The Evening Blues - 4-10-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Enjoy!
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - This Train
"A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves out to achieve instead - often not recognizing fully what they were doing - was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming age of barbarism and darkness."
-- Alasdair MacIntyre
News and Opinion
Gaza Asks Us A Question About What Kind Of Future We Want To Have
The main reason I’ve focused so hard on Gaza these last six months isn’t so much because of how evil and horrific Israel’s mass atrocity is in and of itself, but because it’s so intimately intertwined with all our world’s other problems, and with the future of the human species.
In a very real way, the destruction of Gaza appears to be a moment in history where humanity is collectively mulling over whether it wants to keep behaving in a crazy, self-destructive way and continue along its trajectory into dystopia and toward self-inflicted extinction, or abandon this madness and push for something better. Whether it wants to keep buying into the lies and propaganda and tacitly consenting to the psychopathic murderousness of the powerful, or let the light of truth shine in.
A live-streamed genocide happening right out in the open forces a civilization to start asking questions about itself. If something like this can happen in plain view of everyone, and the people in charge not only do nothing but actively facilitate it, then you have to start wondering if everything about your entire nation is deranged, and if everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie.
If something so nakedly evil — undisguised by anything besides a thin veneer of Zionist gaslighting telling us we’re not seeing what we’re seeing — can be allowed to stand by those we’ve entrusted to run things, then it means our entire society is diseased. Our government. Our political systems. Our media. Our education systems. Our worldviews. Our culture. It’s all rotted and corrupted, right down to the core.
The future we are being shown through the window of Gaza is dark. Dark, dark, dark, dark. They’re currently using artificial intelligence to create kill lists and to determine when its targets will be at home with their families to ensure maximum civilian deaths. We used to worry about a dark future where humans send machines to go kill people indiscriminately, but it turns out it’s actually happening the other way around — we’re programming machines to tell us who to kill. The horror in our present dystopia isn’t so much autonomous murderbots as ethical decisions about killing being outsourced to AI.
We’re being asked to accept this and move forward in this direction into the future. We’re being asked to walk into the future holding the assumption that it’s fine and normal for our governments to knowingly support an unforgivable act of mass slaughter upon the inhabitants of a giant concentration camp. We’re being asked to walk into the future holding the assumption that it’s fine and normal for the mass media to lie and distort and misinform the public about a matter of such urgent importance day after day, month after month. We’re being asked to walk into the future holding the assumption that it’s fine and normal for a blatant genocide to take place right in front of our faces, and then move on as though nothing happened.
And right now we’re collectively ruminating on the question of whether we’re going to decide to do those things, or if we’re going to decide to do something else instead.
The Gaza genocide is such a massive thing in and of itself — the injustice, the murder, the loss, the unfathomable suffering. But what’s happening in Gaza is also about so much more than Gaza. It’s a moment in history where humanity is thinking seriously about real revolutionary change, and weighing the options between that and continuing along this tired old blood-soaked path we’ve been travelling on for millennia.
Gaza proves that our entire civilization is cancerous, and that everything we’ve been doing has failed. When you come across information which blows apart your worldview in your personal life, you can either collapse under the weight of cognitive dissonance until you find some way to plug yourself back into the comforting lies, or you can set about the hard work of forming a new way of looking at things. That’s the sort of moment we’re being collectively offered with Gaza. We’ll either accept the invitation, or continue our slide into darkness.
Netanyahu making a ‘mistake’ on Gaza, says Biden, as he urges Israel to push for ceasefire
US president Joe Biden has said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach on Gaza was a “mistake” and urged Israel to call for a ceasefire, in an interview that aired on Tuesday. Biden’s comments were some of his strongest criticism yet of Netanyahu amid growing tensions over the civilian death toll from Israel’s war on Hamas and dire conditions inside Gaza.
“I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden told Univision, a US Spanish-language TV network, when asked about Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Biden reiterated that an Israeli drone attack last week that killed seven aid workers from a US-based charity in Gaza – and sparked a tense phone call with Netanyahu – was “outrageous”.
“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” said Biden.
The president’s remarks on a ceasefire marked a shift from his previous comments, in which he has said the burden lay with Hamas to agree to a truce and hostage release deal. Biden also stepped up pressure on Israel to let more aid into devastated Gaza, saying he had spoken to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and they were “prepared to move this food in”. ...
Israel said 468 aid trucks moved into Gaza on Tuesday, after 419 entered on Monday, the highest numbers in the six months since the conflict began. However, the UN said it was still much less than the bare minimum to meet humanitarian needs.
Obama’s Defense Secretary CALLS OUT Israel’s War Crimes!
UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel, David Cameron says
David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law. The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.
But Lord Cameron said ministers had “grave concerns” about humanitarian access in Gaza as he urged Israel to turn its commitments on aid “into reality” at a joint press conference with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken.
Downing Street has come under mounting pressure from senior Tories to suspend weapons exports in light of the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and after the deaths of three Britons in the strike on aid group World Central Kitchen.
Cameron said that continuing to allow arms exports put the UK in line with other “like-minded countries” and reiterated that the UK had a robust legal process for assessing those licences. He said: “We don’t publish legal advice, we don’t comment on legal advice but we act in a way that is consistent with it, we’re a government under the law and that’s as it should be.”
The former prime minister said the Israel-Hamas conflict was a “different situation” from when the UK published a summary of legal advice before taking military action in Libya, or more recently in the Red Sea. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said Cameron’s refusal to publish the legal advice “simply is not good enough”, as he accused him of “hiding from scrutiny”.
CNN DEBUNKS Israel 'Flour Massacre' Lies
Refuting Jurists, Lloyd Austin Says US Has No Evidence of Gaza Genocide
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday became the latest Biden administration official to deny that Israel's six-month bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza constitute a genocide, a statement that came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined a growing number of international jurists asserting that Israeli policies and actions are genocidal under the letter of the law.
After pro-Palestine protesters wearing T-shirts with the message "Austin's Legacy = Genocide" interrupted a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday morning, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the Pentagon chief if Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
"We don't have any evidence of genocide being created," Austin replied after a short pause.
After telling the defense secretary his response was "better than" the replies from CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines—whom Cotton said "dodged that question" before the committee last month—the senator asked Austin to respond to allegations of "greenlighting genocide" in Gaza.
"From the very beginning, we committed to help assist Israel in defending its territory and its people by providing security assistance, and I would remind everybody, you know, that what happened on October 7 was absolutely horrible," Austin said, referring to the Hamas-led attacks in which more than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed—at least some of them by so-called "friendly fire"—and over 240 others were kidnapped.
Austin's remarks followed reports that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told constituents that Israel's war on Gaza—which has killed and wounded more than 116,000 Palestinians including people believed dead and buried beneath rubble while displacing around 90% of the population and causing mass starvation—meets the legal definition of genocide.
"If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they'll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so," Warren—a former law professor with three decades of experience—told an audience Friday at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Massachusetts.
In January, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a preliminary ruling in a case brought by South Africa and supported by over 30 other nations that found Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. The ICJ ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts—a directive that numerous international human rights experts say is being ignored.
A March draft report by the United Nations Human Rights Council found "reasonable grounds to believe" Israel is perpetrating genocide against Palestinians.
US and UK officials deny Israeli crimes as Gaza is deliberately starved
Asked in a Senate hearing Tuesday about charges of Israeli-authored genocide in Gaza, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin responded, “We don’t have evidence of that.” “We are committed to help assist Israel in defending its territory and its people by providing security assistance,” he added
Earlier that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that a date was set for a ground assault of Rafah, hosting over 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority of them refugees. Netanyahu threatened, “There is no force in the world that will stop us.” An invasion of Rafah would send the death toll in Gaza skyrocketing. According to the Gazan health ministry, the latest daily figures as of Tuesday were 153 killed and 60 injured, taking the totals to 33,360 and 75,993, not including those missing and unaccounted for. Among the dead are 14,500 children and 9,560 women. The Israeli government knows the Palestinians in Rafah have nowhere to go. Its defence ministry has cynically put out a tender for just 40,000 tents, supposedly to house those expected to flee, which an official confirmed was part of preparations for the Rafah offensive.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a sickening press conference in Washington attempting to cover up the expanding pattern of war crimes. Cameron spoke of a “plan B” in the event of “conflict” in Rafah, apparently involving “go[ing] hard on getting aid into Gaza” while supporting “Israel in its legitimate right of self-defence to deal with the Hamas threat.” He was sure to add that the UK’s position on continuing to supply Israel with arms—roughly £42 million worth in 2022—remains “unchanged”. Blinken praised Israel’s “initial actions” towards increasing the flow of aid into the Strip while claiming, “The ball is in Hamas’s court.”
The post-invasion reality facing Rafah is already on display in the rest of the Gaza Strip. Khan Younis, the next major city to the north of Rafah, is a wasteland. An estimated 55 percent of its buildings are destroyed or damaged, according to US-based mapping experts working from satellite imagery. Air strikes against civilians continue daily. Five were killed in a single bombing Tuesday in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Tuesday, including the head of the municipality council Hatem Al-Ghamri.
Hunger could soon become the biggest killer thanks to Israel’s deliberate strategy of starvation. Half the Gazan population is facing “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity, double the number in December. Another 38 percent are suffering “emergency” levels and 12 percent “crisis” levels of shortage.
Breaking the Silence: Israeli Army Veterans Tour U.S. & Canada to Speak Out Against Occupation
Aid Flotilla Heading to Gaza to Break Siege
Hundreds of human rights activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, including CODEPINK’s Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin, are due to set sail on multiple vessels in mid-April to carry 5,500 tons of aid for Gaza.
Their mission, aside from delivering the much-needed humanitarian aid, is to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza amid dire conditions, including widespread hunger and lack of medical attention intentionally caused by Israeli policies. Time is running out for many in Gaza as Israel threatens an all-out attack on Rafah and experts warn hunger and disease could soon surpass casualties from bombings.
“I have been walking the halls of Congress every day since October, going to rallies every weekend, writing letters of outrage to President Biden every night — and nothing has worked to stop Israel from murdering thousands upon thousands of innocent people,” said CODEPINK co-founder Benjamin. “What more can I do? I can go on this flotilla to try to break the criminal siege that Israel has imposed on Gaza.” ...
The Freedom Flotilla opposes Israel’s authority over aid and will refuse any inspection of our cargo. For safety and effective aid distribution, the flotilla will deploy numerous international humanitarian observers from diverse backgrounds and countries.
Scott Ritter: Russia Crushing NATO
US Announces $138 Million HAWK Air Defense Deal for Ukraine
The State Department announced on Tuesday an “emergency foreign military sale” to Ukraine for $138 million worth of equipment to maintain and upgrade its HAWK air defense systems.
The deal is being paid for by US military aid for Ukraine that was included in the US’s annual military spending bill, which President Biden signed into law last month. The bill gave Ukraine $300 million in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to buy US-made weapons.
The deal for the HAWK air defense systems comes as Russia is stepping up its missile and drone strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine. Russia’s strikes have been much more effective as Moscow has better intelligence and is finding gaps in Ukraine’s air defense systems, which have been significantly depleted.
Mexico Releases SHOCKING Embassy Raid Footage
Mexican president releases footage of ‘despicable’ raid on embassy in Ecuador
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has condemned what he described as a “despicable authoritarian” assault on his country’s embassy in Quito and released dramatic images showing Ecuadorian security forces dragging the country’s former vice-president from the building.
Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s vice-president from 2013 until 2018, sought shelter at the Mexican mission in December claiming he was suffering political persecution. But the 54-year-old politician was arrested there on Friday after Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, took the extraordinary step of ordering a raid on the embassy. ...
In the images black-clad police operatives can be seen swarming into Mexico’s supposedly protected diplomatic headquarters after several armed agents scaled the outer wall. Inside, officers can be seen pointing a gun towards the deputy chief of mission, Roberto Canseco, and then grappling with the Mexican diplomat as he stands in the library. Soon after, at 10.15pm, a police officer with a riot shield pushes Canseco out of the way as Glas is hauled out of the building by four operatives. Canseco is wrestled to the floor and again manhandled outside the building as Glas is driven away. ...
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the US state department said it condemned “any violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, and takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions”. But López Obrador, who is widely known as Amlo, criticised what he called the “noncommittal” US reaction to Ecuador’s “authoritarian act”, noting that Joe Biden had not spoken out himself.
Mexico’s foreign ministry said it was releasing the footage in order to denounce Ecuador’s “unauthorized and violent break-in” and “the abuses suffered by our diplomatic staff” to the world. “The world witnessed the violence, abuse and mistreatment of our Mexican personnel at the hands of the Ecuadorian police, and the violation of the immunity of our embassy in Ecuador,” the ministry tweeted, vowing: “Mexico will bring these violations of international law to the international courts and tribunals with the support of friendly countries.”
Ecuador's Noboa crushes dissent for corporate masters
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...
Colombia ex-president Uribe to face trial for witness tampering and fraud
Colombia’s ex-president Álvaro Uribe will face trial for witness tampering and fraud, prosecutors have announced, once again casting the spotlight on allegations that the former leader partnered with paramilitary death squads in his war against leftist rebels.
Uribe has long been accused of committing a litany of crimes at the peak of Colombia’s six decades of brutal conflict, but has never been brought to trial, and remains one of the country’s most powerful political figures.
The prosecutor’s office said it decided to call the 71-year-old to trial after reviewing new “physical evidence and material evidence collected and studied by the office”. The announcement means Uribe will be the first president in Colombian history to be brought to criminal trial.
Among the evidence submitted to the prosecutor’s office are new allegations from a former paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve and the gunman’s partner. Monsalve is in prison on charges of kidnapping, extortion, illegal possession of weapons and conspiracy. Uribe remains a divisive and powerful political figure in Colombia after overseeing strong military offensives while in office from 2002 to 2010. ...
Uribe’s success in restoring order to the Andean nation has made him a heroic figure for the Colombian right, but opponents focus on his disregard for human rights and persistent allegations that he had close links to right wing death squads.
Average US Taxpayer Contributed More to Militarism Than Medicare in 2023
The average U.S. taxpayer was forced to contribute more to militarized programs than to Medicare and Medicaid combined in 2023, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the National Priorities Project.
Published ahead of Tax Day, the analysis sheds light on the extent to which the federal income tax dollars of ordinary Americans are fueling "militarism and its support systems" such as the Pentagon, which currently accounts for roughly half of the federal government's total discretionary budget.
"Overall, in 2023, the average taxpayer contributed $5,109 for militarism and its support systems—including war and the Pentagon, veterans' programs, deportations and border militarization, and federal spending on policing and prisons," according to NPP, which is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
By comparison, the typical U.S. taxpayer contributed $4,308 to Medicare and Medicaid, $346 to K-12 education, $516 to nutrition assistance for low-income Americans, and $58 to diplomacy-related programs.
"Right now, millions of Americans are struggling to stay afloat—it's become so expensive to live, eat, and have a home. Yet, instead of addressing the cost-of-living crisis or funding measures to address our communities' needs, this year $5,109 of the average American's taxpayer dollars went to fund the military and its support systems," said Alliyah Lusuegro, NPP's outreach coordinator and a co-author of the new analysis.
"A far greater portion of our tax dollars goes toward militarism at home and abroad, and toward harming and separating immigrant families, when we should be investing instead in safe and healthy conditions for our communities and our futures," Lusuegro added.
Last year, according to NPP, $1,748 of the average American's income tax contributions went to the pockets of Pentagon contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which lobby Congress aggressively for an ever-larger military budget—much of which ends up in private hands.
Lindsay Koshgarian, NPP's program director, said Tuesday that "it's outrageous that the average taxpayer is giving the equivalent of a month's rent to Pentagon contractors."
"These big corporations are already not paying their fair share in taxes," said Koshgarian. "Instead, ordinary people are subsidizing those corporations' profits and multi-million dollar CEO pay packages. Taxpayer dollars should be going to real needs like schools, food and housing programs, or renewable energy—not lining the pockets of corporations."
The analysis comes weeks after President Joe Biden signed into law an $825 billion military spending package for fiscal year 2024 that includes "includes $33.5 billion to build eight ships and allocates funds for 86 F-35 and 24 F-15EX fighter jets as well as 15 KC-46A tankers," Defense News reported.
Last month, Biden released a budget proposal that called for $850 billion for the Pentagon and more than $1 trillion overall in militarized funding.
"Just like our personal expenses, our income tax payments can change our lives for the better—or not," NPP said Tuesday. "If we put more funds into education, we'll probably see kids and families better off. If we put more into Pentagon contracts, we'll see their CEOs and shareholders better off—and we'll see U.S. weapons used in conflicts around the world."
Norfolk Southern agrees to pay $600m for Ohio toxic train derailment
Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600m in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio. The company said the agreement, if approved by the court, will resolve all class action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and, for those residents who choose to participate, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment.
About 50 cars of the freight train – which had roughly 150 cars and three locomotives – derailed on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, with some cars transporting hazardous materials. An evacuation covered 1,500 to 2,000 of the town’s approximately 4,800 to 4,900 residents.
Norfolk Southern said on Tuesday that individuals and businesses will be able to use compensation from the settlement in any manner they see fit to address potential adverse impacts from the derailment, which could include healthcare needs, property restoration and compensation for any net business loss. Individuals within 10 mile of the derailment may, at their discretion, choose to receive additional compensation for any past, current, or future personal injury from the derailment.
The company said that the settlement does not include or constitute any admission of liability, wrongdoing, or fault.
The settlement is expected to be submitted for preliminary approval to the US district court for the northern district of Ohio later in April 2024. Payments to class members under the settlement could begin by the end of the year, subject to final court approval.
Michael Avenatti DEFENDS Trump, Calls Stormy Daniels a Liar: Interview
Hunter Biden Linked Firm Accused of TERRORISM, Says Russia; NPR’s Liberal Bias EXPOSED
Cornel West Names Running Mate, Ro Khanna wants RFK Jr Veep Pick To DROP OUT OF THE RACE
New rule mandates 200 US plants to reduce toxic emissions linked to cancer
More than 200 of the US’s chemical plants will be mandated to reduce toxic emissions linked to cancer to and better protect communities from hazardous pollution, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday. The long-awaited rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will strengthen protections for communities living near industrial sites, especially along the Gulf coast.
The new update focuses on ethylene oxide, used to produce antifreeze, pesticides and sterilizing agents, as well as chloroprene, which is used to make synthetic rubber for shoes and wetsuits.
“President Biden believes every community in this country deserves to breathe clean air,” said the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, highlighting communities such as St John the Baptist parish in Louisiana. “We promised to listen to folks that are suffering from pollution and act to protect them. Today we deliver on that promise with strong final standards to slash pollution, reduce cancer risk and ensure cleaner air for nearby communities.”
The last time the government updated the pollution limits from chemical plants was 2006. The strengthened rule would lower toxic pollutants by 6,200 tons a year, and slash ethylene oxide and chloroprene emissions by 80%. The new update under the Clean Air Act would also require fence-line monitoring of six toxic air pollutants: ethylene oxide, chloroprene, vinyl chloride, benzene, 1,3-butadiene and ethylene dichloride.
World’s biggest economies pumping billions into fossil fuels in poor nations
The world’s biggest economies have continued to finance the expansion of fossil fuels in poor countries to the tune of billions of dollars, despite their commitments on the climate. The G20 group of developed and developing economies, and the multilateral development banks they fund, put $142bn (£112bn) into fossil fuel developments overseas from 2020 to 2022, according to estimates compiled by the campaigning groups Oil Change International (OCI) and Friends of the Earth US.
Canada, Japan and South Korea were the biggest sources of such finance in the three years studied, and gas received more funding than either coal or oil.
The G7 group of biggest economies, to which Japan and Canada belong, pledged in 2022 to halt overseas funding of fossil fuels. But while funding for coal has rapidly diminished, finance for oil and gas projects has continued at a strong pace. Some of the money is going to other developed economies, including Australia, but much of it is to the developing world. However, richer middle income countries still receive more finance than the poorest.
Human rights violated by Swiss inaction on climate, ECHR rules in landmark case
Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled. In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.
The court’s top bench ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life, but threw out a French mayor’s case against France and that of a group of young Portuguese people against 32 European countries. “It feels like a mixed result because two of the cases were inadmissible,” said Corina Heri, a law researcher at the University of Zürich. “But actually it’s a huge success.”
The court, which calls itself “the conscience of Europe”, found that Switzerland had failed to comply with its duties to stop climate change. It also set out a path for organisations to bring further cases on behalf of applicants. The Swiss verdict opens up all 46 members of the Council of Europe to similar cases in national courts that they are likely to lose.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Iran's top diplomat due in US as lawmakers push to block officials from UN
Origins of Israel’s Anti-Arab Racism
Israeli police demolish longtime prisoner Walid Daqqa's funeral tent and detain mourners
Through Kushner ties, Gulf states invest in firm linked to Israel's defence industry
Israel’s AI Targeting System Reflects the Inhumanity It Was Programmed With
Israel To Launch Major Escalation?
Digital trail identifying Israeli spy chief has been online for years
Israel’s Ultimate Goal Is to Make Gaza Unfit for Human Habitation: Middle East Analyst Mouin Rabbani
Arizona Supreme Court Revives 1864 Abortion Ban Passed Before Women Could Even Vote
Surveillance BETRAYAL May End Mike Johnson's Speakership
Cenk Uygur Figures Out Democrats Rig Their Primaries 8 Years After Jimmy Dore!
China takes a hard line with Yellen
NATO humiliation, Macron escalation w/ Ray McGovern
A Little Night Music
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Strange Things Happening Every Day
Sister Rosetta Tharpe & The Lucky Millinder Orchestra - Shout Sister Shout
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Jericho
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Trouble In Mind
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Lonesome Road
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Thats All
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Down by the Riverside
Comments
South Korean lawfare party loses general election
I'm pretty sure these are the final numbers because I haven't seen any updates in a couple of hours.
(Source-MBC live news 4.10) Democratic Party including their 13 representatives from the proportional ticket- 174 plus Cho Guk's Inovation Party with 12 proportional representatives totals 186.
PPP (conservative party) including proportional representatives- 109 representatives.
Lee Jae-myung, democratic party leader, and Cho Guk, Innovation Party leader, have been victims of sustained prosecutions from Yoon's office when he was Prosecutor General, which continued during his presidency (still 3 years left on his term of office) with Han Dong-hun as Justice Minister, and then the party leader for the conservative PPP. Lee Jae-myung had to direct party campaign efforts in between court appearances on trumped up criminal charges. The former Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae, won a seat as democratic representative. She was forced to resign after she failed to get Yoon dismissed for ethical misconduct during the Moon administration. Yoon was only suspended for two months. After his injunction was overruled by an appellate court, Yoon resigned to run for the presidency.
Notable conservatives who won seats included Ahn Chul-soo, (I regard him as an Elon Musk/ Andrew Yang type conservative) but he's always discussed as a potential presidential contender. The former PPP party leader Lee Jun-seok, was elected. He had been forced out of the PPP for receiving alleged sexual favors, after his support for Yoon resulted in Yoon's election as president. LJS ran independently and was elected. Na Kyang-won, a former floor leader in the assembly for the conservative party, won a seat. Na, a leading conservative female PPP leader is regarded as a potential presidential contender also. Yoon brushed her off after his election as president.
Lee Nak-yeon, the former democratic party prime minister under the Moon Jae-in administration, a subak (DINO), ran independently and lost.
Potentially wielding 180 votes or more on the floor of the next National Assembly, the democrats plus Cho Guk, can fast track legislation and overcome
presidential vetoesfilibusters. Han and Yoon and the conservative pundits are trying to spin this conservative loss positively and save Han Dong-hun's career by saying that at least the dems didn't get 200 votes. If they had they would be able to amend the constitution, override vetoes and/or initiate impeachment proceedings against Yoon unilaterally.On a different but related subject, I found this assessment of South Korean air defense capabilities based on the latest North Korean missile test quite interesting-
Umbrella with holes: New NK missiles prove Seoul’s defense system to be faulty at best
Thanks for the EBs Joe. I understand exactly why you are focused on the genocide in Palestine. I appreciate your comprehensive coverage since this travesty started.
(edited for typos)
(Mar 13 01:11 - Had to correct errors I made about legislative majorities needed to override presidential vetoes. Corrections are noted in overstrike or italics)
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
thanks for the good news! it sounds like there will be some protection for the next 3 years for those oppressed by lawfare. sad it couldn't have been a larger majority allowing impeachment.
sorry about my current kind of one-track focus. normally i am much more broadly curious about what's going on in the world, but this seems to me a big deal that needs the world's attention and intervention at the moment.
I don't have a problem with the Palestine focus at all
....you're doing everyone a service. It's a terrible situation. Our government's position couldn't be more compromised. It's disgraceful. At one point in my life, I had to study the "laws of armed conflict," there is no question this is genocide. I was disgusted by the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. I used to brief tactical airstrike exercises before that. For five years I covered the mideast, the history of the Arab-Israeli wars, and went off duty with the hostage crisis. What Israel is doing is completely outrageous.
I'm very apprehensive that we are sleepwalking into a major war. It could be a world war.
I like to cover the South Korean domestic scene because Biden, Campbell, Blinken, and Rahm, have neglected North Korea while threatening China. Meanwhile North Korea keeps building nuclear weapons. South Koreans don't agree with Biden's trying to force them into the trilateral alliance with Japan, or the Taiwan or SCS disputes. This woman from the Philippines says Marcos is sacrificing her country's national interests to do US bidding as well.
語必忠信 行必正直
nope no
sleepwalking we
running at it with eyes
wide open just as fast as
we can manage-the
empires death throes
thanks for the korea news
just another place
to start a war
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
Not sure if this is one of your sources but it seems thay Yoon
is in for a heap of trouble.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/04/113_372480.html
They are both nasty people
Han doesn't mean a word he says. It's their abuse of power, egotistical denigration of others as "communists" and "enemies of the state," persecution of political rivals, civic and labor leaders, and so on, that has earned them the disrespect of everyone except the fascist elements (the Taeguki far right), the fundamentalist evangelicals, and the pro-Japan wealthy and chaebol elites, whose families got their wealth through collaborating with the colonial overloads. Han was making nasty remarks and accusations against the opposition right up until the day before the election. Only the cynical, the naive, and those with dementia, (the over 70 voters) believes that statement. Han wants to be president. That may be out. He's only trying to affect an honorable appearance to dress up his colossal failure as a politician. He doesn't give a flying f... about the people.
In addition, it requires mentioning that they are incompetent as government policy makers and administrators. They've been prosecutors all their lives, they don't know anything else.
The only English language newspaper I use as a source is Hankyoreh. There is enough variety of reporting, analysis, and opinion, there to make a fair judgement. Everything I wrote today about the election came from live news reporting on MBC, a public broadcasting station in South Korea, one of the few reliable sources.
Yoon may be in trouble. The situation of his wife, the former defense minister, and the former Minister of Land and Infrastructure are in jeopardy. Lee Jae-myung and Cho Guk were very successful leading this election win. However, they are still being prosecuted by the dictatorship of prosecutors. I'm hoping that investigation of Kim Gon-hee, Yoon's wife, leads to prosecution of Han Dong-hun.
My concern at this point is how many DINOs in the legislature would allow Lee or Cho to be jailed. When the Assembly is in session they have parliamentary immunity from prosecution unless waived by a majority. I wonder if Lee can recover immunity once the Assembly waived it. Han was dying to put Lee in jail pretrial.
Humphrey, I appreciate you brought up this article because I saw his statement live. Thanks for your interest.
語必忠信 行必正直
Ritter is spot on
.
Hamas' actions was a military one and they had every right to take the fight to the oppressors and I know that babbling Blinken and it’s Lloyd Austin damn well know that. If CNN is letting some of the truth out I think eventually people will learn that Israel’s military killed most of its citizens and not Hamas. Might take years, but….
Blinken can do more than pound sand.
Cook's articles are getting more difficult to read.
Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan to destroy Gaza
330,000 people in Yemen were killed by Saudi Arabia, America and NATO and the media rarely mentioned it. After Russia invaded Ukraine the world was once again interested in civilian deaths, but they were the white people.
40,000 Palestinians have been killed and the world yawned, but 7 white people were killed and OMG Israel is out of control.
History will not be kind. Blinken and Austin know that Israel admitted that they planned to genocide the Palestinians and they only look like stupid fools denying it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
thanks for the cook article, i skimmed it and it sums up a lot of my suspicions.
if the human race survives this, historians will be awash in documentation as this is probably the best-documented genocide ever, despite israel's and western media efforts to quash the evidence.
it will be studied by historians as part of a tipping point leading to a global change in relations between nations and peoples.
Some good news for John McCain….
Heh remember that? Actually it’s good news for Jimmy Carter.
From your lips…..
Gonna have to give more authority to whatever organization that’s supposed to enforce international law.
And isn’t that special?
But what about presidents? Does the intelligence agencies have to not spy on them even if someone lies to the FISA court? How come republicans who skip congressional subpoenas get arrested and sent to jail, but democrats do the same and nothing happens to them? Talking about you Eric Holder.
Gotta tell you that the new crockpot works swell. It’s bigger than the other one so I had to add more sauce stuff and get a bigger container for it to use next time. It’s like a sourdough starter. Just keep adding to it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
It gets worse
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sham-reform-congress-bribes-itself-r...
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
yep...
as long as the elites are spared, the nsa/fbi/etc can do whatever they want to the people.
the two-tiered justice system/two story outhouse continues.
Hey, joe!
Lots of interesting stuff packed in the ebs this evening.
I have 3 or 4 more videos to watch after I eat my fill of beef tacos.
I was in Equador when Correa was president, and things were so wonderful, I thought of it as a possible ex-pat country.
Well, never mind. As the right wingers get into office in Central America, cut deals with the US, they turn in to Honduras type countries, or Columbia type countries.
Does Harvard twist minds that much? Maybe so.
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for all you do, and have a great evening with your family.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
heh, all of the countries south of the border that i had been thinking about over time as possible places for retirement have been crapified by the u.s. and neoliberalism. i've given up. harvard, like lots of other elite schools in the u.s. replicates the professional managerial class and ships them around the world to screw things up.
have a great evening and enjoy those tacos!
China is an option
I read a great article yesterday on how Xi has put a muzzle on the banks so they can’t do what our banks are doing to us. 90% of people there own their own homes and he has been lifting people out of poverty just like Putin has been doing.
While we spent $14 trillion on resources wars and destroying countless like Libya, China has been helping countless build infrastructure.
Yellen went to China to bitch about how well its economy is doing as compared to America. Well duh. What do you expect when you out source jobs and factories so banks can make higher profits which destroyed the middle class and sent more people into poverty. Banks are trying to get money out of turnips and the turnips are almost desiccated. It’s not rocket science whose country will do better.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I’m not
sure which conflict
ukrane, gaza or taiwan
is gonna kick off the
Big One which means it’ll
happen someWhere else
how’s india/pakistan doing?
thanks joe the
shitshow continues
until it don’t
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...
yep, plenty of opportunities for the neocons to kick off "the big one" and get it all over with, proving at last that their policies work. (pfffffffttt!!!)
well, last i checked, the pakistani military has deprived the people of the democratic right to vote for the party/candidates of their choice, performing a sort of soft coup to keep the military's favored government in place.
then there's this:
Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim
so, yeah, it's all going swimmingly over there.
Good evening Joe. Thanks for the OT
Spent the day trying to streamline and consolidate the assorted household communications infrastructure, more of same Mañana. At least it distracts one from the news. So far, most of the pieces work, too. so that's all good.
Thanks for sistah Rosetta. Thanks for poli sci too, one needs to hear that at least every couple of years. Finally warm enough for evening cocktails, about time, too.
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...
after a day of working with comms infrastructure, evening cocktails seem in order, no matter what the weather.
have a good one!
Just wondering???
Is this the reason that Jill has been and still is an active participant with regards to the ongoing elder abuse treatment of Dementia Joe? Just so that she can get all gussied up for events like this.
He has a "where am I?" expression on his face if you look closely.
evening humphrey...
heh, jill is probably finally getting the chance to get back at dementia joe for being a jerk.
OMG
The replies to this tweet. The Biden fan club is out in force.
P-U!
Joe looks like he needs the nearest restroom.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Well I did like this one as it shows how much the human
vegetable needs help during the press conference. Notice only one of the participants has a teleprompter.
OMFG
He admits that he has orders from his staff on who he can call on to ask questions? I sure hope that he has moments of being lucid so that he knows that most of the country is laughing AT him for losing his brain. I love the fact that karma waited till he lost his brain before letting him become president. If anyone deserves this it’s Joe Biden for his 50 year history of screwing the working class. Ugh. I could go on, but y’all get it.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I have one more to add. LOL
This is funny
.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/cywu-a11.html
Campbell must have huge grass ones to say this. America is doing everything in its power to arm Taiwan and get them to war with China, but China has no right to be friends with Russia? Good lord the people in this administration must have flunked foreign policy relations. Remember Blinken’s hostility during the 1st meeting with China.
ETA
Yellen must have brass ones too. It’s okay for all of the western countries to arm Ukraine to defeat Russia, but it’s not okay for Russian friendly countries to help Russia? Must be those rules based orders that are just made up rules for the exceptional country. The hubris and arrogance.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
This appears to be the new normal for Ukraine!
A bit of an update.
The rest of the tweet:
The map is in Russian but it gives you an idea of what occurred.
At my age it probably doesn't really make much of a difference
but I am glad that I was not vaccinated. But I thought that I would pass this along anyway.
The rest of the tweet: