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“[I]t is the powerful who write the laws of the world-- and the powerful who ignore these laws when expediency dictates.”

-- Michael Parenti

News and Opinion

Bipartisan group calls on Biden to clarify reasoning for Syria airstrikes

Two members from opposite sides of the political spectrum called on President Biden Monday to clarify the specific threats that led to airstrikes conducted against targets in Iraq and Syria last month.

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) penned a letter together saying the airstrikes "raise major constitutional concerns."

“Our Constitution gives the authority to declare war only to Congress. It is implied that the President has limited authority to act to defend our national interests in exigent circumstances. The Executive Branch has no authority conducting offensive strikes without Congressional approval," said Biggs, who co-chairs the War Powers Caucus along with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna. ...

"The Biden Administration has taken offensive action in the recent airstrike on the Iraq-Syria border without bringing this to Congress for approval. Without appropriate justification of an imminent threat to the United States, it is clear that President Biden exceeded his constitutional authority,” added Biggs.

Military Removes Training Document Conflating Socialists With Terrorists

The U.S. Navy has removed a training document that appeared to conflate socialists with terrorists, ollowing The Intercept’s publication of that document on June 22. ...

The document included a list of questions for trainees, including the following: “Anarchists, socialists and neo-nazis represent which terrorist ideological category?” The correct answer, a Defense official told me, was “political terrorists.”

The training guide was part of an approved curriculum for anti-terrorism officer courses, according to Hecht. “While each [Naval Education and Training Command] course undergoes a formal course review every three years, the Center for Security Forces has been directed to review this and related curriculum for other such references,” Hecht said.

Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse

Last autumn, with the departure of American troops from Afghanistan looming after the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban, several of the most senior security officials in Kabul urged President Ashraf Ghani to make some hard choices. The Afghan army and police needed to retrench, figures including the then defence minister, Assadullah Khalid, told Ghani. ... The men urging this strategic retreat had, between them, years of experience fighting in the different iterations of Afghanistan’s civil wars, which have now stretched on for more than 40 years in a kaleidescope of shifting enemies and allies.

Ghani and his national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, who have multiple prestigious degrees but no battlefield experience, refused. “We’re not giving up one inch of our country,” Mohib reportedly told the assembled officials at one point, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions. The government declined to comment.

Less than a year later, swathes of the country – including those remote outposts and many more – have fallen to the Taliban, and thousands of soldiers have fled the country or surrendered to the militants, handing over their equipment and weapons. Instead of retrenchment there was collapse, and intelligence agencies have ripped up their assessments of the strength of the Afghan military. The US now fears Kabul could fall within months.

In its desperation to stem the losses, the government has summoned one of the darker spectres from the country’s recent past, urging warlords and regional strongmen to call up militias that fought the Taliban – but also each other – during the all-out civil war of the 1990s. As recently as last year, Ghani had been trying to disband these groups.

In the fog of confusion, fear and blame that has settled over government-controlled parts of Afghanistan, there is perhaps just one thing that the entire political spectrum can agree on: no one foresaw the scale or speed of the collapse of the Afghan security forces in recent weeks, even those who wanted a strategic retreat.

War in Afghanistan spills over into Tajikistan, heightening Kremlin’s fears

As the US is completing its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of a bloody and criminal war, numerous reports indicate that the ongoing conflict has already begun spilling over into neighboring Tajikistan. Last Monday, 1,500 Afghan soldiers fled across the border into Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet republic, to escape the advance of the Taliban. Tajikistan has a border with Afghanistan stretching 1,357 kilometers, or 804 miles.

According to the BBC, the soldiers, who were later flown back to Kabul, were desperate for food and water. Another 1,000 civilians reportedly also fled into Tajikistan. Political commentators are warning that many thousands more refugees may seek refuge in Tajikistan and other neighboring countries in the coming weeks and months as whatever has remained of social infrastructure in Afghanistan is experiencing a catastrophic collapse. One commentator in Foreign Policy warned that millions of people in Afghanistan could face famine within the next 12 months and that the country could become “the world’s next Yemen.”

Tajikistan itself has been devastated by the impact of capitalist restoration and is the most impoverished of all former Soviet republics. Almost half of the population lacks access to clean running water and a third of the country’s GDP comes from remittances sent by Tajiks working under horrendous conditions as migrants in Russia. The country is highly unstable politically and was just recently embroiled in a bloody border conflict with Kyrgyzstan that killed over 50 people.

Since last week, the Taliban have made further advances in Afghanistan, and are now claiming to control 85 percent of the country’s territory. The Tajik government has ordered the mobilization of 20,000 military reservists and requested help from Russia to guard the country’s borders. However, a report by Eurasianet indicates that the border is already de facto under the control of the Taliban. ...

The spill-over of the military conflict in Afghanistan into Tajikistan, which is home to a Russian military base with 7,000 soldiers, has provoked enormous concerns in the Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated last Wednesday, “We are closely watching what is happening in Afghanistan where the situation has a tendency to swiftly deteriorate including against the backdrop of the hasty exit of American and other NATO troops.” He also made clear that, if necessary, Russia would use its troops stationed in Tajikistan to secure the country’s border. However, Russian press commentators assume that the Kremlin would only act in case of an open military assault from Afghanistan.

White House does not rule out Haiti request for U.S. troops

The United States is still reviewing a request for troops made by Haiti's interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph to help secure its airport and other infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, the White House said on Monday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Haiti's political leadership remains unclear and that it was vital for the country's leaders to come together to chart a united path forward.

"It's still under review," she said of Haiti's request to send troops. Asked if it had been ruled out, Psaki said, "No."

Pakistan detains five Chinese trawlers for alleged illegal fishing

Pakistan has detained five Chinese trawlers on suspicion of illegal fishing near its strategic port city of Gwadar, as a wave of protests swept across the region led by fishers concerned about losing control of their fishing grounds to China.

The Chinese trawlers, loaded with fish, were taken into custody by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA), which has begun an investigation into their suspicious presence in Gwadar, where China has built a deep-sea port as part of its global belt and road initiative.

Hundreds of fishers have rallied against the Chinese trawlers since last week, accusing them of fishing in Pakistani waters and sending the catch back to China.

A group consisting of local authorities and fishers visited one of the Chinese trawlers on Sunday to determine whether its fish had been caught in provincial waters. “The fishers believe the Chinese trawler had caught fish on the Gwadar coast,” said Khudadad Waju, the president of Fisherfolk Alliance Gwadar. “They are visiting other Chinese trawlers today to learn more. We demand that these fish should be auctioned in Gwadar and not be taken to China.”

South Africa: more than 70 dead as unrest linked to Zuma jailing intensifies

Unrest in South Africa triggered by the jailing of the former president Jacob Zuma intensified on Tuesday, despite calls for calm from senior officials and the deployment of thousands of soldiers to the streets to reinforce struggling police.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the deadly violence and protests as unprecedented in the 27 years since the end of the apartheid regime. The death toll from nearly a week of unrest has risen to 72, some from gunshot wounds, while 1,300 people have been arrested. ...

“We are confident our law enforcement agencies are able to do their job successfully. The current situation on the ground is under strong surveillance and we will ensure it will not deteriorate further,” the police minister Bheki Cele told reporters, saying the disturbances risked severe shortages of medicines and foodstuffs across South Africa.

The wave of violence has hit South Africa’s faltering vaccination rollout and also disrupted access to essential healthcare services including the collection of medication by patients suffering tuberculosis and HIV, the health ministry said. ...

The unrest has so far been limited to South Africa’s two most densely populated provinces: Gauteng, where Johannesburg, the largest city and economic powerhouse is located; and KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province. Several of South Africa’s major highways were blocked.

As Delta Variant Drives COVID-19 Uptick, Pfizer Pushes 3rd Shot in US Despite Global Vaccination Lag

US officials call for more data on vaccine boosters as Pfizer pushes for third shot

Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that created one of the first Covid-19 vaccines to be approved, has been making a hard sell for emergency approval of boosters – additional doses given to those already vaccinated, especially immunocompromised adults.

But in private meetings with Pfizer on Monday, senior US officials said they needed more data – prompting the latest debate over how to curb a pandemic which has claimed more than 620,000 lives in the country. Last week, the US health department also rebuked Pfizer for pressing for a booster shot, and Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has said there isn’t enough evidence to support needing a third shot.

“It was an interesting meeting. They shared their data. There wasn’t anything resembling a decision,” Fauci said in a Monday evening interview with the New York Times. “This is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle, and it’s one part of the data, so there isn’t a question of a convincing case one way or the other.”

US inflation hits 13-year high in June

US inflation hit a 13-year high in June, driven by a rise in the cost of used cars.

Consumer prices rose 5.4% in the 12 months to the end of June, up from 5% the previous month, the largest increase since August 2008.

The jump in prices will put pressure on the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy sooner than expected, which could in turn dampen a consumer-led recovery and drive demands for wage increases.

In its latest report, the US Labor Department released data showing that consumer prices rose 0.9% in June – more than economists expected – making it the largest monthly gain since June 2008.

Inflation has been rising as the economy reopens from coronavirus lockdowns, with a record 10.5% jump in the price of previously owned vehicles, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Dems Reach LANDMARK Infrastructure Deal, Bernie Delivers HUGE WIN To Progressives

Manchin draws red line in infrastructure talks

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) warned on Tuesday that he wants both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a separate Democratic-only bill to be fully paid for. “I think everything should be paid for. We’ve put enough free money out,” Manchin told reporters.

Manchin’s demand, if he sticks to it, could create real problems in Democratic negotiations.

The party in a matter of weeks is seeking to exercise a complicated legislative goal of winning Senate approval of both a bipartisan infrastructure measure opposed by many progressives and a budget resolution that will tee up a larger Democratic bill filled with spending priorities. The latter bill will not win any GOP support and will need to pass with just Democratic votes, including Manchin's.

A group of 22 senators, including Manchin, agreed to a framework for a bipartisan infrastructure deal that would spend $1.2 trillion over eight years. But there are concerns among Republicans that the bill isn’t fully paid for, threatening GOP support for it.

Canada: at least 160 more unmarked graves found in British Columbia

A First Nations community in western Canada has announced the discovery of at least 160 unmarked graves close to a former residential school – the latest in a series of grim announcements from across the country in recent weeks.

Members of the Penelakut Tribe in south-western British Columbia said in a statement late on Monday that the graves had been discovered near the site of the Kuper Island industrial school on Penelakut Island, nearly 90km north of the provincial capital Victoria.

“We understand that many of our brothers and sisters from our neighbouring communities attended the Kuper Island industrial school. We also recognized with a tremendous amount of grief and loss that too many did not return home,” said chief Joan Brown in the statement.

Kuper Island school, operated by the Catholic church, was open from 1890 to 1975 and gained notoriety as a dangerous institution.

“We’re Staying Out”: Texas State Democrats Who Fled to D.C. Tell Congress to Pass Voting Laws Now

Governor vows to arrest Democrats who fled Texas to block voting restrictions

Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has vowed to arrest Democrat lawmakers who have fled the state in an attempt to stop an overhaul of election laws that they say damages the right to vote, especially for communities of color.

Private planes carrying more than 50 Democrats left Austin for Washington DC on Monday, skipping town just days before the Texas house of representatives was expected to give early approval to sweeping new voting restrictions in a special legislative session.

The move denied the Republican-led legislature a quorum, leaving it with too few lawmakers in attendance to conduct business. That means it could not, at least for now, vote on the bill.

Even though Democrats cannot stop the Republican legislation, bringing the legislature to a halt might give them some kind of leverage in negotiating over the bills, as the Guardian previously reported. Walking out also signals to constituents how far Democrats are willing to go to try to stop Republican efforts to make it harder to vote.

In response Abbott told an Austin television station he would simply keep calling special sessions of the legislature through next year if necessary, and raised the possibility of Democrats facing arrest upon returning home. “As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott said.

Biden defends voting rights – but no word on ending the filibuster

Joe Biden gave his most muscular defense of the right to vote yet on Tuesday, but offered few specifics on how Democrats could overcome Republican efforts to stymie federal voting reform. Coming after some activists questioned how seriously the White House was taking the issue, an impassioned speech in Philadelphia marked a clear escalation of the president’s defense of voting rights. Bluntly calling out lies about the 2020 election as “just that, a big lie”, Biden denounced “an assault on democracy”.

“There’s an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote,” he said. But the most significant part of the speech lay in what he did not say. Biden did not mention the filibuster, the Senate rule under which 60 votes are required to proceed on legislation. Republicans used the rule last month to block sweeping voting rights reform. While the filibuster is in place, Democrats have virtually no chance of passing any such bill.

Democrats could get rid of the rule with a majority vote but a handful of senators have declined to embrace the idea, saying the filibuster helps preserve the input of the minority party. Biden, who was a senator from Delaware for more than 30 years, has not embraced getting rid of the rule. In Philadelphia, he made it clear he was not giving up on federal voting rights legislation. But he did not lay out a pathway. Even as he denounced “peddlers of lies” who he said were damaging democracy, he appeared to remain convinced Republicans could be persuaded to sign on to legislation.

Campaign Disclosures Show Senate Dems in ExxonMobil Exposé Got Almost $333,000

A pair of reports published Tuesday in the wake of a damning exposé featuring secretly recorded ExxonMobil lobbyists further illuminated the fossil fuel giant's efforts to influence powerful centrists in Congress and beyond.

The New Republic's Kate Aronoff revealed that "centrist think tanks are raking in Exxon cash," citing a company report, while HuffPost's Alexander Kaufman reviewed an analysis by the advocacy group Oil Change U.S. of campaign contributions to six Democratic U.S. senators named in Unearthed's June exposé.

The videos from Unearthed, Greenpeace U.K.'s investigative journalism arm, feature one current and one former ExxonMobil employee, Keith McCoy and Dan Easley, who thought they were discussing the company's lobbying efforts with a recruitment consultant.

While ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods claimed that McCoy and Easley made "disturbing and inaccurate comments about our positions on a variety of issues, including climate change policy, and our interaction with elected officials," the reporting has increased scrutiny of the company's lobbying and finances over the past two weeks.

The Oil Change U.S. analysis focuses on campaign disclosures of six Democratic lawmakers McCoy mentioned: Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Jon Tester (Mont.). ...

Collin Rees, the senior campaigner at Oil Change U.S. who conducted the new analysis, found that over the past decade, the six Democrats collectively received nearly $333,000 from lobbyists, political action committees (PACs), and lobbying firms affiliated with ExxonMobil.

"This is a story about how lobbyists curry favor, and specifically about how Exxon's current lobbyists have spent decades currying the favor of these six Democrats to position themselves to do things like safeguard fossil fuel subsidies and pare down infrastructure packages," Rees told Kaufman. "Exxon has hired these firms and lobbyists because they've contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to these Democrats, both before and after they were hired by Exxon."

Tester—whose office didn't comment on the story—led the group with $99,783, followed by Sinema ($70,800), Coons ($68,650), Manchin ($64,864), Hassan ($26,699), and Kelly ($1,500).

Manchin's Energy Bill Condemned as 'Kick in the Gut to Climate Justice'

Public and environmental health advocates on Tuesday denounced Sen. Joe Manchin's Energy Infrastructure Act of 2021, calling the bill, which proposes spending 70 times more on fossil fuels than renewables, a "kick in the gut to climate justice."

Friends of the Earth examined the 495-page bill, a draft (pdf) of which was introduced late last month by Manchin (D-W.Va.) during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. That committee is chaired by Manchin, a conservative lawmaker who has been applauded by an ExxonMobil lobbyist for weakening the climate provisions in President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan.

The Manchin-led legislation proposes $95 billion in energy infrastructure investments, but according to Sarah Lutz, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, "a close look at exactly where the money is going to go reveals an undeniable bet on dirty energy from the 20th century over clean energy from the 21st."

According to the group's analysis, the bill "authorizes $28.8 billion in nuclear, carbon capture, and dirty hydrogen compared to only $410 million in direct authorizations for wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal, for a ratio of 70:1 dirty to clean energy."

Even "when combined with the bill's storage and efficiency programs," the group added, "Manchin's proposal still amounts to twice the spending on dirty energy than on clean." Such investments would exacerbate coal, gas, and oil extraction and greenhouse gas emissions at a time when energy policy experts have called for drastic reductions in planet-heating carbon pollution, starting with keeping fossil fuels in the ground.

Lutz stressed that Manchin's legislation runs counter to Biden's pledge to prioritize decarbonization in his infrastructure package.

"The Biden administration promised to center climate in its infrastructure investment," she said Tuesday in a statement. "Manchin's proposal does the opposite, lining the pockets of polluters with zero regard for the seriousness of the climate crisis."

The Energy Infrastructure Act of 2021 is reportedly slated to undergo a markup session on Wednesday. Between the time it was unveiled on June 24 and now, the severity of the climate emergency has been on full display, including yet another round of record heat and wildfires currently ravaging the U.S. West.

Several other extreme weather events and fossil fuel disasters have devastated North America in just the past few weeks alone, including: a deadly, climate crisis-driven heatwave in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, which played a large role in making last month the continent's hottest June recorded history; a "firenado" in California; flooding in New York City, caused by Tropical Storm Elsa and resulting in the inundation of the city's subway system; and a pipeline incident in the Gulf of Mexico that set the ocean ablaze.

Despite a scientific consensus about the anthropogenic causes of global warming and ample real-world evidence of its consequences, Manchin's bill contains provisions that threaten to worsen the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and postpone the transition to 100% renewable energy.

US drilling approvals increase despite Biden climate pledge

Approvals for companies to drill for oil and gas on U.S. public lands are on pace this year to reach their highest level since George W. Bush was president, underscoring President Joe Biden’s reluctance to more forcefully curb petroleum production in the face of industry and Republican resistance.

The Interior Department approved about 2,500 permits to drill on public and tribal lands in the first six months of the year, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data. That includes more than 2,100 drilling approvals since Biden took office January 20. New Mexico and Wyoming had the largest number of approvals. Montana, Colorado and Utah had hundreds each.

Biden campaigned last year on pledges to end new drilling on federal lands to rein in climate-changing emissions. His pick to oversee those lands, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, adamantly opposed drilling on federal lands while in Congress and co-sponsored the liberal Green New Deal.

Under former President Donald Trump, a staunch industry supporter, the Interior Department reduced the time it takes to review drilling applications from a year or more in some cases, to just a few months. ... The pace dropped when Biden first took office, under a temporary order that elevated permit reviews to senior administration officials. Approvals have since rebounded to a level that exceeds monthly numbers seen through most of Trump’s presidency. ...

If the recent trends continue, the Interior Department could issue close to 6,000 permits by the end of the year. The last time so many were issued was fiscal year 2008, amid an oil boom driven by crude prices that reached an all-time high of $140 per barrel that June.

Severe drought threatens Hoover dam reservoir – and water for US west

Had the formidable white arc of the Hoover dam never held back the Colorado River, the US west would probably have no Los Angeles or Las Vegas as we know them today. No sprawling food bowl of wheat, alfalfa and corn. No dreams of relocating to live in a tamed desert. The river, and dam, made the west; now the climate crisis threatens to break it.

The situation here is emblematic of a planet slowly, inexorably overheating. And the catastrophic consequences of the extreme weather this brings. ...

The engineering might of Hoover dam undoubtably reshaped America’s story, harnessing a raucous river to help carve huge cities and vast fields of crops into unforgiving terrain. But the wellspring of Lake Mead, created by the dam’s blocking of the Colorado River and with the capacity to hold enough water to cover the entire state of Connecticut 10ft deep, has now plummeted to an historic low. The states of the west, primarily Arizona and Nevada, now face hefty cuts in their water supplies amid a two-decade drought fiercer than anything seen in a millennium.

“We bent nature to suit our own needs,” said Brad Udall, a climate and water expert at Colorado State University. “And now nature is going to bend us.” ...

In June, the level of Lake Mead plunged below 1,075ft, a point that will trigger, for the first time, federally mandated cuts in water allocations next year. The Bureau of Reclamation (the government agency originally tasked with “reclaiming” this arid place for a new utopia of farmland and a booming western population), expects this historic low to spiral further, dropping to about 1,048ft by the end of 2022, a shallowness unprecedented since Lake Mead started filling up in the 1930s following Hoover dam’s completion. This will provoke a second, harsher, round of cuts.

American west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’, experts warn

As fires propagate throughout the US west on the heels of record heatwaves, experts are warning that the region is caught in a vicious feedback cycle of extreme heat, drought and fire, all amplified by the climate crisis.

Firefighters are battling blazes from Arizona to Washington state that are burning with a worrying ferocity, while officials say California is already set to outpace last year’s record-breaking fire season.

Extreme heatwaves over the past few weeks – which have smashed records everywhere from southern California to Nevada and Oregon – are causing the region’s water reserves to evaporate at an alarming rate, said Jose Pablo Ortiz Partida, a climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit advocacy group. And devoid of moisture, the landscape heats up quickly, like a hot plate, desiccating the landscape and turning vegetation into kindling.

“For our most vulnerable, disadvantaged communities, this also creates compounding health effects,” Ortiz said. “First there’s the heat. Then for many families their water supplies are affected. And then it’s also the same heat and drought that are exacerbating wildfires and leading to smoky, unhealthy air quality.” ...

This week, smoke from the various fires in the west is expected to carry across the country, reaching up into Minnesota and bleeding into central Canada. Forecasters are predicting that the intense high temperatures that came last weekend as a heat dome smothered the west are likely to ease later this week, and the south-west is likely to see some drought-relieving rain throughout the week. Still, large swaths of the west, including California, the Pacific north-west, and the northern Rocky Mountain region are expected to face dangerous conditions, including the possibility of dry lightning and strong winds.

Also of Interest

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

Miami’s role in Haiti murder plot fits decades-long pattern

Biden Administration Reaffirms Rejection of Beijing’s Claims to South China Sea

U.S. Deploys F-16s to Bulgaria for Yet Another Black Sea Exercise

Prior to his murder, Jamal Khashoggi offered to help 9/11 victims suing Saudi Arabia

Taliban Reject U.S./Turkish Plans To Keep A Foothold In Kabul

Does the Fate of Ivermectin As a Covid-19 Treatment Rest in the Hands of the Deeply Conflicted Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?

The Federal Reserve Has Radically Changed from a Central Bank to a Bailout Kingpin. Americans Just Haven’t Paid Attention – Until Tonight

Ryan Grim: Dems EXPLODE On Each Other In CONTENTIOUS, Private Anti-Trust Meeting

A Little Night Music

Johnny Jenkins - Leaving Trunk

Johnny Jenkins - Big Bad Wolf

Johnny Jenkins - Scratch My Back

Johnny Jenkins - Rollin' Stone

Johnny Jenkins - Down Along The Cove

Johnny Jenkins - Mean Mistreatin' Woman

Johnny Jenkins - Voodoo In You

Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers - Pinetop

Johnny Jenkins - Don't Start Me Talkin'

Johnny Jenkins - Spunky