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This evening's music features delta blues singer and guitarist Bukka White. Enjoy!

"Even a hare, the weakest of animals, may insult a dead lion."

-- Aesop

News and Opinion

The Empire Is A Nonstop Insult To Our Intelligence

The US has imposed sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for using her position to oppose the most thoroughly documented genocide in history.

At the same time, the US has removed Syria’s Al Qaeda franchise HTS from its list of designated terrorist organizations, because its leader successfully carried out the regime change in Damascus that the western empire had been chasing for years.

At the same time, the UK has added nonviolent anti-genocide activism group Palestine Action to its list of banned terrorist organizations for opposing the Gaza holocaust.

The man below is the founder of Al Qaeda in Syria. The US just took his organization off its terror list and lifted sanctions on him.

The woman below is the UN rapporteur on Israel and Palestine. The US is about to impose sanctions on her.

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/3BkqWAp4QQ

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) July 9, 2025

At the same time, the Israeli prime minister who is carrying out that holocaust has nominated the American president who is helping him perpetrate genocidal atrocities for a Nobel Peace Prize.

At the same time, Israel has continued its ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza, while also arresting the Israeli journalist who helped expose the IDF officials who cooked up fake atrocity propaganda about burnt babies on October 7.

At the same time, the Trump administration has enraged its MAGA base by concluding that Jeffrey Epstein had no client list for any kind of sexual blackmail operation and definitely committed suicide.

The western empire is one nonstop insult to our intelligence. The peace advocates are terrorists, the genocide architects deserve peace prizes, the journalists are dangerous, and Epstein was just a wealthy socialite who made a few mistakes.

After you typed out the words "Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights", how did you make yourself keep writing? https://t.co/IgZ6UqkUXB

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 9, 2025

They do everything they can to make us stupid via propaganda, Silicon Valley information control, and indoctrination schooling systems, and then they treat us like we’re morons for the rest of our lives.

The empire depends on ignorance. The more stupid, racist, gullible, and easily distracted we become, the nastier agendas the empire can roll out. Now here we are watching a live-streamed genocide unfold right in front of our eyes for nearly two years while being tube fed a daily diet of the most ridiculous lies imaginable.

As Aaron Bushnell said, this is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

"Economy of Genocide": U.S. Sanctions U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese

The U.S. just sanctioned UN Special Rapporteur @francesca.albanese.unsr.opt for exposing Israel’s war crimes.

Marco Rubio wants to silence her but it’s backfiring. Millions are rallying behind Francesca, calling for her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Drop your words of… pic.twitter.com/iqgvtiRO7f

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) July 9, 2025

Francesca Albanese hits back at Trump sanctions over UN report

In 'Lawless, Vile Act,' Trump Admin Sanctions UN Expert Critical of Israeli Genocide in Gaza

Defenders of Palestine and the rule of law on Wednesday condemned Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of sanctions targeting United Nations expert Francesca Albanese, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel's U.S.-backed genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

In a post on the social media site X, Rubio said he is imposing sanctions on Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, "for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt International Criminal Court action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives."

"Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated," Rubio added. "We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense. The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies."

Rubio's announcement came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation—met with President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.

Trump and the fugitive Israeli leader reportedly discussed plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and a deal to secure the release of the 22 remaining living hostages believed to be held by Hamas and the bodies of over two dozen others.

The Trump administration previously sanctioned ICC officials including Prosecutor Karim Khan for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Phil Giraldi : Will Israel Destroy the US?

DHS Official Admits Agency Used Secretive Pro-Israel Group's Blacklist to Target Foreign Students

Confirming what students detained by the Trump administration have suspected for months, a senior homeland security official on Wednesday admitted for the first time that his agency had used a website run by a secretive pro-Israel group that compiles "blacklists" of pro-Palestinian students as it worked to carry out President Donald Trump's policy of arresting international students for their protest activities earlier this year.

In a courtroom in Massachusetts during a hearing on a Harvard University faculty group's lawsuit over Trump's attempts to deport pro-Palestinian students, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official Peter Hatch testified under oath that a task force he formed in March scoured a list compiled by Canary Mission, an operation linked to Israel's intelligence agencies, to compile reports on the students on the list.

Hatch, the assistant director of ICE's homeland security investigations department, said the team was ordered to rush an analysis of roughly 5,000 students listed on Canary Mission's website, which includes photos and names of students who have taken part in "anti-Israel events." One student listed participated in a student walkout at Harvard University in support of boycotting Israel, and another attended a rally organized by Jews for Cease-fire.

Such allegations were evidently enough to warrant Hatch's team compiling reports on 100-200 of the non-citizen students listed on Canary Mission's website. Hatch said the team relied on Canary Mission's list as well as a list compiled by another pro-Israel group, Betar Worldwide.

Hatch told lawyers for the plaintiffs in the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) lawsuit and Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts that his team's reports detailed the students' employment and travel history, criminal activity, and alleged support for terrorist groups such as Hamas. He said the students' use of phrases including "Free Palestine" were included in the reports as well.

The Trump administration has claimed students have shown "support for terrorist groups" simply by participating in protests against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, where at least 57,762 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. Nearly 70% of those killed in Gaza were verified by the United Nations to be women and children as of November 2024, even as both Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers have claimed Israel is targeting Hamas.

Hatch's team sent the reports on students to the U.S. State Department, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil's participation in protests was detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests, after Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil was ultimately detained in Louisiana for three months.

Hatch testified that the ICE office used the lists compiled by Canary Mission and Betar "without a firm understanding of the methodology through which individuals came to be included on either record," according to The New York Times.

Five of the students included in the reports sent to the State Department have been named in the AAUP's lawsuit as non-citizen students who were targeted by ICE for their pro-Palestinian speech.

The AAUP and other plaintiffs in the case argue the Trump administration has imposed an "ideological deportation policy" by detaining and trying to remove Khalil, Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, and others.

Students have posited for months that Canary Mission's blacklists were likely involved in the administration's rounding up of pro-Palestinian organizers, with Sophie Hurwitz reporting at Mother Jones this week that Öztürk was detained only "after being smeared on Canary Mission's website, being falsely labeled as being antisemitic."

A judge who ordered the release of another student activist, Efe Ercelik of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said Ercelik had been jailed "almost exclusively" because he was included in blacklists compiled by Canary Mission and Betar.

Khalil's lawyers filed a Freedom of Information Act request after his arrest, seeking information about Canary Mission's role in his targeting by ICE. The group's anonymously run website includes an extensive report on Khalil's expressions of support for Palestinians and his protest activities.

But Hatch's testimony marks the first time Canary Mission's involvement in the targeting of students has been acknowledged by the administration.

Young ordered the Trump administration to provide partially redacted reports that Hatch's team compiled on students to the plaintiffs' lawyers on Wednesday evening.

As James Bamford wrote at The Nation in December 2023, Canary Mission is "a key intelligence asset for the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, a highly secretive intelligence organization that is largely focused on the United States." A profile of Palestinian American student Lara Alqasem was compiled by Canary Mission and used to prevent her from entering Israel in 2018; Alqasem was planning to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but Israel attempted to bar her from doing so because she was the chapter president of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Florida.

The pro-Palestinian news outlet Mondoweiss said the information disclosed by Hatch on Wednesday "is bigger than one trial."

"The U.S. government is laundering repression through a private blacklist," said Mondoweiss. "It's criminalizing dissent, undermining free speech, and exporting Israel's surveillance playbook into U.S. policy."

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Ukraine/Gaza/Iran: Is Peace Possible?

Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill 105 Palestinians Over 24 Hours

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli attacks killed 105 Palestinians and wounded 530 over the previous 24-hour period, as US-backed Israeli strikes continue to pound targets across the besieged Strip despite talk of a potential ceasefire deal.

Israeli forces also continued to shoot at desperate Palestinians seeking aid, killing at least seven. The latest aid-related killings bring the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking food since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating to 773, according to the Health Ministry. Another 5,101 aid seekers have been injured.

Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday included the bombing of a tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, which killed 10 members of the Shabaan family. “I found all my children dead, and my daughters’ three children dead,” the mother of the Shabaan children who were killed in the attack told The Associated Press. “It’s supposed to be a safe area where we were.”

Israeli strikes also hit the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, killing at least 30 people, including many children. “A whole neighborhood collapsed,” Ismail al-Bardawil, a survivor of the attack, told Al Jazeera.

Tucker Carlson's Iran’s War BOMBSHELL Shocks Israel—Here’s What They're Hiding

Patriot games. 500% Sanctions debacle

Merz says that West will not accept Russia's more than reasonable terms. Delusional NATO chief Rutte smells Bolsheviks under his bed.

Germany’s Merz Claims Diplomatic Efforts To End War in Ukraine Are ‘Exhausted’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed on Wednesday that diplomatic efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict have been “exhausted” and vowed that Berlin would continue supporting Ukraine with military aid. ...

Merz’s comments come after President Trump said he would send additional weapons to Ukraine after his administration placed a brief pause on some arms shipments. Peace efforts appear to have stalled as either side remains very far apart on the conditions to end the war, and the US and its NATO allies appear ready to continue fueling the conflict. Russia launched a major drone attack on Wednesday, and fighting continues to rage across the frontline. ...

Merz also hosted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, and the NATO chief claimed during a press conference with the German leader that if China invaded Taiwan, it could lead to a Russian invasion of Europe.

Moscow Hits Back; Ukraine Intel Chief Killed, Strike Rocks Kiev; Trump Told Sanctions Don't Scare US

Yeah, sanctions will stop them! pffffftttt!

Zelenskyy urges west to hit Russia with sanctions after huge attack on Kyiv

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up imposing new sanctions on Russia after another huge wave of strikes on his country’s capital killed two people, including a police officer, and left 23 wounded.

“Sanctions must be imposed faster, and pressure on Russia must be strong enough that they truly feel the consequences of their terror,” the Ukrainian president said on social media. He accused Moscow of “an obvious escalation”, with “constant strikes” and hundreds of Shahed drones launched every night.

Ukraine’s air defence force said Moscow had sent 400 drones and 18 missiles across the country in the early hours. Kyiv was the main target. Other regions including Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv in the north and north-east also came under attack. ...

Marco Rubio said there were no signs that the Kremlin was willing to compromise. Speaking on the sidelines of an Asean foreign ministers’ meeting, after talks with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Kuala Lumpur, Rubio said Donald Trump was disappointed with Moscow’s hardline stance.

Brazil draws up plans to retaliate against Trump’s 50% tariff threat

Brazil is drawing up plans to hit back against 50% US tariffs on the country’s exports, setting the stage for further escalation in Donald Trump’s trade war with Latin America’s largest economy.

The US president vowed to impose steep duties on Brazilian goods on Wednesday, accusing the country of conducting a “witch-hunt” against its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing a trial over his attempt to overturn his 2022 election defeat.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s current president, swiftly indicated that it would retaliate. “Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage,” he said in a statement.

Trump’s claim that Brazil’s economic relationship with the US was “far from Reciprocal” was also “inaccurate”, Lula added. US tariff hikes “will be addressed” by Brazil, he said.

Early on Thursday, Lula convened Brazilian ministers to discuss how his government should address Trump’s 50% tariff threat. The office of Lula’s chief of staff said a study group would be formed to decide how to react.

DoJ whistleblower provides emails backing claim Emil Bove defied courts over deportations

Erez Reuveni, a former justice department attorney who was dismissed from his post, has provided text messages to the Senate judiciary committee supporting his whistleblower complaint involving Emil Bove, a top department official who is currently being considered for a seat on the federal bench.

Reuveni’s initial complaint, filed last month, included the explosive allegation that Bove had told justice department lawyers that they “would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order” blocking efforts to remove immigrants to El Salvador.

The text messages Reuveni provided to the Senate judiciary committee include Reuveni and his boss, August Flentje, referencing Bove’s comments, according to Bloomberg Law. “Guess we are about to say fuck you to the court” – “Super,” Reuveni texted a colleague, according to Bloomberg. The colleague replied: “Well Pamela Jo Bondi is”, and “Not you.”

New Hampshire judge blocks Trump’s birthright citizenship order

Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship suffered a courtroom defeat on Thursday as a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the controversial executive order nationwide and certified a sweeping class-action lawsuit that could protect tens of thousands of children.

Ruling from the bench on Thursday, Judge Joseph LaPlante announced his decision after an hour-long hearing and said a written order would follow. The judge, an appointee of George W Bush, said a written order would follow later in the day, with a seven-day stay to allow for appeal.

The decision is a test case following a recent supreme court ruling that restricted nationwide injunctions, in effect making class-action lawsuits the primary remaining method for district court judges to halt policy implementation across large areas of the country. It delivers a legal blow to the administration’s hardline immigration agenda and ramps up a constitutional dispute that has continued through the first six months of Trump’s second term.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents and their infants. It is among numerous cases challenging Trump’s January order denying citizenship to those born to undocumented parents living in the US or temporarily. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others.

Greg Abbott accused of trying to ‘fix’ midterms for Republicans by redrawing congressional maps

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, has been accused by political opponents of trying to “fix” next year’s midterms in favor of Republicans after he announced a plan that would see a wide-scale redrawing of the state’s congressional districts.

The move was contained in Abbott’s list of priorities for the upcoming legislative session published on Wednesday. It features several items related to the deadly Hill Country flooding that killed at least 120 people and left dozens more missing, including instructions for lawmakers to look at early warning systems and improving disaster preparation.

But Abbott’s directive to redraw congressional maps, which the Texas Tribune reported on Wednesday, was in response from a Trump administration demand for more Republican seats to preserve or expand the party’s narrow House majority, and has angered Democrats.

In a statement, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee called the move “an attack on democracy”.

AIPAC DEMS EXPOSED By Lib 'Wine Moms' on "I've Had It" Pod

Democrats and climate groups ‘too polite’ in fight against ‘malevolent’ fossil fuel giants, says key senator

The Democratic party and the climate movement have been “too cautious and polite” and should instead be denouncing the fossil fuel industry’s “huge denial operation”, the US senator Sheldon Whitehouse said.

“The fossil fuel industry has run the biggest and most malevolent propaganda operation the country has ever seen,” the Rhode Island Democrat said in an interview on Monday with the global media collaboration Covering Climate Now. “It is defending a $700-plus billion [annual] subsidy” of not being charged for the health and environmental damages caused by the burning of fossil fuels. “I think the more people understand that, the more they’ll be irate [that] they’ve been lied to.” But, he added, “Democrats have not done a good job of calling that out.”

Whitehouse is among the most outspoken climate champions on Capitol Hill, and on Wednesday evening he delivered his 300th Time to Wake Up climate speech on the floor of the Senate. He began giving these speeches in 2012, when Barack Obama was in his first term, and has consistently criticized both political parties for their lackluster response to the climate emergency. The Obama White House, he complained, for years would not even “use the word ‘climate’ and ‘change’ in the same paragraph”.

While Whitehouse slams his fellow Democrats for timidity, he blasts Republicans for being in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry, an entity whose behavior “has been downright evil”, he said. “To deliberately ignore [the laws of physics] for short-term profits that set up people for huge, really bad impacts – if that’s not a good definition of evil, I don’t know what is.”

New Mexico sues US air force over Pfas pollution from military base

The state of New Mexico is suing the US air force over its refusal to comply with orders to address extremely high levels of Pfas pollution stemming from its base, which has tainted drinking water for tens of thousands of people, damaged crops and poisoned dairy cows.

Though the military acknowledges Pfas-laden firefighting foam from Cannon air force base is the source of a four mile chemical plume in the aquifer below Clovis, New Mexico, it has refused to comply with most state orders to address the issue.

The new lawsuit filed by the state’s justice and environmental departments is the latest salvo in the seven-year battle over the pollution, and comes after changes to state law that strengthened New Mexico’s legal position.

The air force’s inaction has forced state taxpayers to shoulder the cost, and the plume has “become a ward of the state”, said James Kenney, secretary of the New Mexico environment department.

“They’ve managed to litigate against the state, they’ve allowed the plume to go unchecked, and in the mind of the state and much of the community, they’ve done nothing of substance,” Kenney added.

Trump’s inaugural fund received $19m from fossil fuel industry

The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19m into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, a new analysis shows, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil.

The president raised a stunning $239m for his inauguration – more than the previous three inaugural committees took in combined and more than double the previous record – according to data published by the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). The oil and gas sector made a significant contribution to that overall number, found the international environmental and human rights organization Global Witness.

The group pulled itemized inaugural fund contribution data released by the FEC in April, and researched each contributor with the help of an in-house artificial intelligence tool. It located 47 contributions to the fund made by companies and individuals linked to the fossil fuel sector, to which Trump has voiced his fealty.

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: The Persecution of Francesca Albanese

Israeli Settlers Set Fire Near Ancient Church in West Bank Christian Village

Trump’s Absolutely Crazed Tariff Policies: Brazil and Copper Edition

First Casualties From Trump's Increasing Tariff Craze

Australia Obstructed Probe Into Deadly ‘Rainbow Warrior’ Bombing

A Little Night Music

Booker White - Parchman Farm Blues

Booker White - Poor Boy Long Way from Home

Bukka White - Fixin To Die Blues

Bukka White - Corinna Corinna

Bukka White - The New Frisco Train

Bukka White - Sleepy Man Blues

Bukka White - Bukka's Jitterbug Swing

Bukka White - District Attorney Blues

Bukka White - Aberdeen Mississippi Blues