Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player Guitar Crusher. Enjoy!

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”

-- Edward Bernays

News and Opinion

It’s Always About The System

Israel is a bad country full of bad people. They are not bad because of their religion, they are bad because they live in a genocidal apartheid state whose existence depends on indoctrinating its people into seeing genocide and apartheid as good. It’s the system.

It’s always the system. Western countries are full of shitty people with shitty beliefs who do shitty things to each other all the time. This isn’t because westerners are inherently shitty, nor because humans are inherently shitty. It’s because here in the western empire we live under capitalism, which encourages selfish behavior and cutthroat competition against each other, and because we are indoctrinated into accepting the tyrannical white supremacist propaganda of western imperialism.

Nobody is inherently bad. We are all the products of our conditioning, and the systems under which we live play a large role in shaping our conditioning. That’s what mass media propaganda and the indoctrination of western schooling are: streamlined systems for determining what our conditioning will be. These systems can have as much of an effect on our view of the world as other forms of conditioning like trauma.

The powerful understand that humans are an easily conditioned animal, and so vast resources are poured into determining what our conditioning shall be. As soon as we are old enough to start learning about the world our minds are trained to shape us into good cogs in the imperial machine. Good employees and gear-turners for capitalism. Good soldiers and police officers. Good citizens who would never do anything to inconvenience our rulers.

We are funneled through carefully crafted factories of conditioning by the malignant systems under which we live. As long as those malignant systems exist they will keep churning out malignant people, and goodness will struggle to find any purchase. This is true whether you are talking about capitalism, imperialism, or Zionism.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : How Close to a Regional War?

Israel seems set on destroying system of international law compliance, ICJ hears

Israel appears set on destroying the framework created to ensure compliance with international law in a way that will have profound consequences that reverberate far beyond Palestine, the international court of justice has heard. The warning was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza.

Israel is not participating but has submitted oral evidence claiming its decision last October to end all cooperation with Unrwa, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, was necessary because of infiltration by Hamas.

Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, the counsel for the Palestinian state, described Israel’s actions as “antithetical to a peace-loving state”. She said the restrictions on “the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, [Israel’s] attacks on the United Nations and on UN officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary organ” were “unprecedented in the history of the organisation”. They amounted to “a fundamental repudiation by Israel of its charter obligations owed both to the organisation and to all UN members and of the international rule of law”, she said.

Warning that the international order was crumbling and expressing “the continuing desperate hope that international law might finally prevail”, Ní Ghrálaigh urged the court to reset the moral compass enshrined in the UN charter by ordering Israel to permit aid to enter Gaza, and by restoring cooperation with Unrwa. She said Israel had closed all crossings and turned Rafah, once a refuge for almost 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. ...

Earlier in her 30-minute opening submission to the court, the UN undersecretary general for legal affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, opted for a full-throated assertion of the immunities and privileges of the UN and its subsidiary bodies under the UN charter and 1946 convention on UN privileges. She said Israel had no right unilaterally to declare UN bodies were not impartial and so deny cooperation or aid, adding: “When the basic elements of this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy.” Hammarskjöld said that, if UN member states had complaints about the neutrality of an organisation such as Unrwa, established mechanisms existed for this to be addressed.

Israel’s Shin Bet security chief says he will resign after Netanyahu row

Ronen Bar, the director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, has said he will resign in less than two months, after weeks of tension with Benjamin Netanyahu, who has tried to fire him, bringing Israel to the brink of a constitutional crisis. ...

The battle between Netanyahu and Bar intensified after the supreme court blocked a decision by the cabinet to dismiss Bar from his post – the first Shin Bet head to be fired. ... Bar’s decision to step down will now spare the supreme court from making a potentially divisive and contentious judgment.

Last week, in a 31-page affidavit to the supreme court, Bar, 59, alleged that Netanyahu had tried to fire him for refusing to pledge his loyalty to the prime minister over the courts and tried to use the agency to spy on anti-government protesters.

Netanyahu filed his response with the court on Sunday, rejecting Bar’s accusations. He has repeatedly referred to a “deep state” in Israel that he alleges seeks to thwart democratically elected leaders and undermine elected governments.

Chris Hedges Report: Decimating Gaza’s Health System

If anyone can witness the genocide in Gaza with utmost clarity, it would be medical professionals working there. Their accounts continue to be as harrowing as those of journalists and Gazans themselves, stripped of rhetoric and left with only raw truth.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a general, trauma and critical care surgeon in California, has been to Gaza twice and he joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report.

“There is no serious health system in Gaza anymore,” Sidhwa tells Hedges.

Instead, what’s left of hospitals are mere buildings filled with medical professionals stripped of the equipment vital to saving lives, refugees seeking anything more than tents and endless streams of people barely surviving the constant onslaught of bombs.

Sidhwa explains the gut wrenching details of treating people mangled by bombs, children shot in the head and the inability to save people because of the lack of basic equipment.

Pro-Israel Protesters ASSAULT NYC Woman

Houthi rebels say US airstrike on detention centre killed dozens of African migrants

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have vowed to continue attacks in the Red and Arabian seas hours after a suspected US strike targeting the militia killed dozens of African migrants. The airstrike struck a detention centre holding more than a hundred African migrants in the city of Saada, killing 68 and injuring 47, according to the Houthis.

The Iran-aligned rebel group, which governs north-west Yemen, said the centre was under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Red Cross and targeting it “constitutes a full-fledged war crime”.

There is no confirmation of the number of casualties in the airstrike but the IOM, a United Nations agency, said many migrants were believed to have been killed or injured and described the loss of life as a tragedy. “It is imperative that all efforts are made to avoid harm to civilians and to protect those most vulnerable in these challenging circumstances,” it said.

'A battle between right and wrong': Houthi spokesman on confronting the US and Israel

Trump promised peace but brings rapid increase in civilian casualties to Yemen

“I am the candidate of peace,” Donald Trump declared on the campaign trail last November. Three months into his presidency, not only is the war in Ukraine continuing and the war in Gaza restarted, but in Yemen, the number of civilian casualties caused by US bombing is rapidly and deliberately escalating. Sixty-eight were killed overnight, the Houthis said, when the US military bombed a detention centre holding African migrants in Saada, north-west Yemen, as part of a campaign against the rebel group. In the words of the US Central Command (Centcom), its purpose is to “restore freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea and, most significantly, “American deterrence”.

A month ago, when US bombing against the Houthis restarted, the peace-promising Trump pledged that “the Houthi barbarians” would eventually be “completely annihilated”. It is a highly destructive target, in line perhaps with the commitments made by Israeli leaders to “eliminate” Hamas after 7 October, and certainly in keeping with statements from Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that the US military must focus on “lethality, lethality, lethality”. ...

So far, the Trump administration bombing campaign, Operation Rough Rider, is estimated to have caused more than 500 civilian casualties, of whom at least 158 were killed. Compare that with the previous campaign, Operation Poseidon Archer, which ran under Biden from January 2024 to January 2025: the Yemen Data Project counted 85 casualties, a smaller number over a longer period.

Parties in war are supposed to follow international humanitarian law, following the principle of distinction between military and civilian targets, and respecting the principle of proportionality, where attacks that cause excessive civilian casualties relative to any military advantage gained are, in theory, a war crime.

The clear signs from the US campaign in Yemen are that it is following a looser approach, mirroring the unprecedented level of civilian casualties in the Israel-Gaza war. It is hardly surprising, given that Hegseth has already closed the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation office, which handled policy in the area, and the related Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, responsible for training.

Lt. Col. LAUGHS at Bari Weiss

US Led 'Unprecedented' Surge in Global Military Spending in 2024

Military spending worldwide soared to $2.718 trillion last year, meaning it "has increased every year for a full decade, going up by 37% between 2015 and 2024," according to an annual report released Monday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has tracked conflict, disarmament, and weapons for nearly six decades. Its 2024 spending report states that "for the second year in a row, military expenditure increased in all five of the world's geographical regions, reflecting heightened geopolitical tensions across the globe."

In a Monday statement, Xiao Liang, a researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, highlighted that "over 100 countries around the world raised their military spending in 2024."

"This was really unprecedented... It was the highest year-on-year increase since the end of the Cold War," Liang told Agence France-Press, while acknowledging that there may have been larger jumps during the Cold War but Soviet Union data is not available.

Liang warned that "as governments increasingly prioritize military security, often at the expense of other budget areas, the economic and social trade-offs could have significant effects on societies for years to come."

The United States—whose Republican lawmakers are currently cooking up a plan to give even more money to a Pentagon that's never passed an audit—led all countries, with $997 billion in military spending. The report points out that the U.S. not only allocated "3.2 times more than the second-largest spender," but also "accounted for 37% of global military expenditure in 2024 and 66% of spending by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members."

In the second spot was China, with an estimated $314 billion in spending. Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, raised the alarm about spending in Asia.

In the second spot was China, with an estimated $314 billion in spending. Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, raised the alarm about spending in Asia.

"Major military spenders in the Asia-Pacific region are investing increasing resources into advanced military capabilities," said Tian. "With several unresolved disputes and mounting tensions, these investments risk sending the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral."

In third place was Russia, with an estimated $149 billion in spending. Russia remains at war after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Rounding out the top five were Germany ($88.5 billion) and India ($86.1 billion).

They were followed by the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, France, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Poland, Italy, and Australia. The report says that "together, the top 15 spenders in 2024 accounted for 80% of global military spending ($2,185 billion) and for 79% of the total increase in spending over the year. All 15 increased their military spending in 2024."

Elon Musk’s Doge conflicts of interest worth $2.37bn, Senate report says

Elon Musk and his companies face at least $2.37bn in legal exposure from federal investigations, litigation and regulatory oversight, according to a new report from Senate Democrats. The report attempts to put a number to Musk’s many conflicts of interest through his work with his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), warning that he may seek to use his influence to avoid legal liability.

The report, which was published on Monday by Democratic members of the Senate homeland security committee’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, looked at 65 actual or potential actions against Musk across 11 separate agencies. Investigators calculated the financial liabilities Musk and his companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, may face in 45 of those actions.

Since Donald Trump won re-election last year and Musk took on the role of de facto head of Doge in January, ethics watchdogs and Democratic officials have warned that the Tesla CEO could use his power to oust regulators and quash investigations into his companies. In the role, Musk, the richest man in the world, holds sway over agencies that regulate or contract with his companies. The subcommittee report outlines the extent of Musk’s liabilities, which include potentially facing $1.19bn in fines to Tesla alone over allegations it made false or misleading statements about its autopilot and self-driving features.

Although the report gives a total estimated amount, it also states that the $2bn-plus figure does not include how much Musk could avoid from investigations that the Trump administration declines to launch. It also excludes the potential contracts, such as communications deals with his Starlink satellite internet service, that Musk’s companies could gain because of his role in the administration.

“While the $2.37 billion figure represents a credible, conservative estimate, it drastically understates the true benefit Mr Musk may gain from legal risk avoidance alone as a result of his position in government,” the report states.

Trump’s first 100 days supercharged a global ‘freefall of rights’, says Amnesty

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today. In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.

Describing a “freefall” in human rights, the report said growing inaction over the climate crisis, violent crackdowns on dissent and a mounting backlash against the rights of migrants, refugees, women, girls and LGBTQ+ people could be traced to the so-called Trump effect. ...

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, described the US president’s swift and deliberate targeting of international institutions designed to make the world safer and fairer as “terrifying”.

“You look forward to the end of this decade and wonder whether the basic frameworks and underpinnings of not just human rights but international law will still be standing. You probably haven’t been able to say that since 1935,” he said. ...

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said: “Trump has shown only utter contempt for universal human rights – emboldening anti-rights movements worldwide and letting corporate allies run amok.”

Trump administration’s budget cuts endanger Meals on Wheels: ‘life and death implications’

The Trump administration’s slashes to the Department of Health and Human Services is threatening Meals on Wheels, the popular program dedicated to combatting senior hunger and isolation. Despite decades of bipartisan support, Meals on Wheels now faces attacks from Republicans whose budget blueprint paves the way for deep cuts to nutrition and other social safety-net programs as a way to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

It’s a move anti-hunger advocates and policy experts warn could have disastrous ramifications for the millions of older Americans who rely on the program to eat each day. “It’s not hyperbolic to say that we’re going to be leaving people hungry and that this literally has life and death implications,” said Nicole Jorwic, the chief of advocacy and campaigns at Caring Across Generations, a non-profit that advocates for ageing Americans, disabled people and their caregivers. “This is not just about a nice-to-have program. These programs are necessities in the lives of seniors all over this country.”

While it is still unknown exactly what will be slashed, the blueprint sets the stage for the potential elimination of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), a key source of funding for local Meals on Wheels programs in 37 states, and serious cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) and Medicaid, which would increase food insecurity and hardship and steeply increase demand for Meals on Wheels services. The entire staff who oversaw SSBG have already been fired, according to reports.

If Congress takes away SSBG funding and weakens other programs, seniors who rely on in-home deliveries or meals in community and senior centers to survive would receive less help as Meals on Wheels community providers would be forced to reduce services, add people to waitlists or turn seniors facing hunger away altogether. Some program operators who are already making tough choices about who to serve due to strained budgets and rising need have said it feels as though they are “playing God”. ...

In the US one in four Americans is over the age of 60 and nearly 13 million seniors are threatened by or experience hunger. Meals on Wheels America, a network of 5,000 community-based programs that feeds more than 2 million older Americans each year, has been a successful public-private partnership for more than 50 years. The Urban Institute estimates that the number of seniors in the US will more than double over the next 40 years.

Trump signs executive order requiring list of sanctuary cities and states

Donald Trump signed two new executive orders on Monday afternoon related to immigration, according to the White House, including one targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” and another the administration says will strengthen law enforcement.

One of the orders aims to “strengthen and unleash America’s law enforcement to pursue criminals and protect innocent citizens”, according to the White House. It directs the attorney general to provide resources to the legal defense of police officers who “unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law”. The order also includes a directive to “[hold] state and local officials accountable” for “willfully and unlawfully [directing] the obstruction of criminal law.”

The second order targets so-called “sanctuary cities”, and directs the attorney general and secretary of homeland security to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that “obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws”. It also calls on the government to identify federal funds that can be terminated as a consequence for cities that identify as sanctuary jurisdictions.

Trump also signed an order on Monday requiring commercial vehicle drivers, such as truckers, read and speak English.

The new executive orders come less than a week after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold federal funding from cities and counties that have passed laws preventing or limiting cooperation with US immigration officials, considered “sanctuary cities”.

Trump’s justice department appointees remove leadership of voting unit

Donald Trump’s appointees at the Department of Justice have removed all of the senior civil servants working as managers in the department’s voting section and directed attorneys to dismiss all active cases, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a broader attack on the department’s civil rights division.

The moves come less than a month after Trump ally Harmeet Dhillon was confirmed to lead the civil rights division, created in 1957 and referred to as the “crown jewel” of the justice department. In an unusual move, Dhillon sent out new “mission statements” to the department’s sections that made it clear the civil rights division was shifting its focus from protecting the civil rights of marginalized people to supporting Trump’s priorities.

Tamar Hagler, the chief of the voting section, which is responsible for enforcing federal laws designed to prevent voter discrimination, and five top career managers were all reassigned last week to the complaint adjudication office, a little-known part of the department that handles employee complaints, according to people familiar with the matter. A career line attorney in the section has also been reassigned to the complaint adjudication office.

The voting section had seven managers in January overseeing around 30 attorneys. Of the two other managers, one retired and another was detailed to work on an antisemitism task force. Political appointees have also instructed career employees to dismiss all of their active cases without meeting with them and offering a rationale – a significant break with the department’s practices and norms. ...

Taken together, the changes have raised significant alarm about what the future of voting rights enforcement will look like for the federal government at a moment when states continue to pass restrictive voting measures. It also raises concern about future political interference. The justice department’s civil rights division has long had resources and a credibility that private plaintiffs can’t match. And much of that reputation is driven by the fact that the day-to-day work is carried out by non-political, career staff, whose work is supposed to be apolitical.

Leaked Group Chat: How BILLIONAIRE CABAL Shaped Pro-Trump Propaganda

Thanedar Introduces 7 Articles of Impeachment Against Trump to Halt 'Authoritarian Power Grab'

Faced with two primary challengers and growing public support for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump a historic third time, Congressman Shri Thanedar on Monday filed seven articles of impeachment against the second-term Republican.

"Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit to serve as president and represents a clear and present danger to our nation's constitution and our democracy," Thanedar (D-Mich.) said in a statement. "His unlawful actions have subverted the justice system, violated the separation of powers, and placed personal power and self-interest above public service. We cannot wait for more damage to be done. Congress must act."

Thanedar explained the seven articles of impeachment included in his resolution in a brief video, which he shared on social media.

I have introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump.

When Trump ignores the Constitution, Congress, and the courts, he is not “fighting for America.”

He is tearing it down and endangering our democracy. pic.twitter.com/40iBTZKjkC

— Congressman Shri Thanedar (@RepShriThanedar) April 28, 2025

As a statement from the congressman's office details, Trump's alleged constitutional violations are:

Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Executive Power: Including denial of due process, unlawful deportations, defiance of court orders, and misuse of the Department of Justice.

Usurpation of Appropriations Power: For dismantling congressionally established agencies and impounding federal funds.

Abuse of Trade Powers and International Aggression: Including imposing economically damaging tariffs and threatening military invasion against sovereign nations.

Violation of First Amendment Rights: Through retaliatory actions against critics, media, and attorneys exercising constitutionally protected speech.

Creation of an Unlawful Office: By establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and unlawfully empowering Elon Musk to unilaterally violate the Constitution.

Bribery and Corruption: Involving dismissing criminal cases, soliciting foreign emoluments, and extortionate settlements for personal and political gain.

Tyrannical Overreach: Seeking to consolidate unchecked power, erode civil liberties, and defy constitutional limits on presidential authority.

‘Exploitative’ contracts and hazardous conditions: life for some of the immigrants cleaning up wildfire-stricken LA

On a sunny day in February three workers swept up the piles of ash left behind on an Altadena driveway from when the Eaton fire raged through the Los Angeles neighborhood the month before. The flames of the blaze had consumed nearly every home on the street, leaving only brick chimneys and charred vehicles. Red signs at the entrances of properties warned in English: “Unsafe, do not enter or occupy … entry may result in death or injury.” Hazards such as lead paint, asbestos and batteries were strewn amongst the ashes, but few workers cleaning the neighborhood that day wore masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). ...

In the US, after climate disasters such as fires, floods and hurricanes, it is often immigrant workers who clean up and rebuild communities. In Los Angeles, it’s no different. In the burn zones of Altadena and the Palisades, many of the thousands of workers involved in clearing the debris from the megafires that killed 30 people and destroyed about 16,000 are from an immigrant background. Immigrants make up about 40% of the construction workforce in California, including hazardous materials removal. Those workers are particularly vulnerable while working in potentially hazardous conditions, say advocates.

On several visits to the Altadena burn zone in past months, it was clear that some workers involved in the cleanup had received training and PPE, but many others had not. Advocates say workers are not only risking their health, but they fear speaking out about conditions over concerns of wage theft and potential deportation amid stepped up immigration enforcement by the Trump administration.

As climate disasters become more common, immigrant workers are serving as “second responders”, said Nadia Marin-Molina, co-director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), which supports immigrant day laborers across the US. “It’s impossible for me to exaggerate how much disaster response and recovery in this country relies on immigrant labor in this country,” she said.

Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: Losing & Learning Nothing

ICC judges order that arrest warrant requests in Palestine case be kept secret

Mob of Orthodox Jewish men chases woman after protest at Brooklyn synagogue

Accident or Attack? Explosion at Iran’s Busiest Commercial Port Will Reverberate Beyond Bandar Abbas Either Way

Liberal Party Wins Canadian Election

How to Avoid Trade Wars—and World War III

Russia Rejects Trump's Freeze Of The War In Ukraine

Inside Labour’s Plot to Take Down Corbyn

How a solar storm could lead to a US nuclear disaster worse than Chornobyl

Hear Mark Carney’s message to Trump after stunning election win

Secret Service VISITS Student Who Wrote Op-Ed About KILLING TYRANTS; Free Speech Org DEFENDS Him

Israeli Ambassador REVEALS: Biden Never Asked for Ceasefire

LtCOL. Karen Kwiatkowski : Does Trump Lead or Follow?

A Little Night Music

Guitar Crusher - I've got to know

Guitar Crusher - Why Oh Why

Guitar Crusher - Itch with Me

Guitar Crusher - I Can't Help It

Guitar Crusher - Since My Baby Hit the Numbers

Guitar Crusher - Cuddle Up

Guitar Crusher - Weak For Your Love

Guitar Crusher - Mean Old World

Guitar Crusher - The Monkey