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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Champion Jack Dupree

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans blues piano player Champion Jack Dupree. Enjoy!

^{Champion Jack Dupree - Chicken Shack Blues}

"I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns."

-- Woody Guthrie

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News and Opinion

The Incoming Trump Administration Is Already Filling Up With War Sluts

Donald Trump has named Republican congressman Mike Waltz as his next national security advisor, a position that was held by ultrahawk John Bolton in the last Trump administration.

Like Bolton, Waltz is a warmongering freak. Journalist Michael Tracey has been filling up his Twitter page since the announcement with examples of Waltz’s insane hawkishness, including his support for letting Ukraine use US weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, criticizing Biden for not escalating aggressively enough in Ukraine, advocating bombing Iran, opposing the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and naming Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and Venezuela as “on the march” against the United States toward global conflict. The mainstream press are calling Waltz a “China hawk”, but from the look of things he’s a war-horny hawk toward all the official enemies of the United States. 

Trump has also confirmed that Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik will be taking on the role of US ambassador to the UN, a role previously held by warmonger Nikki Haley in the last Trump administration. Again, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the old hawk and the new one.

Stefanik is best known for her congressional efforts to stomp out free speech on college campuses, making a lie of Trump’s lip service to the importance of First Amendment rights. As explained by Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp, she’s a hawkish swamp monster whose political career was primed in some of the most odious neoconservative think tanks in Washington, and opposes placing any limits on US military support for Israel. Earlier this year Stefanik actually flew to Israel to give a speech before the Israeli Knesset vowing to help stop the “antisemitism” of protesters against Israel’s genocidal atrocities at American universities.

And now we’re getting reports throughout the mass media that deranged war slut Marco Rubio has been tapped as Trump’s new secretary of state. It’s really hard to imagine anyone worse for the role of Washington’s top diplomat than a warmonger who has spent his entire political career pushing for more wars, sanctions and slaughter at every opportunity.

And now Trump has reportedly picked Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. So far, this administration is even more hardcore interventionist than the original Trump Administration. Rubio is much more of a committed interventionist than Rex Tillerson, Trump's first Secretary of State

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 12, 2024

This should dash the hopes of Trump supporters everywhere that this time their guy really will end the wars and drain the swamp. Trump’s appointment of Iran hawk Brian Hook to help staff the State Department for the next administration and his rumored consideration of Mike Rogers for secretary of defense are likewise bad signs, as is Tucker Carlson’s claim that virulent China hawk Elbridge Colby is likely to play a role in the administration.

Trump’s anti-interventionist supporters loudly applauded the other day when he unexpectedly announced that Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley would not be playing a role in the next administration. In response to the announcement, libertarian comedian and podcaster Dave Smith said on Twitter that stopping Pompeo was not enough and that “we need maximum pressure to keep all neocons and war hawks out of the Trump administration.” In response to Smith’s post, Donald Trump Jr tweeted, “Agreed!!! I’m on it.”

When I saw this, I tweeted the following:

“Ignore their words and watch their actions. Been saying it for years, and I’m going to keep on saying it. Ignore their words, watch their actions. Talk, as they say, is cheap.”

Their actions are telling us a lot more than their words right now.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : US/Israel Stand Alone

Israel says ‘certain progress’ made in Lebanon ceasefire talks

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Monday that “certain progress” had been made on ceasefire talks in Lebanon, where Israel has been engaged in fighting Hezbollah for more than 13 months. “We will be ready to be there if we know, first of all, that Hezbollah is not on our border, is north of the Litani River, and that Hezbollah will not be able to arm with new weapons systems,” Saar said. He added that diplomatic efforts were taking place through US mediation, but that the lack of an enforcement mechanism in any future deal remained a stumbling block.

Israel’s stated objective in its ground invasion of south Lebanon was to enable the return of residents of north Israel, of whom tens of thousands have been displaced since Hezbollah began firing rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas on 8 October 2023. Israel has said that Hezbollah would need to retreat north of the Litani, 18 miles from its northern border, to ensure the security of north Israel.

Diplomatic efforts were not only confined to US channels, as Israel’s army radio reported that Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, visited Russia last week to discuss ways to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon. Saar said Russia could play a role in a ceasefire agreement by helping ensure that arms do not flow to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russian troops are present.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, also met a number of Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the crown prince of Kuwait, at the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on Monday.

Despite the reported progress on a ceasefire deal, Hezbollah has said that it had not seen any actual proposal come across its desk, nor does it expect to anytime soon.

Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel

The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, despite the US having issued a 30-day ultimatum last month threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies reaching the territory.

The ultimatum was delivered on 13 October, so will expire on Tuesday or Wednesday. It is unclear what measures Israel’s apparent failure to fulfil US demands will trigger, but they may include a temporary halt to the supply of some munitions or other military assistance.

Only 8,805 tonnes of food aid has crossed through Israeli checkpoints into the territory so far this month.

In an apparent last-minute concession on Monday, Israeli authorities announced an extension of the designated “humanitarian zone”, adding inland areas which could partially relieve intense overcrowding and allow some displaced people to move away from the coast as winter approaches.

However, Israel appears to have ignored most of the demands made in a letter sent jointly by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, on 13 October.

20+ Children Among Scores Killed by IDF Strikes in Gaza and Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes killed scores of Palestinians and Lebanese—including dozens of women and children—over the weekend as right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he and Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump "see eye to eye" on perceived threats posed by Iran.

A Sunday morning Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on the home of the Alloush family in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 33 Palestinians including at least 13 children and nine women, according to health and civil defense officials in the embattled coastal enclave.

Some sources said more than 40 people were killed in the attack. According to Gaza officials, more than 50 people—many of them forcibly displaced by Israel's 13-month onslaught—were sheltering in the Alloush home when it was bombed.

Witnesses to the strike's aftermath described a horrific scene of dozens of victims blown to bits.

"There was a very huge explosion," relative Abdullah al-Najjar told Agence France-Presse. "When we arrived here, all the bodies were torn apart."

In the massacre carried out by Israel in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, 43 Palestinian civilians lost their lives. Among those killed were 13 children.

Ali Alloush Abu Sobh, his wife, and their two daughters, Hanadi and Bisan

Sobah Ali Alloush, his wife, and children

Abdulqader Ali… https://t.co/Zt0yVwauhW pic.twitter.com/ShjtFY5YLp

— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) November 11, 2024

The IDF claimed the strike targeted unspecified "terrorist infrastructure" that "posed a threat" to its troops, and that "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians."

Israeli forces have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians during a monthlong operation in northern Gaza aimed at creating what one IDF general leading the campaign called a "cleansed space" from which residents have been forcibly expelled, possibly permanently.

IDF troops have destroyed much of the Jabalia camp and cut its residents off from humanitarian aid. As the IDF forces people to flee from Jabalia, its drones and snipers have targeted Palestinian civilians without regard for age or gender. Survivors have reported Israeli soldiers shooting people holding white flags, first responders, and journalists trying to document what many experts say is a genocide backed by U.S. military aid and diplomatic support.

Another Sunday morning IDF strike that targeted the al-Khour family home in Sabra, south of Gaza City, killed numerous Palestinians including Wael al-Khour, the director of the Palestinian Authority's Welfare Ministry in Gaza, his wife, three of their children, and three grandchildren, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 23 people including seven children were killed in a Sunday IDF airstrike on the village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.

"Under the rubble, there are only children, elderly men and women," said Raed Berro, a lawmaker from the political and paramilitary group Hezbollah who represents the district in the Lebanese Parliament.

Lebanese officials also said that more than a dozen paramedics and civil defense volunteers were killed by IDF strikes in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon on Saturday.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 3,186 people have been killed and over 14,000 others wounded by Israeli attacks on the country since October 2023. That's when Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in solidarity with Gaza after the Hamas-led attack and kidnappings prompted Israel's retaliatory assault that has left more than 156,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing.

The latest IDF strikes came amid a looming deadline this week imposed last month by the Biden administration for Israel to take "urgent and sustained" action to improve the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, where United Nations officials last week warned of imminent famine.

However, with the end of the Biden administration fast approaching, Netanyahu said Sunday that he has spoken three times with Trump and that he and the U.S. president-elect "see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its components," including Hamas and Hezbollah, which are backed by Tehran.

On Monday, Trump confirmed that he has tapped Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, last week called Stefanik a "strident genocide supporter," as she has advocated sending Israel as many U.S. weapons as it needs, without conditions, to ensure "total victory" in Gaza.

Matt Hoh : Can Trump Control Foreign Policy?

US Bombs ‘Iranian-Aligned’ Targets in Syria

The US military announced on Monday that it launched multiple strikes against “Iranian-aligned” targets in Syria, referring to Shia militias that are allied with Iran.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed in a press release that the strikes were launched in retaliation for attacks on its personnel in the region, although there have been no recent reports of any attacks that have damaged US bases or harmed US troops.

“Today, US CENTCOM forces conducted strikes against nine targets in two locations associated with Iranian groups in Syria in response to several attacks on US personnel in Syria over the last 24 hours,” CENTCOM said in a press release.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that four members of Iran-aligned Shia militias were killed and nine were wounded by airstrikes launched by the “International Coalition,” referring to the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria. The SOHR’s figures are not confirmed, and their casualty figures often change.

Pro-Israel campaigners protest against UN special rapporteur’s UK visit

Campaigners against antisemitism have held protests outside universities in London against a visit by the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Francesca Albanese, an international lawyer specialising in human rights and the Middle East, was taking part in an event at the London School of Economics and Political Science on Monday.

She recently published a report in which she alleged that Israel was not just committing war crimes or crimes against humanity in Gaza but a “genocide”, and suggested the UN should consider suspending Israel as a member state. ...

Protesters from the Campaign Against Antisemitism gathered outside the LSE on Monday where Albanese took part in “a conversation about international law and Palestine” hosted by the student union’s Grimshaw Club for international relations. ... Further protests were planned outside Soas University of London where Albanese was speaking later on Monday. A protest outside Queen Mary University of London where Albanese is due to speak on Tuesday was cancelled, however. ...

A Soas University of London spokesperson said: “Freedom of expression and academic freedom are fundamental to our existence. The increasing tendency of some political groups to demand that speakers they disagree with should be prevented from speaking is an approach we reject. We would only act to limit speech that breaks the laws, or advocates hate or violence.”

An LSE spokesperson said: “LSE is committed to providing an inclusive culture of equity, diversity and respect between individuals. Antisemitism and any other form of discrimination are completely unacceptable. “Free speech and freedom of expression underpins everything we do at LSE. Students, staff and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world, but this must be in a mutually considerate manner.”

Moscow: No Trump Putin Call, Slams MSM; Scholz Wants Putin Call, Russia Enters Kupiansk

California voters reject measure to ban forced prison labor

California voters have rejected a ballot measure to prohibit forced prison labor, in a major disappointment to advocates of criminal justice reform and many of the 90,000 people incarcerated in state prisons.

Proposition 6 would have amended the state’s constitution to ban involuntary servitude for people in prison. The proposition would instead have allowed people in prison to chose their jobs, with a related proposal that would have created voluntary work programs within the prison system.

California already prohibits slavery, but the state constitution has an exception allowing prisons to force people to work as a punishment for crime.

The state employs nearly 40,000 people in prison who do a variety of essential work, including fighting wildfires, janitorial work, construction and cleaning. Most earn wages of less than $0.75 (£0.58) an hour, and many say they depend on the funds to buy vital commissary supplies, including food. More than 65% of people imprisoned in California reported being forced to work, according to the ACLU, and the state profits from the extremely cheap labor.

As of Monday, while votes were still being counted, 53.8% of voters had rejected the measure, while 46.2% backed it. It had no formal opposition.

Wisconsin supreme court seems hostile to 1849 abortion ban in oral arguments

During heated oral arguments on Monday morning, the Wisconsin supreme court appeared poised to find an 1849 law banning most abortions cannot be enforced.

The legal status of abortion in Wisconsin has been contested since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and ended the right to abortion nationwide, triggering bans across the country – including in Wisconsin, where a 175-year-old ban immediately went into effect.

Democrats in Wisconsin have seized on abortion as a campaign issue, with Justice Janet Protasiewicz expressing her support for abortion rights and winning a seat on the court in spring 2023. Protasiewicz’s election to the court helped flip the ideological balance on the bench, which is now controlled by a narrow liberal majority.

It is highly unlikely the liberal-controlled court will uphold the ban.

Trump GOES FULL NEOCON With First Foreign Policy Pick

Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2024

Trump demands Senate allow him to circumvent hearings to appoint cabinet

Donald Trump has demanded that the three frontrunners to lead the Senate allow him to appoint officials to his new administration without confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, as a future Republican government began to take shape the week after his election victory.

In a demonstration of his political muscle, the US president-elect urged support for “recess appointments”, which allow the president to make appointments while the Senate is temporarily paused, and can be used to circumvent the confirmation process, which can result in appointments being delayed or blocked.

The demand amounted to a full-frontal intervention in this week’s GOP’s election for a new Senate leader to replace Mitch McConnell, the party’s longtime leader who is retiring. The three men tipped to lead the Senate – Rick Scott, John Thune and John Cornyn – all quickly agreed to Trump’s request. ...

Tom Homan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in his first presidency, was announced as a new “border czar”, spearheading his promised crackdown on immigration.

And Elise Stefanik – a representative from New York whose performance at Capitol Hill hearings on antisemitism led to the downfall of two Ivy League university presidents – was offered US ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump's New Chief Of Staff Is A LONG TIME Corporate Whore! w/ Lee Fang

"Hatemonger": Stephen Miller to Hold Key Post as Trump Pushes Mass Detention & Deportation

Trump to name immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy

Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will appoint immigration hardliner and close adviser, Stephen Miller, as his White House deputy chief of staff for policy.

Miller worked in the White House during the president-elect’s first administration, serving as a senior adviser to Trump and as director of speechwriting. He played a key role in developing several of Trump’s immigration policies, including the Muslim travel ban and the family separation policy.

Although Trump has not officially announced the appointment yet, CNN reported the news earlier on Monday, citing two sources familiar with the matter, and later on Monday, JD Vance appeared to confirm the report in a post on X, where he congratulated Miller.

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US progressives urge Democrats to back populist policies as party reels from loss

As shell-shocked Democrats try to understand why working-class Americans – once the cornerstone of their political base – chose a billionaire over them, progressives argue the path forward is to champion “popular and populist” economic policies.

Democratic recriminations have intensified in the nearly seven days since their devastating electoral losses, which may yet deliver a new era of unified Republican governance in Washington, after Donald Trump stormed to a second term while his party easily flipped the Senate and is on the verge of winning a majority in the House. Divisions have deepened, with progressives blaming the party’s embrace of corporate America and swing-state Democrats accusing the left of tarnishing its appeal with ex-urban and rural voters.

“Clearly not enough voters knew what Democrats were going to do to make their lives better, particularly poor and working-class Americans across this country,” Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday.

Jayapal rejected criticism that progressive policies cost the party votes. Instead she blamed party leaders for falling “hostage to big-money interests”. Voters who earn under $100,000 favored Republicans, as exit polls showed the economy driving Black, Latino and young voters away from the Democrats.

“We’ve got to pick some big fights where people can’t be in denial or question whether or not we are standing up for them or whether we’re standing up to the big corporate interests,” the Washington congresswoman said, adding: “It’s a difficult message to send when you’re trying to court money from that community.”

It's the Genocide, Stupid! How Harris' Support for Israel Cost Her

TOP DEM Officials Face ZERO Opposition After Blowout Loss

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Trump picks ally Lee Zeldin as environment chief and vows to roll back rules

Donald Trump has picked Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vowing the appointment will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions” by the regulator.

Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said that Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet”.

Zeldin, a Republican who was in the House of Representatives until last year as a member for a New York district that covers part of Long Island, said the nomination was an “honor” and that he was looking forward to cutting red tape as the EPA administrator.

“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin wrote on X. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” ...

The EPA nominee, who will have to be confirmed by the US Senate, has rarely spoken out on environmental or climate issues, although he said in 2014 he was “not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem as other people are” with global heating, and added in 2018 that he did not support the Paris climate agreement, which Trump is again expected to withdraw the US from.

EPA staff fear Trump will destroy how it protects Americans from pollution

After several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump’s last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.

When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a “little bit of the EPA” left “because you can’t destroy business”, prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency’s 50-year history.

“People are anxious and apprehensive, [and] we are preparing for the worst,” said Nicole Cantello, an EPA water specialist and president of AFGE Local 704, representing agency staff in the midwest. “We’ve had a taste of what will happen and how we were targeted last time,” she said. “By the emails and texts I’m getting, a lot of people will leave. So many things could be thrown at us that it could destroy the EPA as we know it.”

Cantello said the union is already seeking to shield itself by departing its office at the agency’s Washington headquarters, ditching the use of EPA computers and divorcing union dues from the federal payroll system. “We have to try to protect our people by being independent of the agency,” she said. “But folks will have to take stock over whether they can endure the attacks that are going to come their way.”

Such anxiety stems from the experiences of the last Trump administration, which removed a broad sweep of environmental regulations and attempted to cut the agency’s budget by a third. Some staff in the way of this agenda faced censure, with a recent inspector general report finding that scientists were encouraged to delete evidence of chemicals’ harms, such as cancer and miscarriage. At least three of these scientists, when they objected, were removed from their roles, the report found, with supervisors calling dissenters “stupid” and “piranhas”.

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Also of Interest

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

Viral video reveals Israeli hooligans attacked Dutch police while instigating Amsterdam unrest

How a Secluded 1984 Conference Forged Israel’s Unprecedented Influence Over US Media

Patrick Lawrence: “Israel does ‘the wet work.’”

Why Is WaPo Reporting A Trump-Putin Call That Did Not Take Place?

Ray McGovern: Thawing Russia-US Relations?

The U.S. Has Failed Its Children – In the Most Unconscionable Ways

MSNBC Ratings PLUMMET, Chris Wallace QUITS CNN

Democrats Are DESPERATE For Social Media Censorship After Election!

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A Little Night Music

Champion Jack Dupree – My Next Door Neighbor

Champion Jack Dupree – I'm Happy To Be Free

Champion Jack Dupree – Third Degree

Champion Jack Dupree – Fisherman's Blues

King Curtis & Champion Jack Dupree – Poor Boy Blues

Champion Jack Dupree – Bring Me Flowers

Champion Jack Dupree – Diggin' My Potatoes

Champion Jack Dupree – The Death Of Louis

Champion Jack Dupree – Pigfoot And A Bottle Of Beer

Champion Jack Dupree - Walking The Blues

King Curtis & Champion Jack Dupree – Everything's Gonna Be Alright

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