The Evening Blues - 5-27-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Willie Mabon. Enjoy!
Willie Mabon - Bogey man
"If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
News and Opinion
It’s A Complete Lie To Say Gaza Can Have Peace If Hamas Surrenders
Anyone who says Gaza will be at peace if Hamas just surrenders and releases the hostages is either knowingly sowing disinformation or ignorantly sowing misinformation. We need to make sure everyone’s clear on this so nobody can say they didn’t know after history unpacks this one.
Netanyahu has made it completely and unambiguously clear that even if Hamas surrendered today and released every single hostage, Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan will still need to be implemented as a precondition for ending the mass slaughter. To be absolutely 100 percent clear, Trump’s plan for Gaza is that “all” Palestinians be removed on a “permanent” basis, never allowed to return.
There is no way to permanently remove all Palestinians from a Palestinian territory without material coercion — meaning more mass scale violence and siege warfare. There is also no way to argue that this mass displacement would be voluntary even without further violence, since Israel has been deliberately and systematically making the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by destroying civilian infrastructure. Forcing them to choose between starvation in an uninhabitable wasteland or submit to ethnic cleansing is exactly the same as forcing them out at gunpoint.
It was obvious that this was Israel’s plan for Gaza in October 2023; plans to move the civilian population out of the enclave were already being circulated within days of the onslaught. But that wasn’t Israel’s official and openly stated policy until the Trump administration; now that Israel is clearly and explicitly stating this agenda in public, there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to continue circulating the lie that the suffering of the people of Gaza ends if Hamas surrenders. What happens is that their homeland will be permanently taken away from them as they are shipped off to a foreign land, and Gaza will cease to exist as a Palestinian territory.
That’s not peace. Or if it is it’s the peace of an empty room; the peace of a room full of corpses. Saying you made peace by removing the Palestinians from Palestine is like saying you settled an argument by decapitating one of the arguers.
That’s the only “peace” the people of Palestine will experience if Hamas lays down its arms. Losing everything they’ve ever known forever, on pain of death.
That is the inconvenient truth people are trying to hide when they say “This all ends when Hamas surrenders and releases the hostages.” That is the deception they are sowing.
Gabor Maté, Chris Hedges & Aaron Maté on 'Palestine: The Moral Issue of Our Time'
Head of US-backed Gaza aid group resigns, saying he will not abandon ‘principles
The head of a US-backed private humanitarian organisation that is tasked with distributing aid in Gaza using an Israeli-initiated plan has resigned, saying that the operation could not fulfil its mission in a way that adhered to “humanitarian principles”.
Jake Wood, the executive director, announced his resignation in a statement from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), adding fresh uncertainty to the operation’s future.
The foundation, which has been based in Geneva since February, has vowed to distribute 300m meals in its first 90 days of operation. But the United Nations and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, fearing it violates “fundamental humanitarian principles” and breaches international law.
The move comes as Israel intensified its air campaign in Gaza in recent days. Israeli strikes killed at least 52 people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, including 31 in a school turned shelter that was struck as people slept, igniting their belongings, according to local health officials. The strike on the school in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City also wounded more than 55 people, said Fahmy Awad, the head of the ministry’s emergency service. He said a man and his five children were among the dead.
On Sunday, Israeli attacks killed at least 38 more people, health officials in the Palestinian territory have said, bringing the death toll to more than 100 over the weekend.
Trump Backs Israel LIES On New Failed Ceasefire
Thousands of Israelis join violent, racist march through Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter
Thousands of Israelis have joined a state-funded march through the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem, where large groups chanted racist slogans including “Gaza is ours”, “death to the Arabs” and “may their villages burn”. The annual march, paid for and promoted by the Jerusalem city government, celebrates Israel’s capture and occupation of East Jerusalem and its holy sites in the war of 1967. The Israeli takeover is not recognised internationally.
The Jerusalem municipality advertises the event, known as the flag march, as a “festive procession”, part of a broader programme of events celebrating the “liberation” of the city. The march has been marred by racism and attacks on Palestinians for years, and is preceded by a campaign of violence in the Old City that in effect shuts down Palestinian majority areas, particularly in the Muslim Quarter.
From before midday on Monday small groups of young Israeli men attacked and harassed shopkeepers and passersby inside the city, spitting at women in hijabs, stealing from cafes, ransacking a bookshop and entering at least one home by force.
“Shut now, or I can’t protect you,” a police officer told cafe owner Raymond Himo, when he protested about teenagers in religious Zionist dress stealing drinks. On Monday, shops had mostly closed by 1pm, hours earlier than in previous years, with residents barricaded in their homes. ...
From midday, groups of Jewish men inside the city shouted racist chants including “may their villages burn”, “Mohammed is dead” and “death to Arabs”. Those slogans were picked by larger groups of mostly men that began arriving in the late afternoon. Women approached the Western Wall on a separate march, which is largely divided by gender for religious reasons.
FORMER ISRAELI PM: "Yes, We Are Committing War Crimes"
A surprisingly excellent op-ed in The Guardian, actually worth a read:
Why now? That’s the question. Why now, after 19 months of relentless assault that was plain for all to see, and declared by Israeli authorities themselves, has the tide begun to shift on Gaza? ... [T]here is a disconnect between condemnation and outrage, and what happens on the ground. When it comes to Israel, the levers of international censure are broken. Throughout the war, international organisations, humanitarian missions and courts of justice have been rendered powerless by their inability to translate their findings into action. Words alone mean nothing. They simply bounce off Israel’s iron dome of impunity. Every day, the world wakes up and is confronted with an Israeli leadership that violates every law of morality and logic. Victims are aggressors, humanitarians are biased, an army that kills unarmed medics is the most moral army in the world. Up is down.
The recent change in language from Israel’s international allies is remarkable. But it would be dangerous to overestimate its significance. Israeli authorities not only do not care, but draw strength from the condemnation. It all serves to prove that the country is on its own and must persevere because it is, as ever, misunderstood, discriminated against, surrounded by enemies. The shift feels like a breakthrough only in comparison to what came before. ... If this new attitude taken by western leaders is designed to fend off a reckoning, then it’s too little, too late: the record has already been taken. If it is to deter Israel from following through on its plans of scorching the conditions for life, forcing people to leave, and starving and killing those who remain, then they are facing down a juggernaut using little more than press releases. The gulf between Israel’s actions and the world’s reaction is still too wide to be proportional. ...
It will take far more than the reviewing and suspension of future trade talks between Israel and the UK. Those mechanisms of censure that signal displeasure and motivate outlaws to come back into the fold have been shattered by an Israel that has made a virtue out of being outside it: the kind of action required would necessitate the overturning of deeply held fears and assumptions.
Gaza hunger crisis: Desperate crowds storm US aid distribution site in Rafah as operation collapses
Israel Bombs Home of Gaza Pediatrician, Killing 9 of Her 10 Kids, in Latest Attack on Health Workers
EU officials accuse bloc of taking ‘little to no meaningful action’ on Gaza
A group of EU officials has written to the leaders of the European institutions criticising the bloc for “little or no meaningful action” in response to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The group EU Staff for Peace said that more than 2,000 officials working for the European Commission, European parliament and EU agencies had signed a letter drafted in May 2024 which accused the EU of apathy to the plight of Palestinians.
On the first anniversary of that letter, the group has written again to EU leaders, saying: “The EU institutions have failed to bring the European Union’s political, diplomatic and economic influence to bear in order to ameliorate the situation in Gaza.”
EU “inaction” has “contributed to the environment of unaccountability that resulted in the full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip taking place at this moment”, continues the letter sent to the presidents of the European Commission, European Council and the European parliament.
The letter was sent less than a week after the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas announced a review of the EU’s trade agreement with Israel, at the behest of a large majority of member states. The EU staff group welcomed this move, but said it was “devastatingly late for thousands killed in Gaza”.
Alastair Crooke : Is Trump Missing the Boat?
Russia targets Ukraine with more drone strikes as Trump says Putin has ‘gone crazy’
Moscow has launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people, as Donald Trump broke his silence to suggest the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had “gone crazy”. Overnight on Monday, Russia fired a record 355 Shahed drones as well as nine cruise missiles, in an escalating drone campaign targeting Ukraine’s cities and communities, with Ukraine’s air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ignat, confirming it was the largest drone attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
While the US president railed against Putin, saying he had “gone absolutely CRAZY”, he also criticised the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia. “Something has happened to [Putin]. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said of the Russian president on Truth Social. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
Trump also posted that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
Zelenskyy, however, doubled down on his criticism on Monday. “Only a sense of total impunity can allow Russia to carry out such strikes and continue increasing their scale,” Zelensky said on social media, adding: “The increase in Russian strikes should be met with increased sanctions.”
While Trump had suggested earlier, speaking to reporters, that he may be considering new sanctions, there was no indication on Monday morning of any meaningful US action against Moscow.
MERZ gambles U.S. Taurus missile strikes on RUSSIA
Oh my, what could possibly go wrong with this?
Germany and Ukraine’s other allies scrap range limits on arms sent to Kyiv
The German chancellor has said that Germany, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters, will remove range restrictions on weapons delivered to Kyiv for the first time, to enable it to defend itself against Russia.
Friedrich Merz said Germany, Britain, France and the US had lifted the restrictions to enable Ukraine to be better able to hit military targets on Russian territory.
“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine – neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, nor by the Americans,” he said on Monday, following Russia’s largest drone attack on Ukraine of the war to date.
“This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia … with very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently. It can now do that.”
In response, the Kremlin described the decision as “dangerous”, saying it would be detrimental to reaching any sort of peace agreement. “If these decisions have indeed been made, they are completely at odds with our aspirations for a political settlement,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Trump vs. Academic Freedom: President Escalates Attacks on Harvard & International Students
Tourists from countries badly hit by Trump tariffs are staying away from US
Holidaymakers in countries hit the hardest by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are taking the US off their list for trips abroad, according to online travel booking data.
Findings from the hotel search site Trivago also suggest that UK and US travellers are increasingly choosing domestic holidays amid concerns over an uncertain economy.
The company has seen double-digit percentage declines in bookings to the US from travellers based in Japan, Canada and Mexico. The latter two countries were the first on Trump’s tariff hitlist when he announced tariffs of 25% on 1 February. ...
Businesses operating in its $2.6tn tourism industry are becoming increasingly concerned about a “Trump slump” due to the turmoil the president’s tariff war is causing on the global economy.
Last month, the federal government’s National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures showing visits to the US from overseas fell by 11.6% in March compared with the same month last year. Bookings made via Expedia-owned Trivago also show that Americans are spending less on their trips, while there is higher demand for cheaper hotels and lower star categories.
EU hopes for quick deal to resolve US trade war after Trump delays 50% tariffs
EU leaders have expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Donald Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.
The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission president persuaded Trump to delay the duties by more than a month to give the two sides more time to negotiate.
Her chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said the pair had agreed “to fast-track the trade negotiations and to stay in close contact”. Von der Leyen initiated the call, the EU spokesperson said, adding “there was, it seems, a mutual intention to speak to each other”.
The EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, is due to speak to the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, later on Monday. The pair last spoke on Friday, after Trump’s latest tariff threat.
Scientists seek to save Florida’s dying reefs with hardy nursery-grown coral
A taskforce of experts looking into the mass bleaching and decline of Florida’s delicate coral reefs is planting more than 1,000 nursery-grown juveniles from the reef-building elkhorn species in a new effort to reverse the tide of destruction.
Record ocean heat in 2023 hastened the death spiral for reefs in the Florida Keys, which have lost 90% of their healthy coral cover over the last 40 years, largely because of the climate emergency, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Marine biologists from the Keys Marine Laboratory of the University of South Florida (USF) partnered with scientists from Tampa’s Florida Aquarium to develop a large-scale restoration project involving elkhorn coral, which is critically endangered but also one of the fastest-growing and most resilient species.
Earlier this month, the USF facility in Long Key, halfway along the ecologically fragile Florida Keys island chain, took delivery of 1,050 young elkhorn corals spawned between 2022 and 2023 at the aquarium’s conservation and research center in Apollo Beach.
The corals are acclimatizing in temperature-regulated seawater beds in Long Key. They will be distributed to research partners including the Coral Restoration Foundation, the Mote Marine Laboratory, Reef Renewal USA, and Sustainable Oceans and Reefs for planting at seven designated offshore sites around the Keys during the next two months. Teams will monitor their progress over the following months and years.
‘Swimming with orcas is out of control’: can new rules keep tourists and Mexico’s whales safe?
Just after sunrise in the small village of La Ventana in Baja California Sur, the beach is bustling with wetsuit-clad tourists. They climb into Mexican fishing boats and race out into the windy blue bay, cameras at the ready. The fishers turned tour guides follow a couple of ocean safari yachts, which follow directions from pilots sent up in spotter planes. The goal of this 40-boat cavalcade? To enable swimming with orcas in the wild.
Swimming with orcas in Mexico falls into a legal grey area as it exploits loopholes in two Mexican laws that protect endangered marine wildlife. This has become particularly problematic in the past five years since selfies with the whales on social media have led to an increase in the number of people wanting to try the activity. ...
Local fishing boats, some without insurance or the proper licences, are competing with the bigger foreign-owned companies based in the nearby cities of Cabo San Lucas or La Paz. ... Whoever tourists book with, the result is the same: increasing numbers of people are swimming or freediving with the whales, meaning dozens of boats are zooming around the animals. ...
Georgina Saad, a marine biologist with the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, is worried about where all this may lead. Although no wild orca has ever killed or attacked a human, she says: “They are wild animals. If we don’t give them distance and space, they may, like any animal, defend themselves.” The constant influx of boats and swimmers may also affect the orcas’ wellbeing. The pods in Baja are usually females with babies and are often feeding on mobula rays, sharks, dolphins, turtles or whales while people are in the water with them. They hunt using sonar to find their prey, and the noise from the motors can disrupt the whales’ ability to capture food.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Video Shows Girl Trying to Escape Inferno as Gaza Family 'Burned Alive' in Israeli Massacre
Israeli Officer Says 'Nearly Every' IDF Platoon Has Used Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza
Trump vowed to help US farmers. These four say his policies are ‘wreaking havoc’
Georgia Abortion Ban Forces Family to Keep Pregnant, Brain-Dead Woman on Life Support
A Little Night Music
Willie Mabon - Somebody Gotta Pay
Willie Mabon - I'm The Fixer
Willie Mabon - Louise
Willie Mabon - Shake That Thing
Willie Mabon - Poison Ivy
Willie Mabon - Willie's Blues
Willie Mabon-The Seventh Son
Willie Mabon - I'm Mad
Willie Mabon - I Don't Know
Willie Mabon - Just Got Some
Comments
Just like Genocide Joe's floating dock we get another
worthless attempt
(I am referring to GHF)to appease the growing number of critics as the genocide by starvation continues unabated.evening humphrey...
heh, sure looks different with people in it.
Inhumane and barberic aren’t strong enough words
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
evening snoopy...
humanitarian barbarism, heh, i bet that samantha powers, hillary clinton and susan rice are jealous as hell.
The analyses from Alistair and the Alexes
...on Merz's moves were spot on. These European leaders are reckless jeopardizing the entire world.
I have difficulty eating after reading over the stories on Gaza. We're living through terrible times.
Trump's hypocrisy is over the top. He could put both Ukraine and Israel on ice with a few phone calls.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
the european elites need ukraine to distract from the fact that they are utterly incapable of doing anything to improve the lot of their people, they'd rather risk starting a war than face up to their responsibilities.
in trump, americans have finally elected the "downright moron" that mencken predicted.
Democracy is thriving in the Ukraine. HAH!
You would think the cokehead would understand
that he is a dead man walking. Biden may outlive him.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Unless Zelensky is just a figurehead like Biden
and there’s a committee running the country just like there was for Biden.
I think presidents have just been the CEOs of the country since Kennedy. Trump spends most of his time flying around the country to golf and flying back home and just appears to sign his John Hancock to whatever is put in front of his signing pen. At least his administration doesn’t use the auto pen.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
Anyone else seen this?
.
I got locked out of my credit union account and went to the branch and when I finally logged in I found a new account that had almost $500 in it. I asked what it was and she said that the credit union put money in people’s accounts that pay 6% interest. Don’t remember why they did that, but the only way to add to it is by rounding up purchases to the dollar. Buy something that costs $.05 and you get charged $1.00. The $.95 cents goes into that account. Buy something for 50 cents and 50 cents goes into the account.
She said that she hadn’t seen anyone getting that high amount like mine. I rarely use my debit card, but I got rewarded anyway. I will definitely be using my debit from now on unless it’s something really expensive and I might need protection or something.
Banks aren’t in the habit of giving money away.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
The ongoing list of Israeli atrocities keeps on growing
exponentially.
Quick….
some country put sanctions on the settlers to stop their wicked ways. The cruelty of the settlers should outrage everyone and especially since many of them are from America and other western countries. I won’t write what I’m thinking…
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
I have no doubt that this will be added to your thoughts.
Bibi needs to buy a mirror
When he looks into it he will see who the real animal is. He’s spouting the same thing that Hitler did and it’s his fault that antisemitism is rising. I see no difference between Nazism and Zionism.
Well the Zionists did work with the Nazis to get Jews killed or sent to the camps. Aaron said that the Nazis bribed Jews to board the trains with 3 loaves of bread after they had been starved. This is exactly what is happening with making Palestinians walk huge distances to get food.
History doesn’t just rhyme, it repeats. We’re witnessing that right GD now.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
yep...
what a nice bunch of people must run israeli institutions.
I wonder how this compares to the humanitarian aid given to the
Palestinians?
I don’t remember where I read it
Israel has dropped more bomb tonnage than were dropped in every war since 1941 including the ones dropped on Japan. More bombs dropped in 19 months than dropped on Vietnam in 9 years. And the majority of Israelis don’t think Netanyahu is going hard enough against Palestinians. They should keep telling the world how they approve of the genocide. It will ensure that Israel will be a pariah for many decades.
Germany was allowed to rejoin the human race, but I don’t think Israel will have that option. Most of the world didn’t watch Germany commit genocide in real time like it is watching Israel committing it.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
It's not the tonnage, it's the small target area
Looking at some of the piecemeal numbers on this, it's difficult to determine the real numbers. In the bombing campaign against Gaza, which is definitely "total" as they say in war analysis (Raymond Aron), the total tonnage still seems to be in the hundreds of thousands of tons range. I'm thinking a half a million tons, if I'm off by a factor of two. I'm looking at sortie rates, max payloads, the number above on US shipments, etc. 5 million tons were dropped in the Vietnam conflict, which included a much larger area in SE Asia including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia over a longer period. The destruction level may be greater than seen in these wars, because of Gaza's high population density. Overall damage was assessed at 85 percent of all cultural features in North Korea; the latter definitely viewed the US effort then as genocidal.
In one comparison I saw Gaza is regarded as smaller than the Tampa Bay metropolitan area which includes St. Petersburg and suburbs. It's the intensity per square that rivals or surpasses WWII, Vietnam and Korean conflict levels. At this point, they're just bombing rubble as the expression goes. The genocidal intent is evident.
I'm just guessing. But I have a few years of exposure to the "industry" as it were, although it was a long time ago. I was trained to guess this way. I'm not trying to minimize what the US and Israel are doing there in any way. If they keep on with this they may get to the millions of tons, soon. Doesn't seem to make any sense by any standard. Quantitative, legal, or moral. It makes me sick, and goes against everything I was taught about international law.
edited to correct author's name.
語必忠信 行必正直
Hmm!
heh...
trump should probably de-escalate his rhetoric as it looks like it will probably backfire. i don't know if you watched the alastair crooke video, but he is suggesting that the mood in russia is shifting towards greater anger.
Trumps threats might appeal to the neocons and his maggot
followers but I doubt that it affects Putin.
heh...
i don't think it's going to slow putin down, i rather think that trump's fulminations will stiffen russian opinion behind putin's actions.
Hey Joe, good evening.
Even though I grew up on a small farm in a farming community I have trouble sympathizing with farmer's trump troubles. One farmer I talked to awhile back admitted that he considered trump a true scumbag, even though he knew that I knew he had voted for him anyway. I asked him why and he pointed to a new tractor with several matching attachments and said straight out that trumps tax cuts during his first term had paid for that whole outfit. So
I can’t shed many tears for their troubles now. ya reap what ya sow seems fitting.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
evening burnt...
well, i kinda feel two ways about it. i see that a lot of farmers are with trump and yeah, i guess they're getting some feedback. on the other hand, in a time where climate is making agriculture more difficult, we don't really need an economic event cutting off our food supply. i dunno. something about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
@joe shikspack
You're right that climate change is making it more difficult to farm, impossible in some parts of the world now, but again I have little sympathy for the plight of American farmers. Farmers keep a pretty sharp eye on the environment around them, their livelihood and way of life depends on it. So even though most farmers have been well aware of climate change long before the average American gave it more than a passing thought, they collectively just helped re-elect the world leader of climate deniers, who will undoubtedly increase the rate of change for many years to come. Food (and water) shortages are coming either way, just a matter of time.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
Back when decent folk mourned the bombing death of FOUR children
“♫ For no one recalled a more cowardly sound…”
Yet now the political, economic, and cultural leadership of the entire Western world is trying to condition us to think and, even worse, feel the bombing and slaughter of tens of thousands of children (along with their whole families) is A-OK.
Listen to, let alone trust, anyone who is all, like, “Black (or in Europe, migrant) lives matter (but Palestinian lives don’t)”?
Yeah, right — pull the other one.
“♫ And the choir kept singing of freedom”