The Evening Blues - 8-16-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues saxophone player A.C. Reed. Enjoy!
A.C. Reed And His Spark Plugs – I'm Fed Up With This Music
"If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side."
-- Orson Scott Card
News and Opinion
Democrats Are Pigs
Author Stephen King has a new viral tweet featuring a picture of himself wearing a Kamala Harris t-shirt modeled after an Obama campaign sticker captioned with the words “I’M SPEAKING” — a phrase with which she drew headlines and severe public outcry last week by using it to shut down anti-genocide protesters at a campaign rally in Detroit.
That’s right: they’re using her condescending shutdown of pro-Palestine demonstrators as a fun girlboss campaign slogan now.
God damn it I hate Democrats so fucking much.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 15, 2024
The only way to believe Democrats are significantly better than Republicans or vice-versa is to both (A) be unable to distinguish actions from words and (B) to completely ignore foreign policy.
(A) means you have to look solely at your preferred party’s platform while ignoring the actions they actually take, which are not drastically different from the actions the other party takes relative to the 99.99% of policies and systems they leave in place from administration to administration.
(B) means you have to pay zero attention to all the violence, tyranny and abuse the US government inflicts upon populations around the world, of which there is no meaningful difference between parties at all. The overwhelming majority of American violence, tyranny and abuse is directed not at Americans but at people outside the United States, so by excluding this from your analysis you are excluding almost all of the evils of your preferred party when claiming it is morally superior to the other.
The ICJ Finds That BDS Is Not Merely a Right, but an Obligation
Israel and its lobby have, for years now, been engaged in a frenzy of activity to further insulate Israel from accountability by using their influence in the West to effectively outlaw organized opposition to Israel. Foremost among these efforts has been the Israeli campaign to penalize calls to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for its gross violations of human rights. As a result, countless laws and policies are now on the books across the U.S. and the broader West, trampling on core constitutional principles and internationally guaranteed human rights in defense of Israeli impunity. But an advisory opinion issued last month by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) should help to turn that around.
In its historic ruling, the ICJ found that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is entirely unlawful, that Israel practices apartheid and racial segregation, and that all states are under a duty to help bring this to an end, including by cutting off all economic, trade and investment relations with Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In other words, as a matter of international law, all countries are obliged to participate in an economic boycott of Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territory and to divest from any existing economic relations there.
Because the court was bound by the parameters of the request from the UN General Assembly that triggered its findings, it did not address duties and obligations relating to activities inside the 1948 Green Line. However, the court’s authoritative statement of the requirements of international law makes clear that proponents of BDS have not only the moral high ground but also a firm grounding in international law.
Miko Peled: Inside Israel’s ‘Insane Society’ that Systematically Tortures and Rapes Palestinians
One Palestinian killed as Israeli settlers attack West Bank village
Dozens of Israeli settlers, some wearing masks, attacked a Palestinian village near the city of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, burning cars and killing at least one person.
The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and another critically wounded by Israeli settlers’ gunfire during the attack in the village of Jit, the latest in a series of attacks by violent settlers in the West Bank. Footage shared on social media showed cars and houses on fire after the attacks.
The Israeli military said police and army units intervened and arrested one Israeli. It condemned the attack, which it said diverted security forces from other responsibilities. It said it was examining reports about the death of the Palestinian. ...
Palestinians regularly accuse Israeli security forces of standing by and allowing groups of violent settlers to attack their houses and villages and the attacks have attracted increasing concern internationally.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the Gaza war started on 7 October and Israeli settlements there – considered illegal under international law – have also hit new records.
40K+ Palestinians Killed; US LAISSEZ-FAIRE Approach Will Hurt CEASE-FIRE Talks: Trita Parsi
New round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations begin without Hamas
A new round of negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the war in Gaza and preventing the fighting from escalating into a region-wide conflict got under way in Doha, as the death toll in the Palestinian territory reached a grim milestone of 40,000 people, according to local health authorities.
Mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt met an Israeli delegation in the Qatari capital on Thursday afternoon, with talks expected to continue into the next day. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, is not directly participating in the talks, meaning expectations of a breakthrough are low.
While Hamas and Israel agreed in principle last month to implement a three-phase plan publicly proposed by Joe Biden in May, both sides have since requested “amendments” and “clarifications”, leaving talks at an impasse. Gaps include the continuing presence of Israeli troops on the Gaza-Egypt border, the sequencing of a hostage release, and the return of civilians from southern to northern Gaza. ...
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been accused of sabotaging the talks for political gain, but reportedly expanded the negotiating team’s mandate before it flew to Doha on Thursday morning.
In a statement on the eve of the talks, Hamas reaffirmed its demands, including that negotiations should focus on implementing the Biden plan rather than allowing Israel to “stall for time”.
Gaza rubble likely to conceal untold horrors to swell 40,000 death toll
Dalia Hawas was 24 years old when an Israeli airstrike flattened the apartment building where she lived in February, burying the young mother with her 10-month-old daughter, Mona. They are not listed among Gaza’s war dead, because their bodies were trapped too deep beneath the rubble for rescue teams to reach them.
Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. Most of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or one in every 50 residents.
But even that figure does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses. “This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,” said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. “New procedures are being tested to include those who are missing or known to be under the rubble on the list of the dead, but they have not yet been approved.”
About 10,000 airstrike victims were thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams said, because there was little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them. ...
Another group of Palestinian war victims do not show up in the official count, which only registers those killed by bombs and bullets as war dead. ... “People who died due to indirect impacts of war, including diseases, starvation and the collapse of the healthcare system, are not included [in the war dead],” said Hams. “A committee will be formed to count these [victims], which will start work immediately after the end of the war.”
The REAL Hezbollah – With Lebanese Journalist Ghadi Francis
Support for War in Lebanon Grows Among Israeli Officials
There is growing support among Israeli officials to launch an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The report comes as Israel is anticipating a major response from Hezbollah to the assassination of Fuad Shukr, a high-level Hezbollah military commander who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on July 30.
While the Israeli military and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since Shukr’s killing, Hezbollah has not escalated things beyond the rocket and drone attacks it’s been launching since October 2023.
Current and former Israeli officials told the Journal that an escalation from Hezbollah could be the pretext for Israel to launch a full-blown war in Lebanon. One senior Israeli official said a major Hezbollah attack could “lead to an Israeli attack that will lead to a new reality on the northern border.”
Mark Sleboda: Putin drops bombshell on NATO - Ukraine's Kursk Offensive Collapses
Biden Says US in ‘Constant Contact’ With Ukraine About Kursk Offensive
President Biden said on Tuesday that he was in “constant contact” with the Ukrainians about the invasion of Russia’s Kursk Oblast, signaling deep US involvement in the invasion of Russia.
“I’ve spoken with my staff on a regular basis probably every four or five hours for the last six or eight days,” Biden told reporters when asked about the fighting in Kursk. ...
A US-backed invasion of Russia marks a significant escalation of the proxy war and risks a major response from Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the assault on Ukraine’s Western backers, saying on Monday, “The West is waging war against us using Ukrainians.”
Kursk information war. Donbass reality
Russia’s Parliamentary Left Calls for Assassination of Zelensky and His Cabinet
In a statement from Sergey Mironov, the leader of the Just Russia – For Truth Party, representing the socialist left in the Russian state Duma or parliament, the veteran politician said that in response to strikes on the Zaporozhskaya Nuclear Power Plant, “it is necessary to eliminate with pinpoint strikes the terrorist leaders in Kiev”.
“The attacks on the Zaporozhskaya NPP should be regarded as an attempt to use weapons of mass destruction against Russia,” Mironov said, arguing this gives the Federation every right to return fire with nuclear weapons. “If the Kiev regime and its masters continue nuclear escalation, then this can be regarded as the use or readiness to use weapons of mass destruction against Russia”.
He concluded his statement by noting it’s not necessary to use nuclear bombs, but rather simply to assassinate those responsible for escalating to the brink of their use.
The statement captures the pressure that Vladimir Putin is under from multiple sides of his government to “take the gloves off,” to use Western parlance, and move to total war.
Has the Mystery of the Nord Stream Pipeline Bombing Been Solved? Ukrainian Suspect Flees Arrest
Who will be Japan’s next PM? Ruling LDP set to begin ‘especially chaotic’ party election
After a week in which Japan’s citizens braced themselves for a possible megaquake, the biggest seismic shift came from its political epicentre, as the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, announced his decision to step down next month.
His three years in office will end in late September when his ruling Liberal Democratic party [LDP] selects a new president, who is assured of being approved as Japan’s next prime minister in the LDP-controlled parliament. Kishida’s decision paved the way for one of the most unpredictable contests for the LDP presidency in recent years.
“By stepping out of the race, Kishida has cleared the way for an especially chaotic LDP election, turning what was already looking like a competitive race with a vulnerable incumbent into a free-for-all with numerous plausible contenders but no obvious favourite,” said Tobias Harris, founder of the Japan Foresight political risk advisory firm.
The list of likely successors includes party insiders, maverick ministers and, unusually for Japan, two MPs under the age of 50. The potential inclusion of two women in the race raises the prospect – albeit an unlikely one at this stage – that the country will appoint its first female prime minister. ...
Kishida’s withdrawal from the race has been attributed to the fallout from a string of scandals that have blighted much of his premiership: revelations about his party’s ties to the Unification church in the wake of Shinzo Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and, more recently, public anger over a fundraising scandal that spelled the beginning of the end of his time in office.
Congressional Candidate TAKES ON AIPAC: Jen Perelman Vs. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
‘We should have better answers by now’: climate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating
In a remarkably candid essay in the journal Nature this March, one of the world’s top climate scientists posited the alarming possibility that global heating may be moving beyond the ability of experts to predict what happens next.
“The 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap perhaps for the first time since about 40 years ago, when satellite data began offering modellers an unparalleled, real-time view of Earth’s climate system,” wrote Gavin Schmidt, a British scientist and the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
If this anomaly does not stabilise by August, he said, it could imply “that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated”.
Many in the science and environment community read these words with alarm. Was the leap in temperatures over the past 13 months, which has exceeded the global heating forecasts of experts, a sign of a systemic shift, or just a temporary anomaly? If the world was warming even faster than scientists thought it would, seemingly jumping years ahead of predictions, would that mean even more crucial decades of action had been lost?
With August now here, Schmidt is a fraction less disturbed. He said the situation remains unclear, but the broader global heating trends are starting to move back in the direction of forecasts. “What I am thinking now is we aren’t that far off from expectations. If we maintain this for the next couple of months then we can say what happened in late 2023 was more ‘blippish’ than systematic. But it is still too early to call it,” he said. “I am slightly less worried, but still humbled that we can’t explain it.” In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Schmidt, said records were beaten last year by a surprising margin and predicts 2024 is also likely to set a new peak, though the trend may nudge closer towards expectations.
Revealed: Shell oil non-profit donated to anti-climate groups behind Project 2025
A US foundation associated with the oil company Shell has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to religious right and conservative organizations, many of which deny that climate change is a crisis, tax records reveal.
Fourteen of those groups are on the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint proposing radical changes to the federal government, including severely limiting the Environment Protection Agency.
Shell USA Company Foundation sent $544,010 between 2013 and 2022 to organizations that broadly share an agenda of building conservative power, including advocating against LGBTQ+ rights, restricting access to abortions, creating school lesson plans that downplay climate change and drafting a suite of policies aimed at overhauling the federal government.
Donees include the Heartland Institute, a longtime purveyor of climate disinformation, which published a video on YouTube in May stating incorrectly that “the scientific data continue to show there is no climate crisis”. Other groups that have received donations include the American Family Association, which claims that the “climate change agenda is an attack on God’s creation”, as well as the Heritage Foundation, the lead organization behind Project 2025.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo
Is the Ukraine War Spilling Into Africa?
FT Reports A Ukrainian Warcrime
Maurice Williams singer and founder of the Zodiacs dies aged 86
A Little Night Music
A.C. Reed,Stevie Ray Vaughan - These Blues Is Killing Me
A. C. Reed - That ain’t right
A.C. Reed & Albert Collins - I Got Mad
A C Reed And His Spark Plugs – Howlin' For My Darlin'
A. C. Reed - I Got Money To Burn
A. C. Reed - She's Fine
A.C. Reed - The Things I Want You To Do
A.C. Reed & Earl Hooker - Crying Blues
A.C. Reed - My Baby's Been Cheating
A.C. Reed And His Spark Plugs – Things That Get Me Off
A C Reed - Roadhouse Blues
Comments
Ukraine is retreating on all fronts in the direction of
Moscow. LOL
They dropped two bridges today making it very difficult for the Russians to supply retaking the areas Ukraine has, well, liberated. Also makes another 700km adjacent to their liberated zone to the north vulnerable, if they want that too. One bridge via some sort of big rocket or something, another via a sapper team with a lot of plastic.
LOL...
did they drop the bridges behind their supply lines or forward?
Are you insinuating that the Russians have no way of re-supplying their troops? What about by air, or do the Ukrainians have air superiority over Russian territory? They don't even have air superiority over their own country.
LOL, what a tool you are.
my guess
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
ouch
that’s
gonna leave a mark. . .why do you love Putin?
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
evening ban nock...
as i understand it, the ukronazis are blowing up the bridges in order to make civilian escape difficult and take ordinary russians hostage in order to increase ukronazi bargaining leverage.
what a nice bunch of nazis.
Gawd’s chosen people
.
I think this is a splendid idea.
Time to Treat Zionists Like Pedophiles... they earned it
Thou Shalt Not Commit Genocide
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
chris hedges' article is excellent, as usual. the title gives me the thought that i wonder if anybody has asked bibi and his ziorapist buddies what part of "thou shalt not kill" they don't understand.
Yep….
I don’t think that gawd’s chosen people were given an exemption from the 10 commandments. But since they think they are above international law I guess they think they are above gawd’s tools.
On that note Biden has been a piss poor catholic. He’s spent his life taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Hopefully someone will hack the pearly gates when Bibi and Biden arrive there. I want to see the look on their faces when sentences are passed.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
10 commandments only apply to their own, not to
outsiders.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The Ranak video was excellent
.
He brought up a good point that Israel has always been like they are now starting with the Nakba just 3 after the Holocaust and the signing of the genocide convention.I’ll listen to it again tomorrow. Thanks!
But what happened to the judge? I couldn’t find any recent videos from today.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
heh...
i don't know what happened to the judge today. usually he has a bunch of videos up on fridays including the weekly intel wrapup with ray mcgovern and larry johnson.
there's still nothing new up for today.
Larry usually posts it on his site
But it’s not there either unless he will post it tomorrow.
He has one with Jacque Baud that was interesting.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
It was ominous
that I couldn't bring up today's Napolitano videos, but I was able to find the audio as podcasts, including this one:
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/ad2xe-23018a/Judging-Freedom-Podcast
Good evening Joe. Just back from a busy
afternoon and evning, so I'll just say have a great weekend
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
have a restful weekend!
Regarding that KH T-Shirt, was she speaking or babbling?
asking for a friend
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
heh...
i think that they clipped from an advertisement for single-serving salad packs.
Very funny el
"was she speaking or babbling"
Sean Foo on a rant about the Nord Stream.
.
Some of the stuff that's been done by the West lately was completely unthinkable just two years ago.
✅ Timestamps & Chapters:
0:00 Nord Stream Saga Big Update
2:18 Goodbye To Cheap Russian Gas
6:08 Japan's Kishida Shock Resignation
9:20 US Crazy Price Controls Plan
13:08 Kamalanomics Nightmare
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
evening pluto...
thanks for the video. i personally don't believe the enhanced "ukraine did it" (over elensky's objections) nordstream narrative. it sounds like total bs to me.
i agree with the fellow that people vote their wallets and the current crop of "leaders" understand that the clock is running out on them.
i am not so sure that he's correct about the catastrophic nature of price controls. i am old enough to remember richard nixon's wage and price controls that (at least as i remember it) did manage to halt the growing pace of inflation. what should have followed that was a reorienting of our economy and the reining in of the rentier class. that of course didn't happen and, well, we still have the problem of greedy rich bastards destroying the economy.
Thanks Pluto
That was a very enlightening analysis.
Glad you liked it.
He's a different sort of reporter, with a pragmatic and flat perspective. I don't think he has a political bias. I just think politics is now the air we breathe. Thus, politics is losing meaning. What purpose does it serve other than fund raising? I also love the way he pronounces "China."
I wonder if he's an AI.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
Since I can barely identify trolls,
I wouldnt have any clue whether he's AI ; ).
...
Somehow his lyrical accent sounds a little like an Indian one to me.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Great sounds man, A.C. knew how to blow that thing! I seem to recall maybe Bobby Keys dropping his name as an influence. Most excellent stuff man!
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that Shell gives money to the Heartland Institute and Heritage Foundation who then put out anti-climate science 'news'.
Thanks for all the great sounds man! Have a great weekend.
happy trails all!
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
evening dystopian...
yep, you gotta wonder what it is that puts fundamentalist conservatives and fossil fuels together. hell, half of those fundies don't even believe in jesus lizards.
have a great weekend!
Yep it’s just like this
Imagine if there was a mass shooting in a major US city.
Now imagine that instead of stopping the shooter, the US government started sending him boxes of ammunition.
Now imagine instead of going on for a few minutes, the mass shooting rampage went on for ten months.
Now imagine that instead of being treated like an earth-shattering tragedy in mass media headlines, people just kind of got used to it and it sort of faded into the background of mainstream news reporting.
Now imagine the mass media started reporting on the mass shooting as though the mass shooter is only defending himself, and reporting on casualties of the rampage using passive-language headlines which don't attribute the killings to the shooter.
Now imagine there was a presidential race, and everybody started talking about which candidate is best qualified to keep giving ammunition to the shooter.
It's just like that.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt