The Evening Blues - 7-2-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features soul blues singer and guitarist James "Thunderbird" Davis. Enjoy!
James "Thunderbird" Davis - You Did Me Wrong
"Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?"
-- Thomas Jefferson
News and Opinion
The Trumpanyahu Administration
Honestly at this point they should just get Netanyahu his own room in the White House and a desk in the Oval Office.
The prime minister of Israel is taking his third trip to the White House in the five months since Trump has been back in office. I have immediate blood family members who I love with all my heart and visit less often than this.
This comes as the Trump administration revokes the US visas of British punk rap duo Bob Vylan ahead of a US tour for chanting “Death, death to the IDF” at a concert in the UK. Trump’s sycophantic supporters who spent years complaining that their free speech rights were under assault appear fine with their government deciding what words Americans are allowed to hear in their own country.
It’s neat that we sacrificed free speech just so Israel’s feelings won’t get hurt https://t.co/5OygdbZO7s
— (@IbaraEleven) June 30, 2025
This also comes as Trump actively intervenes in the Israeli judicial system to prevent Netanyahu’s corruption trial from moving forward.
The president has repeatedly taken to social media to demand that Israel abandon its corruption case against the prime minister, at one point even implying that the US could cut off arms supplies if his trial isn’t canceled.
“The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel,” Trump said. “We are not going to stand for this. We just had a Great Victory with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu at the helm — And this greatly tarnishes our Victory. LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!”
It’s so revealing what the US government is and is not willing to threaten conditioning military supplies on, and what it’s willing to interfere in Israel’s affairs to accomplish.
Ever since the Gaza holocaust began we’ve been hearing lines like “Israel is a sovereign country” and “Israel is a sovereign state that makes its own decisions” when reporters ask why the White House doesn’t leverage arms shipments to demand more humanitarian treatment for civilians in the Gaza Strip. But the president of the United States is willing to leverage those same arms shipments to directly interfere in Israeli legal proceedings which have nothing to do with the US government in order to get Netanyahu out of trouble.
And it would appear that the president’s intervention has been successful; Netanyahu’s corruption trial has since been postponed.
When it comes to committing genocide using American weapons funded by American taxpayers, Israel is a sovereign state upon which the US can exert zero leverage or control. When it comes to meddling in the corruption trial of a man who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, the White House pulls no punches in protecting its favorite genocide monster.
There is no meaningful separation between the US and Israeli governments. They’re two member states in the undeclared empire that sprawls across the entire western world, and Trump and Netanyahu are two of the most depraved and most consequential managers of this empire today.
They are thick as thieves. They are partners in crime.
Call it the Trumpanyahu administration.
Chris Hedges: Gaza’s Hunger Games
Israel’s weaponization of starvation is how genocides always end. I covered the insidious effects of orchestrated starvation in the Guatemalan Highlands during the genocidal campaign of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, the famine in southern Sudan that left a quarter of a million dead — I walked past the frail and skeletal corpses of families lining roadsides — and later during the war in Bosnia when Serbs cut off food supplies to enclaves such as Srebrencia and Goražde.
Starvation was weaponized by the Ottoman Empire to decimate the Armenians. It was used to kill millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in 1932 and 1933. It was employed by the Nazis against the Jews in the ghettos in World War II. German soldiers used food, as Israel does, like bait. They offered three kilograms of bread and one kilogram of marmalade to lure desperate families in the Warsaw Ghetto onto transports to the death camps.
“There were times when hundreds of people had to wait in line for several days to be ‘deported,’” Marek Edelman writes in The Ghetto Fights. “The number of people anxious to obtain the three kilograms of bread was such that the transports, now leaving twice daily with 12,000 people, could not accommodate them all.” And when crowds became unruly, as in Gaza, the German troops fired deadly volleys that ripped through emaciated husks of women, children and the elderly. ... The blockade of food and humanitarian aid, imposed on Gaza since March 2, is reducing Palestinians to abject dependence. To eat, they must crawl towards their killers and beg. Humiliated, terrified, desperate for a few scraps of food, they are stripped of dignity, autonomy and agency. This is by intent. ...
Israel has obliterated the civilian and humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza. It has reduced Palestinians, half a million of whom face starvation, into desperate herds. The goal is to break Palestinians, to make them malleable and entice them to leave Gaza, never to return.
There is talk from the Trump White House about a ceasefire. But don’t be fooled. Israel has nothing left to destroy. Its saturation bombing over 20 months has reduced Gaza to a moonscape. Gaza is uninhabitable, a toxic wilderness where Palestinians, living amid broken slabs of concrete and pools of raw sewage, lack food and clean water, fuel, shelter, electricity, medicine and an infrastructure to survive. The final impediment to the annexation of Gaza are the Palestinians themselves. They are the primary target. Starvation is the weapon of choice.
Israeli Military Admits To Killing Palestinian Civilians Near Aid Sites in Gaza
The Israeli military admitted on Monday that its forces have killed Palestinians in Gaza near aid sites run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but claimed the death toll from Gaza’s Health Ministry was exaggerated.
The admission came after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli troops had been given orders to fire on unarmed Palestinians attempting to reach GHF distribution sites to drive them away or disperse them, even though they posed no threat.
The Israeli military has denied there are orders to fire on unarmed aid seekers and is claiming that its forces only used gunfire when they felt threatened, though the IDF is not claiming that any of the Palestinians it opened fire on near the aid sites were armed.
Phil Giraldi : More Trump Iran Lies
‘Beyond anything imaginable’: dozens killed at busy Gaza seafront cafe
Early afternoon was a busy time in the al-Baqa cafe, on the waterfront in Gaza City. Under the wooden slatted roof, seated at plastic chairs and tables, were dozens of Palestinians seeking respite from the relentless 20-month war that has devastated much of the bustling, vibrant town. On one side was the Mediterranean, blue and calm to the horizon. On the other, battered apartment blocks, wrecked hotels and the close-packed tents of displaced families.
Founded almost 40 years ago, the family-run al-Baqa was for many in Gaza City a reminder of better, more peaceful times. It had long been a place to escape the claustrophobic strictures of life in the crowded territory, to talk freely, laugh and dream.
Among those sipping coffee, tea and soft drinks in the cafe was a young artist – Amna al-Salmi – and her friend Ismail Abu Hatab, a 32-year-old photographer and film-maker. Others included another journalist and at least one family with young children, including a four-year-old child, and a mother and her two daughters.
Then, at about 3pm, the peaceful scene at the al-Baqa cafe was transformed. Witnesses described a huge roaring explosion, flames, a plume of ash-grey smoke rising fast into the air. No one needed to ask what had happened.
In recent days, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has escalated its offensive across all of Gaza but focused much of its firepower on the territory’s north, where Hamas remain relatively entrenched despite multiple military assaults. Tanks have advanced into neighbourhoods to the east of Gaza City, so-called “evacuation orders” have forced thousands from makeshift shelters and airstrikes have killed dozens.
Israel & Zionist Viciously Turn On Piers Morgan!
“My Representatives had a long and productive meeting with the Israelis today on Gaza. Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60 Day CEASEFIRE, during which time we will work with all parties to end the War. The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very… pic.twitter.com/NAkyUR6rAM
— U.S. State Dept - Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) July 1, 2025
Aaron Maté : MI6 and Atomic Weapons Inspections
According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel codenamed its initial attack on Iran that killed senior military leaders “Red Wedding,” referring to a gruesome massacre from the book series “Game of Thrones,” which was adapted into a TV series on HBO.
In the Red Wedding scene, one family murders the members of the other, including a pregnant woman, during a wedding feast, a surprise attack that relies on betrayal and deception. Israel’s attack also relied on deception as it used the cover of nuclear talks between the US and Iran to catch Tehran off guard.
The Israeli attack was launched on Friday, June 13, two days before the US and Iran were set to hold another round of nuclear negotiations. According to the Journal report, part of the ruse involved Israeli officials leaking stories to the media about a split between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the possibility of Israel attacking Iran.
Pepe Escobar : Why the West Fears BRICS and Putin Doesn’t Fear Trump
US halts weapons shipments to Ukraine over fears stockpiles are too low
The US is halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said Tuesday, a setback for the country as it tries to fend off escalating attacks from Russia. Certain munitions were previously promised to Ukraine under the Biden administration to aid its defences during the more than three-year-old war. The pause reflects a new set of priorities under President Donald Trump and came after defence department officials scrutinised US stockpiles and raised concerns.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran.” That was a reference to Trump recently ordering US missile strikes against nuclear sites in Iran.
The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some weapons previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public. The defence department did not provide details on what specific weapons were being held back.
“America’s military has never been more ready and more capable,” spokesperson Sean Parnell said, adding that the major tax cut and spending package moving through Congress “ensures that our weapons and defence systems are modernised to protect against 21st century threats for generations to come.”
The halt of some weapons from the US is a blow to Ukraine as Russia has recently launched some of its biggest aerial attacks of the war, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts championed by Trump. Talks between the sides have ground to a halt. The US stoppage was first reported by Politico.
EU Parliament Erupts as Clare Daly Labels Ukraine War a NATO Proxy Conflict
Federal Reserve chair blames Trump’s tariffs for preventing interest rate cuts
The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has blamed Donald Trump’s tariffs for preventing the immediate interest rate cuts the president has demanded. Trump has repeatedly urged Powell to reduce borrowing costs in the US economy. On Tuesday, he said: “Anybody would be better than J Powell. He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.”
He spoke not long after Powell told a European Central Bank (ECB) event in Portugal that the Fed was waiting to assess the inflationary impact of the president’s trade policies.
Speaking on a panel of central bankers in Sintra, the Fed chair said: “In effect we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs. Essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs. We didn’t overreact, in fact we didn’t react at all. We’re simply taking some time.”
Asked if the Fed would have cut its key Fed funds rate further, from the current target range of 4.25-4.5%, if it wasn’t for tariffs, Powell said: “I think that’s right.”
Dollar fall an expression of the crisis of US and global capitalism
The US dollar has had its worst start for the year since 1973, in the wake of President Nixon’s August 1971 decision to remove its gold backing and abrogate the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, which had been a central plank of the post-war monetary order established after the chaos of the 1930s. In the first six months of the year, it has fallen by more than 10 percent against a basket of six major currencies, in a sign of a loss of confidence in its status as the dominant currency and a safe haven in periods of financial turbulence and stress.
The dollar had been under downward pressure from the beginning of the year, with a turning point in its slide coming after April 2, when Trump announced the imposition of massive “reciprocal tariffs” on a range of countries. The upending of the post-war international trading system signified by this decision set off financial turbulence, with a significant fall in the US bond market sending yields (interest rates) higher. But instead of there being a move into the dollar, considered to be the “normal” response, there was a dollar selloff, sending its value in currency markets down as the prevailing theme was “sell America.”
This downward movement has continued despite Trump’s decision on April 9 for a 90-day pause in initiating the tariff hikes to allow negotiations to take place. Trump was responding to a selloff in the bond markets, which he said had started to get a little “yippy.” In the near three-month period since then, no agreements have been announced, except for a deal with the UK, and nervousness is returning with the July 9 deadline for the end of the pause approaching. The concern is not only on the blanket reciprocal tariffs, but involves other measures announced by Trump, in particular, the tariff hikes on autos, which are directed against Japan and Germany. ...
In comments to the Financial Times on the dollar’s slide, after it dropped by a further 0.5 percent yesterday, a foreign exchange strategist at the financial firm ING, Francesco Pesole, pointed to some of the reasons. “The dollar has become the whipping boy of Trump 2.0’s erratic policies,” he said, citing the tariff war, the growth of US debt, and the continued attacks on the independence of the US Federal Reserve. ...
Lack of confidence in the US dollar is driving the price of gold to new highs – it has risen by around 25 percent this year and at one point hit $3,500 per ounce, 100 times its price of $35 when Nixon removed the gold backing from the US dollar. One of the drivers of the rise is increased buying by central banks.
"Hello, caricature department? That last load of caricatures you sent over was just too real to be believed!"
Trump team threatens to prosecute CNN over reporting on Ice-tracking app
Donald Trump and administration officials have threatened CNN over what they said was its promotion of a new app that allows users to track and try to avoid Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. Speaking to reporters in Florida on a trip to visit a new Ice detention center in Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said her department and the Department of Justice were looking at prosecuting CNN over its reporting on the app, called IceBlock.
“We’re working with Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them,” Noem said, “because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations. We’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them. What they’re doing is illegal.”
Trump joined in, saying the news network – a frequent target of his ire – should also be prosecuted for what he said were “false reports on the attack on Iran”, referring to the leak of a Pentagon assessment that suggested US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and had probably only set the program back by months. “They were totally obliterated,” Trump countered. “Our people have to be celebrated, [and] not come home to, ‘What do you mean we didn’t hit the targets?’”
CNN defended its reporting of the app through a spokesperson, saying: “This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it. There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN”.
Noem’s comments came hours after Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, also criticized CNN for its reporting on the IceBlock app. “It’s disgusting,” Homan said during an appearance on the rightwing commentator Benny Johnson’s internet show. “I can’t believe we live in a world where the men and women in law enforcement are the bad guys."
"Not a Done Deal": After Senate Passes "Big, Ugly Bill," Progressives Fight to Stop It in the House
Senate Republicans pass Trump’s sweeping policy bill, clearing major hurdle
Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed a major tax and spending bill demanded by Donald Trump, ending weeks of negotiations over the comprehensive legislation and putting it another step closer to enactment.
But it remains unclear whether changes made by the chamber will be accepted by the House of Representatives, which approved an initial draft of the legislation last month by a single vote. While Republicans control both houses of Congress, factionalism in the lower chamber is particularly intense, with rightwing fiscal hardliners demanding deep spending cuts, moderates wary of dismantling safety-net programs and Republicans from Democratic-led states expected to make a stand on a contentious tax provision. Any one of these groups could potentially derail the bill’s passage through a chamber where the GOP can lose no more than three votes.
The bill’s passage is nonetheless an accomplishment for Senate Republicans who faced their own divisions in getting it passed, and saw one lawmaker announce his retirement after clashing with Trump over the bill. The push to get the legislation done intensified on Saturday when the chamber voted to begin debate, then continued with amendment votes that began on Monday and stretched all night.
The vote for passage came just after noon on Tuesday, and required the vice-president, JD Vance, to break a tie that resulted after three Republicans joined with all Democrats in voting against it.
"Arrest Now, Ask Questions Later": Why Did ICE Agents Arrest and Jail U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez?
DOGE Will EAT ELON: Trump ESCALATES War Over BBB
Trump and Musk’s feud blows up again with threats of Doge and deportation
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s feud reignited this week with the former political allies trading sharp public threats of retribution. The blowup, centered around Musk’s opposition to Trump’s signature tax bill as it moves through Congress, ends a period of rapprochement between two of the world’s most powerful men.
Musk posted escalating attacks against Trump’s sweeping spending bill on his social media platform X, calling the legislation “insane” and vowing to form a new political party if it passed late Monday. In response, Trump claimed he could “look into” deporting the South Africa-born billionaire, while also suggesting he could cut government subsidies for Musk’s companies or set the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) on its former leader. “Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” Trump asked reporters on Tuesday.
Musk’s attempt to derail the tax bill was a major factor in his falling out with the president last month, and the Tesla CEO’s renewed offensive comes at a sensitive time as Trump seeks to shepherd the legislation through Congress. The fight could test Musk’s political influence over the Republican party as he seeks to peel away votes for the bill, as well as further deteriorate his once-close relationship with Trump.
Musk has repeatedly criticized the legislation Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill” for its potential to nullify the cuts to the federal government he made through Doge and for the likelihood it will add trillions to the national debt, which he has warned will “bankrupt America” and imperil his dream of reaching Mars. Musk, a top Republican megadonor, intensified his campaign in recent days with threats that he would form his own “America Party” and target lawmakers in upcoming elections who voted for the bill in 2026 primary elections.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk posted. “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Zohran Mamdani says, ’I don’t think that we should have billionaires’: Full interview
Trump administration raises possibility of stripping Mamdani of US citizenship
The Trump administration has raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens convicted of certain offences. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to pave the way for an investigation into Mamdani’s status after Andy Ogles, a rightwing Republican representative for Tennessee, called for his citizenship to be revoked on the grounds that he may have concealed his support for “terrorism” during the naturalization process.
Mamdani, 33, who was born in Uganda to ethnic Indian parents, became a US citizen in 2018 and has attracted widespread media attention – and controversy – over his vocal support for Palestinian rights. Donald Trump was asked on Tuesday about Mamdani’s pledge to “stop masked” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents “from deporting our neighbors”. The US president responded: “Well, then, we’ll have to arrest him,” Axios reported.
Mamdani posted a statement on X in response. “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let Ice terrorize our city,” he wrote. He continued: “His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation.”
Controversy over his immigration status follows a chorus of Islamophobic attacks on his Muslim faith following his victory in last week’s New York mayoral primary, when he finished first in a field that included Andrew Cuomo, the former New York state governor and favored candidate of the Democratic establishment.
Trump: ARREST & DEPORT Zohran Mamdani
Tracking sea ice is ‘early warning system’ for global heating – but the US is halting data sharing
Scientists analysing the cascading impacts of record low levels of Antarctic sea ice fear a loss of critical US government satellite data will make it harder to track the rapid changes taking place at both poles. Researchers around the globe were told last week the US Department of Defence will stop processing and providing the data, used in studies on the state of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, at the end of this month.
Tracking the state of sea ice is crucial for scientists to understand how global heating is affecting the planet. Sea ice reflects the sun’s energy back out to space but, as long-term losses have been recorded, more of the planet’s ocean is exposed to the sun’s energy, causing more heating.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center, based at the University of Colorado, maintains a Sea Ice Index used around the world to track in near real-time the extent of sea ice around the globe. In two updates in the past week, the centre said the US government’s Department of Defence, which owns the satellites that contain onboard instruments used to track sea ice, would stop “processing and delivering” the data on 31 July. ...
The news comes as new research, some of which relied on the data, found that record low amounts of sea ice around Antarctica in recent years had seen more icebergs splintering off the continent’s ice shelves in a process scientists warned could push up global sea levels faster than current modelling has predicted.
Key climate change reports removed from US government websites
Legally mandated US national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their back yards from a warming world.
Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the US Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within Nasa to comply with the law, but gave no further details.
Searches for the assessments on Nasa websites did not turn them up. Nasa did not respond to requests for information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which coordinated the information in the assessments, did not respond to repeated inquiries.
“It’s critical for decision-makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is. That is the most reliable and well-reviewed source of information about climate that exists for the United States,” said Kathy Jacobs, a University of Arizona climate scientist, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report.
“It’s a sad day for the United States if it is true that the National Climate Assessment is no longer available,” Jacobs added. “This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people’s access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts.”
Ice raids leave crops unharvested at California farms: ‘We need the labor’
Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura county, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the US illegally. Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, have frightened off workers.
“In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone,” she said in an interview. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.“
In the vast agricultural lands north of Los Angeles, stretching from Ventura county into the state’s Central valley, two farmers, two field supervisors and four immigrant farm workers told Reuters this month that the Ice raids had led a majority of workers to stop showing up. That means crops are not being picked and fruit and vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time, they said.
One Mexican farm supervisor, who asked not to be named, was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries last week. Usually he would have 300 workers, he said. On this day he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm said he usually has 80 workers in a field, but that day he had just 17.
Most economists and politicians acknowledge that many US agricultural workers are in the country illegally, but say a sharp reduction in their numbers could have devastating impacts on the food supply chain and farm-belt economies. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said an estimated 80% of farm workers in the US were foreign-born, with nearly half of them in the country illegally. Losing them will cause price hikes for consumers, he said. “This is bad for supply chains, bad for the agricultural industry,” Holtz-Eakin said.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
EU Buying Weapons Tested on Palestinians
US Approves $510 Million Arms Deal for Israel
Ukraine Puts Neo-Nazi In Charge Of Government Institution
Doomed Tesla (RoboTaxi Edition)
Trump celebrates harsh conditions for detainees on visit to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Lt.COL Karen Kwiatkowski (Fmr. Dept of State) : Is the Empire Collapsing?
Russia military lava flow approaches Dnieper
A Little Night Music
James Davis - Chains Around My Heart
James Davis - Your Turn To Cry
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Blue Monday Blues
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Next Time You See Me
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Come By Here
James "Thunderbird" Davis - When There's No Way Out
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Go Girl
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Hello Sundown
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Dark End Of The Street
James "Thunderbird" Davis - Don't Want No Woman
Comments
Good roundup, Joe
Thanks
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
evening earthling...
thanks! just glad that folks are reading it.
Our right to survive
.
.
Clare is on track with this line of reasoning.
EU is diminishing the ability of member states
to challenge authority in the public sphere.
Not a good look insofar as supposed democracy
is concerned. Thanks for including this joe.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
yep, there's a lot going on in the european union these days. i follow alex christoforou's youtube channel semi-regularly and he often comments on the eu's peculiar actions (for an alleged democracy-oriented government) to suppress speech, movements, political candidates that it doesn't approve of and frequently meddle in elections. it's not a good look for europe. not that we here have any room to scoff, given the authoritarian bent of our current regime, i suppose.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Thanks for the news and blues! Sorry about the former, sure glad we got the latter!
There are some blazin' guitar licks in this guys stuff, outstanding playing.
Just amazing to see what is happening to what used to be science. First what Fauci and the gubmint did lost the public's trust in it. Now we have fired most of the scientists that are not corporate. Then we defund it. Finally we remove the taxpayer funded peer-reviewed science from gubmint websites, also taxpayer funded. All the time everyone from big pharma to big energy and big ag and food are running various propaganda campaigns undermining actual science for fun and profit. What could go wrong?
P.S. thanks for the dates on that Roy Buchanan album you posted Saturday.
Keep da blues inbound!
happy trails all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi bluesters evening dystopian...
yep, that thunderbird davis was a hot guitarist, his voice, though, was what most of his audience related to and his playing was often understated on his earlier recordings.
yep, i've been wondering if (real) science will be able to survive in the u.s. over the next decades, it has been dealt a huge blow. on the other hand, i had a really bright academic friend a long time ago that told me that there was an implicit social deal with talented scientists and engineers that academia and other institutions would keep them warm, dry and reasonably well fed so long as they refrained from using their talents for mayhem, or worse, political organization.
have a great evening! more blues on the way.
an implicit social deal
.
.
with scientifically talented folks
is an interesting concept from the days
of Mr. Ed and Leave It to Beaver
Not sure how that settles with current trends.
Unrelated: Whenever you respond to. a comment, the
previous comment header shows-up in the subject line.
Just saying as a heads-up.
Thanks for the EB's!
Zionism is a social disease
Stripping citizenship- hallmark of totalitarian rule
This is something Hannah Arendt emphasized in her work. First it is normalized in the imperial domain, then it is brought home, to terrorize the "mother country."
I'm not familiar with Game of Thrones. I do know from my Irish heritage of red weddings.
Trumpanyahu, the snake eating its own tail, good Pepe video!
The mush criticism of the tax bill seems somewhat vague. Which part is he against? Is he volunteering to pay more taxes? Oh, he's concerned about alternative energy? The US focus on scale in AI and the attendant huge energy consumption is misdirected according to a journalist who went to MIT with the tech heads. The inability of US capital to adapt, to admit they've blundered, is the key problem. Oh he lost a subsidy?
Not that I give a s..t about AI. Transactionally, it's harder to change one's address in the US than to buy or sell a home. Because digital bs. Very few programs can even print a name correctly if it isn't John Doe. In fact, AI with all its fault modes makes modern life ridiculously confusing and inconvenient, except for the almighty institutions who then don't have to pay to hire anyone who actually knows what they are doing and answer a phone.
God knows you don't need lawyers anymore really. The nine pages of fine print on the waiver of everything you need to sign to change an address, which forces you to do business digitally, can be replaced with one paragraph. "We have all the rights and privileges. You as the consumer, payor, obligor, claimant, and patron of our minimal to non-existent services, have none. Whatever rights that could possible exist in any way whatsoever, you hereby waive entirely and forever. Beyond that you indemnify us as the service provider, from any all negligence, mistakes, omissions, intentionally inflicted torts, and crimes of whatever nature we may commit. You hereby acknowledge all the foregoing, and if any dispute arises you will submit to mediation by our in house mediator, pay all legal fees and costs, and get nothing."
That seems fair in light of all the convenience for "digital communications."
Now they can fire all their lawyers. All this to change an address.
I understand in the service sector, the professional and white collar ranks are being reduced. I can tell. My life has become something of a Kafkaesque nightmare when dealing with a corporation or agency that purportedly provides "services." To my surprise when talking to my conservative dentist the other day, he agreed with me wholeheartedly, something he has rarely if ever done. I've known him 20 years. It's easier to sell or buy a home than it is to change an address. Thanks digital!
Getting back to the Far East, I heard part of President Lee Jae-mung's press conference, and he threaded the needle nicely on Korea-Japan-US relations. North Korea has human rights problems- Lee: so does South Korea. Will you help us with the abductee problem, Lee: yes, if there's something we can do; it seems North Korea had tried to cooperate in the past. More on NK human rights issues- some of the plight of North Korean's largely results from sanctions affecting the humanitarian treatment of North Koreans. What about the Dokdo territorial dispute? Lee- What dispute, it's ours. Yes we will cooperate on defending against the North Korean missile threat with Japan. We will cooperate economically. We hope to improve relations with Japan, meet diplomatically often, and cooperate on matters of mutual concern. We hope the historical issues can be treated separately from the matters of mutual concern and that both sides can benefit.
On the other hand, dump's Neanderthal foreign and trade policies are severely damaging relations abroad.
China weighs invite for Korea’s Lee to WWII victory parade in September
Thanks for the EBs last night Joe! I was going to post this or something like it last nite, but I was exhausted from my effort to figure out how to change my address.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
sorry, i didn't see this earlier.
it appears to me that trump is using deportation/denaturalization more frequently and publicly to address his political concerns (mamdani, musk) - it's neither a good look nor a good sign. the fact that he thinks he can get away with such loose talk is interesting (though not in a particularly good way).
glad to hear that you are on your way to solving your address problem. i think that the bureaucracy places obstacles such as you describe in place to keep the "little people" busy and on the path of learned helplessness.