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This evening's music features country blues guitarist Larry Johnson. Enjoy!

“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.”

-- Aristophanes

News and Opinion

Biden Is Helping Fossil Fuel Donors Weaken His Clean Water Rule

In June, the Biden administration made an announcement that irked fossil fuel companies and utilities: Federal regulators would begin reinstating a rule empowering states and tribes to protect waterways against pollution from energy development. Now, a mere three months later, the Biden White House just declared its support for a secret deal designed to expedite approval of those energy projects, potentially helping oil and gas conglomerates steamroll local opposition to new pipelines near water supplies.

The apparent shift in priorities comes as energy companies have poured big money into Democratic campaign coffers, and as former staffers for top Democrats are lobbying for fossil fuel clients. One of the largest natural gas pipeline companies is now celebrating the Biden administration’s “tailwinds” for the fossil fuel industry amid the worsening climate crisis. The situation has scrambled congressional politics: Some Democrats who once attacked the Trump administration’s rollback of longstanding environmental protections are now backing the secret deal that could make that rollback permanent.

The tension between President Joe Biden’s environmental regulators and the “permitting reform” side deal reflects the outsized power of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Congress’s top recipient of fossil fuel industry campaign cash. The West Virginia coal magnate conditioned his Senate vote on the Inflation Reduction Act on an agreement to separately pass a “permitting reform” bill that could make it more difficult for communities to use the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws to protect their water resources from new energy infrastructure.

Bakhmut and goals of the SMO w/Brian Berletic from The New Atlas and Gonzalo Lira

Ukraine Seeks Longer-Range Missile System From the US for Future Offensives

Ukraine has made major requests for new weapons it wants from the US, including a longer-range missile system, as it plans to launch more offensives in 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

According to a document presented to US lawmakers, among the weapons Ukraine wants is the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, a surface-to-surface missile system that has a range of about 190 miles, significantly longer than any arms Washington has provided Kyiv up to this point.

The US has previously denied requests from Ukraine to send ATACMS over concerns they could be used to target Russian territory. But Washington has demonstrated throughout the conflict its willingness to escalate support for Kyiv despite the risk of provoking a response from Moscow.

US Considers Sanctions on China to Deter Taiwan Attack

The US is considering a package of sanctions on China to deter Beijing from invading Taiwan, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

The sources said that the discussions on the sanctions were in their early stages and didn’t detail possible measures Washington could impose. But they would have to go beyond the sanctions the US has already implemented on China in recent years. The report also said that Taiwan has been lobbying the EU to take similar action. ...

The report comes as the sanctions imposed on Russia after the Ukraine invasion are largely backfiring on the West as the US and Europe are facing soaring energy prices and Moscow is profiting more from oil sales than before the war. The US economy is much more intertwined with China than Russia, so any major sanctions against Beijing would likely hurt the US more than the measures targeting Moscow.

Swedish PM resigns after conceding election defeat to rightwing bloc

The leader of Sweden’s incumbent Social Democrats has resigned as prime minister after conceding defeat in the country’s knife-edge election, handing victory to a loose bloc of rightwing parties that includes the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD).

The PM, Magdalena Andersson, called a press conference at which she accepted defeat, while pointing out that her Social Democrats remained Sweden’s largest party with more than 30% of the vote – and that the majority in parliament for the right bloc was very slim.

When postal votes and those of citizens living abroad were counted on Wednesday, a loose coalition of the SD and the three centre-right parties edged ahead to win a majority of three in the parliament of 349 seats.

There is no formal agreement between the SD and the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals about how they will govern together, although the centre-right parties have said they will not countenance ministerial positions for the far right.

However, the SD’s strong showing, making it Sweden’s second-largest party – and the largest on the right with more than 20% of the poll – puts it in a strong position to extract concessions in return for its support in parliament.

Biden CELEBRATES 'Inflation Reduction Act' As Dow Drops 1000 Points

California accuses Amazon of stifling competition in new major lawsuit

California is suing Amazon, accusing the company of violating the state’s antitrust laws by stifling competition and engaging in practices that push sellers to maintain higher prices on products on other sites.

The 84-page lawsuit filed on Wednesday in San Francisco superior court mirrors another complaint filed last year by the District of Columbia, which was dismissed by a district judge earlier this year and is now going through an appeals process.

But officials in California believe they will not encounter a similar fate, partly due to information collected during a more than two-year investigation that involved subpoenas and interviews with sellers, Amazon’s competitors as well as current and former employees at the company. ...

Among other things, the California lawsuit seeks to stop Amazon from entering into contracts with sellers that harm price competition. It also seeks a court order to compel Amazon to pay damages to the state for increased prices. State officials did not say how much money they are seeking.

Seattle-based Amazon controls roughly 38% of online sales in the US, more than that of Walmart, eBay, Apple, Best Buy and Target combined, according to the research firm Insider Intelligence. About 2 million sellers list their products on Amazon’s third-party marketplace, accounting for 58% of the company’s retail sales.

U.S. Rail Strike Averted by Tentative Deal as Workers Decry Grueling Conditions

Briahna Joy Gray: Why Does America HATE Workers? Corporate GREED Almost Shuts Down Rail System

As Strike Looms, Sanders Blocks GOP Bill to Force Rail Workers Into Deal With No Sick Days

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday afternoon stood up against Republicans' attempt to force 115,000 railroad workers to accept a contract recommended by a presidential board last month, saying the GOP wants to hinder the workers' fight "for sick leave and better working conditions."

Before taking to the Senate floor, Sander (I-Vt.) tweeted that "I will proudly stand up to stop" the legislation proposed by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

The Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), a nonpartisan panel appointed by President Joe Biden last month, recommended that rail carriers and union workers accept a contract with wage increases, but unions expressed outrage that the recommendations did not include a paid sick leave policy or address stringent "points-based" attendance rules which requires engineers and conductors to work many days—and sometimes consecutive weeks or months—with no time off, to make up for taking a weekend off.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said the contract recommended by the PEB should be accepted and called on Biden to push for its adoption, but Democratic leaders have expressed hope that railway carriers and the workers' unions can come to an agreement before 12:01 am Eastern Time on Friday, when workers can strike.

"Democrats are not going to impose these contracts without dealing with the issue of workers' working lives," Larry Cohen, former president of the Communication Workers of America, told The Washington Post. "Republicans are viciously against collective bargaining, but carriers are going to have to respect people's lives and there's going to have to be respect for these workers. They're not getting a settlement without it."

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sanders condemned the rail industry for trying to pressure workers into accepting working conditions which he called "absolutely unacceptable" and "almost beyond belief," noting that rail carriers have "seen huge profits in recent years."

In 2021, the Vermont Independent senator noted, carriers "made a record-breaking $20 billion in profit" while "the CEOs of many of these rail companies are enjoying huge compensation packages."

"In the midst of all of those profit increases for the industry, what's going on for the workers?" he asked, before saying railroad engineers are "entitled to a grand total of zero sick days."

Unions and carriers are under pressure to reach an agreement, as a strike would temporarily harm supply chains across the nation.

On Wednesday, Amtrak announced it would cancel long-distance trips starting Thursday in anticipation of the strike.

Labor reporter Jonah Furman argued that the current threat to railroad operations is not a potential strike over unfair working conditions, but a "lockout" controlled solely by powerful railroad companies.

"There is not a single worker on strike on the U.S. rails right now," said Furman. "There are CEOs shutting down rail lines and withholding goods to shock Congress into forcing a deal on 100,000 workers."

According to Sanders, what Congress should be doing "is telling the CEOs in the rail industry: Treat your workers with dignity and respect, not contempt."

Exceptions to American Exceptionalism

GOP FREAKS Over Lindsey Graham Abortion Ban

Louisiana woman carrying unviable fetus forced to travel to New York for abortion

An expectant Louisiana woman who was carrying a skull-less fetus that would die within a short time from birth ultimately traveled about 1,400 miles to New York City to terminate her pregnancy after her local hospital denied her an abortion amid uncertainty over the procedure’s legality.

Nancy Davis, 36, told the Guardian that she had her pregnancy terminated on 1 September after traveling from her home town of Baton Rouge to a clinic in Manhattan whose staff had agreed to complete the procedure.

Davis’s trek was necessary because Louisiana has outlawed abortion with very few exceptions after the US supreme court’s decision in June to eliminate federal abortion rights which were established by its 1973 Roe v Wade ruling. New York is among the states where abortion remains legal.

Davis was about 10 weeks pregnant in late July when an ultrasound at Woman’s hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, showed that her fetus was missing the top of its skull, a rare but fatal condition known as acrania that kills babies within days – and sometimes minutes – of birth.

Revealed: rightwing US lobbyists help craft slew of anti-protest fossil fuel bills

Republican-led legislatures have passed anti-protest laws drafted by an extreme-right corporate lobbying group in a third of all American states since 2018, as part of a backlash against Indigenous communities and environmentalists opposing fossil fuel projects, new research has found.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) helped draft legislation criminalizing grassroots protests against pipelines, gas terminals and other oil and gas expansion projects in 24 states, under the guise of protecting critical infrastructure.

Alec, which is funded by rightwing state lawmakers, corporate sponsors and trade groups, and wealthy ideologues, creates model legislation on a range of conservative issues such as gun control, abortion, education funding and environmental regulations.

The laws were passed in 17 Republican-controlled states, including Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, Kansas, West Virginia and Indiana, where protesters now face up to 10 years in prison and million-dollar fines, according to a new report from the non-profit Climate Cabinet.

The anti-protest bills, which were rolled out in response to the success of mostly Indigenous-led campaigns slowing down fossil-fuel infrastructure projects, have used intentionally vague language to create a chilling effect on free speech and assembly – both constitutionally protected rights, according to the report Critical Infrastructure Laws: A Threat to Protest & the Planet.

Private equity still investing billions in dirty energy despite pledge to clean up

Private equity firms pumping billions of dollars into dirty energy projects are exposing investors, including pensioners, to unknown financial risks as the planet burns and governments face escalating pressure to act, new research finds. The first-of-its-kind climate risks scorecard ranks Carlyle, Warburg Pincus and KKR as the worst offenders among eight major private equity companies with significant fossil fuel portfolios.

All three continue investing heavily in greenhouse-gas-emitting projects with no adequate plan on transitioning away from oil and gas, according to the analysis by two financial watchdog non-profits of publicly available information. The firms also have scant transparency on political and climate lobbying, the report finds.

Private equity refers to an opaque form of financing away from public markets in which funds and investors buy and restructure companies including startups, troubled businesses and real estate operations. The eight firms on the scorecard manage a combined $3.6tn in assets including about $216bn in energy projects – an amount equivalent to the fossil fuel financing by the world’s five biggest banks last year.

Carlyle is rated F, the lowest in the climate credentials scorecard that has been created by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (Pesp) and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (Afref). More than three-quarters of Carlyle’s energy investments are in fossil fuels, and just over 60% of its 2022 first half profits came through its subsidiary NGP Energy Capital, which focuses almost exclusively on oil and gas projects. ...

Among the worst downstream polluters is Blackstone, which also scored a D rating, with its power plants emitting a combined 18.1m metric tonnes of planet-warming carbon dioxide in 2020 – equivalent to the annual emissions of nearly 4m gas-powered cars, according to the report.

A Third of Pakistan Is Underwater. Calls Grow for Climate Reparations and Debt Cancellation

Big Oil PR Firms a No-Show at House Hearing on Climate Disinformation

Powerful advertising and public relations firms that help the fossil fuel industry deflect and misdirect from the planetary and human harm their Big Oil clients perpetrate in the world have opted not to show up for congressional hearings taking place Wednesday—a decision that critics say helps expose their complicity in the steady stream of misinformation stifling progress on the climate crisis.

With the House Natural Resource Committee's oversight panel, led by U.S. Representative Katie Porter (D-Calif.), set to kick off a hearing at 10:00 am, some of the major firms called to participate—including PR giants Singer Associates, Story Partners, and Pac/West Communications—rejected the invitation.

According to Reuters:

The hearing is the latest in a series of congressional hearings into whether the oil industry hindered government action on global warming.

While public scrutiny around energy companies' "greenwashing" claims has grown, the marketing agencies behind the campaigns have largely escaped scrutiny.

At the hearing, the committee will share findings of its investigation into public relations and advertising firms' work for fossil fuel companies based on its review of documents, such as their submissions for industry awards.

Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media and member of the Clean Creatives campaign which has tried to push the PR industry to cut ties with fossil fuel clients, said the hearing is a bad look for the firms—and they know it.

"It's tempting to write off congressional hearings as political theater, but this hearing is PR agencies' worst nightmare," Henn told Common Dreams. "These agencies hate to be dragged into the spotlight: their whole job is to make their clients the story, not themselves."

"Many agencies are still trying to have it both ways," Henn added, "claiming climate credentials while still doing dirty work for the fossil fuel industry. This sort of exposure, and campaigns like Clean Creatives, make that conflict increasingly unworkable. I think we'll soon be at the point where no major agencies want to be seen working with fossil fuel clients."

Last week, Merriam-Webster added the word "greenwash" to its dictionary, a development not lost on PR industry critics and climate campaigners like Henn who have spearheaded the effort between Big Oil propaganda and the firms who craft and help market such deceitful messaging:

Last month, Porter introduced new legislation aimed at protecting taxpayer funds from being used to generate climate misinformation. Called the End Subsidies for Fossil Fuel Advertising Act, the proposal would end all taxpayer subsidies for industry advertisements that encourage the continued use of oil and gas.

"Big Oil has been lying to the American people for decades about the damage they're causing our environment," Porter said in a statement introducing the bill. "It's bad enough these corporations poison the planet; they shouldn't get taxpayer dollars to cover it up. I'm proud to introduce this legislation that'll protect taxpayers from funding Big Oil's lies."

Porter's hearing Wednesday on the PR industry is part of a series of climate-focused hearings this week by House Democrats. Simultaneously on Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), chair of the House Oversight Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, is holding a hearing on fossil fuel industry efforts to curb protests and free speech by environmental activists. And on Thursday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) will lead a separate House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Big Oil misinformation related to public pledges about their emission reductions and industry price gouging that has led to record-setting profits.

Also of Interest

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

The Kharkov Counterattack - No Big Success - No Large Defeat

Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin Talk Past Each Other as Ukraine Pushes for Formalizing Ukraine’s NATO Lite Status

Xi tells Putin China willing to work with Russia as 'great powers'

Biden’s Democracies

‘Flight 93’ conservative warns national security state risking more war

Prosecutors move to vacate murder conviction of Serial’s Adnan Syed

‘Wobbly’ moon probable cause of mass tree deaths in Australia, scientists say

Conservative Hosts STUNNED By Railway Working Conditions

Fed EVEN MORE Likely To Induce Recession

DeSantis Sends 2 Planes Carrying MIGRANTS To MARTHA'S VINEYARD

A Little Night Music

Larry Johnson - Seaboard Train Blues

Larry Johnson - Pick Poor Robin Clean

Larry Johnson - Keep It Clean

Larry Johnson - Spoonful Blues

Larry Johnson - Southern Train

Larry Johnson - Charley Stone

Larry Johnson - Two White Horses

Larry Johnson - Up North Blues

Larry Johnson & Nat Riddles - Don't Get Mad With Me