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This evening's music features delta blues singer and guitarist Johnny Shines. Enjoy!

"Like dreams, farces show the disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes."

-- Eric Bentley

News and Opinion

Mission accomplished! (again)

US military to dismantle ill-fated Gaza aid pier, declaring ‘mission complete’

The US military-built pier for carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to starving Palestinians.

Vice Adm Brad Cooper, deputy commander at US Central Command, told reporters in a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday that the pier had achieved its intended effect in what he called an “unprecedented operation”.

As the US military steps away from the sea route for humanitarian aid, questions swirl about Israel’s new plan to use the port at Ashdod as a substitute. There are few details on how it will work and lingering concerns about whether aid groups will have enough viable land crossings to get assistance into the territory besieged by war between Israel and Hamas. ...

Critics call the pier a $230m boondoggle that failed to bring in the level of aid needed to stem a looming famine. The US military, however, has maintained that it served as the best hope as aid only trickled in during a critical time of near-famine in Gaza and that it got close to 20m lb (9m kg) of desperately needed supplies to Palestinians.

Ali Abunimah - Genocide Update

Biden’s claim he’s done ‘more for Palestinian community than anybody’ prompts backlash

Joe Biden faced withering criticism over his recent claim that he had done “more for the Palestinian community than anybody”, as Israel continues to strike Gaza with some of the fiercest bombardments in months.

The comments were made in an interview with Complex’s Chris “Speedy” Morman that was recorded last week in Detroit and published on Monday. While defending his administration’s response to the conflict in Gaza, Biden said: “By the way, I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody. I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods through, medicine and food.” ...

“Putting aside active US complicity in the war in Gaza, you’d think someone who had 38,000 Palestinians killed under his tenure would have a bit more humility,” Mai El-Sadany, executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, wrote on X.

Layla Elabed, leader of the Uncommitted movement, which began in Michigan as a way to pressure the president to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and stop US funding and arms to the Israeli government, also condemned the remark. “Biden claiming he’s done the most for Palestinians is like an arsonist taking credit for tossing a splash of water on the fire he’s still fueling,” she said in a statement on Monday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) called the remark “tone deaf” and a “deeply disturbing boast” that “completely ignores the genocidal campaign of mass slaughter, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation that the Israeli government has launched against the Palestinian people with US support”.

Netanyahu rejects calls for immediate inquiry into 7 October security failures

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected calls for an immediate independent inquiry into the security failures that allowed the deadliest attack in his country’s history.

Speaking to Israel’s parliament, Netanyahu told lawmakers: “First, I want to beat Hamas.”

A spokesperson for Netanyahu said the Israeli prime minister is not seeking to dodge an inquiry but that “the government is completely focused on winning this war”.

“What people want us to do right now, they don’t want us to go into a dramatic internal investigation while our hostages are still being held, and so many soldiers have abandoned their lives to protect the country,” said the spokesperson. “Of course there will be an investigation, but right now we’re focused on winning this war.” ...

Netanyahu has repeatedly resisted calls for an inquiry into the military and security failures that preceded the Hamas-led attacks, despite a string of resignations and apologies from high-ranking members of the Israeli security establishment.

Surprise! (not) Israel is still adamantly against a two-state solution.

Israeli Lawmakers Vote Against Palestinian Statehood

While Israel's troops wage what has been widely decried as genocide on the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing "the establishment of a Palestinian state" west of the Jordan River.

The measure passed Israel's legislature, the Knesset, 68-9. It was spearheaded by Knesset Member Zeev Elkin of New Hope - The United Right, who shared the key messages from the resolution on social media along with a photo of the final tally.

According to Religious Zionism-affiliated Israel National News:

The proposal says, "The Israeli Knesset firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the land of Israel will pose an existential threat to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region."

"It will only be a matter of a short time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terrorism, working in coordination with the axis led by Iran, to eliminate the state of Israel."

"The promotion of the idea of the Palestinian state will be a reward for terrorism and will only encourage Hamas and its supporters who will see this as a victory thanks to the massacre of October 7, 2023, and a prelude to the takeover of jihadist Islam in the Middle East," the proposal reads.

In essence, the Israeli Knesset voted to continue to wipe Palestine off the map... https://t.co/yG4ORfuZwr

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) July 17, 2024

...

The Knesset vote against a two-state solution comes as Netanyahu prepares for a trip to the United States—whose government has provided political and weapons support for Israel's war. The prime minister is supposed to meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House next Monday before addressing a joint session of Congress, though the American leader is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.

"The measure was intended as a way to apply pressure on Netanyahu, since he is likely to face opposite pressure from U.S. officials on a hostage deal that could include future discussions of Palestinian sovereignty," The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. "Netanyahu himself was not present at the vote."

As the newspaper detailed:

Notably, National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz supported the proposal alongside three other members of his party, which is considered centrist. The three were MKs Michael Biton, Pnina Tameno-Shete, and Chili Tropper.

Gantz said after the vote, "National Unity is committed in any future political scenario, as long as it exists, to preserve the Jewish and democratic identity of the state of Israel, and to stand up for its historical right and security interests."

Members of various other parties—Netanyahu's Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Yisrael Beytenu—also voted in favor of the resolution.

Palestinian Envoy Demands End to 'Most Documented Genocide in History'

Ahead of the International Court of Justice's expected advisory opinion on legal consequences for Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations reminded other diplomats at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that the slaughter of more than 38,000 people in Gaza has been broadcast for nine months—while Israel has claimed it is acting in self-defense and is targeting Hamas.

"What is happening in Gaza is going down as the most documented genocide in history," Riyad Mansour said. "When will the world denounce the crimes and stop tolerating their reoccurrence?"

In addition to the daily news of aerial and ground attacks on schools, homes, and places of worship in Gaza, Mansour pointed to Israeli soldiers' filming of their own attacks in the enclave, leaving no doubt that innocent civilians are being targeted.

Members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have "openly, brazenly, and repeatedly" shared its "crimes" on social media, said Mansour.

Since the IDF began its bombardment of Gaza in October with political and material support from the United States and other Western countries, videos taken by Israeli soldiers themselves have shown the controlled detonation of Israa University, a soldier blowing up a mosque, and another IDF fighter giving a thumbs up while driving a bulldozer into a destroyed car, accompanied by the caption, "I stopped counting how many neighborhoods I've erased."

In a segment produced by Al Jazeera in March, Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now said that "there have been a remarkable number of videos posted by Israeli soldiers on social media, depicting themselves pillaging property, mocking the death and destruction that they are causing, and most egregiously, torturing, humiliating, and mocking detained Palestinian prisoners."

Meanwhile, human rights experts and aid groups have amplified images of the results of Israel's use of what Mansour called "the ultimate weapon": a near-total blockade on humanitarian relief. Last month, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented the deaths from starvation of five-month-old Fayez Attaya and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi—two of more than two dozen children who have perished as U.N. experts have warned famine has taken hold in Gaza.

"Two million people who were subjected to a 17-year-old blockade are now confronted with a hermetic siege, dying of hunger and disease while food and medicine are available only meters away," said Mansour on Wednesday.

Palestinians including Bisan Owda, a journalist who won a Peabody Award for her coverage, have also documented their own forced displacement, the destruction of their homes, and the loss of loved ones.

Mansour on Wednesday asked the Security Council—which only voted in favor of a cease-fire in Gaza in June, after U.S. officials had vetoed several resolutions—why it has allowed Israel to violate international laws and norms.

"What is a rule that's not enforced? What do these rules mean anymore when for nine months Israel has bombed the homes, hospitals, schools—including those designated as U.N. shelters—and now people in tents as is the case in al-Mawasi?" he asked.

Mansour emphasized that Israeli soldiers have good reason to think they can film themselves committing potential war crimes.

"Everything in [Israel's] history tells it it will get away with it," said the envoy. "It is betting this time will be no exception. But, this time must be the exception, and change must start right now."

Mansour added that the ICJ's pending ruling on the occupation of Palestine "should serve as basis for our collective action in the days to come."

"As all your nations have refused to forego their rights, the Palestinian people will never accept to relinquish theirs," he said. "Peace will not be achieved at the expense of our rights but by upholding them. The right to life, to liberty, and to dignity. That is the only path to peace. Let us finally collectively embark on it."

Trump's program for America, end of globalism

Trump’s choice of Vance ‘terrible news’ for Ukraine, Europe experts warn

Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his vice-presidential pick has reignited fears in Europe that he would pursue a transactional “America first” foreign policy that could culminate in the US pushing for Ukraine to acquiesce to Vladimir Putin and sue for peace with Russia. “It’s bad for us but it’s terrible news for [Ukraine],” said one senior European diplomat in Washington. “[Vance] is not our ally.”

Foreign diplomats and observers have frequently called Trump’s actual policies a “black box,” saying that was impossible to know for certain what the unpredictable leader would do when in power. Some have soothed themselves by suggesting that names tipped for top positions, such as former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, would maintain a foreign policy status quo while Trump focuses on domestic affairs.

But a prospective Trump administration now has a much more energetic surrogate who will fuel Trump’s skepticism towards Ukraine and Europe, while urging on the party’s aggressive trade and foreign policy elsewhere around the globe.

“Senator Vance was one of the leading opponents of the new assistance package to Ukraine last spring and has expressed indifference to what happens in that war,” said Michael McFaul, director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a former ambassador to Russia. “By choosing Vance as his running mate, Trump has clarified a very clear choice for American voters in November on foreign policy.”

Poland Warns NATO-Russia War 'Extremely Close' + Was Kiev Involved in Trump Attack? w/ Mark Sleboda

China suspends nuclear talks with US over arms sales to Taiwan

China has suspended talks over arms control and nuclear proliferation with the US in protest against arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island aligned with Washington that China claims as its own territory. The decision, announced by China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday, halts the early nuclear-arms talks in a period of growing tensions between China and the US, with both US presidential candidates calling for increased trade restrictions and efforts to contain Chinese influence in east Asia.

The US is Taiwan’s main international partner and largest arms supplier. The House of Representatives in June approved $500m in foreign military financing for Taiwan to strengthen military deterrence against China, along with $2bn in loans and loan guarantees. The US also approved $300m in spare and repair parts for Taiwan’s F-16 fighter jets.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the US had continued to sell arms to Taiwan despite “strong Chinese opposition and repeated negotiations”. He added: “Consequently, the Chinese side has decided to hold off discussion with the US on a new round of consultations on arms control and nonproliferation. The responsibility fully lies with the US.”

Lin said China was willing to maintain communication on international arms control, but that the US “must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange”.

Bob Menendez set to resign from Senate after bribery conviction

The Democratic US senator Bob Menendez has reportedly told allies he will resign from Congress after being convicted on corruption charges.

Menendez has represented New Jersey in Congress for more than 30 years, as a representative in the House from 1993 to 2006 and since then in the Senate.

But he is preparing to resign, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

Teamsters social media attacks leader over Republican convention speech

The Teamsters’ social media account attacked its own president on Wednesday, saying “unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right,” two days after Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.

O’Brien spoke at the convention on Monday night in Milwaukee, becoming the first leader of the union to appear at the convention in the union’s history.

O’Brien’s meeting with Donald Trump and his convention appearance have angered some Teamsters and others in the labor movement. Joe Biden has touted himself as the most pro-labor president in American history; Trump, in contrast, has been heavily criticized by unions for his administration’s anti-labor record. Anti-union groups have also criticized O’Brien’s appearance at the convention.

The union is facing a backlash from members and progressive groups over O’Brien’s appearance and the union’s consideration of abstaining from making an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, including from the union’s social media manager.

“He’s a Fake”: Robert Kuttner on How J.D. Vance Disguises His Anti-Worker Views as Economic Populism

Special counsel Jack Smith appeals dismissal of Trump classified files case

US prosecutors on Wednesday formally appealed a federal judge’s decision just two days ago to throw out the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and elsewhere after leaving the White House in 2021.

The office of special counsel Jack Smith filed a notice in court in Florida indicating it would ask the 11th US circuit court of appeals, based in Atlanta, to revive the case and reverse the 15 July ruling by the Florida-based US district judge Aileen Cannon, who unexpectedly decided that Smith had been unlawfully appointed in the first place by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland.

Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by the former president in 2020 during his one-term presidency, ruled that Smith’s 2022 appointment by the Department of Justice violated the US constitution. She argued the violation was because the US Congress did not authorize Garland to name a special counsel with the degree of power and independence wielded by Smith.

Biden COULD DROP OUT This Weekend, Nancy Pelosi TURNS On POTUS

Democratic rift over Biden candidacy deepens even as party says he will be nominee

Pressure for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democrats’ presidential pick to face Donald Trump had eased since the Republican survived an assassination attempt last weekend, but began to rise again on Wednesday.

Adam Schiff, the influential California representative, said publicly that Biden should quit, becoming the most well-known lawmaker so far to do so openly.

Then ABC News reported that Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader and the most senior Democrat in Congress, had told Biden in a meeting on Saturday it would be better for the country and the Democratic party if the president ended his re-election campaign.

Also on Wednesday afternoon, David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama as president, increased his persistent pressure campaign on Biden as he warned that the president had not done enough to relieve voters’ concern about his age since last month’s hapless debate performance.

On Wednesday morning, as a new ABC-Norc poll found nearly two-thirds of Democrats saying Biden should withdraw, the blogger and podcaster Nate Silver linked to video of moments in a speech in Las Vegas the night before, in which the 81-year-old president seemed to struggle. Silver said: “It’s just so weird living through this real-life Emperor Has No Clothes Moment. He obviously shouldn’t be president for four more years. Everyone knows this.”

US government urged to declare wildfire smoke and extreme heat major disasters

Fourteen state attorneys general are urging the federal government to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke major disasters. The petition comes as millions of people in the south and north-east face excessive heat advisories, and large swaths of the western US and Canada battle ongoing wildfires.

“The likelihood of high-severity extreme heat and wildfire smoke events is increasing due in part to climate change,” wrote the Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, in a letter submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday. “We urge Fema to update its regulations to prepare for this hotter, smokier future.”

Extreme heat and wildfire smoke are not recognized by Fema as major disasters. In June, a coalition of environmental, labor and health groups petitioned the federal agency to grant that recognition under the Stafford Act which oversees disaster relief.

“Across the country people are suffering and dying from extreme heat,” Jean Su, energy justice director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Fema can bring a mass mobilization of resources to deploy life-saving cooling centers, air conditioning and community solar. But so far Fema’s only shown these communities piecemeal efforts and lackluster leadership.”

Shell quietly backs away from pledge to increase ‘advanced recycling’ of plastics

The energy giant Shell has quietly backed away from a pledge to rapidly increase its use of “advanced recycling”, a practice oil and petrochemical producers have promoted as a solution to the plastics pollution crisis.

“Advanced” or “chemical” recycling involves breaking down plastic polymers into tiny molecules that can be made into synthetic fuels or new plastics. The most common form, pyrolysis, does so using heat.

Shell has invested in pyrolysis since 2019, touting it as a way to slash waste. That year, the company used oil made via pyrolysis in one of its Louisiana chemical plants for the first time. And it began publicizing a new goal for the technology: “Our ambition is to use 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year in our global chemicals plants by 2025.”

But recently, the company rolled back that promise with little fanfare: “[I]n 2023 we concluded that the scale of our ambition to turn 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year into pyrolysis oil by 2025 is unfeasible,” it said in its 2023 sustainability report, published in March. ...

The company has not called attention to this retraction, but it is a “significant” change, said Davis Allen, investigative researcher at the Center for Climate Integrity, which shared the finding with the Guardian. “It’s an acknowledgment that advanced recycling is not developing in the way that companies have promised it will, and are counting on it to,” he said. “That’s pretty meaningful.”

UK first European country to approve lab-grown meat, starting with pet food

Lab-grown pet food is to hit UK shelves as Britain becomes the first country in Europe to approve cultivated meat. The Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have approved the product from the company Meatly.

It is thought there will be demand for cultivated pet food, as animal lovers face a dilemma about feeding their pets meat from slaughtered livestock.

Research suggests the pet food industry has a climate impact similar to that of the Philippines, the 13th most populous country in the world. A study by the University of Winchester found that 50% of surveyed pet owners would feed their pets cultivated meat, while 32% would eat it themselves.

The Meatly product is cultivated chicken. It is made by taking a small sample from a chicken egg, cultivating it with vitamins and amino acids in a lab, then growing cells in a container similar to those in which beer is fermented. The result is a paté-like paste.

Meatly’s production facility has been approved by the government to handle its cultivated chicken, and it plans to launch the first samples of its commercially available pet food this year. The company says it will then focus on cost reduction and starting to scale production to reach industrial volumes within the next three years. The cost reductions could be done by mixing the meat with vegetables, as is done with other pet foods containing costly animal products.

Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: ‘Brain Dead’ and Dangerous, NATO Proceeds

Peace Group Faces Death Threats After 'False Accusations' by Lawmaker at RNC

New Zealand as US ‘Force Multiplier’ in Asia Pacific

Kremlin Wants Clarification From Zelensky on ‘Peace Summit’

This Time There Were Multiple ‘Zapruder’ Films

Yes, Joe Biden’s mind is a problem. So is his cold heart towards Palestinians

North Atlantic right whale seen off Ireland for first time in 114 years

Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say

Winning images of the 2024 BigPicture natural world photography competition

"White Trash" Historian Nancy Isenberg on J.D. Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy" & Class in America

Joy Reid Wants Proof Of Bullet; Joe Rogan CALLS OUT BS Trump Assassination Narrative

Trump Shooter BIZARRE Search History REVEALED

Someone Shorted Trump’s Stock Just Before The Assassination Attempt!

Michael Tracey, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn on the RNC, Trump, and More

A Little Night Music

Johnny Shines – Evening Sun

The Johnny Shines Blues Band – Layin' Down My Shoes And Clothes

Johnny Shines - Ramblin'

Johnny Shines – Cool Driver

Johnny Shines & Robert Lockwood, Jr. ~ They Call Me The Little Wolf

Johnny Shines - Peace In Hell

The Johnny Shines Blues Band – Dynaflow Blues

Johnny Shines - Sweet Home Chicago

The Johnny Shines Blues Band – Hey, Hey

Johnny Shines - Ride, Ride Mama