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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Bumble Bee Slim

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Piedmont blues singer and guitarist Amos "Bumble Bee Slim" Easton. Enjoy!

^{Bumble Bee Slim - Rough Rugged Road Blues}

h/t snoopy for the quote:

“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint…But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.”

-- C. S. Lewis

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News and Opinion

Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers

Israel has been loudly and melodramatically fretting about an impending retaliatory attack from Iran and Hezbollah which it claims will likely include strikes in the vicinity of civilian population centers. This is of course rich coming from the regime that has spent ten months turning Gaza into a flattened wasteland of rubble and civilian corpses.

A Washington Post article titled “Israel anticipates direct attack from Iran; U.S. deploys more vessels to region” contains the following interesting paragraph:

“Israel has communicated to Iran and Hezbollah that targeting civilian population centers would be considered a red line for Israel, which is preparing for a spectrum of scenarios, including one in which Hezbollah attacks first and is joined by Iran afterward, said Yoel Guzansky, a former official on Israel’s National Security Council who is now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.”

Israel’s fretting about attacks on its population centers is echoed in a recent Axios post titled “New Israeli intelligence suggests Iran prepares to attack Israel within days,” whose Israeli intel sources “said the attacks by Hezbollah and Iran are likely to be bigger than the one conducted by Iran last April and include the launching of missiles and drones at military targets in central Israel, including in the vicinity of civilian population centers.”

This claim that Iran may launch attacks “in the vicinity of civilian population centers” is funny in a couple of different ways. Firstly, the IDF headquarters is located smack dab in the heart of Tel Aviv, so any attack on the hub of the Israeli war machine would necessarily occur in the vicinity of civilian population centers. Secondly, it’s funny because Israel has spent years justifying its attacks on Palestinian population centers by claiming Hamas is using “human shields” by surrounding themselves with civilians to deter attacks.

Placing a legitimate military target in the heart of a civilian population center and then declaring a “red line” against attacking civilian population centers where legitimate military targets are located—after launching an insanely escalatory assassination in Tehran — is obviously using civilians as human shields. And what’s wild is that Israel’s own claims about Hamas using human shields in the same way have been conclusively debunked, firstly by the self-evident fact that the presence of civilians obviously doesn’t deter Israeli attacks at all, and secondly by revelations that the IDF deliberately waits to launch airstrikes on suspected Hamas members until they are at home with their families, thereby ensuring the maximum number of civilian deaths possible.

It goes without saying that Israel does not have any sincere concern for civilian lives, at least for anyone who’s paid attention to its actions at any time between the state’s inception and today. But it is worth highlighting these contradictions anyway, to contextualize all the histrionic garment-rending we’re going to witness should an attack on or near civilian population centers occur in the coming days.

Former Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: U.S. Is Part of "Axis of Zionist Extremism"

After Billions More for Israeli Military, Biden Joins Call for Cease-Fire

Just days after releasing $3.5 billion for Israel to spend on weapons while waging war on the Gaza Strip, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday joined leaders of France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom in expressing support for "ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions and reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal."

Biden put out a Thursday statement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani, acknowledging their months of mediation and declaring that "the time has come" for an agreement. On Monday, the U.S. and European leaders endorsed that call "to renew talks later this week with an aim to concluding the deal as soon as possible, and stressed there is no further time to lose."

"All parties must live up to their responsibilities," said Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "In addition, unfettered delivery and distribution of aid is needed."

They also addressed mounting concerns of a broader Middle East war in the wake of Israel targeting Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr with an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon and assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh at his residence in the Tehran, Iran.

"We expressed our support for the defense of Israel against Iranian aggression and against attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups," they said. "We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place."

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in response to the new statement: "There was a time when Global South countries had to make arguments in favor of a more just, multipolar order. These days, Western leaders make that case better than anyone. Note that this statement makes ZERO mention of Israel, despite it being investigated for a genocide." ...

Assal Rad, an expert on Middle East history, highlighted reporting in The Times of Israel last week that unnamed Arab officials warn a cease-fire and hostage agreement "won't be possible" unless Biden "exerts more pressure" on Netanyahu.

According to the Israeli newspaper:

One of the Arab officials lamented that Washington is the only party with enough leverage over Jerusalem to sway Netanyahu, but that is has thus far refrained from fully exploiting its role as Israel's main security benefactor.

One way to apply pressure on Netanyahu would be for the U.S. to publicly blame the Israeli premier for the lack of an agreement, the Arab official said.

That reporting preceded the move to free up more military aid for Israel. CNN reported that the U.S. State Department "notified lawmakers on Thursday night that the Biden administration intended to release the billions of dollars worth of foreign military financing," which comes from over $14 billion in supplemental funding passed by Congress in April.

"Israel won't receive $3.5 billion worth of U.S.-made weapons immediately," CNN detailed. "Instead, the funding is so Israel can procure systems that are being built now and likely won't be delivered for several years. The supplemental funding also allocated billions of dollars' worth of equipment that the Pentagon can draw from its own stockpiles to send directly to Israel on a much faster timeline."

Following the Biden administration's decision to free up more military aid for Israel—which has received not only weapons support but also diplomatic backing on the world stage since October 7—Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians over the weekend in a strike on a Gaza school and mosque sheltering displaced people.

The Biden admin claims they are pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, but as @AnnelleSheline pointed out on @AJEnglish, this is mere "political theater."

"The notion is nonsense because the Biden administration is not using any leverage." pic.twitter.com/u9UYgmeNwy

— Quincy Institute (@QuincyInst) August 12, 2024

A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday that he "condemns the continued loss of life in Gaza, including women and children, as we witness yet another devastating strike by Israel on the al-Tabin school in Gaza City, sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinian families, with scores of fatalities, amidst continued horror, displacement, and suffering in Gaza."

"The secretary-general is dismayed to see that the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolution 2735 (2024) remain unimplemented," the spokesperson continued. "He welcomes the mediation efforts of the United States, Egypt, and Qatar leaders, and urges both sides to rejoin negotiations and conclude the ceasefire and hostages release deal."

The U.N. chief "reiterates his urgent appeal for an immediate cease-fire and the unconditional release of all hostages," the spokesperson added. "He also again underscores the need to ensure the protection of civilians and for unimpeded and safe humanitarian access into and across Gaza. The secretary-general underlines that international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, must be upheld at all times."

Israel Crosses All Red Lines for War with Iran

An excellent article worth a full read. Here's a bit of the beginning to get you started:

Israel’s Been Like This Since 1948

“Israel army issues new displacement order from northern Gaza.” That headline, about yet another Israeli operation to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in the tiny, besieged and utterly destroyed enclave of Gaza, was published Thursday in Middle East Eye.

When I began studying Israeli history more than a quarter of a century ago, people claiming to be experts proffered plenty of excuses to explain why Israelis should not be held responsible for the 1948 ethnic cleansing of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes — what Palestinians call their Nakba, or Catastrophe.

1. I was told most Israelis were not involved and knew nothing of the war crimes carried out against the Palestinians during Israel’s establishment.

2. I was told that those Israelis who did take part in war crimes, like Operation Broom to expel Palestinians from their homeland, did so only because they were traumatised by their experiences in Europe. In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, these Israelis assumed that, were the Jewish people to survive, they had no alternative but to drive out the Palestinians en masse.

3. From others, I was told that no ethnic cleansing had taken place. The Palestinians had simply fled at the first sign of conflict because they had no real historical attachment to the land.

4. Or I was told that the Palestinians’ displacement was an unfortunate consequence of a violent war in which Israeli leaders had the best interests of Palestinians at heart. The Palestinians hadn’t left because of Israeli violence but because they had been ordered to do so by Arab leaders in the region.

In fact, the story went, Israel had pleaded with many of the 750,000 refugees to come home afterwards, but those same Arab leaders stubbornly blocked their return. Every one of these claims was nonsense, directly contradicted by all the documentary evidence. That should be even clearer today, as Israel continues the ethnic cleansing and slaughter of the Palestinian people more than 75 years on.

Every Israeli knows exactly what is going on in Gaza — after all, their children-soldiers keep posting videos online showing the latest crimes they have committed, from blowing up mosques and hospitals to shooting randomly into homes. Polls show all but a small minority of Israelis approve of the savagery that has killed many tens of thousands of Palestinians, including children. A third of them think Israel needs to go further in its barbarity. Today, Israeli TV shows host debates about how much pain soldiers should be allowed to inflict by raping their Palestinian captives.

If the existential fears of Israelis and Jews still require the murder, rape and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians three-quarters of a century on from the Holocaust, then we need to treat that trauma as the problem — and refuse to indulge it any longer.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: What Does Netanyahu Want?

Hamas says one Israeli hostage killed and two more injured in Gaza

The armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas has said its militants shot and killed an Israeli hostage and wounded two others, both women, “in two separate incidents” in Gaza.

Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during their 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war, 111 of whom are still being held in Gaza, although the Israeli military says 39 are dead.

Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement: “In two separate incidents, two [Hamas] soldiers assigned to guard enemy prisoners fired at a Zionist prisoner, killing him immediately, and also injured two female prisoners critically.”

The statement, posted on Telegram, did not identify the hostages or say when or where the incidents occurred.

Abu Obeida said Hamas had formed a committee to investigate the shootings.

Pepe Escobar : Will China Help the Palestinians?

Israel Tells US That Iran Is Preparing a Large-Scale Attack

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Autin that Iranian military preparations show Iran is preparing for a large-scale reprisal attack against Israel, Axios reported on Sunday.

The report said that a new Israeli intelligence assessment says that Iran is likely to launch an attack in response to the Israeli killing of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in the coming days. Israel previously thought Iran might have been rethinking the attack due to US pressure.

Last week, Israeli officials discussed the possibility of launching a “preemptive strike” on Iran if they had intelligence that an Iranian reprisal attack was coming, which would just escalate the situation further.

MASS EXODUS? Israel's Economy SELF DESTRUCTS

US To Keep Funding Israeli Military Unit That Killed Elderly Palestinian American

The State Department said Friday that the US will continue providing military aid to an Israeli military unit that was responsible for the death of 78-year-old Palestinian American Omar Assad.

In January 2022, Assad was detained by soldiers with the Netzah Yehuda Battalion at a temporary checkpoint in the West Bank. He was handcuffed, gagged, blindfolded, and left outside in the cold, where he died of a heart attack, which doctors said was stress-induced.

None of the soldiers involved in the incident faced criminal charges, but the State Department said the “violations by this unit have also been effectively remediated.” A US official told AFP that while no one was prosecuted for killing Assad, two of the soldiers involved were no longer in the military.

Putin's dire warning to Israel, Hezbollah pounds IDF with Russian missiles, Brian Berletic on Kursk

Russia evacuates over 76,000 people from border areas in Kursk Region

More than 76,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in the Kursk Region, spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s interdepartmental operational headquarters Artyom Sharov said.

"An interdepartmental operational headquarters for the provision of assistance to the population in border areas of the Kursk Region has been set up and is still operating in the city of Kursk. Resettling residents to safer places has been a priority of its work. A total of over 76,000 people have been temporarily resettled since this work began," he told reporters.

Putin No Talks, Kiev Regime Change Needed; Ukr Heavy Losses, Kursk Stalled, Pokrovsk Battle Starts

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Judge rules against Robert F Kennedy Jr in fight to be on New York’s ballot

A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions, invalidating the documents he needs to appear on the ballot in the state.

The ruling from Justice Christina Ryba after a short trial in state court is expected to be appealed. If upheld, it could open the door to challenges in other states where Kennedy used the address in New York City’s northern suburbs to gather signatures.

The lawsuit backed by a Democrat-aligned political action committee claims Kennedy’s state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in well-to-do Katonah, while he actually has lived in the Los Angeles area since 2014, when he married Curb Your Enthusiasm actor Cheryl Hines. Kennedy argued during the trial that he has lifelong ties to New York and intends move back.

During the trial, which ran for less than four days, Kennedy maintained that he began living in New York when he was 10 and that he currently rents a room in a friend’s home in Katonah, about 40 miles (65km) north of midtown Manhattan. However, Kennedy testified that he has only slept in that room once due to his constant campaign travel.

The 70-year-old candidate testified that his move to California a decade ago was so he could be with his wife, and that he always planned to return to New York, where he is registered to vote.

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US air force avoids PFAS water cleanup, citing supreme court’s Chevron ruling

The US air force is refusing to comply with an order to clean drinking water it polluted in Tucson, Arizona, claiming federal regulators lack authority after the conservative-dominated US supreme court overturned the “Chevron doctrine”. Air force bases contaminated the water with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and other dangerous compounds.

Though former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials and legal experts who reviewed the air force’s claim say the Chevron doctrine ruling probably would not apply to the order, the military’s claim that it would represents an early indication of how polluters will wield the controversial court decision to evade responsibility.

It appears the air force is essentially attempting to expand the scope of the court’s ruling to thwart regulatory orders not covered by the decision, said Deborah Ann Sivas, director of the Stanford University Environmental Law Clinic. “It’s very odd,” she added. “It feels almost like an intimidation tactic, but it will be interesting to see if others take this approach and it bleeds over.”

The supreme court in late June overturned the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, one of its most important precedents. The decision sharply cut regulators’ power by giving judges the final say in interpreting ambiguous areas of the law during rule-making. Judges previously gave deference to regulatory agency experts on such questions. The ruling is expected to have a profound impact on the EPA’s ability to protect the public from pollution, and the Tucson dispute highlights the high stakes in such scenarios – clean drinking water and the health of hundreds of thousands of people hangs in the balance.

Several air force bases are largely responsible for trichloroethylene (TCE) – volatile organic compounds – and PFAS contaminating drinking water sources in Tucson. A 10-sq-mile (26 sq km) area around the facilities and Tucson international airport were in the 1980s designated as a Superfund site, an action reserved for the nation’s most polluted areas. The EPA in late May issued an emergency order under the Safe Drinking Water Act requiring the air force to develop a plan within 60 days to address PFAS contamination in the drinking water.

Pantanal waterway project would destroy a ‘paradise on Earth’, scientists warn

Dozens of scientists are sounding the alarm that carving a commercial waterway through the world’s largest wetlands could spell the “end of an entire biome”, and leave hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to be devastated by wildfires. The Pantanal wetland – which falls within Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, covering an area almost half the size of Germany – is facing the proposed construction of a commercial waterway, as well as the expansion of industrial farming and spread of intense wildfires. A cohort of 40 scientists say the waterway development represents an existential threat to the ecosystem: reducing the floodplain, increasing the risk of fires and transforming the area into a landscape that could more easily be farmed.

Prof Karl M Wantzen, an ecologist from the University of Tours, and Unesco chair for river culture, said the wetland “is a real paradise on Earth. Nowhere else will you see so many hyacinth macaws, jaguars, swamp deer, anacondas, caymans, more than 300 fish species, 500 bird species, 2,500 species of water plants … All of that is at risk.”

The Brazilian government wants to develop the upper 435 miles (700km) of the Paraguay River into the Paraguay-Paraná hidrovia (waterway). In 2022 and 2023, preliminary licences were issued for the construction of port facilities within the Pantanal.

“If the hidrovia project goes ahead, navigation of large train barges in the Pantanal, with dredging in critical reaches of the Paraguay River, will probably mean the end of the Pantanal as we know it,” said Pierre Girard from the Federal University of Mato Grosso and Pantanal Research Center. “Reducing the annually flooded area, [coupled] with climate change and increased pressure on land use in the biome will increase the risks of destructive fires like the catastrophic ones seen in 2020 [when nearly a fifth of the area burned].”

In 2024, fires were the worst on record, with nearly 1.5m hectares (3.7m acres) burning across the Brazilian Pantanal by early August. Since 1985, the Pantanal has lost about 80% of its surface water – more than any other biome in Brazil. If the waterway goes ahead it is likely to further shrink the wetland, making it even more dry and vulnerable to wildfires such as those seen in 2020.

Norway plant to blaze carbon-free concrete trail

Shining bright among the hulking grey towers and tangled, dust-dulled pipes, at the mouth of a fjord two hours south-west of Oslo, stands a slim metal tube that may soon be hailed as a milestone in the energy transition.

The 100 metre-tall structure was erected in August with millimetre precision to trap carbon dioxide that spews out of a sprawling cement plant near the old shipping town of Brevik in Norway. Set to be finished by the end of the year, the facility will be the first of a handful around the world to capture carbon in the production of cement.

If the projects work, they could spur a wave of investments into carbon-free concrete that could prove crucial to meeting the world’s climate targets. If they flop, whether environmentally or financially, they could set back a hotly contested technology that the industry is betting on for a third of its carbon savings by 2050.

These first plants were “absolutely critical” for reducing costs and risks in the next generation, said Chris Bataille, a researcher at Columbia University and co-author of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on solutions. “Solar and wind showed up in the 1970s, and now it’s the 2020s. We’re still in the 1970s with … cement.”

Concrete heats the planet more than flights and fast fashion, but the industry has taken few steps to clean itself up. Although manufacturers have begun to burn cleaner fuels and reuse industrial waste, they have struggled to stop emissions from key chemical processes responsible for about 60% of their carbon footprint.

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Also of Interest

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

Rights Group Sues US for Placing Palestinian American on 'Illegal, Racist Watchlist'

“Another Massacre”

Israeli settlers hold gun to 3-year-old Palestinian girl’s head in West Bank

Israel’s Assassination Program and Its Ties to US Intelligence

As War Widens, U.S. Assets Become Easy Targets

Ukraine SitRep: The Kursk Incursion Was Stopped

Middle East Braces as Iran & Hezbollah Vow Retaliation for Israeli Assassinations

US Rushes CRUISE MISSILES As Iran, Israel ON BRINK

Hezbollah Missiles PENETRATE Iron Dome!

Israel vows 'disproportionate' response to counter-attack

Scott Ritter : The DoJ and Me.

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A Little Night Music

Bumble Bee Slim - Meet Me In The Bottom

Bumble Bee Slim - No Woman No Nickel

Bumble Bee Slim - B and O Blues

Bumble Bee Slim - Tired Of Your Low Down Nasty Ways

Bumble Bee Slim - Greasy Greens

Bumble Bee Slim - Lemon Squeezing Blues

Bumble Bee Slim – Sail On Sail On Blues

Bumble Bee Slim – Meet Me In The Bottom

Bumble Bee Slim – New B & O Blues

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