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"I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury."

-- Groucho Marx

News and Opinion

Jury still out on Trump in Israel?

Someone recently tried to tell me that the “jury is still out” on Trump’s actions regarding Israel, because maybe he’ll wind up being not so bad on the issue. This is nonsense. The jury isn’t out on Trump regarding Israel. He’s sending Israel weapons while it’s murdering people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

These are not things Trump might do. These are not things Trump is saying he will do. These are things Trump is doing. Presently. Even if you choose to believe his ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza are actually brilliant 9-D chess maneuvers secretly designed to free Palestine and achieve peace (and they absolutely are not), you have to ignore hard material actions you are seeing right now right in front of your face in order to believe the jury is still out. You also have to ignore the fact that Trump has publicly admitted to being bought and controlled by the Adelsons.

There are arguments to be made that in terms of hard material facts on the ground so far Trump was the lesser evil on Israel, but there are no arguments to be made that he isn’t still very evil. The jury is not out on that. The jury is very much in.

And it doesn’t actually matter if Trump winds up being less destructive than Biden on Palestine. The election has been over for months. Trump is the president now. Biden is completely irrelevant. There is no excuse for defending the depraved actions of the president of the world’s most powerful and destructive nation.

The experience of talking to Trump supporters about Trump’s Israel sycophancy is identical to the experience of talking to Biden supporters about Biden’s Israel sycophancy. It’s exactly the same. These partisan livestock will make excuses for literally anything.

Prof. Norman Finkelstein: Trump/Netanyahu's Cease-Fire Deal Terms are Far-Fetched

Egypt draws up Gaza reconstruction plan that would exclude Hamas

An alternative to Donald Trump’s plan to turn the Gaza Strip into a US-owned “Riviera of the Middle East” is being prepared by Egypt in conjunction with the World Bank, under which Hamas would be formally excluded from governance and control of the territory’s reconstruction.

The process would be handed over on an interim basis to the control of a social or community support committee. No member of Hamas would sit on the committee. But the future military status of Hamas within Gaza is unresolved, which is likely to be a barrier to Israeli endorsement of the plan.

Arab states – principally the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – are preparing to make financial offers to fund reconstruction, but on the basis that Palestinians are given the right to remain in Gaza and are not forced to seek temporary or permanent refuge in Egypt or Jordan. Reconstruction would take three to five years, with 65% of the property in Gaza having been destroyed.

European sources admit the issue of providing security guarantees to Israel for Gaza remains unresolved since no Arab country is willing to offer troops in the absence of Israel offering a clear political horizon to a Palestinian state.

An Arab summit is due to be held in Riyadh on 27 February at which an alternative to the Trump plan for Gaza is due to be discussed and parts of it revealed. So far Saudi Arabia has not explicitly called for Hamas to be excluded from the reconstruction process or governance of Gaza, but Anwar Gargash, a UAE senior diplomatic adviser, praised a recent call from Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary general of the Arab League, for Hamas to step down from the administration of Gaza as “appropriate and rational”.

Prof. Norman Finkelstein: Israel is "UNHINGED"

Netanyahu says Israel working closely with US on Trump’s plan for Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working closely with the US to implement Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves US ownership of the coastal strip, the removal of more than 2 million Palestinians and the redevelopment of the occupied territory as a resort.

The Israeli prime minister was speaking after a meeting in Jerusalem with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who defended the Trump plan as bold and visionary. Rubio and Netanyahu blamed Iran for the violence in the Middle East and insisted Tehran would be stopped from developing nuclear weapons.

Trump’s shock proposal earlier this month for a “Riviera of the Middle East” has been condemned around the world as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, but Rubio and Netanyahu insisted it would proceed. “We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting, which overran by an hour. “We have a common strategy, and we can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public”.

He did say, however, that it included opening “the gates of hell” on Gaza, a phrased used by Trump, if all the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups were not released. Rubio promoted the Trump plan as a breakthrough. “It may have shocked and surprised many,” he said. “But what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place.”

Neither Rubio nor Netanyahu answered questions at their press event in Jerusalem. Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Saturday night that he hoped the mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza endorsed by Trump could begin soon. He said he expected Palestinians would be forced to leave by a resumption of bombing. “It’s a process I hope will begin in the coming weeks,” he told Israel’s Channel 12.

Israel wants to k*ll everyone in Gaza

Iran maximum pressure and Russian mediation

Visiting Netanyahu, Rubio Says Hamas Must Be ‘Eradicated’

Speaking to reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Hamas must be “eradicated,” a goal that would require Israel to restart its genocidal war on Gaza.

“Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force, and frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern, or as a force that can administer, or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible,” Rubio said. “They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated.”

Lawmakers ADMIT They Banned TikTok To SILENCE Criticism Of Israel: Ken Klippenstein

Israeli Soldiers in Gaza Used 80-Year-Old as Human Shield Before Killing Him and His Wife

A senior Israeli officer in Gaza tied an explosive around the neck of an 80-year-old Palestinian man to force him to act as a human shield, and the man and his wife were later killed by Israeli soldiers, the Israeli media outlet The Hottest Place in Hell has reported. ...

The practice of using Palestinian civilians as human shields became widespread in Gaza, so much so that the Israelis gave it a name. Palestinians detained in Gaza and used as human shields are called “mosquitos,” while Palestinians brought in from Israel for that purpose are called “wasps.” The Hottest Place in Hell referred to the use of the 80-year-old man as a human shield as the “Mosquito Procedure.”

While the IDF claims it doesn’t allow the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, a soldier said it has become official policy.

Alastair Crooke : Trump and Putin's World Now

US and Russian Officials To Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia Next Week

Top Trump administration officials are set to travel to Saudi Arabia next week to hold talks with Russian officials to discuss bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, multiple media outlets reported on Sunday.

The delegation is expected to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy.

Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in a phone call on Saturday, following up on President Trump’s recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Secretary re-affirmed President Trump’s commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, they discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on a number of other bilateral issues,” the State Department said in a readout of the Rubio-Lavrov call.

Trump Says SLASH Defense Budget 50%, DENUCLEARIZE

The lights are going out all over Europe

Trump vowed to champion US workers - the reality has been a relentless assault

As a presidential candidate last fall, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to battle for US workers, but ever since he returned to the White House, he has taken a surprisingly large number of anti-worker actions, labor experts say. Some of those moves, among them hobbling the National Labor Relations Board, will help Trump’s billionaire business friends, most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

In his first few weeks back in office, Trump fired the acting chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), leaving the US’s top labor watchdog without a quorum to enforce laws that protect workers’ right to unionize. Trump has designated Musk, a vehemently anti-union billionaire, to launch an all-out war against the federal bureaucracy and workforce, and Trump and Musk have essentially treated the country’s 2 million-plus federal employees as if they were disposable.

Not stopping there, Trump fired two members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), leaving it without a quorum to carry out its mission of fighting against discrimination. In his crusade to downsize the government and demolish the “deep state”, Trump and his administration have fired thousands of federal employees – moves that union officials say have violated laws and rules that require due process and a finding of poor performance before workers can be dismissed.

“Donald Trump is showing that his promises to be a champion of workers are hollow,” said Judy Conti, government affairs director of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. “He surrounds himself with people who are anti-worker. He has a history of being anti-worker, but he tries to put a nice face on it. He says he’s a champion of workers. He’s just not.”

Trump vs. Public Health: Funding Cuts Gut CDC’s Disease Detectors, Medical Research & More

Trump cuts reach FDA workers focused on food safety and medical devices

The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired. Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The total number of positions eliminated was not clear on Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products – which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.

On Friday, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to fire 5,200 probationary employees across its agencies, which include the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity on Friday said the number of probationary employees to be laid off at the CDC would total nearly 1,300. But as of early Sunday afternoon, about 700 people had received notices, according to three people who spoke on condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. They said none of the CDC layoffs affected the doctors and researchers who track diseases in what’s known as the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Protesters target Tesla showrooms in US over Elon Musk’s government cost cutting

Protesters gathered outside Tesla dealerships across the US on Saturday in response to Elon Musk’s efforts to shred government spending under the president, Donald Trump.

Groups of demonstrators up to 100-strong gathered outside the electric carmaker’s showrooms in cities including New York, Seattle, Kansas City and across California. Organisers said the protests took place in dozens of locations.

While the protests were scattered, they highlighted the risks to the car company of Musk’s close association with Trump’s radical rightwing agenda. Many of the protesters carried placards likening the Trump administration to Nazis – a characterisation that Musk has previously emphatically denied. ...

Some Tesla investors have queried whether Musk’s association with the Trump administration, including spending more than $200m on the presidential election campaign, will dent its sales – particularly in liberal areas of the US. Places including California have tended to be the biggest markets for electric cars in the US, while the Republican party and the Trump administration are actively opposed to the technology.

Elon Musk’s mass government cuts could make private companies millions

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has vowed to oversee a radical hollowing out of government agencies, asserting this week that some should be “deleted entirely” as he defunds public programs and lays off federal workers. While the immense cuts are framed as a means of removing waste, they may also become a boon to private companies – including Musk’s own businesses – that the government increasingly relies on for many of its key initiatives. ...

While Doge begins to make deep cuts throughout the government, Musk and those acting on his behalf have called for implementing new artificial intelligence systems in federal agencies and completely overhauling American weapons programs. As humanitarian aid groups reel from Musk’s cuts, tech and defense firms are seeing a chance to integrate themselves deeper into the new Trump administration’s agenda.

Musk’s plans have already excited Silicon Valley mainstays such as Palantir, whose executives praised Doge on an earnings call last week and talked about how the disruption by the billionaire’s strike squad was good for the company. Palantir already has won hundreds of millions of dollars in US military contracts in recent years for AI-related projects. “I think Doge is going to bring meritocracy and transparency to government, and that’s exactly what our commercial business is,” Palantir’s chief technology officer, Shyam Sankar, said on the call. Sankar claimed the cost cutting would target straggling software projects, which he called “sacred cows of the deep state”.

“This is a revolution, some people are gonna get their heads cut off,” Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, added. “We’re expecting to see unexpected things and to win.”

Other CEOs and tech executives have similarly praised Musk and told investors that Doge’s plans represent an opportunity for their companies. Brian Armstrong, CEO of the multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, lauded Doge last week for its “great progress” and suggested putting government expenditures on blockchain technology. Defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman spoke favorably of the effort on recent earnings calls, while the Predator drone-maker General Atomics Aeronautical Systems wrote a letter directly to Musk last month asking him to speed up the way the Pentagon handles defense contracts.

Democrats in Congress see potential shutdown as leverage to counter Trump

With the US federal government expected to shut down in one month unless Congress approves a funding bill, Democratic lawmakers are wrestling with just how far they are willing to go to push back against Donald Trump’s radical rightwing agenda that has thrown American politics into turmoil. Specifically, Democrats appear divided on the question of whether they would be willing to endure a shutdown to demonstrate their outrage over the president’s attempted overhaul of the federal government.

The stakes are high; unless Congress passes a bill to extend funding beyond 14 March, hundreds of thousands of federal employees may be forced to go without pay at a time when they already feel under attack by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”. And given Trump’s eagerness to flex his presidential authority, the fallout could be particularly severe, depending on how the office of management and budget (OMB) handled a shutdown.

To be sure, Republicans are taking the lead on reaching a funding deal, as they control the White House and both chambers of Congress, but party leaders will absolutely need Democrats’ assistance to pass a bill. While Republicans hold a 53-to-47 advantage in the Senate, any funding bill will need the support of at least 60 senators to overcome the filibuster.

In the House, Republicans hold a razor-thin majority of 218 to 215, and hard-right lawmakers’ demands for steeper spending cuts will likely force the speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, to also rely on Democratic support to pass a funding bill. ...

The dynamics of the funding fight have empowered some Democrats to suggest that the negotiations could become a powerful piece of political leverage as they scramble to disrupt Trump’s efforts to freeze federal funding, unilaterally shutter the foreign-aid agency USAid and carry out mass firings across the government.

US Forest Service and National Park Service to fire thousands of workers

The US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump’s push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.

The terminations target employees who are in their probationary employment periods, which includes anyone hired less than a year ago, according to Reuters, and will affect sites such as the Appalachian trail, Yellowstone, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the Sequoia national forest.

The cuts represent about 10% of the Forest Service workforce and about 5% of National Park Service employees, but excludes firefighters, law enforcement and certain meteorologists, as well as 5,000 seasonal workers, from the cutbacks.

“Allowing parks to hire seasonal staff is essential, but staffing cuts of this magnitude will have devastating consequences for parks and communities,” the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) president, Theresa Pierno, said in a statement.

The association warned in a statement this month that staffing levels were not keeping pace with increasing demands on the national park system, which saw 325m visits in 2023 alone – an increase of 13m from 2022.

Extreme weather expected to cause food price volatility in 2025 after cost of cocoa and coffee doubles

Extreme weather events are expected to lead to volatile food prices throughout 2025, supply chain analysts have said, after cocoa and coffee prices more than doubled over the past year. In an apparent confirmation of warnings that climate breakdown could lead to food shortages, research by the consultancy Inverto found steep rises in the prices of a number of food commodities in the year to January that correlated with unexpected weather.

Several authorities declared 2024 the hottest year on record, a trend towards higher temperatures that seems to be continuing into 2025. Inverto said a long-term trend towards more extreme weather events would continue to hit regional crop yields, causing price spikes.

The highest price rises were for cocoa and coffee, up 163% and 103% respectively, due to a combination of higher than average rainfall and temperatures in producing regions, according to the research.

Sunflower oil prices increased by 56% after drought caused poor crop yields in Bulgaria and Ukraine, which also continued to be affected by the Russian invasion. Other food commodities with sharp year-on-year price rises included orange juice and butter, both up by more than a third, and beef, up by just over a quarter.

“Food manufacturers and retailers should diversify their supply chains and sourcing strategies to reduce over-reliance on any one region affected by crop failures,” Katharina Erfort, of Inverto, said.

Brake pad dust can be more toxic than exhaust emissions, study says

Microscopic particles emitted from brake pads can be more toxic than those emitted in diesel vehicle exhaust, a study has found. This research shows that even with a move to electric vehicles, pollution from cars may not be able to be eradicated. The researchers found that a higher concentration of copper in some commonly used brake pads was associated with increased harmful effects on sensitive cells from people’s lungs, as a result of particles being breathed in.

Exposure to pollution generated by cars, vans and lorries has been previously been linked to an increased risk of lung and heart disease. While past attention has mainly concentrated on exhaust emissions, particles are also released into the air from tyre, road and brake pad wear.

These emissions are largely unregulated by legislation and the study found that these “non-exhaust” pollution sources are now responsible for the majority of vehicle particulate matter emissions in the UK and parts of Europe, with brake dust the main contributor among them.

Dr James Parkin, from the University of Southampton and lead author of the study published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology, said: “People generally associate pollution from cars as being from exhaust pipes and think of electric vehicles as having zero emissions. However, electric vehicles still produce particulate matter due to friction and wear of the road, tyres, and brakes. “We wanted to understand how different types of chemical composition of pads affect the toxicity of the particles emitted and what this might mean for the health of individuals.”

The scientists examined the effects on lung health of particulate matter from four different types of brake pad with differing chemical compositions; low metallic, semi-metallic, non-asbestos organic and hybrid-ceramic. Results showed that of the four types of brake pads, non-asbestos organic pads were the most potent at inducing inflammation and other markers of toxicity, and were found to be more toxic to human lung cells than diesel exhaust particles. Ceramic pads were the second most toxic.

DeSantis urged to declare emergency over toxic red tide algae off Florida coast

Environmentalists in Florida are calling on the governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare an emergency as a worsening “red tide” algae bloom off the state’s south-west coast threatens popular tourist beaches and is being blamed for the deaths of wildlife including fish and dolphins. Several counties have issued health alerts in response to the outbreak, which scientists say began in the Gulf of Mexico last year when Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore up nutrient-rich waters that feed the algae.

The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) has been monitoring a sizable patch of red tide, a naturally occurring phenomenon caused by overproduction of the harmful algae Karenia brevis, along a stretch of the Gulf coast. Dead fish have washed up on several beaches, and the outbreak is suspected in the deaths of two dolphins found offshore in Collier county.

Red tides can cause skin irritation and respiratory distress in humans and animals, and have become increasingly common in recent years, partly due to a combination of changing environmental conditions, including soaring ocean temperatures, and pollution. In many instances they dissipate by January, but in other years can linger and worsen, such as the severe summer 2021 outbreak that left heaps of fish, turtles, dolphins and manatees rotting on the Florida shoreline.

The conservation groups say not enough is being done to tackle the cause of the problem, even though they applaud efforts such as DeSantis’s reactivation of a red tide taskforce in 2019, and his signing of a house bill last year extending funding for research. “While providing funds for engineering solutions, the government has not done a very good job at controlling or fixing polluted waterways,” said Eric Milbrandt, marine lab director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF).

The group has previously linked human activity, including toxic run-off from agricultural production, as an aggravating factor in the intensification of red tide events. “We have a lot of them in the state of Florida, and it’s non-point source pollution, so it’s difficult to tackle. It’s great that the state has been investing in engineering technology, and it does have promise, but it likely would be limited to smaller blooms,” Milbrandt said.

Also of Interest

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

There Is No Antisemitism Crisis In Australia. It’s A Carefully Constructed Lie.

Trump Wants Peace in Ukraine, But Why Not in Gaza?

Freed but Scarred: Palestinian Prisoners Expose Occupation’s Brutality

Coverage of Israeli and Palestinian Captives Demonstrates Dehumanization in Action

Vance Criticizes Europe In Fierce Speech

Elon Musk’s ‘efficiency’ team meets with defense staff at Pentagon

Dennis Kucinich: The Cost of Freedom

Cameras have appeared outside homes of Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ activists.

BOMBSHELL: Unemployment Actually at GREAT DEPRESSION Levels

Democrats Are NEVER Coming Back After Genocide Support (w/ Butch Ware)

Congo, Jazz & the CIA: Oscar-Nominated "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" Revisits Lumumba Assassination

Luigi BREAKS SILENCE: Launches FAQ

THIS Is How USAID Overthrows Governments Around The Globe!

Trump's Economic Recovery a Dead End? - Michael Hudson, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

A Little Night Music

Little Milton – Woke Up This Morning

Little Milton – Poor Man

Little Milton – Have Mercy, Baby

Little Milton - Grits Ain't Groceries

Little Milton – If That Ain't A Reason

Little Milton - Open The Door To Your Heart

Little Milton – That's What Love Will Make You Do

Little Milton - We're gonna make it

Little Milton - The Blues is Alright