The Evening Blues - 2-20-24



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Ida Cox

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early blues singer Ida Cox. Enjoy!

Ida Cox - Last Mile Blues

"The worst form of injustice is pretended justice."

-- Plato


News and Opinion

Chris Hedges: Julian Assange’s Final Appeal

If Julian Assange is denied permission to appeal his extradition to the United States before a panel of two judges at the High Court in London this week, he will have no recourse left within the British legal system. His lawyers can ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a stay of execution underRule 39, which is given in “exceptional circumstances” and “only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.” But it is far from certain that the British court will agree. It may order Julian’s immediate extradition prior to a Rule 39 instruction or may decide to ignore a request from the ECtHR to allow Julian to have his case heard by the court.

The nearly 15-year-long persecution of Julian, which has taken a heavy toll on his physical and psychological health, is done in the name of extradition to the U.S. where he would stand trial for allegedly violating 17 counts of the 1917 Espionage Act, with a potential sentence of 170 years.

Julian’s “crime” is that he published classified documents, internal messages, reports and videos from the U.S. government and U.S. military in 2010, which were provided by U.S. army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. This vast trove of material revealed massacres of civilians, torture, assassinations, the list of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and the conditions they were subjected to, as well as the Rules of Engagement in Iraq. Those who perpetrated these crimes — including the U.S. helicopter pilots who gunned down two Reuters journalists and 10 other civilians and severely injured two children, all captured in the Collateral Murder video — have never been prosecuted.

Julian exposed what the U.S. empire seeks to airbrush out of history.

Julian’s persecution is an ominous message to the rest of us. Defy the U.S. imperium, expose its crimes, and no matter who you are, no matter what country you come from, no matter where you live, you will be hunted down and brought to the U.S. to spend the rest of your life in one of the harshest prison systems on earth. If Julian is found guilty it will mean the death of investigative journalism into the inner workings of state power. To possess, much less publish, classified material — as I did when I was a reporter for The New York Times — will be criminalized. And that is the point, one understood by The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El País and The Guardian, who issued a joint letter calling on the U.S. to drop the charges against him.

Assange DAY X Preview - Frontline Club, London

Matthew Hoh: Free Julian Assange TODAY

LIVE: Julian Assange Extradition Hearing

Israel says it will launch Rafah assault if hostages not freed by Ramadan

A member of Israel’s war cabinet has said the country will launch its threatened ground offensive against Rafah, the last place of relative safety in Gaza, if Hamas does not release its remaining Israeli hostages by the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in just under three weeks. “The world must know, and Hamas leaders must know – if by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” Benny Gantz, a retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, told a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday.

As Israeli forces have expanded ground operations steadily southwards in their war against Hamas over the past four months, Rafah – situated on the border with Egypt, and before the conflict home to about 280,000 people – has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million.

Widespread destruction and continuing fighting across the territory, two-thirds of which is already under Israeli evacuation orders, means it is unclear how civilians are expected to flee the long-awaited offensive.

In Gaza on Monday, the IDF claimed victory in the weeks-long fight for the central town of Khan Younis and nearby refugee camps, making the prospect of a Rafah ground attack more likely. Seven patients died at Khan Younis’s Nasser hospital after power cuts caused by a days-long Israeli raid on the premises, and another 20 were in urgent need of referral, the World Health Organization said.

Airstrikes and ground fighting over the past day killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, pushing the death toll over 29,000, said the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. About 85% of the population have been displaced from their homes, and one in four are starving, according to the UN.

Israel Econ COLLAPSE Amid Gaza ESCALATION

US urges Israel to drop plans for Rafah ground offensive

The US has proposed a UN security council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire and for Israel not to go ahead with a planned offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. The draft text marks the first time the US has explicitly backed a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, though it adds that the temporary truce should be begun “as soon as practicable”, leaving some room for manoeuvre by the Israeli military.

The text is being offered by the Biden administration as an alternative to an Algerian draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that is due to be debated on Tuesday.

The US appeal over Rafah, where about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have sought refuge, echoes comments made by Joe Biden in recent days. But the significance of the draft resolution is as a signal that Washington is willing to go through the UN to put pressure on Israel and not rely solely on bilateral messages.

According to a text seen by the Guardian, the US draft resolution says the security council “determines that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement including potentially into neighbouring countries, which would have serious implications for regional peace and security, and therefore underscores that such a major ground offensive should not proceed under current circumstances”.

More Than 50 Countries Argue Before World Court Against Israeli Occupation of Palestine

UN Experts Demand Investigation Into IDF Abuse of Women and Girls in Gaza

A group of United Nations experts on Monday demanded an immediate and thorough investigation into reports that Israeli forces have arbitrarily detained, sexually abused, and executed Palestinian women and girls in the Gaza Strip.

"We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing," said Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories; and Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi of the working group on discrimination against women and girls.

"Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces," the U.N. experts continued. "We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence."

Palestinian women and children have borne the brunt of Israel's large-scale assault on Gaza, making up around 70% of the more than 29,000 people who have been killed by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack on October 7.

The Israeli military has arrested thousands of Gazans—including many women and children—without charge across the besieged enclave over the past four months. Detainees have reported torture and other abuse at the hands of Israeli soldiers, some of whom have posted evidence of their odious actions online for the world to see.

Tamam al-Aswad, a Palestinian mother who was arrested in December and freed earlier this month, told Reuters following her release that she was handcuffed, blindfolded, and placed on a bus with other detainees. At one point, al-Aswad said, an Israeli soldier slammed her head into a wall and hit her on the back after she refused to kiss an Israeli flag.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which estimates that Israeli forces have detained more than 3,000 Gazans since October, said late last year that it had received testimony confirming that Palestinian women have been abused and threatened with rape while in Israeli custody.

The U.N. experts said Monday that they have seen "credible allegations of egregious human rights violations" by Israeli forces against women and girls in Gaza.

"Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten," they said. "On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food."

"Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute," the experts continued. "Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable and victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice."

Bernie Sanders SHAMELESSLY TIP TOES Around Calling Out GENOCIDE In Israel

Irish protesters denounce Bernie Sanders as a Zionist genocide denier over Gaza

Pro-Palestinian protesters at University College Dublin denounced Bernie Sanders as a Zionist for opposing a ceasefire in Gaza and as a genocide denier for refusing to back South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

At a February 15 discussion between Bernie Sanders and David McWilliams of the Irish Times during the Dalkey Book Festival, the left-posturing senator from Vermont was promoting his book, It’s OK To Be Angry At Capitalism.

During the event that attracted 1,000 people, he said that he was trying to persuade the Biden administration to call for a “humanitarian pause or ceasefire in order to provide the desperately needed aid.” However, referring to the International Court of Justice provisional ruling on January 26 that there are legal grounds for accusing Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people, Sanders said he is just “a little bit queasy” about the use of the word “genocide. We have to be careful about it.”

One audience member shouted, “It is a genocide.” Another demanded of Sanders, “What’s your definition of genocide?” A third made a longer denunciation from the floor, saying, “Bernie, you have funded Zionism yourself. You have funded the Israeli settler state. Here you are, pretending you aren’t. It is disgusting. Liar, liar, genocide denier!” He concluded, “It is disgusting. It’s reprehensible. You are a child killer, you are a genocide denier. The United States military industrial complex are the largest murderers in the world. It does not matter if it is a Democrat or a Republican. You have murdered people around the world.”


Lula Recalls Israel Envoy Amid Escalating Clash Over Genocide Remarks

Brazil recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv for talks on Monday after Israel's foreign minister declared Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva persona non grata for condemning the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan reported that Lula recalled Brazilian Ambassador Frederico Meyer amid the escalating row over comments the leftist leader made over the weekend in Ethiopia. The Brazilian news site Carta Capital reported that Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira called Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine for a meeting on Monday.

This, after Lula told attendees at the African Union (A.U.) summit in Addis Ababa on Sunday that "what's happening in the Gaza Strip isn't a war, it's a genocide."

"It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers," Lula continued. "It's a war between a highly prepared army and women and children."

"It is important to remember that in 2010 Brazil was the first country to recognize the Palestinian state," he said. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people did not exist at any other historical moment. In fact, it existed when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."


Lula asked: "Who will help rebuild those houses that were destroyed? Who will repay the lives of 30,000 people who have died, 70,000 who are injured? Who will return the lives of the children who died without knowing why they were dying?"

According to Palestinian officials, at least 29,092 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed, 69,028 wounded, and more than 7,000 others left missing and presumed dead under the rubble as a result of Israel's 136-day assault on the besieged coastal enclave of 2.3 million people, around 90% of whom have been forcibly displaced.

Lula's remarks were well received by A.U. summit attendees, who issued a statement condemning Israel's "brutal" war on Gaza.

"Gaza is being completely annihilated and its people are deprived of all of their rights," declared A.U. Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat, who added that he "condemns the Israeli operation, which is unparalleled in the history of humanity."

Mahamat underscored his support for South Africa as it leads a Gaza genocide case at the International Court of Justice, which found in a provisional ruling last month that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Israeli leaders were incensed by Lula's remarks. Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said da Silva had "crossed a line."

"The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming," Netanyahu said in a statement. "This is a trivialization of the Holocaust and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Lula's comments "shameful and grave."

Katz summoned Meyer for a reprimand at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where the Jewish Brazilian diplomat—whose country sent 20,000 troops to fight the Nazis in World War II—was paraded before a list of Jews killed by the Third Reich.

"We will not forget and we will not forgive," Katz told Meyer. "In my name, and in the name of all Israeli citizens, tell President Lula that he is persona non grata in Israel until he retracts his statements."

Persona non grata is Latin for "unwelcome person." Legally, "it refers to the practice of a state prohibiting a diplomat from entering the country as a diplomat, or censuring a diplomat already resident in the country for conduct unbecoming of the status of a diplomat," according to the U.S. State Department.

Celso Amorim, a former foreign and defense minister who now serves as Lula's chief adviser for international affairs, called Katz's declaration "absurd."

"It only increases Israel's isolation," Amorim told Brazilian journalist Andréia Sadi. "Lula is sought all over the world and at the moment, Israel is persona non grata."

Palestine defenders in Brazil and beyond embraced Israel's rebuke of Lula. The Arab Palestinian Federation of Brazil said on social media that it's "an honor for Lula's biography" to be "persona non grata in the colonial occupation that calls itself a country."

China offers to deepen security ties with Hungary

China has offered to deepen security cooperation with Hungary, underscoring Budapest’s warming ties with Beijing just as Hungarian officials snubbed a visiting delegation from Washington. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, on Friday.

In comments published by China’s official Xinhua news agency over the weekend, Wang said he was hoping to “deepen cooperation in areas including counter-terrorism, combating transnational crimes, security and law enforcement capacity building under the belt and road initiative”.

The aim, according to the Chinese minister, would be “to make law enforcement and security cooperation a new highlight of bilateral relations”. Hungary is a member of the EU and Nato, making China’s offer highly unusual.

Budapest, which also maintains closer links to Moscow than any other EU member, has been nurturing a relationship with Beijing. Last year, Orbán was the only EU leader to attend a forum of the belt and road initiative in Beijing. China’s electrical vehicle manufacturer BYD has said it will open its first European production factory in Hungary.

In a statement about Friday’s meeting with Wang, a spokesperson for Orbán said the prime minister had declared that “respect is increasingly missing from international diplomacy, but it has always remained between Hungary and China”.

US could send long-range missiles to Ukraine if funding passes

Joe Biden’s White House is prepared to send long-range tactical missiles to Ukraine if Congress approves a new funding package, according to a US media report on Monday.

Citing two unnamed officials, NBC News said that the administration was willing to send a variant of the missiles – known as Atacms (army tactical missile systems) – if a new $60bn aid package approved by the Senate, but held up for now by congressional Republicans, becomes law.

The report came as Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was exploiting delays in aid to Ukraine. ...

Newer variations of Atacms that the Biden administration wants to send to Ukraine have a maximum range of nearly 200 miles (300km), typically carrying cluster bomblets, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike the Crimean Peninsula.

According to officials who spoke with NBC anonymously, it was possible that the US would request that Nato allies provide the missiles to Ukraine against the expectation that the American government would refill depleted stockpiles..

Exclusive: ADL pushed BMG to drop Roger Waters by threatening to weaponize company’s Nazi past

When the Berlin-based BMG music company terminated its business relationship with Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd co-founder claimed the decision was spurred by a concerted Israel lobby-directed campaign to financially retaliate against his outspoken support for Palestine. The Grayzone has obtained a threatening private letter sent by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to BMG executives which confirms the musician’s accusation.

“Given the fact that your parent company, Bertelsmann Group, has made laudable and necessary efforts to repair its Nazi past,” the ADL director warned in his June 16, 2023 letter, “it would be deeply unfortunate to have those efforts continue to be tarnished by such hurtful and injurious conduct.”

In an interview with The Grayzone, Waters described the ADL’s menacing missive as the culmination of a months-long intimidation campaign which began well before the October 7 attacks in Israel. The ADL’s push resulted not only in the termination of the company’s deal to release the new 50th anniversary recording of “The Dark Side of the Moon,” he said, but in the departure of BMG’s CEO as well.

“As far as attacks on me by the ADL and and all the rest of the lobby are concerned, the jury has been out for a long time, but it’s not out anymore,” Waters commented to The Grayzone. “The contention that I’m an antisemite because I’ve stood up against the attempted genocide of the indigenous people of Palestine is dead in the water. The people of the world have seen through the wall of hatred and tissue of lies.”


A gunman killed and injured protesters at a BLM march. Why did police blame the victims?

Two years after an attacker shot five volunteers before a Black Lives Matter march in Portland, Oregon, killing a 60-year-old woman and leaving one of her young friends paralyzed, a new visual investigation of the attack reveals that the assailant tried to provoke a stand-your-ground situation, daring three women to fight him, before suddenly opening fire when they refused.

The research agency Forensic Architecture collaborated with survivors on a reconstruction of the attack, analyzing helmet-camera video recorded by one of the victims, police radio traffic obtained through public records requests, and the testimony of 11 witnesses – including the volunteer armed guard who stopped the rampage by shooting and disarming the gunman.

The accumulated evidence flatly contradicts what Portland’s police chief told the public and city council staff in the days after the attack: that the gunman, 43-year-old Ben Smith, had opened fire only after he had been confronted by “armed protesters”. That false characterization of the unarmed victims as aggressors, which was repeated in dozens of local and national news reports, remains uncorrected on the website of the Portland police bureau (PPB) even today, as the survivors mark the second anniversary of Smith murdering their friend, June Knightly. ...

Two years following the attack, survivors remain convinced that antipathy toward the protest movement led the police to cast the victims as suspects in initial public statements. Police dispatch records obtained through a public records request show that officers responding to the shooting were advised that “this is an anti-police protest”.

“They don’t like us. And I am certain that that influenced the way that statement went the following day, and they’ve never done anything to retract it, never came out and said: ‘What we said was wrong,’” said Bradley.



the horse race



White House FURIOUS At NYT for DARING to Scrutinize Biden’s Age and Unpopularity



the evening greens


New study reveals diet link to PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in human body

Diets rich in foods such as processed meat and butter likely increase levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in human blood over time, new peer-reviewed research has found.

The paper identified a range of foods to be among the drivers of high PFAS levels, including teas, pork, candy, sports drinks, processed meat, butter, chips and bottled water. The research also pointed to higher PFAS blood levels among those who consumed more carryout or food prepared at restaurants.

“The main takeaway is not to demonize certain foods or say, ‘Oh my gosh, this food is so unhealthy,” said Hailey Hampson, a University of Southern California doctoral student and the study’s lead author. “The point is to highlight that we need more testing of these foods, and this gives us an avenue to say, “OK, these foods may have higher levels of PFAS so we should do more targeted monitoring of them.’” ...

Although exposure via water has drawn the most regulatory attention, there is scientific consensus that contaminated food largely represents the biggest threat to human health.

The US Food and Drug Administration tests food for PFAS annually and has reported very little contamination. But the agency has faced criticism from independent scientists who say its testing methodologies are flawed, and designed to make it appear as if food is less contaminated than it really is.


Also of Interest

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

You Only Need To Cage A Bird If It Knows That It Can Fly

The Assange ‘Death Plots’

US Deceptions at the Heart of Assange Case

"Democracies" Deny the Popular Will While Suppressing Protest and Dissent

Lightning Strikes And Third Parties

Pledge Allegiance to the Gag

Westminster Abbey agrees ‘in principle’ to return sacred tablet to Ethiopia

Houthis MOST DAMAGING Strike Yet In Red Sea


A Little Night Music

Ida Cox - Wild Women Don't Have The Blues

Ida Cox - Hard Time Blues

Ida Cox - I Can't Quit That Man

Ida Cox - Death Letter Blues

Ida Cox - Pink Slip Blues

Ida Cox - Fore Day Creep

Ida Cox - Take Him Off My Mind

Ida Cox - Lawdy, Lawdy Blues

Ida Cox - One Hour Mama


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17 users have voted.

Comments

QMS's picture

-
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US and Germany are losing their voices on the world stage
even EU is sputtering nonsense. Is this the western world response
to a much more formidable BRICS + ?

want to say hey, get with the program
China and Russia will exist without your disapprovals.
As with the global south. Support of genocide only
weakens 'authority' of the empire.

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

the u.s. and much of the west have long lost their credibility and are now working on the basis of raw power to maintain hegemony. they seem to be getting on a lot of the worlds last nerve these days.

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5 users have voted.

the Houthis or the US led coalition?"

The rest of the tweet:

Minor damage and no injuries were reported. The ship continued toward its scheduled destination to deliver grain to Aden, Yemen.

A surface to air missile launcher was located and destroyed by U.S. CENTCOM forces in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at approximately 5 p.m.

One additional anti-ship ballistic missile was launched at 6:40 p.m. but did not impact any commercial or coalition ships.

At 7:20 p.m., a one-way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) struck the M/V Navis Fortuna, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned, bulk carrier causing minor damage and no injuries. The ship continued its voyage toward Italy.

At 8:15 p.m., U.S. CENTCOM forces destroyed a OWA UAV in Western Yemen prepared to launch at ships in the Red Sea.

Between 8 p.m. on Feb. 19 and 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 20, U.S. and coalition aircraft and warships shot down 10 OWA UAVs in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Additionally, at 12:30 a.m., Feb. 20, USS Laboon (DDG 58) identified one anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) headed in its direction. USS Laboon subsequently shot down the ASCM.

The OWA UAVs, the SAM system, and ASCM destroyed were identified by CENTCOM and determined they presented imminent threats to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. These actions will protect navigational rights and freedoms and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.

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7 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@humphrey @humphrey
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gladiator is succeeding
navy pops off a couple smoke bombs
(no damage) for visuals
then responds with gazillion dollar
war heads. who won?

The war machine appears important?

The same regime backing Nazi's in WW2
are now backing Israel in WW3
(US)

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7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

well, i sure wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the houthis to blink. on the other hand, i suppose that i wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the u.s. to run out of weapons to make the rubble bounce.

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3 users have voted.

I am unaware if this is the case but this caught my attention.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

Why people are now constantly sick all the time

This has been known for about a year, but he writes about it so that everyone can understand it. Doctors are baffled.

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5 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 is for the family of a woman under age 50 who had fibrous tumors in her stomach, surgery went south, discovered she had had strokes, a heart attack, blood clots in her brain, organ failure.
She was a nurse. In perfect health until 2021.

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8 users have voted.

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

soryang's picture

This BBC report gives the date as Feb 13 for the alleged discovery of the defector's corpse.

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5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

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5 users have voted.
soryang's picture

@humphrey Awfully convenient in fact, or inconvenient depending on one's point of view. I remember the timing on the attack on the DPRK embassy in Madrid. What was going on there was pretty obvious, who was responsible etc. Don't see enough evidence here to make any judgement at this point. One often doesn't get to the bottom of this sort of thing in a definitive way.

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6 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

joe shikspack's picture

@soryang

heh, and generally if one does get to the (definitive) bottom of this sort of thing it's decades after the event.

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4 users have voted.
soryang's picture

@joe shikspack @joe shikspack This is the essence of the political corruption in South Korea, the administration of justice there which is overtly political and patently unjust. It's something I've been focused on for a few years following former prosecutor Yoon's shenanigans. What surprises me, is that many South Koreans themselves, and/or Korean Americans are insensitive to it or just don't want to see it, because they'd like to take pride in their "democratic" form of government. By and large, it's a subject that the US, and the west in general avoided for some time, until the Korean American pastor from some unification advocacy group here in the states, set up the first lady, with the Dior handbag scandal. He had a secret camera in his wrist watch, so her corruption could not be denied. Prosecutors have consistently avoided, over the years, investigating her alleged corruption because of who her husband is. I guess Pastor Choi made his point. Yoon vetoed a bill for a special prosecutor to investigate his wife. I wondered if the good pastor were not in fact working on behalf of some agency but that's for another time.

I saw an investigative report last night where former president Moon's Chief of Staff Noh, took Yoon at his word when he said he supported prosecutorial reform, and politically impartial administration of justice. They appointed him prosecutor general when they should have known better, and then took sides with him against two of their own justice ministers, Cho Guk, and later, Chu Mi-ae, forcing their resignations, rather than Yoon's. It's a story almost too incredible to believe. Making false criminal accusations against political rivals to drive them from power is at least as old as the Chosun dynasty. In the current circumstances, it's also more convenient than an outright dictatorship, such as that which prevailed from 1948 to at 1988. I think in the US, it's actually a rule of professional responsibility that one not undermine the public faith in the integrity of the justice system. I wont' say any more.

Found Chris Hedges' coverage, and that of Consortium News that you linked to, on the Assange case very informative. Needed a refresher. Read the indictments some time ago. Thanks Joe.

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7 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

joe shikspack's picture

@soryang

my rule of thumb for deciding whether somebody works for an agency is that if the question crosses your mind, they probably are.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

Bernie’s new book.

It’s OK To Be Angry At Capitalism.

It’s also okay to write that after spending one’s entire tenure helping to further capitalism and especially after getting the chair of a powerful committee. Retire already, Bernie. Your true colors have finally been unmasked for all to see. Happy to see the Irish ripping Bernie a new one. What a coward indeed.

As have Bibi's:

He also said that there will never be a two state solution. Kirby still says that Israel doesn’t have any red lines.

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8 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

QMS's picture

@snoopydawg

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for the sacred right of defense?
don't think so, don't buy it

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yep, bernie is an object lesson in "the masters tools will never dismantle the master's house." he has sold so much of his soul to obtain some power that it no longer matters.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

In particular Flint, Michigan where they are still drinking water full of lead…

Funny how none of the criminal government folks were even charged with a crime for letting people get lead poisoning. There’s that 2 justice systems again.

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7 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

leader of Russia. /S

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

just happened to be at the meeting on the day that news broke that her husband was dead. And with her boyfriend which must have cut her grief at his passing. I’m not seeing the shitlibs questioning this bit of news. But they sure are crying in their milk that he was ‘murdered' by Putin. Good gravy…they must memorize what the media tells them because they repeat verbatim.

Russia has accused Ukraine of using chemical weapons again on their troops and rumors are that they have been kicked out of the OPCW and their spot given to Ukraine. Russia has evidence that the Ukraine bio weapons were tested on kids in Mariupol. Adults too, but kids? Evil bastards.

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7 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

i think that it's hilarious that they are having an "invest in america tour" at the same time as they are putting all their efforts into shipping hundreds of billions of dollars off to fund wars in other countries. funny way to show that they care.

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10 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

They’re sending out Kamala who know one takes seriously so there’s that. It’s the same as selling that Bidenomics is making the country great again.

Yeah I’m seeing how thoroughly disgusted people are with Bernie every time he opens his yap on the Twit. People saw through him much quicker than they did Obama.

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7 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

the sniveling State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

goes unrewarded.

Running out of words to say about this old geezer who is the most empathetic president ever. How anyone can say that…

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6 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

i guess inflation has done quite a number on the value of 30 pieces of silver.

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@snoopydawg

his Waterloo.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4479619-bidens-brother-to-be-deposed-...

Biden’s brother to be deposed on Wednesday in GOP impeachment inquiry.

James Biden, the president’s brother, is set to appear before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee behind closed doors Wednesday, the first of two high-profile testimonies the panel will hear this month as part of its impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Republicans leading the investigation have alleged the president was deeply involved in family business dealings — including those of his younger brother — that were tainted by corruption and influence peddling that hinged on the powerful Biden name.

The Republicans have yet to provide clear evidence backing those claims, however, and they’re hoping the younger Biden’s testimony Wednesday will yield the smoking gun they’ve so far failed to dig up.

His appearance comes just days after an explosive Politico investigation found James Biden invoked his brother’s name in negotiations with a rural health care company, Americore Health, which would later collapse into bankruptcy — an issue Oversight Republicans are vowing to broach during Wednesday’s testimony.

“He once again has a lot to answer,” Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.), a member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Tuesday on Fox News. “It’s great to see that he’s finally coming in for this interview. A year ago, I think that the administration would have denied that they would ever have Biden family members coming before the Oversight Committee as part of this impeachment inquiry.”

Link to the Politico article with the details:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/18/the-biden-name-how-the-presiden...

Part of which states.

In 2017, a hospital operator set out to build a rural health care empire with the help of a Philadelphia-area consultant.

The consultant, Jim Biden, had no experience running hospitals. But he did understand the federal government and had ties to labor unions. Perhaps more important, he was the younger brother of Joe Biden.

The final years of the Obama administration had cemented the former vice president’s towering stature in the world of health care, where he had made the fight against cancer a top federal priority and, then, a centerpiece of his legacy-building efforts.

For then 67-year-old Jim Biden, the third of four Biden siblings, his ties to his older brother made up much of his pitch as he pursued deals that could help Americore make money from drug rehab, lab testing and even cancer treatment.

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were along the lines that only a US citizen could be charged with under the 1917 Espionage Act.
That is always what I thought, too.
Oh, well, I don't give a shit what legal theory or law or procedure works, just so something works and sets him free.
We need a free press more than ever before. They should be giving full throated support of him. Strangely telling, isn't it?
We will no soon if justice in the world means what we think it does.
Thanks joe. Great work, my friend.

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6 users have voted.

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