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This evening's music features blues harmonica player Jerry McCain. Enjoy!

"A bad peace is even worse than war."

-- Tacitus

News and Opinion

Pretending To Seek Peace In An Unwinnable Proxy War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

We should probably talk more about the fact that the US empire is loudly promoting the goal of achieving peace in Ukraine by defeating Russia while quietly acknowledging that this goal is impossible. This is like accelerating toward a brick wall and pretending it’s an open road.

The narrative that Russia can be defeated by escalating against it makes sense if you believe Russia can be defeated, but the US empire does not believe that Russia can be defeated. It knows these escalations are only going to exponentially ramp up death and devastation.

“Beat Putin’s ass and make him withdraw” sounds cool and is egoically gratifying, and it’s become the mainstream answer to the problem of the war in Ukraine. But nobody promoting that answer can address the fact that the ones driving this proxy war believe it’s impossible. In fact, all evidence we’re seeing suggests that the US is not trying to deliver Putin a crushing defeat in Ukraine and force him to withdraw, but is rather trying to create another long and costly military quagmire for Moscow, as cold warriors have done repeatedly in instances like Afghanistan and Syria.

Wanting to weaken Russia and wanting to save lives and establish peace in Ukraine are two completely different goals, so different that in practice they wind up being largely contradictory. Drawing Moscow into a bloody quagmire means many more people dying in a war that lasts years.

The US does not want peace in Ukraine, it wants to overextend Russia, shore up military and energy dominance over Europe, expand its war machine and enrich the military-industrial complex. It’s posing as Ukraine’s savior while being clearly invested in Ukraine’s destruction.

It is not legitimate to support this proxy war without squarely addressing this massive contradiction using hard facts and robust argumentation. Nobody ever has.

Russia prepares for next phase. Putin orders creation of special coordination council

How the pro-Ukraine NAFO troll operation crowd-funds war criminals

Whether they know it or not, anyone who has checked Twitter for recent coverage of the Ukraine proxy war has likely encountered at least one of the thousands of trolls that comprise NAFO, or the “North Atlantic Fellas Organization.” Thanks to the efforts of NAFO and its “fellas,” any journalist or prominent figure critical of Ukraine or NATO on Twitter is likely to receive hundreds of replies accusing them of being paid by Russian President Vladimir Putin (or even performing fellatio on him) from accounts with Shiba Inu dog avatars.

Since its inception several months ago, NAFO has earned gushing praise from the Washington Post, which hailed it for “show[ing] that the tables could be turned on Russia, when it came to trolling.” The arms industry-funded, Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), meanwhile, hosted an online panel highlighting NAFO as an instrumental weapon in the Russia-Ukraine infowars.

Yet NAFO’s beltway boosters often gloss over its role as a fundraising machine for the Georgian Legion, a US-backed Ukrainian fighting group that stands accused of gruesome battlefield atrocities. Several former members of the Legion have produced first-hand testimony documenting its perpetration of war crimes, including the torture and execution of POWs and civilians. One NAFO founder explained that he chose the Georgian Legion as a funding recipient precisely because of the unit’s reputation as a band of “mercenaries and criminals” that was willing to carry out barbarous acts which could cause foreign governments to shy away from supporting it. Another NAFO founder has praised the Georgian Legion’s leader for “killing Russians since the ’90s.” ...

While providing a financial feeding tube to a militia that revels in its own atrocities, NAFO continues to attract effusive support from mainstream US journalists and think tankers who portray the operation as little more than a grassroots expression of online solidarity with Ukraine.

[Much more at the link. -js]

Could the US restrict energy exports amid the global crisis?

Iraq Rejects US Threats, Backs Saudis on Oil Production

Generations of warfare and propping up client states were supposed to give the US broad influence in the Middle East. Energy issues stemming from the Russia-Ukraine War saw the US trying to keep OPEC nations, especially Saudi Arabia, producing at a high level. ...

The US had been pressuring Iraq on OPEC production, with implied threats of repercussions. Given Iraq is just a generation removed from being destroyed by US sanctions that could be an important influence.

Instead Iraq’s Foreign Ministry doubled down on supporting OPEC and the Saudis, saying the nation has to protect its interests by working together to stabilize the oil market. A stable oil market does not mean low prices, as the US was hoping.

Boris comeback, Larry the Cat as UK PM. Musk Twitter deal, US security concerns. Drone hysteria.

China Reaffirms ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Weapons Policy at UN

China reaffirmed this week its no first use policy for nuclear weapons at a meeting of the UN’s General Assembly First Committee.

Li Song, the Chinese ambassador for disarmament affairs, told the committee that China “has solemnly committed to no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones unconditionally.”

China and India are the only two nuclear-armed powers that maintain a no first use policy. The Biden administration’s nuclear policy allows first use, something that was hinted at in its National Security Strategy that was released last week.

‘Don’t Know How Long He Will Last’: Assange Lawyer

Canada supreme court refuses to hear appeal in blow to residential school survivors

Canada’s supreme court has declined to hear an appeal brought by a group of Indigenous residential school survivors, dealing a major blow to their decade-long fight against federal government over thousands of unreleased documents.

Survivors of St Anne’s Indian residential school had hoped the country’s top court would take their case, which alleges Canada’s federal government withheld key evidence in determining compensation for victims of abuse at the school in northern Ontario.

The court did not say why it declined to hear the case, as is standard practice.

Fed President Spoke at Private Wall Street Forum

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, came under fire Thursday after The New York Times revealed that he "spoke last Friday at an off-the-record, invitation-only forum held by Citigroup, and open to clients."

As Times reporter Jeanna Smialek summarized in a series of tweets about her reporting: "Against Fed rules? Unclear, though we go through them in the story. Bad look? Definitely, a range of people said."

"I wanted to get a sense of whether this kind of private off-record event with bank clients happens a lot and I just don't hear about it, so I called around," Smialek explained. "The overwhelming answer: No."

Narayana Kocherlakota, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told her that "this is not normal" and with Citi's clients involved, "the optics are terrible."

Brookings Institution senior fellow Norm Eisen similarly said that at first glance, "it's not an ethics violation, but it's not a great look."

The report explains that while the Fed's rules don't bar Bullard from attending such events, comments shared behind closed doors should align with previous public statements, and central bankers should "not provide any profit-making person or organization with a prestige advantage over its competitors."

Jeff Hauser of the watchdog group the Revolving Door Project told Smialek that "Citi is flexing here," showing clients that it can provide "privileged access" to people like Bullard.

"There are few better sources of information on the planet than a member of the Federal Open Market Committee," he said. "Their every utterance is treated as potentially market moving."

In a tweet about the reporting, Hauser took aim at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, saying, "That ongoing indications of ethical lapses continue apace underscores [the project's] view that Powell cannot reform the Federal Reserve."

Judge Who Ruled Against CFPB Took Thousands in Wall Street Campaign Cash: Watchdog

The federal judge who ruled this week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure is unconstitutional was a longtime recipient of campaign cash from Wall Street bankers—including several whose banks were held accountable by the bureau for abusive practices—a government watchdog revealed Wednesday.

Accountable.US released an analysis of campaign contributions received by Judge Cory Wilson of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals between 2014 and 2018, when he was a Republican candidate and member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

According to the group, Wilson took at least $10,500 from Wall Street bankers.

The analysis was released a day after Wilson handed down a ruling in a case filed by payday lending groups against the CFPB. The judge claimed in his decision that it is unconstitutional for the CFPB to be funded by the Federal Reserve System rather than by Congress, drawing condemnation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other consumer advocates.

The case "shows just how far predatory lenders are willing to go to avert any accountability for their abusive practices," said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power for Accountable.US. "It's no surprise this lawsuit was brought by an industry with an ax to grind against the CFPB after facing numerous fines mistreating consumers."

Beyond that, Zelnick added, the group's findings regarding Wilson's financial ties to the industry CFPB regulates shows the case "was advanced by a judge who's taken thousands from the banking industry that too is determined to weaken the bureau's authority."

As the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research noted, Wilson's contributions included at least $2,500 from Trustmark National Bank, which was recently fined by the CFPB for discriminatory practices.

"The financial services industry's relentless attacks on the CFPB proves its work protecting consumers is more vital than ever," said Zelnick.

Early voters in Arizona midterms report harassment by poll watchers

A voter in Maricopa county, Arizona, claims a group of people watching a ballot drop box photographed and followed the voter and their wife after they deposited their ballots at the box, accusing them of being “mules”. ...

The incident allegedly occurred at a Mesa, Arizona, outdoor drop box on the evening of 17 October. Early voting, both in person and via mailed ballots, began on 12 October ahead of the midterm elections. “There’s a group of people hanging out near the ballot drop box filming and photographing my wife and I as we approached the drop box and accusing us of being a mule. They took a photographs [sic] of our license plate and of us and then followed us out the parking lot in one of their cars continuing to film,” the voter wrote in the complaint.

The incident comes as people in Maricopa and Yavapai counties have started to monitor drop boxes, spurred by the movie 2000 Mules, which makes unsubstantiated claims that “mules” are stuffing ballot boxes with votes. In other states, similar efforts to monitor drop boxes are under way, organized by people who remain convinced the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

The Maricopa drop boxes are already under video surveillance by the county and broadcast on a live feed on the county’s website, and the Yavapai drop boxes have cameras mounted on them. Election officials and voter advocacy groups have warned that the practice could lead to voter intimidation. At a press conference in Phoenix on Wednesday, Maricopa county supervisor Bill Gates said people outside the Maricopa county tabulation and election center were approaching and photographing election workers as they went into the site to work.

"Democracy Demands We Participate": Black Voters Mobilize for Midterms Amid GOP Voter Suppression

Secret files suggest chemical giant feared weedkiller’s link to Parkinson’s disease | US news | The Guardian

For decades, Swiss chemical giant Syngenta has manufactured and marketed a widely used weed-killing chemical called paraquat, and for much of that time the company has been dealing with external concerns that long-term exposure to the chemical may be a cause of the incurable brain ailment known as Parkinson’s disease. Syngenta has repeatedly told customers and regulators that scientific research does not prove a connection between its weedkiller and the disease, insisting that the chemical does not readily cross the blood-brain barrier, and does not affect brain cells in ways that cause Parkinson’s.

But a cache of internal corporate documents dating back to the 1950s reviewed by the Guardian suggests that the public narrative put forward by Syngenta and the corporate entities that preceded it has at times contradicted the company’s own research and knowledge. And though the documents reviewed do not show that Syngenta’s scientists and executives accepted and believed that paraquat can cause Parkinson’s, they do show a corporate focus on strategies to protect product sales, refute external scientific research and influence regulators.

In one defensive tactic, the documents indicate that the company worked behind the scenes to try to keep a highly regarded scientist from sitting on an advisory panel for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency is the chief US regulator for paraquat and other pesticides. Company officials wanted to make sure the efforts could not be traced back to Syngenta, the documents show.

And the documents show that insiders feared they could face legal liability for long-term, chronic effects of paraquat as long ago as 1975. One company scientist called the situation “a quite terrible problem” for which “some plan could be made … ”

That prediction of legal consequences has come to pass. Thousands of people who allege they developed Parkinson’s because of long-term chronic effects of paraquat exposure are now suing Syngenta. Along with Syngenta, they are also suing Chevron USA, the successor to a company that distributed paraquat in the US until 1986. Both companies deny any liability and maintain that scientific evidence does not support a causal link between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease.

EPA launches civil rights investigation into Mississippi water crisis

The US Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it is investigating whether Mississippi state agencies discriminated against the state’s majority-Black capital city by refusing to fund improvements for its failing water system.

The announcement came days after leaders of two congressional committees said they were starting a joint investigation into a crisis that left most homes and businesses in Jackson without running water for several days in late August and early September. ...

The NAACP president, Derrick Johnson, who lives in Jackson with his family, called the EPA investigation a step in the right direction after years of the state withholding federal funds needed to avert the city’s water system.

“We believe we gave compelling evidence that the state of Mississippi intentionally starved the city of Jackson of the resources to maintain its water infrastructure,” Johnson told the Associated Press on Thursday. “We want the EPA and this administration to put forth a course of action to prevent the state of Mississippi from ever doing this again.”

Alaska Cancels Crab Season After 1 Billion Crabs DISAPPEAR

High levels of ‘forever chemicals’ likely making alligators sick in Cape Fear River

High levels of PFAS discharged into the Cape Fear River from a Chemours plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, are likely making local alligators sick with autoimmune disorders that appear similar to human diseases like lupus, a new study finds.

The peer-reviewed study, published Thursday in the Frontiers in Toxicology journal, tested blood from alligators in the Cape Fear watershed that have been exposed to Chemours pollution for decades. The alligators showed extremely high levels of PFAS compounds and markers of immune disease in their blood. ...

Researchers discovered in 2016 that the Cape Fear river was polluted with staggering levels of PFAS. Since then, independent and state research has found PFAS pollution stemming from the Chemours plant and other sources has thoroughly contaminated the environment across hundreds of square miles, and down the Cape Fear watershed to Wilmington, 85 miles to the south.

Residents there say long term exposure to Chemours’ pollution has sickened them, and Belcher’s team previously discovered high PFAS levels in the Cape Fear’s striped bass. He suspects the species’ dwindling numbers is related to PFAS exposure’s impact on their reproductive systems. Meanwhile, the chemicals were found at alarming levels in the region’s seabirds.

The new study compared Cape Fear alligators with a cohort from Lake Waccamaw in a neighboring watershed not subjected to direct Chemours pollution. Cape Fear alligators’ blood showed much higher PFAS levels, and had twice as many compounds, including Chemours-produced chemicals like Nafion byproduct 2 and GenX.

Also of Interest

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

John Kiriakou: The Arms-Swapper

Ukraine War: Russia Preparing for More Terrorism?

The Lettuce Has Won. Liz Truss Resigned.

Biden Manipulates Oil Price To Buy More Votes

How Corporations “Get Away With Murder” to Inflate Prices on Rent, Food, and Electricity

Mark Ruffalo Says Democrats Are Leading Us To Fascism

A Little Night Music

Jerry McCain - She's Tough

Jerry McCain - My Next Door Neighbor

Jerry McCain - That's What They Want

Jerry McCain - Courtin' In A Cadillac

Jerry McCain - A Cutie Named Judy

Jerry McCain - Trying to Please

Jerry McCain - You Don't Love Me No More

Jerry McCain - East of the Sun

Jerry Mccain - Juicy Lucy

Jerry McCain - 728 Texas

Jerry McCain - Twist "62"

Jerry McCain and his harmonica - Turn the lights on Popeye