The Evening Blues - 2-10-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues piano player Memphis Slim. Enjoy!
Memphis Slim - Pinetops Boogie Woogie
"Originality is the art of concealing your sources."
-- Franklin P. Jones
News and Opinion
The Plan To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza Didn’t Start With Trump
I still can’t get over how absurd it is how everyone’s acting like the plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza is some new idea that Donald Trump just came up with. “Wait, so you’re saying we make the Palestinians go away and replace them with Jews?? What bold, innovative thinking! By golly, that’s just crazy enough to work!”
This notion that removing all Palestinians from Gaza is a fresh new idea that was conceived of by Trump is one of the most ridiculous narratives we’re seeing pushed by the mainstream political/media class today. Israeli think tanks and intelligence services were pushing the plan to move Gaza’s inhabitants to Egypt within days of the October 7 attack. The Biden administration tried unsuccessfully to get Cairo to facilitate this agenda.
Kicking the Palestinians out of Gaza to neighboring Arab states has always been the plan; it didn’t just emerge out of nowhere when Trump became president. And yet you’ll see everyone on both sides of the mainstream partisan divide furiously pushing this narrative that this is all Trump’s idea, whether they support or oppose the ethnic cleansing agenda. If they support it they talk it up as some brilliant outside-the-box innovation nobody’s ever thought of before, and if they oppose it they completely erase from history the fact that it was being advanced under the Biden administration in the early days of the onslaught.
I just saw Alan Dershowitz babbling about how we should all “thank Donald Trump for coming up with the first new idea in many, many years about how to solve this problem.” But it isn’t a new idea, and Trump didn’t come up with it. Driving Palestinians out of their historic homeland has been the Zionist vision for the region since before Israel was even established as a state, and all of its actions from 1948 on have born that out. This has always been about ending the existence of Palestinians in Palestine.
And that’s all it has ever been about. Not October 7. Not hostages. Not fighting terrorism. Not self-defense. This is about driving Palestinians out of their homeland so that their territory can eventually be fully and officially absorbed by Israel. ...
Democrats are as happy as a pig in shit right now. Suddenly they get to pretend all the unfathomable evils their president inflicted upon our world never happened, just because there’s a different president doing bad things who people are feeling big feels about.
They wanted to lose. They’re overjoyed that they don’t have to be the face on the US empire’s depravity anymore, and that it’s no longer their job to make excuses for it. They’re getting everything they want out of the present arrangement, because liberals don’t actually care about fixing problems and making the world a better place, they only care about feeling good about themselves. Their politics is never actually about anything other than their feelings, and Biden was making their feelings feel bad. Trump lets them feel smug and vindicated and correct. He also lets them feel outraged and indignant, and they enjoy that too.
But it’s all bullshit. No matter what Trump says or does or how he and his goons make people’s feelings feel, it will still be a historical fact that Biden and his handlers spent 15 months facilitating a campaign of extermination and demolition in Gaza which could not have happened without US backing. It will still be a historical fact that Biden and his handlers pushed Ukraine into an unwinnable war that the US and its allies knowingly provoked in order to advance geostrategic grand chessboard agendas, sabotaging potential peace negotiations and threatening the world with nuclear annihilation along the way. It will still be a historical fact that Biden kept in place many of the ugly policies put in place during the first Trump administration and actively expanded and added to them.
It’s important to point this out because Democrats are posturing as opponents of tyranny and abuse right now, and they aren’t. They are allies of tyranny and abuse, who LARP as righteous defenders of truth and justice whenever the other tyrannical and abusive party happens to be in power. Their behavior during the Trump administration shows you how they wish to be perceived, but their behavior during the Biden administration showed you who they really are.
Alastair Crooke : Netanyahu's Trap
Israeli military withdraws from Netzarim corridor in Gaza
Israeli forces have withdrawn from the strategic corridor that divides northern and southern Gaza, as part of a ceasefire plan that has brought a fragile pause to the 16-month war. On Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas officials confirmed that the Israeli military had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor, the 4-mile (6km) strip of land that Israel set up within weeks of the war and used as a military zone during the fighting.
When the ceasefire came into effect last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to return to their homes in the devastated north, with hundreds of thousands of people streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed it had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands” and that it had thwarted the Israeli government’s “illusion of achieving total victory”.
Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss troop movement with the media, did not disclose how many soldiers withdrew or to where. Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’s military and political capabilities have been eliminated. Hamas, meanwhile, says it will not hand over the last hostages it seized during its attacks on 7 October 2023 until Israel removes all troops from the territory.
Despite the withdrawal – and the release of some of the hostages and prisoners held by both sides – little progress has been made on negotiating the second phase of the deal, which is designed to extend the truce and to secure the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Further doubts over what comes next arose on Saturday after it emerged that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had dispatched a delegation including low-level officials to Qatar – which helped negotiate the truce – prompting speculation that the mission might not lead to a breakthrough in extending the ceasefire.
A day later, the Palestinian health ministry said two women in their 20s, one of whom was eight months pregnant, were fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank.
Ray McGovern : What Mossad Tells Netanyahu
Israel carrying out a second Gaza on West Bank with Trump’s backing
Under the cover of the Gaza ceasefire, the far-right government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a military offensive focusing on the refugee camp in the northern city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and the towns of Tulkarem and Tammun. The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Operation Iron Wall has pulverised whole neighbourhoods of Jenin and Tulkarem with massive aerial bombardments and drone attacks, forced the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and seen a new wave of house-to-house searches and mass killings.
Al-Haq, the Palestinian human rights group, warned that Israel is employing many of the same tactics in the West Bank that it used in Gaza, stating, “Israel’s genocidal tactics to destroy the Palestinian group are further evident in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.” UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese issued a similar warning on X, “If it is not forced to stop, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians will not be confined to Gaza. Mark my words.”
The IDF operation that began on January 21 comes just weeks after the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, working as Israel’s subcontractor, carried out a four-week long operation against militants in the Jenin area that left dozens dead, displaced thousands and caused widespread losses of water and power. The IDF was far more destructive. It targeted 23 buildings in the Jenin refugee camp that it claimed were being used by “militants” and ripped up all the roads leading to the camp as well as some of the roads within the camp. The tactic, widely used in Gaza, is aimed at widening the roads to facilitate the IDF’s movement of armoured vehicles through the area and the division of the camp into separate enclaves.
Almost 90 percent of the camp’s population have been forced to flee their homes, with many seeking refuge in towns and villages across Jenin governorate. According to Al-Haq, “The remaining families are living in grave danger with no access to water, electricity, and other basic services.” ...
As in Gaza, IDF strikes on hospitals, medical staff and patients have been a particular feature of the campaign. The army laid siege to Jenin Governmental Hospital, after bulldozing the main entrance and the main road leading to it in previous raids. It fired stun grenades directly at an ambulance responding to an emergency and wounded a paramedic during a raid in the town of Beita. It has besieged Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital. Medecins Sans Frontieres’ report Inflicting harm and denying care cited World Health Organisation data showing 647 attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel in the West Bank in the first 12 months since the start of the Gaza war, “with Israeli forces routinely encircling hospitals, refugee camps, and villages—hence creating unprecedented barriers to medical access.”
Trump to 'clean out' and own Gaza - Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
Gaunt Israelis and Palestinians freed under fifth ceasefire exchange
Hamas freed three hostages from Gaza and Israel released 183 prisoners and detainees on Saturday, the fifth exchange under a fragile, three-week-old ceasefire deal. The gaunt appearance of the three Israeli men shocked the country, sparking anger and dismay that could increase pressure on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the agreement to a second stage, bringing home the remaining Israeli captives.
The Israeli leader may face a choice between keeping his government or sealing a second stage of the ceasefire, which under a framework plan would see all hostages freed and Israeli forces pulling out of Gaza.
The far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich opposed the ceasefire and has threatened to quit the coalition if the war does not resume, which would probably bring it down. On Saturday evening he hit out at Israelis who had compared the freed hostages to emaciated victims of Nazi concentration camps, saying it was “grave mistake” that showed “contempt” for the Holocaust.
The three men appeared more frail than 13 Israelis and five Thai citizens who had previously been released. Smotrich suggested those calling to extend the ceasefire because of fears about the condition of dozens of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza want to “surrender to Hamas”.
Many Palestinian prisoners released to Ramallah hours after the Israelis were freed also looked extremely thin, and seven out of 43 needed hospitalisation, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said. Rights groups and whistleblowers have described a policy of “institutionalised abuse” in Israeli jails and detention centres. Severely reduced rations have led to prisoners emerging emaciated, in some cases having lost dozens of kilograms.
Mustafa Barghouti on Trump, Ethnic Cleansing & Israel "Moving the War" from Gaza to the West Bank
State Dept. Plans New $7 Billion Arms Sale to Israel
The State Department has formally notified Congress of its plans for a massive arms sale to Israel worth over $7 billion, including thousands of missiles and bombs, the Associated Press reported on Friday. This follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington DC this week and Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will “own” Gaza after it is ethnically cleansed of its indigenous Palestinian population.
Per the State Department, Congress was notified of two separate sales, one is worth $6.75 billion. This first sale includes 2,800 500-pound bombs and 166 small-diameter bombs, along with thousands of guidance kits, fuses, bomb components, and other equipment. Deliveries of these bombs would begin later this year. The other package, worth $660 million, includes 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment. Deliveries for this second arms sale are expected to take place by 2028. According to the AP, the use of these missiles will require the IDF to receive supplemental training by the US military. ...
This comes as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza is still holding, despite the IDF killing dozens of Palestinians in Gaza since it was implemented and amid hostage exchanges on both sides. Israeli officials indicate that the increased military aid and arms sales are meant to compel Netanyahu to see the ceasefire deal through to its second and third phases, following the current 42-day truce. Last month, Trump released a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the previous administration had paused over a dispute regarding the Israeli invasion of Rafah last year.
Earlier this week, Trump asked leaders in Congress to approve another $1 billion arms transfer, financed with US military aid, that includes 4,700 1,000-pound bombs worth over $700 million and $300 million worth of armored bulldozers. The bulldozers are infamously used to carry out violent assaults and home demolitions in the occupied West Bank.
Lebanon Defies Trump: Hezbollah and Allies Join New Government
The Trump Administration’s attempt to dictate terms on the new Lebanese government’s cabinet appears to have failed spectacularly. The new Lebanese cabinet has been announced, and includes multiple members from both Hezbollah and the Shi’ite Amal Movement.
The administration has been browbeating Lebanon for weeks on this issue, insisting no Shi’ite could be allowed to hold the Finance Ministry, and calling any Hezbollah representation in the government a “red line” as recently as yesterday.
In the end, the Finance Minister is Yassine Jaber, a member of the Amal Movement and a Shi’ite. Amal also got the Environmental Minister post, which went to Tarek Mitri. Hezbollah and Amal are seen as broadly allied, though they have different visions for Lebanon’s future.
Hezbollah wasn’t excluded from the cabinet, either. They also got two portfolios, the Public Health ministership going to Rakan Nasreddine. ... Perhaps the higher profile Hezbollah portfolio went to the new Labor Minister, Mohammad Haider. Haider served as the Director of Nuclear Medicine at American University in Beirut, but is also a “specially designated terrorist” as far as the US is concerned because of his membership of Hezbollah’s senior military body, the Jihad Council.
Kurdish officials fear Islamic State revival as US aid cuts loom
Kurdish officials have warned of an Islamic State resurgence if US foreign aid cuts take effect on Monday, which would cripple essential services for tens of thousands of people detained in tented camps in north-east Syria, including suspected members of IS and their families.
Blumont, a Virginia-based humanitarian aid group responsible for the management of two of Syria’s IS detention camps, al-Hol and al-Roj, was given a stop-work order on 24 January by the US state department. The sudden cessation of services prompted panic in the camps after aid workers failed to turn up for work.
Three days later, Blumont was given a two-week waiver to the aid cuts, which unless extended, will expire on Monday. “We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. It seems as if even the provision of bread will be halted,” said Jihan Hanan, the director of al-Hol camp.
The camp holds the relatives of suspected IS fighters and is mostly populated by women and children. Rights groups have for years warned that detainees are held arbitrarily without charges in inhumane and substandard living conditions.
No charges have been raised against the camp’s population. Despite this, they are unable to leave, with the exception of non-Syrian detainees whose countries agree to take them back.
Larry Johnson : Does Trump Understand Putin?
Trump says he has spoken with Putin about ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump has said he held talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over a negotiated end of the three year Russia-Ukraine war, and indicated that Russian negotiators want to meet with US counterparts. Trump told the New York Post that he had spoken to Putin, remarking that “I better not say” just how many times.
In comments to the outlet on Friday aboard Air Force One, Trump said he believed Putin “does care” about the killing on the battlefield but did not say if the Russian leader had presented any concrete commitments to end the nearly three-year conflict. Trump revealed that he has a plan to end the war but declined to go into details. “I hope it’s fast. Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.” ...
The Post said the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, joined the president during the interview. ... Waltz would not confirm that Trump had spoken with Putin, telling NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that “there are certainly a lot of sensitive conversations going on” and that senior US diplomats would be in Europe this week “talking through the details of how to end this war and that will mean getting both sides to the table”.
Ending the war, Waltz added, had come up in conversations with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi; China’s president, Xi Jinping; and leaders across the Middle East. “Everybody is ready to help President Trump end in this war,” Waltz said, and repeated the president’s comments that he is prepared to tax, tariff and sanction Russia.
“The president is prepared to put all of those issues on the table this week, including the future of US aid to Ukraine. We need to recoup those costs, and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their rare earth [materials], their natural resources, their oil and gas, and also buying ours.” But Waltz reiterated what he said was the Trump administration’s “underlying principle” that the Europeans “have to own this conflict going forward. President Trump is going to end it, and then in terms of security guarantees that is squarely going to be with the Europeans.”
Trump predicts ‘billions’ of dollars of Pentagon fraud in Fox News interview
Donald Trump said that he expects Elon Musk to find “billions” of dollars of abuse and fraud in the Pentagon during an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday. “I’m going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. ... Then I’m going to go, go to the military. Let’s check the military,” the US president told the host from the rightwing Fox News, adding: “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse.”
In the last few weeks, Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has been trying to dismantle numerous federal agencies in Washington DC, going through data systems, shutting down DEI programs, and in some cases, attempting to eliminate entire agencies.
Last week, Musk and Trump attempted to put thousands of workers of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on leave, but a judge on Friday temporarily blocked the effort.
Without providing any evidence, Trump said in the Baier interview: “You take a look at the USAid, the kind of fraud in there … We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that’s going to places where it shouldn’t be going … It’s crazy. It’s a big scam.”
Trump went on to reiterate his wish for Canada to be the 51st state.
Trump to announce 25% aluminum and steel tariffs in latest trade escalation
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will announce on Monday new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US, which would come on top of existing metals duties in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul. The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, also said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, to take effect almost immediately. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.
Trump during his first term imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, but later granted several trading partners duty-free quotas, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Joe Biden extended these quotas to Britain, Japan and the European Union, and US steel mill capacity utilization has dropped in recent years. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that the new tariffs would come on top of the existing duties on steel and aluminum.
Trump on Friday announced that he would impose reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on many countries this week. He did not identify the countries, but the duties would be imposed “so that we’re treated evenly with other countries”. ...
According to government and American Iron and Steel Institute data, the largest sources of US steel imports are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam.
Constitutional Crisis: Who Is Musk's "DOGE Army," Gutting Gov't Agencies Despite Legal Questions?
DISMANTLING USAID: Dems' Desperate Battle to Protect the Admin State
'Full-Scale Authoritarian Takeover': Vance and Musk Take Aim at Federal Judges
Facing a string of judicial rulings in recent days that have struck down or at least put on hold a variety of efforts by the Trump administration that appeared to overstep its executive authority, both Vice President JD Vance and billionaire oligarch Elon Musk on Sunday took aim at the power of judges by saying their powers—despite being the recognized co-equal and third branch of the U.S. government—should be curbed or disregarded.
"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal," Vance tweeted Sunday morning, in a legally dubious post. Despite the claim, military generals are not free—either from laws of war, international human rights treaties, or chains of command—to do anything they please.
"If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal," Vance continued. "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
For folks who are surprised about, or shocked by, Vance calling on Trump to ignore judges, he’s been saying it for a while but much of our press wasn’t paying attention: https://t.co/GlSWC8VOxP pic.twitter.com/Z2hhYQVsiB
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 9, 2025
Shortly before Vance's tweet, Musk, the world's richest person and who has been tasked by Trump to run the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE) effort to dismantle key government agencies and programs, floated the idea that life-time appointed judges should, based on a set annual quota, be subject to termination by the political party in power. Currently, both chambers of Congress and the White House are controlled by Republicans.
"I'd like to propose that the worst 1% of appointed judges, as determined by elected bodies, be fired every year," Musk said on Sunday morning. "This will weed out the most corrupt and least competent."
Over the last week, federal judges have intervened to block DOGE efforts to have unfettered access to a key Treasury Department payment system and also blocked the so-called "Fork in the Road" offer to federal workers put forth by the unsanctioned Musk-led team at DOGE.
After a U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer responded to a suit brought by 18 state attorneys general on Friday by blocking DOGE access to the Treasury system, Musk retweeted a message suggesting that the best thing to do might be to ignore the order.
Musk also called for Engelmayer's specific ouster. "A corrupt judge protecting corruption," Musk tweeted. "He needs to be impeached NOW!"
"The PayPal Mafia": The South African Oligarchs Surrounding Trump, from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel
When organizers announced a “Nobody Elected Elon” protest at the treasury department’s headquarters in Washington – in response to the revelation that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) had accessed sensitive taxpayer data – not a single Democratic lawmaker had agreed to attend.
But as public outrage mounted over Donald Trump’s brazen assault on the federal government, the speaking list grew. In the end, more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, spoke at the event, which drew hundreds of protesters outside on a frigid Tuesday last week. In speech after speech, they pledged to do everything in their power to block Trump from carrying out his right-wing agenda.
“We might have a few less seats in Congress,” Maxwell Frost, a Representative from Florida, thundered into the microphone. “But we’re not going to be the minority. We’re going to be the opposition.”
In the weeks since Trump took office, Democrats in Washington have been under increasing pressure from the left to get tougher as the president, with Musk at his side, defies Congress and possibly the constitution. Their phone lines have been inundated with angry callers imploring the opposition party to “do something”. And on Wednesday, progressive activists staged protests outside of their Congressional offices, demanding Democrats in Washington “treat this as the constitutional crisis it is”.
“Nobody is going to hear your boring message about the price of tomatoes when a coup is going on,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the activist group Indivisible, which helped organized the treasury department action. “You’ve got to fight back.”
Elon Musk’s journey from climate champion to backing EV-bashing Trump
Donald Trump’s attempts to slash incentives for electric cars would cause sales of the vehicles to plummet, with this effort cheered on by a seemingly confounding supporter – Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and erstwhile champion for action on the climate crisis. Trump has said that he “will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers”.
The US president, who previously suggested supporters of EVs “rot in hell” before somewhat tempering his rhetoric, has already ditched an aspirational goal for half of all car sales to be electric by the end of the decade, halted some funding for EV chargers and began reversing vehicle pollution standards that prod auto companies to shift away from gasoline models. A key tax credit for Americans buying an EV, worth up to $7,500, is also a major target for elimination, although to overturn this Trump will require Republicans in Congress. Should he succeed, though, the impact would be significant, with a recent study finding that electric car sales could fall by 27% without the incentive.
“Turning off the credits would affect a meaningful share of the EV market,” said Joseph Shapiro, a University of California, Berkeley, economist and co-author of the study, who added that while a growing number of people would still go electric, the total number of cars sold would shrink by more than 300,000 a year than if the incentives stayed in place. ... Musk has said, though, that removal of EV subsidies will hurt rivals such as Ford and General Motors more than Tesla. “Take away the subsidies,” Musk wrote on X, another of his companies, in July. “It will only help Tesla.”
There is some logic to this, Shapiro said. Tesla is comfortably the largest EV brand in the US, accounting for nearly half of all sales, and makes more profit per car than its rivals, meaning the removal of incentives would be disproportionately felt by other manufacturers. “If the tax credit is removed Tesla could survive and have less competition, they have more headroom to withstand a decrease in the market size,” Shapiro said. Stock in Tesla surged following Trump’s election win.
However, Tesla will still be affected. Weakening federal pollution rules, for example, could see a reduction in the amount of carbon credits Tesla sells to other car companies – amounting to $2.7bn just last year – to offset their emissions and avoid fines. Tesla’s sales dipped slightly for the first time in 2024, amid concern among some of its traditionally liberal customer base about Musk’s rightward political turn.
Trump interior department directive raises fears for national monuments
The US interior department has raised fears among conservationist groups about how national monuments will be affected in its transformation to support the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel agenda. A review from Trump’s pick for interior secretary, Doug Burgum, released on his first full day in the position on Monday, instructs federal officials to reverse Biden-era regulations on oil and gas industries and boost drilling.
Burgum also called for “actions to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn lands”, which conservationist groups described as a threat to redraw boundaries of national monuments. “Burgum has proven he’s nothing more than a puppet for Trump’s excessive giveaways to billionaires,” said Kristen Miller, who directs the conservation group Alaska Wilderness League.
The seven-page directive says “burdensome regulations” enshrined by Joe Biden should be overturned to further fossil fuel development. “By removing such regulations, America’s natural resources can be unleashed to restore American prosperity,” it says. Fossil fuel interests poured $96m into Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and affiliated political action committees. ...
Among the sites conservationists fear are most at risk are Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, where state officials fought against their creation. Grand Staircase-Escalante holds large coal reserves, and the Bears Ears area has uranium. Trump reduced the size of the two monuments during his first term, calling them a “massive land grab”. He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England coast.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Civil Rights Are Being Destroyed Throughout The West In Service Of Israel
‘This time, we stay’: the Palestinian families vowing not to leave Gaza
Oil for Migrants: Did the Trump Administration Just Reset US Diplomatic Relations With Venezuela?
You may not like Trump, but his power grab for the economic levers is right. Liberals, take note!
U.S. Bioweapons Program Behind Lyme Disease?
A Little Night Music
Memphis Slim & Matt Guitar Murphy - Memphis Slim U.S.A.
Memphis Slim w Peter Green - Boogin' And Bluesin' / Wind Gonna Rise
Memphis Slim – All By Myself
Memphis Slim w Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - You Called Me At Last
Memphis Slim, Canned Heat, The Memphis Horns - When I Was Young
Memphis Slim & Matt Guitar Murphy - Backbone Boogie
Memphis Slim – Ballin' The Jack I Feel So Good
Memphis Slim w Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - You're The One
Memphis Slim, Canned Heat, The Memphis Horns - Mr Longfingers
Memphis Slim & Matt Guitar Murphy - Sassy Mae
Comments
some gnus about the ciss fire in the ME
.
.
Al-Qassam Brigades announces postponement of release of Israeli detainees
scheduled for Saturday in protest against the occupation’s failure to abide by
humanitarian provisions.
the resistance leadership has monitored the enemy’s violations and failure
to abide by the terms of the agreement over the past three weeks
Oops.
question everything
evening qms...
in the court of world opinion, i'm sure that the al-qassam brigades decision makes sense. on the other hand, i'm almost certain that the israelis will take it as the excuse that they have been waiting for to restart their offensive, they have nothing to lose in the court of world opinion, so they'll do as they please.
Trump is saying that he will end the ceasefire
if ALL hostages aren’t released by Saturday. He keeps griping about how thin the 3 men hostages look, but he hasn’t said one word about how bad the Palestinian ‘prisoners’ look or how 3 of them had to be taken off the bus on stretchers.
Hamas should remind the world how Israel cut off all food and water into Gaza and how it’s lucky the 3 men are still alive while many Palestinian children and babies have starved to death.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
yep...
looks like trump is giving netanyahu the go ahead to get back to genocide.
Hamas
Hey Trumps do you care to comment on this?
Ritter thinks T is blowing smoke at Netanyahu and he’s just starting negotiations blah blah blah. I think Ritter is way out over his skies on this.
I’ll give him credit tho for not getting into war with Iran.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
heh...
i've heard about all i care to about trump's "master negotiator" abilities and the nixon "madman theory."
i'd like to see some tangible evidence that trump has ever delivered something useful without serious downsides in the way of foreign relations or can deliver it now.
Me too
If Trump was going to rein in Netanyahu he would stop what he’s doing in the West Bank. That’s what I was screaming at Ritter when he said what he did. Larry Johnson thinks he’s playing 5d chess too.
I had hoped that he wouldn’t be as bad towards Israel as he was last time, but good grief. Why do they think he’s sending Israel 2,000 lb bombs including the MOAB?
Some good news though. Looks like all republicans voted for Tulsi.
Maddow had a cow over it.
I hope Tulsi has the names of those who defamed her. Wouldn’t that be sweet?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Hey joe,
it never fails. I wish I could just wander through your music library/warehouse. You're a solid educated blues nut; I'm rhythm and blues.
I was literally threatened by black female gangs in my senior year in high school cos I knew the soul charts better than they did. Needless to say, I had made an AA friend in homeroom who backed them off big time. It was a shock cos I never figured she had those kind of connections. Man, could I tell some stories. Anywho, Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
kinda sucks to be a white minority
.
living in a brown world
what's inside counts
race relations for contemplation
question everything
evening orlbucfan...
heh, if i ever move to a place big enough to have my whole collection out of boxes at once, i'll let you know. i've got a fair amount of r&b in my collection, but it's mostly the early stuff (wynonie harris, big maybelle, ray charles, etc.) though i do have some later stuff, probably what you were listening to in high school. i like it all.
have a great evening!
Max and Aaron looking a little ruff
like they both just crawled out of bed, but they cover some interesting topics in this 2 hour show.
Israel is still killing civilians in Gaza and they aren’t letting in enough aid, but Trump is threatening to stop the ceasefire if Hamas doesn’t release more hostages. Israel can do damn well whatever it wants, but all the blame goes on Hamas.
Naked capitalism is cutting off comments because of a few bad apples. Nothing like collective punishment. I might leave a comment saying that.
I think the comments there are just as good as any essay they do. Big bummer if she does that. I’ve never been a fan of Yves who comes down on people she disagrees with.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Yves Smith, aka Susan Webber
.
the principal of Aurora Advisors Incorporated has links to USA ID.
Think Naked Cap overall is good, but has certain flaws. Unlike our
pristine site
question everything
Well that makes sense then
This seemed to have come out of the blue. Yes she’s been calling people out for being wrong or in her words making shit up. I’ve seen a few of these types of comments last week, but I’ve seen nothing like what she says is happening unless she’s catching them in moderation and they don’t make it to the screen.
IM doc posts some of the best comments there and it’d be a shame if his voice was lost. Lambert is retiring at the end of the month. No more water cooler. Sad.
I think is she does that the traffic to the site will crash. Then what ? Often times I just skip to comments.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
the bird calls are cool
.
in the water cooler, and IM Doc is a good voice. Actually many
commenters are fun to read. New lyrics to old songs. Such like that.
Before the site crashes, maybe we should put in a plug for C99?
Seems like a good fit for this 'going concern'.
question everything
Heh…
I did think about putting in a plug for here, but wasn’t sure if I had the right to. I disagree with quite a few of the comments there and don’t want to go through what we did during the Rona scam.
A few people there used to be members here so maybe they will return.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
sorry to hear that nc is having some problems. over the years it has put out some really good work. i've never had the time to follow the site deeply, reading the comments and getting to know the commenters much. hopefully, they'll sort out their problem and get on with things.
Good evening Joe. Happy Monday nite and thanks for the
EBs. Supposed to get down to 33 tonight, meaning that every surface that can dundergo radiative cooling will drop below freezing, including all of the shallow water sources we provide for the birds and other critters. Ah well, such is life.
Great collection of tunes tonight. If only the news would keep pace. Thanks for the article on The Bidwell Mansion and all that. Like the rest of the country, Chico is built on a huge stack of corpses, and nobody really wants to take full cognizance of that fact.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
i hear that you've also got a series of atmospheric rivers passing through your region, dumping huge amounts of snow in the mountains. i hope everything turns out fine.
yep, we all live on stolen land in the u.s. it's good that now and then somebody thinks to describe some of the details of the theft.
have a great evening!
"Does Trump Understand Putin?"
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Does Chuck Tingle understand Arthur C. Clarke...?
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!