The Evening Blues - 11-9-23



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Earl Hooker

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Earl Hooker. Enjoy!

Earl Hooker ~ Blue Guitar

"The question “How can Israel destroy Hamas if there’s a ceasefire?” is infinitely less relevant and interesting than the question “How can Israel continue to exist as a Zionist ethnostate without apartheid and abuse and nonstop murder and endless warfare?”"

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

US & Israel Poised to Open Lebanon Front

The announcement late Sunday night by the U.S. Central Command, headquartered, in Doha about the arrival of an Ohio-class U.S. nuclear submarine in its “area of responsibility” presages a significant escalation of the Palestine-Israel conflict. ... Interestingly, CENTCOM also separately shared an image of a nuclear-capable B-1 bomber operating in the Middle East.


Arguably, the most charitable explanation for the deployment of a U.S. nuclear submarine, which forms part of the Pentagon’s “nuclear triad” — Ohio-class boats are the largest submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy — near the war zone is that the Biden administration is preparing for an escalation of the war into Lebanon to draw out Hezbollah, which may in turn trigger an Iranian reaction. ...

Meanwhile, China and the U.A.E. have since called for a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council in another attempt to seek an immediate ceasefire, which the Biden administration will certainly oppose. The Biden administration feels boxed in and the only way out is by something giving way through coercive means.

The U.S. is watching with frustration as new regional equations are appearing among Muslim nations. The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia held another phone conversation on Monday. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation later announced that an extraordinary summit will be held in Riyadh on Nov. 12 at the request of its current chairman, Saudi Arabia, to discuss Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people. Certainly, the Iran-Saudi rapprochement, mediated by Beijing, has profoundly transformed the regional security environment with regional states distinctly preferring to find solutions to their problems without outside interference. The old schisms and xenophobia promoted by the U.S. to perpetuate its dominance no longer have any takers.

The Fars News Agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also disclosed that Khamenei held a “recent meeting in Tehran” with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, in which he told Haniyeh that Tehran’s support for the resistance groups is its “permanent policy.” Evidently, Tehran no longer sees a problem in acknowledging its fraternal links with the resistance groups. This is a paradigm shift indicative of the new power dynamic, which the U.S. and Israel are compelled to counter through use of force, Washington’s diplomacy having failed to to isolate Iran. ...

There is no question that the location of the U.S. nuclear submarine to the east of Suez is an attempt to intimidate Iran from intervening, while Israel, with US backing, proceeds to open a second front in Lebanon. No, this won’t turn into a world war. It will be fought in the Middle East only, but its outcome will significantly impact the making of a new multipolar world order. The past month has shown the precipitous decline of U.S. influence and the highly volatile global environment since the war began in Ukraine in February last year.

Pentagon Doubts Israel Gaza Success; US Blames Iran, Shia Militias Attack US Bases

Israel cannot reoccupy Gaza at end of conflict, says Antony Blinken

Israel must not reoccupy Gaza, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said, adding however that Israel might control the territory for a transition period. The comments, made at the end of a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan, echoed White House remarks on Tuesday suggesting opposition to a long-term occupation of Gaza.

The G7 called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict, and urged Israel to comply with humanitarian law, but did not say in its joint statement whether Israel was currently doing so.

By contrast the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said there was something “clearly wrong” with Israel’s military operations against Hamas when so many civilians were being killed. “There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields,” Guterres said. “But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations there is something that is clearly wrong.”

Israel Cedes To Daily, 4-Hour 'HUMANITARIAN PAUSES' In Northern Gaza

Investigation disproves Israel claim of Hamas tunnel under Gaza hospital

Sanad, Al Jazeera’s digital investigation agency, has disproved the latest claim by Israeli authorities that there is a tunnel for Hamas fighters under the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Hospital, commonly known as the Qatari Hospital.

Israeli authorities have often claimed that there are command bunkers and main tunnels running under Gaza hospitals as a justification for targeting health facilities, which are protected in war by international law.


A video released by Israel’s military showed a hatch in the hospital courtyard, right next to an exterior wall, that they alleged leads to a Hamas tunnel.

However, Sanad’s investigation shows that this is simply the access hatch for a water reservoir that the hospital uses to fill therapeutic pools for amputees, water the grounds, and a reserve water source in case of emergency.

Sanad analysed satellite footage and archives of the hospital’s construction and spoke to one of the original engineers who built it.

Palestine Red Crescent Says Gaza’s Hospitals Are Out of Solutions

'The Rain of Bombs Is Inhumane': Belgian Deputy PM Calls For Sanctions on Israel

As most Western leaders stand staunchly with Israel as it wages what many experts have described as a genocidal war on Gaza, a top Cabinet member of a NATO nation on Wednesday implored her government to sanction Israel and call for the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes committed by Israeli forces and Hamas.

"It's time for sanctions against Israel," Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter, a member of the center-left Groen (Green) party, said on social media.

"The rain of bombs is inhumane," she continued. "While war crimes are being committed in Gaza, Israel is ignoring international demands for a cease-fire."


"I am calling on the federal government to sanction Israel," De Sutter declared. "How? The International Criminal Court must be able to expand and strengthen the ongoing investigation into war crimes. There must be an investigation into the bombing of hospitals and refugee camps."

"This is war violence that is never, ever acceptable," she stressed. "Belgium must not support this violation of international law."

"There must be an import ban on products in our supermarkets that come from illegal settlements," De Sutter argued. "In addition, Israel's Association Agreement with Europe must be immediately suspended. There can be no business as usual."

"Human rights are for everyone. The Palestinians are in a state of total hopelessness," she said. "That is why a political solution is required in which Palestine is recognized as a state and the initial pre-1967 borders are respected."

"I also continue to reiterate that Hamas must release the hostages," De Sutter added, referring to around 240 people kidnapped from Israel. "And we must dry up the flow of money to this terrorist organization."

On Wednesday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that "the collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians amounts... to a war crime, as does the unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians."

While eight nations—Bahrain, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Jordan, South Africa, and Turkey—have recalled their ambassadors from Israel and Bolivia has completely severed diplomatic ties, no European country has taken such steps, and very few European leaders have gone as far as De Sutter in calling for punitive measures.

Last month, Spanish Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra, who also leads the leftist Podemos party, urged her country's coalition government to petition the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza and for cutting off food, fuel, and electricity from the besieged strip's 2.3 million residents.

WHO warns of ‘worrying trends’ in disease in Gaza

The Gaza Strip faces an increased risk of disease spreading due to Israeli air bombardments that have disrupted the health system, access to clean water and caused people to crowd in shelters, the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday. ...

It said that the lack of fuel in the densely populated enclave had caused desalination plants to shut down, which increased the risk of bacterial infections like diarrhoea spreading.

WHO said that more than 33,551 cases of diarrhoea had been reported since mid-October, the bulk of which among children under five.

It said the number of children affected marked a significant increase compared to an average of 2,000 cases monthly in that age group throughout 2021 and 2022.

Batya Ungar-Sargon Pushes Back on Israel-Gaza, International Law, & More | SYSTEM UPDATE

Netanyahu vows Israel “will not stop,” as humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens

Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped in the northern Gaza Strip, which Israeli forces have virtually sealed off as part of their genocidal onslaught on the Palestinians. Events over recent days make it increasingly clear that the far-right Netanyahu regime is carrying out a vicious campaign to ethnically cleanse the northern regions of the Gaza Strip, while expanding military operations in the West Bank and on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

“The Israeli military offensive has caused the largest mass displacement of Palestinians in such a short period of time since the 1948 Nakba: around 1,500,000 or about 65 percent of Gaza’s population, are now internally displaced inside Gaza,” noted three Palestinian rights groups, Al Mezan, Al-Haq and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, in a statement.

Reports Tuesday revealed that due to a lack of flour and fuel, which Israel has refused to allow into Gaza since its bombardment began, no large bakeries are operating north of the line established by the Israeli military to cut Gaza in two. Under conditions in which bread is one of the main foodstuffs for people who have no electricity or water to cook, this development is tantamount to starving hundreds of thousands who remain confined to Gaza City and surrounding areas.

Conditions further south are little better, where Israeli air strikes continue to pummel densely populated areas indiscriminately. Intense strikes took place on the Al-Shati refugee camp on Tuesday evening, with Israeli troops reportedly gathering on its outskirts. The Palestinian Red Crescent reports that an average of just 33 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza from Egypt each day since October 21, less than 10 percent of the 500 trucks that entered every day prior to the Israeli onslaught.

The Israel Defence Forces has opened a “humanitarian” corridor to allow Palestinian civilians to move south. However, many have chosen to stay due to the high risk associated with the journey. Men, women and children must walk on foot for at least 5 kilometres (3 miles) along an Israeli-controlled route under constant threat of bombardment or gunfire before they can obtain transport further south via donkey cart or truck. An Al Jazeera reporter, who spoke to some who successfully completed the treacherous journey, gave a glimpse of the horrendous scene, commenting, “They told us [that] on the way to the south or to the Israeli checkpoint, they could see a lot of bodies, a lot of people cut into pieces … burning cars, and nobody is [able to reach] these bodies to take them to the hospital or to bury them.”

In the face of this human suffering, statements by leading Israeli government officials emphasized that the ferocious military onslaught will continue and, if anything, be intensified. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel will assume “overall security responsibility” for Gaza for “an indefinite period.” In a television address on Tuesday evening, he asserted that the attack on Gaza has killed “thousands of terrorists, above and below ground,” and vowed, “We will not stop.”

More than 1,000 USAID employees sign letter backing Gaza ceasefire

Hundreds of staffers at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have signed a letter calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, as a growing number of government employees voice dissent against US support for Israel’s military offensive there. The letter, which started circulating last week, reached 1,000 signatures on Wednesday, representing officials from across USAID’s departments and overseas missions.

“While we appreciate and acknowledge efforts by USAID to call for an urgent humanitarian response in Gaza and understand that the Agency is working tirelessly to make this happen, we must remember that humanitarian assistance efforts and life-saving aid are largely rendered moot in situations of escalating and indiscriminate bombing and violence,” the letter said. ...

“We believe that further catastrophic loss of human life can only be avoided if the United States Government calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages, and the restoration of water, food, fuel, and electricity to the people of Gaza by the State of Israel,” it reads.

“In the longer term, we call on the United States Government to join the international community and human rights organizations in holding all parties, including the State of Israel, to international law, which includes ending Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and settlements on occupied land.”

US has struck Iran-linked site in Syria, Pentagon says, as fears of regional conflict grow

The US, for the second time in recent weeks, has carried out strikes against a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said was used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 40 times in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces since the start of October, as fears grow that the Israel-Hamas war could spread in the region. Forty-five US troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries or minor wounds.

In a statement, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday’s strikes were conducted by two US F-15 fighters and were in response to the recent attacks against US forces.

Austin said the attacks against US troops must stop. “If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people,” Austin added.

100+ Congressional Staffers Stage Walkout Demanding Their Bosses Back Gaza Cease-Fire

More than 100 U.S. congressional staffers walked off the job Wednesday afternoon to hold a vigil for the more than 10,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces over the past month and to demand their bosses listen to constituents and support an immediate Gaza cease-fire.

“We are congressional staffers on Capitol Hill, and we are no longer comfortable being silent," one legislative employee declared.

"We were horrified by the brutal October 7th attacks on Israeli civilians, and we are horrified by the overwhelming response by the Israeli government that has killed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza," said another. "Our constituents are pleading for a cease-fire, and we are the staffers answering their calls every day."

"Most of our bosses on Capitol Hill are not listening to the people they represent," added a third. "We demand our leaders speak up: Call for a cease-fire, a release of all hostages, and an immediate deescalation now."

The staffers then observed a moment of silence and interfaith prayer to remember "those we have lost" while the three speakers laid down flowers in honor of the more than 1,500 Israelis and 10,000 Palestinians killed during the war.

Wednesday's walkout follows the publication last month of an open letter from hundreds of Muslim and Jewish congressional staffers urging lawmakers to demand a cease-fire in Gaza.

Just 18 House Democrats are sponsoring a resolution introduced last month by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) urging President Joe Biden to push Israel for an immediate cease-fire. Several others, including Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) have separately called for a cease-fire.

In the Senate, 13 lawmakers—Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)—earlier this month urged a "cessation of hostilities."

Notably absent from the list is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has refused to call for a cease-fire, a stance that has prompted praise from the lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—which heavily contributes to the campaign coffers of pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans alike.

Biden—who has been accused of genocide denial for rejecting Palestinian casualty figures—has also resisted growing calls to back a cease-fire, instead favoring a "humanitarian pause," while his administration prepares to send more than $14 billion in new U.S. military aid to Israel. The country already receives nearly $4 billion in annual armed assistance from Washington.

Furthermore, the U.S. used its veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block a Brazil-sponsored cease-fire resolution last month.

Recent polling has shown that two-thirds of Americans support a cease-fire, while participants in massive—and ongoing—protests across the country, including many led by Jewish Americans, are resoundingly demanding an end to the killing.

Jimmy Dore PROVEN RIGHT AGAIN As U.S. Tells Zelensky To Negotiate Peace

Israeli diplomat pressured US college to drop course on ‘apartheid’ debate

An Israeli diplomat tried to persuade a leading New York college to cancel a course about the growing debate over whether the Jewish state practices a form of apartheid in Palestine.

The Israeli consul for public diplomacy in New York, Yuval Donio-Gideon, took the highly unusual step of contacting Bard College earlier this year to object to the course, Apartheid in Israel-Palestine, on the grounds that it breached the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

When the college defended the course, it came under pressure from pro-Israel groups and from at least one major donor. Robert Epstein, the property developer and co-owner of the Boston Celtics, resigned from Bard’s board of trustees in protest at Bard’s refusal to cancel the subject.

The course was designed and taught by Nathan Thrall, a Jewish American writer and researcher who lives in Jerusalem. “The Israeli consulate contacted Bard and said they would like the course to be cancelled. There was mention of the IHRA definition of antisemitism which is the standard means of attempting to silence criticism of Israel,” said Thrall.

“When the consul spoke to Bard they explicitly said that we fear that if we do not make an example out of this class then classes like this are going to sprout like mushrooms all over the US.”



the horse race



White House FREAKS OUT Over House GOP Subpoenas On Hunter Biden, Family Members

Minnesota supreme court rejects effort to keep Trump from 2024 primary ballot

Minnesota’s high court dismissed a lawsuit that attempted to keep Donald Trump from being on the 2024 primary ballot, saying he had participated in an insurrection that bars him from holding the office.

The Minnesota supreme court said the issue itself is ripe for review, but not in the primary election, where political parties select their nominees for the general election.

“Although the secretary of State and other election officials administer the mechanics of the election, this is an internal party election to serve internal party purposes, and winning the presidential nomination primary does not place the person on the general election ballot as a candidate for president of the United States,” the court’s opinion reads. ...

Nothing in Minnesota law prohibits a political party from putting a candidate in their presidential primary who is ineligible to hold the office, so there is no error about to occur by allowing Trump’s name to appear on the ballot here.

But the court left open the possibility for the plaintiffs to file similar claims as they relate to the general election, where such rules do exist.

SCRANTON JOE Jeered & Derided By Hometown Residents, POTUS DENIES Bad Polls Are True

DNC IS RIGGED, BERNIE WAS RIGHT, Says 2024 Biden Challenger Dean Phillips

Joe Manchin won’t run for reelection



the evening greens


Number of species at risk of extinction doubles to 2 million

Two million species are at risk of extinction, a figure that is double previous UN estimates, new analysis has found.

While scientists have long documented the decline of species of plants and vertebrates, there has always been significant uncertainty over insects, with the UN making a “tentative estimate” of 10% threatened with extinction in 2019.

Since then, more data has been collected on insects, showing the proportion at risk of extinction is much higher than previously estimated. Because there are so many insect species, this doubles the global number of species at risk, according to the paper, published in Plos One on Wednesday.

Lead researcher, Axel Hochkirch, from the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle in Luxembourg, said: “What our study does is really highlight that insects are as threatened as other taxa. And because they are the most species-rich group of animals on our planet, this is really something which should be addressed.”

Understanding what is happening to global insect populations has been challenging because of the lack of data – but 97% of all animals are invertebrates. Of that group, about 90% are classified as insects. They provide vital ecosystem services: pollinating crops, recycling nutrients into soils, and decomposing waste. “Without insects, our planet will not be able to survive,” Hochkirch said.

Texas produces twice as much methane as better regulated neighbor

Oil and gas production in Texas is spewing out double the rate of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, than in the more regulated state of New Mexico, new satellite data shared with the Guardian shows, prompting calls for tougher curbs of “super-emitter” sites that risk tipping the world into climate breakdown.

Satellite imaging of methane leaks across the Permian basin, a vast geological feature at the heart of the US oil and gas drilling industry, show that sites in Texas have emitted double the amount of the gas than in New Mexico, per unit of production, since 2019.

Methane is a potent planet-heating gas, around 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and is routinely released via leaks or intentionally vented and burned, in a process called flaring, by fossil fuel companies when drilling for oil and gas. Scientists have warned of a “scary” surge in methane emissions in the past two decades, posing a major threat to efforts to contain dangerous global heating.

The new satellite data, gathered by Kayrros, a French climate technology company, shows that methane is being leaked at a far higher rate from sites in Texas compared with neighboring New Mexico. Despite increasing its own oil production in recent years, New Mexico has no site with repeated methane leaks, unlike in Texas, which Kayrros said is likely due to a 2021 state law aimed at curtailing methane emissions from industry.

2023 on track to be the hottest year on record

The world is set to have been hotter in 2023 than in any other year on record, scientists have declared, before a landmark climate summit this month.

“We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record, and is currently 1.43C above the pre-industrial average,” said Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action going into Cop28 has never been higher.”

The Copernicus scientists found last month was the hottest October on record globally, with temperatures 1.7C above what they were thought to have been during the average October in the late 1800s.

By burning fossil fuels and destroying nature, humans have pumped heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere that have raised the temperature of planet by 1.2C since the Industrial Revolution. The global temperature anomaly for October 2023 was the second highest across all months in its dataset, the scientists found, behind only the month before.

“The fact that we’re seeing this record hot year means record human suffering,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. “Within this year, extreme heatwaves and droughts made much worse by these extreme temperatures have caused thousands of deaths, people losing their livelihoods, being displaced etc. These are the records that matter.

Maine voters reject plan for non-profit power utility backed by climate groups

Maine voters turned down an attempt on Tuesday to oust the state’s corporate-owned electric utilities and replace them with a non-profit backed by climate advocacy groups.

In one of several ballot initiatives, Maine voters rejected the proposed takeover of the two investor-owned utilities that distribute 97% of electricity in the state.

Voters opted for the status quo rather than a move that would have marked the first time a state with existing private utilities discarded them all at the same time. The proposal had called for dismantling Central Maine Power and Versant Power and creating a non-profit utility called Pine Tree Power to govern the grid.

Supporters had said there was little to lose because of the utilities’ poor performance.Critics, though, argued there was no guarantee the non-profit utility would perform any better, while the move could spark lawsuits and buying out the existing utilities could cost as much as $13.5bn.


Also of Interest

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

Another Interview With Dominique De Villepin On The Conflict In Palestine (As Translated By Arnaud Bertrand)

Chris Hedges: Letter to the Children of Gaza

Patrick Lawrence: Biden’s Frankenstein

The US Must Stop Writing Blank Checks for Clients’ War Crimes, Starting With Israel

Laying Down A Marker

Dismantle Israel And The Entire US Empire

Why do we let Israel and Ukraine wag the US dog?

Students Demanding Protection for Pro-Palestinian Activism Arrested at House Hearing on Campus Speech

‘Inestimable importance’: 500-year-old cache of pressed flowers reveals new secrets

Figure on Led Zeppelin IV cover identified as Victorian Wiltshire thatcher

Dr. Fady Joudah Grieves 50+ Family Members Killed in Gaza & Slams U.S. Media Coverage

Combat Footage Emerges From Israel Gaza

Tucker SHOCKED By Right Wing Palestine Censorship

Dismissing 'statistics, civilian harm' represents a lack of 'dignity & empathy' towards war victims

VOTE SWITCHING Uncovered In PA Voting Machines!

Spain PM offers amnesty to Catalan separatists in controversial deal


A Little Night Music

Earl Hooker - The Hucklebuck

Earl Hooker ~ Is You Ever Seen A One Eyed Woman Cry? & Look Over Yonder's Wall

Earl Hooker - Goin' On Down The Line

Earl Hooker & Steve Miller - New Riviera

Earl Hooker - Guitar Rag

Earl Hooker - The End Of The Blues

Earl Hooker - Reconsider Baby

Earl Hooker - Hookin'

Earl Hooker - Wah Wah Blues Part 1 and Part 2

Earl Hooker - You Got To Lose


Share
up
12 users have voted.

Comments

snoopydawg's picture

.

Title of the diary I found this in:

Putin getting desperate.

Of course lots of pictures of Stein sitting with Putin even though she has explained that so many times. People aren’t free to run for election nor are they free to vote for anyone of their choice. Funny how shitlibs think that if someone votes 3rd party they think that if they didn’t they would vote for a sellout democrat.

I think this is an excellent article.

Stop Drinking The Political Kool-Aid, America: Voting Will Not Save Us

We’re being duped into believing that this mockery of a choice between two candidates who are equally unfit for office actually translates to having some say in how the government is run.

To the contrary, this particular con game is part of a long-running, elaborate scam to keep the Deep State in power and leave the populace deluded, distracted and incapable of demanding accountability, transparency and decency from the government and its cohorts.

All the while, we’re arguing over which corporate puppet will be given the honor of stealing our money, invading our privacy, abusing our trust, undermining our freedoms, and shackling us with debt and misery for years to come. (Remember that both parties have voted for all the things that go against the constitution. -sd

The government as we have come to know it—corrupt, bloated and controlled by big-money corporations, lobbyists and special interest groups—will remain unchanged. And “we the people”—overtaxed, overpoliced, overburdened by big government, underrepresented by those who should speak for us and blissfully ignorant of the prison walls closing in on us—will continue to trudge along a path of misery.

Many of our politicians live like kings. Chauffeured around in limousines, flying in private jets and eating gourmet meals, all paid for by the American taxpayer, they are far removed from those they represent. Such a luxurious lifestyle makes it difficult to identify with the “little guy”—the roofers, plumbers and blue-collar workers who live from paycheck to paycheck and keep the country running with their hard-earned dollars and the sweat of their brows.

I see so many people saying that if Trump wins again then he will bring fascism to America. Ummm..hello? We have been a fascist nation, oligarchy, living in inverted totalitarianism for a very long time because our government has long been captured by special interests, big businesses, banks, the federal reserve,….you name it. And we have never voted for the people who really run the government so how will changing name plates on the Oval Office change anything for us? I would think that with Biden’s dementia that it would be obvious that the president of America is just a figurehead and that others are actually running the government. Look at how many times the WH has told us that what Biden said wasn’t actually the government’s policy. My $.02.

up
9 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

High-end brothels serviced elected officials, tech and pharma execs, military brass: Feds

A network of "sophisticated" high-end brothels in greater Boston and eastern Virginia provided sex for pay to "elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors," and others, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

"Pick a profession, they are probably represented in this case," said acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy at a press conference announcing the arrests of three people in connection with operating the pricey sex shops.

Levy's office said that the brothels required "interested sex buyers" to provide employer information and references before booking sessions with prostitutes.

One nation under blackmail.

up
12 users have voted.

“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

only mossad is allowed to run brothels for the rich and influential.

up
11 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

@snoopydawg

up
11 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i was glad to hear that jill stein is running today. it's about time that we could choose somebody who could sit at the table with putin like they belong there.

heh, i wonder what the deep state would do if we went and elected us a third party candidate. the freakout would be fun to watch.

up
8 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

Zionism is no different than Lebensraum, than the
Conquistador's, than the Holocaust, then what americans foisted
upon the indigenous people of the americas

.

Seeing the people of Gaza being marched out of their homes reminds me of
the Jewish people being marched to their death at Babi Yar. The one
difference is that the Palestinians aren't going to be shot to death at the
end of the march, their death will come from disease and starvation

I guess all of this just makes me another self hating Jew

The propaganda is just mind blowing

up
13 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

i am pretty amazed at the willful blindness that many israel-supporters and zionists engage in. the interview upstairs by glenn greenwald and batya ungar-sargon is almost infuriating for her intentional blind spots and his failure to push back.

up
10 users have voted.

@joe shikspack Gave up at 10 minutes. Glenn did not stand his ground in the debate.

up
9 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

i watched the whole clip and found myself trying to figure out why greenwald was holding off on challenging ungar-sargon's logical failures, distortions of fact and outright lies. i couldn't come up with a compelling reason for him to give her performance an unchallenged platform.

up
8 users have voted.

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack like that. Maybe he wants some subscribers back. If that is why he allowed his genitals to shrink up and disappear, in the face of a Zionist zealot, he may just lose me.
His best qualities are debates and assessment of evidence, arriving at conclusions. I heard him talk about the Oct. 7 atrocities in the first 5 minutes to last me a lifetime.
Self-censorship is worse than government or media censorship. You have nobody to blame but your lack of normal sized genitals.
Speaking figuratively, folks. Ok?

up
7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

ggersh's picture

@on the cusp able to watch that garbage for 10 minutes, I didn't last
3 minutes into it Wink

up
3 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

ggersh's picture

@joe shikspack from the gitgo to appease his guest...starting it off
with 10/7 being the first words out of his mouth made me think
that we were all born on that day and nothing of significance
happened prior to that.

From this day forward I'll always look at the Warsaw Uprising
as a Jewish war crime, the bombing of Donbass as a Russian
war crime, the Holocaust as genocide of Jews/Roma's/Slavs/Disabled
by those that died from it not those that did the killing. I
mean how have we gotten it so wrong all this time and why oh why
were we never taught this...../S

up
5 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

up
10 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

yep 66% of americans support a ceasefire while 3% of congress does.

voting works! /s

up
10 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@joe shikspack

up
5 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe!

Earl Hooker was awesome. What a great guitar player he was. To me the stuff with the wah-wah is crazy good. In a class by itself. Were just a few in that league with that thang at the time... Wonderful stuff man. I bet Peter Green liked it.

That Barbara Lynn yesterday was great too ... love her voice.

I meant to comment the other day you posted a Guardian I think it was link about the Salmon Lice problem in Iceland. As an aquarist for 55 years that has watched 100 species spawn in my personal aquaria, and kept thousands of species professionally, this is not to hard to figure out. I don't even have to call a best friend with a Ph.D. in fisheries biology for this one. I sell lots of aqua- and mari- cultured fish and corals. This is simply too many fish kept too crowded. This is what happens. Aside from fears of the food, waste, and anti-biotic 'bleed' into the ecosystem, all of which hardly seem a concern, when the ocean makes it all magically disappear... The report of the Icelandic government approving INSECTICIDES to be dumped into the ocean for it is insanity. They hardly work on most arachnids terrestrially. Insecticides for an aquatic crustacean/arthropod? Are they nuckinfutz? If they were not trying so hard to make so much money, and kept the fish without being overcrowded, lice would not be the issue they are, at problematic levels. I love the aqua-mari-culture concept, but it must be practiced properly. The number one problem of newbie beginner aquarists is putting too many fish in a tank, and then over-feeding. These are supposed to be professionals! Profit-madness has driven the poisoning of the environment, even in 'green' ops. Only to have to kill the fish for animal feed protein (salvage). Stupid idiots.

At least we got the blues! Thanks for the great sounds Joe!

edit, fixed 3 misspells

up
10 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

that earl hooker had an amazing tone palatte.

heh, i think the problem with the fish is that there is an infestation of managementus corporaticus largewiggus which exhibit an inability to focus on anything other than green pieces of paper when they are introduced into a tank. the same malady affects a species with a symbiotic relationship with the largewiggus - politicus flunkius.

have a great evening!

up
7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Earl Hooker.

Good to see that MN tossed that suit. You can't bar somebody for doing x until a court of law has decided that they in fact did do x if there is any hint of any legal issue present.

be well and have a good one

up
7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, it's good to see that courts are willing to defend process if nothing else.

have a great evening!

up
5 users have voted.

that she seems to be talking to an empty room.

This shows how the EU politicians could care less about what is going on.

up
8 users have voted.

up
10 users have voted.
soryang's picture

Asked in Japan Wednesday if the United States was too occupied with the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to continue its pivot to Asia, Blinken said: “I can tell you that we are determined and we are, as we would say, running and chewing gum at the same time. The Indo-Pacific is the critical region for our future.”

Ukraine. Israel. Can America Support Two Wars and Still Handle China?

The NY Times has a paywall but the Yahoo has the article. It's the standard Times-blob boilerplate on Indo-Pacific policy and China. It's funny to hear Blinken talking about being able to "run and chew gum at the same time." I question the competence of the Blob, MICIMATT, whatever you want to call it. It's obviously overextended. The various lobbying groups with interests in the East Empire, the Central Empire, and the West Empire constantly need more and more resources to support their uncontrolled empire building. They're exhausting their resource base and they are blissfully indifferent. They have no conception whatever about how to set different priorities or how to pull back from their overcommitted postures worldwide. Everything is framed in terms of sanctions, regime change, and military conflict. They no longer control half the world's industry or resources but they still act like they do.

Yoon is clueless.

Thanks for the EBs Joe. Always enjoy the blues.

up
8 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直