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"War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

News and Opinion

NATO begins massive anti-Russian Sea Breeze military exercises

NATO intensified its provocations against Russia Monday, with the launch of two weeks of military exercises in the Black Sea region. Operation Sea Breeze will continue until at least July 10. The largest ever NATO operation in the Black Sea takes place under explosive conditions, beginning just six days after Russian armed forced fired warning shots and then dropped four bombs in the path of HMS Defender, a British warship that entered Russia’s territorial waters off Crimea. The US ignored a request made June 22 from Russia's embassy in Washington—just hours before the UK warship incident—for Sea Breeze to be cancelled this year, with Moscow warning of the danger of military confrontation.

This week’s Sea Breeze manoeuvres, which have taken place annually since 1997, are the largest ever. Co-hosted by the US and Ukrainian navies, Sea Breeze 2021 will involve 32 countries, 5,000 troops, 32 ships, 40 aircraft and 18 special operations. It is being led by the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2), an immediate reaction force which consists of four to six destroyers and frigates. A squadron of US Marines are taking part, with the main naval force involved the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet headquartered in Naples, Italy. ...

NATO’s statement announcing Sea Breeze denounced “Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014,” in response to which “NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea. NATO supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters. NATO does not and will not recognize Russia's illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea and denounces its temporary occupation.” The exercise began despite Russia’s warnings last week against further incursions into its territory. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said after the Defender incident, “Over the past seven years, the intensity of flights of strategic bomber aviation of the US Air Force in Europe has increased 14-fold.” He noted that seven joint military exercises with the alliance countries are planned in Ukraine in 2021 alone. ...

The previous day Russia began its own large scale military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean, where the main ship in the UK’s/NATO’s Carrier Strike Group, the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, is located. Russia’s manoeuvres involved several warships, two submarines, long-range Tu-22M3 bombers and other warplanes. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, two MiG-31 fighter jets capable of carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, operating from the Moscow-run Hemeimeem airbase in Syria, practiced strikes on targets in the Mediterranean. The missiles can travel at 10 times the speed of sound and have a range of up to 2,000 kilometres (about 1,250 miles). The Washington Post reported that it was the “first time the warplanes capable of carrying Kinzhal have been deployed outside Russia’s borders.”

With the world’s attention focused on the dangerous events in the Black Sea, Russia’s military, including destroyers and fighter jets, also carried out military exercises on June 19 within 35 miles of Hawaii. According to the Daily Mail, these were the “largest war games since Cold War” and involved “at least 20 Russian warships, submarines, and support vessels, flanked by 20 fighter jets…” The Russian Defence Minister said that during the exercise, two detachments “worked out the tasks of detecting, countering and delivering missile strikes against an aircraft carrier strike group of a mock enemy.”

Amid Nuclear Talks, Biden’s Latest Middle East Airstrikes Give “More Fuel” to Conflict with Iran

Iraq Says Bombings Ordered by Biden a 'Blatant and Unacceptable Violation' of Sovereignty

Echoing criticism from across the globe on Monday, the Iraqi government slammed the Biden administration for overnight U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria at facilities the Pentagon says were used by Iran-backed militias.

"We condemn the U.S. air attack that targeted a site last night on the Iraqi-Syrian border, which represents a blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security in accordance with all international conventions," said a spokesperson for the commander in chief of Iraq's armed forces, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

"Iraq renews its refusal to be an arena for settling accounts, and clings to its right to sovereignty over its lands, and to prevent it from being used as an arena for reactions and attacks," said the Iraqi statement.

"We call for calm and to avoid escalation in all its forms, stressing that Iraq will carry out the necessary investigations, procedures, and contacts at various levels to prevent such violations," the spokesperson added. ...

Although no Americans have been hurt, the New York Times reports that U.S. officials say that "at least five times since April, the Iranian-backed militias have used small, explosive-laden drones that divebomb and crash into their targets in late-night attacks on Iraqi bases—including those used by the CIA and U.S. Special Operations units." ...

The U.S. strikes also follow the House of Representatives earlier this month passing legislation to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. Now, all eyes are on the Senate for that effort.

Notably, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby did not cite the 2002 AUMF for the strikes. Instead, he highlighted the right of self-defense and the president's authority under Article II of the U.S. Constitution to protect American personnel in Iraq.

Biden's LAWLESS Bombing Of Syria Is Constitutional Affront

Glenn Greenwald nails it. Worth a full read.

Biden's Lawless Bombing of Iraq and Syria Only Serves the Weapons Industry Funding Both Parties

The U.S. government is a lawless entity. It violates the law, including its own Constitution, whenever it wants. The requirement that no wars be fought absent congressional authority is not some ancillary bureaucratic annoyance but was completely central to the design of the country. Article I, Section 8 could not be clearer: “The Congress shall have Power . . . to declare war.” ...

But [...] even discussing legality at this point is meaningless, an empty gesture, a joke. It gives far too much credit to the U.S. ruling class, as it implies that they care at all about whether their posture of endless war is legal. They know that it is illegal and do not care at all. Many have forgotten that President Obama not only involved the U.S. in a devastating regime-change war in Libya without congressional approval, but so much worse, continued to do so even after the House of Representatives voted against providing him authorization to use force in Libya. Obama ignored the House vote and kept troops in Libya anyways as part of a NATO mission, claiming that NATO and U.N. authorization somehow entitled him to do this despite his own country's Congress voting against it, reflecting overwhelming opposition among the citizenry. (The U.N. authorization — even if it could somehow supplant the U.S. Constitution — only allowed the use of force to protect civilians, not to overthrow the Libyan government, which quickly and predictably became the NATO mission, making it clearly illegal).

While it feels frivolous even to raise questions of legality — since so few in Washington care about such matters — the real overarching question is the simplest one. Why does the U.S. continue to have a military presence in Iraq and Syria? ... While the ordinary American only suffers from all of this, there are definitely some sectors of U.S. society which benefit. The corporation that Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin left in order to run the Pentagon — Raytheon — needs ongoing troop deployment and permanent warfare for its profitability. According to The New York Times, it was “Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, [who] briefed Mr. Biden on attack options early last week,” after which "Mr. Biden approved striking the three targets.” So Gen. Austin's colleagues on the Raytheon Board of Directors, as well as his comrades on the Boards of General Dynamics and Boeing, are surely thrilled with this attack.

Indeed, anyone invested in endless war in the Middle East — including the entire U.S. intelligence community and the weapons industry which feeds off of it — must be thrilled by all of this. Each time the U.S. "retaliates” against Iran or Iraqi militias or Syrian fighters, it causes them to "retaliate” back, which in turn is cited as the reason the U.S. can never leave but must instead keep retaliating, ensuring this cycle never ends. It also creates a never-ending supply of angry people in that region who hate the U.S. for bringing death and destruction to their countries with bombs that never stop falling and therefore want to strike back: what we are all supposed to call "terrorism.” That is what endless war means: a war that is designed never to terminate, one that is as far removed as possible from actual matters of self-defense and manufactures its own internal rationale to continue it.

But what is beyond doubt is that this illegal, endless war in the Middle East does nothing but harm American citizens. As they are told that they cannot enjoy a sustainable let alone quality standard of living without working two or three dreary hourly-wage, benefits-free jobs for corporate giants, and while more Americans than ever continue to live at home and remain financially unable to start families, the U.S. continues to spend more on its military than the next thirteen countries combined. This has continued for close to two full decades now because the establishment wings of both parties support it. Neither of them believes in the Constitution or the rule of law, nor do they care in the slightest about the interests of anyone other than the large corporate sectors that fund the establishment wings of both parties. The bombs that fell on Syria and Iraq last night were for them and them alone.

US pushes France and UK to take Isis fighters back from Iraq and Syria

The continued detention of former Islamic State fighters in Iraqi and Syrian camps is untenable, and more of them must be repatriated to their home countries, the US secretary of state said at a summit of the international coalition against Isis, held in Rome.

In remarks aimed primarily at France and the UK, Antony Blinken said: “This situation is simply untenable. It just can’t persist indefinitely. “The United States continues to urge countries – including coalition partners – to repatriate, rehabilitate and, where applicable, prosecute its citizens.”

France and Britain, two of the closest US allies, have resisted calls to bring back their citizens, fearing they have no way of reliably prosecuting them. They fear the courts will require the former Isis fighters to be given their freedom, and so impose a major burden on the intelligence services.

Gen Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of the US Central Command, told the American Enterprise Institute in a webinar in late April that children at al-Hawl camp “are being radicalised, and unless we find a way to repatriate them, reintegrate them and deradicalise them, we’re giving ourselves the gift of fighters five to seven years down the road, and that is a profound problem. It will be a military problem in a few years if we don’t fix the non-military aspects of it now”. There are said to be 60,000 former Isis supporters held at al-Hawl camp in northern Syria.

Palestinians protest for fifth day in West Bank after death of activist

Demonstrations against the Palestinian Authority (PA) have continued across the West Bank after the death in custody of one of President Mahmoud Abbas’s biggest critics. Several hundred people took to the streets of Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem for the fifth consecutive day on Monday to protest against the treatment of Nizar Banat, a social and political activist, who died during an arrest by the authority’s forces in Hebron on 24 June.

Crowds waving Palestinian flags, pictures of Banat and calling for an end to Abbas’s 16-year rule, have been met with brutal force from both Palestinian security forces and men in plain clothes loyal to Abbas’s Fatah party. Clubs, metal rods, teargas and the sexual assault of female protesters have been used to break up the demonstrations and stop reporters from documenting the events, according to the Palestinian journalists’ union. ...

Banat, 43, was a longstanding critic of the authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank and coordinates on security matters with Israel. He had accused Abbas and his inner circle of rampant corruption and growing authoritarianism and planned to stand as a political candidate in long-delayed Palestinian elections, which were supposed to be held in May.

According to his family, the activist was severely beaten before being dragged away. The authority’s announcement that there would be an investigation into his death was rejected by several Palestinian and international human rights groups, who have called instead for an independent inquiry.

Netanyahu Is Out But Nothing Has Changed for Palestinians

One month after the end of the last hostilities between Israel and Hamas, events on the ground demonstrate that little has changed. And once again the US media is ignoring Israel's creeping annexation of Palestinian lands and their brutally aggressive behaviors toward the Palestinian people.

There appeared to be an awakening of the press last month—especially the extensive coverage given to Israel's effort to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and the Israeli military's brutal assault on Palestinians at al Aqsa—signaling greater sensitivity to the Palestinian plight. Although these Israeli actions and the mass uprisings of Palestinian youth they precipitated were drowned out by the more familiar storyline of Israeli bombardments of Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire, after the ceasefire, positive coverage of Palestinian suffering continued, but only for a time.

Attention was soon diverted by the drama of Netanyahu's defeat and the formation of the new Israeli government. At this point, the Israeli hasbara industry kicked into full gear. Newly inaugurated Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a notorious hardliner, we are told, has become a pragmatist who wants to restore frayed relations with Democrats. In an appeal to the Biden administration, a senior member of the Bennett-Lapid government said that their future "rests in Biden's hands...we hope that they will understand the constraints under which we are operating..." In other words, "Don't look at what we do or place demands on us; what should count is that we're not Netanyahu."

But, as a leading Israeli peace activist noted, US attitudes toward Israel "ought to be framed by Israeli policies, not Israeli politicians, and as long as the policies continue, there is no reason to cut Israel slack for the simple fact that Israel's not being led by Netanyahu."

As for the policies, nothing has changed. In the aftermath of the unrest that rocked Israeli cities last month, Israeli police arrested 2,100 citizens—91% of whom were Palestinian citizens of Israel. Shortly after being inaugurated, the new government issued a permit for flag-waving extremists to march through Arab neighborhoods chanting "Death to Arabs," "Your villages will burn," and other incendiary taunts. Once again, Israeli police arrested Arab counter-protesters.

In an ominous development, Israeli police set up barricades around the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and established a checkpoint for residents. They have also established guard posts near the Damascus Gate that the Israeli press notes are frequently being used to harass and beat young Palestinians who gather at the Gate's plaza. As I had feared, with each passing day, it appears that the Israelis are intent on repeating in Jerusalem what they did in Hebron. The Israeli press also reports that police have used brutal "crowd dispersal even when not necessary" and deployed skunk water hoses, spraying the plaza, the Old City walls, and homes in Silwan with a liquid that has a long-lasting "unbearable stench."

Meanwhile, in the rest of the occupied lands, settlement expansion and creeping annexation continue. Just this week, the new government gave the green light to 31 new projects in settlements across the West Bank. And in Hebron, the Israelis have seized land adjacent to al Ibrahim Mosque to complete their takeover of this UNESCO-protected site.

South of Hebron, the fertile lands of Khirbet al Aida, owned by Palestinians have been subjected to settler raids, demolition activity, and expropriation. The Israeli government's intent is to connect settlements around Hebron, cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.

Equally ominous are the activities of settlers, protected by the Israeli military, who have established an "outpost"—Evyatar—on a hilltop to the south of Nablus, Jabal Sabih. While the military has declared this outpost "flagrantly illegal," 60 homes have already been constructed, and soldiers have been seen assisting the settlers moving construction materials up the hill. The government has provided the outpost with water, electricity, and roads.

Palestinians, on whose land this "outpost" is being erected, have been protesting this blatant land grab. In the last six weeks, Israelis have shot and killed five young Palestinian protesters.

Like the development in Hebron, Palestinians understand that what is illegal today becomes legal tomorrow. Once completed, Evyatar will connect with other once-illegal outposts and will cut Nablus off from the rest of the West Bank.

One month after the end of the last "Gaza war," Israeli settlers participated in 14 marches throughout the West Bank, protected by the Israeli military, demanding that the government expropriate Palestinian lands for settlement construction.

Meanwhile in Gaza, despite Hamas' hollow boasts of victory, tens of thousands of Palestinians in that impoverished strip remain homeless, many more without water and electricity, and the entire population without hope for the future.

In the Israeli Knesset, the new government is seeking renewal of a law to ban Palestinian "family unification" (forbidding Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of Jerusalem from bringing spouses from the West Bank, Gaza, or outside to live with them) with Defense Minister Benny Gantz arguing that passage of this law "is necessary to maintain the security of the state and its Jewish democratic character."

The bottom line: Netanyahu may be out, but creeping annexation and oppression continue. For Palestinians, nothing has changed.

Crushing Blockade Supported By U.S. & Israel

Lawsuits seeking breakup of Facebook dismissed in setback for US regulators

A federal judge on Monday dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of state attorneys general, dealing a significant blow to attempts by regulators to rein in tech giants.

The US district judge James Boasberg ruled Monday that the lawsuits were “legally insufficient” and didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly. The ruling dismisses the complaint but not the case, meaning the FTC could refile another complaint.

“These allegations – which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook’s market share at any point over the past 10 years – ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power,” he said.

Matt Stoller: Obama Judge THROWS OUT Facebook Anti-Trust Suit

Gov. Ron DeSantis Wants to Defund Florida Universities That Teach Anti-Racism

Many Republicans have become invested in enforcing a white supremacist backlash in their states’ education system, but perhaps none so much as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. As dozens of bills are advancing in statehouses nationwide to ban the teaching of the basic truths of America’s racist history, DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that threatens to surveil and cut funding to public institutions of higher learning found to be on the wrong side of the Republicans’ ongoing white nationalist crusade.

Unlike much of the paranoiac legislation, like bills signed into law in Idaho and Texas — and in consideration in other places — the new Florida law does not deploy the right-wing canard of “critical race theory.” DeSantis signed a law that was written in the vaguest terms but was all too clear, given the current context, in its intent.

The law will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty, and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints. The governor and the bill’s lead sponsor, Florida state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, said the effort aims to support “intellectual diversity.” Though no mention of it is made in the law, DeSantis and Rodrigues said institutions found to be “indoctrinating” students risk losing crucial state funding.

There can be no doubt about what ideas DeSantis considers to be worthy of concern: Universities that take up the necessary work of challenging hegemonic racial capitalism and patriarchy are in the legislation’s crosshairs. The legislation has been condemned as both McCarthyite and rife for dangerous censorship — a hypocritical affront to free speech and intellectual freedom. It is all these things. In decrying the authoritarian bent of the law, however, we must also be clear about which authority is being enforced: This law is about defending white standing.

Did Unemployment Benefits ACTUALLY Stop People From Working?

In Blow to GOP Narrative, Missouri Cut to Jobless Benefits Not Boosting Hiring

The Republican narrative that enhanced unemployment benefits are dissuading people from returning to work—and that cutting off the aid is necessary to boost hiring—is running up against reality in the GOP-led state of Missouri, where officials have yet to see any significant increase in job applicants since the governor cut off pandemic-related federal programs last month.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Missouri workforce development personnel "said they had seen virtually no uptick in applicants since the governor's announcement, which ended a $300 weekly supplement to other benefits."

"And the online job site Indeed found that in states that have abandoned the federal benefits, clicks on job postings were below the national average," the Times noted.

On May 11, Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson announced that the state would end its participation in federal unemployment programs aimed at helping jobless workers make ends meet amid the pandemic-induced economic crisis, which permanently destroyed millions of jobs and pushed countless people into dire economic circumstances. Parson's directive officially took effect on June 12.

Missouri was among the first of the 25 Republican-led states that have ditched the emergency federal programs, which offered unemployment aid to jobless gig workers, provided a weekly benefit boost, and extended the duration of assistance. Last week, Louisiana became the first state headed by a Democratic governor to cut off the federal unemployment programs.

In his announcement last month, Parson cited "conversations with business owners across the state" to prop up his claim that companies are struggling to hire workers "because of labor shortages resulting from these excessive federal unemployment programs."

The Missouri governor went on to declare that the federal unemployment programs "have ultimately incentivized people to stay out of the workforce"—a now-common GOP refrain that economists have criticized as simplistic and unsubstantiated, at best.

Missouri's experience since Parson's order—which has succeeded in quickly kicking residents off benefits—suggests that factors other than enhanced unemployment aid are keeping people from returning to work in the state, from lack of child care to employers' refusal to pay living wages to pandemic-related fears. Missouri is currently the U.S. hot spot for the ultra-contagious delta variant of Covid-19.

The Times reported Sunday that hardly anyone showed up at a recent job fair in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights, where the employment opportunities on offer included a $10.30-an-hour position at a home healthcare agency—with no benefits.

"An ice rink, concert, and entertainment center was looking for 80 people, paying $10.30 to $11.50 for customer service representatives and $13 for supervisors. But the jobs last just through the busy season, a few months at time, and the schedules, which often begin at 5 am, change from week to week," the Times noted. "In St. Louis, a single person needs to earn $14 an hour to cover basic expenses at a minimum standard, according to M.I.T.’s living-wage calculator. Add a child, and the needed wage rises just above $30. Two adults working with two children would each have to earn roughly $21 an hour."

Terri Waters, a Missouri resident who attended the job fair in search of a marketing position, told the Times that workers' reluctance to accept low-wage jobs in retail and other sectors stems from a desire to improve their material conditions—not indolence or complacency, as Republican officials often claim.

"It's really demanding work, you're on your feet and by the end of the day you're tired and sore," Waters said of the $11.50-an-hour retail job she's been working since her marketing business faltered amid the pandemic.

"It's not that people are being lazy," she added. "They just want something better to go back to."

Economists and progressive lawmakers have argued in recent weeks that what Republicans, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others have dubbed a "labor shortage" fueled by supposedly excessive unemployment benefits is in fact a wage shortage caused by businesses refusing to pay their employees adequately.

"There may be areas where some employers are struggling to staff positions, but the likely obstacle is not overly generous UI benefits—instead it is wage offerings that are too low to make these jobs attractive," David Cooper, a senior economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a blog post last month.

The anecdotal experiences of some businesses in recent weeks seem to bolster that interpretation. Earlier this month, the Washington Post cited the story of Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor, a Pittsburgh shop that was struggling to find applicants for open jobs for which it was offering to pay $7.25 an hour plus tips.

"So owner Jacob Hanchar decided to more than double the starting wage to $15 an hour, plus tips, 'just to see what would happen,'" the Post reported. "The shop was suddenly flooded with applications. More than 1,000 piled in over the course of a week."

Logs REVEAL How BlackRock Ran Pandemic Bailouts

Revealed: neo-Confederate group includes military officers and politicians

Leaked membership data from the neo-Confederate Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization has revealed that the organization’s members include serving military officers, elected officials, public employees, and a national security expert whose CV boasts of “Department of Defense Secret Security Clearance”.

But alongside these members are others who participated in and committed acts of violence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and others who hold overlapping membership in violent neo-Confederate groups such as the League of the South (LoS).

The group, organized as a federation of state chapters, has recently made news for increasingly aggressive campaigns against the removal of Confederate monuments. This has included legal action against states and cities, the flying of giant Confederate battle flags near public roadways, and Confederate flag flyovers at Nascar races. ...

College of Charleston historian, Adam Domby, whose book, The False Cause, details the history of the neo-Confederate movement, said in a telephone conversation that “throughout its history, the SCV has been linked with white supremacist groups, and historically it has avowedly supported white supremacist groups”.

UN calls for end of ‘impunity’ for police violence against black people

A UN report that analysed racial justice in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd has called on member states including the UK to end the “impunity” enjoyed by police officers who violate the human rights of black people.

The UN human rights office analysis of 190 deaths across the world led to the report’s damning conclusion that law enforcement officers are rarely held accountable for killing black people due in part to deficient investigations and an unwillingness to acknowledge the impact of structural racism. ...

The UN human rights office was tasked in June 2020 to produce a comprehensive report on systemic racism against black people. The report investigated violations of international human rights law by law enforcement, government responses to anti-racism peaceful protests, as well as accountability and redress for victims. The report was led by Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights and a former president of Chile.

Bachelet described the status quo as “untenable”. She said: “Systemic racism needs a systemic response. There needs to be a comprehensive rather than a piecemeal approach to dismantling systems entrenched in centuries of discrimination and violence.

“I am calling on all states to stop denying, and start dismantling, racism; to end impunity and build trust; to listen to the voices of people of African descent; and to confront past legacies and deliver redress.”

Republicans can win the next elections through gerrymandering alone

In Washington, the real insiders know that the true outrages are what’s perfectly legal and that it’s simply a gaffe when someone accidentally blurts out something honest. And so it barely made a ripple last week when a Texas congressman (and Donald Trump’s former White House physician) said aloud what’s supposed to be kept to a backroom whisper: Republicans intend to retake the US House of Representatives in 2022 through gerrymandering.

“We have redistricting coming up and the Republicans control most of that process in most of the states around the country,” Representative Ronny Jackson told a conference of religious conservatives. “That alone should get us the majority back.” He’s right. Republicans won’t have to win more votes next year to claim the US House. In fact, everyone could vote the exact same way for Congress next year as they did in 2020 – when Democratic candidates nationwide won more than 4.7m votes than Republicans and narrowly held the chamber – but under the new maps that will be in place, the Republican party would take control. ...

They won’t need to embrace policies favored by a majority of Americans. All they need to do is rework maps to their favor in states where they hold complete control of the decennial redistricting that follows the census – some of which they have held since they gerrymandered them 10 years ago. ...

If Republicans aggressively maximize every advantage and crash through any of the usual guardrails – and they have given every indication that they will – there’s little Democrats can do. And after a 2019 US supreme court decision declared partisan gerrymandering a non-justiciable political issue, the federal courts will be powerless as well.

‘He’s phoning it in’: why Biden is losing the voting rights fight

For months, Biden and other Democrats have raised alarm about efforts to restrict the vote. Republicans have succeeded nonetheless. Since January, Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas and Montana have all enacted new legislation that impose new barriers to voting. The successful Republican filibuster this week – which stalled the sweeping voting rights legislation, the For the People Act – only underscored how Democrats have failed to stop GOP efforts to curtail the vote.

Democrats have pledged the fight for voting rights is far from over, but activists told the Guardian it did not feel like Biden and Democrats were meeting the moment and treating the fight for voting rights with the urgency it deserved. “They’re checking the boxes,” said Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, an advocacy group that is focused on mobilizing Black voters. “They’re not acting like we are facing an existential crisis. That’s the problem. It’s from the top down,” added Albright, who is currently on a multi-state bus tour across the south to raise awareness about the need for voting protections.

After the bill stalled this week, the White House this week made a clear escalation of its efforts on voting rights. Biden announced he is embarking on a nationwide voting rights tour to highlight the threat of new GOP laws. “I’m going to be going around the country, making the case to the American people that this isn’t just about [showing identification] or being able to give someone water in line, this is about who is able to judge whether your vote gets counted,” he said at the White House on Thursday. ...

But Democrats have a narrow window to pass legislation. In August, state lawmakers will begin the once-per-decade process of redrawing US House and other state legislative districts, a procedure Republicans are poised to use to wipe out Democrats’ majority in the US House. The For the People Act would curb excessive manipulation of district lines for partisan gain, and if it isn’t in place by August, Republicans would be free to freely gerrymander districts. ...

Still, some think Biden so far has failed to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to treat the issue as an emergency, said Ezra Levin, the founder of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots group. “He’s phoning it in,” Levin said. “We’ll see what the public actions look like. We’ll see how overwhelming the campaign is. So far we’ve seen basically no action, so any action is an improvement.”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman: We Need Climate & Racial Justice Addressed in Broader Infrastructure Package

'Can You Hear Us, Joe?' Sunrise Youth Barricade White House to Denounce Climate Compromise

Hundreds of activists with the youth-led Sunrise Movement marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. and converged on the White House Monday to make clear they have no intention of dropping their call for an infrastructure package that includes robust investments in green energy and public works, particularly a New Deal-inspired Civilian Climate Corps.

In a statement, Sunrise executive director Varshini Prakash dismissed as a "performative bipartisan stunt" the $579 billion infrastructure agreement that President Joe Biden reached last week with a group of Republican and Democratic senators.

To the dismay of scientists and activists, the deal excludes key climate proposals that Biden put forth in his original $2.2 trillion American Jobs Plan, such as $300 billion in tax credits for renewable energy projects and a national clean energy standard, which experts say is necessary to meet the president's goal of cutting U.S. carbon emissions in half by the end of the decade.

"We have a historic, narrow opportunity to combat the climate crisis," said Prakash. "Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan was already a compromise, and the science dictates we need at least $1 trillion per year over the next decade. When Democrats agree to water it down more, they're flooding our homes, disillusioning young people from the political process, and jeopardizing the future of a Democratic majority." ...

Specifically, the Sunrise Movement is pushing Biden and congressional Democrats to advance legislation that invests $10 trillion in climate and infrastructure over the next decade, in line with expert recommendations.

Temperatures soar across Western Canada, US West Coast

‘Heat dome’ in Pacific north-west breaks records as Portland braces for 115F

Seattle, Portland and other cities in the Pacific north-west broke all-time heat records over the weekend, with temperatures soaring well above 100F (37.8C). ...

The extreme weather was caused by an extended “heat dome” parked over the Pacific north-west. The days-long heatwave was a taste of the future as climate change reshapes global weather patterns, said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington who studies global warming and its effects on public health.

“This event will likely be one of the most extreme and prolonged heatwaves in the recorded history of the inland north-west,” the National Weather Service said. “Heat will not only threaten the health of residents in the Inland Northwest, but will make our region increasingly vulnerable to wildfires and intensify the impacts to our ongoing drought.”

Officials in Portland shut down light rail and street cars due to the high temperatures, districts halted summer school bus service and people braced for possibly the hottest day of the scorcher.

The high heat was straining the city’s power grid and overhead wires that propel the Max trains, so service was being suspended through Tuesday morning. “The Max system is designed to operate in conditions up to 110F. Forecasts show it will likely only get hotter,” the agency said in a statement.

Also of Interest

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

Pentagon Papers Failed to Stop Media Kowtowing

When It Comes to War, Americans Remain Willfully and Incorrigibly Ignorant

Arc of Decline

‘This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis

How America’s treeless streets are fueling inequality

As Key Suspect Tried, Encampment Demands Justice for Berta Cáceres

South African court orders ex-president Zuma to jail for contempt

Keiser Report | The Transitory Becomes Permanent

Jimmy Dore: U.S. Seizing News Websites From Other Countries!

Krystal and Saagar: Bernie CAVES On Tax Break For Millionaires

Krystal and Saagar: RIP To American Hero Mike Gravel

Saagar Enjeti: Carl Sagan's DIRE Warning Comes True As Americans Have Less Friends

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A Little Night Music

Henry Townsend - Cairo's My Baby's Home

Henry Townsend - Have No Fear

Henry Townsend - All My Money's Gone

Henry Townsend - Henry's Worry Blues

Henry Townsend - Poor man blues

Henry Townsend - Long ago blues

Henry Townsend - Nothing but trouble

Henry Townsend - I Got Tired

Henry Townsend - No doggin'

Henry Townsend - Buzz Buzz Buzz