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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Pinetop Perkins

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Pinetop Perkins. Enjoy!

^{Pinetop Perkins – Pinetop's Boogie Woogie}

"It’s so fun how the Biden administration is using its lame duck months to skyrocket hostilities between nuclear superpowers and we don’t even know who’s really making these decisions because the president’s brain is cottage cheese."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Who Is Authorizing Biden’s Nuclear Brinkmanship While The President’s Brain Is Missing?

Ukraine has already begun using US-supplied long-range missiles in Russia, despite Putin’s warning that this exact sort of escalation will place NATO at war with Russia. This happens as Russia officially changes its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for when it’s permissible to use nuclear weapons in retaliation for attacks on its territory.

So far the attacks appear to have been mostly repelled without having done any significant damage.

This is frightening, but I have a hard time imagining that Russia makes any extreme moves against the US before Trump takes office. It seems like they’d want to wait and see what Trump does once he gets in before taking any horrifying risks like that. It is much more likely that Russia will instead respond to this escalation by escalating its attacks on Ukraine, like it normally does.

Who knows, though? If these attacks on Russia continue, there’s literally no limit to how bad this could get. ...

These escalations happen as Ukrainians begin moving into a majority consensus that it is time to seek peace. A new Gallup poll has found that a majority of Ukrainians throughout the country now support peace talks to end the war with Russia, with 52 percent favoring peace and 38 percent wanting to fight on.

As usual people are more opposed to continuing the war the closer they are to the frontline, with 63 percent of the respondents in eastern Ukraine supporting peace talks and only 27 percent wanting to continue fighting. The further you are from the effects of this horrific proxy war the more likely you are to support it; it’s just as true inside Ukraine’s borders as it is when you include all the western armchair warriors who want to continue fighting to the last Ukrainian.

“Listen to the Ukrainians,” we were told when all this started. Well, here they are. This proxy war has been waged in the name of defending Ukrainian democracy, and yet it continues to dangerously escalate against the will of the majority, at the direction of a president in Kyiv whose elected term ended months ago.

Here's How Trump Can STOP Biden's Push For WW3! w/ Scott Ritter

US and Europe fear escalation of Russian hybrid warfare amid Ukraine missile attacks

The US state department said it was “incredibly” concerned about Russia’s campaign of hybrid warfare against the west, amid fears it will escalate following Ukraine’s first use of US-made long-range missiles on targets inside Russia, after the Biden administration lifted restrictions on their use.

Russia has promised an “appropriate” response to the new policy, and has engaged in nuclear sabre-rattling by changing its nuclear doctrine in recent days. However, western officials believe the thrust of the Russian response may come not on the battlefield in Ukraine but elsewhere in the world.

Potential hybrid attacks could span a wide menu of options, including expanding its campaign of sabotage and assassinations in Europe or further arming US adversaries in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific regions, according to people briefed on the discussions about a potential Russian response.

European ministers discussed Russia’s asymmetric warfare during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, where the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom accused Russia in a joint statement of “systematically attacking European security architecture”.

Speaking in Washington, the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “Generally, we are incredibly concerned about hybrid warfare conducted by Russia both in Europe and around the world, and its something we have been in close coordination with our European allies and other allies and partners around the world.” Referring to the recent sabotage to two under-sea fibre-optic communication cables in the Baltic Sea, Miller added that Russia would be “held accountable” for further such actions.

Biden Authorizes MAJOR ESCALATION With Russia

Elensky is quite exercised about invisible North Koreans:

Zelenskyy says North Korea may send 100k troops to Ukraine, as war reaches 1,000 days

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country could face 100,000 North Korean troops, as he urged European nations to intensify their military aid in a speech marking 1,000 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Speaking to the European parliament, the Ukrainian president said Vladimir Putin had brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders and “this contingent may grow to 100,000”.

Zelenskyy did not elaborate further, but his remarks appear to endorse a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources saying that North Korea could deploy 100,000 troops to assist Russia against Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s short speech, delivered by video link, was a rallying call to EU nations at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russia continues to make advances, amid fears that the incoming US president, Donald Trump, will cut military aid and force a peace settlement that would require Kyiv to cede large amounts of territory.

Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said the largest EU countries were ready “to assume the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine in the context of a possible reduction in US involvement”. He was speaking after a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels, which included the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, via video link.

Estonia’s foreign minister said European nations should be ready to send troops to Ukraine to underpin any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow engineered by Trump. In an interview with the Financial Times, Margus Tsahkna said the best security guarantee for Ukraine was Nato membership, but if the US opposed Kyiv joining the military alliance, then Europe would have to put “boots on the ground”.

AMB. Chas Freeman : A Reckless Biden

Hungary and Slovakia Slam US Decision To Support Long-Range Strikes in Russia

Hungary and Slovakia, two NATO countries, have slammed President Biden’s reported decision to support long-range Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, an escalatory step that risks nuclear war.

“This is an unprecedented escalation of tensions, a decision that thwarts hopes for the start of any peace talks and an end to the mutual killing of Slavs in Ukraine,” said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who halted Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine when he took office last year. “Those who support US President Biden’s decision are in favor of the start of World War III,” Fico added.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó strongly criticized Biden’s decision. “The pro-war mainstream has launched its last, desperate attack on the new reality. These forces seem to have no qualms about the worst-case scenario: escalating the war in Ukraine to a global scale,” he said.

Szijjártó took aim at pro-war politicians in Washington and in Europe, saying, “One has the feeling that the pro-war political elites on both sides of the ocean are launching one last desperate, scalding attack on the new realities and the will of the people.”

Aaron Maté : US Invading Russia

‘Total oppression’: West Bank children being killed at unprecedented rate

Mohammad was 12, a football-mad teenager who spent his days dreaming of a career on the pitch and his last minutes practising ball skills. Ghassan was 14, a quiet, generous teenager who ran errands for elderly relatives, with an adoring six-year-old brother who stuck to him like a shadow. Both boys were shot dead this summer by Israeli soldiers, victims of an unprecedented surge in attacks on children in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In the year from the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israeli troops and settlers killed 171 Palestinian children there, equivalent to one death almost every other day, according to UN data. More than 1,000 others have been injured. The youngest victim was a four-year-old girl, shot dead when she and her mother were sitting in a taxi near a checkpoint in January.

Officially there is no war in the occupied West Bank, and the scale of death in Gaza has overshadowed the losses there. But children are dying in greater numbers than at any time since the Israeli army seized control of the area in 1967. “In the course of last year there was an extremely concerning increase in children killed in conflict-related violence in the West Bank, and we already see the trend is continuing,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesperson for Unicef Palestine. ...

No soldier has been charged over any of the shootings, and the Israeli military did not directly address the surge in child casualties when approached for comment.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Israel In Trouble

Food prices soar in Gaza after looting of almost 100 aid trucks worsens shortages

Food prices have soared in Gaza after the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks amid an already severe food crisis caused by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.

This weekend’s hijacking of 98 lorries of a 109-strong convoy by armed men – the biggest such attack to date – has aggravated food, medicine and other aid shortages, according to a World Health Organization spokesperson, Margaret Harris. “It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” she said on Tuesday.

The amount of aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory has dropped to an 11-month low, official Israeli data says, despite a US ultimatum last month that more humanitarian supplies must reach Gaza’s desperate population of 2.3 million people, almost all of whom have been displaced from their homes.

So far in November, Israel says it has allowed in an average of 88 trucks a day, a fraction of the 600 a day that aid agencies say are necessary to meet basic needs. In the northern third of Gaza, where Israeli forces are waging a weeks-long offensive that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands, famine conditions may have already set in, experts say.

Aid agencies operating in the strip have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement, and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees. About one-third of all aid is also believed to be stolen by armed gangs who resell it at extortionate prices, according to the UN.

Turkish and Kurdish elites seek to profit from Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkish government is desperately trying to hide its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to appease public anger. Özlem Zengin, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group deputy chairperson and an MP from Istanbul, has denied allegations that Azerbaijani oil is being transported to Israel via Turkey—claiming that his government is “not involved” in the oil that passes through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline.

“Our minister said once again that all the companies that send [their oil] through this pipeline have been asked and that there is absolutely no oil flowing to Israel through this line,” Zengin said, adding: “Turkey has nothing to do with the oil flowing through this pipeline. As Turkey, we are only responsible for the operation of this pipeline. In other words, we have nothing to do with the oil flowing through it”. Zengin said that Turkey earns one dollar and 27 cents for every barrel of oil that passes through the pipeline.

In reality, the oil flowing through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, the Turkish section of which is operated by the state-owned BOTAŞ International AŞ, feeds Israel’s war machine. A study by Oil Change International shows that many countries, including signatories to the Geneva Conventions on genocide, use the pipeline to supply oil to Israel and are implicated in crimes against the Palestinian people. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are the most prominent. The research analysed shipping records, satellite imagery and other open-source industry data to track 65 oil and fuel shipments to Israel between October 21, 2023 and July 12, 2024.

Israel imports almost 99 percent of the oil it uses. According to the report, Azerbaijan is the main supplier, providing 28 percent of the crude oil going to Israel. It is followed by Kazakhstan and the African country Gabon with 22 percent. These three countries meet three-quarters of Israel’s oil needs. Crude oil from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is delivered through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, in which BP is a partner. The crude oil is loaded onto tankers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan for delivery to Israel. ... Turkey, Italy, Cyprus and Greece play a key role in providing transshipment services to Israel. As the terminus of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, Turkey ranks first in terms of volume, accounting for 26 percent of shipments to Israel. Cyprus follows with 21 percent.

China happy to be rid of Biden White House

MTG Threatens BLACKMAIL WAR To Protect Matt Gaetz

Marjorie Taylor Greene issues warning to Republicans opposing Matt Gaetz nomination

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Republican congresswoman from Georgia, has intervened on behalf of Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s embattled attorney general nominee, by issuing a bizarre challenge to her Republican colleagues.

Amid intensifying pressure for the release of a congressional report into alleged sexual misconduct that could sink Gaetz’s nomination, Taylor Greene demanded similar full disclosure of what she claimed were multiple reports of assault and sexual harassment filed against fellow Republican Congress members. She also said she had filed one of the claims herself.

“For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate, If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see,” Taylor Greene wrote on X in a post which had received 1.3m views by Tuesday 1pm ET.

“Yes.. all the ethics reports and claims including the one I filed, all your sexual harassment and assault claims that were secretly settled paying off victims with tax payer money, the entire Jeffrey Epstein files, tapes, recordings, witness interviews but not just those, there’s more, Epstein wasn’t/isn’t the only asset. If we’re going to dance, let’s all dance in the sunlight,” she wrote.

She concluded with what appeared to be a veiled threat: “I’ll make sure we do.”

Trump nominates ‘Dr Oz’ as Medicare and Medicaid services administrator

Donald Trump has nominated Mehmet Oz, best known globally as Dr Oz, to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator.

“Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget,” wrote Trump in his announcement of Oz’s nomination.

“Dr Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

Trump emphasized that he plans to have Oz work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health and human services secretary, “to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake”.

Trump picks former WWE executive Linda McMahon for education secretary

Linda McMahon, co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team, has been nominated for education secretary in his upcoming administration.

In a statement, Trump extolled the “incredible” job she was doing as transition team co-chair and said: “As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families. … We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”

The nomination comes after McMahon’s co-chair on the transition team and billionaire founder of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, was appointed as commerce secretary.

McMahon was named as transition team chair in August, after having donated a whopping $814,600 to Trump’s campaign as of July. She previously served in Trump’s cabinet in his first administration as the administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019.

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The REAL Reason Dems Lost: It's THE WARS, Stupid

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Eight times more children will face extreme heatwaves by 2050s, Unicef says

Eight times as many children around the world will be exposed to extreme heatwaves in the 2050s, and three times as many will face river floods compared with the 2000s if current trends continue, according to the UN.

Nearly twice as many children are also expected to face wildfires, with many more living through droughts and tropical cyclones, according to the annual state of the world’s children report.

Globally, greater numbers of children will live through extreme climate and environmental crises in the 2050s, but with significant regional variation.

The greatest increases in children experiencing extreme heatwaves are expected in east and south Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and north, west and central Africa. River floods are expected to affect children in the same areas, as well as east Africa and the Pacific.

The report, released on Wednesday, World Children’s Day, forecasts how the climate crisis, demographic shifts (sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia are projected to have the largest child populations in the 2050s) and breakthrough technologies will affect children’s lives in the future.

Hundreds of lobbyists for industrial farming attend Cop29 climate summit

Hundreds of lobbyists for industrial agriculture are attending the Cop29 climate summit in Baku, analysis shows. They include representatives from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies including the Brazilian meatpacker JBS, the animal pharmaceuticals company Elanco, and the food giant PepsiCo, as well as trade groups representing the food sector.

Overall, 204 agriculture delegates have accessed the talks this year, analysis by DeSmog and the Guardian reveals. While the total number has dropped compared with the record highs at Cop28, the figures show climate Cops remain a top priority for businesses working in agriculture, a sector that accounts for up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Food sector lobbyists remain highly influential, and have travelled to Baku as part of country delegations from Brazil, Russia and Australia, among others. This year, nearly 40% of delegates travelled to the summit with country badges, giving them privileged access to diplomatic negotiations, up from 30% at Cop28, and just 5% at Cop27. ...

Meat and dairy producers are coming under greater scrutiny due to increasing pollution from cattle and sheep, which emit about a third of the global output of methane. Farming also relies on synthetic fertilisers that are both fossil fuel-based and emit greenhouse gases, and drive deforestation.

But while studies point to the need for a drastic drop in meat and dairy production and a shift to climate-friendly farming, the agribusiness industry has lobbied hard against tougher environmental laws, in the EU, the US and at climate summits.

Salmon are ‘coming home’ to spawn in Klamath River after dams are removed

A giant female Chinook salmon flips on her side in the shallow water and wriggles wildly, using her tail to carve out a nest in the riverbed as her body glistens in the sunlight. In another moment, males butt into each other as they jockey for a good position to fertilize eggs.

These are scenes local tribes have dreamed of seeing for decades as they fought to bring down four hydroelectric dams blocking passage for struggling salmon along more than 400 miles (644km) of the Klamath River and its tributaries along the Oregon-California border.

Now, less than a month after those dams came down in the largest dam removal project in US history, salmon are once more returning to spawn in cool creeks that have been cut off to them for generations. Video shot by the Yurok Tribe show that hundreds of salmon have made it to tributaries between the former Iron Gate and Copco dams, a hopeful sign for the newly freed waterway.

“Seeing salmon spawning above the former dams fills my heart,” said Joseph L James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “Our salmon are coming home. Klamath Basin tribes fought for decades to make this day a reality because our future generations deserve to inherit a healthier river from the headwaters to the sea.” ...

There have been lower concentrations of harmful algae blooms since the dam removal, Toz Soto, fisheries program manager with the Karuk Tribe, said during a press conference after the dams came down. In October, the water temperature during the day was an average of 8C (14F) cooler compared to the same month over the last nine years, according to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the non-profit entity created to oversee the project. “All in all, the fish that came up this year were really healthy,” Soto said. “I didn’t see fish with bacterial infections and things like that, so water temperature’s already having an impact on the fishes’ health.”

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Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Organized Oblivion

Biden Leaves Office But Risks War with Russia

Ukraine Fires US Missiles at Russia Risking Wider War

The Most Important Issues Facing Humanity

The Democratic Party Faces Its Day of Reckoning

Rahm Emanuel Made Alarming Stock Trades as Ambassador to Japan

Millions of liberals FLOCKING to Bluesky from X

Why Couldn’t The Deep State Stop Trump? w/ Scott Ritter

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A Little Night Music

Pinetop Perkins – Take It Easy Baby

Pinetop Perkins – After Hours

Pinetop Perkins – How Much More Long

Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - I Feel So Good

Pinetop Perkins – High Heel Sneakers

Pinetop Perkins - 4 O'clock In The Morning

Muddy Waters & Pinetop Perkins - Caldonia

Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith - Cut That Out

Pinetop Perkins & Bob Margolin - Chicken Shack / How Long Blues / Ida B

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