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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Ishmon Bracey

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Mississippi bluesman Ishmon Bracey. Enjoy!

^{Ishman Bracey - Saturday Blues}

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy- to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

-- Bibi Netanyahu

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News and Opinion

Chris Hedges: Let Them Eat Cement

Israel, with the backing of its U.S. and European allies, is preparing to launch not only a scorched earth campaign in Gaza but the worst ethnic cleansing since the wars in the former Yugoslavia. The goal is to drive tens, most probably hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the southern border at Rafah into refugee camps in Egypt. The reverberations will be catastrophic, not only for the Palestinians, but throughout the region, almost certainly triggering armed clashes to the north of Israel with Hezbollah in Lebanon and perhaps with Syria and Iran. The Biden administration, slavishly doing Israel’s bidding, is fueling the madness. The U.S. was the only country to veto the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian pauses to deliver food, medicine, water and fuel to Gaza. It has blocked proposals for a ceasefire. It has proposed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that says Israel has a right to defend itself. The resolution also demands Iran stop exporting arms to “militias and terrorist groups threatening peace and security across the region.”

The U.S. and its Western allies are as morally bankrupt and as complicit in genocide as those who witnessed the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and did nothing. ...

Israel has unleashed its Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Death, Famine, War and Conquest.

It has given Gazans two choices. Leave Gaza or die.

Palestinians will be killed not only from the bombs and shells, and eventually, with the ground invasion, bullets and tank shells, but from hunger and epidemics such as cholera. Without water, fuel and medicine and with the breakdown of sanitation, diseases will spread swiftly. The U.N. states that hospitals in Gaza “are on the brink of collapse.” Thousands of patients will die once fuel runs out for hospital generators. ... The handful of trucks, 37 so far, of aid into Gaza is a cynical public relations gimmick demanded by the Biden administration. It will do little to alleviate the Israeli-engineered humanitarian crisis. The U.N. increase its airstrikes. It will continue, as it has for the past two weeks, to extinguish the lives of Palestinians and terrorize and starve them into leaving Gaza. The ground assault on Gaza will not be quick. It will involve weeks, perhaps months, of street fighting. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin compared the looming battle in Gaza to the U.S. assault on the Iraqi city of Mosul, held by ISIS, in 2014. It took the U.S. nine months to recapture Mosul. When Israel says this will be a “long war” they are, for once, telling the truth.

Egyptian officials are acutely aware of what comes next. Up to half, maybe more, of the 2.3 million Palestinians will be pushed by Israel into Egypt on Gaza’s southern border and never be allowed to return. “What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refuge and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted,” Egyptian president Abdulfattah al-Sisi warned. Reports out of Egypt contend that Washington has promised to forgive much of Egypt’s massive $162.9 billion debt, as well as offer other economic incentives in exchange for Egypt’s acquiescence to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The refugees, once they cross the border into Egypt, will be left to rot in the Sinai. ...

Where are our humanitarian interventionists? The ones who wept crocodile tears about the human rights of Ukranians, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans and Afghans, to justify massive arms shipments and war? Where is the old anti-war wing of the Democratic Party and the liberal class? What has happened to the public intellectuals who used to decry the slaughter of innocents and the U.S. war machine? Where are the jurists who uphold the rule of international law? Why are the few lonely voices speaking out about Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians attacked, censored and doxxed? ...

Israel will not halt its genocidal campaign in Gaza against the Palestinians until there is a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. Our weapons systems, munitions and attack aircraft sustain the slaughter. We must terminate the $3.8 billion in military aid that the U.S. gives to Israel each year. We must support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and demand suspension of all free trade and other agreements between the U.S. and Israel. Only when these props are knocked out from under Israel will the Israeli leadership be forced, as was the apartheid regime in South Africa, to integrate Palestinians into one state with equal rights. As long as these props remain, the Palestinians are doomed.

Is Israel's Endgame to Clear Out Gaza? Egypt Says No to Palestinian Refugees, Fearing New Nakba

I’m constantly in awe of more and more Palestinians refusing misleading framings from mainstream media. This @Yaraeid_ interview on Sky News is an absolute must-see. pic.twitter.com/xGgUWQlfft

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 21, 2023

Israel hits Gaza with one of deadliest nights of bombings so far

The blockaded Gaza Strip has been hit by one of the deadliest nights of Israeli bombing so far in the war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as two more hostages were freed amid reports that talks to secure the release of dozens of others were under way.

At least 400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and 70 were killed overnight on Sunday in bombardments of the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp and streets close to two hospitals in Gaza City.

Entire residential blocks across the strip have now been levelled, including in areas where Palestinians had been told by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to seek refuge. Approximately half the strip’s housing stock, and much of the coastal exclave, is now covered in grey rubble dust. ...

A third aid convoy, of 20 trucks, entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Monday after being checked by Israeli officials – a welcome development for Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, who are trapped and running out of food and clean water.

Fourteen trucks arrived on Sunday, and 20 the day before that, but the UN has said the volume of aid that has entered so far was just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities erupted, and at least 100 trucks a day are needed as medicines and fuel run out and the healthcare system verges on collapse. The lack of fuel, which Israel has so far not allowed in, has crippled the electricity supply and water and sanitation systems.

China, Russia Deploy Forces MidEast, US Fears Superpower Conflict; Israel Delay As US Deploys Forces

Nowhere does this AP article on a Palestinian-American's family casualties in Gaza name Israel as the one dropping the bombs. "the blast at a hospital", "a bomb hit her family's home"... Bombs just drop from the sky & spray shrapnel & flatten homes.https://t.co/jOqKCtcBdj pic.twitter.com/C6WVujucRJ

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) October 22, 2023

Israel Ramps Up Assault on West Bank With Airstrike on Mosque, Deadly Raids

An airstrike at Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday represented what health officials called a "dangerous escalation" of the Israeli military's attacks on the Palestinian territory, where civilians have been under assault since Israel began a sustained air campaign to retaliate for a surprise Hamas attack on October 7.

At least two people were killed when an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warplane struck a mosque in densely populated Jenin at about 3:00 am local time Sunday. At least three others were injured and the mosque sustained major damage.

Israeli authorities claimed it had targeted an underground "terror compound" where Hamas was operating, butThe New York Times and Middle East Eye both reported that the claim could not be independently verified.

International attention has largely been turned to Gaza since Israel's bombardment began, with the IDF killing at least 5,087 people in the blockaded enclave since Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a "complete siege" there.

In the West Bank, at least 91 people—including 29 children—have been killed in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 7, while the IDF has further restricted the movement of people in the region, where residents regularly face dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks when trying to travel through the territory.

Israeli authorities have closed checkpoints and imposed stringent restrictions on travel across the West Bank's border with Jordan.

IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers have also raided towns and refugee camps including Nour Shams, where soldiers killed 13 Palestinians, including five children, last Thursday in a 24-hour siege.

On Monday, residents of Jalazone refugee camp toldReuters that Israeli soldiers had killed at least two people and made "widespread arrests" in an overnight raid.

"Here at Jalazone refugee camp, the Israeli army carries out raids three to four times a week," Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, head of the services committee for the camp, told Al Jazeera.

At least 35 people in the camp, which is north of the central city of Ramallah, have been detained since October 7.

Among those killed over the weekend was 15-year-old Mohammad Qasem Mohammad Abu Zer, who was shot in the chest by a sniper in the village of Zawata. The boy joined other young people in throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles as the IDF entered their town and surrounded their neighbor's house.

Two other young people who approached Abu Zer after the shooting—including his 18-year-old brother, Jamil, were also shot by Israeli snipers.

"Israeli forces are increasingly and brazenly killing Palestinian children throughout the West Bank," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at Defense for Children International—Palestine. "At this moment, there is absolutely no check on Israeli aggression as the international community enables war crimes through the provision of weapons and financial and diplomatic support to ensure Israeli forces and officers enjoy impunity regardless of the gravity of crimes."

Violence by settlers has also risen by 40% in the West Bank in the last two weeks, MEE reported.

Three Palestinians in the village of Wadi al-Seeq, 10 miles east of Ramallah, toldHaaretz last week that they and a group of pro-Palestinian rights Israeli activists were apprehended by armed settlers and IDF soldiers on October 12 when they were trying to evacuate the town. They were taken to an abandoned building where the soldiers beat and abused them for several hours, with one reporting he was sexually assaulted.

Villagers in the West Bank told the BBC on Saturday that Israeli settlers are "taking advantage" of the international focus on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza "by entering villages and expelling, and even killing, Palestinian civilians," with the settlers often accompanied by IDF forces.

The Israeli human rights group Israeli B'Tselem told the outlet it has documented "a concerted and organized effort by settlers to use the fact that the entire international and local attention is focused on Gaza and the north of Israel to try to seize land in the West Bank," carrying out a long-term goal of the Israeli government.

"Settlers all over the West Bank see this war as a golden opportunity to torment Palestinians from small communities who are literally defenseless," said Sarit Michaeli, international advocacy lead for B'Tselem, recently.

Last week, Israeli National Security Minister Itar Ben Gvir said the government would purchase 10,000 rifles to arm Israeli civilians, including settlers in the West Bank.

Hamas attacks did not happen 'in a vacuum', Guterres says

Blinken Rejects Idea of Gaza Ceasefire Despite Massive Child Casualties

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday rejected the idea of the US calling for a ceasefire in Gaza when confronted with the massive number of child casualties in Israel’s onslaught.

“UNICEF says 1,524 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip during these bombings. Why isn’t the US calling for at least a temporary ceasefire?” Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” asked Blinken.

Blinken claimed that the death of children on both sides hits him “right in the heart” but did not criticize Israel’s vicious bombing campaign. He pointed to US efforts to get Israel to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza through Egypt, and Brennan then asked why the US isn’t pushing for at least a temporary ceasefire.

“Israel has to do everything it can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Blinken said, referring to the October 7 Hamas attack. “Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it’s done some time in the future. No country could accept that,” Blinken said.

White House Says Israel Will Decide on Gaza Strategy

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Israel will decide on its Gaza strategy in response to media reports that said the US was urging a delay to the ground invasion of Gaza.

The New York Times reported that the US advised delaying the ground offensive to buy time for hostage negotiations and allow more humanitarian aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip. The report said the US also wanted more time to deploy additional military assets to the region as attacks on US forces are expected to increase once Israel invades Gaza.

Israel’s Army Radio reported Monday that Israel had decided to delay the invasion to allow more US forces to deploy to the region, but the report hasn’t been confirmed. According to The Times of Israel, Kirby said Israel’s political and military leaders will make the decisions on Israel’s Gaza operations and that the US is only asking questions. A source told The Times of Israel that the US does not intend to pressure Israel on its military strategy publicly.

TOP US General DESIGNING Israel Gaza Attack

Controversy over European climate activists’ criticism of Israel

European climate activists have staged protests and posted messages in support of Palestinians, prompting an online backlash and raising internal questions within the environmental movement. ... Dutch authorities detained 19 activists from Extinction Rebellion on Monday after they occupied the entrance to the international criminal court and claimed Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had committed “war crimes” and presided over an “apartheid regime” – charges that the Israeli government denies.

The protesters demanded the Dutch government stop military cooperation with Israel. The group said they also speak out “against the rising antisemitism we are now seeing worldwide”. Three days earlier, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg drew criticism from Israel for a social media post in support of Palestine. ...

European climate movements widely condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year and saw little backlash for doing so. But the mass killing of civilians on both sides in Israel and Palestine has exposed divisions.

US ATTACKED In Syria As More Troops Dispatched

CONFIRMED: CIA Behind Nordstream, Moscow Assassinations

Argentina: leftists celebrate after far-right Milei fails to win election victory

Leading Latin American leftists have celebrated the thwarting of Javier Milei’s attempt to claim a first-round victory in Argentina’s presidential election after the far-right populist was beaten by his centrist rival Sergio Massa.

Milei, an oddball economist who has called climate change a “socialist lie” and the pope “a lefty son of a bitch”, had hoped an explosion of anti-establishment rage would catapult him into the presidency on Sunday as 27 million Argentinians turned out to vote amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

But Milei, who was widely regarded as the election frontrunner, was pipped to the post by the Peronist finance minister Massa, who received 36.6% of votes to Milei’s 29.9%. The two men will now face off in a second-round showdown on 19 November.

Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, led the celebration of Milei’s unexpected setback, which dealt a bitter blow to members of the global far right hoping a Milei victory would allow them to make a powerful show of strength.

“Argentina has defeated barbarism,” Petro tweeted. “This is the time of hope.” Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also commemorated a result most polls had failed to foresee. “Formidable, my friend,” Lula reportedly wrote in a private message to Massa, according to the Argentinian newspaper Clarín.

Venezuela: Machado takes big early lead in presidential primary vote

Early returns in the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary have given a big lead to former legislator María Corina Machado, who quickly claimed victory as the candidate to end the decade-long, crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro.

The independent National Primary Commission, which organised the vote, said about 93% of the first 601,110 ballots counted went to Machado, who entered the contest as a strong frontrunner. The rest of the votes were scattered among the other nine candidates. There was no indication of how many people had voted, and organisers were expected to release additional results throughout Monday.

Bob Menendez pleads not guilty to charges of acting as an agent of Egypt

Bob Menendez returned to court in New York on Monday and entered a not guilty plea to a charge alleging that the US senator conspired to act as an agent of the Egyptian government when he chaired the Senate foreign relations committee.

Menendez, 69, spoke up to say “not guilty” when offered the chance to make his plea during his first appearance before Judge Sidney Stein at federal court in lower Manhattan. Stein is expected to preside over a trial tentatively scheduled for May.

Stein said the plea was the sole purpose for the hearing and adjourned the proceeding after about five minutes.

The Democratic senator from New Jersey stepped down from his powerful post leading the Senate committee after he was charged last month. Prosecutors said the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car over the past five years from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for a variety of corrupt acts.

The other defendants entered not guilty charges to a superseding indictment last week. The senator was permitted to delay his arraignment so he could tend to Senate duties. He has said that throughout his life he has been loyal to the US and that he will prove he is innocent.

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House GOP Hold SECRET BALLOT Speaker Vote; WATCH Matt Gaetz' STUNNING TAKEDOWN Of Establishment

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Rapid ice melt in west Antarctica now inevitable, research shows

Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter how much carbon emissions are cut, research indicates. The implications for sea level rise are “dire”, scientists say, and mean some coastal cities may have to be abandoned.

The ice sheet of west Antarctica would push up the oceans by 5 metres if lost completely. Previous studies have suggested it is doomed to collapse over the course of centuries, but the new study shows that even drastic emissions cuts in the coming decades will not slow the melting.

The analysis shows the rate of melting of the floating ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea will be three times faster this century compared with the previous century, even if the world meets the most ambitious Paris agreement target of keeping global heating below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Losing the floating ice shelves means the glacial ice sheets on land are freed to slide more rapidly into the ocean. Many millions of people live in coastal cities that are vulnerable to sea level rise, from New York to Mumbai to Shanghai, and more than a third of the global population lives within 62 miles (100km) of the coast.

‘Carbon mega bomb’: climate experts urge Biden to block gas export hub

Joe Biden’s administration is under mounting pressure to block construction of what would be one of the world’s largest gas export hubs, and which would be perched near the rapidly eroding Louisiana shoreline, due to concerns over its impact on the climate and communities living amid an unprecedented expansion of new gas infrastructure along the Gulf of Mexico.

The $10bn project, known as Calcasieu Pass 2 (or CP2), is being planned for Cameron parish, on Louisiana’s coast. It would involve bringing gas extracted via fracking through a new pipeline to a terminal where it would be condensed into liquid, chilled to -260F (-162C) and sent on ships for export to other markets, including in Europe.

CP2, which would ship up to 24m tons of liquified natural gas (LNG) each year once built, is at the vanguard of a huge surge in new gas pipelines and terminals that are increasingly dotting the Gulf coast. The Biden administration, which has so far mostly allowed this enormous build-out, has talked up gas exports to European allies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Environmental groups have warned that Biden risks blowing apart his own efforts to combat the climate crisis in the US and endanger international climate goals by allowing terminals such as CP2, which is likely to be decided upon by federal regulators within the next month. “That we would even consider doing anything like this in 2023, which scientists have told us is the hottest year we have experienced on this planet for 125,000 years, is obscene and dangerous,” said Bill McKibben, the climate activist and co-founder of 350.org, who said the magnitude of the new gas facilities is still largely unknown to most Americans.

“The world has never been hotter – why on Earth are we even talking about finding a way to spew even more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere?”

Death Valley visitors delight in rare ephemeral lakes left behind by storm

After months of closure, visitors to Death Valley national park are being greeted by stunning new features, including lakes left behind by a ferocious summer deluge. The park reopened last week after being shuttered in August, when a record-breaking tropical storm unleashed a year’s worth of rain in a single day. ...

The floodwaters have transformed the famous Badwater Basin salt flats, which are now covered in shimmering water believed to be about 2ft deep. “That’s what it was in 2005, the last time there was a significant lake there,” park ranger Matthew Lamar, told the Los Angeles Times.

While the park is experiencing its wettest moment in close to two decades, the waters won’t last long. “It depends in part on temperatures,” Lamar added, but with the landscape’s high evaporation rate, there may be just weeks before they recede.

The basin, which sprawls across close to 200 sq miles and typically features striking salt formations, once housed an ancient lake that evaporated tens of thousands of years ago. At 282ft below sea level, it’s the lowest point in North America.

This year marked the second consecutive year in which the park was forced to close due to a record-breaking rain event, and crews are still working to repair damage left in 2022. The fierce downpour this past summer added to the destruction as roads were washed away and infrastructure was doused in mud.

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Also of Interest

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

The Penny Drops - The World Is Multi-Polar

Forget 'peace,' did Abraham Accords set stage for Israel-Gaza conflict?

Is the US about to blindly march into yet another catastrophic war?

Ilan Pappé — ‘Dehistoricizing Oct. 7’

Church of England Joins Call for Cease-Fire in Gaza, Breaking With UK Government

Israeli Military Says Soldier Killed During Raid Into Gaza

Israel to Consider Civilians ‘Terrorist Accomplices’ If They Stay in North Gaza

Israeli Official Vows to Wipe Iran ‘Off the Face of the Earth’ If Hezbollah Enters War

Did the Iraqi Prime Minister Threaten to Cut Oil Supplies over Gaza?

British Intelligence Says Russian Casualties Up 90% + Palestine Update

How Leonard Leo’s project to reshape US judiciary got its start in Wisconsin

‘Crabs everywhere’: off Canada’s Pacific coast, Indigenous Haida fight a host of invasive species

Palestinian American Journalist Rami Khouri on Israel's Gaza Bombardment & Risk of a Regional War

Tucker: Israel Gaza Attack GUARANTEES US Iran War

Hamas RELEASES Elderly Hostages, Kidnappee's HANDSHAKE With Captor Goes Viral

Justin Amash Shares HARROWING Image Of Baby Relative Who Died In Israeli Church Strike

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A Little Night Music

Ishman Bracey - My Brown Mamma Blues

Ishmon Bracey - Woman Woman Blues

Ishman Bracey - The Four Day Blues

Ishman Bracey - Left Alone Blues

Ishman Bracey - Trouble Hearted Blues

Ishman Bracey - Leavin' Town Blues (Alternate Take)

Ishman Bracey and His New Orleans Nehi Boys - Pay Me No Mind Blues

Ishman Bracey - Farish Street Rag

Ishman Bracey - Bust up Blues

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