Border Emergency, Immigrant Rights Advocates Urge Biden to Stop Detaining Children

Migrants held in overcrowded Texas facility, photos released by congressman show

The Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar has brought more pain for the Joe Biden administration on its border policy by releasing pictures of an overcrowded immigration facility in Texas where he said more than 400 male minors were being held in a section meant for 250.

The White House is under growing pressure over conditions at the southern border, where federal authorities are trying to cope with an increase in migrant crossings from Mexico, many by unaccompanied minors, while staying true to Biden’s promise to implement a more humane policy than that pursued by Donald Trump.

Cuellar said the images showed a facility in Donna, Texas, that contained eight plastic-divided “pods” used to hold migrants. He said he did not visit the facility himself. The pictures showed migrants covered in foil blankets and lying on plastic mattresses.

Under US policy, children are not supposed to be held in custody for more than three days. More than 2,000 have currently passed that limit. Controversy is also mounting over the Biden administration’s refusal to allow press access to such border facilities.

Cuellar gave the pictures to Axios and described “terrible conditions for the children”, who he said should be moved into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. Border patrol agents were “doing the best they can under the circumstances”, the congressman said, but were “not equipped to care for kids” and “need help from the administration”.

New York makes complaint records of 83,000 police officers available to public

The complaint records of 83,000 active and former New York City police officers have been added to a searchable public database justice advocates hope will help citizens and activists identify problem officers and trends in police abuse.

The records were made public as part of a national push for greater police transparency following the death of George Floyd, an African American man, under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis last year.

One month after Floyd’s death, New York lawmakers repealed a shield law protecting police records. Federal courts rejected efforts by police unions to keep the records secret.

This month, in a move first reported by Insider, the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board made available online a database of hundreds of complaints against tens of thousands of current and former officers.

The database is searchable by precinct, name, rank, shield number or by number of substantiated complaints. Only complaints handled by the complaint review board appear in the database, the board advises.

Krystal Ball: Tomi Lahren Says “Far Left” Controls PUPPET Biden

Trump backs challenge to Georgia official who refused to overturn election

Donald Trump advanced his quest on Monday to purge elected Republicans who refused to go along with his attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, announcing an endorsement in Georgia in an effort to unseat a key election official.

The secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, infuriated Trump last year by refusing a point-blank request to fake the presidential election result in Georgia.

Jody Hice, a Republican member of Congress who supported Trump’s effort to overturn Joe Biden’s win, announced on Monday he would challenge Raffensperger in a summer 2022 primary. Trump endorsed Hice immediately.

“Unlike the current Georgia secretary of state, Jody leads out front with integrity,” Trump said in a statement that repeated his false claims of election fraud and declared his “complete and total endorsement” of Hice.

Two months out of office, Trump has begun an effort to flex his influence with core Republican voters who will decide the party’s nominations in thousands of races across the country next year.

Trump still being investigated over Capitol riot, top prosecutor says

Federal investigators are still examining Donald Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol.

Michael Sherwin, the departing acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, confirmed that the former president is still under investigation over the 6 January putsch in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.

“Maybe the president is culpable,” he said.

Sherwin also said there were now more than 400 cases against participants in the riot and said that if it is determined Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died, did so because he was hit with bear spray, murder charges would likely follow.

“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to DC on 6 January,” Sherwin said. “Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?

Progressives Say Biden's Infrastructure Plan Falls Short

Having cleared its first major legislative hurdle with the coronavirus pandemic relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this month, his administration is now hard at work on a long-awaited infrastructure plan—but progressive advocacy groups responded critically on Monday to reporting about the legislation's possible $3 trillion price tag, warning it is not enough.

"The Biden team's infrastructure proposal signals what the climate justice movement has been saying for decades: to stop climate change, we need to scale up public investments to create millions of good jobs, build up our renewable infrastructure, and take care of our communities," said Ellen Sciales, press secretary of the Sunrise Movement.

"But while this recommendation would be a huge step forward, the crises we face demand at least $1 trillion per year over the next decade," Sciales continued, adding that "$3 trillion is simply not enough to create jobs in the national interest, combat the climate crisis, and support working people."

People's Action Climate Justice Campaign director Kaniela Ing agreed, saying that "I'm encouraged to see President Biden driving forward his campaign promise to create millions of good jobs to tackle the climate crisis. But $3 trillion is not enough to address the scale of the overlapping crises we face."

The critique was echoed by Claire Guzdar, campaign manager and spokesperson for ProsperUS, a coalition of more than 75 progressive organizations.

"The current draft proposal of $3 trillion does not go far enough in rebuilding our broken economy and meeting the critical needs of the climate, caregiving, racial injustice, and other crises," she said. "The administration needs to be more aggressive in their economic policy proposals to make up for decades of underinvestment and debunked economic thinking that created our fragile and unequal economy."

According to the New York Times, one of the outlets that reported on the two-part plan based on unnamed sources, "The first legislative piece under discussion, which some Biden officials consider more appealing to Republicans, business leaders, and many moderate Senate Democrats, would combine investments in manufacturing and advanced industries with what would be the most aggressive spending yet by the United States to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change."

As the Times detailed:

It would spend heavily on infrastructure improvements, clean energy deployment, and the development of other "high-growth industries of the future" like 5G telecommunications. It includes money for rural broadband, advanced training for millions of workers, and one million affordable and energy-efficient housing units. Documents suggest it will include nearly $1 trillion in spending alone on the construction of roads, bridges, rail lines, ports, electric vehicle charging stations, and improvements to the electric grid and other parts of the power sector.

[...]

The second plan under discussion is focused on what many progressives call the nation's human infrastructure—students, workers, and people left on the sidelines of the job market—according to documents and people familiar with the discussions. It would spend heavily on education and on programs meant to increase the participation of women in the labor force, by helping them balance work and caregiving. It includes free community college, universal pre-K education, a national paid leave program, and efforts to reduce child care costs.

The package is expected to include $200 billion for housing infrastructure, $60 billion for green transit, and $46 billion for climate-related research and development, according to the Washington Post.

The Post added that "Biden is also expected to be presented with a menu of tax options by Treasury officials to fund the plan. Biden campaigned on raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, as well as increasing taxes on wealthy investors. It was not immediately clear which of his tax plans would be included in the final legislation."

In a statement Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki didn't address details, instead stressing that the plan isn't finalized.

"President Biden and his team are considering a range of potential options for how to invest in working families and reform our tax code so it rewards work, not wealth," she said. "Those conversations are ongoing, so any speculation about future economic proposals is premature and not a reflection of the White House's thinking."

The Sunrise Movement and People's Action both highlighted that even Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia who is considered a key obstacle to advancing progressive legislation in the upper chamber narrowly controlled by his party, has called for up to $4 trillion in infrastructure spending.

"At this point, Biden should realize that if his proposal is milder than what Joe Manchin is calling for, it does not go far enough. Even Manchin called for $4 trillion in infrastructure spending," said Sciales of Sunrise. "If $3 trillion is what Biden's team lands on, they'll be neglecting what's politically and publicly popular, and what's quite frankly vital for the future of our society and our planet."

Biden UNVEILS Infrastructure, Free College Plans. Do They Stand A Chance?

Austerity-Addicted Media Scaremonger Over Infrastructure ‘Spending Spree’

As soon as Democrats took over Washington with big plans for reviving the economy, corporate media started sounding the alarm about government spending (FAIR.org, 1/25/21). With the party’s infrastructure bill—which could come in around $2 trillion over four years—now pending, the media deficit hawks are on high alert, tossing around big, scary numbers to throw cold water on the bill.

It’s hardly surprising to find deficit hawkery from the Washington Post editorial board (3/11/21), which urged Democrats to “offset some or all of the cost [of the infrastructure bill], through higher revenues, reduced spending on lower-priority items or a mix of the two.” But proposals for government spending on long-overdue infrastructure investment are also spurring “straight” news reporting full of largely unfounded assumptions and concerns.

On ABC‘s This Week (3/14/21), host George Stephanopoulos framed his first question about the infrastructure bill to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi with bold certainty: “That’s going to require new taxes. Can you keep Democrats united behind a proposal like that and attract any Republican support?” When Pelosi avoided the question of taxes, Stephanopoulos pressed further: “But it is going to take new taxes, right?”

Journalists seem desperate to make this the big question. There’s nothing inherently wrong with asking corporations or the rich to help pay for infrastructure investments, given that they benefit greatly from those investments. But given that even so-called moderate Republicans have openly laughed at the prospect of supporting an infrastructure bill funded even partially by rolling back the Trump tax cuts, pushing Democrats to build taxes into the bill means an opportunity for more headlines about Democrats abandoning the bipartisanship media revere above all else (FAIR.org, 1/22/21).

The Hill (3/16/21) told readers that “one of the biggest questions—whether Democrats go it alone or ultimately make it bipartisan—will be how to pay for it.” The piece stated this as an incontrovertible fact, which makes the immediately following quote from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—that some in the party believe that with “interest rates being so low, their interest is not paying for infrastructure”—seem like fantasy.

Politico (3/11/21) gave away its take with the loaded headline: “Democratic Centrists Balk at More Red Ink After Covid Spending Spree,” accompanied by the subhead: “Some in the President’s Party Are Ready for an Infrastructure Plan That’s at Least Partly Paid For.” Reporters Sarah Ferris and Burgess Everett tsked-tsked that both Democrats and Republicans “have shrugged off oceans of red ink over the past year,” and noted that some “Democratic centrists…[are] arguing there has to be some limit to Congress’s deficit spending.” (Note: No politician is proposing limitless spending.) Later, they rephrased the idea of Congress’s irresponsibility slightly to hammer the point home: “Some moderate Democrats say it’s time for Congress to recover some semblance of fiscal pragmatism.”

Politico uncritically quoted several Democrat deficit hawks spouting guilt-inducing platitudes, like Angus King (I.–Maine): “It’s got to be paid for. It’s just a question of who pays. Are we going to pay or our kids going to pay?”

This kind of framing—”pragmatism,” moderation, avoiding “oceans of red ink” and not just passing the buck on to our kids—gives readers the overwhelming sense that anyone at odds with such ideas can scarcely be trusted with control over our federal budget.

The piece did eventually quote two such Democrats, who alluded to economic arguments that deficit spending isn’t actually a problem, but Politico didn’t bother to talk to economists themselves for any kind of expert take on whether deficit spending for an infrastructure bill should be a concern.

If they had, they would have had to write a different kind of article. First of all, infrastructure spending is an investment; the government puts money into upgrading public resources—everything from roads to green energy to broadband to education—which in turn increase productivity and the tax base. That means more money back in government coffers. As economist Noah Smith writes in Bloomberg (3/15/21):

Private companies borrow to fund big investments all the time; to demand that the government pay for the transition to green energy entirely out of tax revenues would be like insisting that companies pay for major capital projects out of current revenues. In other words, it makes no sense.

What’s more, as economist Dean Baker (Beat the Press, 1/13/21) notes, interest rates hit extraordinary lows with the pandemic, as the Fed dropped short-term rates to zero in an effort to prop up the economy. They’ve gone up slightly in anticipation of the impact of the stimulus bill, but they remain well below the rates in the US for decades before the Great Recession. This means borrowing is incredibly cheap.

More borrowing will raise interest rates a bit more—still below any level that should cause much inflation or much alarm, Baker explains. But it will make the stock market bubble more likely to deflate. The incredibly low interest rates have driven investors into the stock market as the only place to make money (which explains how the stock market could go up in the midst of a shutdown). So as interest rates rise, money will flow back out. Guess who that will mostly impact? The wealthy, which includes top media personalities like George Stephanopoulos: The top 10% in this country account for 84% of equity holdings (New York Times, 1/26/21).

As for that debt we’re saddling our children with? Journalists offered descriptions of the national debt that made it sound like a giant ticking time bomb. For instance, the Wall Street Journal (3/14/21), in an article titled “White House Weighs How to Pay for Long-Term Economic Program,” pointed to

a nearly $4.5 trillion increase in federal debt held by the public, to $21.9 trillion as of March 1. At roughly the size of the nation’s entire economic output, the debt is the highest since the aftermath of World War II.

Fortune (3/16/21) actually nodded briefly to experts like Baker who aren’t overly alarmed by deficit spending—but promptly dismissed them:

For all the talk about how budget deficits may not matter, the fact remains that even before Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law last week, the federal deficit was on track to hit $2.3 trillion in the 2021 fiscal year—more than 10% of the US’s total gross domestic product, and the second-highest debt-to-GDP ratio since World War II.

And the Post‘s editorial pointed to “exponential growth” of the national debt as the justification for its admonishment to either go small or raise taxes. (The debt-to-GDP ratio rose 30 percentage points as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst disaster in US history; before that, the ratio had remained virtually flat since 2012.)

As Baker points out, all those big numbers tell us nothing about the actual burden of the debt—which, in fact, is a pretty small, unthreatening number:

Last year, we paid $338 billion in interest; this year we are projected to pay $290 billion. Measured as a share of GDP, last year our interest payments came to around 1.6%; this year’s payments are projected at 1.4%. By comparison, in the early and mid-1990s (a very prosperous decade), our interest burden was over 3.0% of GDP.

Such sober accounting would make borrowing for infrastructure investments seem quite pragmatic and responsible—so those voices are largely ignored by reporters addicted to austerity.

Climate Polluters Pour Billions Into Hundreds of 'Sportswashing' Sponsorships

Some of the world's leading corporate polluters have flooded the sports sponsorship market with billions of dollars in a bid to "sportswash" their responsibility for the climate crisis, a study published Monday by the New Weather Institute revealed.

The study, entitled Sweat not oil: Why sports should drop advertising and sponsorship from high-carbon polluters (pdf), found a total of 258 sponsorship deals spanning 13 sports with companies selling "high-carbon products, services, and lifestyles."

"High-carbon sponsorship of sport has, in many ways, replaced once common and now disgraced deals with tobacco companies," the study notes. "Sport used to rely heavily on tobacco sponsorship until the importance of public health overcame vested interests and largely ended the practice. In 1990 more than 20 different televised sports were sponsored by cigarette brands in the United States alone, and a single tobacco company, RJ Reynolds, admitted in 1994 to sponsoring 2,736 separate sporting events in a year."

Of all the sports analyzed in the study, professional football/soccer had the most high-carbon sponsorship deals, with 57 partnerships involving polluters including fossil fuel companies, automobile manufacturers, and airlines. Among industries, automakers led the way with 199 sponsorships, followed by airlines with 63 deals. Japanese automotive giant Toyota led the world in sports sponsorships with 31, followed closely by UAE-based airline Emirates with 29.

Numerous sports in the study were sponsored by multiple polluters. The 2021 Australian Open, for example, was backed by an oil company, a carmaker, and an airline.

"Sport is in the frontline of the climate emergency but floats on a sea of sponsorship deals with the major polluters," Andrew Simms, a co-director of the New Weather Institute and a study co-author, told The Guardian. "It makes the crisis worse by normalizing high-carbon, polluting lifestyles and reducing the pressure for climate action."

"We know about 'greenwash'—when polluters falsely present themselves as environmentally responsible," Simms continued. "This is 'sportswash'—when heavily polluting industries sponsor sport to appear as friends of healthy activity, when in fact they're pumping lethal pollution into the very air that athletes have to breathe, and wrecking the climate that sport depends on."

Also of Interest

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

NATO Chief Sees Rise of China as an ‘Opportunity’ for the Alliance

Unnamed Western Officials Spread Dubious Claims About Iran

Caitlin Johnstone: Thoughts On The Iraq Invasion

Syria - The War Is Resuming On Several Fronts

Richest 1% of US Households Don't Report 21% of Their Income, Analysis Finds

Hedges: The Evil Within Us

Keiser Report | Once You Go Brrrrr, You Can Never Go Back

Saagar Enjeti: Biden REPEATS Obama, Trump FAILURES to GTFO Afghanistan

Rising: NEW POLL Shows AZ Voters PUNISH Sinema After Minimum Wage Vote

Ryan Grim: Meet The Dems Who DROPPED Medicare For All Support

Krystal and Saagar: CNN loses NEARLY HALF of primetime audience without Trump

A Little Night Music

Cannon's Jug Stompers - Viola Lee Blues

Gus Cannon and His Jug Stompers - Money Never Runs Out

Cannon's Jug Stompers - Feather Bed

Cannon's Jug Stompers - Pretty Mama Blues

Cannon's Jug Stompers - Big Railroad Blues

Banjo Joe (Gus Cannon) - Jazz Gypsy Blues

Gus Cannon - Walk Right In

Gus Cannon - Can You Blame The Colored Man

Gus Cannon - Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight