The Evening Blues - 7-26-24



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Otis Rush

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush. Enjoy!

Otis Rush - Right Place, Wrong Time

"The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history."

-- Noam Chomsky


News and Opinion

A Standing Ovation for Genocide

There’s no mention of their duty to the people in the oath of office that members of Congress take. It says they will support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Maybe, in some regard defending the Constitution would mean doing their job: representing the people that elected them. But today, the architect of the genocide against the Palestinian people walked in and out of the “people’s house” to a standing ovation. He was given more time with our lawmakers than any of us will ever get in our lifetime, and he used it to insist he was a good man that was commanding a moral army—insisting they have not killed anyone who did not deserve to have their life ended in the blink of an eye.

There are one thousand indications that our government has no obligation to us. This moment was just one—but it was one I will never let slip my mind. These people are no different than the settlers that gather in lawn chairs, eat popcorn, and cheer when the Israeli military drops bombs on apartment complexes in Gaza. For as long as they’ve been in office, they’ve had a front row seat to the carnage and all they do is gawk and cheer from the sidelines. Every once in a while, someone they are supposed to work for pesters them about their complacency and we are swatted away like flies.

The majority opinion in the United States is against continued support for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Stories come out every week that push the needle further. Last week, the story of Muhammad Bhar surfaced and was circulated around the world. Muhammad was my age, 24, and had Down syndrome. The Israeli military raided his home and let their dog attack him, tearing his arm to shreds. They separated him from his family and left him in a room all by himself. They ordered his family to leave the house and left Muhammad to die—alone, bleeding, and scared. His family found Muhammad starting to decompose in the room the soldiers left him in. He still had a tourniquet on his arm from when they tried to stop the bleeding. And they just left him there, like he was nothing.

The Israeli military confirmed this story days later, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets a round of applause for his courage and leadership. They don’t even feel the need to lie to the world about their atrocities anymore—letting babies suffocate to death in incubators months ago was the litmus test for what the United States would let slide. Ordering an attack dog on a man with Down syndrome and locking him in a room to die without his loved ones there to console him wasn’t the red line—because there will never be one.

They gave a standing ovation.

If a man like Netanyahu had walked through their home and mangled their children’s bodies so much that they could never forget the way they looked afterward—I wonder if they would still applaud. I wonder if the screams of their family members burning alive in tents would potentially interrupt the thought that told them to clap, the thought that told them to give the man a standing ovation for his perfectly executed slaughter of thousands of human beings.

Some part of me still wanted to believe that these people may still be completely misled—that perhaps they don’t know about the 15,000 children that have been killed. Maybe they haven’t seen what I’ve seen—the little girl with her face falling off, the boy with a missing head, the child with no legs, the mother unwilling to wash her children’s blood off her hands because it is all that is left of them. Maybe they haven’t seen it at all. As thunderous applause rang out for the murderer, there were thousands of people outside trying to signal to the millions of people in Palestine that their turmoil isn’t being ignored. They were pepper sprayed, beaten, and arrested by cops who were trained in Israel.

When I saw the video of the standing ovation, something sunk in me—this is where I was born. This is where both of my parents were born. I have no nation to be loyal to but a nation tripping over themselves to kill my friends’ families. There is bloodlust in the U.S. Congress—and bloodlust seems like the only thing they are loyal to. If there are “enemies” foreign and domestic, I fear they view us as the latter.

I clap for my friends at their comedy shows. I clap for people after they finish a speech at a community event. I sometimes clap when the plane lands, if someone else does it first. To clap for an executioner of children, mothers, fathers and friends—how much did they sell their souls for?

“Unspeakable”: Doctors Back from Gaza Say Death Toll “Much Higher,” Push Harris, Biden for Ceasefire

US medics who volunteered in Gaza demand arms embargo over ‘unbearable cruelty’ inflicted by Israel

Dozens of US doctors and nurses who worked in Gaza have written to Joe Biden claiming that the true death toll from Israel’s months-long assault is much higher than previously reported, demanding the US withdraw diplomatic and military support for Israel until there is a ceasefire.

The eight-page letter, delivered on Thursday and addressed to Biden, the first lady, Jill Biden, and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, said the medics saw evidence of widespread violations of laws governing the use of US weapons supplied to Israel, and of international humanitarian law.

Forty-five surgeons, emergency room physicians and nurses who volunteered in several Gaza hospitals over recent months laid out what they described as the “massive human toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza, especially the toll it has taken on women and children”.

“We cannot forget the scenes of unbearable cruelty directed at women and children that we witnessed ourselves,” they wrote. “Every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head.” Several of the signatories previously told the Guardian they believed Israeli snipers were targeting children and reported the devastating impact on civilians of weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel. ...

The medics added almost no one in Gaza has escaped the consequences of the Israeli attack. “With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman and child,” they said. The letter warned that “epidemics are raging in Gaza” and described Israel’s repeated displacement of a malnourished and sick civilian population to areas without running water and toilets as “absolutely shocking”.

Israeli Snipers Firing at 'Anyone Who Is Moving' in Khan Younis

At least 129 people have been killed in the last five days of Israeli shelling and artillery fire in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where the Israel Defense Forces earlier this week gave people "a couple of minutes only" to evacuate earlier this week, according to Al Jazeera reporter Hind Khoudary, before the bombardment began.

Al Jazeera reported on Thursday that "the vast majority of dead and injured are women and children," as Israeli snipers have also been deployed in the city and are firing at Palestinians indiscriminately.

The snipers "are shooting anyone who is moving," wrote Tareq Abu Azzoum in a dispatch, reporting that the eastern part of Khan Younis is the main target of Israel's current assault.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) noted that the latest evacuation order reduced the area that Israel has claimed is a "humanitarian zone," as the order covered about 15% of al-Mawasi, where people from cities including Rafah and Gaza City have fled in recent months as the IDF has launched assaults in those cities.

The group told Al Jazeera that "there is no more space, even for a single tent, in the so-called 'humanitarian area' of al-Mawasi because of the overwhelming number of people displaced there."

Israel's reported indiscriminate assault on the city has included medical workers, said PRCS, which posted a video on social media Thursday of an ambulance that had been hit by live bullets fired by the IDF while medics were transporting an injured person.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted on Monday that the true death toll in Khan Younis—as with the rest of Gaza—may not be known for months, "with many victims remaining trapped under the rubble and in the streets, where rescue workers have not been able to retrieve their bodies."

The group also said the IDF had perpetrated "a kind of deception of the residents" of Khan Younis and villages in the area, including Bali Suhaila, where soldiers entered "amid very violent bombardment, even though the Israeli army had said in its orders that the displacement was going to be temporary."

The forced evacuation, false information about the order, and shrinking of the humanitarian zone were "all part of Israel's media disinformation campaign and psychological warfare tactics, since military assaults on forcibly displaced people and their tents have occurred continually in this area for several weeks now, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries," the Euro-Med Monitor.

The reports of indiscriminate shooting by snipers also bolster an account given by Dr. Mark Perlmutter, who volunteered at European Hospital in Khan Younis in April, to CBS News earlier this week.

"I had sniper bullets," said Perlmutter. "I have children that were shot twice... I have two children that I have photographs of, that were shot so perfectly in the chest... and directly on the side of the head on the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the world's best sniper. And they're dead-center shots."


Perlmutter is among nearly four dozen doctors and nurses who wrote to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday, describing what they saw while volunteering at hospitals across Gaza since Israel began bombarding the enclave and blocking nearly all humanitarian aid, including medications and medical supplies, nearly 10 months ago.

"Children are universally considered innocents in armed conflict," wrote the medical workers. "However, every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head and chest."

"We wish you could hear the cries and screams our consciences will not let us forget," they added. "We cannot believe that anyone would continue arming the country that is deliberately killing these children after seeing what we have seen."

Kamala Harris welcomes “Butcher of Gaza” to Washington: “I told him that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself”

In a short six-minute address before reporters after meeting privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, soon-to-be the Democratic nominee for president, reiterated her lifelong support for the Zionist state and its continued ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza. “So I just had a frank and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Harris said. “I told him that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

She continued:

From when I was a young girl, collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel.

I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating. Israel has a right to defend itself and how it does so matters.

Repeating Israeli propaganda that was debunked months ago, Harris declared, “Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. On October 7 Hamas triggered this war when it massacred 1,200 innocent people, including 44 Americans. Hamas has committed horrific acts of sexual violence and took 250 hostages.” Harris then proceeded to say the names of some of those allegedly taken by Hamas, adding, “I have met with the families of these American hostages multiple times now, I stand with them. Bring them home.”

In her comments, Harris never mentioned the name of a single one of the over 39,000 Palestinians, the vast majority women and children, who have been killed in Gaza with US-supplied weaponry. In fact, she did not give any figures in regards to the number of Palestinians killed, instead only referring obliquely to “images of dead children and desperate hungry people.” Who or what was responsible for these “dead children” and “desperate hungry people” was purposely omitted.

Harris then thanked President Joe Biden, who will live in infamy as Netanyahu’s top weapons supplier, for his “leadership” in cobbling together a “ceasefire” deal that has gone nowhere for months and will not end Israel’s continued ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians from their homes. Harris’s public statements are just the latest confirmation that a Democratic administration under her leadership would be no less aggressive than Biden’s in the genocide in Gaza or imperialist war against Iran in the Middle East, Russia in Ukraine or China in Taiwan.

Despite their differences in age and sex, and at this point presumably in mental acuity, there are no fundamental policy differences between “Genocide Joe” and the woman he chose as his vice president, who now cites her long experience as a prosecutor as her political calling card. Both capitalist politicians, and their “Republican colleagues,” are dedicated to enriching the financial oligarchy through imperialist war abroad and social austerity domestically. The standing ovation Netanyahu received in the Capitol on July 24 underscores the bipartisan ruling class support for the frontline US garrison state in the Middle East and its war of conquest. Notions that Harris would enact the slightest shift in US policy in Gaza were quickly disabused in reports leading up to her meeting with Netanyahu. The Associated Press, citing a “senior administration official,” reported that there is “no daylight between the president and vice president on Israel.”

Trump Says NETANYAHU Is Preventing Peace!

IDF Killed 366 UN Workers & Family Members in Gaza

A leaked report obtained by Drop Site estimates that Israeli forces have killed at least 366 United Nations staffers and their family members in the Gaza Strip since October, an indication of the grave threat Israel’s ongoing assault poses to humanitarian relief workers and the enclave’s broader civilian population.

Drop Site‘s Ryan Grim reported Wednesday that the confidential figures, assembled by the U.N.’s Crisis Coordination Center, show that three family members of World Food Program staffers and four dependents of U.N. Children’s Fund workers were among those killed by Israeli forces. The total number of U.N. staffers killed so far is 195, according to the data.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the primary aid agency operating in Gaza, has seen the largest impact on staffers and their family members. The leaked report estimates that Israeli forces have killed 158 dependents of UNRWA staffers since October.

Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, aided by U.S. weaponry and diplomatic support, is by far the deadliest-ever war for U.N. personnel, who have repeatedly been targeted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers fired on a U.N. convoy heading toward Gaza City. UNRWA Commissioner-General said that “the teams were traveling in clearly marked U.N. armored cars and wearing U.N. vests.”

“While there are no casualties, our teams had to duck and take cover,” he added. “Like all other similar U.N. movements, this movement was coordinated and approved by the Israeli authorities.”

Targeting humanitarian relief personnel is a war crime.

Revealed: US officials are investing public funds in Israeli bonds in deals that raise ethics concerns

In August 2023, an executive at Israel Bonds – an organization that sells Israeli bonds to fund that nation’s government and buttress its military – emailed the Ohio state treasurer’s office a sales pitch: could the state of Ohio buy a batch of Israeli bonds for $5m? In less than 40 minutes, the treasurer’s office approved the purchase, bringing Ohio’s Israeli bond purchases to a total of $35m for that year.

The fast deal was made between parties that were on exceptionally friendly terms, according to a trove of emails and other records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). And it was not the only matter being discussed with Israel Bonds. At the same time that the Ohio treasurer, Republican Robert Sprague, allocated millions in state funds to the bond purchases, he was also making arrangements with the bond seller’s business development team to join an exclusive guided trip to Israel, scheduled for later that year.

Six weeks after the Ohio treasurer’s $5m purchase, Hamas launched its deadly 7 October attack, which killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel. Another 250 were taken hostage. In the following days, there was an outpouring of public support from lawmakers at all levels of government in the United States for the country’s closest ally in the Middle East. While Israel launched its retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip – and Joe Biden shepherded billions in funding and military aid through Congress – many state and local governments showed their support through a lesser-known financial mechanism: investing in sovereign bonds issued by Israel.

Since the start of the war, US states and municipalities have bought at least $1.7bn in Israeli bonds, with Democratic and Republican officials around the country boasting of their investments demonstrating support for an Israel at war. Israel Bonds, which is headquartered in New York, has meanwhile found itself caught up in a global political maelstrom that followed the Hamas attack and the war in Gaza. Activists have singled out Israel Bonds in demanding that corporations and institutions divest from financial instruments seen as supporting Israel’s government.

The more than 2,000 pages of emails and other records obtained by the ICIJ, largely through records requests, offer an unprecedented glimpse inside Israel Bonds’ extensive efforts to court public officials in the US while delivering highly personalized sales pitches in a stream of pro-Israel messaging. The documents show how some officials who buy these bonds have gained access to an often-glitzy world that includes gala dinners, cocktail celebrations and private meetings with top Israeli leaders and senior military officials – and how these dealings with Israel Bonds sometimes blurred the lines between private life and official business. ...

When an elected official tasked with investing taxpayers’ money buys government bonds, it’s usually a dry and straightforward process with little interaction between the seller and buyer. Government officials are generally discouraged from taking actions that could be construed as creating a conflict of interest – that could cause them, for instance, to favor certain assets for any reason other than selecting the best investments available. Ethics experts say some state officials may have crossed an ethical line in their dealings with Israel Bonds.

Israel tried to frustrate US lawsuit over Pegasus spyware, leak suggests

The Israeli government took extraordinary measures to frustrate a high-stakes US lawsuit that threatened to reveal closely guarded secrets about one of the world’s most notorious hacking tools, leaked files suggest. Israeli officials seized documents about Pegasus spyware from its manufacturer, NSO Group, in an effort to prevent the company from being able to comply with demands made by WhatsApp in a US court to hand over information about the invasive technology.

Documents suggest the seizures were part of an unusual legal manoeuvre created by Israel to block the disclosure of information about Pegasus, which the government believed would cause “serious diplomatic and security damage” to the country. Pegasus allows NSO clients to infect smartphones with hidden software that can extract messages and photos, record calls and secretly activate microphones. NSO’s clients have included both authoritarian regimes and democratic countries and the technology has been linked to human rights abuses around the world.

Since late 2019, NSO has been battling a lawsuit in the US brought by WhatsApp, which has alleged the Israeli company used a vulnerability in the messaging service to target more than 1,400 of its users in 20 countries over a two-week period. NSO has denied the allegations. The removal of files and computers from NSO’s offices in July 2020 – until now hidden from the public by a strict gag order issued by an Israeli court – casts new light on the close ties between Israel and NSO and the overlapping interests of the privately owned surveillance company and the country’s security establishment.

The July 2020 seizures were made after Israeli officials and the company appear to have discussed how to respond to WhatsApp’s requests for NSO to disclose internal files about its spyware, raising questions about whether they coordinated to conceal certain information from US legal proceedings. At one stage, one of NSO’s lawyers, Rod Rosenstein, a former US deputy attorney general in the Trump administration, appears to have asked one of Israel’s US lawyers whether the Israeli government would “come to the rescue” in the legal battle with WhatsApp.

Jeffrey Sachs On Why U.S. Foreign Policy Is Dangerously Misguided

Is the dementia kicking in or is Genocide Joe just the world's biggest f@cking liar?

President Biden Claims the US Isn’t at War as He Bombs Yemen

On Wednesday night, President Biden falsely claimed in an address to the nation that the US was not at war.

“I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world,” the president said.

About a half hour before Biden delivered his address, US Central Command announced that it launched new strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen. Since January, the US has carried out hundreds of strikes in Yemen as part of a new war that has not been authorized by Congress. US naval commanders have described the fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea as the largest naval battle the US has been engaged in since World War II.

Sanctions help boost Russian economy

Newsom ORDERS Homeless Encampments Be CLEARED

What a heartless bastard! And the Democrat party was touting him as a potential presidential candidate. Sounds about right.

Gavin Newsom issues order for removal of homeless encampments in California

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order on Thursday calling for the removal of homeless encampments across the state.

The policy calls for shutdowns of encampments on state property and urges local governments to follow suit. The order cites a controversial US supreme court decision in June saying unhoused people sleeping outside can be ticketed and jailed even when there is no shelter available. The ruling was the most consequential on homelessness in the US in decades and sparked widespread concern from advocates for the unhoused, who argued that criminalization exacerbates the crisis, making it harder for people to get the help they need.

The Democratic governor’s order comes as California has struggled to tackle its homelessness emergency, which in recent years has become one of the worst in the nation. A 2023 count estimated that there were more than 180,000 people in the state experiencing homelessness, including 123,000 people living outside on the streets in tents, trailers, cars and makeshift shelters.

The order directs state agencies to develop policies to remove encampments in line with the California transportation department’s long-running efforts to sweep away tents along freeways and other properties under its jurisdiction. Encampments should be subject to “immediate removal” when there is an “imminent threat to life, health, safety or infrastructure”; otherwise, unhoused people should be given notice at least 48 hours prior to the shutdowns, the order says.

The policy “encourages” local governments to adopt similar practices. The governor cannot order cities to do sweeps, but he can pressure them by threatening to withhold state funds. Newsom’s spokesperson told the New York Times that some state agencies were poised to immediately ramp up sweeps while others would take a couple of weeks to develop plans.



the horse race



Trump hush-money prosecutors say conviction must stand despite immunity ruling

The Manhattan prosecutors who secured Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction disputed the former US president’s claim that the verdict should be set aside in the wake of a US supreme court ruling on presidential immunity. In a court filing dated 24 July and made public on Thursday, the prosecutors said the supreme court’s ruling had no bearing on their case, which stemmed from hush money paid to a porn star.

“All of the evidence that he complains of either concerned wholly unofficial conduct, or, at most, official conduct for which any presumption of immunity has been rebutted,” prosecutors with Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote. Trump, the Republican nominee in the 5 November election, was convicted on 30 May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Trump denies any encounter with Daniels and has vowed to appeal the guilty verdict. He is the first US president past or present to be convicted of a crime. ...

Legal experts say Judge Juan Merchan is unlikely to grant Trump’s request to toss the verdict, since much of the conduct at issue predated Trump’s 2017-21 presidency and relates to personal matters, not official acts.

Obama to endorse Kamala Harris for president, report says

Barack Obama is on the verge of publicly endorsing Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, after the pair spoke several times on the phone in recent days, according to NBC News.

The former president has privately expressed his support for Harris’s candidacy and plans to endorse her soon, with talks underway about the pair appearing together on the campaign trail, the TV network reported, citing several unnamed people familiar with the discussions.

“He has been in regular contact with her and thinks she’s been off to a great start,” one of the sources told NBC.

Obama’s support – and star quality – would further boost the Harris campaign, as the vice-president heads to Houston on Thursday to give the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) national convention.

With less than 100 days to the presidential election, high-profile endorsements could prove pivotal in helping maintain the momentum that Harris campaign has enjoyed among Democrats since she entered the race less than a week ago.



the evening greens


‘Nature’s clean–up crew’: record-setting 17 condor chicks hatch at LA Zoo

Nearly 20 new California condors will fly across the western sky after a record-setting hatching of baby birds this summer at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The zoo marked a record of 17 California condor chicks hatched during this year’s breeding season, with staff members preparing to set the birds into the harsh wild as they are currently protected as an endangered species.

“Our condor team has raised the bar once again in the collaborative effort to save America’s largest flying bird from extinction,” said Rose Legato, curator of birds at the LA Zoo.

Legato said the record number of birds was thanks, in part, to new breeding and rearing techniques developed and implemented by the team. The process places two or three condor chicks together with a single adult surrogate condor to be raised. Usually, the 4in-long eggs are laid in late winter or spring, and take two months to hatch.

The final chick of the season hatched in June, breaking the zoo’s previous record of 15 California condor chicks hatched in one season in 1997. The new chicks will remain under the care of the LA Zoo for about a year and a half before they are sent into the wild. The condors will be released as part of the recovery program for the California condor, led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Canadian Rockies town Jasper badly damaged by fast-moving wildfire

A fast-moving wildfire has destroyed parts of Jasper, the old mountain town in the Canadian Rockies, with the mayor warning the damage was “beyond description and comprehension”. The blaze had forced more than 25,000 people to flee earlier this week.

Jasper national park officials said the fire entered the southern edge of the town on Wednesday evening. But, given the speed and intensity of the blaze, fire crews working to protect key infrastructure were ordered to retreat. Video shared to social media on Thursday showed swaths of the town incinerated by fire. The video, taken by an anonymous official from inside a truck, shows the smouldering remains of the town. ...

A Parks Canada spokesperson, James Eastham, said the “intense” fire behaviour quickly overwhelmed teams on the ground. “Fire crews were witnessing 300 to 400ft flames in a fully involved, continuous crown fire and a fire spread rate of approximately 15 metres per minute,” he said.

Helicopters flying overhead with buckets did little to dampen the ferocity of the fire and water bomber airplanes could not approach the area because of poor flying conditions, Parks Canada said on social media. A final, frantic effort to use controlled burns to direct the fire away from the community was unsuccessful. First responders were ordered to relocate to Hinton, a town 50 miles (80km) north-east. Structural firefighters remained in the town.


Also of Interest

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

Unacceptable

‘Guilty of Genocide’: 135 Congress Members Boycott Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress

Patrick Lawrence: Gaza, We Cannot Remain Silent Any Longer

North Korean trash balloon lands on South Korea’s presidential compound

Crime Is Way Down—But NYT Won’t Stop Telling Voters to Worry About Crime

Israeli Settlers Are the World’s Worst Neighbors w/ Mohammed el-Kurd

Netanyahu FUMING After Kamala Harris Calls For Gaza CEASE-FIRE, End To War

How will US political upheaval influence Ukraine; John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris Glenn Diesen


A Little Night Music

Otis Rush - So Many Roads

Otis Rush - I`Cant Quit You Baby

Otis Rush - It's my own fault, baby

Otis Rush - Homework

Otis Rush & Eric Clapton - Crosscut Saw

Otis Rush - Double Trouble (original version)

Otis Rush - Reap What You Sow

Otis Rush - All Your Love

Otis Rush - Keep On Lovin' Me Baby

Otis Rush Live @Piazza Blues Festival


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https://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-boycott-netany...

Pocan to Boycott Netanyahu Congressional Address
July 24, 2024
Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) released the following statement announcing he will not be attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Joint Address to Congress.

“For nearly 10 months, Netanyahu has waged a deadly and excessive response that has targeted Gazan civilians. It is wildly inappropriate to give the distinct honor of addressing Congress to a man who has violated international human rights law so severely that an arrest warrant for war crimes has been recommended by the International Criminal Court. I regret that one has not been issued yet, as I would have gladly served it to him on the House floor. Additionally, he’s failed to rescue or secure the release of the more than 100 of his citizens who remain hostages of Hamas, while ignoring the pleas of their family members to bring them home. It’s time for Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire now and get the hostages back.”
 
As a member of Congress, Rep. Pocan is entitled to invite a guest to attend the speech. He has chosen Maya Roman, a cousin of Yarden Roman, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, and released after 54 days. 

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joe shikspack's picture

@Linda Wood

good for pocan. i'd like to see a lot more statements from congressworms calling out netanyahu and israel for what they are doing.

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repulsive and they are abetted by the majority of both parties but there is also this.

I don't have access to the NY Times maybe someone who does could add the details of the article.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

Russia’s defense minister said he needed to talk to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about an alleged Ukrainian operation. What happened next remains murky.

Now on July 12, Mr. Belousov was calling to relay a warning, according to two U.S. officials and another official briefed on the call: The Russians had detected a Ukrainian covert operation in the works against Russia that they believed had the Americans’ blessing. Was the Pentagon aware of the plot, Mr. Belousov asked Mr. Austin, and its potential to ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington?

Pentagon officials were surprised by the allegation and unaware of any such plot, the two U.S. officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential phone call. But whatever Mr. Belousov revealed, all three officials said, it was taken seriously enough that the Americans contacted the Ukrainians and said, essentially, if you’re thinking about doing something like this, don’t.

Despite Ukraine’s deep dependence on the United States for military, intelligence and diplomatic support, Ukrainian officials are not always transparent with their American counterparts about their military operations, especially those against Russian targets behind enemy lines. These operations have frustrated U.S. officials, who believe that they have not measurably improved Ukraine’s position on the battlefield but have risked alienating European allies and widening the war.

Lots of talk about keeping lines of communication open and Austin telling Russia to quit threatening to attack bases outside of Ukraine in response to America putting tactical missiles in Germany. Lots of words to say that they spoke to each other.

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i could only get the same preview that snoopy got. it's my guess that there is not much more in the way of details of the ukronazi plot in the article.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@humphrey

Washington is trying to keep a rabid dog on the leash.

It should also be recalled, at least in passing, that:

We bred the dog…

That is all.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

usefewersyllables's picture

“I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world,” the president said.

Just obscene. What kind of idiots does the undead meat-puppet think we are?

Faugh.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

joe shikspack's picture

@usefewersyllables

heh, kinda reminds me of a song i heard years ago ...

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snoopydawg's picture

So the military says it’s no longer under civilian control?

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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

soryang's picture

@snoopydawg

Is she the CNO or she is playing? That's the imperial crown on her ballcap isn't it?

The CNO is responsible for training, readiness, and policy implementation. It's more important what the secretaries say particularly the SecDef. I have to admit though, I've thought for some time that the IndoPacCom commander, the Joint Commander and other commanders made way too many foreign and defense policy statements that should be left to the State Dept, White House, the ambassador's as the president's direct representatives. Maybe it's that there is "no daylight" as they say between the military and civilian personnel in the government. That's really the problem. I've seen a lot of criticism that the State Dept now seems to be just another branch of the Pentagon.

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語必忠信 行必正直

Pricknick's picture

@soryang but it's not unusual for a visiting member of the armed forces to display the military apparel of a foreign country. While stationed in Gwangju, Korea in the late 70s, I proudly wore the same cap as the host Korean military.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

soryang's picture

@Pricknick

Which cap is that? A bdu cover?

I lived there for 33 months and visited almost every Army base in South Korea and never saw that. Later than you however. I traveled widely there more than most active duty personnel. There is a custom that flag officers can choose their own uniform design, but wear the cap of a foreign command? Never heard of that. Is that an air force custom? I've never seen it in the USN. You couldn't even wear the ball cap of another squadron or wing, let alone another country. Perhaps the admiral could wear the cap of a subordinate command, but I've never seen that either. I would see politicians do it on the ship.

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10 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

snoopydawg's picture

@soryang

do whatever they want. Obama ordered a ceasefire in Syria, but the pentagon and CIA broke it by having their terrorists fight each other.

Trump ordered troops out of Syria and the military just ignored him.
Remember when Milley called China and told them that the pentagon wouldn’t do ….
(something) if Trump ordered it done. I don’t remember the details, but it was quite shocking.

And how much civilian control is there when defense companies bribe congress members to do war here and there? Who’s the dawg and who’s the tail?

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yeah, she does seem a bit out over her skis there. i suppose, though, that at the highest levels of the military they are pretty sure that they can get away with doing whatever it takes to foil a president's desires for peace.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Look at what happened when Trump said that he waited to make peace with Russia. He got the whole deep state gunning for his head and they tried to derail his presidency.

I’m betting that it wasn’t Iran who tried to kill him.

Lol I see a tweets today of ABC saying ‘here’s the first look at the cops climbing a ladder to the roof Crooks was on, but once they got up there it bunch of cops were already there. Then they filmed themselves rifling through his pockets, pulled out his phone and other stuff, but no one was wearing gloves. And other cops were trampling over the crime scene.

Of anyone is interested I’ll post it. Lots of people are sure that there were 2 shooters according to the sounds. Shitlibs are super that Trump wasn’t hit by a bullets and wants the hospital to go on record and tell us what happened. You know like they too us that a magic bullet went through Kennedy hit Donnelly (?) and went back to kill Kennedy.

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5 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yeah, when i heard that bit about iran, the first thought that ran through my mind was, "misdirection."

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4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

.

and beyond words!

They don’t even feel the need to lie to the world about their atrocities anymore—letting babies suffocate to death in incubators months ago was the litmus test for what the United States would let slide. Ordering an attack dog on a man with Down syndrome and locking him in a room to die without his loved ones there to console him wasn’t the red line—because there will never be one.

They gave a standing ovation.

The NYT also covered Israeli torture and the country yawned.

Did anyone read the Lawrence essay I posted last night? He talks about what 2 visiting doctors describe what Israel’s soldiers deliberately do to kids.

I’m reading this again. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen it.

The Shoah after Gaza

Sorry I screwed up this comment. Hopefully it’s fixed now, but if not say-la-v. Life seems hard today.

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9 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg Today was too action packed in court, and I am trying to get others things done.
But, I skimmed it.
Please. Everyone. Read it.

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

a good and thoughtful article. i've read part of it, i'll try to get through the rest of it this weekend.

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6 users have voted.

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9 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@humphrey
.
.
the denizens of C99 are not the only ones to notice
world has gotten out we are living in a world of lies

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9 users have voted.

question everything

@humphrey n/t

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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

joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i guess they don't like our propaganda. and we spend so much time, money and effort on it.

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I haven’t finished this yet.

Apple Pie Propaganda? The Smith–Mundt Act Before and After the Repeal of the Domestic Dissemination Ban

For over sixty years, the Smith–Mundt Act prohibited the U.S. Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) from disseminating government-produced programming within the United States over fears that these agencies would “propagandize” the American people. However, in 2013, Congress abolished the domestic dissemination ban, which has led to a heated debate about the role of the federal government in free public discourse. Although the 2013 repeal of the domestic dissemination ban promotes greater government transparency and may help counter anti-American sentiment at home, it also gives the federal government great power to covertly influence public opinion. To curb the potential harm of surreptitious government propaganda, while also preserving the benefits of repeal, this Note advocates for requiring the State Department and the BBG to clearly attribute any government-produced programming these agencies disseminate within the United States.

And yet Biden bitched about misinformation, ect and even truthful statements if they went against his agenda.

Heh…I hope someone is making a list of Biden’s worst legacies. They will probably top Obama’s . The number one is that he was most responsible for getting Trump elected.

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7 users have voted.

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

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i guess biden and obama will split the trump legacy with obama being responsible for trumps first term and biden being most responsible for trumps second term.

i doubt that if there is recorded history to be perused by future generations that any legacy will stand out more than biden's deliberate provocations of world war 3. should world war 3 not break out in humanity's destruction, then biden's failure to do much of anything to rise to the challenges of humanity's growing destruction of its habitat at a last critical moment will probably be the focus should there be future generations of survivors.

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8 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@joe shikspack

Completely unfit to become President of the US — he became, instead, a menacing Neocon threat to every nation on the planet. There's buzz that suggests foreign leaders and bureaucrats are finally starting to talk about this. Before long, the excruciating and embarrassing story of the bumbling puppet President will emerge.

The brain-damaged American President, sent by his Neocon puppet-masters to call upon allied world leaders — like a remote controlled IED. The terror of a delusional war-monger, controlled by ear buds and listening devices, explains aspects of the profound capitulation of key European nations. The self-destruction of Germany is one notorious example. The real stories of these threatening encounters will be told for decades to come. Europe lost its collective mind to the constant Neocon gaslighting and cannot pull out of its hysterical dive toward economic collapse.

The obsessive insanity of NATO and the perverse revenge of the Fourth Reich.

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9 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

see such a substantial crop of condors.

Interesting about the Ukie terror attack. That really is their forte. They're racked up a horrendous number of willful attacks on civilians over the years, and nobody in NATOstan ever seems to be remotely disturbed by it. Funny.

Have a great weekend
be well and have a good one

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8 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, glad to see the condors kind of prospering. i hope they make a serious comeback like the bald eagles have.

it's been kind of amusing me that there is an atrocity so awful that the u.s. would ask its proxy to back off. then again, israel doesn't have the problem of attacking a large global nuclear power pointing weapons at us.

have a great weekend!

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6 users have voted.

committing war crimes and genocide we get this.

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8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

just add it to the stack of thousands of documents awaiting the icj.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

Lawrence questions whether Israel has passed the Nazi's cruelty test he believes they have. He and many others don’t think Israel has a right to exist after this. And this evil brutality and slaughter is going to bite them big time. Some day they will reap what they have sewn. Joe posted the link tonight.

The shoah essay I posted begins with people trying to stop Israel from becoming Zionists. He shows that this genocide and ethnic cleansing was the plan from the beginning. America has always been on board with it as it is now.

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9 users have voted.

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

dystopian's picture

Hi all, Hey Joe,

Great player that Otis was! I love that I can't quit you... and the Crosscut Saw with Clapton is great too. He really seemed to like Clapton's playing, and vice versa. That was a great clip...

Great news on all the Condors hatched. They were a regular part of my childhood, I saw them annually a few if not several times. I remember seeing 20 at once soaring together in the late 60's. Mt. Pinos in Ventura Co. was the best single site to get numbers. That was where the field trips went. Lead is still a leading killer. They are so big they look like a small plane. Their wings look like a big board. It is a lot of bird.

Thanks for all the great sounds Joe!

have good ones all!

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8 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

joe shikspack's picture

@dystopian

otis is near the top of my list of favorite chicago blues guitarists. his old recordings on the cobra label are really impressive, with good songwriting (some of it willie dixon's) and really nice, concise but interesting lead work. they're really a textbook for good guitar playing.

i am delighted for the condors. i hope one of these days to get out there and see them again.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.

I have no doubt that the US and its puppets have already prepared their "election fraud" responses when Maduro is reelected.

Not worth reading the articles but here a a few samples from a google search with regards to the election

https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuelan+elections&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA822...

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

How many times has Putin been called Hitler? Trump? Saddam, Gaddaffi, ect? I guess this goes along with no criticism of Israel is acceptable. Pffft!!!

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9 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

I’m getting lots of weirdos in my feed tonight. Last night I got a bunch of whiney congress members being upset that people were being mean to Bibi.

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9 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

Another weitdo showed up.

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9 users have voted.

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

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10 users have voted.