US News Former Kent Washington Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell will receive more than $1.5 million from the city after being fired for displaying Nazi symbols. [Link] The White House is lifting its requirement that international travelers test negative for COVID-19 within a day before boarding a flight to the US. [Link] The Navy temporarily suspends flight operations. In the last two weeks, there have been five mishaps. [Link] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says the global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the Cold...
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US Official Admits Russian Energy Sales Outpacing Pre-War Levels
US energy security envoy Amos Hochstein has acknowledged that Russia might be making more revenue from fossil fuels than before its February invasion of Ukraine. Washington has responded with waves of sanctions aiming to crush the Russian economy. Hochstein made the comments during a hearing for the Senate Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation. In response to a question about whether Moscow was making more money now off its fossil fuel sales, Hochstein said, “I can’t deny that.” In May, the International Energy Agency said that Russia's oil revenue was up 50% this...
New US Sanctions Bar Americans From Buying Russian Debt & Stocks
The Treasury Department has issued a new decree prohibiting money managers from trading in Russian debt or stocks in US secondary markets. The latest round of sanctions comes as Washington attempts to further isolate Moscow in retaliation for its attack on Ukraine.
5/9/22 Misty Winston on the Effort to Pardon Leonard Peltier
Download Episode. Scott is joined by activist and podcast host Misty Winston to discuss the case of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement member who was charged with killing two FBI agents in 1975. Supporters of Peltier argue that he was charged without sufficient proof and has thus been illegally held in a maximum-security prison for almost 47 years. Winston gives some background on Peltier’s case, the political and historical context that he was charged under and finally the effort to get him a presidential pardon— or at least a new trial. Winston directs the audience to some...
No, Disney World Isn’t the First of ‘One Thousand Liechtensteins’
One of the stranger narratives coming out of the controversy over Disney's "special district" in Florida is the notion that Disney's Florida property is some sort of truly independent self-governing entity operating without government oversight. Most claims in this regard wildly overestimate the degree to which Disney enjoys self-governance. Some also claim that Disney's Florida special district represents some sort of model for a truly "private city" in the model of a sovereign city-state. Or as one Twitter commenter put it, "Unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my...
US Declares Support for Venezuela Regime Change Effort
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would continue to back Juan Guaido’s claim to power in Venezuela. The statement came just weeks after the White House held talks with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
Support Ukraine’s Independence? Then Support Secession Everywhere
By now, it should be abundantly clear to all that the official U.S. regime narrative on Ukraine is that one is supposed to be in favor of Ukrainian political independence. That is, we’re supposed to support the idea that Ukraine is a separate state that is politically independent from the Russian state. By extension, of course, the idea that Ukraine is a sovereign state also implies it is separate from all other states as well. But how did Ukraine get that way? States, of course, don’t appear out of nowhere. They generally come into being through one of two ways, or a combination of both....
UK Wants ‘Global NATO’ Capable of Defending Pacific
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said her government favors the creation of a “global NATO” that is able to guarantee the defense of Taiwan and the broader Pacific region, calling for preemptive action against would-be aggressors.
Elon Musk is Angering the Right People
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Twitter’s senior management and Elon Musk are in the final stages of agreeing on terms for Musk’s proposed takeover of the social media platform. Musk had announced on April 21 that he had $46.5 billion lined up—half in cash, half financed by his bankers Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Bank of America—for a purchase of the company. Musk was offering $54.20 per share for the takeover at a time when Twitter’s stock price was In the mid forties. This followed a spending spree that began in early 2022 and resulted in Musk owning more than 9 percent of...
VP Harris Announces Moratorium on ‘Destructive’ Anti-Satellite Weapons Tests
The US will enter a self-imposed moratorium on anti-satellite missile tests. Vice President Kamala Harris called out other countries to follow the US lead while making the announcement.