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This evening's music features guitarist Ry Cooder. Enjoy!

“You can't talk about fucking in America, people say you're dirty. But if you talk about killing somebody, that's cool.”

-- Richard Pryor

News and Opinion

Priorities. We has them:

The US Spent 7.5 Times More on Nuclear Weapons Than Global Vaccine Donations

Since the pandemic began, the United States has spent 7.5 times more money on nuclear weapons than on global vaccine donations. Stated another way, the money put towards global vaccine donations has amounted to just 13% of the money put toward nuclear weapons. The comparison shows that, even during a shared international crisis, in which an outbreak anywhere threatens people everywhere, the U.S. political apparatus is far more willing to fund instruments of death than vaccines that protect life.

Zain Rizvi, research director for the corporate watchdog organization Public Citizen, helped In These Times calculate the total number of dollars that went toward the purchase of global vaccine donations: roughly $7 billion. This number can be found by adding up contracts from the Department of Defense — available here, here and here. (That these contracts were released by the DOD reflects a decision made early in the pandemic to run Operation Warp Speed contracts through the Pentagon, instead of the Department of Health and Human Services.) Rizvi noted over email that ​“the U.S. also donated some doses internationally from its existing domestic vaccine contracts, but that was fairly limited (and not much transparency around it).”

Almost half of this stockpile hasn’t actually shipped yet. The Biden administration purchased 1 billion doses (at a price of roughly $3.5 billion per 500 million doses), but according to the State Department, just 525 million doses have been shipped thus far. Because so many of these doses have not yet been distributed internationally, and it’s not clear when or if they ever will, $7 billion is probably high — in other words, the price tag for the vaccines that have actually shipped is lower than the $7 billion sum.

Biden’s escalation against Russia threatens nuclear war

Behind the backs of the American people, without any public discussion, the Biden administration is taking the United States toward nuclear confrontation with Russia. This week, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who holds the Delaware seat formerly occupied by Biden, called for a “conversation” about sending American troops to fight Russia in Ukraine. “We are in a very dangerous moment,” Coons said, “where it is important that, in a bipartisan and measured way, we in Congress and the administration come to a common position about when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine.” ...

Biden’s closest Senate stalwart clearly made this statement at the behest of the White House, aiming, in a well known political maneuver, to introduce a policy shift sought by the administration via a third party. Replying to Coons’ statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “The President continues to—has no plans to send troops to fight a war with Russia.” When a press secretary claims an administration “has no plans” to do something, it means that the plans are on the president’s desk ready for a signature.

The statement by Coons is all the more staggering because last month Biden acknowledged that the deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine would amount to “World War III.” ...

The doctrine of “mutually assured destruction”—the understanding that there was no way to win a nuclear war, and that any general war threatened nuclear war—served as an effective “deterrent.” But military officials are now insisting that the United States must not be “deterred.” Speaking to the New York Times, Lt. Gen. Frederick B. Hodges, the former top U.S. Army commander in Europe, said, “Seven weeks ago, they were arguing over whether to give Stinger missiles—how silly does that seem now?… We have been deterred out of an exaggerated fear of what possibly could happen.” This echoed the comments earlier this month by Philip Breedlove, NATO’s former supreme allied commander in Europe, who told Voice of America: “We have been so worried about nuclear weapons and World War III that we have allowed ourselves to be fully deterred. And [Putin] frankly, is completely undeterred.”

The use of exactly the same formulation by two different high-level generals points to a fundamental shift in US military doctrine.

The potential use of strategic nuclear weapons, threatening the death of most of the American population, cannot be treated as a “deterrent.” It is rather to become a calculated risk, which the population must accept. The United States, in other words, must be prepared to accept the possibility of nuclear war with Russia.

With Michael Tracey, worth a watch:

The U.K. Is Dragging The U.S. Into WWIII In Ukraine

Prospect of Russia using nuclear arms in Ukraine fuels Finland’s Nato debate

The prospect of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine is a key factor behind Finland’s debate over whether to join Nato, the country’s foreign minister has said.

Pekka Haavisto is having a busy few weeks. As Finland’s foreign minister, Haavisto, 64, may soon oversee the biggest political shift the country has experienced since it joined the EU almost three decades ago. “Finland is currently making its choices. And among those choices, Nato membership is one,” Haavisto told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday.

Yesterday, the Finnish parliament started its much-anticipated debate over the possibility of submitting a membership bid to Nato. Recent polls have shown a dramatic U-turn in public opinion in Finland, with the majority now favouring joining Nato after the invasion of Ukraine.

“Our security environment has dramatically changed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February,” the veteran Green party politician said. ...

Haavisto said he was also deeply troubled by reports that Russia could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine as its military continues to struggle. “For Russia’s neighbours, the country’s loose talk on the use of unconventional weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons and chemicals, is very uncomfortable. This is a really concerning issue for us. This has triggered talk in Finland about our own security position in Europe.”

US weapons, European supplicants block peace in Ukraine

Russia now controls 80% of Luhansk region

The Luhansk governor said Russian forces now control 80% of the region, which is one of two regions that make up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. ...

Before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the Kyiv government controlled 60% of the Luhansk region. ...

After seizing Kreminna, Haidai said the Russians now are threatening the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna and he has urged all residents to evacuate immediately.

Ilhan Omar Urges Prosecuting U.S. War Criminals!

Lots more at the link:

US Trashes ICC, But Wants It to Charge Russians

Although the United States has tried mightily to undermine the International Criminal Court since it became operational in 2002, the U.S. government is now pushing for the ICC to prosecute Russian leaders for war crimes in Ukraine. Apparently, Washington thinks the ICC is reliable enough to try Russians but not to bring U.S. or Israeli officials to justice.

On March 15, the Senate unanimously passed S. Res 546, which “encourages member states to petition the ICC or other appropriate international tribunal to take any appropriate steps to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Armed Forces.” When he introduced the resolution, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said, “This is a proper exercise of jurisdiction. This is what the court was created for.”

The United States has refused to join the ICC and consistently tries to undercut the court. Yet a unanimous U.S. Senate voted to utilize the ICC in the Ukraine conflict. ...

The United States maintains a double standard when it comes to the ICC. The U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute.

Although former President Bill Clinton signed the statute as he left office, he urged incoming President George W. Bush to refrain from sending it to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. Whereas signing indicates an intent to ratify, a country becomes a State Party once it ratifies the treaty. Bush went one step further and in an unprecedented move, his administration unsigned the Rome Statute.

Congress then passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA), which contains a clause called the “Hague Invasion Act.” It says that if a U.S. or allied national is detained by the ICC, the U.S. military can use armed force to extricate them. ...

U.S. hypocrisy is no more apparent than in the first “Whereas” clause of the Senate’s unanimous resolution condemning Russia. It says, “Whereas the United States of America is a beacon for the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights across the globe . . .” One hundred members of the U.S. Senate affirmed that sentiment in spite of the U.S. wars of aggression in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the commission of U.S war crimes. If the senators truly believe that the ICC is dependable enough to prosecute Russian leaders, they should push Biden to send the Rome Statute to them for advice and consent to ratification. What’s good for the Russian goose should also be good for the U.S. gander.

As Ukraine War Disrupts Steel Imports, Will U.S. Break Free from Dirty Steel?

French election: Macron and Le Pen hit the road in campaign’s final hours

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have ramped up their campaigning with a hectic schedule of last-minute visits to attract floating voters, as France’s hotly contested presidential race enters its final hours.

While the vote is on Sunday, under French election rules all campaigning and opinion polling must end by midnight on Friday, and on Thursday the two candidates rushed to squeeze in time on the road.

Le Pen headed to Arras, in her northern stronghold, for a rally while Macron entered more hostile ground in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, where the radical-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon scored more than 60% of the first-round vote almost two weeks ago.

On Wednesday night the two candidates took part in an almost three-hour debate from which Macron emerged narrowly victorious, but which was also seen as unlikely to have changed many voters’ intentions, with the president accused of being arrogant and Le Pen of lacking credibility as a potential leader.

Ex-president of Honduras extradited to US on drugs charges

US Drug Enforcement Administration agents have extradited the Honduran former president Juan Orlando Hernández to New York, where he will face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Honduran national police delivered a handcuffed Hernández to DEA agents at the Tegucigalpa airport just over two months after he was arrested outside his home on 15 February following an extradition request from the US Department of Justice.

Hernández, 53, left office on 27 January after two terms as president. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have accused him of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from violent drug traffickers in exchange for protection from law enforcement. He is charged with drug trafficking conspiracy and two related weapons charges, which carry a combined mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Hernández is expected to plead not guilty upon arraignment. He has repeatedly denied any involvement with drug traffickers, describing the allegations as lies made up by criminals who are trying to reduce their own sentences through cooperation. ...

Considered one of Washington’s top allies in the region during his first term, garnering praise from US officials including the then vice-president, Joe Biden, the conservative president fell out of favour with Democrats following his questionable 2017 re-election and mounting drug trafficking allegations after the arrest of his brother, the former legislator Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, on the same charges in 2018. Tony Hernández was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Elon Musk secures $46.5bn to fund possible hostile bid for Twitter

Elon Musk has secured $46.5bn (£35.6bn) in financing to fund a possible hostile bid for Twitter and is putting up $21bn of his own money as part of the package. On top of that equity, Musk is raising a further $12.5bn for the offer via a margin loan secured against his shares in Tesla, the electric carmaker that he runs as CEO. Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, is leading a group of financial institutions providing $13bn in debt financing.

The funding commitments were outlined in a filing on Thursday with the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission. The document confirmed that the world’s richest man was “exploring whether to commence a tender offer” for the shares in Twitter he does not hold. Musk already owns 9.2% of the social media platform and announced a $54.20-per-share bid last week.

A tender offer is viewed as a hostile bid because it bypasses the company’s board, which in a conventional takeover situation would be expected to recommend an offer to shareholders. Instead, Twitter’s board has moved to block Musk from increasing his shareholding without its approval.

Last week Twitter launched a so-called poison pill defence against Musk’s bid, aimed at blocking him from building a stake in the business bigger than 15%. The tactic, commonly used by company boards as a bulwark against unwanted approaches, will allow existing investors in Twitter to buy shares at a heavy discount if anyone attempts to buy more than 15% of the company without the board’s backing.

This would dilute the shareholding of an unwelcome bidder such as Musk and is a significant block to any non-board-approved bid. However, shareholders who support Musk’s approach could force the board to drop the poison pill gambit.

US police have killed nearly 600 people in traffic stops since 2017, data shows

Police in the US have killed nearly 600 people during traffic stops since 2017, with the deaths continuing apace this year, a review of national police violence data shows.

The numbers add urgency to the growing push from advocates to prevent deadly stops and remove officers from traffic enforcement following the police killing of Patrick Lyoya, a Black Michigan man, earlier this month.

Encounters with police during traffic stops, including minor infractions, disproportionately harm people of color, according to data collected by Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, which argues that armed police should not be involved in many of these cases.

About 10% of the roughly 1,100 people killed by police each year involve traffic violations, the group found. ... There were 97 deadly traffic stops in 2017; 114 in 2018; 117 in 2019; 119 in 2020; 117 in 2021; and 25 so far in 2022 as of April, according to the data.

Florida Republicans pass congressional map severely limiting Black voter power

Florida Republicans approved a new congressional map that severely curtails Black voting power in the state on Thursday, taking a final vote as Black lawmakers staged a sit-in on the floor of the legislature.

The new plan, which was drawn by Governor Ron DeSantis, gives Republicans a significant boost in the state and is one of the most aggressively gerrymandered maps passed in recent months. Republicans would be expected to win 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts, a four seat increase from the 16 they hold now. It also eliminates two of four districts where Black voters have been able to elect the candidate of their choice.

DeSantis is expected to sign the districts into law, and lawsuits challenging the maps are immediately expected. ...

A focal point of the new maps has been the way it eliminates the fifth congressional district, which stretches from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. 46% of that district is currently Black, and it is represented by Al Lawson, a Black Democrat. DeSantis has openly called for getting rid of the district, saying it is unusually shaped and was unlawfully drawn based on race. After vetoing a proposal that would have allowed Black voters in Jacksonville to continue to elect the candidate of their choice, DeSantis’s map breaks up the district into four pieces in which Black voters comprise a much smaller share of the population.

Joe Biden, Dems Have JOKER-PILLED Americans Into Apathy About Politics: David Sirota

Steven Donziger House Arrest To END, 'Chevron THREW ME IN PRISON For Taking On Human Rights Abuses'

Climate Group Calls Biden's Earth Day Order for Old-Growth Forests 'Grossly Inadequate'

U.S. President Joe Biden's reported plan to protect old-growth forests—which help combat global temperature rise by storing planet-heating carbon—is "grossly inadequate," one climate advocacy group said Thursday.

Biden will mark Earth Day in Seattle on Friday with an executive order on the issue, according to The Washington Post, which cited five unnamed sources briefed on the plan.

Responding in a statement, Food & Water Watch national organizing manager Thomas Meyer declared that "President Biden seems to think we're celebrating the first Earth Day in 1970, rather than in [the] depths of the climate crisis in 2022."

"Protecting forests without addressing the root cause of the climate crisis, namely the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels, will do very little to slow global warming," he warned.

"The president has many effective tools at his disposal to address the climate and public health impacts of fossil fuels in a serious way," Meyer added. "He should start by following through on his pledge to end fracking on public lands and stop offshore drilling, and directing his agencies to reject all new fossil fuel infrastructure."

The forthcoming order will direct the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to "define and inventory mature and old-growth forests nationwide within a year," as well as "identify threats to these trees, such as wildfire and climate change, and to use that information to craft policies that protect them," the Post reported.

As the newspaper detailed:

The president's order, however, will not ban logging of mature and old-growth trees, they added, and the administration is not considering a nationwide prohibition.

It will include initiatives aimed at restoring U.S. forests ravaged by wildfire, drought and insects, requiring federal agencies to come up with a reforestation goal by 2030. It will also address major problems facing tree planting efforts in the West—insufficient seeds and seedlings—by directing agencies to develop plans to increase cone and seed collection and nursery capacity.

Other pieces of the order are aimed at curbing deforestation overseas, promoting economic development in regions with major timber industries, and calculating the economic value of other natural resources such as wetlands.

WildEarth Guardians, in a tweet Thursday, highlighted that the order reportedly does not ban logging and urged Americans to pressure the administration on that front.

In February, more than 70 groups including Environment America launched the Climate Forests Campaign to push Biden to take executive action on protections for mature trees and forests on federal lands.

"We need to protect more of our forests across the globe to fend off the impending biodiversity and climate crises," said Ellen Montgomery, Environment America's Public Lands Campaign director, at the time.

"This campaign calls for the Biden administration to take the first step toward meaningful safeguards for forests in the U.S.—by protecting the most important standing trees in those forests," she added. "We can no longer allow our forests to be logged to the detriment of biodiversity and the climate crisis. It's time to adopt a new policy: Let these trees grow."

Heh, there might be something worth watching on the Petroleum Broadcasting System's air:

‘What we now know … they lied’: how big oil companies betrayed us all

There is a moment in the revelatory PBS Frontline docuseries The Power of Big Oil, about the industry’s long campaign to stall action on the climate crisis, in which the former Republican senator Chuck Hagel reflects on his part in killing US ratification of the Kyoto climate treaty. In 1997, Hagel joined with the Democratic senator Robert Byrd to promote a resolution opposing the international agreement to limit greenhouse gases, on the grounds that it was unfair to Americans. The measure passed the US Senate without a single dissenting vote, after a vigorous campaign by big oil to mischaracterise the Kyoto protocol as a threat to jobs and the economy while falsely claiming that China and India could go on polluting to their heart’s content.

The resolution effectively put a block on US ratification of any climate treaty ever since. A quarter of a century later, Hagel acknowledges that the vote was wrong, and blames the oil industry for malignly claiming the science of climate change was not proved when companies such as Exxon and Shell already knew otherwise from their own research. “What we now know about some of these large oil companies’ positions … they lied. And yes, I was misled. Others were misled when they had evidence in their own institutions that countered what they were saying publicly. I mean they, lied,” he told the documentary-makers. ...

But Hagel apparently has not asked why he was so willing to be swayed by big oil when there was no shortage of scientists, including prominent Nasa researchers, telling him and other political leaders the truth. The Power of Big Oil has the answer. The documentary’s makers have dug out a parade of former oil company scientists, lobbyists and public relations strategists who lay bare how the US’s biggest petroleum firm, Exxon, and then the broader petroleum industry, moved from attempting to understand the causes of a global heating to a concerted campaign to hide the making of an environmental catastrophe.

Over three episodes – called Denial, Doubt, Delay – the series charts corporate manipulation of science, public opinion and politicians that mirrors conduct by other industries, from big tobacco to the pharmaceutical companies responsible for America’s opioid epidemic. ... What emerges is a picture of a political system so compromised by corporate money that even when it finally appears that truth will win out, reality is swiftly smothered.

Trojan trout: could turning an invasive fish into a ‘super-male’ save a native species?

On a golden morning in early October, two graduate students from New Mexico State University plunge into the icy current of Leandro Creek. ... There are just two species here. One is an embattled native, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis), distinguished by its cream-coloured skin, mottling of black spots and a vibrant orange slash under the jaw. Once widely distributed in rivers and streams across northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is now found across just 10% of its historical range. Today, it is reeling under the pressures of the climate crisis, habitat loss and – in the case of Leandro Creek – a hardy intruder.

The more prolific species writhing in Miller’s net is the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). The smaller “brookies” are sleek and silvery, while the adults sport a riot of red and blue spots on their sides, and an orange belly. How this beautiful interloper from eastern North America got here is unclear, beyond that it was part of a human-aided diaspora that released brook trout into high-altitude lakes and creeks across the west. The brookies’ voracious appetites and rapid sexual maturation have spelled trouble not only for native trout such as bull, rainbow, California golden, and cutthroat, which they out-compete, but also for a host of other aquatic organisms, including frogs and salamanders.

Brook trout may greatly outnumber the Rio Grande cutthroat here, but nearly every brookie the team captures is male. That’s because many are a lab-produced variety known as “Trojan” brook trout. They are unique in that they carry not one, but two copies of the Y chromosome that codes maleness; they have no X chromosome to pass on. Since 2018, various streams across the Vermejo reserve have been stocked with this strain in an attempt to tilt the brook trout sex ratio so far male that eventually the population will stop breeding and die out on its own. Similar efforts are under way in a handful of creeks in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and Nevada plans to embark on its own stocking programme this summer.

Until now, the main tool to eliminate invasive fish species has been the potent chemical rotenone. The trouble is that “it also kills all the other fish, including the ones you are trying to conserve,” says Colleen Caldwell, a professor of fish and wildlife at New Mexico State University and a principal investigator overseeing the Leandro Creek project. Researchers are still trying to understand if Trojan trout behave enough like wild male trout to convince females to breed with them, as well as whether they can thrive enough in their new environment to tip the scales in the Rio Grande cutthroats’ favour. But the hope is that the imposters will excise brookies from stream systems, without the need to bomb them with an indiscriminate chemical agent.

“Powerlands”: Young Diné Filmmaker on Indigenous Resistance to Resource Colonization Worldwide

Uncontrolled coal-seam fires are catastrophic polluters

The longest-lasting fire known in the world, thought to date back at least 5,500 years, is burning beneath Mount Wingen in New South Wales. The blaze burns in a coal seam that may once have been exposed on the ground and set alight by lightning. ...

There are thousands of uncontrolled underground fires in the world, largely coal seams ignited by human-made fires, lightning or spontaneous combustion from chemical reactions. ...

In China there are hundreds of uncontrolled subterranean fires in coal seams, consuming about 18m tonnes of coal each year. The CO2 from these fires adds about 1% to the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Added to all the other coal-seam fires in the world, this is a largely unreported global catastrophe.

Also of Interest

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

Biden Announces $1.3 Billion in Additional Aid for Ukraine

Russia’s Campaign in Ukraine and the West’s Response: The End of the Beginning?

On the battlefield with Russia, Afghanistan’s loss is Ukraine’s gain

'Al Qaeda Is on Our Side': How Obama/Biden Team Empowered Terrorist Networks in Syria

“A historic sham”: Zelensky’s speech to Greece’s parliament sparks national outrage, opens WWII-era wounds

CIA Torture Queen Now A Beauty And Life Coach

A French death warrant against Dag Hammarskjold comes to light

Globalisation is not working – in an age of insecurity, we need more local solutions

Amazon’s Union Busting Is Subsidized By The Government

Blaming Workers, Hiding Profits in Primetime Inflation Coverage

Temporary But 'Crucial' Win as Judge Blocks Kentucky Abortion Ban

‘Green industry wants to take our land’: the Arctic paradox

This Is The Key To The New Labor Movement: Ryan Grim

Hello world, Gonzalo Lira #WhereisGonzaloLira

Harris & Zuck canceled. Elensky cancels Nord Stream 1. Boris calls Putin a crocodile.

A Little Night Music

Ry Cooder - Goin' To Brownsville

Ry Cooder & David Lindley - If Walls Could Talk

Ry Cooder - Little Sister

Ry Cooder - Jesus On The Mainline

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder - Hooray Hooray

Ry Cooder & Nick Lowe - Fool Who Knows

Ry Cooder & David Lindley - Hold That Snake

Ry Cooder - Buena Vista Social Club - Y Tu Que Has Hecho

Ry Cooder & David Lindley - Mercury Blues

Santana with Ry Cooder and Steve Miller

Ry Cooder - Goodnight Irene