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"The warmongers in the United States Congress are not aware of, or they're blind to the fact that what they are doing will bring about the type of war that will end America completely as a power in the world."

-- Louis Farrakhan

News and Opinion

The US Military Was Just Used To Help A Dementia Patient Try To Start WW3

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan after a brief but diplomatically corrosive visit, the after effects from which may be felt for years to come.

Toward the end of her speech alongside Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, Pelosi’s brain underwent one of its increasingly common software glitches, causing her to begin babbling inarticulately.

Here is a transcript of what Nancy Pelosi’s brain said:

“In our earliest days at our founding of our country, Benjamin Franklin, our presidency, said, freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy, one thing, security here. If we don’t have- we can’t have either, if we don’t have both.”

Of course Benjamin Franklin was neither a president of the United States nor a “presidency”, and the quote Nancy’s floundering brain was reaching for was “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” These are not difficult things to remember or articulate for someone with functioning gray matter.

This is right up there with other famous neural malfunctions by the speaker, like her “Bernie loves hearing” gibberish from last year or her bizarre “Good morning, Sunday morning” restart in the middle of an interview a couple of years ago, and it calls to mind a DC pharmacist’s casual remark in 2017 that he had filled prescriptions to treat Alzheimer’s disease for some powerful decision makers on Capitol Hill.

None of which would be a problem, if we were talking about some little old lady whiling away her twilight years at a retirement home in Florida. But we are not; we are talking about one of the most powerful elected officials in the most powerful government on earth, third in the line of succession to the presidency after the vice president.

More importantly, we are talking about someone who just participated in an incendiary visit to Taiwan which has ensured the escalation of dangerous cold war tensions between major world powers, and could potentially have triggered a hot war with China.

US war machinery, including aircraft carriers and large planes, were mobilized to provide security for Pelosi’s visit ahead of her arrival. The United States military was literally just used to help a dementia patient try to start World War Three.

China’s response to Pelosi’s provocation has thankfully been relatively measured, though we’re about to see Taiwan fully encircled by the Chinese navy for a show of force unlike anything we’ve seen in decades, and Chinese sanctions upon Taiwanese commerce are still being announced. There will be political pressure in Beijing to escalate tensions with the US so as not to look weak, and the intensity of the new cold war has certainly been ratcheted up a notch, but when it comes to hot war it looks like humanity’s better angels have prevailed for now.

None of this makes it acceptable for the world’s most powerful government to send a politician whose brains are leaking out her ears to try to stir up hostilities under cover of its military forces.

The world is a worse place now than it was before Pelosi’s plane touched down. Less safe, less wealthy, less kind, and more frightening. Not one ordinary person has benefitted from her insanely hawkish provocation made in her final years on this earth, especially not the people of Taiwan.

The US empire is sick, and it is playing sick games with all our lives. As far as I’m concerned, its downfall can’t come soon enough.

Warnings Grow over Nuclear Annihilation as Tensions Escalate Between U.S., Russia & China

China to begin series of unprecedented live-fire drills off Taiwan coast

China is to begin a series of unprecedented live-fire drills that would effectively blockade the island of Taiwan, just hours after the departure of US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, whose controversial visit this week has sparked fears of a crisis in the Taiwan strait.

Taiwan has characterised the drills, which will last until Sunday afternoon – and will include missile tests and other “military operations” as close as nine miles to Taiwan’s coastline – as a violation of international law.

Ahead of the drill, it said 27 Chinese warplanes had entered its air defence zone. ...

Taipei has remained defiant in its rhetoric. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that Taiwan “will not back down” in the face of heightened military threats, and would “do whatever it takes to maintain Taiwan’s peace and stability”. Beijing said its drills were “necessary and just”.

China FIRES MISSILES Into Taiwanese, Japanese Waters After Pelosi Visit

Senate Votes 95-1 to Expand NATO Into Sweden and Finland

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution approving Sweden and Finland’s bids for NATO membership, demonstrating the bipartisan consensus on expanding the military alliance further on Russia’s border.

The measure passed the Senate in a vote of 95-1-1, with only Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) voting “no,” and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting “present.” ...

An amendment that Paul tried to add to the resolution would have emphasized that Article 5, NATO’s mutual defense clause, does not supersede congressional authorization for war. But the amendment failed in a vote of 10-87.

Biden White House off-ramp; Pin the blame on Zelensky

Ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schröder under fire for meeting Putin

The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has come under fire for a private meeting held with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, after he travelled on holiday to Moscow to meet him.

Schröder told German media in a lengthy interview he had nothing to apologise for over his friendship with Putin, whom he met last week during a visit to the Russian capital.

Schröder has come under fierce criticism for his business links to the Russian state-run gas company Gazprom. He was one of the driving forces behind the construction of two Baltic Sea pipelines to carry gas to Europe, one of which was mothballed after the invasion of Ukraine. The other, Nord Stream 1, is only delivering 20% of the level of gas expected.

Schröder is facing an investigation by the Social Democrats, of which he has been a member since 1963, over his Kremlin links and his refusal to distance himself from Putin, and could yet be ejected from the party.

In a five-hour long interview with the magazine Stern and the broadcaster RTL he gave no direct insight into the mindset of the Russian leader. However, he said after his discussions with Putin he thought the conflict with Russia was “resolvable” but required more negotiations – which Germany and France should lead – and a greater display of sensitivity by the west towards Russia’s “real fears of being hemmed in” by hostile countries, which “feed off historical events” and were “unfortunately also valid”.

‘Tricky situation’: Taliban unsure how to respond to Zawahiri’s death

Senior Taliban commanders weighing up how to respond to the US assassination of al-Qaida’s leader in Kabul are caught between their hopes for international recognition and pressure from their own ranks. Nearly three days after Ayman al-Zawahiri was struck by a drone in the heart of one of the most elite neighbourhoods of the Afghan capital, the Taliban have barely responded. ...

Nearly a year after seizing control of Afghanistan they are still seeking diplomatic recognition for their government, which they hope will curb an economic crisis by allowing for the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen funds. An aggressive response to Zawahiri’s death would not further that cause.

But al-Qaida and its leadership are revered by many in the group’s ranks, who are also likely to see a drone strike in the heart of the capital as an assault on their sovereignty.

A firefight in the heart of Kabul on Tuesday with Islamic State militants was a reminder that the group is under pressure inside Afghanistan from even more extremist groups, who are aiming to pick off disaffected Taliban fighters. ...

So after Zawahiri’s death the Taliban leadership has gathered to debate whether they should respond to the strike, and if so what approach to take, Reuters reported, citing senior figures in the movement. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s designated delegate to the UN who is based in Doha, effectively acknowledged the group had not yet decided how to respond when he told journalists asking for comment on the strike: “I am awaiting details and reaction from Kabul. So far I have not received.”

Biden signs second executive order to protect US abortion access

Joe Biden signed a second executive order on Wednesday that aims to protect access to reproductive healthcare after the US supreme court struck down the constitutional right to abortion.

Most significantly, the order directs the health and human services department to consider ways to expand coverage for patients traveling out of state for reproductive healthcare. Biden’s order does not detail how this could be achieved; currently, government-subsidized Medicaid health insurance plans cover medically necessary abortions in only 16 states and do not reimburse patients who leave their state to seek an abortion.

A senior administration official told the Guardian that HHS will soon have more details on provisions to help women served by Medicaid health coverage cover certain costs of traveling for reproductive care.

Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Abortion Ban

Kansas abortion referendum drives record number of voters to polls

Most primary elections only turn out a small portion of the electorate – but this year’s Kansas primary was unlike any other in the state.

This year’s primary ballot included a question to decide whether to stop the state’s constitution from protecting abortion rights, which could have paved the way for the state legislature to completely ban abortion.

On Tuesday, Kansans resoundingly voted against the anti-abortion measure – and turned out in record numbers to do so.

With 95% of precincts reporting, more than 900,000 voters turned out for the primary election, which accounts for nearly half of registered voters. It’s the kind of turnout the state usually sees in general elections.

After the US supreme court overturned federal protections for abortion in June, the Kansas primary was the first electoral test of abortion rights in the country. ... With nearly all the votes counted on Wednesday, about 59% of voters said they did not want to remove the state constitution’s protection for abortion right.

Republican candidates who deny 2020 election results win key primaries

Candidates who question the 2020 election results won a handful of key primaries on Tuesday, underscoring the continued political potency of the myth of a stolen election in US politics.

The most significant victory was in Arizona, where Mark Finchem, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, easily won the GOP nomination for secretary of state, placing him one step closer to overseeing elections in a key battleground state. Finchem, who has self-identified with the far-right Oath Keepers, vigorously fought to block certification of Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in Arizona and has sought to overturn it ever since.

He told reporters on Tuesday he received a subpoena from the Department of Justice, which is investigating the January 6 attack, about a month ago. He has also been subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the attack.

Finchem joins prominent election deniers in Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania who have earned the Republican nomination for positions in which they would wield considerable power over elections.

AIPAC Targets Jewish Dem In Intraparty War

AIPAC's Millions Help Unseat Jewish Progressive Andy Levin in Michigan

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's sizable investments in Michigan's 11th Congressional District paid off Tuesday when Rep. Haley Stevens defeated fellow Democratic Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish progressive who has criticized Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of Palestinian territory.

Stevens and Levin were forced into a primary contest by Michigan's redistricting process, which provided an opportunity for AIPAC's super PAC and other special interest groups to pour millions into the race to oust Levin, who has been described as the most progressive Jewish member of the House.

Stevens ultimately prevailed with 60% of the vote, a win that AIPAC celebrated as "major and consequential."

AIPAC's intervention in the contest through the United Democracy Project—a super PAC funded by Republican billionaires—drew outrage from progressives and liberal Jewish organizations such as J Street, which lamented Levin's defeat in a statement late Tuesday.

"It is alarming that this race, like many other Democratic primaries this cycle, was heavily impacted by the aggressive outside spending of AIPAC and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project," J Street said. "They spent nearly $5 million to target and defeat Levin, far more than was spent by any other group."

J Street went on to highlight AIPAC's endorsement and funding of "109 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th, promoters of the Big Lie like Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, and more—while attacking candidates like Andy Levin... as extremists."

"Democratic Party leaders should make absolutely clear just how harmful and unwelcome AIPAC's interventions in its primary contests are," the group added. "Candidates in future primaries should disavow and decline the support of AIPAC and its super PAC—which have come as a surprise to at least some of them."

Levin was just the latest progressive Democrat to lose a race in which AIPAC took a heavy interest. Last month, the United Democracy Project helped corporate attorney Glenn Ivey defeat former U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards in the Democratic primary for Maryland's 4th Congressional District.

In a statement congratulating Stevens and conceding the race, Levin said he was "the target of a largely Republican-funded campaign set on defeating the movement I represent no matter where I ran."

"I will continue to speak out against the corrosive influence of dark money on our democracy," Levin added. "Onward."

Michele Weindling, electoral director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said Tuesday that the Democratic leadership is to blame for allowing "millions to pour into MI-11 to silence our generation" at a moment when "Americans, and young people especially, are doubting our democracy."

"Rep. Andy Levin was one of the few representatives who have actually stood up for young and working people, and Congress is in a worse place without him," said Weindling. "We are grateful for his leadership and for the young people who poured so much into this race."

At a rally ahead of Tuesday's primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who endorsed Levin—said that AIPAC's efforts in Michigan's 11th Congressional District had "nothing to do—in my view—with Israel."

"It is simply trying to defeat candidates and members of Congress who stand for working families and are prepared to demand that the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes," argued the Vermont senator, who has called on the Democratic National Committee to institute a ban on super PAC money in the party's primary races.

"There is something profoundly wrong in our political system when a handful of billionaires, through super PACs that spend millions of dollars, try to defeat progressive candidates for Congress," Sanders said over the weekend. "That is not what democracy is about. That is what oligarchy is about."

Briahna Joy Gray: Bye Bye Brandon. Hello AOC?

‘Grotesque greed’: immoral fossil fuel profits must be taxed, says UN chief

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described the record profits of oil and gas companies as immoral and urged governments to introduce a windfall tax, using the money to help those in the most need. Speaking in New York on Wednesday, Guterres said the “grotesque greed” of the fossil fuel companies and their financial backers had led to the combined profits of the largest energy companies in the first quarter of this year hitting almost $100bn (£82bn).

“It is immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from this energy crisis on the backs of the poorest people and communities, at a massive cost to the climate,” he said. “I urge all governments to tax these excessive profits, and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.”

UN Warns Two Largest Reservoirs in US Are Approaching Dangerous 'Dead Pool' Status

Addressing the root causes of the climate crisis is essential to solving the worsening problem of water shortages in the Colorado River Basin, said a top environmental expert at the United Nations on Tuesday, emphasizing that the aridification of the region is part of a larger global trend.

The two largest reservoirs in the U.S., Lake Powell and Lake Mead, are part of the Colorado River watershed, and are both on the precipice of reaching dangerous "dead pool" status, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), with water levels dropping so low that water no longer flows downstream from the reservoirs.

"Overconsumption and the climate crisis could lead to water levels so low that downstream flows to hydroelectric plants would stop," tweeted UNEP, which would jeopardize access to electricity for millions of people in western states.

Maria Morgardo, UNEP's ecosystems officer for North America, noted that officials are expected to advise people across the region to cut water consumption, but stressed that the crisis is beyond the point of simply mitigating the effects.

"While regulating and managing water supply and demand are essential in both the short and long term, climate change is at the heart of this issue," Morgardo said in a statement. "In the long term we need to address the root causes of climate change as well as water demands."

As Common Dreams reported in July, Lake Mead is currently at just 27% capacity. By the end of the year, scientists expect both human-made reservoirs to reach 25% capacity.

The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million people across California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada as well as northern Mexico. It also provides irrigation for agriculture in the region.

Climate experts say the human-caused climate crisis, driven by fossil fuel extraction, increases the risk of drought conditions like those seen in the West over the past two decades by pushing temperatures higher, reducing snowfall, and shifting the regions where rain storms fall.

The dry conditions in the West have become so prolonged, said UNEP ecosystems expert Lis Mullin Bernhardt, that "drought" is no longer the appropriate word to describe them.

"We refer to it as 'aridification'—a new very dry normal," Bernhardt said in a statement.

People across the American West are among about 2.3 billion people around the world who face water stress annually, as up to 40% of the world's land has become degraded—a condition that can be driven by drought.

"Drought and desertification are quickly becoming the new normal everywhere—from the U.S. to Europe and Africa," said UNEP.

In the U.S., the agency said, "drying American reservoirs underscore the need for urgent climate action."

The Maasai Are Under Attack in the Name of Conservation: 'This Is Our Land, and We Won't Leave'

"Loliondo is bleeding": an SMS message woke me up in the morning of 10th of June. Dozens of terrifying images of Maasai men and women, with wounds on their legs, on their backs, on their heads, started filling my phone. A lot of blood. And then videos of Maasai running away from the Tanzanian police who were shooting at them. They looked like war images. I, like so many other people in the Global North, was shocked. How could the peaceful images of zebras, giraffes and lions that the Serengeti ecosystem conjures up in Western minds be transformed into this theatre of brutal violence?

The Maasai, on the other hand, have always known it's war. They've explained to me: "Your conservation areas are a warzone for us." They've been expecting this moment for a long time. The government has been trying to seize 1500 km2 of their ancestral lands for years, wanting to use it for trophy hunting, elite tourism, and conservation. Behind these attempts there has always been the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Otterlo Business Company (OBC)—which runs hunting excursions for the country's royal family and their guests—and who will reportedly control commercial hunting in the area.

But UAE royalty are not the only ones interested in the area surrounding the famous Serengeti national park, which the Maasai were evicted from once before, by British colonialists in 1959. Conservationists working in Tanzania, like the German-based Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), advocate a racist and colonial Fortress model of conservation. FZS refers to the local population and their cattle as one of the key threats to the survival of the ecosystem, thus promoting the myth of a "wilderness" without people, which has been the underlying philosophy behind the Maasai evictions from the start.

Just as dangerous to the Maasai are the tourists, who are fed a diet of images, pushed by the media, documentaries, and schoolbooks that sell the idea of "nature without people," and who expect to find only "wild" animals on their safaris. Indeed, the Maasai have to confront not only the wilderness myth, but also deeply-entrenched racism. In April a famous US journalist, CBS News' Peter Greenberg, called the Maasai "primitive" while strolling with the President of Tanzania, in Tanzania: the Royal Tour, his long-running television series where sitting heads of state become his personal tour guides to their countries. As a Maasai man put it: "The Tanzania government doesn't want the Maasai because people coming here don't want to see the Maasai. Before, we didn't think too much (or too badly) about tourism but now we understand that tourism is people coming with money, which makes the government think 'If we move the Maasai, more people will come here with money'."

In the context of continuous attacks on the Maasai's way of life, at the start of June the Tanzanian government announced their plan to "upgrade" Loliondo Game Controlled Area to a Game Reserve: which in practice means that Maasai houses and grazing will be banned. On June 8 dozens of police vehicles and an estimated 700 officers arrived in Loliondo to mark out this new area. On June 10 they fired at Maasai who were protesting at these efforts to evict them: at least 18 men and 13 women were shot, and many more were wounded with machetes. One person is confirmed dead. In the days that followed the police went house-to-house in Maasai villages, beating and arresting those they believe had distributed images of the violence, or took part in the protests. A 90 year old man was beaten by police because his son was accused of filming the shooting. Thousands of Maasai including children, are reported to have fled into the bush. A dozen people have been arrested.

For many of you it will seem absurd that such a well-known Indigenous community is facing such brutal violence in the name of conservation. The Maasai are a pastoralist society, with a strong connection to the land. A Maasai elder told me: "I love this place and I'm not ready to leave because it's my home. I have been here since they moved us from Serengeti. It's very good land with enough water. It's the only place that I'm proud to tell my kids: this is your heritage".

But for those who know the story of conservation this is not really a surprise. The brutality in Loliondo reveals the true face of conservation: daily violations of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities so that wealthy tourists can hunt or go on "safari" in so called "Protected Areas." These abuses are systemic and are built into the dominant racist and colonial model of conservation – a model that also exists in India. In the exact same way that the Tanzanian government is forcing the Maasai out of their homes, the Indian government is illegally evicting Adivasis ('tribal peoples') from the land where they have always lived and that they have always protected, to make way for Tiger Reserves where tourists are welcome. And this is despite the fact that Indian law specifically protects Adivasis' right to remain on their ancestral homelands. Indigenous people, like the Jenu Kuruba or the Baiga, are accused of harming wildlife. But, far from killing tigers, many tribes worship them as gods and take care of their environment better than anyone else. Where tribal people's right to stay in a tiger reserve was recognized, tiger numbers soared.

The events in Loliondo should be a lesson for us all. Indigenous Peoples have been living in the most biodiverse places in the world for generations: these territories are now deemed to be important nature conservation areas precisely because the original inhabitants took such good care of their land and wildlife. We can no longer turn a blind eye to human rights abuses committed in the name of conservation. This model of conservation is deeply inhumane and ineffective and must be changed now. Protected Areas are failing to save biodiversity and are alienating the local people – those best placed to protect their lands. As a Maasai leader told me: "Without us the animals will be killed. We are the real conservationists. This is our land, and we won't leave."

Also of Interest

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

Scott Ritter: Chuck Schumer’s War on Free Speech

FBI Attack on the Uhuru Movement is a Warning

Ukraine SitRep - On The Ground Report - Ukrainian Frontline Collapses

Joe Biden's Trail of Broken Promises

When The Profit Motive Is Unnecessary Or Harmful

Accused Russian Says U.S. Charges of Election Interference Are Nonsense

'Now They're Coming for Doctors': GOP Blocks Senate Bill to Protect Abortion Providers

Bernie Sanders Explains the Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly of the Inflation Reduction Act

Discovered in the deep: the snail with iron armour

MASSIVE GOP Cope After Losing Abortion Vote

Saudi Arabia Slaps Biden In Face After $3 Billion Arms Sale

Senator SLIPS UP & Admits To Insider Trading

Briahna Joy Gray: Bye Bye Brandon. Hello AOC?

Andrew Yang On Rising: Forward Party Threatens To DESTROY 2 Party Duopoly

A Little Night Music

Cow Cow Davenport - Chimes Blues

Cow Cow Davenport - You Might Pizen Me

Cow Cow Davenport - Texas Shout

Cow Cow Davenport - Slow Drag

Cow Cow Davenport - Alabama Strut

Cow Cow Davenport - Jim Crow Blues

Cow Cow Davenport - Slum Gullion Stomp

Cow Cow Davenport - I Aint no Iceman

Cow Cow Davenport - Cow Cow Blues (take A)