The Evening Blues - 6-6-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Cripple Clarence Lofton

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features boogie-woogie piano player Cripple Clarence Lofton. Enjoy!

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie

"The most impressive feat of engineering this century has been of the ‘social’ variety: funneling mainstream political attention into agendas which don’t inconvenience the powerful in the information age where the ravages of capitalism and imperialism are right there to be seen in plain sight.

The social engineering necessary to keep politically inclined people fixated on agendas that either won’t lead anywhere or which trouble the powerful in no way, even as we entered an unprecedented age of information access, is one of the most awe-inspiring human achievements in history."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Catching up a bit:

Ukrainian Official Behind Western Media Reports Of Russian Atrocities Fired By Ukrainian Parliament

A Ukrainian government official frequently cited as a source by western news media for her allegations of atrocities committed by Russian troops has been fired by the Ukrainian parliament, in part because of the unevidenced nature of those claims.

Newsweek reports:

A Ukrainian official has been relieved of her duties over her handling of reports detailing sexual assault allegations made against Russians in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, removed Lyudmila Denisova, the parliament’s commissioner for human rights, from her post, according to Ukrainska Pravda. No new appointment has been made to fill the role.

The move to dismiss Denisova came after outrage about the wording used in public reports about alleged sexual assaults committed by Russians, as well as the alleged dissemination in those reports of unverified information. Despite accusations from Ukraine, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied that Russian soldiers have committed war crimes or sexual assaults during the invasion.

As it happens, Newsweek is one of the many western outlets who have uncritically cited Denisova’s unevidenced claims in their reporting of events in Ukraine. She was the “Ukraine official” in Newsweek’s incendiary April headline “Russians Raped 11-Year-Old Boy, Forced Mom to Watch: Ukraine Official,” an article whose entire first half featured unevidenced claims by Denisova.

Denisova’s name featured just the other day in my own critique of the western media’s blind-faith regurgitation of Ukrainian government assertions when multiple western media outlets parroted her unevidenced claims about two Russians raping a one year-old baby to death.

Business Insider, The Daily BeastThe Daily Mail, The Sun, Metro, The Daily Mirror and Yahoo News all published reports on the same story, and the one and only source for all of them was a post made by Denisova on a Ukrainian government website which contained no evidence and concluded with a call for more weapons and sanctions against Russia from the western world.

Moon of Alabama has compiled other western news media reports which have been uncritically regurgitating claims made by Denisova and disguising those claims as news stories, like Business Insider’s “Ukraine says it received more than 400 reports of sexual violence, including rape, by Russian soldiers within 2 weeks” and Time’s “Ukrainians Are Speaking Up About Rape as a War Crime to Ensure the World Holds Russia Accountable.”

This is not just brazen journalistic malpractice, this is actual atrocity propaganda. This latest development shows that even the Ukrainian government is more skeptical of Ukrainian government claims than the western mainstream press.

UKRAINE Fires Propagandist Who Spread Fake Russian War Crime Stories

Biden ADMITS Ukraine Will Have To Cede Territory To Russia

UK to send long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine despite Russian threats

Britain is to supply long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, despite a threat on Sunday from Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to bomb fresh targets if similar weapons from the US were delivered to Kyiv. The UK will send a handful of tracked M270 multiple launch rocket systems, which can hit targets up to 50 miles away, in the hope they can disrupt the concentrated Russian artillery that has been pounding cities in eastern Ukraine.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, argued the decision to ship the rocket launchers was justified because “as Russia’s tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine”. The move risks further provoking an already irritated Kremlin.

Before the British announcement, Putin told Rossiya state television that Russia would retaliate further if the US went through with the delivery of Himars rocket artillery that the White House promised last week. “We will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting,” said the Russian leader, who has been closely involved with operational military decisions throughout the three months-plus of the war. He did not specify what those targets were.

In the small hours of Sunday morning, Russian cruise missiles struck a railway depot in the eastern Dniprovsky suburb of Kyiv. Ukraine said the strike hit a rail car repair works; Moscow said it had destroyed tanks sent by eastern European countries to Ukraine. It was the first time anywhere in the capital has been hit for over five weeks. One person was hospitalised, and a plume of smoke rose and was visible from high points in the capital.

Biden White House in search of an off-ramp in Ukraine

Slippery Slope: New U.S. Advanced Weapons for Ukraine

Peace advocates are warning that the Biden administration’s newly unveiled decision to arm Ukraine with advanced missile systems further heightens the risk of a direct military conflict between the U.S. and Russia, which accused the White House of “adding fuel to the fire deliberately” as Moscow’s deadly invasion of its neighbor rages on.

“The slippery slope leading to a direct U.S. confrontation with Russia just got a lot steeper,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the progressive anti-war group CodePink, wrote in response to the Biden administration’s move, which was followed by news that Russian forces are holding nuclear drills northeast of Moscow on Wednesday. “The U.S. and U.K. governments show no efforts or desire to achieve peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

The U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, also known as HIMARS, will give Ukraine the capability to strike Russian targets roughly 50 miles away with powerful, satellite-guided missiles. The rocket system, the most advanced weaponry the U.S. has sent to Ukraine to date, is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest military contractor.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Pentagon has spent around $5.4 billion to buy more than 42,000 HIMARS rockets since 1998.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who recently visited a Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama, took to the pages of the New York Times on Tuesday to explain his decision to supply Ukraine with high-tech weaponry, despite the risk that such arms could prolong the war and increase the already ghastly civilian death toll.

“We will continue providing Ukraine with advanced weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters, and ammunition,” Biden wrote, arguing that continued U.S. weapons shipments put Ukraine in the “strongest possible position at the negotiating table.”

Moscow has said repeatedly that it views Western arms shipments to Ukraine as “legitimate targets,” but Biden waved away the idea that such deliveries would lead to a head-to-head military conflict between the U.S. and Russia.

“We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia,” the president declared Tuesday. “As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow. So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces.”

“We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia,” he added, comments that appear to conflict with recent remarks by Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said last month that the U.S. wants “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

“We want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability,” Austin added.

An unnamed senior Biden administration official told the Times on Tuesday that the U.S. only agreed to provide Ukraine with the longer-range missile system after the country provided assurances that it would not use the weapons to launch attacks inside Russia.

But such assurances are unlikely to satisfy analysts and peace activists who argue that Russia’s assault on Ukraine has devolved into a dangerous proxy war between the West and Moscow that’s just one deliberate attack or miscalculation away from a broader—and potentially nuclear—conflict.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that Moscow doesn’t “trust” Ukraine’s promise not to directly attack Russian territory.

Compounding the risk of a larger war is the collapse of diplomatic talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations, leaving the path to a peaceful settlement highly uncertain in the near-term.

While Biden insisted in his Times op-ed that his administration backs Ukraine’s efforts to “achieve a negotiated end to the conflict,” the U.S. and other Western governments—particularly the United Kingdom—have faced criticism for failing to sufficiently support and even directly undermining peace talks.

“The U.S. and U.K. governments show no efforts or desire to achieve peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Ivan Katchanovski, a Ukrainian professor of political studies at the University of Ottawa, told Jacobin earlier this week.

Spanish Court Orders Mike Pompeo to Testify on CIA Plot to Kill Julian Assange

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been summoned to appear in a Spanish court to testify on whether the CIA planned to assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was the head of the agency, the Spanish newspaper ABC reported.

Yahoo News reported last year that in 2017, the CIA plotted to kidnap Assange, and some senior officials discussed killing him and requested options on how to carry out the assassination. The CIA was furious with Assange over the WikiLeaks release of documents that detailed the spy agency’s hacking tools, known as Vault 7. ...

According to the ABC report, Pompeo must appear in court sometime this month to explain if there was a plot to kidnap or kill Assange, although he was given the option to appear via video link. William Evanina, the former head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was also summoned to appear before the court.

Biden BOWS To Saudi, Begs For More Oil | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

It Was a Game of Hardball and Biden Just Handed It to the Saudi Prince

Last night, the New York Times broke the news that President Biden plans to travel this Summer to Saudi Arabia, effectively signaling the administration's intent to end its paltry efforts to correct the Kingdom's destabilizing behavior in return for limited promises on oil production.

Traveling to Riyadh now, hat in hand, is akin to slapping a bargain bandaid on the gaping wound that the U.S.-Saudi relationship has become. ...

Applauding MBS' "courage" for supporting a ceasefire in a war the Saudi Crown Prince himself started—and to use that as a pretext for the presidential meeting—speaks to Biden's desperation to lower gas prices, as well as to our need to end this dependency on Saudi Arabia.

Let's also be clear about one thing: This is not the victory of realism over values. Such an assertion erroneously presumes that realpolitik necessitates Biden prostrating himself in front of MBS to push down oil prices. It does not. If oil prices are really the driving force behind this, then Biden should have just gone back into the Iran nuclear deal through an executive order, instead of—for all practical purposes—continuing Trump's maximum pressure strategy. ...

Rather than rebuilding relations with Riyadh, Biden's approach will likely exacerbate the long-standing problems in US-Saudi relations. It will increase our dependence on the kingdom, which has long given its rulers carte blanche to act against American interests in the Middle East and beyond.

MBS is playing hardball with the United States—and Biden just let him win.

Biden Travels To Saudi Arabia To Beg For Cheap Oil

Biden’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Exposes The Ukraine Narrative For The Sham It Is

In a major walkback from his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses like the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh with the goal of persuading Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the US alliance win its economic war against Russia.

The Guardian tells us the trip “suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights.”

So in order to punish Vladimir Putin for his war crimes and his assault on freedom and democracy, Biden will be courting a tyrannical war criminal whose country has no freedom or democracy.

Washington will be ending its brief diplomatic dry spell with a government that has been waging a horrific war against Yemen while suppressing any semblance of human rights at home in order to more effectively punish Putin for waging a horrific war against Ukraine which we’re told threatens freedom and democracy throughout the western world.

I am not the first to note the risible irony of this development.


“The Biden Administration is openly planning to pay homage to one [of] its closest allies — one of the most despotic and murderous tyrants on the planet, the Saudi Crown Prince — at the same time it convinces Americans its motive for fighting wars is to defend freedom and democracy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald.

“The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States’ actions) because they don’t want to give money to a ‘dictator’. So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know,” tweeted Richard Medhurst.

“As part of mobilizing support for the great war for ‘freedom’ in Ukraine, Biden will be visiting the great beacon of ‘democracy,’ Saudi Arabia this month. What’s a little murder and dismemberment between friends?” tweeted Joseph Kishore.

Indeed, one wonders if perhaps Putin could settle this whole conflict by staging a few mass beheadings and dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw to get on America’s good side.

A lot of people talk about the “hypocrisy” of the US empire, as though being hypocritical is the issue. But the complete lack of moral consistency in US imperial behavior is noteworthy not merely because of hypocrisy: it’s noteworthy because it shows the US empire has no morality.

Despite the astonishing deluge of propaganda and brazen government disinformation we’re being blasted in the face with painting the war in Ukraine as a fight between good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny, democracy versus autocracy, the truth is much less flattering to the imperial ego. In reality, the US is waging a proxy war in Ukraine for the exact same reason it remains close with Saudi Arabia: because it advances its own interests to do so.

That’s it. That’s the whole entire story. The US doesn’t care about Ukrainian freedom or Ukrainian lives, it cares about strengthening its Eurasian geostrategic hegemony, and it would cheerfully incinerate every Ukrainian alive in order to accomplish that goal.

A lot of commentators like to say the US government’s intimacy with Saudi Arabia undermines American values, but that’s not true at all. The US isn’t undermining its values by cozying up with Saudi Arabia, it is perfectly honoring and representing its values.

One only believes the US is undermining its values by partnering with Saudi Arabia if one assumes that US values include freedom, democracy, justice and peace. This is not an acceptable thing for a grown adult to believe in 2022. US values in the real world are domination and global power. That’s it.

Really if you think about it Saudi Arabia is just a more honest version of the United States. Its tyranny is right out in the open instead of being sneakily disguised under inverted totalitarianism. Its oligarchs and its official government are all the same people. It never tries to pretend its wars are “humanitarian” in nature. And when it wants to murder an inconvenient journalist it simply does so instead of dishonestly framing it as an espionage case.

In truth, when you look at its overall behavior on the world stage, the US is far more murderous and tyrannical than either Russia or Saudi Arabia . Pretending that Biden is lowering the United States beneath its values by visiting Saudi Arabia is highly flattering to the US. If anything, it’s the other way around.

Somebody call the Disinformation Governance Board Department of Bald-Faced Lies. Apparently, Gina Raimondo doesn't remember her boss for weeks spouting "intelligence" that Putin would invade Ukraine.

Biden commerce secretary shifts blame for inflation onto Russia’s war in Ukraine

Joe Biden’s commerce secretary Gina Raimondo attempted on Sunday to shift blame for the US inflation crisis back onto Russia’s war in Ukraine, days after another cabinet member admitted the presidential administration had made failures in predicting its impact on the economy. Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, conceded last week she made an error in 2021 when she said inflation, which has only recently dropped from a near 40-year high, posed merely a “small risk”. ...

In her appearance on the same network’s State of the Union on Sunday, Raimondo pointed to “unexpected” developments that had derailed the global economy, and insisted: “We will get inflation under control.” She said: “I don’t think anyone predicted (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s war in Ukraine, or various other things that have happened that have been unexpected. It’s worth noting that gas prices are up $1.40 a gallon since Putin moved troops into Ukraine.”

Her comments will be seen as part of a concerted White House push to deflect blame for the nation’s economic troubles away from Biden, who has faced accusations of ignoring experts’ warnings over inflation and, more recently, the baby formula shortage.

Krystal Ball: Amazon CAUGHT Using Minority Charities to HIDE Market Rigging

‘We’re still struggling’: low unemployment can’t hide impact of low wages and rising inflation

In the rotating restaurant at the top of the Strat hotel and casino, guests can once again enjoy $20 cocktails or a $90 shellfish display for two while taking in the expansive views of downtown Las Vegas from its landmark tower. After the Covid shutdown, Vegas is back in business. But not everyone seems happy, or sure how long it will last.

On a recent afternoon, just out of view of the hotel’s 1,000-plus feet (350-metre) spike, a couple of hundred hospitality service workers were gathered in a nearby car park. In baking 90F ( 32C) heat, speakers told the workers that they must fight to get improved contracts and controls for soaring rents. “Sí, se puede” – yes, we can – they shouted outside the headquarters of Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers Union. While the housekeepers, chefs and other workers sang and chanted through the meeting, there was no disguising a deep sense of anger about their working conditions and the direction of the economy.

A cursory scan of Nevada’s economic statistics would suggest that life has got better recently for its members. Unemployment hit 30% in Las Vegas in April 2020 when Covid closed the city down – the highest rate in the nation. Now it’s 5%, higher than the national average but still a huge improvement.

Las Vegas has been on a roll recently. Few cities were hit as hard financially by the pandemic. Now the tables are open again, gambling revenues are at new highs, hotel occupancies are climbing, conventioneers are back in town. But the mood is strained. Worker after worker said they were still feeling the effects of cuts made by their employers during the pandemic and were now suffering as inflation drove up prices and wages failed to keep up.

In many ways, Vegas holds a funhouse mirror to the deeply strange US economy. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.6%, close to a 50-year low. Consumers are spending and wages are rising. And yet supply chain problems persist, businesses complain they can’t get staff, workers are angry about how they were treated during the pandemic and after, and tourists are unhappy with shortages and poor service. Everyone is worried about inflation – rising faster than wages for many – and interest rates. Looming over all this is the threat of a recession – one likely to be felt first in a city reliant on freewheeling spending, which dries up as quickly as spilled water on the hot Las Vegas Strip in leaner times.

Biden’s “Plan” To Fix Inflation Is Insulting To Your Intelligence

To avoid ‘historic shellacking’ in midterms, Biden is promoting a sunny view of US economy

As he celebrated the impressive May jobs report on Friday, Joe Biden went to great lengths to paint a rosy picture of the US economy. While acknowledging the difficult reality of high prices caused by near record-high inflation, Biden pointed to the 390,000 jobs created last month to argue that the US is in a strong economic position. “I know that even with today’s good news, a lot of Americans remain anxious, and I understand the feeling,” the US president said. “But there’s every reason for the American people to feel confident that we’ll meet these challenges.”

But as of now, much of America does not seem to be buying the optimistic vision that Biden and his team are selling. Polls show Americans are viewing the US economy with a growing sense of pessimism, as experts warn of a potential recession. Despite the White House’s renewed efforts this month to allay Americans’ concerns, high prices and economic uncertainty are weighing heavily on the minds of many voters. With less than six months to go until the midterm elections, the odds of a Republican rout in November appear higher than ever.

Americans who started taking notice of rising prices last year are now feeling the brutal impact of inflation on their family budgets. Gas prices are at record highs and continuing to climb, partly due to the war in Ukraine. Wages have gone up in the past year, but those gains have been wiped out by inflation. While average hourly earnings increased by 5.2% over the past 12 months, the latest US inflation report showed prices rose by 8.3% from a year earlier.

That sticker shock has marred Americans’ views of the economy. A Gallup survey taken last month found that only 14% of American adults consider economic conditions to be “excellent” or “good”, marking the lowest rating during the pandemic. The cost of living ranks as one of Americans’ top concerns, with a recent Pew Research Center survey showing that 70% of US adults view inflation as a very big problem for the country.

Biden and his advisers are clearly aware that concerns about the economy could be a heavy liability for Democrats in November, and they are taking steps to improve Americans’ outlook. The White House announced this week that it was launching a month-long campaign to highlight Biden’s economic accomplishments since taking office.

[Biden has economic accomplishments? Coulda fooled me. -js]

California’s First-in-Nation Reparations Report Urges Action on Wealth, Education, Criminal Justice



the horse race



Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro indicted for defying Capitol attack panel

Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was taken into custody after being indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The indictment against Navarro marks the first time that the justice department has pursued charges against a Trump White House official who worked in the administration on January 6 and participated in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Navarro is facing one count of contempt of Congress for his refusal to appear at a deposition and a second count for his refusal to turn over documents as demanded by the select committee’s subpoena, the justice department announced in a news release. ...

Navarro’s indictment comes just weeks after the full House of Representatives voted to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress for entirely defying the select committee’s subpoena, issued in February, demanding documents and testimony in the January 6 inquiry.



the evening greens


'Racing at Top Speed Towards Global Catastrophe': NOAA Says CO2 Levels Highest in Human History

There is more carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere than at any time in the past four million years, as the world's continued dependence on fossil fuels keeps humanity hurtling toward a "global catastrophe," officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned on Friday.

NOAA reports its Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii measured CO2 levels averaging 420.99 parts per million (ppm) in May, an increase of 1.8 ppm over levels at this time last year, while scientists at the San Diego-based Scripps Institute of Oceanography, which also tracks atmospheric CO2, calculated a monthly average of 420.78 ppm.

"The science is irrefutable: humans are altering our climate in ways that our economy and our infrastructure must adapt to," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. "We can see the impacts of climate change around us every day."

"The relentless increase of carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa is a stark reminder that we need to take urgent, serious steps" toward climate resiliency and action, he added. ...

"CO2 levels are now comparable to the Pliocene Climatic Optimum, between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago, when they were close to, or above 400 ppm," notes NOAA. "During that time, sea levels were between five and 25 meters higher than today, high enough to drown many of the world's largest modern cities. Temperatures then averaged 7°F higher than in pre-industrial times, and studies indicate that large forests occupied today's Arctic tundra."

Adequately reducing global CO2 emissions would require a dramatic shift in human activity—especially by the world's wealthiest 1%, who according to a September 2020 study by Oxfam emit more than twice as much CO2 as the poorest 50% of humanity.

"It's depressing that we've lacked the collective willpower to slow the relentless rise in CO2," said Ralph Keeling, who runs Scripps' program at the mountaintop observatory. "Fossil fuel use may no longer be accelerating, but we are still racing at top speed towards a global catastrophe."

Pieter Tans, senior scientist at NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, said that "carbon dioxide is at levels our species has never experienced before—this is not new."

"We have known about this for half a century, and have failed to do anything meaningful about it," he added. "What's it going to take for us to wake up?"

‘Apocalyptic skies’: the dust storms devastating Gulf states and Syria

Blankets of thick gritty haze and ominous orange skies since early April have sent thousands to hospitals and resulted in at least four deaths in Iraq and in Syria. The apocalyptic scenes have affected everyone. Hospitals in Syria have been on standby for residents unable to breathe. Iraq forced schools and offices to close in some provinces, and on 16 May declared a state of emergency. In the Gulf states, flights were halted in Kuwait, and both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued dust storm alerts. ...

Dust and sand storms are an atmospheric phenomenon, representing one of the most severe, if underrated, natural hazards in dry regions. In the Middle East, they frequently cover arid and semi-arid land, typically in late spring and summer. This year has been especially severe, experts say. They have come far earlier than normal, and are spreading across a much wider area. ...

Dust particles can travel thousands of kilometres. All that is needed to trigger a storm is wind, a source of dust where there is little to no vegetation, and dry conditions. One of the most common routes in the region is when strong north-westerly winds, known as shamal, push cold air through the dry and sandy soil areas of Iraq, picking up dust between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and carrying it along to the Arabian peninsula. This year, the storms stretched to Saudi Arabia over other Gulf states, as well as cloaking parts of Jordan.

Northern Iraq has been particularly exposed, witnessing a sandstorm nearly every week since March. In May, Issa al-Fayyad, the director general of the technical department for the Ministry of Environment, said the country faced an average of 272 dust storms a year. He predicts that it will grow to 300 days of dust a year by 2050, and warns that climate change is the key factor in the increase. Mohammed Mahmoud, the director of the climate and water programme at the Middle East Institute, warns, similarly, that the once rare occurrence will only be more frequent as the climate crisis increases aridity and warms the already dry region, while altering weather patterns to create more storms.


Also of Interest

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

Craig Murray: The Power of Lies

Empire Solves Ukraine’s Nazi Problem With A Logo Change

Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia exposes the hypocrisy of the imperialist war against Russia

NATO Chief Says Ukraine Shouldn’t Drop Goal of Driving Russia Out of Crimea

Putin's warning. Olaf Scholz fears Zelensky will invade Russia with German weapons

Ukraine Beyond Day 100 - Breaking Resistance, Deep Operation, A New Country

Battle for Donbas: Zelensky says Ukrainians 'outnumbered' in Severodonetsk

The US Empire Will Be Defeated By The US Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

North Korea fires ballistic missiles a day after US-South Korean naval drills

Bennett Tells IAEA Israel Has Right to Act Against Iran’s Nuclear Program

Supreme Court Expands Government Secrecy Powers in Torture-Related Case

Advocates Offer Cautious Praise of New Digital Privacy Bill in Congress

She was jailed for losing a pregnancy. Her nightmare could become more common

The Solution To The Inflation Crisis That Worked TWICE Before!

Mexican President Snubs US – Won’t Attend Americas Summit

Kim Iversen: Inside The SECRET Bilderberg Meetings Between Spies, War Hawks And World Leaders

Runaway Inflation Is About To Collapse The US Economy w/ Peter Schiff

Prof. Richard Wolff: How to Fix Inflation

End Of The NEOCONS? Some Republicans In Congress OPPOSE Ukraine-Russia Proxy War


A Little Night Music

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Brown Skin Girls

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Streamline Train

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Pitchin' Boogie

Cripple Clarence Lofton - You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Sixes and Sevens

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Crying Mother Blues

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Clarence's Blues

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Monkey Man Blues

Cripple Clarence Lofton - Sweet Tooth


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15 users have voted.

Comments

ggersh's picture

Hold on people it's coming.

Here is a great read on Ukraine/USA/WEF v Russia/China. If the USA can't win by
bribing you it will just destroy you to get the message across. We are now the
international Mafioso.

https://thesaker.is/is-us-nato-with-wef-help-pushing-for-a-global-south-...

up
14 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh @ggersh render blacks infertile, we could have a better world with all those Africans gone.
It is really strange that Biden announced that there will be food shortages
without a stutter, with assurance, beyond just knowing, but as though he were asserting The Plan. No words at all about ameliorating the problem. I guess a good American has to die from hunger? Bringing Patriotism to a new standard?

up
13 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

ggersh's picture

@on the cusp him to say. Even when he speaks the truth about what's coming the masters
believe he will be the face of the coming disaster and while that might be the case
the people now realize this has been going on regardless of who is president. We need
to remember that basically 25% of the people are D's and 25% are R's. Indies are the
majority and they know it's both the D's and R's that are fucking us all.

They no longer care about people at all, the culling of the herd has begun.

https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2022/06/debt-rattle-june-6-2022/

up
11 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

I hope countries can find a way around what has been planned for them.

Today Biden gracefully said that Venezuela and Iran can start selling their oil to Europe but they aren’t going to be paid for it. Oh no they’re paying off their debts we installed on them. Nice huh?

up
12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

ggersh's picture

@snoopydawg Dubya's "you're either with us or your against us". Even before that
amerikkka has never ever kept a treaty promise so 911 put amerikkka in the
drivers seat to take over the world.

You can give them oil to pay your debt, I'm sure they'll respond in the
correct way

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Plus there is this irt Africa, UFB

https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/v6gdzv/us_is_sanctioning_...

up
11 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

B discusses what Russia will do next after it finishes its business in Ukraine.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/how-russia-can-and-will-de-nato-si...

Gah the Hudson essay chilled me to the bone. I should be used to the carnage by now, but letting millions starve to death by choice is beyond evil.

Is China still helping Afghanistans after Biden stole their money?

Ho boy read the thread

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

who put the u.s. in charge? the u.s. did. nobody gives you power, you have to take it. the u.s. will have the power until somebody else takes it or until a coalition arises that can enforce a rule where nobody can have it even if they try to take it.

the multipolar movement is a potential genesis of the latter, assuming that neither of the larger players in it get too big for their ideological britches.

moa's analysis is interesting and worth pondering. the one thing that he doesn't take into his analysis is that the u.s./neocon project is a death cult. they will rule the world or destroy it given the opportunity.

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9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

https://worldaffairs.blog/2019/06/02/tiananmen-square-massacre-facts-fic...

It’s saying that Tianamen square massacre didn’t actually happen the way we were told and it might have been a Soros color revolution.

I wasn’t paying attention to world affairs much then so I do not know.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

well, it could be that the great game is proceeding to the "final" round. the western powers- that-be are on the back foot in a game where they are playing for all of the marbles. they want to keep their colonial gains and they are continuing to double down, because failure means they can't rule the world anymore and, eek, there might be an accountability moment.

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6 users have voted.

the global southern hemisphere
the idiots that think they are in charge of
our future have plans underway including
plagues, drought, starvation and war to cull
the useless eaters so the wealthy have more!

Thanks for the CC Lofton. fun stuff

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10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

who knew that they had four horses in their barn?

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CB's picture

@QMS
"plans underway including
plagues, drought, starvation and war to cull
the useless eaters so the wealthy have more!"

The hoi polloi are messing up the place big time. There is just too damn many of us. I understand that the WEF considers about 7 billion "useless eaters" need to be culled in able to return the earth to a pristine condition.

Unfortunately, eugenics has been given a bad rap. Hitler was before his time:

21 Historical Figures You Didn’t Know Supported The Eugenics Movement

The eugenics movement will forever be associated with Adolf Hitler, whose quest to build an Aryan master race during the 1930s and '40s culminated in the extermination of millions.

However, Hitler wasn't the first to champion the idea of wiping away humans deemed to be unfit. In large part, he actually took inspiration from the United States. As Hitler remarked in 1924's Mein Kampf, "There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States."

Prompt de-carbonization of human society, as proposed by the WEF, will ensure that goal can be attained in the near future.

Mathew Ehret discusses this "controlled demolition":

In this episode of On The Couch, Matt was invited to talk about the breakdown of the trans Atlantic System shaping the events in Ukraine, the fight for a new system and the historic roots of Ukrainian Nazism.

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snoopydawg's picture

I’m reading this from the other side of the mountain in our usual spot. It’s very pleasant today but heading towards 100 this week. I don’t remember hitting that temp this early in the year before, but I guess it’s the new normal. Sam is off in the bushes again looking for lions, tigers and bears. Or bugs.

Speaking of bugs there are tons of caterpillars on something they have surrounded with a web. It’s sorta creepy looking at them. I’ll post a picture once I get home. More bird chatter tonight. Hopefully everything works this trip.

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12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

they are invasive, kill trees and etc.
my solution is to cut the branch down they have inhabited
pour an accelerant on the mess and burn them
seems to work
kinda stinky tho

good luck

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

before either. They have eaten the leaves of the bush they are on. I’ll post the picture when I get home and you can see if they’re the same things you have. I better not have nightmares about them! They’re just creepy.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i hope that you and sam are having a great time out there.

back east here we have these things called bag worms that mostly seem to attack pines and evergreen trees. when they come out of their odd little cocoons the caterpillars build webs and crawl around doing their evil deeds.

give sam a scritch for me!

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

She just crawled into my lap and was asleep before she put her head down. She found a baseball and of course took the cover off. She’s a lousy shortstop I have to tell you. Let’s the ball roll between her legs and can’t catch worth a damn. Have you ever heard of a lab that’s not interested in fetch? If she brings the ball back twice I’m amazed. Abby would play for hours. Sam not so much. She must have skipped the dawg sports classes.

This couch is big enough for the 2 of us except that she’s hogging it.

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7 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg Please.
My client, Sam, entertained the hosts, that's more than one human, and then entertained you, and then entertained herself, and if she isn't entitled to have a larger share of the couch, then who is? She is NOT hogging, merely enjoying the fruits of her arduous labor.
Please give her an extra treat. Or maybe 2 or 3.
She must have been stressed, given she was asleep, and fell into your lap.
I know my client. She was stressed from all that human need for entertainment. I know my client.

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9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lookout's picture

full of lies and the lying tellers. Loved the Caity quote at the top.

Glad I've got the holler to hide in. Found someone today to help re-deck an area and repair some soffits. Hey its hard to find help for stuff like that in my part of the world. Bet its difficult in most parts of our country. Project starts next Monday.

Plenty of mowing/bush hogging this week. Almost caught up. And another music party in a couple of weeks. Things are normalizing I do believe. Hope you're experiencing the same loosening!

Wonder how the Bo Jo no confidence vote played out. Ask and Ye shall find...

The 211-148 result means Johnson cannot be challenged from within the Conservative ranks for one full year. However, the outcome also means that more than half the House of Commons either opposes Johnson or has expressed no confidence in him.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/06/uks-boris-johnson-barely-survives-no-confi...

Too bad the US has no similar vote, otherwise we would be shed of joementia....maybe.

Thanks for the news and bluez!

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12 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

@Lookout

whatta world indeed. certainly not the one i would have chosen when i joined it already in progress.

glad you've got a holler to hide in. i've been looking around occasionally to see if there might be one near here to hide in. heh, here there is and endless supply of flakes that you can call up to do a half-assed job most of the time.

it looks like the music festivals are starting to run more normally in my neck of the woods. i should be going to a one-day bluegrass festival in late june over in west virginia.

heh, i guess it depends on how the no confidence vote rules were constructed. for example, i don't think that anybody in their right mind would bother to exchange biden for kamala. similarly, if the result of no-confidence was a general election and that meant the return of trump, well, i guess the vote would be close and we'd surely wind up with some geriatric moron that panders to the rich.

have a great evening!

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6 users have voted.

You must be feeling mo' betta!
Great news collection for my reading tonight whilst Dear One cooks dinner! Lol!
Something's happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there, tellin' me, "You got to beware!"

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8 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

look around and see what's going down

[video:https://youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY]

nobody is right if everything is wrong

thanks otc

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

yep, i am all the way back to normal and i've been pretty busy doing chores and projects the last few days, thanks!

somebody else cooking dinner sounds great! it happened here, too, as ms shikspack made a tray of fabulous spanakopita. even the dog likes it. who knew that you could get a dog to eat spinach? Smile

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack somewhere...Greece? Italy? it would have been a hard sell for my dogs.
Yeah, sitting around, knowing someone is in that kitchen, cooking what you asked for, is just all that, buddy.
Let's eat while we can afford food. Hope we don't get to the St. Petersburg Seige recipes, 700 hundred of them in book form, using human dung.
But for tonight, great tacos!

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

probably greece. it's the crispy, buttery phyllo dough crust and the feta cheese that gets the dog interested. we only give her a very little bit of the filling though, because it has onion in it which is not great for dogs.

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5 users have voted.

@joe shikspack But I do not recall onions, so maybe that is your Dear One's secret ingredient.
It is not hot yet. Oh, it is gonna come. But sitting on the porch in a gentle breeze, frogs making their frog noise, burros braying, mockingbirds doing their thing, well, it is all good on this property, this house, this front porch, for this evening.
Tomorrow is another day.

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

CB's picture

Brian Berlectic and Vanessa Beeley!

Interview with Brian Berletic - a pivot towards multi-polarity and understanding China - (Watch)

Today I had the privilege to speak with Brian Berletic, an outstanding journalist, analyst and researcher who has covered US UK-led Imperialist wars for years and is now well placed to comment on the coming war against China while Russia is securing its borders in Ukraine. We go into the disinformation complex that is waging insidious propaganda wars against target nations that threaten US/UK global primacy and discuss how current world events affect our future.
Brian's work can be followed at The New Atlas on YouTube
Source: vanessa beeley

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10 users have voted.

@CB

discuss how current world events affect our future

thanks CB
focuses some powerful truths

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

thanks for the link. have a good one!

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4 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

I just completed my ballot which I shall drop off tomorrow and then anxiously await the tabulation of results, With luck, barring vast hordes of idiots writing her in, no matter what other fresh hells await us, DiFi is gone.

Thanks mucho for the, uh, boojie woojie, as some have called it.

be well and have a good one,

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10 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

thanks for doing your part to put difi out of our misery. surely she will be replaced by a younger office-filler with the usual corruption and stupidity, but difi will be gone - and that is something.

ah, thanks for reminding me of long john baldry. Smile

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Who the fu-k knows where dementia Joe's handlers will lead us?

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6 users have voted.