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This evening's music features blues songwriter and piano player Jimmy McCracklin. Enjoy!

"US capitalism is up against the same problems that pushed Germany in 1914 on the path of war. The world is divided? It must be redivided. For Germany, it was a question of “organizing Europe.” The United States must “organize” the world. History is bringing humanity face to face with the volcanic eruption of American imperialism."

-- Leon Trotsky

News and Opinion

Trump reveals foreign policy of annexation and global conquest

On Tuesday, US President-elect Donald Trump addressed a press conference, nominally on economic policy, in which he threatened to use military force to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland. He vowed to compel the annexation of Canada through economic pressure and to force Europe to double its military spending in order to receive “protection” from the United States. “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said. When asked whether he would consider using “military coercion” to annex Panama and Greenland, Trump replied that he would, adding, “We need them for economic security.” ...

During the election, Trump appealed to popular opposition to the Ukraine war, accusing Biden of starting “World War III” and highlighting the massive decline in workers’ living standards amid a spiraling cost-of-living crisis intensified by the wars against Russia and in the Middle East. Now that he is about to assume the presidency, Trump is making clear the true aims of his administration, which will be devoted to war-making on an unprecedented scale. His criticism of the war in Ukraine is rooted in tactical conflicts within the ruling class. His threat that “All hell will break out” in the Middle East makes clear that his administration will be one of daily escalating crisis and global war.

Critical to the Trump administration’s striving for global hegemony is the effort to reorganize the Americas under direct US domination, modeled on Hitler’s Anschluss (joining) of Austria and Germany in 1938. Trump is seeking to shore up America’s power base in its near abroad, which is seen as essential for projecting power against American imperialism’s principal rival: China. Canada and Greenland, with their significant mineral resources, energy deposits and access to Arctic seaways, are critical to this effort, as is the Panama Canal, a central choke point between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Trump is declaring that the era in which the operations of US militarism will be bound by any legal constraints or the fig leaf of “international law” is over. From now on, it is the law of the jungle in which “the strong do what they will, and the weak suffer what they must.”

Trump Threatens US Expansion into Canada, Greenland w/ Joe Lauria

Quaker group pulls NYT ad over paper’s refusal to let it call Israel’s Gaza bombing ‘genocide’

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization that advocates for peace, said on Monday the group cancelled a planned advertisement in the New York Times in response to the paper refusing to allow it to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

“The refusal of The New York Times to run paid digital ads that call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary for the AFSC, in a press release. “Palestinians and allies have been silenced and marginalized in the media for decades as these institutions choose silence over accountability. It is only by challenging this reality that we can hope to forge a path toward a more just and equitable world.” ...

The New York Times has previously run advertisements using the term. In 2016, it published an ad from the Armenian Educational Foundation thanking Kim Kardashian for opposing denial of the Armenian genocide. In 2008, presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain co-signed a letter advertisement in the New York Times calling out the genocide in Darfur.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Is Israel Over-Extended?

IDF restricts media coverage of soldiers to protect them from risk of legal action

The Israeli military has placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on active combat duty because of growing concern about the risk of legal action against reservists travelling abroad over allegations of involvement in war crimes in Gaza.

The move came after an Israeli reservist vacationing in Brazil left the country abruptly when a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to open an investigation following allegations from a pro-Palestinian group that he had committed war crimes while serving in Gaza.

Under the new rules, media interviewing soldiers of the rank of colonel and under will not be able to display their full names or faces, similar to the rules that already exist for pilots and members of special forces units, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson told reporters. The interviewees must not be linked to a specific combat event they participated in.

“This is our new guideline to protect our soldiers and to make sure they are safe from these types of incident hosted by anti-Israel activists around the world,” Shoshani said. He said that under existing military rules, soldiers were already not supposed to post videos and other images from war zones on social media “even though that’s never perfect and we have a large army”. There were also longstanding rules and guidelines for soldiers travelling abroad, he said.

Shoshani said activist groups, such as the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation, which pushed for the action in Brazil, were “connecting the dots” between soldiers who posted material from Gaza and then posted other photos and videos of themselves while on holiday abroad.

Max Blumenthal : More Lies on Syria

Israel Blocks UN Probe of Alleged Hamas Sex Crimes During October 7 Attack

Israel has blocked a request from United Nations sex crimes experts to probe alleged sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas fighters during the October 7, 2023 attack, reportedly to avoid attendant scrutiny of rapes and other abuses allegedly committed by Israeli forces against imprisoned Palestinians.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday that Pramila Patten, the U.N.'s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, sought Israeli authorization to investigate alleged sex crimes committed by Hamas during the massive attack it led on Israel.

While some allegations of Hamas sex crimes have lacked evidence or have been outright debunked, Patten concluded last year that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence—including rape and gang-rape—occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on October 7, 2023."

Patten's office "also found convincing information that sexual violence was committed against hostages" that were kidnapped from Israel "and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity."

Patten's March 2024 UN report documented sexual violence during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack & alleged continued assaults on the hostages in Gaza.

But obstructionism from Israel’s government could place it, not Hamas, on the UN’s sex crimes blacklist, Israeli women’s rights groups warn: https://t.co/De29vT7NkV

— Monica Marks (@MonicaLMarks) January 8, 2025

Former hostages have said they were physically, sexually, and psychologically abused by their Palestinian captors.

In addition to investigating alleged Hamas sexual violence, Patten demanded—and was denied—access to Israeli prisons to investigate sex crimes allegations against Israel Defense Forces personnel. U.N. agencies and international human rights groups have published accounts by former Palestinian prisoners and other witnesses describing rape and sexual torture by male and female IDF soldiers and, in one case, by a dog.

Among the at least 36 detainee deaths at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman torture prison under IDF investigation is one man who died after allegedly being sodomized by an electric baton.

Last July, video emerged of IDF troops allegedly gang-raping a Sde Teiman detainee. After several IDF soldiers were arrested in connection with the attack, a mob of far-right Israelis stormed Sde Teiman in a bid to free the defendants, and Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded a probe—not to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find and punish whoever leaked the video.

Patten's office told Haaretz that it "is exploring a future mission to the region after receiving an invitation from the Palestinian Authority regarding reports of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians as well as outreach by the government of Israel for a follow-up visit on the October 7 attacks and their aftermath."

The office also warned that Israel's refusal to cooperate with its probe could backfire and end up with the country included on the U.N'.s sex crimes blacklist and Hamas left off the list.

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told Haaretz that Israel's rejection of the U.N. probe represents "a missed opportunity for a definitive international record and recognition for the victims—not to mention the obligation to thoroughly investigate the new evidence to uncover the truth."

Israel Killed 74 Children in Gaza in First Week of 2025

US-backed Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least 74 children in just the first week of 2025, according to the UN’s child relief agency, UNICEF.

“Children have reportedly been killed in several mass casualty events, including nighttime attacks in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and al-Mawasi, a unilaterally designated ‘safe zone’ in the south,” UNICEF said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, an Israeli strike on al-Mawasi in south Gaza killed five displaced children who were sheltering in tents. The IDF has repeatedly bombed al-Mawasi despite designating it as a so-called “humanitarian safe zone.”

Israel's Real Plan For Gaza Revealed

‘We Plan to Stay’ – UNRWA Vows to Continue Operations Despite Israeli Ban

UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma has vowed not to shut down operations on January 31 when a new Israeli law banning the agency takes effect, the American news website Axios reported on Wednesday.

“We plan to stay in Gaza and work as long as we can until we can’t. It will be a disaster if the bill is implemented,” Touma reportedly said. “Who is going to do the work?”

This comes as State Department officials warned the Trump administration transition team that “there could be a humanitarian ‘catastrophe’ in Gaza” once the law is implemented, the report added, citing three US officials. They say there is “no serious backup plan for providing humanitarian supplies and services to Palestinians.” ...

Axios reported that according to US officials, “neither Israel nor the UN has made any serious plans for what happens next.” US and Israeli officials, the report added, said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has refused over the past two months “to engage in a discussion with Israel about alternative UN agencies that could take on some of UNRWA’s roles.”

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Does Trump Want Peace?

Trump shares inflammatory video with crude reference to Netanyahu

Donald Trump has shared inflammatory video content calling Benjamin Netanyahu a “deep, dark son of a bitch” just weeks after the Israeli leader claimed the two had a “very friendly, warm” discussion about hostage negotiations and Syria policy. The president-elect posted the clip to Truth Social featuring economist Jeffrey Sachs, who accuses Netanyahu of manipulating US foreign policy and orchestrating “endless wars” in the Middle East.

In the video, Sachs – who is being interviewed by Tucker Carlson – claims Netanyahu has pursued a systematic strategy since 1995 to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah by targeting their supporting governments in Iraq, Iran and Syria. “[Netanyahu’s] gotten us into endless wars and because of the power of all of this in US politics, he’s gotten his way,” Sachs says in the interview, referring to the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups.

Trump’s aim in promoting the video was not immediately clear. The president-elect has a history of re-posting clips and images that criticize establishment policies in Washington, but the repost comes amid intensive diplomatic efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the current US administration to broker a truce deal that would include hostage releases.

Trump’s decision to amplify Sachs’s comments also comes as he assembles what Israeli settlers are dubbing a “dream team” of hardline supporters of the state.

Yanis Varoufakis: Palestinian Genocide - Gaza, Resistance, Truth, and Europe’s Role

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez denounces Elon Musk at Franco anniversary event

Pedro Sánchez has hit out at Elon Musk and his allies for “openly attacking our institutions, inciting hatred and openly calling for people to support the heirs of nazism”, saying the politics of division, disinformation and hatred risk ushering in a new age of authoritarianism.

Speaking in Madrid on Wednesday as Spain prepares to mark the 50th anniversary in November of the death of General Franco and the country’s subsequent return to democracy, the Spanish prime minister said hard-won, basic freedoms could not, and should not, be taken for granted.

“When you’ve spent your life under its protective veil, it’s easy to forget the enormous strengths of democracy and to let yourself be seduced by those who promise people order, security and wealth in exchange for robbing us of the most precious thing a person can have, which is the power to choose our own destiny,” he said. The socialist leader said it was clear that autocratic regimes and values of the last century were on the rise again across the world – not least in the shape of Musk and his ilk.

“The fascism that we thought we’d left behind is now the third biggest political force in Europe,” said Sánchez. “And, as President Macron [of France] said only a few days ago, the international reactionary movement – or the international far-right movement that we’ve been warning about for years in Spain – which is being led in this case by the richest man on the planet, is openly attacking our institutions, inciting hatred and openly calling for people to support the heirs of nazism in Germany in the forthcoming elections that will be held in Europe’s most important economy.”

If history teaches us anything, he said, it is that “freedom is never won on a permanent basis” and that democracy could be snuffed out again in parts of the world.

EU Bureaucrats THREATEN Elon Musk, X

‘América Mexicana’: Mexico’s president responds to Trump with renaming of her own

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, has responded to Donald Trump’s proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America with a counter-proposal to rename North America.

Standing before a global map in her daily press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that the continent should be known as “América Mexicana”, or “Mexican America”, because an 1814 founding document that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.

“That sounds nice, no?” she added with a sarcastic tone. She also noted that the ocean basin bounded by the US Gulf coast, Mexico’s eastern states and the island of Cuba has been known as the Gulf of Mexico since 1607.

Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on 20 January, said on Tuesday he planned to rename the Gulf as “the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring”.

Fed fears Trump policies could hinder effort to cut US inflation, minutes show

Federal Reserve officials see a rising risk that inflation may remain sticky in the US as policymakers begin wrestling with the impact of policies from the incoming Trump administration, according to the minutes of the US central bank’s latest meeting.

While officials believe inflation will continue to move toward 2%, the Fed’s target rate for inflation, they noted that “recent higher-than-expected readings on inflation, and the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy, suggested that the process could take longer than previously anticipated”.

“Several observed that the disinflationary process may have stalled temporarily or noted the risk that it could,” the minutes released on Wednesday noted.

The minutes described the December rate cut by the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee as “finely balanced”, with some participants noting the “merits” of not reducing borrowing costs in light of what some see as stalled progress in lowering inflation.

December’s Fed decision sent stock markets sharply lower as investors weighed the consequences of a slow down in the central bank’s rate cutting policies.

Is Trump RETREATING On Universal Tariffs?

Trump considers declaring national economic emergency to impose tariffs

Donald Trump is mulling over the idea to declare a national economic emergency to impose widespread tariffs, CNN reports, as the president-elect escalates threats to seize the Panama Canal, acquire Greenland and force Canada into becoming a US state.

The emergency powers move would allow Trump to implement broad tariff measures against both allies and adversaries through the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.

The emergency powers would give Trump significant latitude in constructing a new tariff programme without having to demonstrate traditional national security justifications, the sources told CNN. “Nothing is off the table,” one source familiar with the matter told the network, confirming that robust discussions about declaring a national emergency have taken place.

The exploratory consideration comes amid mounting international backlash after Trump refused to rule out using military or economic coercion regarding Panama and Greenland during a rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. ...

Some Trump advisers attempted to downplay the rhetoric, telling the Wall Street Journal the comments were negotiating tactics rather than literal policy positions. Alexander Gray, a former Trump White House national security council chief of staff, characterised the approach as part of a broader strategy to “defend the western hemisphere against great power competitors”.

Charlamagne Says DEMS Should LEARN From Trump: 'No Political Correctness Whatsoever'

Alaska sues Biden administration over oil and gas drilling leases in Arctic refuge

The US state of Alaska has sued the Biden administration for what it calls violations of a congressional directive to allow oil and gas development in a portion of the federal Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The federal lawsuit in the US district court in Alaska filed on Monday challenges the federal government’s December 2024 decision to add restrictions to an offer of oil and gas drilling leases in an area known as the coastal plain. The lawsuit said curbs on surface use and occupancy make it “impossible or impracticable to develop” 400,000 acres of land the US interior department plans to auction this month to oil and gas drillers.

The limits would severely limit future oil exploration and drilling in the refuge, it added. “Interior’s continued and irrational opposition under the Biden administration to responsible energy development in the Arctic continues America on a path of energy dependence instead of utilizing the vast resources we have available,” Mike Dunleavy, Alaska’s Republican governor, said in a statement.

Alaska wants the court to set aside the December decision and prohibit the department from issuing leases at the auction.

L.A. Fires Should Be a Climate Wake-Up Call: 5 Dead, 130K+ Evacuated in Uncontained Apocalypse

Amid LA Inferno, Home Insurers Under Fire for Policy Cancellations

As deadly wildfire incinerated more than 1,000 homes and other structures in Los Angeles County this week, insurance companies are sparking outrage for having recently canceled homeowners' policies across California—including in some of the areas hit hardest by the current blazes.

More than 1,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings have burned in the Palisades, Hurst, and Eaton fires—the latter of which has killed two people, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. Fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds and extraordinarily dry conditions, all three fires were at 0% containment as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).

Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders for more than 80,000 residents. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters Wednesday morning that a "high number of people who didn't evacuate" suffered serious injuries. Hundreds of thousands of area residents are also without power.

CAL FIRE said on Wednesday afternoon that the largest of the three blazes, the Palisades Fire, had burned more than 11,000 acres, while the Eaton Fire had scorched over 10,600 acres and the Hurst Fire topped 500 acres burned. Firefighters battling the Palisades Fire reported hydrants coming up dry.

Amid increased extreme weather events driven by the climate emergency, insurance companies have faced criticism for canceling policies and pulling out of states with elevated wildfire or hurricane risk.

Who knows I guess but really feels like the climate crisis is putting the home insurance industry on a fast-track to being almost as reviled as the health insurance industry

— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) January 8, 2025

State Farm, one of California's largest insurers, announced last year that it would not renew 30,000 home insurance policies throughout the state—including at least hundreds in areas affected by the current wildfires—explaining that the move was meant to avert a "financial failure" that would "detrimentally impact the entire market."

Other insurance companies have taken similar action, leaving their customers scrambling to find coverage.

Michael DeLong, research and advocacy associate at the Consumer Federation of America, told Common Dreams Wednesday that while climate-driven extreme weather has "made many areas riskier to insure," insurance companies are also canceling policies because "they're trying to take advantage of the situation of rising risks and rising costs to weaken consumer protections."

"They've been waging a campaign against Proposition 103… a ballot initiative that got passed in the late 1980s that, among other things, puts in place a lot of consumer protections about insurance," he added. "This has been a big deal for consumers and it's helped keep rates down. But insurance companies really hate these consumer protections and have been trying to weaken them."

In a Wednesday interview with Common Dreams, Jamie Court, president of the Los Angeles-based group Consumer Watchdog, noted that "under Prop 103, we could challenge rate hikes, and we saved $1 billion by challenging rate hikes that were too high last year."

However, advocates say that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's new "sustainable insurance strategy" will make it harder to challenge rates and lacks transparency and public input.

DeLong said Lara is "allowing the net cost of reinsurance to be passed on to consumers."

Reinsurance is an arrangement in which insurance companies transfer risk to another insurer to mitigate damages.

"Until a few weeks ago, California's regulations didn't allow the cost of reinsurance to be passed on to consumers, and now they do," DeLong explained. "So that's probably going to drive up costs for consumers. The commissioner and the department say it's going to make the insurance industry more stable—we're kind of skeptical of that."

"Another reform that he's done is allowing the use of catastrophe models in insurance," DeLong added, referring to a risk management tool that helps insurers assess potential financial impacts of disasters. "Every other state allows insurance companies to use them; California did not until recently. Catastrophe models can be helpful and useful; the problem is that many catastrophe models aren't that good; they're based on inaccurate or incomplete information and they don't have any transparency."

Court also decried the lack of transparency in catastrophe models, which he said "can say anything they want, and then we have to pay the rate." He also criticized Lara's proposal to allow insurers to hike rates in exchange for a purported commitment to cover more properties in wildfire areas.

Lara said last year that "insurance companies will write no less than 85% of their statewide market share in wildfire distressed areas,"

However, Court cautioned that Lara is assuming "that the companies are actually going to increase their footprint in wildfire areas."

"When you look at the details... there are these big loopholes," he said. "Insurance companies have to commit to 85% [wildfire area saturation] within two years—or they can do 5% more than they're doing now. So if they're at 0%, they can go to 5%. This is complete bullshit."

As coverage becomes more difficult to obtain, hundreds of thousands of California homeowners have turned to the state's FAIR Plan, an insurer of last resort, which has more than doubled the number of policies issued since 2020.

"If the FAIR Plan is the only thing you can do, take that," DeLong said. "In the meantime, you can reach out to the Department of Insurance and let them know that you want them to protect consumers and reject excessive rate increases."

"You can also try mitigation measures to reduce risk, like clearing brush around your home, improving your roof so it's a Class A roof, which means it's very difficult to catch on fire, you can take measures to prevent embers from starting fires on your property," he added. "The problem is that all of that costs money, and not everyone may be able to afford that… California has recently started some proposals to provide grants to consumers to undertake these measures, and these should be expanded even more."

"There is some good news," DeLong said. "The California Department of Insurance is working on a public catastrophe model, one that would have opportunities for input from consumers, that would be based on data that's fair and open."

"However, that's going to take at least a couple of years to get off the ground," he added.

Court concurred. "We're a long way away from that, and it's not even going to be something that companies have to use, it's something that would be supplemental," he said of the public model. "I think it's giving lip service, but I think it's the right direction. It just needs to be much more aggressive."

Also of Interest

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

Craig Murray: Twisting the Terrorism Narrative

Taxpayers Suing US Reps for Funding Genocide

To Avoid Fighting Large Conflicts Trump Is Creating Smaller Ones

Canada 101 For Would Be American Annexers

Europe Races to Refill as Gas Reserves Dwindle

Elon, Vivek Go FULL ANTI-AMERICAN In H1b Fight

A Little Night Music

Jimmy McCracklin - Get Tough

Jimmy McCracklin - She Felt Too Good

Jimmy McCracklin - She's Gone

Jimmy McCracklin – Steppin' Up In Class

Jimmy McCracklin - Rockin' All Day

Jimmy McCracklin - Georgia Slop

Jimmy McCracklin - Lets Do It (The Chicken Scratch)

Jimmy McCracklin - The Wobble

Jimmy McCracklin - The Walk