The Evening Blues - 12-16-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jump blues singer, bandleader and drummer Roy Milton. Enjoy!
Roy Milton - You Got Me Reeling & Rocking
"To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult."
-- Isaac Asimov
News and Opinion
Meditations On A Six Year-Old Amputee Crawling Through Gaza With The Help Of A Roller Skate
It’s funny the things that get to you when witnessing the nightmare in Gaza, out of all the horrors you’ll see there from day to day. Today I saw a video of a six year-old Palestinian boy whose legs had been amputated dragging himself through his tent camp with the help of a roller skate worn on one of his hands, and it just about destroyed me.
It was one of those inline skates that showed up in the nineties. Rollerblades, we called them. Western boys played with them in summers full of joy and laughter and skinned knees and grass stains. Now a little boy named Mohammad Saeed uses one to help him scoot through the dirt, because his legs were blown off by western military explosives, launched by Israelis who probably played with inline skates when they were small.
We are the terrorists. https://t.co/Od7U4hW7E6
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 14, 2024
This genocide has been going on so long that the child amputees who live all over Gaza are learning strategies to get through life without their limbs.
They did a study recently which found that virtually all children in Gaza now feel their deaths are imminent, and half of those surveyed said they wish to die.
But their lives go on. Even with missing limbs, often amputated without morphine or anesthetic, their lives go on. Crawling their way through muddy tent camps, they go on. They find a way through each day.
It’s the kind of thing that might inspire you if it were something you were just passively witnessing instead of something the western power structure you live under is actively inflicting on people. For those of us who live under the shadow of the US-centralized empire it’s a bit more emotionally complicated than an inspirational story about the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people, because it’s also a story about how we failed to stop this from happening.
When we look at Mohammad Saeed crawling through the dirt on his leg stumps with the help of a roller skate, we are seeing our own civilization reflected back at us. A genocidal dystopia of complete moral bankruptcy. This is what we have become. This is what we have allowed our rulers to turn us into.
Oh Mohammad, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that we allowed it to come to this. I am sorry that your legs were taken from you, and I am sorry for everything else that has been taken from you on top of them. Your parents maybe. Your siblings maybe. Certainly some loved ones. Obviously your home, and obviously your childhood.
I have nothing to offer at this time, either to my readers or to Mohammad Saeed, apart from my own sorrow. Some days all you can do is pour your heart out on the floor and warn passersby to try not to slip on it, tears streaming down over the gaping hole in your chest.
None of this is right, and I don’t feel like pretending it’s right. I don’t feel like trying to put a positive spin on it or say it’s all going to get better. Some things are just terrible, and it’s okay to feel terrible about them. Feelings are meant to be felt. It’s sad and it’s enraging and it’s shameful and it’s damning, and absolutely nothing else.
We live in a world of such breathtaking beauty and such jaw-dropping savagery. Explosions of love hiding behind every molecule in a society that is ruled by true monsters.
We are big enough to hold these paradoxes. We are big enough to feel the majesty of creation and the gut-punch of genocide. The wet, juicy, sloppy love for our fellow human beings and the horror at how cruel we can be to one another. The exhilaration of life on this strange blue planet and the crushing grief of failure after failure to make things a little better here.
Both the good and the bad are allowed to flourish in this world. Clearly. I have no answers or miracle cures for this. We do our best to be decent people and get through each day. We pick up our skate and crawl on.
"Lawless": Marwan Bishara on Israel Bombing Syria 800 Times & Expanding Occupation of Golan Heights
Israel strikes Syria as Netanyahu approves plan to expand Golan Heights settlement
Israel struck dozens of sites in Syria overnight with airstrikes, despite the Syrian rebel leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, saying his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group was not interested in conflict with Israel. Jolani’s comments came as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Sunday that he had approved a plan to expand settlement building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The latest airstrikes follow a statement by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, that Israeli troops, who seized the Golan Heights buffer zone with Syria last week, would remain for the winter on Mount Hermon – known to Syrians as Jabel Sheikh – in positions they occupied last week. Katz’s office said in a statement that “due to what is happening in Syria, there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak”.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a nom de guerre used by Ahmed al-Sharaa, told Syrian state media: “There are no excuses for any foreign intervention in Syria now after the Iranians have left. We are not in the process of engaging in a conflict with Israel.” Jolani said Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focused on rebuilding after the end of Bashar al-Assad’s reign. He added that “diplomatic solutions” were the only way to ensure stability rather than “ill-considered military adventures”.
“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Jolani said. ...
Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan for the Golan Heights as “sabotage”. In a statement, Riyadh’s foreign ministry expressed “condemnation and denunciation” of the plan, which it called part of “continued sabotage of opportunities to restore security and stability in Syria”.
Israel’s Plan to Conquer the Middle East is Unfolding Before Our Eyes in Syria w/ Rania Khalek
Antony Blinken confirms ‘direct’ US contact with Syria’s rebel rulers HTS
Antony Blinken said the US had made “direct contact” with Syria’s victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels as western and Arab states along with Turkey jointly voiced support for a united, peaceful Syria. The US secretary of state’s comment is despite Washington having designated the HTS rebels as terrorists in 2018. Blinken and other diplomats held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, on Saturday. “We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said, without specifying how the contact took place.
Turkey announced it had reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and 12 years after the Turkish diplomatic mission was closed early in Syria’s civil war. Turkey has been a major player in Syria’s conflict, holding considerable sway in the north-west, financing armed groups there and maintaining a working relationship with HTS, which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.
In a joint statement after the meeting in Jordan, diplomats from the US, Turkey, the EU and Arab countries “affirmed the full support to the Syrian people at this critical point in their history to build a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future”. They called for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process”, with respect for human rights.
Israel, Turkey, US Begin Carving up Syria’s Resources After Removing al-Assad
Trump Transition Team Considering Strikes on Iran
Strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities are being seriously considered within the Donald Trump transition team, according to the Wall Street Journal. While there is no proof Tehran is trying to make a nuclear weapon, Washington and Tel Aviv are threatening to attack Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure.
“The military-strike option against nuclear facilities is now under more serious review by some members of his transition team,” the WSJ explained. “Iran’s weakened regional position and recent revelations of Tehran’s burgeoning nuclear work have turbocharged sensitive internal discussions, transition officials said.” ...
According to WSJ, President-elect Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently discussed potentially attacking Iran. “Trump has told Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch.” The report continues, “The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the US military.”
The sources explained that the administration is considering two options. The first is bolstering American military presence in the Middle East while providing Israel with the ability to destroy Iranian nuclear sites without US assistance. The other option calls for American threats to force Tehran to make concessions at the negotiation table.
Alastair Crooke : A War Without Limits
77 House Dems Call for 'Full Assessment' of Israeli Compliance With US Law
As Israel continues to decimate the Gaza Strip with American weapons, 77 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week demanded that the Biden administration "provide a full assessment of the status of Israel's compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."
Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) spearheaded the Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with less than six weeks left in President Joe Biden's term.
Since Biden issued NSM-20 in February, his administration has repeatedly accepted the Israel government's assurances about the use of U.S. weapons, despite reports from journalists and human rights groups about how they have helped Israeli forces slaughter at least 44,875 Palestinians and injure another 106,454 people in the besieged enclave over the past 14 months.
Chief Dennis Fritz : Who Can Stop Netanyahu?
'We Have Run Out of Body Bags to Bury the Dead' in Gaza
Rescue workers, children, and journalists are among the civilians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza on Sunday, as the death toll continues to mount in a military campaign Amnesty International earlier this month said has all the markings of an active and ongoing genocide.
"Due to the rising Israeli bombings and killings in northern Gaza, we have run out of body bags to bury the dead," said Palestinian journalist Hossam Sabath, reporting from northern Gaza on Sunday. "Now we resort to using any piece of clothing or a blanket for their burial."
On the ground in the town of Beit Hanoun, where Israeli troops reportedly killed at least 20 people—including civilians—in a series of raids in the area on Sunday, Sabath said the the "scenes of charred bodies are too distressing for us to broadcast. However, they are part of the documented evidence of genocide involving the burning of people alive. We are ready to hand them over to any human rights organization."
According to the Gulf Times:
Israeli troops killed at least 22 Palestinians, most of them in the northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday in airstrikes and other attacks on targets that included a school sheltering displaced Gazans, medics and residents said.
They said at least 11 of the dead were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City houses, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia camp and two were killed by drone fire in Rafah.
Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in the three towns. The Israeli army has been operating in the towns for over two months.
In Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City, the medics and residents said.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, quoted witnesses who reported "severe injuries" among those who survived the attacks further north.
"They have nowhere to go because the Israeli military forces are encircling the area with tanks and armored vehicles, and hammering the school with heavy artillery," Mahmoud reported.
A family of four were among those killed, including two children, after the classroom where they were sheltering took a “direct hit” from Israeli artillery fire that arrived without prior warning, the outlet reported.
“Many of the injured are in the courtyard of the school and inside the other classrooms," according to Mahmoud. "They can't get any treatment because none of the hospitals in Beit Hanoon are operational."
Separately, Al-Jazeera reports Sunday that an Israeli bombing killed three members of the Palestinian civil defense search-and-rescue team in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp. The new agency also reported that one of its own staff, cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, was killed in the same attack.
Ahram Online reports:
In its first response to the incident, Gaza's government media office condemned the killing of al-Louh and called on the international community to act against the systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists. "The number of martyred journalists has now risen to 195 with the martyrdom of colleague Ahmed al-Louh," the office stated.
Al Jazeera reiterated its condemnation of the attack, describing al-Louh's death as part of a broader assault on press freedom in Gaza. "Ahmed al-Louh was dedicated to documenting the realities of the ongoing conflict under the most dangerous conditions," the network said.
"The unprecedented killing of journalists by the Israeli military continues with impunity," said fellow reporter Sharif Kouddous.
On Dec. 5, Amnesty International released a 296-page report—featuring interviews with survivors and witnesses of Israel's large-scale campaign of bombing, displacement, arbitrary detention, and destruction of Gaza's agricultural land and civilian infrastructure—that conclude what Israel has been doing in Gaza amounts to genocide.
"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty's secretary-general, upon release of the document. "Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now."
As the weekend's latest catalog of death and injuries suggests, it has not stopped.
Israel to close Dublin embassy after Ireland supports ICJ genocide petition
Israel has announced it will close its embassy in Ireland, citing Dublin’s decision last week to support a petition at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide.
The move was announced by the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, who said it was prompted by the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies”, noting its decision to join the ICJ petition last week.
The Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, said on
“This is a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government. I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.
“Ireland wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that.”
Israel has not applied similar measures to other countries, including Egypt, Spain, and Mexico, that joined the petition.
Putin Medvedev Warn Kiev US More Annexations, Russia Destroys 4 Patriots, Jihadis Ask Russia Stay
Scott Horton EXPOSES Media Ukraine Lies
Trump Says No to ‘Foolish’ US Missile Attacks on Russia
President-elect Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of “escalating this war” in Ukraine and “making it worse” by allowing U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles to be fired from Ukraine deep into Russia. “I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. He said:
“Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake.”
Last Thursday former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter was on a day-long venture in the labyrinth of House office buildings on Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress and their staffs to prevent the U.S. from attacking Russia with ATACMS. That alone, Ritter argued, would reduce the threat of a nuclear exchange with Russia, which had warned would be possible if the missile attacks continue.
Among the steps Ritter recommended to Republican Congressmen was to get word to Trump’s transition team to get Trump to make an immediate statement that after he is sworn in he will order a cessation of ATACMS being fired into Russia. Such a statement from Trump, Ritter argued on Capitol Hill, would lessen tension with Moscow over the ATACMS and possibly avert catastrophe. Trump’s comments to Time was what Ritter had in mind.
South Korea Impeaches President as Demands Grow for Democratic Reforms
South Korea’s president reportedly defies summons in martial law inquiry
South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has reportedly failed to obey a summons from prosecutors investigating him on charges including insurrection as he faces impeachment after declaring martial law. Yoon, who was sent a summons on Wednesday requesting him to appear for questioning at 10am local time on Sunday, did not show up, according to the Yonhap news agency. Yoon and other senior officials are being investigated on possible charges of insurrection, abuse of authority and obstructing people from exercising their rights.
Yonhap said prosecutors – who are also seeking arrest warrants for senior military officials, including the head of the army special warfare command and the chief of the capital defence command – plan to issue another summons for the president.
The president’s reported failure to appear came a day after South Korean MPs voted to impeach him over the unsuccessful attempt to declare martial law almost two weeks ago that plunged the country into some of its worst political turmoil in decades. ...
Yoon’s powers have been suspended until the constitutional court decides whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. If Yoon is dismissed, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
The court will meet to begin considering the case on Monday, and has up to 180 days to issue a ruling. But observers say a ruling could come faster. In the case of parliamentary impeachments of past presidents, Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 and Park Geun-hye in 2016, the court spent 63 days and 91 days respectively before determining to reinstate Roh and dismiss Park.
Denied: ProPublica Exposes UnitedHealth Profiteering Off Limiting Care for Children with Autism
‘Only one viable defense’: how might the CEO murder case play out in court?
Mangione, 26, purportedly left a trail of evidence in his wake: surveillance footage showing his face, as well as fingerprints on a cereal bar and water bottle near the murder scene, linked him to the shooting, authorities said. Local police in Altoona allegedly discovered still more evidence linking Mangione to the crime: a black 3D-printed pistol and silencer, as well as a manifesto that railed against health insurers’ prioritization of profits over patients.
Mangione, who allegedly carried a fake ID, was arrested on weapons and forgery charges, and has since been jailed in Pennsylvania. He is fighting extradition to New York City for second-degree murder and gun charges.
Yet, despite this alleged abundance of evidence, veteran New York City attorneys believe that Mangione might have a viable trial defense that could keep him from spending the rest of his years behind bars – even if jurors eventually find that he killed Thompson. ...
“He has one and only one viable defense and that is extreme emotional disturbance,” said Ron Kuby, a veteran criminal defense attorney whose practice focuses on civil rights. “One version of extreme emotional disturbance is he just snapped, but the defense is broader than that and certainly covers the slow, bitter, corrosive wearing away of normal sentiments of right and wrong until it all collapses in pain,” Kuby explained.
If a jury finds a defendant guilty of murder, but also finds the crime was due to extreme emotional disturbance, that reduces the crime of murder to first-degree manslaughter. The sentencing range for first-degree manslaughter ranges from five to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Victims of ‘kids-for-cash’ judge outraged by Biden pardon: ‘What about all of us?’
Victims of a former Pennsylvania judge convicted in the so-called kids-for-cash scandal are outraged by Joe Biden’s decision to grant him clemency.
In 2011, Michael Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, were found guilty of accepting $2.8m in illegal payments in exchange for sending more than 2,300 children – including some as young as eight years old – to private juvenile detention centers.
Conahan was released from prison in 2020 due to Covid-19 and placed on house arrest, which had been scheduled to end in 2026. Conahan’s sentence was one of about 1,500 the US president commuted – or shortened – on Thursday while also pardoning 39 Americans who had been convicted of non-violent crimes.
In response to Conahan’s pardon, the mother of a boy sent to jail at age 17 before later dying by suicide told the Citizens’ Voice: “I am shocked and I am hurt.”
“Conahan’s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son’s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Sandy Fonzo said to the outlet. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”
More at the link:
From the US to Uganda, how climate activism has been criminalised in 2024
Back in early August, I reported on the arrest of two climate activists outside the New York headquarters of Citibank, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers and target of a campaign known as Summer of Heat. John Mark Rozendaal, a former music instructor at Princeton University, and Alec Connon, director of the climate nonprofit group Stop the Money Pipeline, were detained for 24 hours and charged with criminal contempt, which carries up to seven years in prison. Why? Rozendaal was playing a Bach solo on his cello while Connon sheltered him with an umbrella – which police claimed broke the conditions of a temporary restraining order that related to another bogus charge of assault (that was later dropped).
Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, took up the pair’s case, and together with three other UN experts wrote a formal letter to the US government explaining their fears that the charges were without foundation, and appeared to be a punishment for participating in peaceful protests on the climate crisis and human rights. ...
Lawlor and the other UN experts wrote to US authorities: “Please indicate what steps have been taken and measures put in place to ensure that all human rights defenders taking peaceful action to promote measures to mitigate climate change and a just transition can carry out their work free from fear of threat, violence, harassment or retaliation of any sort.”
Last week, Lawlor made the letter public after they failed to respond – it’s customary to give states 60 days to respond privately to special rapporteurs before communications are published. “Authorities should be listening to defenders, but they are not … they are being met with criminalisation,” Lawlor told me. “The climate crisis is a human rights crisis, but states aren’t responding as they should.”
Rozendaal and Connon pleaded guilty to “disorderly conduct” for playing the cello and holding an umbrella. They were among thousands of climate activists who over the summer participated in a series of nonviolent protests calling on Citibank to stop financing the oil and gas industry and increase funding for renewables. Many activists were arrested but most cases were dismissed, with just a handful proceeding through the courts.
TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is likely bigger than Greece’s
TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is probably larger than that of Greece, according to a new analysis of the social media platform’s environmental impact, with the average user generating greenhouse gases equivalent to driving an extra 123 miles in a gasoline-powered car each year.
Estimates from Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, place TikTok’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK and France at about 7.6m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – higher than those associated with Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same region.
TikTok has 1 billion users worldwide and Greenly’s findings placed its carbon footprint just above Instagram’s – even though Instagram has nearly double TikTok’s user base. The reason behind this lies in the unique addictiveness of TikTok’s platform. The average Instagram user spends 30.6 minutes on the app a day. Meanwhile, the average TikTok user spends 45.5 minutes scrolling.
“The whole algorithm is built around the massification of videos,” explained Alexis Normand, the chief executive of Greenly. “Addictiveness also has consequences in terms of incentivizing people to generate more and more [of a carbon] footprint on an individual basis.”
Given that the US, UK and France make up just under 15% of TikTok’s global user base, the platform’s overall carbon footprint is likely around 50m metric tonnes of CO2e. And since these data center calculations do not include other smaller sources of TikTok’s emissions, such as the emissions associated with office spaces and employee commuting, this is likely an underestimation.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
That Which Can Be Destroyed By The Truth, Should Be
Patrick Lawrence: Blinded to Syria
In Syria dirty war, “our side” has won
Syria’s Assad Has Fallen – Just as the Pentagon Planned 23 Years Ago
South Korea - National Assembly Impeaches President Over Failed Putsch Attempt
Tom Neuburger: The Media’s Bizarre Treatment of the Mangione Case
The Democratic Party Faces Its Day of Reckoning
New Jersey DRONE Origins REVEALED?! Federal Defense Program SUSPECTED
Putin's Novorossiya speech. Trump, Ukraine drawdown process
Pepe Escobar : The Syrian Tragedy
A Little Night Music
Roy Milton - R.M. Blues
Roy Milton & His Solid Senders - Milton's Boogie
Roy Milton - It's Later Than You Think
Roy Milton - Baby I'm Gone
Roy Milton & His Solid Senders - Hop Skip & Jump
Roy Milton - Rockin' Pnuemonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
Roy Milton - The Hucklebuck
Roy Milton - Short, Sweet And Snappy
Roy Milton - Red Light
Comments
About those Biden pardoned.
I saw in passing some of the people Biden was pardoning. What utter lack of morality and what a jail break of criminals. I started up a google search for some list and background. The search results just came back with list of names and no more from major legacy media outlets. Finally found one which I think is a conservative site:
Drug Lords, Ponzi Schemers, and Corrupt Officials: Meet Joe Biden’s Clemency Recipients
Really, gotta think there were some payouts happening here.
I only know one of the pardons that Trump did (sure there are more). But looks like Kim Kardashian contacted Melania about a mother who has given really harsh sentence over some drug deal that she was more a by-stander. She got out of prison. Yes, the right think to do by Trump.
The rich elites in the media continue to praise the United Healthcare CEO who was taken out in NYC. You know, real family man. My take is that there was a direct line from his office to the death of sick people. No different than an artillery shell hitting a village. He should have been tried for first degree murder, and if found guilty, then jury/judge can issue the correct penalty.
Guvenor Hochul of NYC
Wants to setup a hotline for CEOs who feel vulnerable. I guess she’s not able to think about the CEO's victims who get shat upon by CEOs who rip them off or even cause their deaths by denying healthcare that they paid for.
Let’s all offer a prayer for the poor rich bastard CEOs!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Oh. My. Gawd.
I hope some hacker finds out the phone number and publishes it on the internet. A special hotline for less than several hundred people. Class warfare is alive in America.
heh...
i suggest that we find a remote island and send all of the ceo's and major shareholders there - for everyone's safety.
evening mr w...
like a blind hog, obama occasionally found an acorn.
Yep…..
.
THIS.
I felt absolutely gutted this weekend because of all the misery this country has inflicted on people in country after country going back many decades.
Aaron discussed the brutal sanctions on Syrians that have no way to change what their government does. Just like we can’t change what ours does.
And when 500,000 Iraqi children died from the sanctions we put on their government Albright said that it was worth it to kill them. Worth what for gawd’s sake?
Yesterday I saw an older Jewish shitlib being absolutely pleased with what happened in Syria. He is upset that there’s a $10 million bounty on Julani's head and thinks that we brought democracy to the Iraqis. WTAF?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Avoid watching
the "60 Minutes" puff piece on this topic that ran yesterday, then.
I was quite amazed that they were able to put it together so quickly after such a completely unprecedented, unexpected event- one that clearly caught everybody utterly by surprise, and could never have been foreseen by anybody at all, no matter how well-informed they might have been. Truly inexplicable, and a gobsmacking of cosmic heft. Who could imagine such a thing?
And yet apparently, the people at 60 Minutes were able to react instantly and have a very nicely produced wag-the-dog piece available right away. Wow. That's very much the same as CNN finding a "prisoner" who had been shut in darkness with no food and water for many days, who came out beautifully barbered and manicured...
Who could imagine such a thing, indeed.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
CNN also interviewed Julani while the attack was ongoing
You know that when the media highlights a person you are getting a hot dish of propaganda served right to you.
Sadly people will still gobble it up. Like the shitlib I quoted. Good gawd man Julani killed a lot of Americans in Iraq, but he’s grown up now and takes it all back. I can’t believe American troops would train the people who killed their buddies. But they did.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
They were
“just following orders”, doncha know.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
evening snoopy...
heh, who woulda thought that jews and shitlibs would turn out to love islamist headchoppers so much?
People of Intellectual Honesty
.
....have lost the war against Neocon control of the Federal Government in the United States. All that voting in 2024 didn't help one bit. At some point, this must be recognized and accepted by People-Who-Can-Think, so that their energies go toward individual resiliency and self preservation. Or, conversely, so that their energies go toward acceptance and conformity.
At the same time, there needs to be a depository for the Established Truth, and a clear channel where open source intelligence can be gathered. That way, people can make informed decisions about the limitations of their future freedom. Currently people, including journalists, are making a mistake when describing the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, and the fighters involved. I've corrected this many times here, but the correction is not taking. This mistake could lead to a lethal misunderstanding of your vulnerabilities in the War on China.
In light of chronically insuficient information, let's talk about Russia's "Oreshnik" missile. There seems to be a lot of confusion about exactly what it is, what it does, and how that could impact you, personally. The Oreshnik's reach is global, it cannot be intercepted, and it arrives at its target relatively instantaneously. It is not a nuclear weapon and it is not radioactive. However, it is an atomic weapon — that is, it harnesses the power of the atom, but not the nucleus.
Dmitry Orlov explains:
.
This missile is intended to be a non-nuclear response inside the United States for the US sending its missiles into Russia from the Ukraine.
Your Neocon controlled State Department will not disclose this risk to People living in the US. The US casualties will be the wind under the psychopath's wings. "A Little Pearl Harbor," so to speak.
evening pluto...
if the oreshnik is meant to be a non-nuclear response inside the u.s. for neocon attacks inside russia, i would guess that if russia does bomb the u.s. with oreshniks or any sort of missile, we're off to the nuclear races anyway. the neocons appear to have been wanting a nuclear war with russia all along.
What it means is that
...the Oreshnik was field tested at Yuzhmash factory near Dniepropetrovsk — the detonation was demonstrated to the entire world, although the delivery system is the more serious threat. The US has no defenses against this weapon, no way to protect the American people from certain death — except to stop attacking Russia's interior with US missiles.
It means that if the US bombs the Russian interior with any sort of US missile, regardless of where it is launched from, only then are we off to the nuclear races. The American People should be informed of this beforehand. Allow them to decide their certain fate.
Russia is confident that the US nuclear threat is dysfunctional. Russia believes that their superior weaponry can defend against it, while delivering a killing blow to the US. From what I can tell, the Pentagon seems to believe likewise. But, then, they are not in control.
The ball is in the US court right now. Everything depends on what the US decides to do. I am doing my best to let People know, so they can plan accordingly.
heh...
well, trump, whatever else his faults are, made clear that he vehemently opposes the u.s. bombing russian territory. i'll mark him up as having a moment of lucidity.
i guess what we're looking at is trying to survive the biden presidency. with any luck he doesn't decide like a pharoah of old to have us all buried with him.
Roger Waters on Going Underground
Ashamed to be an Englishman.
Very passionate.
https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/files/2024.12/675d98d42030276c021dafa5.mp4?download=1
question everything
evening qms...
good to see that roger waters is still full of piss and vinegar. i appreciate him putting himself out there to advocate for the palestinians and others whose human rights are being trampled by tyrants.
Was Yoon trying to trigger a war?
Was South Korea’s coup an attempt to restart the Korean War?
This excerpt is from the end of the article and describes the wildest plan which has not been corroborated. Other military plans and provocations are described in Ju Yun-pak's article at the link above. It's interesting that Kim Eo-jun was surprised when he was informed of Brad Sherman's statement in an interview recorded by a South Korean broadcaster. Sherman seemed to know about Kim's testimony concerning an alleged plan to carry out a false flag attack inside South Korea, before Kim left the legislative hearing at which he made the disclosures. Kim didn't discuss this with anyone other than the original unnamed source. Kim, in a clarification, said he didn't say an embassy was the source, he said, a friendly country with an embassy in South Korea was the source. Kim would not confirm the source of the account. So how was Rep. Brad Sherman, on the Indo-Pacific subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs committee aware of allegations of a false flag attack being planned inside South Korea? I had this same reaction when I heard Sherman's interview. I had not heard of the alleged false flag attack plans at that point. I thought wtf is Sherman talking about? Kim was laughing about this situation on his program yesterday.
Thanks for posting the South Korean news coverage Joe.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
thanks for the update. south korean politics sure is a tangled web. one thing is for certain though, if brad sherman is involved in anything it doesn't bode well.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe!
Great sounds man! Is that the original "You Got Me Reelin'" Funny how Roy Buchanan picked up on it. His version on Livestock is my favorite ever. With the gerat singer.
Allso, is that the original "Rockin' pheumonia..."? Also very good.
Yeah the anti-climate protection people have the money and power, and hate little people Overwhelmingly conservatives. , that hate conserving what we have. Conservatives hate conservation. It is all about exploitation for green paper to them. As we see they would outlaw conservation if they could.
Thanks for the news and blues!
happy trails all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
yep, i believe that is the original you got me reelin' and rockin' which was written by milton. the original of rockin' pneumonia was by huey 'piano' smith and the (his?) clowns - written by smith.
buchanan's version is excellent, i'm pretty sure that the singer is billy price, later the leader of the keystone rhythm band.
have a great evening!
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. The info I've seen
indicates that all those NJ drones are flying down around the 1,000 foot level. Kites can get that high, and while you can't shoot drones with guns or lasers, you can fly kites just about anywhere, either with cams, just to get info, or in large groups like barrage balloons. Just saying.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
heh, i'll have to get my kite out of the attic and see if the squirrels have left it alone. then i can see if the drones have space agency markings.
have a great evening!
If only we had some of those
....terrifying Chinese Spy Balloons to scare the drones away.
Hard to know what is the truth about what happened in Syria
.
But if this is true it doesn’t look good for Putin.
https://johnhelmer.org/the-new-time-of-troubles-part-ii-putin-overruled-...
The decision about what Russia would do doing the planned terrorist overrun of Syria was known 2 weeks prior and Russia said it wouldn’t interfere with either Israel or Turkey. We know that Russia didn’t ever stop Israel from bombing Syria at will no matter how many people died from the attacks.
I just don’t get what game Putin is playing. He authorized the Libya war at the UN and I just read that he was on board with the Syria war even though he had bases there.
The Ukraine war is going on its 4th year now and I think Russia still won’t take the gloves off which has caused tens of thousands of Russian deaths.
Yes Ukraine had 8 years to build up its defenses, but why couldn’t Russian bombs taken care of them? Just too many things just don’t make sense.
America and its allies have put more sanctions on Russia year after year and stole $300 billion from them and yet Russia still sells them oil and other things instead of saying Nyet no soup for you until you stop trying to destroy our country. Russia even sells us stuff we need to make weapons that we use against them. Hell of a way to run a war.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt