The Evening Blues - 9-5-24



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Tiny Powell

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features West coast blues and gospel singer Tiny Powell. Enjoy!

Tiny Powell - Get My Hat

"Republicans called Obama a communist, when all his worst actions as president were continuations and expansions of Bush’s policies. Democrats called Trump a Nazi when his worst acts were continuations and expansions of Obama’s policies. Now we’re back to calling Harris a communist, while she supports a genocide that Republicans also support.

Calling Kamala Harris a communist isn’t wrong because it degrades Harris, it’s wrong because it degrades communism."

-- Caitlin Johnstone


News and Opinion

Calling Harris A Communist Is An Insult To Communism

Does anyone actually believe Harris would win if she committed to an arms embargo on Israel? Or is that just something people are pretending to believe to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians? Because I think the system is plainly much more corrupt than this.

If Harris pledged to stop sending weapons to Israel unless it ended its assault on Gaza, you’d see the entire pro-Israel faction and the entire military-industrial complex throw all its funding and all its narrative control into supporting Donald Trump. Wealthy donors who’d been lifelong Democrats would pivot Republican for this election. It would suddenly become a mainstream narrative that Harris hates Jews and loves terrorists. A large segment of the mass media would play along. Op-eds would be churned out by liberal Zionist Jews claiming they must now “reluctantly” vote Trump because Kamala Harris wants to kill them.

Does anyone honestly believe Harris could win an election in an information environment like that? Maybe she could, but it would be a lot harder than just continuing to toe the imperial line like she always has. Obviously a lot of people would switch to supporting Harris if she pledged an arms embargo, but would there be enough of them to compensate for all the voters she’d lose in a hysterical all-consuming information op claiming that she’s a closet Nazi? It wasn’t enough when this was done to Jeremy Corbyn.

Harris is a monster, and she’d happily strangle every Palestinian child to death with her own bare hands if it would win her the presidency. But she’s not the problem. She’s just one person. She’s just playing the tune and dancing the dance you need to in order to win a presidential election in the United States. If it wasn’t her it’d be some other monster playing the same tune and dancing the same dance. The real problem is a profoundly corrupt system which promotes the most evil agendas on earth and elevates the very worst people in society to positions of power and influence to ensure the facilitation of those agendas.

Harris isn’t the cause of Washington’s depravity, she’s a symptom of it, just like Trump, and just like Biden. Really the problem is the US empire itself, and all the corrupt mechanisms that keep its gears turning. The slaughter will continue, in one form or another, until the imperial machine is brought down.

Protests in Israel grow as war drags on

UN’s Gaza polio vaccination campaign reaches 189,000 children in first phase

The United Nations children’s agency has said that a polio vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 640,000 children in Gaza is surpassing expectations at the end of the first phase of the programme.

Describing the campaign as a “rare bright spot” in almost 11 months of war, Unicef said that 189,000 children had been reached so far as more than 500 teams were deployed across central Gaza this week.

It said Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign, with UN agencies involved now hoping to expand the campaign to the harder-hit north and south of the territory for the next two phases. ...

The vaccinations were being undertaken even as fighting continued in Gaza, with the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry saying 42 people had been killed over the past 24 hours and 40,861 people since the war began.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson : Netanyahu Deceives US Into War

Meta’s moderation board backs decision to allow ‘from the river to the sea’ in posts

Meta’s content moderation board has backed the company’s decision to allow Facebook posts containing the phrase “From the River to the Sea” after ruling that a blanket ban on the pro-Palestine slogan would hinder free speech.

The Oversight Board reviewed three cases involving Facebook posts that featured “From the River to the Sea” and found they did not break Meta’s rules involving restrictions on hate speech and incitement, while an outright ban on the phrase would interfere with political speech in “unacceptable ways”.

In a decision backed by a majority of its members, the board said the content showed solidarity with Palestinians but did not call for violence or exclusion and upheld Meta’s original decision to keep the content on Facebook.

The board, whose decisions on content are binding, said the phrase has multiple meanings and is used “in various ways and with different intentions”. While it could be seen as encouraging antisemitism and the elimination of Israel, the board said, it is also used as a call for solidarity with Palestinians

“The standalone phrase cannot be understood as a call to violence against a group based on their protected characteristics, as advocating for the exclusion of a particular group, or of supporting a designated entity – Hamas,” said the ruling. A majority of the board said use of the phrase by Hamas – which is barred from Meta platforms and is designated a terrorist group by the UK and the US – does not make the phrase inherently violent or hateful.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Russia/China and the Middle East

Groups Say Biden's Own Policy Requires US to Stop Arming Israel

As U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was telling reporters on Tuesday that assessments regarding whether Israel is abiding by international humanitarian law in Gaza are ongoing, more than two dozen rights groups were telling the Biden administration that it need look no further than its own memo released months ago to see that the U.S. must end its support for the Israeli military.

Groups including Amnesty International, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, and Refugees International were among 25 organizations that signed a letter sent Tuesday to President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee; and their foreign policy advisers. The letter was sent a day after the British government announced it was suspending 30 arms export licenses for Israel, citing "a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

The letter pointed out that it's been nearly four months since the administration released its report on May 10 on National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which "concluded that U.S.-provided arms had likely been used by Israeli security forces in manners 'inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations.'"

NSM-20, issued in February, required Secretary of State Antony Blinken to confirm that countries using U.S. weapons—including Israel, which has received more than 100 military transfers from the U.S. since last October—are not blocking U.S. humanitarian aid and are using the weapons in accordance with international law.

The groups on Tuesday noted that despite the finding in the May 10 report, the administration claimed that Israel's assurances that it had not used U.S. weapons in strikes that violated international law were "credible and reliable," and that the U.S. would not suspend weapons transfers at that time.

The claim that Israel's assurances were credible was in direct opposition to a leaked internal memo in which four State Department officials said they had "serious concern over non-compliance" with international law.

The official assessment released in May also "stood in stark contrast to the realities in Gaza and across occupied Palestine and appeared to blatantly disregard both the requirements of U.S. law and policy and extensive documentation submitted by human rights and humanitarian organizations and independent experts," reads the new letter, citing reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups that detailed how U.S. weapons have been used in attacks that killed civilians and could constitute war crimes.

Moreover, the letter states, "the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has only worsened" since the NSM-20 report, but the U.S. policy of providing "virtually unconditional military support for the Israeli government continues."

The letter notes that the U.S. continues to support the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) despite continued restrictions on aid flowing into Gaza by Israel, with the level of aid entering Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing dropping by more than 80% over the past three months.

"As a result of the compounding access and delivery challenges, malnutrition and the perpetual risk of famine remains rampant across Gaza," wrote the groups. "Since your May 10 report, the U.N. estimates a 300% increase in acute malnutrition in Northern Gaza, while the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading analyst on food insecurity, found in June that all of Gaza is at high risk of famine and 96% of the population is currently food insecure."

Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, noted that the Biden administration's continued military support for Israel as famine takes hold of Gaza may violate the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act—Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.


The Biden administration's continued support for the IDF sends "a political signal of unconditional support for Israel's conduct," said Shiel. "The U.S. has the leverage to bring about a cease-fire—but chooses not to use it."

The letter on Tuesday also pointed to numerous reports that U.S.-made weapons have been used by Israel in attacks that killed civilians since May 10, including:

  • A strike that used U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs on a camp for internally displaced people in west Rafah on May 26, killing at least 36 people, including six children;
  • A July 9 airstrike on a school that killed at least 27 people and used an American small-diameter bomb; and
  • An August 10 attack on a school in Gaza City that was being used as a shelter, which killed 93 people using a U.S. small-diameter bomb.
  • "These developments should compel the United States to suspend arms transfers to the Israeli government under the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits arms transfers when 'the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients' commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit' serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law," wrote the groups.

    The organizations urged "an immediate, public review of Israel's compliance with NSM-20, accounting for the numerous apparent violations of international law and restrictions on humanitarian aid documented by civil society and the media since May 10 and throughout the NSM-20 reporting period."

    As U.S. support continues, said the groups, "the risk of United States' and U.S. officials' complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to U.S. arms transfers has only increased."

    "We urgently call upon your administration to change its approach and suspend weapons transfers to Israel, which continue to cause devastating harm and risk making the United States complicit in war crimes," they wrote. "International and U.S. law, as well as your administration's policies including NSM-20, require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government."

    Popular Israeli Podcasters Crave Button to Press That Would 'Erase Every Single Living Being in Gaza'

    A clip from an English-language Israeli podcast showing hosts Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein discussing the idea of eradicating all Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza has gone viral online.

    In an episode of Two Nice Jewish Boys, which aired three weeks ago, host Weinstein said: “If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second.”

    He claimed that “most Israelis” would do the same.

    Meningher added that they would also want to wipe out Palestinians in “the territories.”

    “Because that’s the reality we live in, it’s us or them, and it has to be them,” Weinstein said.

    He added that Israelis want “full-scale war.”

    “Full-scale war wouldn’t mean that we’re just in Gaza,” he added. “And it also wouldn’t mean what we’re doing in Gaza, because in Gaza, maybe there’s mass destruction but there's not massive death.”

    “Forgive us if we don’t give a shit if everybody there dies. It’s just the way we feel. It’s just the way Israelis feel,” Weinstein said.


    In a later episode, the two discussed what they deemed to be Israel’s failures in its ongoing war on Gaza, with Weinstein saying that the government should stop “trying to get international acceptance” and “instill sovereignty over and annex the West Bank, Gaza… make it all Israel.”

    Weinstein added that Israel’s “50-year plan” should involve conquering Lebanon. He also referred to Hezbollah and its allies as “goat fuckers.”

    On the UN-led polio vaccination program currently underway in Gaza, Meningher said: “It’s unclear to me, why do we give this humanitarian relief when our hostages never saw a Red Cross?”

    “The baby that’s born in Gaza is technically innocent, I could give zero fucks, I don’t care if he gets polio,” Weinstein said.

    The clip of Weinstein and Meningher lauding the idea of all five million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank being wiped out has drawn fierce criticism online.

    “Radio Rwanda in full effect here. This is deeply disturbing,” journalist Samira Mohyedeen wrote on X, referring to the broadcasts that incited genocide against the Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

    CBC journalist Evan Dyer shared the clip on X, pointing to Meningher’s former media roles in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last five political campaigns.

    “This is not a fringe show or fringe people… the show is as mainstream as it gets,” Dyer wrote, citing a review of the podcast by Times of Israelthat billed it as a “platform for free and open conversations.”

    Journalist Najat Abdi also shared the video on X, saying that she did so “because there will come a time where animals like @EytanWeinstein will deny saying this, particularly when they will be held legally accountable for the incitement of genocide”.

    “Platforms like @YouTube will also have to answer to this,” Abdi added.

    In response, the podcast posted a gif of a finger pressing a red button.

    Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Weighs Divestment From Companies Complicit in Israeli Crimes

    Norway's $1.76 trillion sovereign wealth fund—the world's largest—could soon be forced to divest from companies including linchpins of the U.S. military-industrial complex due to updated ethics standards for businesses complicit in Israeli human rights violations in occupied Palestine.

    Reuters reported Wednesday that the Government Pension Fund Global Council of Ethics informed the Norwegian Ministry of Finance on August 30 that it "believes the ethical guidelines provide a basis for excluding a few more companies" to its divestment list, "in addition to those already excluded."

    The ethics council has been investigating whether to blacklist more companies ever since Israel began its bombardment, siege, and invasion of Gaza 334 days ago in response to the Hamas-led October 7 attack. ...

    Also under the council's consideration is Israel's conduct in the illegally occupied West Bank, where occupation forces have killed hundreds more Palestinians and settlers have carried out deadly pogroms under the protection—and sometimes with the participation—of Israel Defense Forces troops.

    The fund's ethics rules—which are made by Norway's parliament, the Storting—were updated partly due to the ICJ's July advisory opinion that Israel's 57-year occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must immediately end.

    Companies under consideration include U.S.-based RTX (formerly Raytheon), General Electric, and General Dynamics.

    Under its previous policy, the fund divested from nine companies operating in the occupied West Bank. Targeted businesses build homes and roads in illegal Israeli settler colonies, as well as provide surveillance systems for the Israeli separation wall, often called the "apartheid wall," along the Green Line boundary and inside parts of the West Bank.

    In June, another Norwegian pension fund, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), divested its nearly $70 million stake in Texas-based Caterpillar, citing the use of its bulldozers in ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

    "For a long time, Caterpillar has supplied bulldozers and other equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure to clear the way for Israeli settlements," KLP head of responsible investments Kiran Aziz said at the time. "It has also been alleged that the company's equipment is being used by the Israeli Defence Forces in connection with its military campaign in Gaza."

    Warning of ‘Genocidal Violence’ on the West Bank

    An independent U.N. expert warns that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions maintain support for Israel’s military, which stands accused of grave war crimes.

    Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”

    “The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

    Albanese’s statement came as the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week on Monday. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed during the series of military raids, according to Al Jazeera, including at least five children.

    “Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said Tuesday. “The longstanding impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group.”

    “The international community, made of both states and non-state actors, including companies and financial institutions, must do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and ultimately end Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory,” Albanese added.

    Defense for Children International–Palestine noted Monday that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” have “stormed” the West Bank city of Jenin over the past week as “Israeli forces deployed across the targeted refugee camps, seizing Palestinian homes to use as military bases and stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings, subjecting their residents to field investigations.”

    “The military bulldozers began destroying the civil infrastructure in Jenin city and camp, which led to the destruction of the main water networks and power outage in several neighborhoods in Jenin and surrounding villages,” the group said. “Israeli forces besieged several hospitals in Jenin and impeded the movement of ambulances and paramedics.”

    Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

    Unlawful Israeli land seizures have also surged in the West Bank as settlers and soldiers wipe out entire Palestinian communities. The BBC reported Monday that, according to its own analysis, there are “currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year — more than in any previous year.”

    Israel’s multi-day attack on the West Bank that began last week has intensified fears that unless there’s a permanent cease-fire, the assault on Gaza could expand to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the Middle East.

    Max Blumenthal : Stealing a Jet and Applauding a Psychopath

    ‘Jenin Is Just the Beginning’: Israel Planning More Escalations in West Bank

    Israel is planning more significant escalations in the West Bank, and the Israeli military now considers the occupied territory the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza, Israel Hayom reported on Tuesday.

    Israeli security officials told the outlet that while the directive for the West Bank is in its initial stages and that changes on the ground will take time, a new series of operations across the territory are imminent.

    Aaron Maté - Zelensky(y) - and Long Range Missiles

    Macron's Refusal To Accept Election Results With French Politics Analyst Arnaud Bertrand

    Canada: New Democratic party withdraws support for Trudeau’s Liberals

    Canada’s New Democratic party says it has “ripped up” a key agreement with prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, sowing uncertainty into the country’s politics as party leaders brace for a possible election. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh made the surprise announcement on social media on Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trudeau of “caving” to corporate greed. “The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance from Canadians,” he said. ...

    “From workers, from retirees, from young people, from patients, from families – [Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre] will cut in order to give more to big corporations and wealthy CEOs,” said Singh. “The fact is, the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people. They cannot be change, they cannot restore the hope, they cannot stop the Conservatives. But we can.”

    Elon Musk’s Starlink backtracks to comply with Brazil’s ban on X

    Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked late on Tuesday and said it would accept and enforce a Brazilian supreme court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X, formerly Twitter. Previously, Starlink informally told the telecommunications regulator Anatel that it would not comply until Justice Alexandre de Moraes reversed course. Now, Starlink has said in a statement posted on X that it will heed de Moraes’s order despite him having frozen the company’s assets.

    “Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” the company statement said. “We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent order violate the Brazilian constitution.” ...

    De Moraes froze Starlink’s accounts last week as a means to compel it to cover X’s fines that already exceeded $3m, reasoning that the two companies are part of the same economic group. Starlink filed an appeal, its law firm Veirano told the Associated Press on 30 August, but has declined to comment further in the days since.

    Days later, the justice ordered the suspension of X over the social media company’s refusal to name a local legal representative, as required in order to receive notifications of court decisions and swiftly take any requisite action – particularly, in X’s case, the takedown of accounts. A supreme court panel unanimously upheld the block on Monday, undermining efforts by Musk and his supporters to cast the justice as an authoritarian renegade intent on censoring political speech in Brazil. ...

    X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to block users – mostly far-right activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy and allies of the former president Jair Bolsonaro – and has alleged that de Moraes wants an in-country legal representative so that Brazilian authorities can exert leverage over the company by having someone to arrest.



    the horse race



    No word yet about Israeli influence operations ...

    Russia accused of trying to influence US voters through online campaign

    The Biden administration has accused Russia of carrying out a sustained disinformation campaign targeted at American voters and meant to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.

    In its most direct accusation of election meddling to date, the US government accused the state-financed RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and other Russian state-backed media of spearheading a covert campaign of disinformation promoting pro-Kremlin views laundered through their online and television networks.

    The treasury department also sanctioned the RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and nine other employees of the network over the campaign of disinformation around the elections. Simonyan is a “central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts” the department said.

    It also accused RT of spending millions of dollars to “recruit unwitting American influencers” in order to spread a message meant to undermine confidence in the US elections system and US foreign policy goals, including support for Ukraine. ...

    “We now know that RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has moved beyond being simply a media organisation,” the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We know that RT has contracted with a private company to pay unwitting Americans millions of dollars to carry the Kremlin’s message to influence the US elections and undermine democracy.”

    DOJ: Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Took MILLIONS From Russian Cutouts

    Trump-backed Senate candidate caught on tape disparaging Native Americans

    A Republican candidate in a race that could decide control of the US Senate made disparaging comments about Native Americans at campaign fundraising events, according to recordings disclosed in local media.

    Tim Sheehy, a wealthy cattle rancher who has been endorsed by Donald Trump in his bid to become senator for Montana, made the remarks repeatedly at a series of gatherings where he boasted of cultivating ties and bonding with members of the Crow Reservation, the official home of the Indigenous Crow tribe.

    In one clip, Sheehy says he ropes and brands cattle with Crow members and calls it “a great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8am”. In another recording, he says: “ I was actually at the Crow Res and if you want a tough crowd … you miss that double heel shot, there’s a Coors Light can on the side of your head.”

    The references to a Coors Light can being thrown were recorded at three different gatherings, according to the Char-Koosta News, which covers the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. On one occasion, Sheehy says the flying cans are a sign of whether Crow members “like you or not”. Each time, the comments were greeted by audience laughter, according to the recordings. ...

    Revelation of his comments could undermine his efforts. Indigenous tribes make up 6% of the population of Montana, which is home to seven reservations and 12 tribes. Native groups have accused both Democrats and Republicans of ignoring the basic needs of reservations.



    the evening greens


    Air pollution harms male fertility while women face similar risk from noise, study finds

    Air pollution is associated with a higher infertility risk in men, while noise pollution is associated with a higher risk of infertility in women, a study has found.

    The study, which has been peer-reviewed and published in the BMJ, looked at whether long-term exposure to road traffic noise and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a particular form of air pollution, was associated with a higher risk of infertility in men and women. ...

    Across the 18-year period, infertility was diagnosed in 16,172 men and 22,672 women, and after adjusting for factors such as income, education level and occupation, it was found that exposure to levels of PM2.5 that were 2.9 micrograms per cubic metre higher than average over five years was associated with a 24% increased risk of infertility in men aged 30 to 45.

    Although PM2.5 was not associated with infertility in women, exposure to levels of road traffic noise that were 10.2 decibels higher than average over five years was associated with a 14% increased risk of infertility among women over 35, while for women aged between 30 and 35 noise was not associated with infertility.

    Road traffic noise was associated with a small increased risk of male infertility for those aged between 37 and 45, but not those aged between 30 and 37.

    Two loggers shot dead with arrows in clash with Indigenous group in Peruvian Amazon

    At least two loggers have been shot dead with arrows, one has been injured and two more are missing after a confrontation with members of the “uncontacted” Mashco Piro people in the Peruvian Amazon, according to Indigenous activists who have criticised the government for failing to formally recognise and protect all of the isolated people’s territory.

    The deadly attack, which occurred last Thursday but was made known only this week, took place a day before the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) suspended for eight months the sustainability certification of a logging company that campaigners have accused of encroaching on the fiercely territorial Indigenous group’s ancestral land.

    Eusebio Ríos, the vice-president of the regional Indigenous federation Fenamad, which makes up 39 Indigenous groups in Peru’s Madre de Dios and Cusco regions, said on Tuesday: “There are people wounded, dead, missing – we don’t know what’s happening or what has happened.” He called for timber workers to be evacuated from the area after the confrontation, and added: “Fenamad has been demanding for a long time that this territory be properly protected for uncontacted peoples.”

    The attack happened near the Pariamanu River in Madre de Dios province in an area of the Mashco Piro’s ancestral territory that is now within a logging concession. It follows a similar attack in August in the same area, in which at least one logger was wounded and another incident in 2022, when a logger was killed by arrows and another was injured.

    Caroline Pearce, the executive director of Survival International, said: “This is a tragedy that was entirely avoidable. The Peruvian authorities have known for years that this area that they chose to sell off for logging was actually the Mashco Piro’s territory.


    Also of Interest

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

    Ray McGovern: Conditioning Americans for War With Russia

    Meta’s Role in Israel’s Digital Proxy War on The Cradle

    UK suspension of Israeli arms contracts a guilty fraud

    The Brutal Wish of a Failed Israeli Diplomat

    Israel Official: Without US Aid, Israel Couldn’t Sustain Gaza Operations for More Than a Few Months

    ‘Our Soul Is Here’

    UN nuclear head says discussed Kursk plant safety with Zelensky

    Types Of Civilization Collapse

    AOC and the Desperate Democrats Attempt to Undermine the Greens

    Beluga whale alleged to be Russian ‘spy’ was shot, animal rights groups say

    Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy theory. But maybe our phones really are listening to us

    How U.S. College Administrators Are "Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests"

    RUSSISAGATE 2.0: DOJ Says Russian Memes Are BACK


    A Little Night Music

    Tiny Powell - Take Me With You

    Tiny Powell - My Time After Awhile

    Tiny Powell - Bossy Woman

    Tiny Powell - On The Blue Side

    Tiny Powell - Going Home

    Tiny Powell - Done Made It Over

    Tiny Powell w/The Paramount Gospel Singers - Working On The Building

    Tiny Powell w/The Paramount Gospel Singers - Breathe On Me

    The Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi w/Tiny Powell - In The Wilderness


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    Comments

    QMS's picture

    .
    .
    Quite a bit to absorb upstairs. The Judge / Max discussion was worthwhile.
    Highlighting the thievery of any other countries assets by the pirates of US
    may give one pause as to the validity of the moral 'high ground'
    the US mafia portrays. What a crock.

    Thanks for your efforts to keep us informed.

    up
    9 users have voted.

    question everything

    joe shikspack's picture

    @QMS

    heh, pirate biden has been at it in venezuela. ahoy!

    have a great evening!

    up
    5 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    .

    I’m sure that the media will ignore it because he’s supposed to have Trump in his pocket.

    https://www.rt.com/russia/603553-putin-endorses-kamala-harris/

    Putin told the audience that he admired the Democratic Party candidate’s “infectious laugh” and that he respected current President Joe Biden’s choice to endorse her as his successor.

    Epic trolling..infectious laugh….

    ETA more of his statement.

    "And if she is doing well, then … Trump introduced so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia, like no other president had ever introduced before him. And if Ms. Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from doing anything like that," he continued.

    Shitlibs have no idea Trump was so hard on Russia. Kinda weird thing to do for a Russian puppet.

    But speaking of election interference…

    IMG_6486.jpeg

    I’m betting that garland is busy writing up a report on how Israel actually does interfere with our elections at all levels. That’s what makes Russia gate so damn stupid!

    up
    9 users have voted.
    joe shikspack's picture

    @snoopydawg

    it appears that putin does have a sense of humor. his endorsement of kamala as "predictable" is the same as his endorsement of genocide joe.

    i'm sure garland will get around to investigating israel's influence operations. it's just going to take a little time... like forever.

    up
    8 users have voted.
    QMS's picture

    @joe shikspack
    .
    .
    is good ol' uncle samson. by pointing fingers at Iran and Russia
    instead of admitting they are rigging the process to begin with
    sorta indicates a form of deflection. Zion? oh no, they are the
    best buddies of the empire. Ha! China is next to be found guilty.
    Who buys this shite? Low information voters and the DC bubblers.

    up
    7 users have voted.

    question everything

    snoopydawg's picture

    @joe shikspack

    He reminds me of the other guy who had a tiny mustache…. And the damn seals are clapping in gleeful approval.

    up
    7 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    And picking up where it left off…

    So damn tired of Israel setting the rules for what is allowed in this country!

    A key rationale for quashing dissent is that anti-Israel protests make some Jewish students uncomfortable. But the purposes of college education shouldn’t include always making people feel comfortable. How comfortable should students be in a nation enabling mass murder in Gaza?

    What would we say about claims that students in the North with southern accents should not have been made uncomfortable by on-campus civil rights protests and denunciations of Jim Crow in the 1950s and 1960s? Or white students from South Africa, studying in the United States, made uncomfortable by anti-apartheid protests in the 1980s?

    This is what is so effing mind boggling:

    The Gaza death toll adds up to more than one Kristallnacht per day — for upwards of 333 days and counting, with no end in sight.

    Families of current Israelis went through hell and the world came together and said never again and yet it’s those families who are pushing for genocide now. Those 2 Jewish Boys' videos are still allowed on YouTube when anyone who says that Ukraine is full of neo Nazis get censored even though many mainstream media outlets have reported on them.

    In the UK you can openly call for genocide of Palestinians without any consequences, but if you support Palestinians or criticize Israel you get charged with terrorism.

    The world is going fcking mad.

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    joe shikspack's picture

    @snoopydawg

    it's like my quote from last night:

    "When Palestinians say they don’t feel safe they mean they’re afraid of being killed by 2000-pound bombs. When Zionists say they don’t feel safe they mean they’re afraid of experiencing the psychological discomfort of encountering protests against a genocide that they support."

    -- Caitlin Johnstone

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    snoopydawg's picture

    @joe shikspack

    I’m getting flack from pro genocide supporters who keep telling me that Hamas attacked Israel and all they need to do to end the war is to return the hostages.

    I ask them why Israel is killing Palestinians in the West Bank where there is no Hamas. Crickets.

    I think some of them are Israeli bots because I don’t recognize their names, but there are a few who stick to that line and jump me every time I say something pro Palestinian. Wish I could come up with a whitty comeback.

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    https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4864688-hunter-biden-pleads...

    Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all nine federal tax charges he faced, staving off his second criminal trial this year just before it was set to begin, according to The Associated Press.

    In a stunning and last-minute twist, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi accepted the plea change on the same day jury selection was scheduled to get underway in Los Angeles federal court. Biden admitted to withholding at least $1.4 million in taxes over four years in the throes of his addiction to cocaine, spending it instead on a lavish lifestyle.

    Biden initially offered an arrangement called an “Alford plea,” — where he would formally admit guilt while still maintaining his innocence and accept the judge’s eventual sentence — but prosecutors forcefully objected, prompting the traditional guilty plea.

    Biden already faces up to 25 years behind bars in the gun case and is set to be sentenced on Nov. 13.

    His tax case sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16. Those charges carry up to 17 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines will likely suggest a shorter sentence.

    President Biden has repeatedly vowed not to pardon his son, promising after the gun conviction that he would “continue to respect the judicial process.”

    Asked again Thursday by The Associated Press if the president would pardon his son, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Still no.”

    You can expect to see Genocide Joe to pardon his son during his last days as president

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    joe shikspack's picture

    @humphrey

    i'm sure that genocide joe will once again ask the doj to lean on the judge and prosecutors to see if he can get hunter off easy before resorting to pardoning him.

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    snoopydawg's picture

    @humphrey

    Hunter wants to plead guilty under the Alford….something which means that he says that he is not guilty. The prosecution is asking the judge not to accept his plea.

    Apparently the plan is for Biden to pardon him and he won’t be really convicted of pleading guilty.

    He still awaits sentencing for the gun charges that come with a 25 year sentence. And no charges for not registering under FARA which he received millions for working for other countries and Joe gets to skate because he’s not competent to go to trial.

    I don’t understand why republicans let Hillary off the hook for her pay to play which was much easier provable than what Biden did.

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    @snoopydawg

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/politics/hunter-biden-case/index.html

    Attempted ‘Alford plea’
    About 120 prospective jurors waited in a sequestered assembly room throughout the day, while prosecutors and Biden’s lawyers haggled in court over how to move forward.

    When the proceedings kicked off Thursday morning, Lowell stunned the courtroom by saying Biden wanted to enter an “Alford plea,” where he would maintain his innocence but acknowledge that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict. Under this maneuver, Biden would have skipped a trial and accepted the judge’s punishment at sentencing.

    But Biden’s team backed away from that plan after prosecutors raised forceful objections, and the judge said he’d want to study the matter and reconvene Friday morning.

    “I want to make something crystal clear – the United States opposes an Alford plea,” Wise said. He added, “Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty. He is not permitted to plead guilty on special terms.”

    >After a break in the proceedings, Lowell said Biden was willing to move forward with an “open plea” to unilaterally plead guilty to the offenses, because “enough is enough.

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    snoopydawg's picture

    Funny how Biden never tells us that Hamas accepted the ceasefire in May, but then Netanyahu changed the terms.

    I’m guessing that Bibi wants Trump to win because he knows that he won’t give Israel any back talk. But it shows how grateful Bibi is towards Biden for sending him over 50,000 lbs of bombs and covering Israel's ass at the UN. Biden should get some payback…

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    8 users have voted.
    joe shikspack's picture

    @humphrey

    i keep seeing stories about the yemenis attacking things in the red sea and the u.s. and uk being impotent to stop them.

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    8 users have voted.
    snoopydawg's picture

    @joe shikspack

    boats through the Red Sea 8 months after Yemen said not to. Insurance costs keep rising every time a ship gets attacked and yet the ships keep trying.

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    @snoopydawg good guy and bad guy is skewed by religion and $.
    Rights of humanity are thus constrained.
    Whatta world.

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    7 users have voted.

    "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981