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This evening's music features Houston r&b singer and piano player Connie Mack Booker. Enjoy!

"Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."

-- Thomas A. Edison

News and Opinion

US Troops Get Hurt In The Middle East Because Of The Assholes Who Put Them There

If Kamala Harris live-streamed herself torturing a puppy to death she’d lose the support of everyone, but openly backing the torture and murder of an entire enclave full of Palestinians is being overlooked by self-declared progressives as a forgivable little foible.

Near as I can tell, the actual position of US progressives is as follows:

• When Benjamin Netanyahu does a genocide, it’s genocide.
• If Trump were to continue the genocide, it would be genocide.
• When Democrats do a genocide, it’s good people making hard choices within the framework of the political realities of our time.

It’s either genocide or it’s not, and the answer to whether it is or isn’t shouldn’t depend on your political loyalties. If you don’t think the Biden administration is guilty of facilitating a genocide, then it makes sense for you to support Harris even if you have differences with her. If you do think it’s genocide, then anything you say in support of her is nonsensical. Everything after “Okay yes genocide is bad, but” can only be born of psychological compartmentalization to avoid mentally engaging the reality of what you’re seeing.

There are some things you just can’t excuse. Of these, genocide is at the very top of the list. Literally the very top. Vote however you want to vote, but stop lying about it. Stop twisting yourself into psychological knots to stave off the cognitive dissonance you’d experience if you directly grappled with the contradictions in your worldview. Don’t let anything in you shy away from the horrors of what’s happening in Gaza between now and November just because you have a partisan political outcome you don’t want to put a wobble on.

Putin reportedly calls for Iran to limit damage in any retaliation against Israel

Vladimir Putin has reportedly told Iran to avoid civilian casualties in any retaliatory attack on Israel for the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, an underlining of the constraints it faces as it frames its response. It is a call for restraint that is likely to be echoed by many foreign ministers from the 57 countries inside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at a meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East grow.

The meeting – jointly called by Iran and Pakistan – will produce unanimous condemnation of the killing of Haniyeh as an escalatory and illegal act by Israel, but Iranian diplomats will also be working to avoid being left isolated by the more cautious Arab Gulf states.

The warning by Putin, a close ally of Iran, was reportedly delivered by Sergei Shoigu, his former defence secretary and the secretary of the national security council of Russia, when he visited Tehran on Monday after the death of Haniyeh last week. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role but is widely acknowledged to be responsible.

It is not a full reproach to Iran since most of Tehran’s leadership have been aiming to strike military targets, but it underlines Russia’s concern that the response to Haniyeh’s killing could get out of hand – especially if multiple members of Iran’s semi-state axis of resistance, including the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, launch their own less disciplined military responses at the same time. The Houthis have already hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv.

The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, on Tuesday vowed a “strong and effective” response to the killing of its military commander, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut by Israel last week and said it would act either alone or with its regional allies. “Whatever the consequences, the resistance will not let these Israeli attacks pass by,” he said in a televised address to mark one week since the assassination.

Jeremy Scahill on New Head of Hamas, Questions About Haniyeh Assassination & Iran Retaliation

Israel-Iran conflict on hair trigger as military and diplomatic preparations for war proceed

Israel and its allies continued Monday with preparations for a war against Iran, which is expected to launch a retaliatory strike soon for Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his G7 counterparts late Sunday night that American intelligence believed Iran and Hezbollah could launch such an operation at any time.

Any action could be used by Israel as a pretext to light the fuse on a regional war it has been provoking for months. The atmosphere being whipped up in the country is indicated by the comments of the leader of the opposition Yair Lapid, who demanded of the government, “Is it acceptable to you that for five days an entire country has been sitting and waiting for us to be bombed? Because there is no deterrence.”

The World Health Organisation has delivered 32 tons of emergency medical supplies to Lebanon in anticipation of a bloodbath. More and more countries are issuing advisory notices to their citizens leave the country.

Speaking at the Israeli Air Force’s underground command centre in Tel Aviv, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers, “We must prepare for all possibilities, including a quick transition to offense.” A Defence Ministry statement added that Gallant had referred to “the possibilities of offensive action in all combat sectors.” Given that Israel has been carrying out “offensive action,” including repeated deadly strikes on neighbouring countries ever since the war began, what Gallant is referring to is a massive escalation.

Israel's Mask Is Slipping w/ David Hearst

Majority of Americans Oppose Using US Troops To Defend Israel

The majority of Americans oppose the idea of US troops being used to defend Israel if it comes under attack by Iran, according to a poll conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that was released on Tuesday.

The poll, conducted from June 21–July 1, 2024, found that 56% of Americans oppose US troops defending Israel, while 42% support the idea. Support for defending Israel is stronger among Republicans, with 53% in favor and only 32% of Democrats in favor.

The survey also found that 55% of Americans oppose US troops defending Israel if it comes under attack by a neighboring country.

Excellent:

Will Hamas under Sinwar be different?

Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, architect of 7 October attack, as new leader

Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau, elevating the hardline militant to the group’s top post after the assassination in Tehran of its previous political leader. Sinwar’s appointment was announced in a brief statement by Hamas on Tuesday that was aired on pro-Hamas Iranian state media channels.

Sinwar, the Hamas military leader who is seen as the mastermind behind the 7 October attack against Israel, is believed to be hiding in the series of tunnels underneath Gaza. He is the group’s chief decision-maker in Gaza, and is believed to hold control over the estimated 120 Israeli hostages who are still in Hamas’s custody.

Sinwar succeeds Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas political chief who was killed in a bombing attack last week that Hamas and Iranian officials blamed on Israel. ... Haniyeh was another key figure in the talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire, and was seen as an intermediary between Israel and Sinwar. Haniyeh had little direct control over Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and was seen as a relative moderate, directing Hamas’s delegations in talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US aimed at a ceasefire and hostage and prisoner release deal.

Sinwar is a founding member of Hamas and is seen as the group’s most powerful figure. A former head of the group’s intelligence service, Sinwar spent 23 years in Israeli prisons as he served four life sentences for attempted murder and sabotage. A former interrogator called him “1,000% committed and 1,000% violent, a very, very hard man”.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Can Palestine Be Free?

UK reportedly suspends arms export licence applications for Israel ‘pending review’

British civil servants appear to have suspended the processing of arms export licences for sales to Israel pending the completion of a wider government review into the issue.

Exporters seeking arms sales licences are reportedly receiving messages from the Department for Business and Trade saying that applications are suspended pending the review.

Whitehall sources insisted this did not represent a change in policy and might be administrative procedures.

No fixed date has been set for the completion of the review of the risk of weapons sales to Israel in light of allegations of breaches of humanitarian law in the Gaza conflict. The task has been made more complex due to a desire by ministers to draw a distinction between arms that are sold to Israel for defensive purposes and those sold for offensive purposes for use in Gaza.

Government sources say the process is taking time since ministers have to ensure any decision to suspend is legally sound and complies with arms export licensing laws.

Phil Giraldi : Israel’s Rule of Law

German court convicts activist for leading ‘from the river to the sea’ chant

A Berlin court has convicted a pro-Palestinian activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the German capital four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, in what her defence team called a defeat for free speech.

The presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, ordered 22-year-old German-Iranian national Ava Moayeri to pay a €600 (£515) fine on Tuesday, rejecting her argument that she meant only to express support for “peace and justice” in the Middle East by calling out the phrase on a busy street.

Balzer said she “could not comprehend” the logic of previous German court rulings that determined the saying was “ambiguous”, saying to her it was clear it “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”.

She said this opinion could be covered by the freedom of expression in Germany but that the slogan’s use had to be evaluated in the context of “the biggest massacre of Jews since the Shoah – that is the elephant in the room”.

The case, heard under tight security, was one of several since the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel and the subsequent destruction of Gaza that have examined Germany’s strict limits on pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Moayeri’s lawyers called it the first trial in Berlin that centred on the use of the politically charged phrase.

Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran charged in foiled plot to kill US leaders

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged over a foiled conspiracy to carry out political assassinations on US soil, the justice department said on Tuesday as it disclosed what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to target US public figures.

Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the US from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on 17 July, according to court records.

“For years, the justice department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement.

FBI investigators believe that Donald Trump, who approved the drone strike on Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, CNN reported, citing a US official.

Moscow says Ukraine has launched cross-border attack inside Russia

Moscow has said about 300 soldiers from Ukraine launched a cross-border attack into a hitherto quiet part of the front on Tuesday, with reports of fighting at a town as deep as six miles (10km) inside Russia. Moscow’s ministry of defence said late on Tuesday that up to “300 Ukrainian militants” from Ukraine’s 22nd mechanised brigade launched the attack at 8am, supported by “11 tanks and more than 20 armoured fighting vehicles”.

Fighting took place throughout the day between the border villages of Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya in the Kursk region, and as far inside Russia as the fringes of Sudzha, 10km from the frontline – where two strikes on Russian trailers loaded with tanks were photographed from overhead.

Though Russia said it had repelled the incursion, reports from Russian military bloggers and imagery on social media indicated that the Ukrainian attack was substantial, though it was unclear how far it could be sustained. ...

The attack’s purpose could be an attempt by Ukraine, whose defences are stretched, to divert some Russian forces to defend a part of the frontline that has been largely inactive since spring 2022 – and also boost morale at home. However, critics in Ukraine argue that such assaults serve no long-term military purpose. Anti-Kremlin Russian groups launched attacks from Ukraine into Belgorod and Kursk regions in March, but were repelled for no strategic gain.

US Gives Ukraine $3.9 Billion in ‘Direct Budgetary Aid’

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday that Ukraine had received $3.9 billion from the US in the form of “direct budgetary aid,” which is disbursed directly to the Ukrainian government through the World Bank.

The aid is meant to fund government services, salaries, pensions, social assistance programs, and other types of spending. It has also been used to subsidize Ukrainian small businesses and farmers.

“This is the first tranche of direct budget support from the United States in 2024. In total, Ukraine will receive $7.8 billion in direct budgetary assistance from the United States this year, which will allow us to confidently pass this financial period,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

Prosecutors plan to charge ex-police chief for raid on Kansas newspaper

Two special prosecutors said on Monday that they planned to charge a former central Kansas police chief with obstruction of justice over his conduct following a police raid last year on the local weekly newspaper.

The prosecutors, Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson, concluded in their 124-page report that the staff at the Marion County Record committed no crimes before the former Marion police chief Gideon Cody led a raid on its offices and the home of its publisher. They said police warrants signed by a judge to allow the searches contained inaccurate information from an “inadequate investigation” – and that the searches were not legally justified.

Police body camera footage of the 2023 raid on the publisher Eric Meyer’s home shows his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, visibly upset and telling officers: “Get out of my house!” She co-owned the paper, lived with her son and died of a heart attack the next afternoon.

Prosecutors found no evidence officers “believed they were posing a risk to Mrs Meyer’s life”, but they allege Cody obstructed an official judicial process in the weeks after the raid. He resigned as chief last October. It was not clear whether officials planned to charge him with a felony or a misdemeanor, and either is possible. The criminal complaint had not been filed as of Monday.

“Small town familiarity explains but does not excuse the inadequate investigation that gave rise to the search warrant applications in this matter,” prosecutors said in their report. Bennett is the district attorney in Sedgwick county, home to the state’s largest city of Wichita; and Wilkerson is the chief prosecutor in Riley county in north-eastern Kansas. The state’s attorney general appointed them after the Marion county prosecutor – who faced questions himself about the search warrants – said he had a conflict of interest.

Ohio? Holy crap!

People line up at Ohio dispensaries for first day of recreational cannabis sales

Customers lined up at dispensaries across Ohio on Tuesday for the first day of recreational marijuana sales in the state.

Nearly 100 medical marijuana dispensaries were authorized to begin selling recreational marijuana to adults after receiving operating certificates this week from the state’s division of cannabis control. ...

Ohio voters last November approved allowing people over 21 to purchase, possess and grow limited amounts of cannabis for personal use. But recreational sales were delayed while the state set up a regulated system for purchases and worked out other rules.

Disgust at DNC "Leftists" Who Feigned Anger Over Gaza & Now DON'T CARE

Pro-Israel groups spend millions to try to oust ‘Squad’ member Cori Bush

A prominent member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, Cori Bush, faces a difficult Democratic primary in St Louis on Tuesday after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP).

The pro-Israel lobby group targeted Bush as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. She condemned Hamas for its “appalling violations of human rights” in killing 1,139 people, mostly Israelis, and abducting hundreds of others. But Bush also infuriated some Jewish and pro-Israel groups by describing Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza as “collective punishment against Palestinians” and a war crime.

Bush won her last primary, two years ago, by more than 30 percentage points. She took 73% of the vote in the general election in one of the safest Democratic seats in the country. But the flood of UDP money and other hostile spending has put Bush on the back foot with some polls showing she is the underdog in the race.

The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.

Rep Cori Bush VOWS Revenge Against AIPAC For Her defeat

Uncommitted Movement Pushes Harris Campaign for Gaza Ceasefire

Does AIPAC control Kamala?

EPA Takes 'Historic' Step to Halt Dangerous Herbicide Use

Taking a rare step to "prevent imminent hazard," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued an emergency order suspending all uses of an herbicide that has been linked to irreversible health risks for unborn babies.

The EPA issued the order after years of pushing AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the sole manufacturer of dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, to submit data about the risks posed by the chemical, which is also known as Dacthal and DCPA.

The agency estimated in 2023 that a fetus could be exposed to levels of DCPA four to 20 times greater than the safe limit, if a pregnant person handled products treated with the herbicide.

The chemical is used on crops including broccoli, onions, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts in the U.S., but has been banned since 2009 in the European Union.

Exposed fetuses can suffer effects including low birth weight, impaired brain development and motor skills, and decreased I.Q., according to the agency.

"DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately," Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety, said in statement. "In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems."

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) called the suspension of DCPA "welcome news," but said it was "long overdue." The group's research found that even though the EPA has collected evidence of DCPA's health risks, up to 200,000 pounds of the herbicide were sprayed on crops in California in some recent years.

"For years, EWG and other public health advocates have warned about the serious risks the weedkiller poses to farmworkers, pregnant people, and other vulnerable populations," said senior toxicologist Alexis Temkin. "Countless people have been exposed to DCPA while the EPA abdicated its responsibility. The agency should have taken action decades ago, when it first identified the human health risks posed by this toxic crop chemical."

Trump says he has ‘no choice’ but to back EVs after Musk endorsement

Donald Trump has for months denigrated electric vehicles, arguing their supporters should “rot in hell” and that assisting the nascent industry is “lunacy”. He now appears to have somewhat shifted his view thanks to the support of Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.

“I’m for electric cars, I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump, the Republican nominee for US president, told supporters at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday.

The transactional nature of this relationship with Musk was made clear by the former president and convicted business fraudster, however. “So I have no choice,” said Trump, who then went on to say that electric vehicles were suitable for a “small slice” of the population and that “you want every type of car imaginable” to be available.

Trump also claimed that $9tn would be needed to build a network of electric car chargers, which is not a figure that has been cited by the industry or White House. Joe Biden’s administration has vowed to build 500,000 chargers, far fewer than the approximately 28m needed, and secured several billion dollars for this, although progress on this buildout has been painfully slow.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla who has pushed increasingly strident rightwing views via his ownership of Twitter/X, has backed Trump’s return to the White House despite the candidate’s repeated antipathy to electric cars on the campaign trail. Last month Musk denied reports he was planning to donate $45m a month to a Super Pac focused on getting Trump elected; he declined to clarify how much he planned to donate.

Also of Interest

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

Israeli leaders celebrate assassinations — and make the living pay the price

US Troops Get Hurt In The Middle East Because Of The Assholes Who Put Them There

Israel’s Barbarism Is Grossly Minimised

Gaza As A New(?) Western Method To Wage War

There Are Over 100,000 Cases of Hepatitis B in Gaza, Report Says

What the UN Chief Can Do for Gaza

The KOSA Internet Censorship Bill Just Passed The Senate—It’s Our Last Chance To Stop It

Why Are the British Race Riots Happening?

Germany trapped in long term economic decline

A Little Night Music

Connie Mac Booker - Oklahoma Baby

Connie McBooker - Shout Baby Boogie

Connie Mack Booker - Love Me Pretty Baby

Connie Mac Booker - Loretta

Babe Johnson w/ Conney's Combo - Shout It Out

Babe Johnson w/ Conney's Combo - Ugly Mae

Connie Mac Booker - I'll Soon Be Travelling

Bobby Bland w/Connie Mack Booker(p) - I Don't Want No Woman

Connie Mac Booker - My Baby Left Me