The Evening Blues - 11-27-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Johnny B. Moore. Enjoy!
Johnny B. Moore - Turn on Your Love Light (Live)
"Israel isn’t bombing Gaza with the intention of wiping out Hamas, Israel is bombing Gaza with the intention of wiping out Gaza."
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
White House Fears Pause In Fighting Will Let Journalists See What’s Been Happening In Gaza
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a four-day ceasefire which will entail the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 150 hostages held by Israeli forces.
In an article titled “Biden admin officials see proof their strategy is working in hostage deal,” Politico describes the deal as “the administration’s biggest diplomatic victory of the conflict” and reports that White House officials are calling it a “vindication” of Biden’s decision making. Which is an entirely inappropriate level of verbal fellatio for an achievement as minimal as not murdering children for a few days.
Tucked away many paragraphs into this report is a sentence which is getting a lot of attention on social media today saying that according to Politico’s sources there has been some resistance to the pause in fighting within the administration due to fears that it will allow journalists into Gaza to report on the devastation Israel has inflicted upon the enclave.
“And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel,” Politico reports.
In other words, the White House is worried that a brief pause in the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza will allow journalists to report the truth about the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza, because it will hurt the information interests of the US and Israel. They are worried that the public will become more aware of facts and truth.
Needless to say, if you’re standing on the right side of history you’re not typically worried about journalists reporting true facts about current events and thereby damaging public support for your agendas. But that is the side that the US and Israel have always stood on, which is why the US empire is currently imprisoning Julian Assange for doing good journalism on US war crimes and why Israel has a decades-long history of threatening and targeting journalists.
During Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza in 2021 the IDF reportedly targeted more than 20 Palestinian press institutions in the enclave, as well as the tower hosting the international outlets AP and Al Jazeera. During this current onslaught Israel has been killing dozens of Palestinian journalists, sometimes by actively bombing their homes where they live with their families. The IDF’s campaign to wipe out inconvenient news reporters has resulted in the Committee to Protect Journalists calling this the deadliest conflict on record for journalists anywhere, ever.
Both the US and Israel have been attacking the press in this way because their governments understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world. They understand that while power is controlling what happens, ultimate power is controlling what people think about what happens. Human consciousness is dominated by mental narratives, so if you can control society’s dominant narratives, you can control the humans.
This is why the powerful have been able to remain in power in our civilization — because they understand this, while we the public generally do not. That’s why they bombard us with nonstop mass media propaganda, that’s why they work to censor the internet, that’s why Julian Assange languishes in prison, that’s why Israel routinely murders journalists, and that’s why the White House is afraid of what will happen if worldwide news reporters are able to get their cameras into Gaza.
SHOCKING VIDEO Emerges Of LEVELED Gaza City
Vast scale of Gaza genocide comes into view
Three days into the first letup in Israel’s two-month-long bombardment and invasion of Gaza, film crews have begun to document the evidence of the deliberate mass murder of Gaza’s civilian population in what is the world’s largest crime scene. Last week, Politico reported that the White House was “concerned” that a “pause” in Israel’s attack against Gaza “would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.”
And so they have. An on-the-ground report by Al Jazeera over the weekend described the scene at Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital: “The stench of death forces people to cover their nose, charred, decomposing bodies, children among them, are piled up in one corner. No burials have taken place because Israeli snipers targeted anyone who ventured out to dig a grave. Streets, schools, houses, shops, Israeli strikes have destroyed them all.”
These reports have completely exposed US President Joe Biden’s lie that Palestinian health authorities were overstating the death toll in Gaza. In fact, the Biden administration now admits the official death toll is a significant underestimation. It has been two weeks since the last official death toll was published by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, due to the collapse of health services which made counting the dead impossible. However, the latest unofficial count from the government information ministry, published Wednesday, estimated that 14,352 people had been killed, including 6,000 children and 4,000 women. ...
According to Gazan officials, 233,000 housing units, or approximately half the houses in Gaza, have been either destroyed or damaged. Bombs or missiles hit 266 schools, of which 67 have been destroyed. Israel has killed 205 healthcare providers and 64 journalists. The most striking element of the death toll is the massive scale of death among women and children.
An article published in the Guardian on Sunday stated that Israel claims it has killed between 1,000 and 2,000 Hamas fighters. Even if this were true, it means that for every fighter killed, Israel has killed three to six children, and that between 85 and 92 percent of those killed are civilians.
Israel-Hamas Hostage Deal Highlights Plight of Palestinian Prisoners, Many of Them Children
Hamas releases third group of hostages as US expresses hope of truce extension
The third exchange of hostages and prisoners between Hamas and Israel has taken place as the US expressed hope that a fragile four-day truce in Gaza would be extended beyond Monday, while Israel indicated its campaign was far from over.
Israel said 17 hostages were released by Hamas, including a Russian national and three Thai nationals. The Israelis were all women or children. Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails, authorities said. ...
Joe Biden welcomed the release of four-year-old Abigail Edan, a US-Israeli dual national, and said he would like to “see the pause go on as long as prisoners are getting released”. The US president added that his administration would “continue to remain personally engaged to see that this deal is fully implemented and work to extend the deal as well”.
Tempering hopes of a lasting halt to the offensive, Benjamin Netanyahu said on a visit to Israeli forces in Gaza: “We are continuing until the end, until victory. Nothing will stop us.”
The Israeli prime minister also said on Sunday that he had told Biden in a phone call that Israel would resume its campaign with full force once the truce comes to an end, but that he would welcome extending it if it facilitated the release of 10 additional hostages every day as agreed under the original Qatari-brokered deal.
Biden Support CRATERING as Youth Voters CONDEMN Israel Policy; Hostage Deal EXTENDING Gaza Truce
Genocide Joe label drags Biden down
IDF messaging suggests Gaza truce unlikely to last much beyond Tuesday
Gaza’s truce is unlikely to last significantly beyond Tuesday, with Israel’s military stepping up pressure on Sunday to restart the air and ground offensive in a campaign that some experts predict could run into next year. The four-day halt in fighting, described by the Israel DefenceForces (IDF) as “an operational pause”, is scheduled to end on 7am on Tuesday if the agreed transfer of 50 hostages held by Hamas and others in Gaza goes to plan.
There is an expectation in many quarters that the pause will be extended for a few days, and the current agreement allows for an extra day’s truce for every 10 hostages Hamas is willing to release. It is estimated there were another 40 children and women who are not soldiers and who were not covered by the initial agreement, giving scope for more phased releases, although not all the hostages are under the direct control of Hamas, but instead Palestinian Jihad or other smaller armed groups.
That may lead to several days of extensions, but the IDF has been unambiguously signalling its desire to restart the military campaign. It’s head, Gen Herzi Halevi, put out an uncompromising message to all of the country’s soldiers on Sunday morning. ...
“I can’t see the truce lasting more than a week,” said Miri Eisin, a former Israeli military intelligence specialist who runs the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. “The IDF wants to dismantle Hamas’s terror capability and military capability, and the only way to do that is through a systematic and careful ground operation.” ...
The IDF’s next focus is the south, to where Palestinian civilians were supposed to flee, and in particular Khan Younis, the city where Israel believes Hamas’s headquarters and leader, Yahya Sinwar, are located. Last week, Israel called for civilians, many already displaced once, to leave the city. It hopes people will go west to the small, already crowded Al-Mawasi area on the coast.
Find someone who loves you the way Israelis love murdering hospital patients and children. https://t.co/dHA2GQysRp
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 26, 2023
Attackers seize another Israeli-linked ship off Yemen coast
Another Israeli-linked commercial ship has been attacked – probably by Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces – underscoring the heightened risk to shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
The latest attack, confirmed by US officials, was on a commercial tanker named Central Park, which is owned and operated by Zodiac Maritime, run by the Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
The tanker sailed from the Moroccan port of Safi and passed through the Suez canal on 22 November. It appears to have been boarded by eight unidentified gunmen travelling on two boats in the Gulf of Aden, not normally seen as seas that the Houthis control.
On Sunday night, a US official told the AFP news agency that US and coalition forces had responded and that “the crew of the M/V Central Park is currently safe”. Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the USS Mason warship had responded and the tanker was free.
Zodiac Maritime said: “Our priority is the safety of our 22 crew onboard. The Turkish-captained vessel has a multinational crew consisting of a crew of Russian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Indian, Georgian and Filipino nationals. The vessel is carrying a full cargo of phosphoric acid.” No claim of responsibility was immediately made.
Biden White House signals red lines to Netanyahu
Biden Request Would Create 'Free-Flowing' Arms Pipeline to Israel
President Joe Biden has requested that Congress to lift most of the restrictions on Israel's access to a U.S. stockpile of weapons in the country, The Intercept reported Saturday.
The request came in the administration's supplemental budget request to the U.S. Senate, sent October 20. It concerns the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) that the U.S. has stored in Israel since the 1980s for its own use in a potential conflict in the region. The U.S. allows Israel to access the stockpile under certain conditions, but Biden's request would remove most of these conditions, including a requirement that Israel only use surplus or obsolete weapons and a cap on how much the U.S. can spend resupplying the stash.
"The President's emergency supplemental funding request would essentially create a free-flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel by the simple act of placing them in the WRSA-I stockpile, or other stockpiles intended for Israel," Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned over U.S. arm transfers to Israel in the midst of its bombardment of Gaza, told The Intercept.
The news comes in the midst of a four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which has given journalists and humanitarian organizations a moment to assess the extent of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In retaliation, the Israeli military has killed more than 14,800 people in Gaza, around 10,000 of them women and children. That means the number of women and children killed in Gaza in less than two months is more than double the number confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of fighting with Russia, The New York Times concluded Saturday. One of the reasons for the high civilian toll, the Times said, is Israel's use of 2,000-pound, U.S.-made bombs in a densely populated Gaza Strip.
Despite this, Biden's request would allow Israel to access all weapons from the WRSA-I, not just excess or obsolete ones, something that could hurt U.S. preparedness, Paul told The Intercept. The request would also remove a requirement that Israel provide concessions to the U.S. in exchange for accessing the weapons, lift the $200 million per year restocking cap, and shorten a requirement that the government inform Congress 30 days ahead of a weapons transfer under "extraordinary" circumstances.
"The Biden administration's supplemental budget request would further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children," John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow with the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.
Then vs Now: US Officials EXPOSED On Israel, Ukraine
Putin Was Declared A War Criminal For *Relocating* The Same Number Of Children Israel Just *Killed*
It’s probably worth noting at this point in history that the total number of children killed in Gaza has just surpassed the number of children the International Criminal Court indicted Russian president Vladimir Putin for relocating out of a war zone.
A recent estimate by Gaza authorities puts the number of Palestinian children killed by Israel’s bombing campaign over the last seven weeks at just above the six thousand mark. This number comes from the Gaza Media Office, which is only able to make unconfirmed estimates since the Gaza Health Ministry who normally reports such numbers has lost the ability to count the dead effectively due to communications collapse caused by the bombing.
In March of this year — ironically on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq — ICC judges issued an arrest warrant charging Putin with war crimes in Ukraine. The allegations? The “unlawful deportation” of some six thousand Ukrainian children to a network of “re-education” camps inside Russia.
Remember that time the @IntlCrimCourt issued an arrest warrant for a head of state for evacuating children OUT of a warzone?
More than 6,000 children have been killed in #Gaza. Where are the ICC investigators now? https://t.co/Et9aCN8sUm @KarimKhanQC
— Jeb Sprague (@JebSprague) November 24, 2023
As The Grayzone documented at the time, the ICC charges were based on a Yale HRL report which is rife with contradictions, plot holes, and the fairly significant conflict of interest of being funded by the US State Department. The report itself acknowledges that it found “no documentation of child mistreatment,” and that nearly all of the children were returned to their families in a timely manner.
But even if these points were all false and Vladimir Putin did just illegally kidnap six thousand Ukrainian kids to turn them into Russians, would that be worse than murdering them by dropping powerful military explosives on areas known to be packed full of children? Why is one a war crime and the other apparently fine? Russia is no more a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute than Israel is, after all.
A recent United Nations report says that “Since 7 October, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 67 per cent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children.” If we assume it’s an even 14,000 and make the obscenely generous assumption that every single one of the men killed by Israel were Hamas combatants, 67 percent puts the total number of civilians killed at 9,380 in just seven weeks of bombing.
In the 21 months of the war in Ukraine, the UN estimates the number of civilians killed at around ten thousand. The total number of children killed? Around 560.
The numbers show that Israel is plainly behaving in a way that is far, far more murderous and criminal in Gaza than Russia is in Ukraine, but we good and faithful members of the international community are meant to desire only the Russian leader’s prosecution at The Hague.
Really “international law” does not exist in any meaningful way, which is why powerful governments always just ignore it while the people who are actually detained by the ICC are always from weaker nations (overwhelmingly African). Perhaps nothing better exemplifies this dynamic than the the US government’s American Service-Members’ Protection Act, better known as the Hague Invasion Act. This 2002 law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any US or US-allied military personnel from any ICC attempt to prosecute them for war crimes. “US-allied” would ostensibly include Israeli forces.
In truth our world is ruled by tyrants who do whatever they want to do, and their actions are justified by the mass media who function as propagandists for the US-centralized power structure. Pundits weep and rend their garments over Russian crimes while defending, minimizing and obfuscating the far greater crimes of Israel, because Israel is a part of that globe-spanning power structure while Russia is not.
I have never been particularly interested in defending the Russian government. What I am interested in is opposing the murderousness of the globe-spanning power structure I live under, and all the lies, double standards and hypocrisy used to keep the murders going.
‘The people don’t want the Americans’: Gaza war fuels tensions in Iraq
A salvo of machine gun fire, customary during funerals, illuminated the night sky as dozens of men converged in a dimly lit, unpaved alley on the edges of the sprawling slums of Sadr city to pay their respects. A giant picture of Ali Hassan al-Daraaji had been erected outside the family home in north-east Baghdad to announce his “martyrdom” in this week’s US airstrikes on Iraqi armed groups. The series of strikes left nine fighters dead, including Daraaji, the first Iraqi fatalities linked to the Israel-Hamas war. Even as a tenuous truce takes hold in Gaza, the pace and intensity of clashes in Iraq has picked up, highlighting the risk of spillover in a country that has long been mired in conflict.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the US targeted fighters it believed were responsible for dozens of attacks carried out on American troops in Iraq and Syria. The operations have been claimed under the banner of the so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq in response to “the crimes committed by the enemy against our people in Gaza”, according statements released on its Telegram channel.
The Pentagon said it acted in defence of its troops, who returned to Iraq in 2014 to help the Iraqi government fight Islamic State. But the Daraaji family, whose history is steeped in fighting the 2003-11 US occupation of Iraq, sees the latest events as a continuation of a long history of unjust American policies in the Middle East, and as a sign that two decades after its invasion, the US is still treading on Iraqi sovereignty.
Reticent and defiant, many of the men at the funeral were members of Kataib Hezbollah, the secretive group believed responsible for the bulk of the latest attacks. Some had joined when it first formed during the early days of the occupation. Others, like Ali and his uncle Dholfaqar al-Daraaji, followed suit in 2014, when Kataib Hezbollah ostensibly merged into the state security apparatus under the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella of Shia paramilitaries that received Iranian support to fight IS.
Anti-American sentiment runs deep in this community, which has reeled from loss after loss. “The people don’t want the Americans. They are the ones responsible for the destruction of Iraq,” Dholfaqar said. Ali, aged 32 at the time of his death, was the seventh family member killed in the intermittent spasms of violence that have gripped Iraq since 2003. Ali’s mother, two siblings and an uncle died in the sectarian bloodletting that followed the invasion, while two young cousins lost their lives when a mortar hit the family home in 2008.
Israeli foreign minister accuses Irish taoiseach of legitimising terror over hostage statement
The Israeli government has accused Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, of legitimising terror and losing his moral compass by saying a freed Irish-Israeli hostage had been “lost” as opposed to kidnapped. Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, on Sunday summoned the Irish ambassador to the foreign ministry in Jerusalem for a formal reprimand over Varadkar’s response to the release of nine-year-old Emily Hand, who was reunited with her family after 50 days as a hostage in Gaza.
“This is a day of enormous joy and relief for Emily Hand and her family,” said the statement from Varadkar’s office. “An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and our country breathes a massive sigh of relief,” it began. “Our prayers have been answered.” The 360-word statement went on to refer to Emily as a “hostage” who had been “snatched” and “held captive”, inflicting “cruel torture” on her family. “We cannot forget that many more hostages remain in captivity in Gaza,” it said.
The statement caused a storm in Israel, with critics focusing on the first sentence. In a blistering response Cohen faulted Varadkar for not using the word “kidnap” and not naming Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200 in southern Israel on 7 October. ...
The Israeli response caught Dublin by surprise. Israel has previously accused Ireland of pro-Palestinian bias but Irish officials had expected Emily’s release to be a moment of mutual satisfaction. Varadkar and Ireland’s foreign minister, Micheál Martin, had met Emily’s family and Martin flagged her case on a visit to Egypt and Israel. Martin said he was “genuinely surprised” at the row. Varadkar said: “I think the vast majority of people understand what I was saying, recalling the amazing joy and awe that occurs when a child comes home.”
The enterprise minister, Simon Coveney, urged people to read Varadkar’s original statement in full. “Being lost and found is a biblical term effectively that he was using in a tweet,” he told RTÉ. Some Israeli commentators on social media said the biblical reference was additional reason for offence because it was from the New Testament.
HATE CRIME? Suspect Arrested For Shooting 3 Palestinian Students In Vermont; Motive Still Unknown
Three Palestinian students shot and wounded in Vermont, police say
Three college students described as being of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded on Saturday evening in Burlington, Vermont, on their way to a family dinner.
The head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, Husam Zomlot, identified the victims as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ahmed and Kinnan Abdalhamid, undergraduate students at Brown, Haverford and Trinity. Zomlot said on X – formerly known as Twitter – that each of the victims was wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh when they were attacked, though authorities have stopped short of publicly discussing a possible motive for the triple shooting. ...
Basil Awartani posted on X that his cousin Hisham Awartani is one of the shooting victims and alleged the attack was a hate crime. He asserted that the victims were targeted for speaking Arabic and wearing kuffiyehs.
“My cousin Hisham has been shot in the back while walking with his friends in Burlington for simply wearing kuffiyehs and speaking Arabic,” Basil Awartani wrote. “Dangerous performative rhetoric from US pundits and politicians as well as constant dehumanization of Palestinians has a real life cost.”
The FBI is aware of the shooting and said the agency will investigate if local investigation uncovers any possible federal violation. The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation and will continue to monitor it as the investigation is ongoing.
Attack on Aipac president’s home in LA investigated as hate crime
A protest outside the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) president’s Los Angeles home is reportedly being investigated as a possible hate crime after social media videos showed demonstrators igniting smoke devices and spattering fake blood.
According to reports by the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets, Aipac president Michael Tuchin’s home in the Brentwood section was vandalized Thursday on Thanksgiving by protesters who also pounded pots in the driveway and held up a sign that read: “Fuck your holiday, baby killer.”
The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) confirmed it had responded to the block where Tuchin’s house is. The department posted on X – formerly known as Twitter – that protesters “caused a disturbance” weeks after the Israel-Hamas war that erupted in October.
“West LA officers responded [and] took crime reports for vandalism/hate crime [and] assault [with a] deadly weapon,” the department added. “Investigations are on-going. No arrests have been made at this time.” The Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, added in a separate post that she has spoken with Tuchin – an attorney by profession – about the “disturbing” case. ...
Groups protesting against the war Israel launched in Gaza in response to Hamas’s deadly 7 October attack against Israel have criticized how authorities and media have addressed the protest at the home of Tuchin. ...
“Media is in lockstep with LA elected officials & the LAPD to spin this protest as an ‘antisemitic hate crime,’” J-Town Action と Solidarity – which describes itself as a local grassroots collective – wrote on X. J-Town accused news organizations and officials of downplaying Tuchin’s role with Aipac.
Media is in lockstep with LA elected officials & the LAPD to spin this protest as an “anti-Semitic hate crime.”
Every headline intentionally excludes that this was the home of the PRESIDENT of @AIPAC — a man *directly responsible* for the U.S. backing genocide in Palestine. pic.twitter.com/Hx7oti30FY
— J-Town Action Solidarity (@JTOWNACTION) November 26, 2023
Greenwald Targeted by CIA!
US Hunger Soaring due to Federal Aid Cuts
The number of Americans without enough food over a seven-day period was an average of 40% higher in September and October of 2023 than in September and October of 2021, according to a report released today by the nonprofit group Hunger Free America, based on an analysis of federal data.
Over that time period, the number of people without enough food increased from 19.7 million to 27.8 million nationwide.
Hunger Free America attributes the surge in food insecurity to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals. Many federal benefit increases have either gone away entirely, or are being ramped down, even as prices for food, rent, healthcare, and fuel continue to soar. Said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, “This report should be a jarring wake up call for our federal, state, and local leaders."
According to the USDA food insecurity data - a different way of measuring food hardship analyzed by Hunger Free America - 11.9% of Americans, or 38.8 million people, were found to live in food insecure households over the course of a whole year, as averaged for the years between 2020 and 2022. The states with the highest rates of food insecure individuals from 2020-2022 were Texas (19.0%), Arkansas (16.3%), Louisiana (16.1%), Mississippi (15.4%), Oklahoma (15.3%), and South Carolina (15.3%). Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas were consistently on the lists of the top ten states with the highest rates of food insecurity for individuals overall, children, employed adults, and older Americans.
This year, Hunger Free America also compiled the most recent nonparticipation rates for SNAP, WIC, and school breakfast programs by state. Nationally, 18% of individuals eligible for SNAP were not receiving SNAP in 2018. WIC had the highest rate of nonparticipation, with 49% of eligible individuals not receiving WIC in 2021. School breakfast had a similar nonparticipation rate, with 48% of children who receive school lunch not receiving school breakfast during the 2021-2022 school year.
Continued Berg, “Effective federal public policies over the previous few years were spectacularly successful in stemming U.S. hunger, but as many of those policies have been reversed, hunger has again soared. At exactly the moment when so many Americans are in desperate need of relief, many of the federally funded benefits increases, such as the Child Tax Credit and universal school meals, have expired, due mostly to opposition from conservatives in Congress. Just as no one should be surprised if drought increases when water is taken away, no one should be shocked that when the government takes away food, as well as money to buy food, hunger rises. Our political leaders must act to raise wages and provide a strong safety net, so we can finally end U.S. hunger and ensure that all Americans have access to adequate, healthy food.”
Derek Chauvin expected to survive stabbing attack in prison
The former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd and was stabbed in prison by a fellow inmate Friday is expected to survive the attack, officials have told media outlets.
Updates about Derek Chauvin, the wounded convicted killer and ex-cop, were provided to various media outlets – including the Associated Press and the news station KSTP – by the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, as well as a spokesperson for Minnesota state attorney general Keith Ellison’s office on Saturday.
O’Hara told KSTP that Chauvin was “in stable condition” from what his agency’s “federal law enforcement partners” had reported to him. Meanwhile, Ellison spokesperson Brian Evans said the attorney general’s office had “heard that [Chauvin] is expected to survive”, according to the AP.
J6 Tapes: Insurrection Narrative CRUMBLING As SHOCK FOOTAGE Revealed, More to Come?
Hillary Clinton's Lawyer Indicted For RussiaGate Lying
World’s biggest iceberg moving beyond Antarctic waters
One of the world’s largest icebergs is drifting beyond Antarctic waters, after being grounded for more than three decades, according to the British Antarctic Survey. The iceberg, known as A23a, split from the Antarctic’s Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. But it became stuck to the ocean floor and had remained for many years in the Weddell Sea.
Not any more. Recent satellite images reveal that the iceberg, weighing nearly a trillion metric tonnes, is now drifting quickly past the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, aided by strong winds and currents.
The iceberg is about three times the size of New York City and more than twice the size of Greater London, measuring about 4,000 sq km (1,500 square miles). ...
As it gains steam, the colossal iceberg will probably be launched into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This will funnel it toward the Southern Ocean on a path known as “iceberg alley” where others of its kind can be found bobbing in dark waters. It is not clear why it is making a run for it now.
“Over time it’s probably just thinned slightly and got that little bit of extra buoyancy that’s allowed it to lift off the ocean floor and get pushed by ocean currents,” said Marsh. A23a is also among the world’s oldest icebergs.
British empire’s past emissions ‘double UK’s climate responsibility’
The UK is responsible for almost twice as much global heating as previously thought when its colonial history is taken into account, analysis has revealed.
The UK’s domestic emissions account for 3% of total world emissions dating back to 1850. But when responsibility for emissions in countries once under the British empire’s rule is given to the UK, the figure rises to more than 5%.
These additional emissions come largely from the destruction of forests in the colonised countries, with the biggest contributors coming from India, Myanmar and Nigeria before their independence.
The analysis by Carbon Brief moves up the UK from eighth to fourth in the list of nations with the biggest historical emissions, behind the US, China and Russia.
The climate crisis, which has led to temperature records being shattered in 2023, is predominantly the result of carbon emissions from rich nations. However, the worst impacts of intensifying extreme weather are hitting poorer nations, which have very low emissions. The issue of responsibility features strongly in the international UN climate negotiations, which resume again at Cop28 in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
IDF Knew Real Hamas HQ While Lying About al-Shifa
Hamas Isn’t The Target, It’s The Excuse
Israel Has Damaged Israel’s Reputation Far Worse Than Its Enemies Ever Have
Second Nakba; Same Israeli Lies; Same Western Narrative
Israeli October 7 posterchild was killed by Israeli tank, eyewitnesses reveal
Israel Is Using US-Provided Weapons to Kill Palestinian Civilians at a Historic Pace
Newborns in Gaza Dying From Preventable Causes Due to Israeli Siege: Oxfam
Is the war in Gaza changing regional politics?
UK’s Rwanda Deportation Ruling Offers Assange Hope
Ukrainian Official Confirms Russia Was Ready to End War in March 2022 If Kyiv Agreed to Neutrality
Sioux Tribes Want US to Come Clean on Treaty Deceit
Israel Releases Palestinian Child Prisoners!
A Little Night Music
Johnny B. Moore - Whiskey Drinkin' Woman
Johnny B. Moore ~ Mean Mistreater
Johnny B. Moore - Rockin' in the Same Old Boat
Johnny B. Moore - Goin' Away Baby
Johnny B. Moore - Same Thing (Live)
Johnny B. Moore - I'm a King Bee
Johnny B. Moore - Troubled World
Johnny B. Moore : Confusion
Johnny B. Moore - Rollin' & Tumblin' (Live)
Comments
Thanks for the Eb's Joe
Once again Musk does what he is told to do by his masters.
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
evening ggersh...
i don't usually follow elon musk's struggles too closely, so i have missed a lot. it looks like recently he's been up to his neck in alligators that want to cut off his revenue supply if he doesn't end criticism of the state of israel's violent actions on his site.
good luck to him, i guess.
Not sure how significant that this is but it at least caused me
to chuckle.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4330003-least-popular-us-govern...
evening humphrey...
wow, could it be that genocide joe is a bigger racist pig than tate reeves?
Sticks and stones will never hurt you….
.
but bombs and men with guns surely will. Israel needs to buy a fcking mirror.
How many children has Israel snatched out of their beds in the dead of night and has held them captive for years? This isn’t a thing of the past either because reports are that they have been doing it since they invaded Gaza. Oh yeah and have you noticed how the media says that Israeli hostages are being released as well as Palestinian prisoners? Or Palestinian terrorists.
Israelis vs Palestinians being made uncomfortable:
Israelis get upset seeing protests in favor of Palestinians. Palestinians get attempted murdered.
Boy am I getting flack for posting the greyzone report on how Israel’s military killed lots of Israelis in their homes and at the concert. The anger in the comments is so over the top and they make up all kinds of accusations against me. I must be touching a nerve…
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...
yep, those israelis are tetchy about their narratives, perhaps any government official that doesn't want to be raked over the coals and labeled an antisemite should think twice about saying anything.
heh, the grayzone has another piece up today if you want to keep annoying folks, i'll probably put it in tomorrow's eb.
Israeli tank gunner reveals orders to fire indiscriminately into kibbutz
Dunno if this tweet was included in the guardian article
.
I’m blocked from reading it, but this seems disingenuous to imply that it had anything to with the protest at Tuchin's home.
Looks like it was about the peaceful protest far away from his home.
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...
that tweet may have been linked, but i didn't see it. looks like the la government is full of pro-israeli clowns.
Grrr…!!
.
Schumer says that he is going to find a way to send $106 billion to Ukraine. When I read that I immediately thought of all the kids going hungry every day because congress let the funds for increased social programs expire. Trump gravest whilst Biden taketh it away. Remember when democrats held all branches of government and failed to raise the minimum wage or do any gd thing to help the working class? With ever increasing homelessness I haven’t seen one gd congress member trying to increase funding to HUD to make more places available for affordable housing. When I qualified for it I looked at 10 places that I qualified for and I can’t tell you how horrible they were. Or in unsafe neighborhoods. Or, or. But by golly congress sure can come up with millions here and billions there at the drop of a hat! $14 billion overnight for Israel on top of the $3.8 billion they get every year. I could go on….and on….
Both parties are considered conservative. We have 2 right wing parties, but the media likes to pretend that Democrats are still working for the working class when they stopped doing it when Clinton became president. Now there is barely any safety net left and most of the new deal has been torn down.
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...
if the republicans did not shoot down the crumbs of funding that get on americans in need, the democrats wouldn't even propose them. the whole thing is a game to make one party look like it actually cares about americans while the other party doesn't - when, of course, neither party gives a damn about the american people.
yoyo.
The comments here are just what I said
https://commons.commondreams.org/t/team-biden-goes-from-denial-to-panic/...
It’s about Biden’s falling poll numbers and golly how hard would it be if democrats started passing bills that helped us instead of their donors.
I see a few people calling Trump a fascist, but I don’t remember him going balls to the walls on censorship. Democrats accused him of going to start WW3 when it’s actually Biden messing with Russia, China and North Korea and now he’s back meddling in the Middle East. How about democrats bitching about how the press treated him while Biden is still going after Assange? It sure seems that the economy was much better under Trump than Biden. But it’s still Orange Man Bad while overlooking what Biden is doing. Remember how democrats and the media couldn’t wait until Trump was gone? Not a day has gone by that they both haven’t talked about him. Huffpoo still has huge headlines on his antics and shitlibs still cover what he says and bitch about what republicans are doing while giving democrats a pass. And Biden is still the best president of their lifetime…especially on the Israel war. Poo.
ETA this page of comments in response to Zimmerman saying that anyone who votes 3rd party will be responsible for another Trump win.
Hey Mr. S no one owes their vote to Biden or any democrat just like they didn’t owe their vote to the Hellabitch. People need to earn votes by their deeds and it’s clear that Biden has gone back on every campaign promise except the one he gave to his friends that nothing will change. Geez where do people get off telling the country who they should vote for? There is one long time shitlib that says it’s the voter’s fault every time democrats lose instead of seeing that democrats lose on purpose because they don’t offer people anything to vote for and that they only serve the donors. Maybe I should stop reading tonight because everything is pissing me off.
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...
i pity the next fool that tries to tell me that i have to vote for a particular candidate. i promise to give them an earful.
There’s a saying
Beware the anger of a peaceful man
I think we’re close. . .
thanks joe
always a master class
in music appreciation
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
evening tb&u...
heh, i've been thinking that we were close since nixon was disgracing the office and there have been worse since him. i guess we'll see.
A couple of tweets from Simplicius with regards to Israel and
Ukraine.
Both are relevant to their ongoing situations
Increased hunger in US
Thanks so much for linking to this report Joe. I assumed things were harder for most people lately due to the increased costs of living but really didn't know the actual numbers. The local food bank here makes a good effort to inform the community, yet I still didn't realize how much worse it's getting.
The Naked Capitalism reporting on the Turkstream pipeline antics was really good. Always a petrol angle for the US sisters. It will be interesting to see how the Bulgaria-Hungary feud develops.
Interesting opinion published in Hankyoreh concerning the "UN Command" in South Korea.
UN-less Command: The US-run body destabilizing peace, sovereignty for the Korean Peninsula
According to this view, the UNC is really just a US Unified Command formed by participants in the original Korean conflict that (officially) began 6.25.50. It's not really a UN organization. There is a related point about the US wanting to bring in new participants into the Unified Command, like Germany and Japan. The thought of having Japanese staff officers at Pyeongtaek where the UNC-USFK HQ is would result in a backlash most people can't even imagine. Looks like it's another bloc politics move to try to "lock in" South Korea to new international commitments agreed to by the Yoon administration. This is while USFK is contemplating new Indo-Pacific roles v. China. (At present the ROK Navy, Japanese MSDF, and the US Navy are conducting joint exercises in the East China Sea south of Jeju Island).
Concerning the UNC/USFK command conflict with South Korea when the latter eventually, if ever, gains operational control of the bilateral US-ROK Combined Forces Command (CFC), there is one sentence (I either don't understand or) they got wrong in the editorial concerning the conflicts of operational control of South Korean armed forces during wartime -
I think they meant to say CFC here rather than UNC. The so called UN Command which is actually a US led Unified Command of international forces from member states of the command, is always going to be led by the US Forces Korea commander imo. The operational control issue over ROK Armed Forces in the bilateral Combined Forces Command is presumably someday going to be led by a ROK four star general. So what the sentence should say is that the conflict of command will arise when a US four star general is placed in the position of being the deputy commander of the CFC. I know it seems like getting into the weeds on these military relationships set up more than 70 years ago, but operational control, was a big issue before Yoon took office, and they are in effect, burying it.
View of Gangan Bridge taken last night from the Haeundae Beach side. The bridge connects Gangan and Haeundae in Busan on shores of the East Sea/Sea of Japan.
This video on the status and politics of high speed rail development in the Philippines is very informative. China knows how to finance and build high speed trains, others pretend they do.
Enjoyed listening to your blues tonight JS while incompetently putzing around in the kitchen.
Oops! edited to clean up typos
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
apparently, in washington, the covid-related program to help the needy was a special program and one that needed to go away because the money is needed to buy bombs. a few more hungry people? no big deal in washington.
thanks for the asia update. the various ways that the u.s. is trying to strengthen its position and drag other countries militarily into its proposed engagement with china seem labyrinthine and perplexing, but the outcome will undoubtedly be the same - the u.s. will go further into debt in order to lose ground. thanks neocons!
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs.
So one of Hilary's liars got indicted. So what? Nothing will happen; the myth will continue to be an article of faith for most of the Dems, no politics or policies will change, the press won't change and the perp will geet a wrist slap.
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...
heh, i'm sure that it will have no effect on the belief in russiagate that was pounded into shitlib brains, but it is pleasant to see a crooked, lying lawyer take a public beat down.
So you want to sanction us? Actions have consequences!
What is the EU agrees on framework for Niger sanctions?
The new framework will allow the EU to sanction individuals and entities responsible for actions that threaten the peace, stability and security of Niger, undermine the constitutional order, or constitute serious violations to human rights or international humanitarian law, the EU Council said.Oct 23, 2023
https://bnn.network/politics/nigers-military-junta-revokes-anti-migratio...
heh...
so the eu decided to try to buy off niger with some beads and trinkets in order to mitigate a far more expensive problem of its own creation. score one for the locals.
The Gaza Genocide seems to be primarily funded by US Taxpayers
...who pay for all US wars 100 percent. That includes the People's debt obligations, since they are personally responsible (as citizens-owners of the nation) for the entire US debt — which continuously balloons from loans to cover the yearly deficits, due to the massive overspending to expand the US military threat to every corner of the globe.
By my reckoning, The US taxpayers give Israel billions of dollars each year, which Israel uses to cover the annual shortfall in Israel's own aggressive military budget. So, above and beyond that, the cost of the monstrous genocide effort is a non-budgeted cost, which will be paid for, all or in part, by the American people, from the $100 billion+ gift to Israel from the Biden administration (money that must be borrowed and paid back by the American People). In addition, the US keeps a huge stockpile of US-owned weapons in the region for use by the US military, should the inevitable war for Greater Israel break out across the Middle East. Biden indicated that this, too, will be gifted to Israel. The Biden administration admits the US will not be able to replace it any time soon, if at all.
Americans seem perfectly happy with this arrangement, and should certainly be credited with this latest large-scale genocide. Unless... I wonder if they think that all this milder and mayhem around the world is being paid for by someone other than themselves — maybe paid by a consortium of wealthy tycoons. Is it possible that the People don't know what they are?
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
evening pluto...
i would imagine that many americans have some idea that they are paying far to much for military adventures and military contractor waste, fraud and abuse. i suspect that because the full cost doesn't show up in their tax bill they would be shocked at what all this military expenditure is really costing them. i expect that someday in the future, taxes will have to be raised on the rich to pay for this stuff, because you can't get blood from a turnip. when that happens, i guess there will be a reconsideration.
The interest on the national debt
...will reach a trillion dollars before 2030. That's going to be one hell of a game changer.
Old politicians are dangerous in the US. They don't have to live with the selfish, savage laws they make to enrich themselves and their crony cabal. Because the Constitution is never revised, in order to perfect justice and equality across decades of monumental change — the generations that follow are forced to obey the horrible laws created by a long chain of corrupt old assholes and psychopaths. New generations have no voice because they are stripped of their sovereignty by a gamed and perverted permanent constitution. They just don't know any better. American's are living Thomas Jefferson's nightmare — the loss of generational sovereignty. It's Logan's Run.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
An interesting read with regards to the IDF. Something that
you will never see in the MSM.
https://ddgeopolitics.substack.com/p/the-zionists-are-already-breaking?u...
An excerpt to get you started:
Related information.
Some less than serious snark that is also related.