The Evening Blues - 11-15-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and gospel singer and guitarist Robert Wilkins. Enjoy!
Rev. Robert Wilkins - In Heaven, Sitting Down
"To sate the lust of power; more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature
Became its boast — One Murder made a Villain,
Millions a Hero. — Princes were privileg’d
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime."-- Beilby Porteus
News and Opinion
The US Has A Standing Policy Of Ignoring The Human Rights Violations Of Its Allies
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has been repeatedly refusing to tell the press whether he believes Israel has been following the laws of war in Gaza.
Here’s a transcript from an exchange with The Hill’s Niall Stanage at a White House press conference on Tuesday:
Stanage: You said today, as you’ve said a number of times, about the importance of the laws of war being upheld. Israel has killed around 11,000 Palestinians. Around two thirds of those are women and children. The situation in the hospitals is dire. Israel has dropped an astronomical amount of ordnance in very built-up areas. Is Israel, in your view, abiding by the laws of war? And if it is, how do you come to that conclusion?
Sullivan: Well, as I said yesterday, I — Jake Sullivan, standing here — am not in a position to be judge and jury to make that determination. It’s a legal determination. What I can do is state for you the clear policy of the Biden administration, which we have been unequivocal about from the beginning of this conflict. And that is that even though Hamas is using civilians as human shields, is burrowing into civilian areas with its rocket emplacements that they are continuing to launch every single day at civilian areas in Israel, that puts an added burden on the IDF but it does not lessen their responsibility to act in ways that separate terrorists from civilians and does everything in their power to protect civilian lives.
Stanage: But the —
Sullivan: That is — that was the case. That remains the case today. That is the message that we’ve said publicly and we communicate to our Israeli counterparts privately —
Stanage: But —
Sullivan: — and we do that on a daily basis.
Stanage: I’m just trying to be clear, though. The administration’s view is that the IDF is doing that?
Sullivan: What I’ve told you is that I am not in a position to give you a legal determination to your question. I am not in a position to do that. What I’m in a position to do is to state the U.S. government position on how Israeli operations should be conducted. And that is what I have done. That is what I continue to do. That is what I can do from this podium.
Sullivan performed the same evasive dance routine during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, telling host Dana Bash “I’m not going to sit here and play judge or jury on that question” when asked if Israel is operating according to the rules of war.
It was funny because Bash’s question arose from Sullivan’s own assertion that Israel has a “responsibility to operate according to the rules of war”; Sullivan asserted that this was Israel’s responsibility on his own, but then immediately refused to say whether or not that was actually happening.
Of course, Sullivan has only been performing these freak show contortions with regard to questions about the criminality of governments which align themselves with the interests of Washington; he’s been directly and repeatedly accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine without the slightest bit of hesitation from the early days of the conflict.
You see this glaring inconsistency over and over again in US foreign policy, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office or which party is in control. The criminality of US allies gets ignored, downplayed and frantically obfuscated, while the criminality of US enemies gets spotlighted, exaggerated, and pushed to the forefront of international attention.
We’re seeing this inconsistency illustrated today by Hillary Clinton, who just published a think piece with The Atlantic war propaganda outlet forcefully defending Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza, after spending the last two years tweeting things like “If Russian leadership would rather not be accused of committing war crimes, they should stop bombing hospitals.”
PREACH! https://t.co/dFk5AyAsH5
— Will Menaker (@willmenaker) November 14, 2023
Speaking of former US secretaries of state, it’s probably worth mentioning here that a leaked 2017 State Department memo addressed to then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson explained that this inconsistency regarding the criminality of US allies vs US enemies is actually a standing policy within the inner workings of the US government.
The leaked memo from the early days of the Trump administration showed neoconservative empire manager Brian Hook teaching the political neophyte Tillerson that for the US government, “human rights” are only a weapon to be used for keeping other nations in line. In a remarkable insight into the cynical nature of imperial narrative management, Hook told Tillerson that it is US policy to overlook human rights abuses committed by nations aligned with US interests while exploiting and weaponizing them against nations who aren’t.
“In the case of US allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, the Administration is fully justified in emphasizing good relations for a variety of important reasons, including counter-terrorism, and in honestly facing up to the difficult tradeoffs with regard to human rights,” Hook explained in the memo.
“One useful guideline for a realistic and successful foreign policy is that allies should be treated differently — and better — than adversaries,” Hook wrote. “We do not look to bolster America’s adversaries overseas; we look to pressure, compete with, and outmaneuver them. For this reason, we should consider human rights as an important issue in regard to US relations with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. And this is not only because of moral concern for practices inside those countries. It is also because pressing those regimes on human rights is one way to impose costs, apply counter-pressure, and regain the initiative from them strategically.”
A lot from this war will stick with me for a long time, but few moments encapsulate so much as Kirby's fake-crying performance over Ukrainians vs. his shrug that, sorry, but innocent people are gonna die in Gaza, get over it.pic.twitter.com/KEGcgyvcFX
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) October 27, 2023
So if it sometimes seems as though the US has no actual morals or values regarding human rights, it’s because that is precisely the case. You see things like White House spokesman John Kirby crying about civilians dying in Ukraine yet shrugging indifferently at civilians dying in Gaza because his tears are cynical weapons used to advance US interests on the world stage, not a normal empathetic response to human suffering.
The US empire stands for nothing, believes in nothing, and values nothing apart from its own power. Those who understand and align with this reality find themselves elevated to the highest echelons of power within the US empire, while those with normal human empathy centers in their brains find nothing but locked doors past a certain point in government.
The US empire is a psychopathic killer wearing a plastic smiling mask of compassion and humanitarianism. But if you look closely it’s not hard to catch a glimpse of the snarling, blood-spattered face underneath.
White House seeks to restrain Israel in Gaza amid growing internal dissent
The Biden administration is increasingly seeking ways to restrain the Israeli military in an effort to slow the civilian toll and limit the risk of a wider conflict, while it faces a rising level of internal dissent over its Middle East policy. In a letter presented to Biden and his cabinet on Tuesday, more than 500 political appointees and staff members from about 40 agencies across the administration criticised the extent of the president’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
The letter denounced the Hamas killing of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, on 7 October, but called on Biden to rein in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, in which the death toll is now above 11,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the letter said, according to New York Times.
“It’s been an open secret for weeks that significant dissent and frustration has permeated across the US government – driven by heightening concern around the scale of Israel’s military response in Gaza,” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “The trigger for much of the internal dissent was Biden’s public comments – initially his zero-sum approach to the issue and then his misinformed scepticism of casualty figures in Gaza.” ...
US officials say the administration’s call for restraint, and emphasis on the need to limit the civilian death toll, has been conveyed repeatedly to Israel, and the Pentagon has been giving the Israel Defense Forces advice on how to target Hamas in Gaza while minimising “collateral damage”.
Israel STORMS Al-Shifa Hospital In Gaza
The Israeli army has failed to find tunnels or weapons stockpiled in Rantisi hospital. Instead, it has turned up a pack of diapers and a calendar listing the days of the week. The presentation has become a laughingstock, except among the cretinous and narrowing base of support… https://t.co/R5mAeEO5ra
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 14, 2023
Worse Than Hell: Dr. Mads Gilbert Decries Israeli Military Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza
Palestinians digging mass graves inside al-Shifa hospital, health official says
Palestinians trapped inside Gaza’s biggest hospital are digging mass graves, with no means of keeping corpses from decomposing due to Israel’s siege, an official there says.
“We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside al-Shifa medical complex,” said a health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra. “The men are digging right now as we speak.”
With Israeli forces at the gates of the complex, and fighting raging with Hamas militants in the streets of Gaza City, patients have been dying owing to energy shortages and dwindling supplies. Some of the hospital’s buildings have been bombed.
The Biden administration said on Tuesday that US intelligence supported Israel claims that Hamas was using al-Shifa as a military command centre and probably as a weapons store too.
“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control mode” the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One. “That is a war crime.” But Kirby added that the actions of Hamas did not diminish Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in the course of its military operations.
Guess What The Israel-Palestine War Is REALLY About!
U.K. Prime Minister’s Family Raking In BILLIONS From Gaza Oil
Knesset members say there's a moral imperative for western nations to assist them in stealing Palestinian land.
Israeli Knesset Members Say Western Countries Should Take in Gaza Refugees
Two members of the Israeli Knesset wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal arguing for Western countries to take in refugees from Gaza as Israeli officials continue to call for Palestinians to be pushed out of the enclave.
The op-ed was written by Danny Danon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and Ram Ben-Barak, a member of the opposition party Yesh Atid, which is led by former Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
“One idea is for countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate,” the lawmakers wrote. They listed examples of conflicts where Europe and the US accepted refugees, including the wars in former Yugoslavia and Syria.
“Looking to these examples, countries around the world should offer a haven for Gaza residents who seek relocation,” they wrote. Danon and Ben-Barak concluded the op-ed by saying the “international community” has a “moral imperative” to accept refugees from Gaza as Israel’s war has killed over 11,000 Palestinians, including over 4,500 children, and has internally displaced about 1.5 million people out of Gaza’s approximately 2.3 million residents.
Will Lebanon Go to War to Save Gaza? w/ Rania Khalek
Israel Turns Down International Request to Allow Gaza Aid via Its Territory
Several Western countries have appealed to Israel in recent days, asking it to allow them to bring humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, in order to streamline and expedite the arrival of the aid to the Palestinian population concentrated in the southern part of the Hamas-controlled enclave.
Israel opposes the idea, having announced the complete closure of all crossings into the Strip immediately after the outbreak of the war. Despite the pressure applied by the Western countries, Israeli sources say that Jerusalem objects because it wants to renounce any responsibility for civilian matters in the Gaza Strip.
The humanitarian aid currently entering the Gaza Strip comes entirely through the Rafah Crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt, but prior to that it undergoes a security check in Israel, most of which takes place at the Nitzana Crossing on the Israeli-Egyptian border.
Winter rains bring further suffering to besieged people in Gaza
The winter rains have finally arrived in Gaza, bringing new challenges for the besieged exclave’s 2.3 million people who have already suffered through six weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
After a warm and dry autumn, a Mediterranean thunderstorm broke across the 25-mile by 7-mile (41km x 12km) strip early on Tuesday morning. The rain washed away the grey rubble dust from airstrikes that clings to buildings in every neighbourhood, and dispersed the smoke and fire from the most recent overnight bombings. Water consumption in Gaza has fallen by 90% since the conflict started, according to the latest data from the UN, and many families rushed outside to enjoy the respite from the unseasonable humidity.
Initial relief at the rainfall quickly dissipated, however, as children began to shiver in wet clothes, while makeshift accommodation flooded and churned-up roads and open land turned to mud.
Two-thirds of Gaza’s population are estimated to have fled their homes due to intense bombing by Israeli forces and a three-week-old ground invasion that has killed an estimated 11,200 people, according to the Hamas-run local health ministry.
Briahna Joy Gray: Mainstream Media Is COMPLICIT In Israel's LIES About Gaza
YouTube demonetizes antiwar website MintPress News
YouTube, the video sharing and social media platform owned by Google parent Alphabet, Inc. has demonetized the channel of the antiwar news website MintPress News (MPN). The move blocks MPN from collecting revenue when viewers watch their content. ...
The censorship measures against MPN takes place against the backdrop of a systematic attack on the freedom of expression and amid a crackdown on protests and opposition to the genocide being carried by the Israeli government Gaza with the backing of US and European imperialism. ...
Through original investigative reports, podcasts and videos, MPN has exposed the lies told by the pro-US and pro-Israel corporate media about the siege of Gaza and ethnic cleansing operation of the Netanyahu government and Zionist military that has been underway since October 7.
MacLeod said that the online news outlet has been prevented from generating advertising income from its videos on YouTube since earlier this fall.
Additionally, MPN reports that many of its YouTube videos have been designated as “age-restricted” with a warning that says, “The following content may contain graphic or violent imagery” and “Viewer discretion is advised.” These tactics are clearly aimed at limiting the number of viewers of the videos.
Matt Taibbi on Rising: New ‘UK Files’ EXPOSE Labour Party’s VAST Online Censorship Efforts
US House passes bill to avert government shutdown
The House on Tuesday approved a novel plan to prevent a government shutdown, with the recently-installed Republican House speaker Mike Johnson relying on Democratic votes as the far-right flank of his caucus dissented.
By a vote of 336 to 95, a coalition of nearly every Democratic representative and more mainstream Republicans joined forces to advance the stopgap spending package that would fund government departments into early 2024, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for passage under an expedited process. Ninety-three Republicans and two Democrats opposed the measure.
The vote comes as federal agencies began preparing for a possible shutdown that would halt paychecks to millions of federal workers, including members of the military, days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
The bill next goes to the Senate, where majority leader Chuck Schumer has said his chamber will vote on the measure “as soon as possible”. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has also endorsed the two-tiered plan.
Johnson’s untested “laddered” approach would extend funding for federal agencies into the new year, with two different deadlines that give lawmakers more time to finish drafting their appropriations bills. ... The White House’s request for wartime aid to Ukraine and Israel is not part of the continuing resolution.
Jill Stein On Rising: Green Party Candidate RESPONDS To ‘Spoiler’ Candidate NONSENSE
‘Paying in lives’: health of billions at risk from global heating, warns report
The climate crisis will have a catastrophic effect on the health and survival of billions of people unless the world acts to reduce global heating, according to a leading report that warns that heat-related deaths are soaring, dangerous bacteria are spreading along coasts, and economies are being hit as people struggle to work and food production shrinks.
The eighth annual report on health and climate change from the Lancet Countdown team shows that little account has been taken of past warnings. The world, it says, is “moving in the wrong direction”, and strongly criticises continuing investment in fossil fuels.
The report comes as Cop28 prepares to hold its first Health Day, focused on the links between the climate crisis and human health. ...
Even at the current 10-year mean heating of 1.14C above pre-industrial levels, there is a profound impact on the lives and health of people around the world. But, say the 114 experts from 52 research institutions and UN agencies, what we are seeing could just be early symptoms of the disaster to come.
“Our health stocktake reveals that the growing hazards of climate change are costing lives and livelihoods worldwide today. Projections of a 2C hotter world reveal a dangerous future, and are a grim reminder that the pace and scale of mitigation efforts seen so far have been woefully inadequate to safeguard people’s health and safety,” said Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London.
US warming faster than global average
The US is warming faster than the global average and its people are suffering “far-reaching and worsening” consequences from the climate crisis, with worse to come, according to an authoritative report issued by the US government. An array of “increasingly harmful impacts” is hitting every corner of the vast country, from extreme heat and sea level rise in Florida to depleted fish stocks and increased food insecurity in Alaska, the new National Climate Assessment has found.
While planet-heating US emissions have fallen since peaking in 2007, the reductions are still not enough to meet international targets to avert disastrous climate change, and without deeper cuts in carbon pollution “severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow”, the report states.
“Even if greenhouse gas emissions fall substantially, the impacts of climate change will continue to intensify over the next decade,” the report finds, adding that choices made by the US and other countries will “determine the trajectory of climate change and associated impacts for many generations to come”.
The release of the fifth iteration of the Congressionally-mandated climate assessment, an exhaustive distillation of climate science compiled by more than 750 experts across the US federal government, follows a summer of vivid climate change-fueled events across the country that have included catastrophic, deadly fires in Hawaii, choking wildfire smoke along the US east coast and record-breaking heat in multiple states.
The report shows “more and more people are experiencing climate change right now, right outside their windows”, said Allison Crimmins, a climate scientist and director of the National Climate Assessment. Crimmins said that escalating dangers from wildfires, severe heat, flooding and other impacts mean that the US suffers a disaster costing at least $1bn in damages every three weeks now, on average, compared to once every four months in the 1980s.
‘Unique in the world’: why does America have such terrible public transit?
“North America really is unique in the world in the lack of good public transit,” the author Jake Berman told me while discussing his new book, The Lost Subways of North America. The oversize, map-laden volume is a slickly designed deep dive into the mass transit stories of 23 major cities in the US and Canada. Packed with fascinating histories and tons of absorbing information – ever wonder why elevated trains went out of style, or why monorails just don’t work? – the book is a lively and compelling examination of how mass transit has succeeded and failed across the continent.
“European cities never decided to build the kind of copy-and-paste suburbs that we built in North America,” said Berman, explaining why transit has fared so much better across the Atlantic. “The other part of that is, American cities do not make particularly good use of the land near their transit systems. For instance, many stops on [the Bay Area’s Bay Area Rapid Transit] Bart is surrounded mostly by strip malls, or single-family homes or gigantic parking lots.”
While talking with Berman, the misuse of land around transit hubs was a recurrent topic, a common pitfall that undermined the design of subways, light rail and streetcars in many major cities. In one of multiple examples, Berman shared that Dallas’s many miles of light rail doesn’t necessary equal a valuable transit system. “It’s crazy to think that Dallas has about as many miles of rail as Barcelona,” he told me. “The difference is, there’s not a whole lot near Dallas’s rail stations, whereas in Barcelona there’s apartments, there’s stores, there’s businesses, there’s churches – basically everything that you need for daily life.” ...
If there are common factors in mass transit success, there is also at least one common factor in mass transit fails – bureaucracy, which often prevents the creation of transit routes, as well as the creation of the necessary amenities to make said routes thrive.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Patrick Lawrence: The Banality of Propaganda
Israeli propaganda in Gaza: Experts debunk incubator, hostage hideout claims
'No Cease-Fire' Chants Break Out at DC March for Israel
Spanish minister accuses Israel of committing 'live genocide' in Gaza
Britain implicated in murder of Gaza doctor sponsored by its Foreign Office
Ukraine's Demographics Dictate To End The Fight
McBride Trial: Defeat — ‘It Looks Like I’m Going to Jail’
Why Biden Is in Trouble About the Economy
The 2023 Nature Conservancy photo contest winners – in pictures
Peter Beinart: Israel Will Only Be Secure & Safe If Palestinians Are Given Freedom
March for Israel Speaker Hagee Once Said God "Sent Hitler to Help Jews Reach the Promised Land"
REPORT finds Russia, Ukraine wanted peace. US, UK, Germany pushed war
Avdeyevka Ukr Faces Defeat, Ammo Shortages; Kherson Blocked; $60 Oil Price Cap Total Fail
World Ahead 2024. Xi in SF. Oil price cap fails. Pompeo, Kiev Telco job. Kallas, YES NATO.
A Little Night Music
Robert Wilkins - The Prodigal Son
Rolling Stones - Prodigal Son
Robert Wilkins - Get Away Blues
Rev. Robert Wilkins - Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round
Robert Wilkins - I'll go with her blues
Robert Wilkins - Jailhouse Blues
Robert Wilkins - Alabama Blues
Robert Wilkins - Rollin' Stone, Pt. 1
Robert Wilkins - Rollin' Stone, Pt. 2
Robert Wilkins - That's No Way To Get Along
Comments
In a nutshell
Don't expect our adversaries to show restraint in erasing the US legacy when the time comes.
And this is precious...
Are we learning the schism between pronouncements and action yet?
Don't think so.
Thanks for the blues joe!
Robert Wilkins - That's No Way To Get Along seems apropos
evening qms...
well, you can't say that genocide joe and blinkiman are not being transparent.
Some recent Asian news items
S. Korea, U.S. stage joint air drills with B-52H bombers over Yellow Sea
The article goes on to say, a US carrier will be visiting Busan, South Korea soon. Imo these strategic visits are a threat to China as much as North Korea.
Good article in Defense News.
MSDF destroyer showcases new flexibility as ‘aircraft carrier’
It only looks like an aircraft carrier, don't believe your eyes.
I wasn't aware of this "commission" report below until it was discussed in Hankyoreh-
Washington’s dream of power to win wars on two fronts may be a nightmare for Korea
This report on nuclear weapons strategy for Congressional consideration is really out there. It focuses on a two front nuclear war with China and Russia at the same time. Doesn't discuss costs at all. FAS does a nice critique of the commission's report. Don't think we need more nuclear arms, another nuclear arms race, etc.
Strategic Posture Commission Report Calls For Broad Nuclear Buildup
I wanted to post this report on the media purge the Yoon administration is conducting on KBS news which is one of most reliable and sane news sources in South Korea among traditional media. This is part of a larger campaign of media suppression that has been ongoing and gathering steam.
The twitter link which Tim S. found links to a Yonhap News Agency story in their South Korean edition. I used the google AI translation feature to read the YNA article quickly in English. The purge of news reporters and talk show hosts is broader than the firing of just this one popular newswoman anchor who was summarily fired without cause. That was the case with all those purged. Their union is pursuing legal remedies. This purge took place right after a new CEO was appointed. As I recall, the former CEO was forced out prematurely on some legal pretext by Yoon clique prosecutors. In one interview, the former CEO revealed he was a former union rep for the journalists there and thought highly of for that reason. He explained that his office was more involved with the dollars and cents of operations, and that regional stations determined their own editorial take on the news.
Lastly, below is great report by Brian B. on current US-Philippine relations and how the PI is acting against its own interests concerning relations with China. I'd been waiting for him to report on this. It's 30 minutes. He has a written article on this topic that he discusses in the video. He pinned the link to his NEO article in the comments section.
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
(edited for typos)
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
it's simply amazing how many pots the u.s. seems to be stirring, trying to get its war on. armageddon tired of it.
it looks like that yoon guy is following the same playbook that genocide joe and his flunkies are working from.
thanks for the updates!
Ahh here’s the definition of the Rules based order that America
.
has made up. Great find by Caitlin to show how we justify our hegemonic hypocrisy.
Remember this?
Jonathan Cook has a great rebuttal to the guardian bs article.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
evening snoopy...
heh, that ursula von der hypocrite tweet is priceless, what a great find! that should be posted on lampposts all over europe.
cook's article is really good, thanks for posting it!
Don't you think that we all want a third world war
because it is the only way, we can hope, to destroy everything and have a chance to start all over again?
Thanks for the EB and the music, Joe. I am tired to watch Euronews.de
I guess I am depressed.
Be well, all, Nothing more to say.Just survive.
evening mimi...
it sure looks like somebody wants a world war and is working overtime to get it.
i'm not so sure we should start over as their sort is likely to pop up and screw everything up all over again.
Craig Murray says that any of the 149 countries that are party
.
to the Geneva Convention can report Israel’s genocide to the UN. Hopefully this is what Spain is going to do.
There are 149 states party to the Genocide Convention. Every one of them has the right to call out the genocide in progress in Gaza and report it to the United Nations. In the event that another state party disputes the claim of genocide – and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are all states party – then the International Court of Justice is required to adjudicate on “the responsibility of a State for genocide”.
Individuals like Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, ect can also be charged for it too.
The tweet is from this article.
Israel reportedly executes elderly Gaza man after using him for propaganda
It has a tweet showing how an IDF soldier is helping a disabled Palestinian man, but the man is later found to have been executed. I won’t embed the tweet to give you the option of seeing it. I highly recommend reading the article anyway. You can skip past the tweet, but it’s worth seeing to see how Israel is using propaganda and much more.
Sorry for screwing up the link. It happens…
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
heh...
well, i certainly hope that one of the 149 nations has the decency to bring the charges, but i wouldn't bet on it.
Yeah me neither
I just can’t understand why they won’t when they have been screaming into the void about Israel committing genocide. Looks like all those yapping dawgs are all bark and no bite. Damn them for turning their backs on helpless people! I just hope that karma is lurking around the corner and soon decides that the time is now and it pounces.
Interesting article on NewsGuard and how it came into being. It’s working with the government to censor any opinion that is different from the government’s. It includes the lawsuit that Consortium News is bringing against it.
https://realclearwire.com/articles/2023/11/15/newsguard_surrogate_the_fe...
I’m enjoying Cook's articles and Patrick Lawrence has sure been hitting out of the park. I get lost in following his links to his other articles and articles to other sites.
Sam has become a bed bunny again. She spends her time in the bedroom and only comes out to get a treat. She did this last year right after the time change and it worried me because I thought maybe she was sick or something. She even comes in from our walk and goes to bed when she used to wait impatiently for her after walk chewy. Strange little dawg. We put the top down for our last open air ride in the convertible since it’s going to rain for a few days and get very cold. She sure enjoys riding in it. I see people light up in smiles when we pass cuz they can see how happy she is.
Well here’s hoping that tomorrow’s news is a little brighter…one can hope.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Thanks especially for the blues!
Thanks for all the news you put together for us to read and weep. The blues this evening, I especially enjoyed. Thanks for that bit of beauty in tonight's Evening Blues with the Nature Conservancy winners.
Have a good evening and hope we get some of the predicted rain here in Santa Fe. We really need it.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
good to see you! i hope everything is going well.
sorry about the news, it seems to have gone from bad to worse and it's hard to look away when something as awful as what it happening now is going down.
thank goodness for the blues!
Good evening Joe, et. al. Thanks for the EBs, Joe.
It is finally raining here, started sometime after 5 pm.
It appears that Nikki Haley is walking back some of her rant about the need to force verified identity of all social media posters, claiming that she was just targeting Iranian, Chinese and Russkie bots. the problem is that it is still utterly deranged to consider the existence of such bots to be a "security threat" and "a matter of national security". That is utterly unhinged.
One hopes that somebody brings charges against Israel and all of its enablers, but that just brings us to the "how many divisions does the UN/ICC have?" showdown.
And, speaking of divisions, what are the odds of Elenski staying in power long enough to see the Ukies military collapse? Should we start some sort of pool, or maybe dueling pools?
be well and have a good one
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 --
evening el...
it seems to me that haley recognizes how important propaganda weapons have become to maintaining the empire and its domestic support, her idiotic crackdown demands are really just a recognition of how badly the empire is botching its campaigns.
israel is making enough enemies that the un/icc may have all the volunteer legions it needs.
i dunno, that elenski is a survivor. i fully expect to see him wind up in miami or italy with hundreds of millions of dollars that he's stolen in his bank account.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Where you goin' with those blues in your hand...
Great Robert Wilkins. A neat player. Always loved Prodigal Son on Beggar's Banquet. Interesting how the original first pressing of BB did give him song credit. But since graffitti on a wall and a toilet at yer average English pub was censored (they would not distribute such pornography) the first pressing was canned. So the Stones said FU and gave them a blank album cover. But which however also had a new label/credits on the record, crediting Prodigal Son to Jagger/Richards, unlike that first (censored) pressing. All modern pressings have Robert Wilkins song credit on them. I always thought they did the song very well. The other thing that happened from the blank BB album cover was all the 'Beatles rule Stones suck' people, quickly screamed "Stones are copying the Beatles white album cover" over it. Which was not whatsoever the case, it was simply the Stones FU to record company censorship.
I thought the Disneyland monorail worked very well. It always works. The company that did it, German, had LA city council pre-approval to put one in for L.A. in earliest 1960's. They offered to pay for it and only get paid from ridership. Win win. Standard Oil bought two LA city council votes at the last minute before the final meeting and it was cancelled. It was all but a done deal and big oil F'd the people. I'm sure that will surprise many. They needed automobiles. Lots of 'em. The more the better.
Anyway, thanks for the great sounds. Sorry about the news man!
have good ones all!
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
evening dystopian...
i'm glad to have a handful of blues as i read the news these days.
heh, it's funny that monorails seem to be found in amusement parks (around here, hersheypark has one) but not in cities. damned shame.
have a great evening!
Thread
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Can you go to twitter and see the rest of the tweets? It’s an interesting thread.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
maybe humphrey can do it...
i don't have a twitter login, so i can only see individual tweets and can't follow threads.
I can do it and I can post every tweet in a thread
But I don’t think people are that interested in it for me to put the effort in doing it. I do try to include everything in tweets that say: show more.
I wonder where Humphrey has wandered off to? Hope he is okay.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.