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This evening's music features blues guitarist Robert Cray. Enjoy!

"It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."

-- John Steinbeck

News and Opinion

Worth a click and a full read:

How US Engineered PA’s West Bank Crackdown

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has initiated an armed crackdown against its own people in the occupied West Bank, a campaign reportedly backed and orchestrated by the United States. While corporate media narratives attempt to distance Washington from the operation, its roots trace back years.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas directed the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) on Saturday to execute a large-scale operation targeting resistance groups in the embattled Jenin refugee camp. PA spokesperson Brigadier General Anwar Rajab justified the crackdown by accusing these groups of sowing “sedition and chaos,” portraying them as foreign-backed Islamist criminals. The operation swiftly escalated, resulting in the killing of two Palestinians, including an unarmed teenager and a fighter aligned with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), who was a leader within the Jenin Brigades group.

Accusations against the Palestinian Authority forces quickly mounted. U.N. officials condemned their actions, reporting that security forces had opened fire on unarmed minors. PA forces were also documented using a hospital as a military base during the crackdown. From within the medical facility, they reportedly opened fire and detained eight individuals.

The Palestinian Authority has sought military support from the United States, specifically requesting armored vehicles and ammunition to bolster its forces. In response, Washington has reportedly urged Israel to approve the transfer of such equipment. Ahead of the operation, U.S. Security Coordinator Michael Fenzel is said to have held meetings with the PA security forces’ leadership. These discussions reportedly centered on the planned crackdown.

Trained by U.S. and Canadian armed forces, the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) 2,000-strong 101st Unit has now been assigned the task of dismantling resistance groups based in Jenin. These groups span a broad political spectrum, from secular factions to religious ones.

In the wake of the siege on the Jenin refugee camp, which has resulted now in at least three dead Palestinians since since early December, according to Reuters, several injured and widespread raids on civilian homes, residents of Jenin have begun staging demonstrations against the unpopular Palestinian Authority. Anger among the population has reached a boiling point, with many likening the PA’s actions to those of the Israeli military.

Phil Giraldi : Biden’s Marching Orders

Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill 38 More Palestinians Over 24 Hours

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that Israeli attacks killed at least 38 Palestinians and wounded 203 as the daily US-backed slaughter continues.

The ministry’s figures are based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians that are brought to hospitals and don’t account for those missing under the rubble or in areas rescuers are unable to access.

Israeli strikes on Wednesday included attacks on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, which has come under repeated attack since Israel placed the city under a total siege in early October as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign known as the “general’s plan.”

Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of the hospital, said overnight Israeli attacks caused a fire and put the ICU out of service. According to Al Jazeera, there have been 60 days of constant attacks on the hospital.

They're calling them Paddystillians in Israel

Israel allowed less than one-third of humanitarian aid into Gaza in December: UN

The UN on Wednesday reported that Israel has facilitated less than one-third of planned humanitarian aid operations into the Gaza Strip in December.

Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli authorities continue to deny UN aid operations to besieged parts of northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and areas of Jabalya.

Saying that most UN requests have been "denied outright" by Israel since its siege began 10 weeks ago, Dujarric said, "Across the strip, humanitarians continue to face severe access constraints as they try to reach huge numbers of people in need of food, water, shelter, essential and other essentials for them to survive."

"Throughout Gaza, we planned 339 aid movements that required coordination with the Israeli authorities between 1 and 16 December. They facilitated less than a third of those movements," he said.

He noted that "out of 96 such humanitarian movements planned for the first half of December, just 16 were facilitated by the Israeli authorities."

COL. Douglas Macgregor : America’s Next War of Choice

Iran: America’s Next War Of Choice

Peace is not at hand in the Middle East, and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu remains determined to expand the war. Syria’s de facto partition into Israeli and Turkish territories is the prelude to wider war with Iran. As the Times of Israel reported last week, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has “continued to increase its readiness and preparations” for “potential strikes in Iran.”

Netanyahu’s top priority is the destruction of Iran before Russia wraps up its victory in Ukraine and Syria becomes a new battleground for Turks and Israelis. It’s not simply the end of Washington’s “rules-based international order.” It’s the onset of chaos. Israeli forces and Turkish auxiliaries (i.e. the Islamist terrorists who sacked Syria) are already staring at each other across a demarcation line that runs east–west just south of Damascus. Netanyahu harbors no illusions about the conflict between Ankara’s long-term strategic aims in the region and Jerusalem’s determination to claim the Syrian spoils of war.

In addition to serious financial trouble and societal discontent on the home front, President-elect Donald Trump now confronts the dangerous distraction of wars he did not start, wars that will bring his administration and his country no strategic benefit. America’s underwriting of Netanyahu’s expanding war in the Middle East will endanger U.S. national security and guarantee that Washington, its armed forces, and the U.S. economy will be hostage to whatever strategic direction Netanyahu decides to take.

Starting the war sooner, rather than later, is critical for Netanyahu. War with Iran presents Trump with a strategic fait accompli. In case Trump decides to distance the United States from another bloodbath in the Middle East, Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran and Turkey’s potential confrontation with Israel will make disengagement impossible.

American policy planners need to understand the larger context in which this is all unfolding—and why a war on Iran will ultimately bring us and our alleged Israeli friends to grief. The principal aim of U.S. foreign policy planners ought to be the adaptation of the American economy and military establishment to the multipolar world and the development of new markets, not new enemies. Washington’s refusal to acknowledge the fundamental shifts in power and wealth lie at the heart of much of the Biden administration’s foreign policy failure.

Syria Is Free, Say Media—But That Shouldn’t Mean Free of US Occupation

Since the overthrow of the Syrian government, corporate media analysts have offered advice as to how the US should approach Syria going forward. These observers consistently opted not to call on the US and Israel to end their occupations of and violence toward Syria.

A Washington Post editorial (12/8/24), headlined “Why the US Needs to Help Build a New Syria,” said:

Syria might seem far removed from US interests. Before Mr. Assad’s fall, President-elect Donald Trump posted: “DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” But America is involved. Some 900 US troops and an undisclosed number of military contractors are operating in northeastern Syria near Iraq, battling the Islamic State and backing Kurdish forces fighting the Assad regime.

Estimates suggest that the US-led coalition that bombed Syria, ostensibly to defeat ISIS (Jacobin, 3/29/16), has killed at least 3,000 Syrian civilians and possibly more than 15,000. The Post misses a rather obvious point: The US can “help” Syria by withdrawing the forces that have slaughtered thousands of Syrian noncombatants.

The Post also published a piece by columnist Josh Rogin (12/8/24), “For the First Time in Decades, Syria Is Free. Now It’s Time to Help.” Set aside that Syria is not “free”; it is under foreign occupation (CBC, 12/10/24). The article provided virtually no details about the forms he thinks that “help” should take. Rogin said that “for those in Washington who have long wanted to withdraw US troops from Syria, [the ouster of Bashar al-Assad’s government] might offer a path forward.”

That falls short of saying that the US should withdraw its 900 troops and unknown number of contractors from the country, and Rogin said nothing about the US military bases in Syria, of which there are at least five, plus a minimum of two smaller sites (Stars and Stripes, 12/6/24). Through such mechanisms, the US has long exercised control over a quarter of Syrian territory, including its breadbasket and oil reserves (FAIR.org, 3/7/18; Responsible Statecraft, 7/28/24). Surely ending the US military occupation and returning sovereign control over the country’s vital resources are essential ways to “help” Syria, yet Rogin declined to call for these steps.

The Boston Globe’s editorial board (12/12/24) said that the fall of the Syrian government

represents an opportunity for the United States and the international community to reach out, to engage, and to help free Syria from the more cynical ambitions of Assad’s patrons in Iran and Russia.

Yet the paper endorsed the US occupation of Syria, writing that “a US military presence, however small, can make a difference.” It also advocated continued US meddling in Syrian affairs, asserting that “American diplomats can help promote stability and democracy in the country while sidelining extremist groups.”

Writing such a thing requires extraordinary cynicism, a goldfish’s memory, or both. The US teamed up with Al Qaeda in an effort to bring down the Assad government (Harper’s, 1/16). Weapons that America and its Saudi allies supplied to groups fighting the Syrian government “fell into” ISIS’ hands, significantly improving the quality of ISIS’ armaments, in quantities “far beyond those that would have been available through battle capture alone” (Al Jazeera, 12/14/17).

In the Los Angeles Times (12/13/24), Matthew Levitt said Syria’s “people need and deserve American support now.” His definition of “support” includes the US “maintain[ing] its small but influential US military presence in Syria,” in part to enable America’s junior partners in northeast Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to “continue maintaining detention camps holding Islamic State fighters.”

The conditions in these camps are abhorrent. An April report from Amnesty International concluded that the SDF and its local partners

—with the support of the US government and other members of the coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS) armed group—are engaged in the large-scale and systematic violation of the rights of more than 56,000 men, women and children in their custody. Most of these people were detained during the final battles with IS in 2019. They are now held in at least 27 detention facilities and two detention camps and face arbitrary and indefinite detention, enforced disappearance, grossly inhumane conditions, and other serious violations. Many of those detained are victims of IS atrocity crimes or trafficking in persons.

Keeping Syrians in dungeons is a rather odd way to “support” them.

Levitt also wrote that “the US should be cautious about removing sanctions against the Syrian state.” Maintaining sanctions is the opposite of “support[ing]” Syrians. In July, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia reported that the sanctions are negatively “impact[ing] large sectors of the population and the economy, including basic services (education, health, [water, sanitation, and hygiene]) and productive sectors (manufacturing and agriculture), as well as the work of humanitarian organizations.”

The cruelty of the sanctions is such that during the war in Syria, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials, Western sanctions have “severely restrict[ed] pharmaceutical imports,” undermining pediatric cancer treatment (Reuters, 3/15/17). Yet Levitt thinks the US shouldn’t hurry to lift such measures, even as doing so is a straightforward way to “support” Syrians.

Meanwhile, neither the editorial board of the Post nor that of the Globe includes sanctions removal on its list of ways to “help” Syria.

Furthermore, Levitt points out that, between the Assad government’s last hours and the first days after its overthrow, “the Israeli air force and navy have hit more than 350 strategic targets across the country, destroying an estimated 70% of Syria’s military capabilities.” Whatever Levitt’s definition is for “support,” it apparently includes the US allowing its Israeli surrogate to destroy Syria’s capacity to defend itself from foreign aggression. That won’t help Syria regain the sovereignty it has lost in the 13 years of international proxy war that have taken place on its soil, particularly when the party destroying Syrian military capacity is Israel, which maintains a decades-long regime of illegal occupation, colonization and annexation in Syria’s Golan Heights.

Similarly, the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman (12/13/24) argued that the incoming Trump administration should “help with—dare I say it—nation-building in Syria.” He went on to say “it would cost the United States and its allies little money and few troops to try to help” Syria. Friedman subsequently claimed that “without American help and leadership,” Syria could devolve into a “forever war” that would “suck Israel into Syria.”

Prior to Friedman’s article going to print, Israel had carried out 420 airstrikes in Syria in a week, hitting targets in 13 Syrian provinces. Israel had also set up shop on Mount Hermon, which is strategically located on the Syria/Lebanon border, in violation of 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria (BBC, 12/13/24).

Setting aside that Friedman bizarrely cast Israeli involvement in Syria as a hypothetical rather than a long-running reality—Israel bombed Syria hundreds of times in the 13 years of war that led to the Syrian government’s demise—the author’s notion of America “help[ing]” with “nation-building” does not exclude its underwriting Israel’s nation-destroying and nation-stealing in Syria.

In the same vein, the Globe’s editorial board says they want the US to “help free Syria,” but the Israeli violence that the US underwrites appears exempt, since it blandly describes some of what Israel has been doing, but doesn’t say it should stop:

Israel continues to launch bombing raids of Assad’s chemical weapons plants, naval vessels and Russian-made bombers, which the Israeli government says it is doing to prevent those military assets from falling into the wrong hands amid the chaos.

Thus, the authors seem to think the US can “help free Syria” without compelling its Israeli client to ends its relentless assault on the state. Meanwhile, stopping Israel’s bombing and conquest of Syria is not enumerated among the ways that Rogin or the Post’s editors think the US can “help” Syria have a brighter future.

If these commentators genuinely wanted Syria to flourish, they’d insist that the US and its allies finally end their long campaign of intervening in Syria, with quite harmful effects on the country’s population (Electronic Intifada, 3/16/17), and allow the nation to chart its own course.

US transfers three detainees out of Guantanamo Bay prison

The United States military has transferred three detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Malaysia and Kenya, reducing the prison's detainee population to 27.

In two separate announcements on Tuesday, the Pentagon said that Mohammed Abdulmalik Bajabu would be released to Kenya, while Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep would be released to Malaysia.

All three detainees were returned to their countries of birth, which hasn't been the case for many other former Guantanamo detainees, who were transferred to host countries where they do not speak the language and continue to struggle to acclimate to their surroundings.

Out of the remaining 27 detainees at Guantanamo, 15 are eligible to be transferred out of the prison, and another three are eligible to be considered for transfer.

Seven detainees are currently in the military commissions process, while two have been convicted and sentenced.

Russia says it has detained a suspect in the Moscow bombing that killed a senior general

Russia’s security service said Wednesday it detained a citizen from Uzbekistan in the bombing that killed a senior general as he left his southeastern Moscow apartment — a bold assassination that was claimed by Ukraine’s security service.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.

The suspect was identified by Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies as Akhmad Kurbanov of Uzbekistan.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, which did not identify him, said he was born in 1995 and was recruited by Ukraine’s security service. ... He said he had been promised $100,000 and resettlement in a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov, according to the FSB.

Putin claims Ukraine war has made Russia ‘much stronger’

Vladimir Putin said the war in Ukraine had made Russia “much stronger” and denied that the fall of his key ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria had hurt Moscow’s standing, as he held a marathon year-end press conference and television call-in seeking to project confidence at home and abroad.

Casting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as “illegitimate”, Putin said he was ready to meet Donald Trump and discuss peace proposals to end his full-scale invasion, but he repeated his hardline stance that Moscow would keep control of Crimea, together with the four Ukrainian regions he laid claim to in 2022. ...

Putin appeared largely upbeat and confident, as his troops continued to make grinding progress in Ukraine. “The situation on the battlefield is changing drastically, with movement occurring along the entire frontline,” he boasted. “Every day our fighters are reclaiming territory by the square kilometre.” He said the Russian military was “advancing toward achieving our goals” in what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine.

Putin said at one point that Moscow was “ready for negotiations and compromises” to end the fighting, but later he pointed to a maximalist position that would involve Ukraine not joining Nato, adopting a neutral status and undergoing some level of demilitarisation, while also demanding that the west lift its sanctions against Russia.

He indicated that the Kremlin would refuse to sign any agreements with Zelenskyy and rejected the idea of a ceasefire, instead advocating for a deal that would provide “long-term guarantees”.

US Amazon workers go on ‘largest’ strike against company, Teamsters union says

Amazon workers at seven US facilities walked off the job early on Thursday during the holiday shopping rush, aiming to pressure the retailer into contract talks with their union. Warehouse workers in cities including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco are taking part in the “largest” strike against Amazon, said the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 10,000 workers at 10 of the firm’s facilities.

“What we’re doing is historic,” said Leah Pensler, a warehouse worker at DCK6 in San Francisco in a press release announcing the strike. “We are fighting against a vicious union-busting campaign, and we are going to win.”

Teamsters locals are also starting picket lines at hundreds of Amazon sites around the US in support of the strike, the Teamsters said, and argued Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers have the legal right to honor those picket lines.

The company, however, said it does not expect any effect on its operations during one of the busiest times of the year. Unions represent only about 1% of the workforce of Amazon, one of the largest companies in the US by market value, and it has multiple locations in several metro areas.

Republicans fail to pass spending bill in House in setback for Trump

Donald Trump suffered a humiliating setback on Thursday when Republicans in Congress failed to pass a pared-down spending bill – just one day before a potential government shutdown that could disrupt Christmas travel.

By a vote of 174-235, the House of Representatives rejected the Trump-backed package, hastily assembled by Republican leaders after the president-elect and his billionaire ally Elon Musk scuttled a prior bipartisan deal.

Critics described the breakdown as an early glimpse of the chaos to come when Trump returns to the White House on 20 January. Musk’s intervention via a volley of tweets on his social media platform X was mocked by Democrats as the work of “President Musk”.

“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, told reporters. “It’s laughable. Extreme Maga Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”

Despite Trump’s support, 38 Republicans voted against the new package along with nearly every Democrat, ensuring that it failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage and leaving the next steps uncertain. The defiance from within Trump’s own party caught many by surprise.

Luigi Mangione supporters stand outside courthouse demanding healthcare change

Healthcare CEO shooting suspect charged with new federal counts

The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been charged in Manhattan federal court on four counts, including murder, stalking and firearms offenses. The federal criminal complaint against Luigi Mangione was unsealed two days after state prosecutors announced a grand jury indictment against him in the murder of executive Brian Thompson, who was shot dead on the streets of Manhattan.

The federal criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday charges Mangione with stalking – travel in interstate commerce, stalking – use of interstate facilities, murder through use of a firearm and a firearms offense.

The complaint alleges that Mangione was caught with evidence directly tying him to Thompson’s murder. Mangione was found “to be in possession of a loaded 9mm pistol and silencer consistent with the weapon used to kill the victim, clothing that matched apparel that the shooter wore in the security camera videos, a notebook … several thousand dollars in cash … and a letter addressed ‘To the Feds’,” the complaint states. ...

Earlier this week, Mangione was indicted by a New York grand jury and charged with state murder charges including first-degree murder, two counts of murder in the second degree, along with other weapons and forgery charges. The New York state case against Mangione will happen alongside the federal case against him.

In court in Manhattan, Mangione, now wearing a blue sweater and beige slacks, with his ankles in chains, made an initial appearance on the federal charges before US magistrate judge Katharine Parker. He spoke briefly to confirm to Parker that he understood his rights and the fresh federal charges. Mangione’s lawyer told the court that he would not seek to be released on bail and Parker ordered that he remain in custody. He will be asked to enter a plea at a future hearing.

Luigi Mangione Extradited to NY, Feds Targeting DEATH PENALTY?

Former chief adviser to Eric Adams indicted in $100,000 bribery scheme

A former chief adviser to New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, surrendered to city prosecutors on Thursday to face criminal charges related to an ongoing investigation of the mayor and his circle.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a powerful adviser of Adams, her son Glenn Martin II, aka Suave Luciano, and two real estate investors were indicted in an influence-peddling $100,000 bribery scheme.

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, alleged in a statement that Lewis-Martin had used her authority to engage “in a long-running bribery, money laundering and conspiracy scheme by using her position and authority” to “illegally influence Department of Buildings and other city decisions in exchange for more than $100,000 in cash and benefits for herself and her son, Glenn Martin”.

According to court documents, Lewis-Martin and her son traded on the access and influence of her position with two New York business owners, Raizada Vaid and Mayank Dwivedi, to speed through construction permits for a rooftop bar and a hotel.

Prosecutors called Lewis-Martin “the second most senior person in city hall” and said she “abused her position and sold her influence to enrich herself and her family”.

Fani Willis disqualified from prosecuting Trump in Georgia election case

The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has been disqualified from prosecuting Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in light of her relationship with her top deputy on the case, the Georgia state court of appeals ruled on Thursday. The 2-1 decision to remove Willis – and overturn the ruling by the presiding judge that allowed her to remain on the case as long as the deputy, Nathan Wade, resigned – likely signals the death knell for the final criminal case still active against Trump.

“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” Judge Trenton Brown wrote in the 31-page opinion. “The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.

“While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety is generally not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”

Hours after the decision, the district attorney’s office filed a notice announcing its intention to appeal the ruling to the Georgia supreme court. But Trump’s return to the White House will cause proceedings to be paused for the duration of his presidency, suggesting the case may not continue in its current form.

US environmental agency fast-tracking new PFAS approvals for semiconductors

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is quietly fast-tracking approval of new PFAS “forever chemicals” for use by the semiconductor industry at the same time the agency is publicly touting increased scrutiny of new PFAS and other chemicals. As US semiconductor production ramps up, the hastened reviews could sharply increase pollution containing little-studied PFAS that are likely toxic, accumulative in the environment and contribute to climate change.

Despite the risks, the EPA is “bending over backwards” for the semiconductor industry, said Mike Belliveau, the founder of the Bend The Curve non-profit who has lobbied on toxic chemical legislation. “We’re going to see more and more [PFAS pollution],” he said. “No one is happy that PFAS is in their drinking water or raining down from the air, and EPA’s permitting runs counter to rising scientific and public concern … so tension is mounting.” ...

Semiconductors are essential to electronics used in defense, medical devices, smart phones, clean energy and more, and the Biden administration has spurred the industry’s onshoring with billions in incentives. But the industry is a prolific polluter and a major source of unregulated and unmonitored PFAS, creating tension with Biden’s sweeping plan to rein in PFAS pollution.

The controversy represents a confluence of what environmental advocates have said are major deficiencies in PFAS regulation. It’s generating debate over the definition of PFAS, political meddling in EPA decisions, the rapid accumulation of little-studied PFAS and regulators’ black box decision making around chemical safety and approvals.

Revealed: how a US public university courted the gas industry despite climate impacts

One of Louisiana’s top public universities has prompted concerns about “corporate capture” over its expanding relationship with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, despite environmental warnings about pollution and prolonging fossil fuel use.

As the US’s LNG boom gained momentum in south-west Louisiana, McNeese State University courted the industry to help launch a new LNG Center of Excellence currently under construction, hired a director doubling as an LNG industry lobbyist, and approached federal regulators to co-locate their own research center at the university, according to emails obtained via public records requests by DeSmog and the Guardian.

A divestment movement aimed at pushing back on the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long creep into classrooms of all levels has grown in recent years out of concerns that industry-sponsored academic research could be a vehicle for climate obstruction. But near the Texas border in Lake Charles, Louisiana, McNeese State University welcomed industry right on in.

McNeese’s leadership team and the LNG industry tout this partnership as mutually beneficial, offering the university funding while providing the industry with educated workers, relevant research, and input on policy. However, alumni, environmental advocates, and researchers say the move raises alarms about the impacts of the LNG build out on communities and potential conflicts of interest.

Jennie Stephens, a professor of climate justice at Maynooth University in Ireland, who co-authored a first-of-its-kind review of academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel industry ties to higher education, said the McNeese LNG center is part of a larger pattern of private sector interests capturing public universities. “It’s a classic example of academic capture where the private interests use the public infrastructure for their own profit-seeking motives rather than the needs of the community or the state,” she said after hearing details of the reporting by DeSmog and the Guardian.

Also of Interest

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

What Happens When Trump’s “Negotiations” Over Ukraine Quickly Hit the Wall?

New Reports On Gaza

UK Prison Abuse of Palestine Activists

UN Security Council Denounces Illegal Israel Settlements in Palestine

Fed Chair Jay Powell Sends a Bold Message to Trump and Tanks the Dow by 1123 Points

Canada’s government in shambles after Trump tariff threats – what can it do next?

Batshit Delusional Canadian Conservatives

A Little Night Music

The Robert Cray Band - Poor Johnny

Eric Clapton and Robert Cray - Old Love

Robert Cray - I Guess I Showed Her

Robert Cray - I Shiver

John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray - Baby Lee

Robert Cray- Phone Booth

Robert Cray Band (w/The Memphis Horns) - Nothing But A Woman

Robert Cray ~ Smoking Gun

Robert Cray - Chicken in the Kitchen

Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan & Hubert Sumlin - Killing Floor