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"Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying."

-- Mikhail Bakunin

News and Opinion

Chris Hedges: Let’s Stop Pretending America Is a Functioning Democracy

There is a fatal disconnect between a political system that promises democratic equality and freedom while carrying out socioeconomic injustices that result in grotesque income inequality and political stagnation. Decades in the making, this disconnect has extinguished American democracy. The steady stripping away of economic and political power was ignored by a hyperventilating press that thundered against the barbarians at the gate — Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, ISIS, Vladimir Putin — while ignoring the barbarians in our midst. The slow-motion coup is over. Corporations and the billionaire class have won. There are no institutions, including the press, an electoral system that is little more than legalized bribery, the imperial presidency, the courts or the penal system, that can be defined as democratic. Only the fiction of democracy remains.

The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism calls our system “inverted totalitarianism.” The façade of democratic institutions and the rhetoric, symbols and iconography of state power have not changed. The Constitution remains a sacred document. The U.S. continues to posit itself as a champion of opportunity, freedom, human rights and civil liberties, even as half the country struggles at subsistence level, militarized police gun down and imprison the poor with impunity, and the primary business of the state is war. This collective self-delusion masks who we have become — a nation where the citizenry has been stripped of economic and political power and where the brutal militarism we practice overseas is practiced at home. ...

It will do no good, as Biden did on Thursday in Philadelphia, to demonize Trump and his supporters in the way they demonize Biden and the Democrats. Biden, raising clenched fists, backlit by Stygian red lights and flanked by two U.S. Marines in dress uniforms, announced from his Dantesque stage set that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Donald Trump called the speech the most “vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president” and attacked Biden as “an enemy of the state.”

Biden’s frontal assault widens the divide. It solidifies a system where voters do not vote for what they want, since neither side delivers anything of substance, but against what they despise. Biden did not address our socioeconomic crisis or offer solutions. It was political theater. ...

Politics is spectacle, a tawdry carnival act where the constant jockeying for power by the ruling class dominates the news cycles, as if politics were a race to the Superbowl. The real business of ruling is hidden, carried out by corporate lobbyists who write the legislation, banks that loot the Treasury, the war industry and an oligarchy that determines who gets elected and who does not. It is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, the fossil fuel industry or Raytheon, no matter which party is in office.

Jon Stewart and the Pentagon honor Ukrainian Nazi at Disney World

Defense Department-sponsored “Warrior Games” featured liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarding a member of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at Disney World. The Pentagon refused to tell The Grayzone whether US taxpayers funded the foreign competitors’ travel.

This August, during the Department of Defense’s annual Warrior Games at Disney World in Orlando, Florida this August 19-28, liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarded a Ukrainian military veteran named Ihor Halushka the “Heart of the Team” award for “inspiring his team” with his “personal example.”

Halushka happens to have been a member of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been armed by the US and integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. The award-winning ultra-nationalist wore a sleeve over his left arm as he accepted the prize, presumably to cover up his tattoo of the Nazi Sonnenrad, or Black Sun.

Here is Ihor Halushka, the Nazi honored by Jon Stewart, after he was injured, with his Nazi Sonnenrad tattoo clearly displayed as he grips a Mickey Mouse plushie in his hospital bed https://t.co/NWiqV4GkZS pic.twitter.com/ZWU45ZhL7S

— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) August 31, 2022

The pair are part of a team of forty Ukrainian veterans participating in the Warrior Games. They were joined at the ceremony for this year’s competition by Darius Rucker, the former vocalist for the glorified bar band Hootie & the Blowfish, and liberal comedian Jon Stewart.

Jon Stewart Presents Medal To Ukrainian Nazi At Disney World

Russia will not resume gas supplies to Europe until sanctions lifted, says Moscow

Russia will not resume in full its gas supplies to Europe until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said, as concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, blamed sanctions “introduced against our country by western countries including Germany and the UK” for Russia’s failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

“Other reasons that would cause problems with the pumping don’t exist,” Peskov was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying. Peskov added that Russia’s full resumption of gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 was “undoubtedly” dependent on whether the west would lift its sanctions on Moscow. “It is these sanctions imposed by the western states that have brought the situation to what we see now.”

Peskov’s statements on Monday are the clearest indication yet that Russia intends to force the EU to lift sanctions imposed against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in exchange for Russia restarting its gas deliveries.

The leading Russian energy supplier Gazprom announced on Friday evening that a suspension of gas supplies heading westwards through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would be extended indefinitely, citing “malfunctions” on a turbine along the pipeline.

The EU has rejected Gazprom’s claims, accusing Putin of weaponising its gas exports.

Europe energy crisis: EU to unveil new responses to energy crisis

Biden Wants $13 BILLION MORE For Ukraine

Kremlin warns West of retaliation over G7 oil price cap

The Kremlin warned the West on Monday that it would retaliate over a G7 proposal to impose a cap on the price of Russian oil.

"There can only be retaliatory measures," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Group of Seven finance ministers agreed the cap on Friday in a bid to pressure Russia over its actions in Ukraine, but Moscow has vowed to halt sales to countries imposing it.

All In!

Iran nuclear deal ‘in danger’, says EU chief negotiator

The EU’s chief diplomat has said that efforts to strike a new agreement on Iran’s nuclear program are “in danger” after the US and Iranian positions diverged in recent days.

Josep Borrell, who chairs the indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran on reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said on Monday that he was losing confidence in finding a deal.

In his most pessimistic remarks since he sent both sides a “final draft” of a possible agreement last month, the EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy said: “The positions are not closer . . . If the process does not converge, then the whole process is in danger.”

”I am sorry to say that I am less confident today than [48] hours ago about the convergence of the negotiation process and the prospect of closing the deal,” he added.

Surprise, there will be no accountability for Israel's murder of a journalist.

Israel says soldier probably killed Shireen Abu Aqleh by accident

The Israeli army has said there is a “high possibility” a soldier killed an Al Jazeera journalist in May but that the shooting was accidental and no one will be punished.

Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead while covering Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians blamed the killing on Israel, which initially suggested she may have been killed by militant fire, but later said a soldier may have hit her by mistake during an exchange of fire.

Abu Aqleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, had covered the West Bank for the satellite channel for two decades and was known across the Arab world.

New UK PM Says 'READY' To Nuke The World

Britain's Tories have managed to elect a moron that may make them pine for the days of Boris.

Liz Truss wins Tory leadership race to become Britain’s next PM

Liz Truss will become Britain’s next prime minister after beating Rishi Sunak in the bitterly fought Conservative leadership contest.

The foreign secretary, who won 81,326 votes (57.4%) of Tory members to the former chancellor’s 60,399 (42.6%), takes over from Boris Johnson, who was ousted by his own MPs earlier this summer.

But the euphoria of victory will quickly give way to the hard reality of the economic challenges ahead, with the country gripped by a cost of living crisis leaving families struggling to pay their energy bills this winter.

Truss has said she will reveal plans to support households within a week of taking office, with allies understood to be discussing a £100bn package that could include freezing energy bills. She has already pledged to reverse a national insurance rise even though it disproportionately benefits the well-off.

After the announcement on Tuesday, Truss promised a “bold plan” to cut taxes and grow the economy and said that she would “deal with” soaring energy bills as well as longer-term energy supply, but gave no further detail on how she would do so.

Chile Goes Back to the Drawing Board After Voters Overwhelmingly Reject New Progressive Constitution

'We'll Come Back Stronger,' Vows Chilean Left After Visionary Constitution Rejected

Proponents of Chile's new progressive constitution pledged to keep fighting Sunday following their crushing defeat in a plebiscite whose outcome was cheered by the oligarchs and corporations who spent heavily on the "no" campaign.

With nearly all votes counted Sunday evening, the reject, or "rechazo," campaign was leading the approve, or "apruebo," effort, 60% to 40%.

The proposed document would have replaced a charter imposed during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet with what proponents called the "world's most progressive constitution," replete with extensive rights for Indigenous peoples, women, and the environment. The proposal also guaranteed free healthcare, housing, and education.

Gabriel Boric, Chile's recently inaugurated democratic socialist president, acknowledged in a Sunday evening address to the nation that "the Chilean people were not satisfied with the constitutional proposal that the convention produced."

Boric added that "Chile trusts in its democracy."

"I will do all I can to build a new constitutional itinerary alongside the Congress and the civil society that will give us a text that, collecting the learnings of the process, aims to achieve a big majority," he added.

"Apruebo" advocates said the fight for a more just constitution is not over.

Rosa Catrileo, a constitutional delegate representing the Mapuche people, said that "it is never easy to move major transformations."

But, she added, "we resisted for 500 years and will continue to do so."

Bárbara Sepúlveda Hales, a constitutional attorney, tweeted: "Today we lost, but the fight to transform Chile continues. Thanks to the thousands who participated and debated to have an egalitarian constitution. Especially to the women who paved the way to advance for our rights."

"The horizon is one of change and it is inevitable," she added.

"The fears, the lies, were stronger," human rights activist Trinidad Lathrop tweeted. "How powerful is the power of money. But we're going to make it. Give yourselves some time to lick your wounds and then we'll come back stronger. For all and all... we are going to get ahead."

Amnesty International Chile tweeted that "today is a sad day. We have missed the historical opportunity to have a new constitution."

"But although the result of the plebiscite was not as expected," the group added, "we will continue fighting more than ever to live in fairer, more egalitarian, and more humane Chile."

While there is widespread agreement across the political spectrum that Chile's constitution must change, it is not known how the process—which is expected to be highly contentious—will move forward.

Boric said he is confident that Chileans can work toward a constitutional consensus.

Washington Post Ripped for 'Neocolonial' Editorial Against Chile's New Constitution

The editorial board of The Washington Post came under fire Sunday for arguing against Chile's proposed new constitution on the grounds that, if enacted, the document could make it harder for the United States to acquire Chilean lithium.

"Lithium"—the editorial's first word—"is a key input in batteries that run millions of laptops and upon which the United States is basing its electrified automotive future," the piece states.

"Chile sits atop the world's largest lithium reserves; it produced about 25% of the world's commercial supply in 2020," the editors continue. "Chile's impending September 4 referendum on a proposed new constitution... could recast the legal framework for mining in the South American nation, which has an 18-year-old free trade agreement with the United States."

Although the Post notes the new charter "would purge the political order of its vestiges of right-wing military rule and substitute progressive ideals" including "extensive women's and Indigenous rights along with environmentalism," the editors urge Chileans to "send its proposed constitution back for a rewrite."

Panning the Post's motto, Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde tweeted, "Democracy dies in darkness… or in an editorial that in perfect neocolonial fashion argues that lithium trade to U.S. is more important than democracy in Chile."

Irish political analyst and former Sinn Féin adviser Duroyan Fertl asserted that "the opening lines of the Washington Post editorial on Chile's new constitution tell you everything you need to know about imperialism's motivation for opposing the democratic new charter."

Uahikea Maile, a professor of Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto, said that "while Chileans vote on a new constitution—replacing [a] charter imposed via dictatorship shaped by Chicago Boys, The Washington Post recommends the constitution be rewritten because it restricts U.S. access to lithium."

"Green or not, energy for the North continues to trump democracy in the South," Maile added.

Post owner Jeff Bezos and other billionaires including Bill Gates this year invested nearly $200 million in KoBold Metals, which according to Mining.com "is on a global search for key battery metals cobalt, lithium and nickel, as well as copper, which is key to the green energy transition."

Chilean minerals—and control over them—played an important role in the 1973 U.S.-backed military coup that overthrew democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende and ushered in 17 years of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Allende put forth a plan to nationalize Chilean copper that was unanimously approved by the country's Congress in 1971, an event celebrated as "Day of National Dignity."

But the plan incensed U.S. copper giants Anaconda and Kennecott, which dominated Chile's market. Those companies were among the U.S. corporations that actively aided Allende's ouster.

ON THE GROUND: Jackson Residents Describe Horror Of Dirty Water

Jackson mayor: residents face ‘longer road ahead’ before safe water is restored

The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, where 150,000 people are still without safe drinking water after an infrastructure failure, said on Sunday residents face a “much longer road ahead” before services are fully restored in the majority Black city.

Speaking to ABC’s This Week, Chokwe Antar Lumumba said there had been improvements, with water pressure restored to a majority of residents. But he said the state capital was “still in an emergency – will be in an emergency even as the water is restored to every home and even as the boil water notice is lifted because that is the fragile state of our water treatment facility”. ...

“Even when we are not under a boil water notice, it’s not a matter of if these systems will fail, but when these systems will fail,” he said.

The near-collapse of the Jackson water system prompted emergency declarations from Joe Biden and the Republican governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves. Biden said: “We have offered every single thing available in Mississippi. The governor has to act. There’s money to deal with this problem. We have given him everything there is to offer.” ...

Bubbling beneath the surface of the crisis are disputes between a Democratic city government and the Republican governor and state legislature. Lumumba has accused Reeves of ignoring Jackson’s problems. The governor has said they stem from mismanagement at city level. In April, Lumumba called the state legislature “paternalistic and racist”.

‘Tired of trickle-down economics’: Biden calls for expansion of unions in Labor Day speech

Joe Biden used a Labor Day speech in the battleground state of Wisconsin to endorse the expansion of unions, reiterating his election promises to be the “most pro-union president” in American history. The US president argued in Milwaukee that a skilled, unionised workforce would help the US regain its place as a world leader in infrastructure and manufacturing.

Drawing on Franklin D Roosevelt’s explicit support for unions during the New Deal, Biden said: “I am encouraging unions … we need key worker protections to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out. I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics.” ...

Earlier on Monday, Biden came out in support of a proposed law in California, the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act – currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk – that would make it easier for farmhands to organise. “The least we owe them is an easier path to make a free and fair choice to organize a union,” Biden said. ...

In Wisconsin, Biden again attempted to distinguish between the type of mainstream Republicans whom he has previously worked with and the “extreme right, Maga Republicans, Trumpies”, he said, who “pose a threat to democracy and economic security, and embrace political violence”.

Conservative Texas phone company fueling extremist takeover of schools

A conservative Texas-based phone company is planning a takeover of political offices in the US state, starting with public schools. Patriot Mobile, which calls itself “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider”, has been fueling an extremist conservative movement taking over curriculum in public schools across Texas.

Leigh Wambsganss, the executive director of the company and its political arm, proudly declared victory in 11 out of 11 school board seats in the last election cycle in school districts around the Dallas-Fort Worth area on behalf of the company and conservative American Christians. She said: “What this means is that now in north Texas, over 100,000 students who, before May, had leftist leadership now have conservative leadership!”

Earlier this year, the company established a political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action, which allows them to legally fundraise and finance political campaigns.

By acting as the financial backbone for the campaigns of far-right candidates for school boards, the phone company is seeking to promote its conservative agenda on issues like abortion, books and gender identity. It happens as across the US, school boards and local elections have witnessed intense fights as far-right candidates and groups have sought to win positions. ...

Some key beliefs of the organization are American exceptionalism, “Critical Race Theory and Marxist policies have no place in schools or government,” and that “the United States constitution was founded on Judeo-Christian principles”.

Judge SIDES WITH TRUMP As Legal Analysts LOSE IT

Trump-Appointed Judge Orders Halt to DOJ Review of Seized Materials

Political observers on Monday said U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon "engaged herself in obstruction of justice" by ruling that the U.S. Department of Justice must halt its review of materials seized at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Cannon, who was appointed by the former Republican president and confirmed after he lost the 2020 election, ruled that Trump "faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public" if the review of the materials, which included documents marked "confidential" and "top secret" continues.

Political scientist Norman Ornstein noted that lawyers for Trump hand-picked Cannon to oversee the case.

Cannon "has violated her oath and is unfit for the bench," he tweeted, adding that her ruling is "a clear-cut impeachable offense."

Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern said he had been assured that "no judge would take Trump's absurd filing seriously" after the former president sued the DOJ over the FBI raid which was sparked by the department's finding that Trump had taken classified documents from the White House when his term ended in January 2021.

"The problem, of course, is that Cannon is not a real judge, but a Trump judge, and one of the most corrupt of the bunch," said Stern.

Cannon ruled that a "special master" should be appointed to review the materials seized by the FBI and said the federal government should be "temporarily enjoined" from examining the documents further.

The Justice Department now has until September 9 to propose a list of special master candidates. It was unclear Monday whether the Biden administration would appeal Cannon's ruling.

Biden Embraces 'DARK BRANDON' Amid Freakout

Trump calls Biden ‘an enemy of the state’

Former President Trump on Saturday called President Biden “an enemy of the state” in response to a prime-time speech in which Biden called Republicans influenced by Trump a “threat” to democracy.

“This week, Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pa., to give the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president, vilifying 75 million citizens … as threats to democracy and as enemies of the state. He’s an enemy of the state,” Trump said.

Trump made the remarks at his first rally since the Aug. 8 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property. ...

“The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do,” Trump said.

Large parts of Amazon may never recover, major study says

Environmental destruction in parts of the Amazon is so complete that swathes of the rainforest have reached tipping point and might never be able to recover, a major study carried out by scientists and Indigenous organisations has found. “The tipping point is not a future scenario but rather a stage already present in some areas of the region,” the report concludes. “Brazil and Bolivia concentrate 90% of all combined deforestation and degradation. As a result, savannization is already taking place in both countries.”

Scientists from the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information (RAISG) worked with with the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica) to produce the study, Amazonia Against the Clock, one of the biggest so far, covering all nine of the nations that contain parts of the Amazon.

It found that only two of the nine, tiny Suriname and French Guiana, have at least half their forests still intact.

Amazonian Indigenous organisations representing 511 nations and allies are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025. The 80% target is a massive challenge given that only 74% of the original forest remains. Urgent action is needed not only to protect the forest still standing but also to restore degraded land and get back to that 80% level.

Pakistan’s biggest lake may burst banks after draining attempts fail

Pakistan’s biggest lake is on the verge of bursting its banks after attempts by authorities to drain it in a controlled way failed, a senior local official has warned. In a last-ditch effort to avoid a catastrophe, officials breached Lake Manchar on Sunday, a move they acknowledged could displace up to 100,000 people from their homes but would also save densely populated areas from floods.

On Monday, however, the provincial minister for irrigation, Jam Khan Shoro, said the effort was not working. “The water level at Manchar lake has not come down,” he said of the freshwater reservoir in the southern province of Sindh.

The prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, travelled to Sindh on Monday to assess the damage, and toured the area with his foreign minister by helicopter. The region produces half of the country’s food but 90% of its crops are ruined, while entire villages have been swept away. ...

Satellite images have shown that a third of the country is now underwater. More than 1.6m homes have been damaged since mid-June.

Flash flood watch under way for 80m in eastern US as heatwaves broil west

More than 80 million people in the eastern US were under flash flood watches late on Monday, marking still more extreme weather in a country reeling from record heatwaves in some regions, as the US increasingly feels the effects of the climate crisis. In Georgia, the threat of torrential downpours became a reality Sunday afternoon, spurring a flash flood emergency in western portions of the state, CNN reported.

The “one-in-1,000-year rainfall event” caused rivers and creeks to swell. Authorities carried out water rescues as homes and businesses were flooded; meteorologists believe that the area could see another one to three inches of rain, according to the news network. Potentially dangerous weather is not limited to the area stretching from southern Appalachia to New England. In the US west, residents are facing the possibility of power outages on Monday and early this week while temperatures continue to soar.

This weekend, Salt Lake City broke its record temperature for September, hitting 103F (39.4C). Long Beach, California, peaked at 108F (42.2C), breaking a past daily high, Forbes reported. These extremes come as global heating threatens to make large portions of the US west and south – which are seeing a population boom – so hot they are unlivable.

Also of Interest

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

SCOTT RITTER: The Death List

Veteran Intelligence Professionals: Ukraine Decision Time for Biden

Kherson 'Counteroffensive' - Zelenski Is Going For Broke

Peace Talks Essential as War Rages on in Ukraine

European Natural Gas Prices Set To Soar Following Nord Stream Shutdown

The Delusional Dishonesty of the G7 Russian Oil Price Cap

Who Benefits From US Government Claims That The UFO Threat Is Increasing ‘Exponentially’?

Betting On A Wall Street Path To Congress

The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse

US flood maps outdated thanks to climate change, Fema director says

Over-consumption and drought reduce lake in vital Spanish wetland to puddle

RIP Barbara Ehrenreich: Exposed Inequality in "Nickel and Dimed," Opposed Health-Industrial Complex

NYT Etiquette Column Offers Advice for the Resentful Rich

UNPRECEDENTED Number Of Women Register After Roe Overturn

"RIOTS in the Streets!" Will Trump Indictment DESTROY The Nation?

Ukraine More Important Than German Suffering Says GERMAN Foreign Minister

Hillary's Legacy: Libyan Civil War Starting Up Again After 2 Year Ceasefire

ENERGY DYSTOPIA? Russia Sanctions CRUSH EU Citizens, Wheel Of Fortune Pays Energy BILLS

A Little Night Music

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Froggie Moore

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Riverside Blues

King Oliver - Wa Wa Wa

King Oliver - Too Late

King Oliver - Doctor Jazz

King Oliver & His Orchestra - St James Infirmary

King Oliver - Canal Street Blues

King Oliver - The Trumpet's Prayer

King Oliver & His Orchestra - Shake It And Break It

King Oliver & His Orchestra - What You Want Me To Do

King Oliver's Jazz Band - New Orleans Stomp

King Oliver & His Orchestra (w/ Roy Smeck) - Everybody Does It In Hawaii