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"H. L. Mencken famously said that 'every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.' By now, however, I am no longer ashamed, because I do not identify with the government under which I live. Rather, I view it as a criminal organization that without provocation has chosen to make war on my just rights-not only mine, of course, but everyone's. Although this vile enterprise is my problem, because it robs and bullies me relentlessly and without mercy, it is not my responsibility: the nail is not the hammer."

-- Robert Higgs

News and Opinion

Press Statement of Minister of National Defence of DPRK

Kang Sun Nam, minister of National Defence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), issued the following press statement on July 20:

In defiance of the repeated warning by the DPRK and serious concern of the international community, the U.S. and the group of traitors of the "Republic of Korea" (ROK) held a meeting of the "nuclear consultative group" on July 18 to discuss the plan for using nuclear weapons against the DPRK.

In particular, the hostile forces posed the most undisguised and direct nuclear threat to the DPRK by bringing an Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarine to the Pusan Port operation base, which means strategic nuclear weapons have been deployed on the Korean peninsula for the first time after 40 odd years.

This shows that the U.S. scenario for a nuclear attack upon the DPRK and its implementation have entered the most critical stage of visualization and systemization and the phase of a military clash on the Korean peninsula has surfaced as a dangerous reality beyond all sorts of imagination and presumption.

Among the nuclear-armed nations of the world, the U.S. is the only country which openly made it its policy to use its nuclear weapons against a specific country. No one will be able to deny the gravity and dangerousness of the security environment facing the DPRK in the light of that fact alone.

The U.S. and the traitors of the "ROK" are widely advertising the deployment of gigantic strategic nuclear weaponry of the U.S.

We correctly know why such weapons have found themselves on the Korean peninsula and where they came from.

As the U.S. and the "ROK" gangsters have gone beyond the "red line" in their military hysteria, now is the time for the DPRK to make clear once again its corresponding action choice and response direction.

The military security situation in the area of the Korean peninsula, which has undergone a fundamental change due to the reckless military moves of the U.S. and its followers, more clearly indicates what mission the nuclear weapons of the DPRK should carry out.

Through this press statement, I remind the U.S. military of the fact that the ever-increasing visibility of the deployment of the strategic nuclear submarine and other strategic assets may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons specified in the DPRK law on the nuclear force policy.

The DPRK's doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons allows the execution of necessary action procedures in case a nuclear attack is launched against it or it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent.

The U.S. military side should realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters.

I seriously warn once again the U.S. and the "ROK" military gangsters' group daringly touting the "end of regime" in our country.

To the U.S. and the "ROK", any use of their military muscle against the DPRK will be their most miserable choice by which they will have no room to think of their existence again.

The armed forces of the DPRK will responsibly carry out their important mission for defending the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity and fundamental interests and preventing a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region by thoroughly deterring and repelling the crazy maneuvers of the U.S. and its stooges to use nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

Russia Drives Back Ukr Bakhmut; MSM Blames Minefields, Admits Time Running Out for Ukraine

Ukraine using cluster bombs effectively in counteroffensive, says White House

US-supplied cluster munitions have been deployed in Ukraine and are having an impact on the counteroffensive against Russian forces, a senior White House official has said.

“We have gotten some initial feedback from the Ukrainians, and they’re using them quite effectively,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

Ukraine has pledged to only use the controversial bombs to dislodge concentrations of Russian enemy soldiers. Kirby said the cluster munitions are having an impact on Russian defensive formations and manoeuvring.

The munitions arrived in Ukraine last week and are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian frontlines. US officials have said Washington will provide thousands of the rounds, but provided no specific numbers.

This Should Turn Your Stomach

"What were once vices are now habits."

Ukraine Begins Firing US Cluster Bombs

Ukrainian officials told The Washington Post on Thursday that Ukrainian forces have started firing US-provided cluster munitions at Russian soldiers in southeastern Ukraine, which was later confirmed by the White House.

Last year, the White House called the use of cluster bombs in Ukraine a “potential war crime,” but President Biden signed off on the delivery of the civilian-killing munitions earlier this month. ...

The Post report said that Biden bypassed the law by using a rare provision of the Foreign Assistance Act that allows the US to provide weapons regardless of export controls if the president determines doing so is a vital national security interest. But continuing to fuel a proxy war against the world’s largest nuclear-armed state is a huge risk to US national security.

Funny thing happened on way to Kremlin: Mutiny staged for 'political stability' ahead of elections?

Just a damned piece of paper:

Senate Rejects Congressional War Powers Over NATO’s Article 5

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted down an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would declare NATO’s Article 5, which outlines mutual defense commitments, does not override congressional war powers.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), states: “It is the sense of Congress that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war before the United States engages in war.”

The amendment failed in a vote of 16-83 and received no support from Democrats. “It should have been an easy vote to affirm the Constitution, to vote against affirming the Constitution actually places doubt in the Constitution. But it was defeated,” Paul wrote on Twitter after the vote.

Worth a click:

DC Uniparty kills House resolutions to end US emergency powers in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen

Led by Representative Paul Gosar, a handful of Republican members of Congress launched a protest against 41 nominal “national emergency” declarations, many of which are decades old.

Rep. Gosar has argued the National Emergencies Act is “tyrannical,” granting 148 separate powers to the executive branch.

This July 18, the House voted down five resolutions to terminate national emergency powers which date back as far as 2003. The countries affected by the five resolutions include Congo, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Iraq.

Each vote saw a coalition of pro-war Democrats and Republicans join together in overwhelming numbers to protect the executive branch’s emergency authorities.

Among the emergency declarations still in effect is one authorizing war on Libya on the basis that Muammar Ghadhafi posed an urgent threat to the US; one enabling economic warfare on Syria on the specious grounds that Damascus sponsors international terrorism; and another allowing the president to support Saudi Arabia’s military assault on Yemen, which resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.

Yet another emergency declaration provides the authority for the US government to test biological weapons on American citizens.

Surprise Blinkiman! The global south doesn't want to be dragged into your proposed war with China.

Multipolar Maneuvering in Indo-Pacific

On Monday, while delivering the keynote address at the annual China Business Summit held in Auckland, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins weighed in on the power dynamic in the Indo-Pacific. New Zealand’s estimation matters because it is a small country in the Southern Pacific heavily dependent on trade with China for preserving its prosperity and yet one of the Five Eyes (along with the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada), the exclusive secretive security grouping of Anglo-Saxon countries. ...

What emerges is that the traditional security concepts of balancing and band-wagoning are insufficient for understanding how smaller states like New Zealand are responding to U.S.–China rivalry. ... This was also the leitmotif of the foreign and security policy choices exhibited by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit and related events in Jakarta in last weekend.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s single-minded mission at Jakarta was to rally ASEAN members to the U.S. banner. But ASEAN countries are choosing their own path, which is not to choose sides between the U.S. and China. Even Singapore, the U.S.’ closest ally in southeast Asia, has begun to differ. Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told reporters ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta on Friday that the ASEAN countries do not want to be divided or be vassal states, “or worse, an arena for proxy wars.”

The U.S. underestimates the strength and resilience of the cooperative relations that have been forged between ASEAN countries and China. Simply put, the diplomatic and political engagement between China and the ASEAN in Jakarta last week showed that there is a shared will to not let differences and disputes disrupt national or regional development. The trade volume between ASEAN and China touched $431.3 billion in the first half of this year, according to latest official data, an increase of 5.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

The meetings in Jakarta last week indicated that the ASEAN countries do not want the U.S. to make the region another arena for its destructive power games. The completion of the second reading of the text for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and the adoption of a guideline document for its early conclusion, sent out a clear signal that the ASEAN region will not allow any seeds of discord to take root.

Of course, this momentum serves China’s interests while it undercuts the U.S. attempts to create friction in ASEAN’s relations with China.

Brandon's looking for trouble.

US-led coalition's F-16 homes in on Russian plane

The Russian Center for Reconciliation of the opposing parties in Syria has registered an incident in which a US F-16 fighter jet used its targeting system on an aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the center’s deputy chief Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov said on Thursday.

"Ten violations of the Syrian airspace, committed by four pairs of F-16 fighters and one pair of Rafale fighters of the ‘coalition,’ were registered in the Al Tanf zone, an area where international air traffic routes are located. At the same time, it was registered that an F-16 fighter jet used its targeting system on a plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was performing a scheduled flight along the southern border of the Syrian Arab Republic," he said.

According to Gurinov, the US-led coalition violated deconfliction protocols 12 times over the past 24 hours, as it sent its unmanned aerial vehicles on missions that were not coordinated with Russia’s forces.

House Judiciary Advances Legislation That Would Restrict Authorities from Buying Away the Privacy Rights of Americans

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted to advance the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), legislation that would restrict law enforcement and intelligence agencies from purchasing data on people in the United States without a warrant.

FANFSA, which was first introduced in 2021, is cosponsored by four Democrats and four Republicans and has overwhelming support from the American public. According to a 2020 Harris poll, 77 percent of people believe the government should get a warrant to buy the kind of detailed location information that is frequently purchased and sold by data brokers on the commercial marketplace.

The House last week voted in support of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that similarly prohibits warrantless purchases by defense agencies of U.S. residents’ location information, web browsing history, internet search history, or any other information protected by the Fourth Amendment. But FANSFA would apply to a broader suite of law enforcement agencies and is not contingent upon Senate passage of the defense bill.

FANSFA would close a data-broker loophole that opens to warrantless government examination information from websites, social networks, gaming platforms and other online applications that are routinely used by people in the United States. The data includes geolocation information and other details that the government can use to determine Americans’ activities, associations, and even beliefs — with law enforcement and intelligence agencies disproportionately using this information to track and target people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, and dissidents.

New York to pay $13.7m to George Floyd protesters arrested or beaten by police

New York City has agreed to pay more than $13m to thousands of people who say they were arrested or beaten by NYPD officers during racial justice protests in 2020. On Wednesday, the city accepted a sum of $13.7m to settle a class-action lawsuit. The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, would be among the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a suit over mass arrests.

The civil rights lawsuit focuses on 18 different protests that took place during racial justice demonstrations in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis sparked nationwide and international protests over police misconduct and systemic racism.

Attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild, which represented the plaintiffs in New York, accused NYPD leaders of depriving protesters of their first amendment rights through a “coordinated” campaign of indiscriminate brutality and unlawful arrests.

Adama Sow, one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said their group of marchers were trapped by police without warning. Sow and the other arrestees were placed in zip ties until their hands turned purple, they said, then held in a sweltering city government bus for several hours. “It was so disorganized, but so intentional,” Sow said. “They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”

With certain exceptions, people arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers at those protests will each be eligible for $9,950 in compensation, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs. The agreement, one of many stemming from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, allows the city to avoid an expensive and politically fraught trial.

HOT STRIKE SUMMER? Labor Fights Loom As Multiple Industries Walk Off Duty For Better Worker Rights

Texas worker accused of being on drugs was actually dying of heatstroke

The mother of a 24-year-old worker who died from heatstroke while working for a construction firm in San Antonio, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against his employer. Gabriel Infante was working for B Comm Constructors in San Antonio, Texas, on 23 June 2022, digging in the hot summer sun to move internet fiber optic cable, a job he had recently started with a childhood best friend while they were finishing college.

The lawsuit comes after Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed a controversial bill into law on 14 June that prohibits local municipalities from enacting heat protection standards for construction workers. The bill nullifies ordinances previously passed in Austin and Dallas that mandated 10-minute breaks for workers every four hours. A similar ordinance was being considered in San Antonio before the state bill was passed.

According to the lawsuit, Infante began exhibiting heatstroke symptoms including confusion, altered mental state, dizziness and loss of consciousness. His friend and co-worker Joshua Espinoza began pouring cold water over him, trying to cool him down. A foreman insisted Espinoza call the police, claiming Infante’s bizarre behavior was due to drugs, and the foreman pushed for a drug test when emergency medical services arrived.

On the day of the incident, temperatures in San Antonio reached in excess of 100F (37.7C) with humidity levels reaching as high as 75%, noted the lawsuit. Infante later died in a hospital from severe heatstroke and had a recorded internal temperature of 109.8F (43.2C). The Center for Disease Control states a body temperature of 103F (39.4C) or higher is a main symptom of heatstroke. ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a fine of $13,052 against the construction firm for failing to protect workers from heat hazards on the job, which the company is contesting.

Biden-Bribe Document Alleges BURISMA Chief COERCED TO Pay Joe, Hunter During VP Years: Report

Leading Nasa climate expert says July likely to be hottest month on record

July will likely be Earth’s hottest month in hundreds if not thousands of years, Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told reporters on Thursday, as a persistent heatwave baked swaths of the US south.

Schmidt made the announcement during a meeting at Nasa’s Washington headquarters that convened agency climate experts and other leaders, including Nasa administrator Bill Nelson and chief scientist and senior climate adviser Kate Calvin.

The meeting came during a summer that has put the climate crisis on full display. Deadly floods have struck New England. Canadian wildfire smoke has choked US cities. And tens of millions of people have been placed under heat advisories, with areas across the US south and west breaking temperature records.

“We are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world,” Schmidt said.

Though the changes may feel shocking, they are “not a surprise” to scientists, he added. “There has been a decade-on-decade increase in temperatures throughout the last four decades.”

‘People need to be riled up’: meteorologist names US heatwaves after oil and gas giants

The summer’s heatwaves have been so blistering they have inspired their own names. In Europe they have been called nightmarish figures from Greek mythology, but one meteorologist in the US has taken a more pointed approach – by naming the country’s heatwaves after the oil and gas companies that have worsened the climate crisis.

The heatwave that has baked much of the US south-west in recent weeks, helping bring a record-breaking string of days over (43C) 110F to Phoenix, has been named Heatwave Chevron by Guy Walton, a veteran former Weather Channel meteorologist.

Walton, who now runs a blog on weather as well as writing a range of children’s books he calls “Harry Potter meets the climate crisis”, has already christened two previous heatwaves this summer Amoco and BP, after two other oil companies.

The rebadging of heatwaves as being directly the fault of companies like Chevron is “a naming and shaming thing”, according to Walton, who wants weather forecasters and the media to be more explicit between the links between extreme heat and the burning of fossil fuels that has caused the climate crisis.

“I’m trying to be a bug in the ear of my compatriots to take what I’m doing and run with it,” he said. “I realize what I’m doing is controversial and corporate media will want to steer clear of it, but people need to be riled up. I don’t think we need to pull any punches. If it causes consternation, so be it.”

Walton has devised his own criteria for named heatwaves in the US, based on duration and extremity, on a one to five scale similar to hurricanes. Heatwave Chevron is classed as a four and is “historic”, Walton said. The meteorologist said he has a list of 20 oil and gas companies – including Exxon and Shell – for upcoming heatwaves and will turn to coal companies if he runs out of names.

Mercury exposure linked to high youth suicides in Canada First Nation

Decades of mercury exposure has been linked to the high youth suicide rates in an Indigenous community in Canada, in the latest finding to underscore the catastrophic legacy of environmental contamination. Researchers who studied three generations of mothers and their children from the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, have concluded that sustained exposure to the toxic metal helped cause a suicide rate three times higher than any other First Nations community – which are already far higher than among the country’s general population.

Grassy Narrows was the site of mercury dumping for nearly a decade after 1963, when a paper company released more than 20,000lb of mercury into the Wabigoon and English river systems. Fish, including walleye, were soon too poisonous to consume. The dumping is believed to have contaminated more than 150 miles of watershed. A single gram of mercury is sufficient to make all fish in a 20-hectare radius unsafe for consumption – but the Grassy Narrows dumping was 9m times larger.

Before the mercury dumping, the community had not reported any youth suicide attempts, but in the generations after the contamination, the rate of youth suicide attempts in Grassy Narrows far surpassed that of other First Nations in the country. Mothers from Grassy Narrows reported that more than 40% of young adolescents from the community had attempted suicide.

The researchers, who published their findings in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health Perspective journal, examined 80 mothers and 162 children between the ages of five and 17. They initially suspected that the consumption of mercury-tainted fish led to nervous system disorders and psychological distress. “You can see this cascade of effects,” Donna Mergler, the study’s lead author, said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We found that the mother’s childhood mercury exposure is associated with today’s nervous system disorders, as well as a psychological distress.”

Mergler and other researchers studied the mothers’ umbilical cords, which had traces of their grandmothers’ mercury exposure.

Catch her if you can: viral surfboard-swiping otter is on the loose, and fans love it

A five-year-old sea otter who gained notoriety for commandeering surfboards has continued her reign as a viral sensation as she’s managed to avoid multiple efforts to capture her.

For days, staff with California’s department of fish and wildlife (CDFW) and the Monterey Bay aquarium have attempted to catch otter 841 – but she has given them the slip each time.

The mammal’s actions have delighted online commenters who have cheered her on as she jumps on and off CDFW boards and avoids the nets that staff try to lure her into. But experts emphasize that 841 must be caught for her own wellbeing and safety because she’s been exhibiting worrying behavior for a sea otter in the wild.

“It’s highly unusual behavior,” said Kevin Connor, a spokesperson for the Monterey Bay aquarium. “There are about 3,000 southern sea otters in central California. This is the only incident taking place right now.”

The aquatic mammal rose to prominence for her unusual interactions with surfers. She’s been photographed and filmed atop boards that she’s seized from riders and most recently has been spotted eluding the CDFW’s nets. Photographer Mark Woodward, who goes by Native Santa Cruz on social media, and the environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney have been sharing 841’s latest exploits through photos posted to social media.

Also of Interest

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

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Nina Simone’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!

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Biden Ukraine крыша. My dog is smarter. Now or never for Elensky. Dems smear RFK Jr.

If I were President w/ Dr. Cornel West

A Little Night Music

Anson Funderburgh & Sam Myers - Let the good times roll

Anson Funderburgh & Sam Myers - Change In My Pocket

Anson Funderburgh and The Rockets - Sidetracked

Anson Funderburgh & Sam Myers - Can We Get Together

Lee Roy Parnell and Anson Funderburgh - T Bone shuffle

Little Charlie Baty, Mark Hummel & Anson Funderburgh - The Hustle is On

Anson Funderburgh and The Rockets - Backstroke

Anson Funderburgh, Mike Morgan & Shawn Pittman - Texas Blues Guitar Summit, Bischofsmühle Hildesheim

Otis Grand and Anson Funderburgh - Blues For Ike

Little Charlie Baty & Anson Funderburgh - Frosty

Golden State Lone Star Blues Revue (Full Set) - 2016