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This evening's music features singer and saxophone player Jackie Brenston. Enjoy!

"[I]t's impossible to evade the fact that Endless War will inevitably degrade the citizenry of the country that engages in it. A country which venerates its military above all other institutions, which demands that its soldiers be spoken of only with religious-like worship, and which continuously indoctrinates its population to believe that endless violence against numerous countries is necessary and just - all by instilling intense fear of the minorities who are the target of that endless violence - will be a country filled with citizens convinced of the virtues and nobility of aggression."

-- Glenn Greenwald

News and Opinion

Thoughts On The Ceasefire Deal

Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal, which is scheduled to take effect January 19. The deal as written is apparently virtually identical to the one Hamas agreed to last May, which Netanyahu then sabotaged with the complicity of the Biden administration.

As usual, Israel appears to be ramping up its aggressions to kill as many people as possible before the fighting comes to an end. These next few days will be an especially terrifying time to be living in Gaza.

The Times of Israel reports that according to two unnamed Arab officials, the middle east envoy for the incoming Trump administration did more to sway Netanyahu in one day than the Biden administration did all year. The Trump camp’s pivotal role in securing the deal has been acknowledged by pretty much everyone at this point, including Biden’s State Department.

So it looks like Trump winning ended up being the better result for the people of Gaza, as weird as that sounds. Not because he’s a fantastic peacemaker, but because he did something instead of doing nothing.

Which would mean that everyone who said a Trump win will make things worse for Gaza was objectively wrong, and that Biden-Harris were undeniably the greater evil.

Cool. Lesson learned.

STATE DEPT: "When it comes to the involvement of President-elect Trump's team, it has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line."

"We, of course, thank the Trump team." pic.twitter.com/yL3U8y3PO2

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 15, 2025

Don’t get me wrong, Trump is going to be terrible for the Palestinians, terrible for the middle east, and terrible for the world. And it’s very possible that even this basic, bare-minimum end to an active holocaust won’t hold. I’m not praising Trump, I’m shitting on Biden.

Biden, who could have ended this all with a phone call at any time and chose not to, every day for 15 months. Whose unique combination of dementia, corruption and lifelong virulent Zionism made these genocidal atrocities possible in ways that couldn’t have happened to the same degree under any other administration. Whose Zionist handlers pushed through as many crimes against humanity as they could possibly cram into the remainder of their administration while stalling peace efforts by hiding their true intentions.

Yes, we can expect to see more cruelty inflicted upon the Palestinians in general and the people of Gaza in particular. Yes, we can expect Trump to shower Israel with gifts while ramping up tensions with Iran like he did in his previous term. None of this changes the clearly established fact that Joe Biden was a uniquely horrible president for this point in history, and that humanity would probably be better off if he’d lost in 2020.

This development comes as new polling shows us that Kamala Harris’ depraved position on Gaza probably cost her the election last November. A poll released on Wednesday by IMEU Policy Project and YouGov found that among people who voted for Biden in 2020 but didn’t vote for Harris in 2024, Gaza was their number one reason — surpassing even issues like the economy and healthcare.

So it turns out all those Muslims in Michigan that liberals have been screaming at for refusing to vote for Harris were right all along. Kamala Harris told them “I’m speaking” when they protested her genocidal atrocities at a political rally in Detroit. Well, who’s speaking now?

Well well well pic.twitter.com/FxW8hj240P

— barbarism critic (@SxarletRed) January 15, 2025

I’ve only just begun allowing myself to emotionally process the possibility that this could be the beginning of the end of the Gaza holocaust. My default position on such matters always tends toward intellectual pessimism, but when I saw the relief and celebrations of the people of Gaza it really hit my guts that this nightmare could possibly be winding down, and I have now allowed a tiny ray of hope to touch in.

I don’t mind getting my hopes up, because I don’t really mind feeling disappointed if things don’t go the way I was hoping. I don’t like using pessimism as an emotional sedative to hide my heart and blunt the impact of the ups and downs of life.

I have never enjoyed this job less than I have these last 15 months. Having to look at dead and mutilated children every day, month after month, has changed my experience of the world. Changed my insides. Changed what it feels like to be alive. The idea that this particular horror might be on its last legs is causing some major emotional rumblings in my depths that I still haven’t allowed to fully express here.

I’ve definitely got a big cry in my future. A lot of tears. A lot of shaking. Some throat-splitting screams of white hot rage. There are a lot of feels that have yet to be felt here. When the picture of what’s happening gets a little clearer and when the time is right, I will feel them. There’s an emotional tsunami in the mail.

This will take a long time to process, and of course the fight is very, very far from over. But I am allowing myself to feel some sliver of hope that, in this one small part of the world, things might start getting a little better.

Mehdi Hasan & Trump Skeptics HUMILIATED

Max Blumenthal : MAX CONFRONTS BLINKEN!

Hamas and Israel have agreed Gaza ceasefire deal, Qatari PM says

Hamas and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire deal, pausing the war in Gaza and designed to broker an end to the brutal 15-month conflict, the mediator Qatar has said. The agreement is set to be officially accepted by Israel after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The announcement on Wednesday night from Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, was made after weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha. There were intensified efforts in recent days to hammer out the final details after increased pressure on Israel to reach a deal from the US president-elect, Donald Trump, which Sheikh Mohammed acknowledged in his media conference.

“The two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal on the prisoner and the hostage swap, and [the mediators] announce a ceasefire in the hopes of reaching a permanent ceasefire between the two sides,” he said.

“Both parties should commit totally to all three phrases [of the agreement] to steer away from further bloodshed and steer away escalation in the region.” Sheikh Mohammed added: “We hope this will be the end of a dark chapter of war.”

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : What Ceasefire?

Israel massacres dozens in Gaza after Biden announces ceasefire

In a video statement Wednesday afternoon, US President Joe Biden announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached between Hamas and Israel and would be implemented on Sunday. “A ceasefire and a hostage deal have been reached between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said.

Biden claimed that the first phase of the agreement would include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas.” Israel reacted to Biden’s announcement by continuing to massacre dozens of people in Gaza. More than 30 people were killed in bombings on refugee camps, residential neighborhoods and hospitals Wednesday following the announcement, on top of 50 that had been killed earlier in the day.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following Biden’s announcement, “An official statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be issued only after the completion of the final details of the agreement, which are being worked on at present.” It subsequently said in a statement, “The Israeli negotiations team in Doha reported to Netanyahu of a last-minute attempt by Hamas to withdraw from a clause in the agreement,” adding, “Netanyahu instructed the negotiations team to uphold the understandings that were agreed upon and to reject the last-minute blackmail attempts by Hamas.”

Regardless of whether an agreement is finally reached and whether Israeli troops formally withdraw from Gaza, any “ceasefire” would continue the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the brutal apartheid regime to which the Palestinians are subjected. Notably, the Israeli “ceasefire” with Lebanon worked out in November has been followed by almost daily bombardment of Lebanese territory by Israel, and there is every reason to believe this would be the case for Gaza as well.

In fact, if the Israeli military pulls back from Gaza, it is because it will have achieved its aim of leveling the majority of buildings and massacring a significant portion of its population.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Does Netanyahu Keep His Word?

Report Says Biden's 'Empty Threats' on Gaza Fed Israeli Impunity

New reporting published Wednesday details the impotence and insincerity of President Joe Biden's "multiple threats, warnings, and admonishments" to Israel as it annihilated the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians while receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. arms and unwavering diplomatic support.

Writing for ProPublica, Brett Murphy showed how multiple "red lines" issued by Biden administration officials were ignored by Israel with impunity. Murphy highlighted Secretary of State Antony Blinken's October 2024 demand that Israel take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza—mainly by allowing far more aid into the embattled strip—within 30 days or face a military aid cutoff.

Thirty days came and went without significant improvement or letup in Israel's onslaught. Yet the Biden administration insisted it found no indication that Israel was using U.S.-supplied weapons illegally. The arms flow continued.

As Murphy reported:

That choice was immediately called into question. On November 14, a U.N. committee said that Israel's methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, was "consistent with genocide." Amnesty International went further and concluded a genocide was underway. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations.

"Government officials worry Biden's record of empty threats have given the Israelis a sense of impunity," wrote Murphy.

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told Murphy that "Netanyahu's conclusion was that Biden doesn't have enough oomph to make him pay a price, so he was willing to ignore him."

"Part of it is that Netanyahu learned there is no cost to saying 'no' to the current president," al-Omari added.

Conversely, Murphy noted: "On Wednesday, after months of negotiations, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire deal. While it will become clear over the next days and months exactly what the contours of the agreement are, why it happened now, and who deserves the most credit, it's plausible that [U.S. President-elect Donald] Trump's imminent ascension to the White House was its own form of a red line."

"Early reports suggest the deal looks similar to what has been on the table for months," he added, "raising the possibility that if the Biden administration had followed through on its tough words, a deal could have been reached earlier, saving lives."

As Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, told Murphy, "It's hard to avoid the conclusion that [Biden's] red lines have all just been a smokescreen."

"The Biden administration decided to be all-in and merely pretended that it was trying to do something," Walt added, as Israel kept killing Palestinians with U.S.-supplied weapons and continued a "complete siege" blamed for widespread starvation and sickness in the Gaza Strip.

Murphy wrote that Trump "will inherit a demoralized State Department" in which many officials who haven't already resigned have "become disenchanted with the lofty ideas they thought they represented."

As one senior department official told Murphy, Gaza "is the human rights atrocity of our time."

"I work for the department that's responsible for this policy. I signed up for this," the official added. "I don't deserve sympathy for it."

Report from Gaza: Ceasefire Announcement Raises Hopes, But Israel Kills 81 in New Attacks

Bibi TRYING TO SABOTAGE Trump Ceasefire Deal

The World Stayed Silent as Israel Destroyed Gaza 'for Generations to Come'

The first official reference to Gaza becoming increasingly uninhabitable was made by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, in 2012, when the population of the Gaza Strip was estimated at 1.8 million inhabitants.

The intention of the report, The Gaza Strip: The Economic Situation and the Prospects for Development, was not merely to prophesize, but to warn that if the world continued to stand idle in the face of the ongoing blockade on Gaza, a humanitarian catastrophe was imminent.

Yet, little was done, though the U.N. continued with its countdown, increasing the frequency and urgency of its warnings, especially following major wars.

Another report in 2015 from UNCTAD stated that the Gaza crisis had intensified following the most destructive war to that date, the year before. The war had destroyed hundreds of factories, thousands of homes, and displaced tens of thousands of people.

By 2020, though, based on the criteria set by the U.N., Gaza should have become "uninhabitable." Yet, little was done to remedy the crisis. The population grew rapidly, while resources, including Gaza's land mass, shrank due to the ever-expanding Israeli "buffer zone." The prospects for the "world's largest open-air prison" became even dimmer.

Yet, the international community did little to heed the call of UNCTAD and other U.N. and international institutions. The humanitarian crisis—situated within a prolonged political crisis, a siege, repeated wars, and daily violence—worsened, reaching, on October 7, 2023, the point of implosion.

One wonders if the world had paid even the slightest attention to Gaza and the cries of people trapped behind walls, barbed wire, and electric fences, whether the current war and genocide could have been avoided.

It is all moot now. The worst-case scenario has actualized in a way that even the most pessimistic estimates by Palestinian, Arab, or international groups could not have foreseen.

Not only is Gaza now beyond "uninhabitable," but, according to Greenpeace, it will be "uninhabitable for generations to come." This does not hinge on the resilience of Palestinians in Gaza, whose legendary steadfastness is hardly disputed. However, there are essential survival needs that even the strongest people cannot replace with their mere desire to survive.

In just the first 120 days of war, "staggering" carbon emissions were estimated at 536,410 tons of carbon dioxide. Ninety percent of that deadly pollution was "attributed to Israel's air bombardment and ground invasion," according to Greenpeace, which concluded that the total sum of carbon emissions "is greater than the annual carbon footprint of many climate-vulnerable nations."

A report issued around the same time by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) painted an equally frightening picture of what was taking place in Gaza as a direct result of the war. "Water and sanitation have collapsed," it declared last June. "Coastal areas, soil, and ecosystems have been severely impacted," it continued.

But that was over seven months ago, when parts of Gaza were still standing. Now, almost all of Gaza has been destroyed. Garbage has been piling up for 15 months without a single facility to process it efficiently. Disease is widespread, and all hospitals have either been destroyed in the bombings, burned to the ground, or bulldozed. Many of the sick are dying in their tents without ever seeing a doctor.

Without any outside assistance, it was only natural for the disaster to worsen. Last December, Médecins Sans Frontières issued a report titled Gaza: Life in a Death Trap. The report, a devastating read, describes the state of medical infrastructure in Gaza, which can be summed up in a single word: non-existent.

Israel has attacked 512 healthcare facilities between October 2023 and September 2024, killing 500 healthcare workers. This means that a population is trying to survive during one of the harshest wars ever recorded, without any serious medical attention. This includes nearly half a million people suffering from various mental health disorders.

By December, Gaza's Government Media Office reported that there are an estimated 23 million tons of debris resulting from the dropping of 75,000 tons of explosives—in addition to other forms of destruction. This has released 281,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

Once the war is over, Gaza will be rebuilt. Though Palestinian sumud (steadfastness) is capable of restoring Gaza to its former self, however long it takes, a study conducted by Queen Mary University in the U.K. said that, for the destroyed structures to be rebuilt, an additional 60 million tons of CO2 will be released into an already severely impacted environment.

In essence, this means that even after the devastating war on Gaza ends and the rebuilding of the strip concludes, the ecological and environmental harm that Israel has caused will remain for many years to come.

It is baffling that the very Western countries, which speak tirelessly about environmental protection, preservation, and warning against carbon emissions, are the same entities that helped sustain the war on Gaza, either through arming Israel or remaining silent in the face of the ongoing atrocities.

The price of this hypocrisy is the enduring suffering of millions of people and the devastation of their environment. Isn't it time for the world to wake up and collectively declare: enough is enough?

US inflation ticks up in December and remains above Fed’s 2% target rate

Inflation ticked up across the US last month, according to the last report on consumer prices under the Biden administration.

Donald Trump has promised to bring prices down for millions of Americans. But while price rises have slowed sharply since their post-pandemic peak of 9.1%, the pace of inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% per annum.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual rate of 2.9% in December, up from 2.7% the previous month, and in line with expectations, according to official data. On a month-to-month basis, the index rose 0.4%.

Underlying inflation appeared to soften, however, reigniting confidence on Wall Street that the Fed will cut interest rates further later this year.

The closely watched “core” index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.2% in December – down slightly from its annual rate of 3.3% in November, and less than expected. On a month-to-month basis, it faded – for the first time in six months – to 0.2%.

The vampire squid is happy:

Goldman Sachs reports biggest quarterly profit in three years

Goldman Sachs posted its biggest profit since the third quarter of 2021 to beat Wall Street expectations, driven by bankers who brought in more fees from dealmaking, debt sales and strength in trading. ...

Banking industry executives anticipate stronger dealmaking activity this year as the US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates and President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-business comments fuel optimism among investors. ...

Goldman’s investment-banking fees rose 24% to $2.05bn in the fourth quarter, powered by debt underwriting that benefited from strong leveraged finance and corporate bond sales.

An industry-wide recovery in mergers and acquisitions along with renewed activity in equity and debt markets lifted results in the second half of 2024 for Wall Street’s top banks.

Joe Biden warns ‘oligarchy is taking shape in America’ in farewell address

Joe Biden’s final address to the nation struck an ominous tone after warning of the growing power of America’s ultra-wealthy, and cautioning that an emerging oligarchy threatens the foundations of US democracy.

The Wednesday prime-time Oval Office speech came as Biden prepares to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump, who he defeated in 2020 only to see return to power after Biden’s own dramatic exit from politics last summer.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.

The president outlined some of his most pressing concerns, including what he described as a “crumbling” free press, the outsized influence of the military-industrial complex, rising disinformation, and the need to remove dark money from politics. He also called for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability, arguing that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.

Voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams fined for illegal campaigning

The New Georgia Project, a prominent voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, has been fined $300,000 by the state ethics commission of Georgia for illegally campaigning for Abrams and other Democratic candidates during the 2018 election cycle.

The consent order ends a years-long investigation that the voting rights group had broken state campaign finance laws by raising and spending millions in support of candidate without proper registration and disclosure. The fine is the largest in Georgia history, according to the state ethics commission. ...

Ethics commission investigators noted talking points used in scripts for New Georgia Project canvassers and phone-bank callers that explicitly advocated for Abrams, and how the group used social media to promote donation links to Act Blue and the Democratic campaign. The organization was also cited for illegally campaigning for a transit referendum in the Atlanta-area suburb of Gwinnett county.

“If an organization is electioneering in Georgia as an independent committee, they have to register with the commission,” said Dave Emadi, executive secretary of the state ethics commission. “They have to disclose the money they raise and the source of that money – where they are bringing in their dollars from. They have to disclose how they are spending that, and they have to indicate in the disclosures what they are advocating for or against and name the candidates.”

The commission unanimous vote to issue the fine followed a presentation showing how the distinction between the New Georgia Project and its associated Super Pac, the New Georgia Project Action Fund was not sufficiently independent. The New Georgia Project admitted to 16 violations of the law, Emadi said, covering $4.2m in contributions and $3.2m in spending during the 2018 gubernatorial race.

VIVEK EXILED? Trump Pushes Ohio Senate

LA residents receive short reprieve from Santa Ana winds fanning deadly flames

Anxious and wildfire-weary Angelenos can expect a break in the extreme winds that have been fanning the flames destroying the region. And while welcome, the reprieve may be short-lived, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a social media post Wednesday afternoon. “Next week is a concern. While confident that we will NOT see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected,” the agency said. Santa Ana winds on Monday and Tuesday will increase the chances of yet another red flag warning being issued, the NWS added.

Though the anticipated Santa Ana winds did not undo the week’s worth of progress fire crews made in the Palisades and Eaton fires, the blazes continue to tear through parts of Los Angeles county. So far the two largest fires have killed at least 25 people, burned over 40,000 acres and destroyed thousands of homes, places of worship and schools.

The National Weather Service issued the most extreme level of a red flag fire warning of a “particularly dangerous situation” in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. ...

The deadly Palisades fire in the western suburbs of Los Angeles – the largest of the four wildfires – was still only 19% contained on Wednesday morning, more than a week after it ignited, and has destroyed thousands of properties and killed residents. But the Eaton fire, the next largest fire, in the Altadena area in north-eastern LA county, is now 45% contained – up 10% from Tuesday – with 14,100 acres burned. Officials said the Eaton fire is expected to stay within its existing footprint. ...

Firefighters were also struggling to put out two smaller fires, the persistent Hurst fire in north Los Angeles and the newer Auto fire, in Ventura county.

Trump energy chief pick says linking wildfires to climate crisis is ‘hype’

Donald Trump’s nominee for energy secretary, Chris Wright, is facing criticism for disputing the ties between climate change and more frequent or severe wildfires, the Washington Post reports, a stance that is contrary to scientific consensus.

During Wright’s US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democrats, including the California senator Alex Padilla, challenged Wright over past comments, pointing to a LinkedIn post calling wildfire concerns “hype” and dismissing their connection to climate policies.

Padilla accused Wright of downplaying the real and deadly effects of wildfires. When the senator asked whether Wright stood by those comments in light of the catastrophic blazes in his home state, Wright responded that he believes that climate change is a global phenomenon and that he stands by his past comments.

Despite Democratic opposition, Senate Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority, favored Wright’s nomination. Wright pledged to advocate for expanded fossil fuel production during the hearing.

Big oil pushed to kill bill that would have made them pay for wildfire disasters

In the year preceding the devastating Los Angeles county wildfires, big oil fiercely lobbied to kill a “polluter pay” bill that moved through the California senate and would have forced major fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate disasters. Fossil-fuel industry lobbying in California spiked to record levels during the 2023-24 legislative session, and the polluter pay bill was among the most targeted pieces of legislation, a Guardian review of state lobby filings found.

The bill was included in about 76% of 74 filings last year from two top lobbying forces in the state – oil giant Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association, the largest fossil-fuel trade group in California.

Chevron and Western States’ filings that included polluter pay totaled over $30m, although it is impossible to know spending levels for individual bills because lobbying laws do not require a breakdown. Others in the lobbying blitz included at least 34 of the world’s largest oil producers, industry trade groups, and a range of greenhouse gas-polluting companies such as Phillips 66 and Valero, records show.

The measure would have required the state’s largest carbon polluters to pay into a fund that would be used to prevent disasters or help cover cleanup efforts. The effort to thwart it leaves taxpayers for now shouldering much of the cost of catastrophes in part fueled by big oil’s pollution.

Also of Interest

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

Joe Biden's Terrible Legacy

Senator Strangelove and the Brink of Nuclear Armageddon

‘National Scandal’: The BBC’s Gaza Cover-Up

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Predictable Capitulation of Tulsi Gabbard

Preventing Peace With Russia Russia - By Sanctions And Kinetic Means

Destroyed Assange Files: Why Judge’s Rebuke Against Crown Prosecution Service Was So Significant

The Competency Crisis Is Not About DEI

Trump’s HUD Secretary and Our Reverse Robin Hood Housing System

‘Criminally reckless’: why LA’s urban sprawl made wildfires inevitable – and how it should rebuild

What do the Los Angeles fires tell us about the coming water wars?

Gaza Ceasefire: Daniel Levy, Muhammad Shehada, Jeremy Scahill on Trump's Role & Palestine's Future

Why President Biden FAILED At Getting Israel to YES: Trita Parsi

Trump Gaza ceasefire. Biden takes credit

A Little Night Music

Jackie Brenston - Gonna Wait For My Chance

Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - Leo The Louse

Jackie Brenston & Edna McRaney - Hi Ho Baby

Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - Independent Woman

Jackie Brenston - Gonna Wait for My Chance

Ike Turner/Jackie Brenston - The Road I Travel

Ike Turner/Jackie Brenston - Much Later

Jackie Brenston - Trouble Up The Road

Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - My Real Gone Rocket