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This evening's music features Texas r&b singer and guitarist Peppermint Harris. Enjoy!

"When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it's the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone's talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false 'intelligence' and selected 'leaks'."

-- Brian Eno

News and Opinion

They Lied About Gaza, And They’re Lying About Syria

Al-Qaeda affiliates with a history of receiving western funding have reactivated in Syria along with Turkish-backed fighters to recapture significant amounts of territory in the war-ravaged nation.

It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening in the moment, but I will say it’s mighty convenient how Russia being tied up in Ukraine and Hezbollah being decapitated by Israel leaves Syria once again exposed to the longstanding regime change agendas of the same western empire who’s been backing both of those proxy conflicts.

Syria is more complicated and harder to understand than Gaza, but if you look into it you’ll find mountains of evidence that for many years the US and its allies and partners have been actively fomenting violence, chaos and destruction in that nation to effect regime change. Anyone who denies this is either ignorant or dishonest, as is anyone who calls you a Russian propagandist or an Assad lover for stating this well-evidenced fact.

There are a lot of people who see through the imperial lies about Gaza but still buy into the imperial lies about Syria, largely because the lies about Gaza are so much easier to see through. Immense amounts of propaganda and information ops have gone into framing the violence we’ve been seeing in Syria since 2011 as a completely organic rebellion against a tyrannical dictator who just wants to murder civilians because he is evil. But if you bring the same sincere curiosity and rigorous investigation to this issue that you brought to the plight of the Palestinians, you will discover the same kinds of lies and distortions which you’ve seen the western political/media class promote about Gaza being spun about Syria as well — frequently by the same people.

Alastair Crooke : Neocons Deluding Themselves

Syrian and Russian airstrikes hit Aleppo and Idlib after insurgents advance

Syrian and Russian airstrikes have pummelled areas of northern Syria as Iran’s top diplomat arrived in Damascus in a show of support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime after Islamist insurgents made a sudden advance and seized control of Aleppo.

As the regime attempted to repel the strongest challenge to its authority in years, state media in Damascus shared images of airstrikes across opposition-controlled areas, claiming they were targeting enemy command centres and positions. Syria’s military said they struck close to a stadium in Aleppo in a joint operation with Russia.

An earlier airstrike killed 12 people when it hit a site close to a hospital in central Aleppo, Syria’s second city and a former industrial powerhouse that was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the country’s bloody civil war. Civil defence forces in Idlib, known as the White Helmets, said an airstrike on Idlib city had killed four people and injured 54 others.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Iran the purpose of his visit was to convey the strength of Tehran’s backing for Assad and his rule. ... Araghchi later said Assad remained in “admirable spirits”, despite difficult circumstances according to Tehran’s ISNA news agency. Insurgents believed they were on the rise, “but they will be dealt with”, he said.

A New Front in Syria's Civil War? Rebels Led by Former al-Qaeda Affiliate Take Over Aleppo

Unrwa suspends aid deliveries through main Gaza route after convoy attacked

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has suspended aid deliveries through the main lifeline for the Gaza Strip after a fresh attack by armed gangs on a humanitarian convoy, amid a severe food crisis caused by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, said several trucks carrying food supplies were looted the day before on the road from Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel, now the main aid crossing point into the besieged Palestinian territory. The route had not been safe for months, he said on X, referring to the unprecedented hijacking of nearly 100 aid trucks last month.

“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening … due to the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police. All of the above led to a breakdown in law and order,” he said. Lazzarini said protecting aid workers and supplies was Israel’s responsibility as the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, and he called on the country to “ensure aid flows into Gaza safely” and to “refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers”.

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis killed three contractors working for World Central Kitchen, Palestinian media reported, leading the US-based charity to pause operations. The Israeli military said one of the World Central Kitchen employees was a Hamas militant involved in the 7 October attacks that triggered the war. It did not provide evidence to support the claim. The aid organisation lost seven workers in an Israeli drone strike in April that Israel said was a mistake.

Humanitarian agencies working in Gaza have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blocks on movement and Israeli attacks that have targeted employees, suspending operations on several occasions. According to Unrwa, only 65 aid trucks a day entered Gaza in November, compared with a prewar average of 500. As of October, 333 aid workers had been killed since the conflict began, according to the UN.

Media Lapdogs WHITEWASHED Biden’s Complicity In Genocide!

American-Israeli hostage urges Trump to free Gaza captives in new video

The White House has condemned a Hamas-issued propaganda video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander urging president-elect Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal to free remaining hostages in Gaza, calling it “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own”.

In the video, titled “Soon … Time is running out” and posted on Saturday on the Telegram channel of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, Alexander calls on Trump to use his “influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom”. Alexander, who has been held by Hamas since 7 October 2023, appears to be under duress as he states that he has been held captive for more than 420 days.

“Please do not make the mistake Biden has been doing,” he says, adding that he does not want to “end up dead like my fellow USA citizen, Hersh”, a reference to American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg Polin, who was killed while being held by Hamas in August. ...

Last week, Biden said there existed “a critical opportunity to conclude the deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza”.

"Targeted & Assassinated": Gaza Soup Kitchen Chef Mahmoud Almadhoun Killed by Israeli Drone

World Central Kitchen 'Heartbroken' After Israel Bombing Kills Five in Gaza

Israel bombed a humanitarian vehicle in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing three aid workers with World Central Kitchen and Palestinian bystanders who tried to come to help after an initial strike.

"We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza," the U.S.-based aid group founded by chef José Andrés, said in a statement.

"At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details," the group said.

While Israeli officials said the vehicle was carrying a wanted Palestinian militant, WCK said it had "no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack." The group said it was pausing operations in Gaza for the time being. "Our hearts," they said, "are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment."

According to reports, the WCK vehicle was targeted on Salah al-Din Street in Khan Younis. After the three aid workers were killed in the first strike, Middle East Eye reports two other people "tried to help" but "were also targeted and killed" by what is known as a double-tap strike.

"The vehicle carried rice and other food supplies," Tamer Sammour, an eyewitness, told the news outlet.

Legislating Silence

A coalition of civil rights groups is sounding the alarm over three proposed bills that, they argue, represent an audacious attempt to stifle dissent and curb free expression in the United States. The legislation — H.R.6408, H.R.9495 and S.4136 — claims to combat terrorism by targeting the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed to be in violation. But critics insist the true aim is more insidious: to suppress organizations that are critical of Israel. Championed by lawmakers with deep ties to AIPAC, the bills, if passed, could pave the way for an unprecedented crackdown on dissent under the guise of national security.

While federal laws already prohibit supporting proscribed terrorist organizations, these bills would expand the government’s reach over nonprofits under the appearance of countering such threats. H.R.6408 and H.R.9495 have already passed the House of Representatives, with S.4136 poised to add further amendments to the legislative effort. Critics have dubbed H.R.9495 the “nonprofit killer bill” and it is drawing sharp condemnation from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

In a letter signed by over 300 nonprofits, the ACLU called on Congress to reject the legislation, warning of its potential to erode constitutional rights and empower government overreach. CAIR echoed these concerns in a press release, labeling the bills “undemocratic” and accusing them of undermining fundamental freedoms. With growing opposition, the fate of these controversial bills may hinge on the ability of civil rights advocates to mobilize public and legislative resistance.

Critics argue that the legislative push embodied by H.R.9495 and H.R.6408 hand unprecedented authority to the U.S. Treasury Secretary, enabling them to unilaterally revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations accused of “supporting terrorism.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) warns that this could be done using classified evidence without formal charges or sufficient opportunity for organizations to defend themselves.

There seem to be a lot of accusations of vote-rigging in elections that don't go the way the Eurocrats want them to go. Just sayin' ...

Georgia protests enter fourth night as opposition grows to freeze on EU talks

Protesters rallied in Georgia’s capital for a fourth consecutive night on Sunday and there were signs that opposition was spreading to the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union. For months, tensions have been rising between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-western and pro-Russian policies.

The crisis has deepened since Thursday’s announcement that the government would freeze EU talks for four years, when thousands of pro-EU demonstrators faced off against police armed with teargas and water cannon.

Georgia’s pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, called for pressure to be brought on the constitutional court to annul October’s elections won by Georgian Dream. Both the opposition and Zourabichvili say the poll was rigged. ...

The prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, said at a briefing: “Any violation of the law will be met with the full rigour of the law. Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility.”

He said it was not true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted. “The only thing we have rejected is the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was in fact a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration,” he said.

Romanian elections: ruling Social Democrats on course for most votes

Romania’s main centre-left party was on track to finish first in parliamentary elections, according to early exit polls, seemingly beating an advancing far right boosted by the shock victory of an ultranationalist in last week’s presidential first-round ballot.

The ruling Social Democratic party (PSD) was forecast to receive 26% of the vote, ahead of the far-right nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) on 19%, while the National Liberal party (PNL) and centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) were vying for third on 15-16%.

The vote was the second of three successive ballots and came a week after Călin Georgescu, a little-known far-right, Moscow-friendly independent, plunged the country into turmoil by finishing first in the opening round of the presidential vote.

Georgescu’s success, after a campaign that he said had no financing and that was based heavily on viral TikTok videos boosted by bot-like activity, raised suspicions of foreign interference and caused fears Romania would veer to the far right.

Romania’s top court ordered a recount and on Monday is due to rule on a request by a defeated candidate to annul the vote altogether over allegations of illegal electoral activity on behalf of the runner-up, Elena Lasconi of the pro-EU USR. The elections are seen as critical to the future direction of Romania, hitherto a reliable EU and Nato ally that is strategically important for western support for Ukraine.

Trump Pledges 100% Tariff On BRICS For Ditching Dollar

Trump threat of 100% tariffs against Brics nations raises trade war fears

Fears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.

Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar.

“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new Brics currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,” Trump said.

“They can go find another sucker. There is no chance that the Brics will replace the US dollar in international trade, and any country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he added.

The warning came less than a week after Trump declared he would impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China once he was inaugurated as president.

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead FBI, faces Senate blowback

Donald Trump’s plan to nominate as FBI director the “deep state” conspiracy theorist Kash Patel, a virulent critic of the bureau who has threatened to fire its top echelons and shut down the agency’s headquarters, is facing blowback in Congress as US senators begin to flex their muscles ahead of a contentious confirmation process.

Politicians from both main parties took to the Sunday talk shows to express starkly divergent views on Patel, whom Trump announced on Saturday as his pick to lead the most powerful law enforcement agency in the US. The move is dependent on the incumbent FBI chief, Christopher Wray, who Trump himself placed in the job in 2017, either being fired or resigning.

It is already clear that confirming Patel through the US Senate is likely to be less than plain sailing. Mike Rounds, a Republican senator from South Dakota, indicated that Patel could face a tough confirmation battle.

Rounds pointedly sang the praises of the existing FBI director in an interview with ABC’s This Week. He said that Wray, who still has three more years of his 10-year term to serve, was a “very good man”, adding that he had “no objections about the way that he is doing his job right now”.

The senator also emphasised the separation of powers between president and Senate, signaling possible trouble for Patel. Rounds said he gave presidents “the benefit of the doubt”, but also emphasised that “we have a constitutional role to play … that’s the process”. Other Republican senators rallied to Patel’s side. Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, told CBS’s Face the Nation that he believed Patel would be confirmed. “Patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption of the FBI.”

Inmates burn themselves in protest at ‘inhumane’ Virginia prison conditions

Several incarcerated people in Virginia’s high-security Red Onion state prison have intentionally burned themselves in a protest against harsh conditions at the facility. A written statement from Virginia’s department of corrections acknowledged that men imprisoned there had harmed themselves, although the authorities confirmed six incidents while others reported that 12 men were injured.

“In recent months, six inmates at Red Onion state prison have burned themselves using improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets,” the director of Virginia’s department of corrections, Chad Dotson, said in a written statement. Earlier this week, Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, also confirmed the protest and said there was an investigation into the injuries. ...

Dotson’s announcement comes after reporting from the incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who first drew attention to self-harm at the state facility in October through his work on Prison Radio, a non-profit activist organization.

Johnson reported that he had met an individual in September named Ekong Eshiet, who claimed to have returned from the hospital the day before after being treated for self-inflicted burns. On Prison Radio, Johnson said Eshiet had told him that “the racism and abuses, the hard and inhumane conditions at Red Onion, were so intolerable that he and others were setting themselves on fire in desperate attempts to be transferred away from the prison”.

About a week later, Prison Radio also released an audio recording from Ekong Eshiet himself, in which Eshiet talked about how he had started a hunger strike since returning from being treated for his burns. He said he was protesting “discrimination”, which he says he has to deal with every day at Red Onion. ...

According to reporting from Al Jazeera, Johnson, the incarcerated journalist, was put into solitary confinement in early November, shortly after he first drew attention to the self-harm.

Biden's decade in Ukraine comes to an end

Hunter Biden Pardon Leaves MSNBC Pundit SPEECHLESS; Democrats CONDEMN Joe Biden

'I Hope Americans Will Understand': Biden Pardons His Son Hunter

President Joe Biden on Sunday evening issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, saying that he was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" for political purposes and because of his relationship to his father.

The charges in Hunter's criminal cases, said Biden in a White House statement, "came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election."

Doug Burgum could soon be driving Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ promises on public lands

Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees so far, Doug Burgum has stood out for appearing to be one of the most conventional. The billionaire governor of North Dakota – like most picks to lead the Department of the Interior, the largest landowner in the US west – comes from a western state. He is not a conspiracy theorist, he hasn’t been investigated for sex trafficking. Unlike the president-elect’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, he is not a fracking CEO.

“He’s not a lunatic,” said Patrick Donnelly, the great basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “He’s not someone wholly inappropriate for the job. But I fear the way his extractive agenda will play out in public lands.”

Over the next four years, Burgum is poised to radically remake the agency that oversees 500m acres (200m hectares) of public lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges. A former software executive and one-time climate pragmatist, Burgum has become closely enmeshed with oil and gas industry executives. Burgum led the Trump campaign’s development of its energy policy. After Trump asked oil executives to steer $1bn toward his campaign, Burgum promised them Trump would halt Joe Biden’s “attack” on fossil fuels. As Trump makes good on his promise to “drill, baby, drill”, Burgum will be overseeing the department that expedites those drilling permits.

“There’s going to be an effort to get every ounce of fuel out of the ground and burn it,” said Daniel R Patterson, a former environmental protection specialist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a division of interior, who filed a whistleblower complaint during the first Trump administration. ...

In addition to managing the interior department, Trump has also tasked Burgum with serving as an “energy czar”, overseeing energy policy across the federal government at the helm of a new “national energy council”. He will be, in essence, a fox guarding the henhouse – in a position to tear down environmental regulations, and ramp up extraction. “We’re going to see a hard turn, to almost complete hostility to conservation interests,” said Patterson. With Burgum at the head of the department, Patterson added, “the direction from DC is going to be to permit as much resource exploitation as possible. And interior employees are going to be asked to push the boundaries of the law more.”

New powder that captures carbon could be ‘quantum leap’ for industry

An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air. Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.

“This really addresses a major problem in the tech field, and it gives an opportunity now for us to scale it up and start using it,” says Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley. It’s not the first material to absorb carbon, but “it’s a quantum leap ahead [of other compounds] in terms of the durability of the material”.

The powder is known as a covalent organic framework, with strong chemical bonds that pull gases out of the air. The material is both durable and porous, and can be used hundreds of times, making it superior to other materials used for carbon capture. ...

Yaghi’s research with Zihui Zhou, a graduate student in his lab, and others was published in the journal Nature last month. In the lab, Yaghi’s team tested the new powder and found that it could successfully absorb and release carbon more than 100 times. It fills up with carbon in about two hours, and then must be heated to release the gas before starting the process over again. It only requires a temperature of about 120F to release the carbon; that makes it an improvement over other methods, which require a much higher temperature. ...

Yaghi says he could imagine a future in which people build large plants using the material in every city of 1 million people or more around the world. He has plans to scale the use of this type of carbon capture with his Irvine, California-based company, Atoco, and believes the powder can be manufactured in multi-ton quantities in less than a year.

Success for local residents as Florida council toppled over sewage plant plan

A citizens’ revolt in a small Florida city ousted an entire slate of councilors who were pushing for a new sewage plant to be built close to one of the state’s most pristine and treasured rivers. The Save Blackwater River campaign, in partnership with a citizen action group, toppled all four Milton politicians running for re-election last month in a remarkable victory for grassroots activism.

As a result, plans for the 25-acre wastewater treatment facility that was to have been constructed partly on wetlands feeding the environmentally sensitive river are in suspension. And the new intake of Milton city councilors must work quickly with its other four members who were not up for election to decide how to deal with toxic effluent the previous panel wanted to spray on to fields that would, environmental engineers concluded, pose a likely threat to its drinking water.

“It’s almost a cliche to say it, but it really is a new day in this city,” said Pam Mitchell, co-founder of the Concerned Citizens of Milton group that helped promote the four new councilors, who are all residents or business owners there.

“The people here are very protective of their river and their community, and these elections showed that. And I think it just sets the work before us as grassroots organizations to educate the people how strong they’ve got to stay to stand up against the outside money that’s coming in here.”

Also of Interest

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

Ukrainians And Americans Are Done With This War, But It Keeps Escalating Anyway

Rob Urie: Update on US Missiles, Ukraine, and Russian Response

At Least Two Killed as Israel Steps Up Attacks Across Southern Lebanon

Craig Murray — Displaced & Returned

Trump II & the Middle East

Syrian Islamist Rebels Seize Aleppo, Army Vows Counterattack

U.S., Allies Reignite War On Syria

An Example from Switzerland: Neuchâtel Becomes Second Canton to Enshrine Right to “Offline Life” in Constitution

Democrats ignored pleas to address price of ‘eggs and gas’, campaigners say

Fear is Still the Motivation for Black Voters

Venomous tiger snake slithers up driver’s leg on Melbourne freeway

Bernie Sanders AGREES With Elon MUSK, SLAMS Pentagon For Failing 7th Audit: 'Waste and Fraud'

Trump's FBI Director Pledges Deep State DESTRUCTION, Media Prosecutions

Israeli Mossad targets ICC prosecutor

Biden greenlights strikes deep in Russia, gets lost in the jungle

A Little Night Music

Peppermint Harris - Angel Child

Peppermint Harris - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie

Peppermint Harris - Black Cat Bone

Peppermint Harris - Got A Big Fine Baby

Peppermint Harris - Nighty Night

Peppermint Harris - I Cry For My Baby

Peppermint Harris - My Blues Have Rolled Away

Peppermint Harris - There's A Dead Cat On The Line

Peppermint Harris - Fat Girl Boogie

Peppermint Harris - I Got Loaded

Peppermint Harris - Ain't No Business