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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Joe Simon

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer Joe Simon. Enjoy!

^{Joe Simon - Drowning In The Sea Of Love}

"Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. The are now begun by first throwing a mob into a panic; they are ended only when it has spent its ferine fury."

-- H. L. Mencken

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News and Opinion

Only 3% Of Jewish Israelis Think Trump’s Ethnic Cleansing Plan For Gaza Is Immoral

A poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute has found that “more than eight out of ten Jewish Israelis support the plan” proposed by President Donald Trump to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians by resettling them in Egypt and Jordan.

The poll also found that among the minority of Israelis who did not support Trump’s plan, only 13 percent opposed it because they viewed it as immoral. Among Jewish Israelis specifically, the number who oppose the ethnic cleansing of Gaza for moral reasons is just three percent.

Three percent. If that isn’t a sign of a morally diseased society, I don’t know what would be.

To be clear, we are talking about permanently driving an indigenous population off of their homeland at mass scale so that their territory can be claimed by settlers. This is the sort of crime that even a half-formed conscience would immediately recognize as deeply immoral, but among Jewish Israelis, that figure is just three percent.

The moral degeneracy which makes such a large-scale lack of basic human empathy possible is the natural consequence of everything the state of Israel is and always has been. Jewish Israelis are indoctrinated from birth to view Palestinians as less than human, because otherwise modern Israel makes no sense. It makes no sense for an apartheid state where one group receives preferential treatment over others to have been dropped on top of a pre-existing civilization whose land, rights and dignity were then violently stolen from them — if you view all the parties involved as equal. So they are trained not to view them as equal.

This systematic poisoning of conscience has knock-on effects in all sorts of other areas, though. A 2011 poll published by Haaretz found that 61 percent of Israeli men don’t view forced sex with an acquaintance as rape, and that only seven percent believe marital rape is a real thing. Rape is abundant in the Israeli military and is almost never punished ; in 2022 The Jerusalem Post reported that 1,542 incidents of sexual assault complaints were received by the IDF in the year 2020, and that of these, only 31 indictments were filed.

Average Israeli ad: “Doing whatever we want until forcibly prevented, is actually part of our culture!”

If anyone else posted this it would be flagged for antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/07etDfPtVi

— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) January 26, 2025

One need only listen to Israelis discuss values unique to their culture like “shitat hamatzliah” (just walking all over people and doing whatever you want to see if you get away with it) or the "sin of being a “freier” (someone who plays by the rules and misses opportunities to cheat others) to understand that this is a nation of sociopaths.

And it has to be. If Israelis were a deeply moral people with well-formed consciences, there would be no Israel, because the abuses necessary to maintain its existence as a state would never be democratically supported by its people. Israel cannot exist without nonstop violence, tyranny and injustice, so it is vital to the interests of the state that Israelis be the sort of people who would support these things.

And in case anyone is confused, this immorality isn’t actually about Jews or Judaism. Any group who is pervasively indoctrinated into believing a neighboring group must be treated abusively will be shaped into cruel and ignorant people — anyone of conscience who’s ever interacted with white South Africans above a certain age has likely had a taste of this. It’s got nothing to do with anyone’s religion or ethnicity, it’s just how the abuses of apartheid are upheld.

This is the depraved entity the entire western world is being told it must support unconditionally. An apartheid state which twists its own people into monsters so that they will participate in monstrous deeds.

Are you crazy Donald?

Aaron Maté : Does Trump Understand Gaza?

‘Dangerous, provocative, illegal’: Arab Americans condemn Trump’s vow to ‘take over’ Gaza

Donald Trump’s remarks that the US will “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere have drawn outrage and criticism from Palestinian and Arab Americans across the US. A group of Arab Americans that supported Trump during the 2024 election rebranded itself following Trump’s comments on displacing Palestinians, from “Arab Americans for Trump” to “Arab Americans for Peace”.

In a statement, the group said that while they still believed that Trump “is committed to achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East that is satisfactory to ALL parties”, they “take issue with the president’s suggestion of taking over Gaza and removing its Palestinian inhabitants to other parts of the Arab world”.

The group added that they were “adamantly opposed to the notion of transferring Palestinians outside of historic Palestine for ANY reason”.

The 2024 US presidential election marked a shift within communities that had long formed part of the Democratic base, as many Muslim and Arab Americans grew disillusioned over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Trump actively courted those groups and polls indicate he made significant gains. ...

In response to finger-pointing at voters who turned on Harris, Waleed Shahid, a former organizer for the Uncommitted movement and a Democratic strategist, called for introspection. “Democratic party elites find it easier to punch down on grieving Palestinian families in Michigan desperate for a basic shift in their party’s policy than to challenge decisions made by Biden and Harris,” Shahid wrote. “But this is why Democrats lose – they don’t listen to voters; they sneer at them.”

"Trump Does Not See Palestinians as Human Beings": Plan for U.S. to "Take Over" Gaza Faces Outcry

Republicans conflicted on Trump’s pitch to ‘own’ Gaza: ‘I thought we voted for America First’

From “problematic” to “a couple of kinks in that Slinky” to “a bit of a stretch”, reaction from Republicans who weighed in on Donald Trump’s proposal to “own” Gaza was mixed on Wednesday, while some senior party leaders gave their blessing.

Some of the strongest criticism came from Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who posted his opposition to the president’s plan on X on Wednesday morning. “The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians. I thought we voted for America First,” Paul wrote. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”

His comments contradicted those of Mike Johnson, the House speaker, who said he was backing Trump’s proposal. “We’re trying to get the details of it but I think this is a good development,” he told Manu Raju, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent. “We have to back Israel 100%. So whatever form that takes, we’re interested in having that discussion. It’s a surprising development, but I think it’s one that we’ll applaud.”

Paul’s critical comments were an outlier among Republicans, although Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, said he foresaw issues if Trump were to move ahead with his declared intention of making Gaza “the Riviera of the Middle East”, and sending US troops to secure the war-torn territory “if it’s necessary”.

Also adopting a “wait and see” approach was Josh Hawley, Missouri’s Republican senator. “I don’t know that I think it’s the best use of United States resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza, I think maybe I’d prefer that to be spent in the US first, but let’s see what happens,” he said.

UN chief warns against ‘ethnic cleansing’ after Trump’s Gaza proposal

Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza was met with anger and blunt rejection from regional allies, delight from Israel’s far right and a warning against “ethnic cleansing” from the head of the UN. The secretary general, António Guterres, planned to tell a UN meeting on Wednesday that “it is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing” after the US president said he wanted to “own” Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents elsewhere.

An unusually broad wave of international outrage and condemnation followed Trump’s shock announcement after a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Germany warned that the plan violated international law and Brazil’s president described it as “incomprehensible”, with China stating it opposed “forced transfer”.

Trump was untouched by hours of global criticism, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “everybody loves [the plan]” at the swearing in of his new attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Pepe Escobar : World Reaction to Trump On Gaza

Texas representative filing impeachment articles against Trump over Gaza plan

A Democratic representative told the US House on Wednesday he was bringing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump for his proposal to “take over Gaza”. Trump’s plan, the Texas representative Al Green said, was a “dastardly deed” that amounted to ethnic cleansing.

The aggressive move came as Democrats stepped up their resistance to the fledgling Trump administration and its barrage of chaotic, power-grabbing new policies that many see as a coup.

Green, a firebrand politician who launched a number of unsuccessful attempts to impeach Trump during his first term in office, is unlikely to find much traction on his latest effort. Pete Aguilar, the No 3 House Democrat, told Politico on Wednesday that impeachment was not an immediate focus of his caucus.

But it is evidence that more elected Democrats are finding their voice amid what critics say has been a muted response so far to the extremes of Trump’s 16-day-old second presidency. The liberal advocacy group Call to Activism posted on X on Tuesday a clip of the Maryland representative Jamie Raskin suggesting he was also open to a new impeachment effort. “If you can find me two Republicans, I’ll go to work tomorrow,” Raskin said, referring to the governing party’s wafer-thin House majority.

Green invoked the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in lambasting Trump’s proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza and rebuild the war-torn territory as a US-owned “Riviera of the Middle East”. The plan has been globally condemned as “outrageous”, “shameful” and “illegal”. ... “Dr King was right. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and injustice in Gaza is a threat to justice in the United States of America. I rise to announce that the movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed, and dastardly deeds done.”

US Officials Backtrack on Trump’s Illegal Gaza Gambit

A day after all hell broke loose in reaction to President Donald Trump’s plan to remove 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza, which he said the U.S. would rebuild and make a U.S territory, administration officials began backtracking as it emerged that only Trump himself knew he would make the plan public.

Asked in Guatemala about Trump’s intention to relocate the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Palestinians would be allowed to “move back in,” which was not what Trump had said the day before. At the White House, press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, tried to dial back the story by dampening the idea of U.S. troops in Gaza, while revising what Trump had said about permanent displacement.

Leavitt told reporters “the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region.” To emphasize that this was a reframing, Leavitt said: “Let me take a step back here, this is an out of the box idea, that’s who President Trump is, … and his goal is lasting peace in the Middle East. That doesn’t mean boots on the ground in Gaza …it doesn’t mean U.S. taxpayers will pay for it, it means that Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, will strike a deal with our partners.”

Asked whether she was now ruling out U.S. troops on the ground when Trump had not, Leavitt said, “He is not committed to that just yet.” Trump had said the U.S. would clear unexploded ordnance, normally a job for the military. Leavitt also said the plan called for Palestinians to be only “temporarily” housed in other countries, while Trump clearly said Tuesday that it would be permanent. ...

Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, also tried to quell the story, telling Republican senators at a private lunch Wednesday essentially the same talking points as Leavitt, namely that Trump “doesn’t want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any U.S. dollars at all’ on Gaza,” The New York Times quoted Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri as saying.

Arab Regimes and the Betrayal of Palestine (w/ Farah El-Sharif) | The Chris Hedges Report

Lebanon Complains of Israeli Ceasefire Violations at UN Security Council

With a number of new Israeli ceasefire violations being reported daily, Lebanon’s government has taken the matter to the UN Security Council, lodging a formal complaint. The details include complaints of Israeli troops shooting at journalists in southern Lebanon, and removing demarcation markers along the de facto border.

Israel has yet to respond to the complaints, and continues to carry out overt violations of the ceasefire, which was initially a 60-day period from November 26 to January 26 after which Israel was meant to withdraw. The “ceasefire” was ultimately extended until February 18 after Israel decided they intended to stay. ...

A US-led body is meant to oversee the ceasefire in Lebanon and deal with complaints about violations, though so far they have done nothing regarding the hundreds of incidents involving Israeli troops attacking civilians or destroying infrastructure. Instead, US officials have praised Israel for the “very positive path” they’re on with respect to an eventual withdrawal.

Yemen Leader: ‘US & Israel Are the Real Terrorists—If You Escalate, We Will Too’

Donald Trump signals wish to hold talks with Iran over nuclear deal

Donald Trump has said he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran and denied he wanted to blow Iran to smithereens, describing such reports as “greatly exaggerated”.

But he said it was essential that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon, adding “we should start working on it immediately”. His remarks on his social media site, Truth Social represent the clearest sign that Trump is willing to hold talks with Iran to try to replace the nuclear deal signed in 2015, but from which Trump pulled the US out in 2018.

He said he did not mind whether he rang the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to start the talks or the Iranian leader initiated the process. He also said: “There are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon.” He also predicted “we will have a big celebration in the Middle East the day the deal is signed”.

Trump’s social media posting came after he held talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and also signed a presidential memorandum that instructs the US Treasury and state department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran’s oil exports to zero”.

He also pointedly contradicted a reporter, saying he regarded Iran as strong, remarks that undercut Netanyahu’s claim that the parlous state of Iranian defences make it an opportune time to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. Netanyahu has long argued with successive US presidents that Iran is bent on covertly building a nuclear weapon.

Interesting article that promises more than it delivers, but there is some meat there. Maybe worth a click if this sort of thing interests you:

Doge v USAid: how Elon Musk helped his acolytes infiltrate world’s biggest aid agency

USAid security personnel were defending a secure room holding sensitive and classified data in a standoff with “department of government efficiency” employees when a message came directly from Elon Musk: give the Doge kids whatever they want. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, a posse of cocksure young engineers answering to Musk have stormed through Washington DC, gaining access to government computer systems as part of what Senator Chuck Schumer has called “an unelected shadow government … conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”.

The young men, who are all under the age of 26 and have almost no government experience, have tapped into the treasury department’s federal payment system and vacuumed up employment histories at the office of personnel management (OPM). Roughly 20 Doge employees are now working out of the Department of Education, the Washington Post has reported, and have gained access to sensitive internal systems there too. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported they had infiltrated the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and accessed key systems as well.

The young engineers, whose identities have been confirmed to the Guardian, wanted the same at USAid. One of them, Gavin Kliger, was a 25-year-old techie who has defended the failed attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz as a victim of the “deep state” and claimed he had left behind a seven-figure salary to join Doge and “save America”. Another, Luke Farritor, 23, was a former SpaceX intern who had been given top-level clearances to USAid systems and had requested similar to Medicare and Medicaid. A third, Jeremy Lewin, was an AI specialist also reportedly assigned to the General Services Administration. A superior planned to lobby the CIA for a clearance for him after he failed to gain access to a secure area. Some US officials had begun calling the young engineers the “Muskovites” for their aggressive loyalty to the SpaceX owner. But some USAid staff used another word: the “incels”.

The Guardian has identified three calls by Musk to USAid’s political leadership and security officers in which he demanded the suspensions of dozens of the agency’s leading officials, and cajoled and threatened senior USAid officials to give his acolytes private data and access to restricted areas. At one point, he threatened to call in the US Marshals Service. One USAid employee said that the calls by Musk, two of which have not been previously reported, showed he had effectively usurped power at the agency even from the Trump administration’s political leadership. “Who is in control of our government?” the person said. “[Doge] basically showed up and took over.”

Elon DOGE Hackers HIJACK Medicare Agency

Elon Musk’s assault on US government prompts muted Republican disquiet

Some Republican senators have begun voicing muted alarm over Elon Musk’s aggressive intrusion into the US federal government, which has triggered Democratic accusations of a coup. ... In his most brazen act, the multibillionaire Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur has gutted and claimed to have abolished USAid, the foreign assistance agency that employs thousands and can supposedly only be closed by an act of Congress.

He and his team – which includes people as young as 19 – have also gained entry to the federal payments system, which shows the spending of trillions of dollars of government money. Critics say this gives Musk the power to cancel or slash public spending, while protecting lucrative contracts his companies have with the government.

While no Republican figure has explicitly denounced Musk, several have questioned his legal authority to shutter a government agency. Others say they would restrain him if he oversteps his authority – though Democrats insist he already has. “The president is suggesting that [Musk] has authorisation. I think there is more than some question,” Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator for Alaska known as a moderate, told the Hill.

Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican senator considered to be moderate and who is chair of the Senate appropriations committee – which oversees USAid’s funding – said it was “a very legitimate question” to ask if Musk had authority to close the agency. “There is a requirement in the law for 15 days’ notice of any reorganisation. We clearly did not get that. We got the letter yesterday,” she said. “[The law] also calls for a detailed explanation of any reorganisations, renaming of bureaus, shifting of centres — and again, we have not received that.”

Thom Tillis, a senator for North Carolina, said shutting down a federal body such as USAid would violate the constitution. “It would be helpful” if Trump or Musk sought congressional approval before ordering such drastic changes, he said. “At some point, it’s going to require congressional action to have staying power,” he told Semafor, while praising Musk for “coming up with good ideas”.

Elon Musk’s Doge staffers face protest over labor department visit

Workers at the US Department of Labor are organizing a protest ahead of the scheduled meeting of Elon Musk’s staff at the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) with the management at Frances Perkins Building in Washington DC at 4pm on Wednesday.

“Lower-level IT supervisors were basically asked to plan to stay late after the 4pm meeting to assist with getting Doge folks set up on our systems,” a Department of Labor employee who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said.

The meeting comes as Elon Musk’s SpaceX is fighting in federal court against the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the board’s makeup is unconstitutional, in response to appeals over federal labor law violations against the company. Musk’s companies have also faced significant fines issued by divisions with the agency at Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Company.

Jordan Barab, who served as deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health under the Obama administration, explained in his blog on the Doge meeting with the agency that their access incites concerns over confidential information at the department, including for whistleblowers, economic data with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and personnel information. “Would Elon and Trump use a takeover of BLS to cover up unfavorable economic statistics? A couple of weeks ago, that would have seemed impossible. Today is seems more than likely,” Barab said.

Government Agrees to Temporarily Restrict DOGE From Treasury Records

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to Department of the Treasury records after a coalition of federal unions and an advocacy group sued to block DOGE’s actions.

According to the order — issued by a federal judge Thursday after the DOJ reached an agreement with the plaintiffs — the Treasury “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” with the exception of two special Treasury employees who need access for their jobs. The order states that “access to payment records will be ‘read only,'” meaning they won’t be able to alter any records.

The lawsuit was filed Monday by the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the Alliance for Retired Americans, after personnel from the Elon Musk-led DOGE requested sensitive personal and financial information of millions of people from the Treasury Department.

“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the lawsuit said. “People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his ‘DOGE.’ And federal law says they do not have to.”

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Democrats silent as Trump wages war on immigrants, erects framework for presidential dictatorship

Trump has gutted federal agencies, sought to freeze spending in blatant violation of the Constitution, and set in motion the dismantling of public education and other social programs. Responsibility for slashing social services has been handed to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who is running the government as if it were his own private corporation—dictating mass firings, issuing ultimatums to federal employees, and consolidating power in an unelected “Department of Government Efficiency.” ...

Under these conditions, the Democratic Party has responded with silence and paralysis. Even when in the minority, Republicans do everything possible to obstruct, filibuster and grind government to a halt. In contrast, the Democrats, even when they hold a majority, treat the Republicans as an unstoppable force, incapable of being opposed in any meaningful way. This inaction has become so obvious that Edward Luce, one of the most establishment columnists in the Financial Times, publicly called them out this week. Under the headline, “While Democrats Sleep” Luce wrote on Monday, “To claim that America’s minority party is too punch drunk to get its act together would be charitable.”

Luce noted, “Democrats could have blocked confirmation hearings for Trump nominees—many of whom would have been laughed out of the chamber in that bygone era. A single Republican, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, froze all of Joe Biden’s military appointments for almost all of 2023. But Democrats are following regular order.” In other words, while Trump steamrolls what remains of constitutional rule, the Democrats insist on business as usual. The New York Times has also on occasion taken note of the Democrats’ inaction. An article earlier this week headlined, “‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump,” states: “In private meetings and at public events, elected Democrats appear leaderless, rudderless, and divided. They disagree over how often and how stridently to oppose Mr. Trump. They have no shared understanding of why they lost the election, never mind how they can win in the future.”

But it is not, as the Times asserts, a question of confusion or disarray. If the Democrats are not acting, it is because they do not want to act. This is a party that has never had a problem taking rapid and decisive action when confronted with a strike or opposition from the working class. Under Biden, the administration worked with Congress to preemptively ban a rail strike in 2022, forcing through a contract that workers had previously rejected. The same Biden administration oversaw the brutal repression of protests against the genocide in Gaza, joining hands with Republicans in slandering demonstrators as “antisemitic” in an effort to suppress opposition to US imperialism’s backing of Israeli war crimes.

When it comes to Trump and the fascists around him, however, the Democrats’ primary concern has always been the strategic interests of American imperialism. The first impeachment of Trump had nothing to do with his attacks on democracy or his coup plotting, but was centered on foreign policy in Ukraine. Now, as Trump takes a wrecking ball to the Constitution, there is no suggestion of impeachment. The brief references to Trump’s existential threat to democracy and his fascistic politics that appeared in the final weeks of the presidential campaign have disappeared. Silence implies consent. The Democrats fear that even a symbolic show of resistance could provoke a movement from below that they could not control. Their overriding concern is to smother any genuine opposition and maintain collaboration with their fascist “colleagues” across the aisle.

CNN Panel LAUGHS At Dems For Raging At Elon Musk. Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel MOCK Chuck Schumer

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Trump’s proposed EPA leadership stacked with lobbyists and attorneys

Donald Trump is stacking his proposed Environmental Protection Agency leadership with former industry lobbyists, executives, and attorneys who have spent their careers attacking protections covering everything from water quality to greenhouse gas emissions to toxic chemicals.

A Guardian review of new political appointees also finds the president is largely reappointing officials from his first term. Since 2016, while working at the EPA or for industry, environmental campaigners say these veterans have led efforts to shred Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, kneecap drinking water limits for toxic PFAS, ram through new chemicals without proper review, undo an asbestos ban, or defend the nation’s biggest polluters.

The chemical and air divisions will in part be led by lobbyists from the American Chemistry Council and American Petroleum Institute, two top industry trade groups. Meanwhile, attorneys who have vowed to cripple the agency’s career staff, which they viewed as an impediment to shredding regulations during Trump’s first term, will head up the EPA’s legal team.

Public health advocates fear “irreversible damage” to the EPA, said Erik Olson, a senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund who has lobbied for stronger environmental regulations. “It’s not a surprise, but this is the hostile takeover of the EPA by the chemical and fossil fuel industry, and that’s unfortunately going to have a massive, problematic long-term effect on public health and environment,” Olson added.

Trump picks former chief entangled in ‘Sharpiegate’ to lead Noaa

Donald Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, turning to the man who was his acting Noaa chief in 2019 when Trump altered an expected hurricane impact map in what became known as the “Sharpiegate” scandal.

After Alabama meteorologists had contradicted an earlier Trump tweet warning of the state being in a storm’s path, the Jacobs-led agency chastised them. That eventually drew criticism of Jacobs and his political higher-ups in a Department of Commerce inspector general’s report on Sharpiegate.

Noaa oversees the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Ocean Service and other offices. Along with many other federal agencies, Noaa was targeted in Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for change in a second Trump administration. That document called to “break up Noaa”, criticizing the agency as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry”.

Jacobs is a scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, where he has spearheaded efforts to combine different computer forecasting systems for weather and climate into a single system. He was chief atmospheric scientist at Panasonic Avionics Corporation and is a fellow at the American Meteorological Society.

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Also of Interest

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

Netanyahu Traps Trump in Quagmire

Trump Wants To Take Over Gaza, Announces 500,000 Dead

Palestinians have a clear message for Donald Trump over Gaza: ‘We are here, we won’t leave’

'We Will Not Leave': Palestinians Respond With Defiance to Trump's Ethnic Cleansing Plan

The Nonstop Military Operation Known As Israel

ICJ president 'plagiarised 32 percent of pro-Israel dissenting opinion'

Democratic Party Collusion, Race Baiting, and Death by Austerity

Peter Beinart on "Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza" & Trump's Call for Ethnic Cleansing

Judge BLOCKS Elon Treasury Coup

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A Little Night Music

Joe Simon - Farther on Down the Road

Joe Simon - Just Enough (to keep me hanging on)

Joe Simon - Nine Pound Steel

Joe Simon- Easy To Love

Joe Simon - Power Of Love

Joe Simon - Rainbow Road

Joe Simon- Trouble In My Home

Joe Simon - Get Down, Get Down

Joe Simon - The Chokin' Kind

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