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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features singer, harmonica player and songwriter John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. Enjoy!

^{John Lee Williamson - Stop Breaking Down}

“If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement.”

-- Robert A. Heinlein

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News and Opinion

Ukraine needs many more rocket launchers from west, says adviser

Ukraine needs 60 multiple rocket launchers – many more than the handful promised so far by the UK and US – to have a chance of defeating Russia, according to an aide to the country’s presidency. Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to the president’s chief of staff, told the Guardian that while he believed the rocket launchers were “a gamechanger weapon”, not enough had been committed to turn the tide in the war.

“The fewer we get, the worse our situation will be. Our troops will continue to die and we will continue to lose ground,” Arestovych said, particularly if countries with dozens of systems only “decide to donate four or five”. ...

Arestovych said Ukraine needed many times more multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), which have a range far greater than anything in the country’s existing arsenal. “If we get 60 of these systems then the Russians will lose all ability to advance anywhere, they will be stopped dead in their tracks. If we get 40 they will advance, albeit very slowly with heavy casualties; with 20 they will continue to advance with higher casualties than now,” he said. ...

Russia has repeatedly said it will intensify its offensive in Ukraine if the longer-range rockets are delivered. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Monday: “The longer the range of weapons you supply, the farther away the line from where neo-Nazis [the Ukrainians] could threaten the Russian Federation will be pushed.”

Russia Says It Will Take More Ukrainian Territory to Defend Against Longer-Range Weapons

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow will push Ukrainian forces further back from the Russian border in response to Western nations giving Kyiv longer-range weapons.

“The longer the range of the systems that will be delivered, the further we will move back the Nazis from that line from which threats to Russian speakers and the Russian Federation may come,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov’s comments came after the US and Britain announced they are giving Ukraine rocket systems that have a longer range than any other weapon the West has provided Kyiv.

String of Ukrainian Defeats, Putin Open for Talks as UK's Johnson ABOUT TO FALL

‘The occupier should never feel safe’: rise in partisan attacks in Ukraine

Ukrainian partisans in occupied areas of the country are increasing attacks and sabotage efforts on Russian forces and their local collaborators, with organised underground efforts appearing to spread. Six Russian border guarders were reportedly killed last week when their position came under fire near the Zernovo border checkpoint in Ukraine’s north. Two days later an explosion struck close to the office of Yevgeny Balitsky, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian official in Melitopol.

The increase in partisan warfare, particularly in the country’s south around Kherson, follows warnings at the outset of Russia’s war against Ukraine that any area under occupation was likely to see the emergence of guerrilla warfare. The subject is one of the murkiest of the war in Ukraine. Both sides have an interest in exaggerating its prevalence: the Russians to justify crackdowns in areas they occupy and the Ukrainians to demoralise Russian troops. ...

Some analysts believe they are seeing evidence that partisan activity in Ukraine is escalating. Among them is Alexander Motyl, a historian and Ukraine expert at Rutgers University. Writing for the defence-focused website 1945 last week, Motyl noted: “I gathered the data from Ukrainian websites that explicitly identified the perpetrators of these actions as partisans.

“It is, of course, possible that Ukrainian special forces may have been involved in some of these actions; it is also likely that the data are incomplete, inasmuch as some actions probably went unreported. Even so, the number of guerrilla actions is impressive and bespeaks a trend toward ever-greater partisan activity.”

Commenting on the Melitopol explosion, pro-Kremlin authorities in the city explicitly blamed Ukrainian partisans. Russia’s Investigative Committee blamed it on “Ukrainian saboteurs”.

‘Nuclear Winter’ Discussed in Newly Released Reagan-Era Documents

Newly released government documents from the 1980s outline the devastation that would be wrought on the planet if nuclear superpowers go to war—which should serve as a reminder for policymakers to prioritize peace negotiations as the war in Ukraine rages on, according to Scott Horton, editorial director of Antiwar.com.

Horton told The Epoch Times on June 6 that the nuclear winter documents, released last week by the George Washington University-affiliated National Security Archive, come “with the American and NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine bringing the threat of war to its highest point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.”

Such a war would kill “billions,” said Horton, author of the forthcoming book “Hotter than the Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.” According to the National Security Archive documents, the country’s top scientists feared such a scenario played out by Horton: Two superpowers fire nuclear weapons at each other, producing enough smoke to blot out the sun for weeks. Temperatures fall, crops die, and world starvation ensues.

Now commonly referred to as “nuclear winter,” such a scenario was once thought implausible by many U.S. national security officials. But that thinking began to change in the 1980s, when the then-Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA)—now the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)—began researching the issue, according to newly released documents from that era. ...

Unfortunately, Horton said, policymakers have forgotten the lessons learned from the Cold War. To Horton’s point, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and numerous U.S. policymakers have called for driving Russia out of Ukraine altogether—despite warnings from National Intelligence Director Avril Haines last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use nuclear weapons if he thinks he’s losing the conflict.

Russia Says It’s Interested in Nuclear Arms Control Talks With the US

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia is interested in nuclear arms control talks with the US but agreed that such negotiations are unlikely to take place at this point. ...

Peskov was responding to a question about comments from US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, who said it’s unlikely arms control will take place at the moment. “Perhaps, we should agree with the ambassador that it looks unlikely at the moment but sooner or later we will need to return to this issue,” Peskov said.

In an interview with Tass, Sullivan said he wasn’t told to prepare for arms control talks. “It is certainly not something I’ve been instructed by Washington to be prepared for. On the other hand, it is one of the most significant issues between the US and Russia,” he said.

New Demands for Yemen War Powers Resolution as Report Reveals Depth of US Complicity in Airstrikes

A leading peace group on Monday said a new report detailing the depth of U.S. support for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen—hundreds of which have been called war crimes by international legal experts—shows the need for Congress to pass a recently introduced measure to end American complicity in the one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

According to The Washington Post—which along with the Security Force Monitor (SFM) at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute analyzed thousands of news reports and images to identify warplanes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have attacked Yemen—"a substantial portion of the air raids were carried out by jets developed, maintained, and sold by U.S. companies, and by pilots who were trained by the U.S. military."

This, despite a February 2021 pledge by President Joe Biden to end U.S. support for "offensive operations" in the Saudi-led war—a promise that has been repeatedly sidestepped via arms sales and a $500 million maintenance contract.

"This is an absolutely devastating analysis of U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen," tweeted the Quaker peace group Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). "Our ongoing complicity is a stain on our nation's soul. Just further reason for Congress to pass the newly introduced Yemen War Powers Resolution."

Last week, a bipartisan group of 48 House lawmakers introduced a War Powers Resolution directing "the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress."

"It's critical that the Biden administration take the steps necessary to fulfill their promise to end U.S. support for the disastrous Saudi-led war in Yemen," explained Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), one of the resolution's lead sponsors.

"We should not be involved in yet another conflict in the Middle East," he added, "especially a brutal war that has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, and contributed to the deaths of at least 377,000 civilians."

Writing for Just Security, Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict, and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute, and SFM's Tony Wilson noted Saturday that "during seven years of war, coalition airstrikes have killed nearly 9,000 civilians in Yemen."

"Human rights groups and the United Nations-mandated Group of Eminent Experts have documented more than 300 airstrikes that are likely war crimes or violations of the laws of war," they continued. "These strikes have hit hospitals and other medical facilities, markets, a school bus filled with children, and a funeral hall filled with mourners."

"Independent human rights groups, journalists, and U.N. monitoring bodies have found U.S. weapons used in many of these attacks," the pair added.

The Post-SFM investigation comes amid widespread U.S. and Western condemnation of alleged and documented Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

"Thousands of similar strikes have taken place against Yemeni civilians," the report notes. "The indiscriminate bombings have become a hallmark of the Yemen war, drawing international scrutiny of the countries participating in the air campaign, and those arming them, including the United States."

The report also comes as Biden prepares to visit Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks in a bid to boost relations with the oil-rich kingdom amid record fuel prices driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine—despite a campaign promise to make the nation's leaders "pay the price" for their role in the grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The president's decision to visit the fundamentalist kingdom, one of the world's worst human rights violators, stands in stark contrast to the U.S.' exclusion of Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan leaders from the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles—purportedly due to the lack of democracy and respect for human rights in those countries.

Annelle Sheline, a Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, last week called the introduction of the War Powers Resolution "a key factor in why the warring parties in Yemen decided to extend their ceasefire," which is now in its third month.

Speaking of the resolution on Al Jazeera last week, Sheline said that "if this were to pass, two-thirds of Saudi Arabia's air force would be grounded, because they cannot operate without U.S. military contractors, spare parts, and assistance."

"It very clearly shows," she added, "that the Saudis... don't want to be in the position of losing the ability to fly their own planes if the U.S. does withdraw support."

Biden's visit delayed until meeting Saudi demands

US President Joe Biden has delayed his visit to Saudi Arabia until Washington fulfils Riyadh's demands, a Saudi lawmaker said Monday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"The visit was delayed until [the US] meets the Saudi demands," Ibrahim Al-Nahhas, a member of the Shura Council, said in a TV interview.

"[It was delayed] until arrangements are completed in a way that serves the interests of the Kingdom and the region," he added. ...

US media earlier said that Biden's scheduled visit this month to Riyadh and Israel was postponed until July, without giving a reason for the delay.

Gas prices on verge of doubling since Biden’s first day in the Oval Office

The national average price for a gallon of gas is projected by Sunday to top $4.80, twice as much as the day President Biden took office.

It is a staggering milestone that underscores both the everyday pain inflation inflicts on Americans and the difficult months ahead for Democrats seeking votes in November.

The average price per gallon was $2.40 on Jan. 20, 2021, based on an average of the leading fuel-monitoring services. The average price on Friday was $4.78 and market analysts expected it to tick up at least 2 cents over the weekend.

The average American drives 13,476 miles per year, according to the Department of Transportation. That means owners of the Ford F-series — the most popular truck in 2021 — on average would spend roughly $3,060 per year at today’s price point compared to about $1,540 per year at $2.40 per gallon. For Honda Civic drivers, that would mean roughly $1,950 compared to approximately $980 in 2020.

Starbucks DECLARES WAR, Closes Union Store

How Hochul Could Help Amazon Workers Get The Contract They Deserve

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul could immediately require Amazon to pay its workers a $30 minimum wage, as demanded by the upstart Amazon Labor Union (ALU) that is organizing across New York and beyond, according to a new Lever analysis. As the top elected official of a state that boasts one of the largest economies in the world, she could also take additional actions to strengthen labor organizers’ position with the retail giant, which has so far refused to recognize the union.

As a first step, Hochul could sign newly-passed legislation that would crack down on brutal productivity quotas at employers like Amazon.

Hochul took to Twitter on April 1 to congratulate the union on a historic labor victory at a Staten Island warehouse, declaring that “New York is and always will be union strong.” But since then, the governor has refused to take action to help organizers — even as Amazon has reportedly ramped up its union-busting activities, in possible violation of subsidy deals worth hundreds of millions the company has acquired in the state.

Hochul — who first gained prominence in 2007 when she opposed giving driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants while she was Erie County Clerk — enjoys several ties to the online retailer. Amazon’s lobbyists have contributed $25,000 to her 2022 election campaign, and the company has also donated $425,000 to the Democratic Governors Association since the organization endorsed Hochul last September. What’s more, Hochul’s pollster, Global Strategy Group, helped spearhead Amazon’s attempt to crush the Staten Island union drive.

As workers across the country take on big brands like Amazon and Starbucks, organizers could use a boost from Democratic politicians like Hochul. And while established labor unions have traditionally adopted a feeble “go along to get along” approach with the Democratic party, the independent and scrappy ALU has a chance to do something different: It could use public pressure to demand solutions from Democratic leaders — especially Hochul, who is facing what is shaping up to be the closest governor’s race in New York since 1994. ... Given the enormous powers at Hochul’s disposal — and her apparent political vulnerability — ALU organizers have a real chance to pressure the governor to help them win a transformative contract for Staten Island Amazon workers.

Private Equity JACKS Up Trailer Park Rents Hurting Millions

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Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy in 6 January riot

Top leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group, including its national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, have been charged with seditious conspiracy for plotting to storm the US Capitol to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s election win over Donald Trump on 6 January 2021.

The move by federal prosecutors to charge Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders with seditious conspiracy – in addition to previous charges of obstructing a congressional proceeding – marks a major development in the criminal investigation into the Capitol attack.

In the 33-page indictment unsealed in Washington DC on Monday, the justice department said Tarrio and his co-defendants Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola for months used encrypted messaging apps to stop Biden’s certification by force. ...

Seditious conspiracy, which is challenging to prove, requires federal prosecutors to show beyond a reasonable doubt that at least two people agreed to use force to overthrow the government or to interfere with the execution of a US law.

U.K. PM Boris Johnson Survives No-Confidence Vote But Faces Uphill Battle to Stay in Power

'Our Community Isn't Done Fighting': Cisneros Calls for Recount in Texas

Though Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar has already twice declared victory in Texas' 28th District, progressive primary challenger Jessica Cisneros announced Monday that she plans to formally request a recount for the May 24 runoff election.

The race has long garnered national attention given how close Cisneros came to ousting Cuellar in 2020 and especially in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting the imminent reversal of Roe v. Wade, considering that he was the only House Democrat to vote against federal legislation to affirm abortion rights last year.

After the Texas Democratic Party officially canvassed the election results, Cuellar's lead rose to 281 votes over the immigration and human rights attorney, and he said that "she has no path to victory."

However, Cisneros made clear Monday that she is not conceding to the "17-year, corporate-backed, anti-choice incumbent."

"Our movement was never just about the one politician—it was about taking on an unjust system that rewards corruption and corporate profits at the expense of the needs of working people," Cisneros said.

"Our community isn't done fighting, we are filing for a recount," she declared. "With just under 0.6% of the vote symbolizing such stark differences for the future in South Texas, I owe it to our community to see this through to the end."

Supporters of Cisneros' second run include various progressive advocacy organizations and political figures, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).

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Climate delegates snub Russian address as activists fear geopolitical setbacks

Delegates have walked out of a session at a climate summit in Bonn on Monday as a Russian official made a speech, in a sign of the geopolitical tensions overshadowing the negotiations. The low-key protest marked the first intervention by Russia in a UN climate forum since the invasion of Ukraine, but it did not stop the talks.

Climate diplomats and experts said governments must not use geopolitical tensions and soaring energy prices as an excuse for falling behind on their climate commitments.

These are the first UN climate negotiations since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the first since the Cop26 summit in Glasgow in November ended with countries pledging to reconvene this year with strengthened commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Patricia Espinosa, the UN’s climate chief, warned: “Climate change is not an agenda we can afford to push back on our global schedule. We need decisions and actions now, and it is incumbent on all nations to make progress in Bonn.”

With less than six months to go before Cop27 in Egypt this November, few countries are yet planning to update their plans on emissions cuts – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – in line with the goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as they agreed to do in Glasgow.

Biden CAVES To China Lobby On Solar Panels

Biden Invokes Defense Production Act to Boost Clean Energy Manufacturing

President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act Monday in an effort to beef up clean energy manufacturing, lower energy costs for American families and improve national security through reduced reliance on foreign counterparts for gas and oil.

“President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act so that the U.S. can take ownership of its clean energy independence,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. “For too long the nation’s clean energy supply chain has been over-reliant on foreign sources and adversarial nations. With the new DPA authority, DOE can help strengthen domestic solar, heat pump and grid manufacturing industries while fortifying America’s economic security and creating good-paying jobs, and lowering utility costs along the way.”

Authorities under the Defense Production Act—when combined with funds appropriated by Congress—will allow the federal government to invest in companies that specialize in clean energy technologies. President Biden’s announcement calls out five specific energy technologies: solar power, transformers and grid components, heat pumps, insulation and electrolyzers, fuel cells and platinum group metals.

At least 12 military bases contaminating water supply with toxic PFAS

Dangerous levels of toxic PFAS are contaminating water supplies in areas around at least 12 military bases, new Department of Defense testing has revealed, drawing concern from public health advocates that the DoD is not doing enough to protect the public.

The data released this week by the military shows levels for five kinds of PFAS compounds at what Scott Faber, vice-president of government affairs for Environmental Working Group, characterized as “extremely high” levels, and he said they present a health threat to residents living nearby. “You can only hope now that people know and are finding alternative sources of water because those are shockingly high levels of PFAS,” he added. ...

The military’s firefighters use aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, which contains extremely high levels of PFAS, in training exercises and emergencies. Though AFFF is effective, it has led to widespread contamination around bases and airports, and Congress just mandated the military check for PFAS pollution at 700 facilities while earmarking $571m for cleanup, though observers say the cost will likely be much higher.

Meanwhile, the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that the defense department phase out AFFF and use safer alternatives already on the market.

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Also of Interest

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

The Ultimate 21st Century Blowback

A new generation of US-trained extremists is fighting Russia. Are we prepared for the blowback?

Empire Managers Are Fucking Idiots

Lies About Russia Still Matter – a Lot

Legal claims shed light on founder of faith group tied to Amy Coney Barrett

Hedges: America’s Gun Fetish

Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History

Michael Hudson: Is US/NATO (with WEF Help) Pushing for a Global South Famine?

Emptying the Navy's Red Hill Jet Fuel Tanks in Honolulu Should Take 27 Days—Not Two Years

Arizona man drowns in lake as officers watch: ‘I’m not jumping in after you’

Biden ADMITS He Knew Of Baby Formula Crisis For MONTHS

Krystal Ball: How Hillary KILLED Feminism For A Generation

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A Little Night Music

John Lee Williamson - You´ve Been Foolin Round Downstairs

John Lee Williamson - I Been Dealing With The Devil

John Lee Williamson - Lord, Oh Lord Blues

John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson - Hoodoo Man

Sonny Boy Williamson 1 - Rub A Dub

John Lee Williamson - You're An Old Lady

John Lee (Sonny Boy) Williamson - Sugar Mama

John Lee Williamson - Apple Tree Swing

John Lee Williamson - Shake The Boogie

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