The Evening Blues - 7-24-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues piano player Lloyd Glenn. Enjoy!
Lloyd Glenn - Chica Boo
"Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
News and Opinion
Fragmenting a Nation: Israel’s Enduring Pursuit of Palestinian Disunity
Israel is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine’s future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the ‘day after’ its genocide in Gaza.
The latest, bizarre iteration of this strategy proposes fragmenting the occupied West Bank into so-called ’emirates,’ starting with the ’emirate of Hebron.’
This unexpected twist in Israel’s protracted search for alternative Palestinian leadership first surfaced in the staunchly pro-Israeli US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It then quickly dominated all Israeli media.The report details a letter from a person identified by the WSJ as “the leader of Hebron’s most influential clan.” Addressed to Nir Barakat, Jerusalem’s former Israeli mayor, the letter from Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari appeals for “cooperation with Israel” in the name of “co-existence.”
This “co-existence,” according to the “clan leader”, would materialize in the “Emirate of Hebron.” This “emirate” would “recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” in exchange for reciprocal recognition of the “Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”
The story may seem perplexing. This is because Palestinian discourse, regardless of geography or political affiliation, has never entertained such an absurd concept as united West Bank “emirates.”
Another element of absurdity is that Palestinian national identity and pride in their people’s unwavering resilience, especially in Gaza, are at an unprecedented apex. To float such clan-based alternatives to legitimate Palestinian leadership seems ill-conceived and is destined to fail.
Israel’s desperation is palpable. In Gaza, it cannot defeat Hamas and other Palestinian factions who have resisted the Israeli takeover of the Strip for 21 months. All attempts to engineer an alternative Palestinian leadership there have utterly collapsed.
This failure has compelled Israel to arm and fund a criminal gang that operated before October 7, 2023, in Gaza. This gang functions under the command of Yasser Abu Shabab.
The gang has been implicated in a litany of violent activities. These include hijacking humanitarian aid to perpetuate famine in Gaza and orchestrating violence associated with aid distribution, among other egregious crimes.
Like the clan leader of Hebron, the Abu Shabab criminal gang possesses no legitimacy and no public support among Palestinians. But why would Israel resort to such disreputable figures when the Palestinian Authority (PA), already engaged in “security coordination” with Israel in the West Bank, is ostensibly willing to comply?
The answer lies in the current Israeli extremist government’s adamant refusal to acknowledge Palestinians as a nation. Thus, even a collaborating Palestinian nationalist entity would be deemed problematic from an Israeli perspective.
While Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is not the first Israeli leadership to explore clan-based alternatives among Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister and his extremist allies are exceptionally determined to dismantle any Palestinian claim to nationhood. This was explicitly stated by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He famously declared in Paris, in March 2023, that a Palestinian nation is an “invention.”
Thus, despite the PA’s willingness to cooperate with Israel in controlling Gaza, Israel remains apprehensive. Empowering the PA as a nationalist model fundamentally contravenes Israel’s overarching objectives of denying the Palestinian people their very claim to nationhood and, consequently, statehood and sovereignty.
Though Israel has consistently failed to establish and sustain its own alternative Palestinian leadership, its repeated efforts have invariably proven disruptive and violent.
Prior to the Nakba of 1948, the Zionist movement, alongside British authorities colonizing Palestine, heavily invested in undermining the Arab Higher Committee, anationalist body comprising several political parties. They achieved this by empowering collaborating clans, hoping to dilute the Palestinian nationalist movement.
When Israel occupied the remainder of historic Palestine in 1967, it reverted to the same divide-and-conquer tactics. For instance, it established a Palestinian police force directly commanded by Israeli military administrations, in addition to creating an underground network of collaborators.
Following the overwhelming victory of nationalist candidates in the 1976 elections in occupied Palestine, Israel responded by cracking down on PLO-affiliated politicians, arresting, deporting and assassinating some.
Two years later, in 1978, it launched its ‘Village Leagues’ project. It hand-picked compliant traditional figures, designating them as the legitimate representatives of Palestinians.
These individuals, armed, protected and financed by the Israeli occupation army, were positioned to represent their respective clans in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Gaza and elsewhere.
Palestinians immediately denounced them as collaborators. They were widely boycotted and socially ostracized.
Eventually, it became evident that Israel had no alternative but to engage directly with the PLO. This culminated in the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the subsequent formation of the PA.
The fundamental problem, however, persisted: the PA’s insistence on a Palestinian state remains anathema to an Israel that has shifted dramatically to the right.
This explains Netanyahu’s government’s unwavering insistence that the PA has no role in Gaza in any ‘day after’ scenario. While the PA could serve Israel’s interest in containing the rebellious Strip, such a triumph would inevitably recenter the discussion of a Palestinian state—a concept repugnant to most Israelis.
There is no doubt that neither the Abu Shabab gang nor the Hebron emirate will govern Palestinians, either in Gaza or the West Bank. Israel’s insistence on fabricating these alternatives, however, underscores its historic determination to deny Palestinians any sense of nationhood.
Israel’s persistent fantasies of control invariably fail. Despite their profound wounds, Palestinians are more unified than ever, their collective identity and nationhood hardened by relentless resistance and countless sacrifices.
Gaza suffering man-made mass starvation, says WHO chief
Gaza is suffering man-made mass starvation caused by the blockade of aid into the territory, the head of the World Health Organization has said, as more than 100 agencies urged Israel to let supplies in to alleviate the crisis. “I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva. “This is because of [the] blockade.”
A letter signed by 109 agencies including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Amnesty International says the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian organisations from effectively distributing life-saving aid. “Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tonnes of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them,” the agencies wrote. “The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.”
The statement quoted an aid worker in Gaza who said: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.”
Increasing numbers of people in Gaza are dying from lack of food, the result of a starvation crisis that aid groups warned for months was imminent. At least 10 people have died from starvation in the last 24 hours, bringing the toll from hunger to 111, including 80 children, Gaza’s health authority said on Wednesday. Reports of people fainting from hunger on the long-walk towards the few aid distribution points and pictures of corpses with ribs jutting out have become commonplace. ...
As starvation spreads, Israeli killings of civilians has increased. One person was killed by Israel every 12 minutes in July, making it one of the deadliest months of the Gaza war, an analysis of UN data revealed.
"Wasting Away" in Gaza: Oxfam, 100+ Groups Decry Israel's "Man-Made" Mass Starvation of Palestinians
Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens
Doctors and medical staff in Gaza say their increasing hunger and the lack of available food is beginning to leave them too weak to provide urgent medical care to patients inside hospitals full of malnourished and injured civilians. Almost a dozen medical staff across the territory have told the Guardian and the Arabic Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) of their increasingly desperate search for food and declining physical health due to hunger.
“They are in a state of extreme exhaustion. Some have fainted in the operating rooms,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, who said that like the people of Gaza, staff had not received any aid or had any meals in the past 48 hours. “Medical services will be affected because our staff will not be able to hold out any longer in the face of this famine,” he added.
Many of the doctors and medical practitioners who sent messages to the Guardian did not want to be named as they feared being targeted by the Israeli military. “Today I have been on a 24-hour shift,” said one physician at al-Shifa hospital. “At [the hospital] they are supposed to give us some rice for each shift, but today they told us there was none. My colleague and I [treated] 60 neurosurgery patients and right now I can’t even stand.”
Another general practitioner volunteering at al-Shifa hospital said: “I haven’t had anything to eat since yesterday and my family has nothing to eat. All day, I am thinking how can I get them flour or lentils or anything to eat [but] here’s nothing in the markets. We are no longer able to walk. We don’t know what to do.”
Abu Selmia said medical staff were still working despite the lack of food, but that the scale of the malnutrition they were facing in patients was putting a huge strain on an already depleted and exhausted workforce. He said that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the past three days “due to malnutrition and starvation”.
“[These patients] need special nutrition, but there isn’t any, so they face risks,” he said. “Some die in their tents and homes and no one knows about it.”
Whistleblower REVEALS Israel Gunning Down Hungry Civilians
It's amazing what sort of trash can become a congressworm.
On Tuesday, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said on X that Palestinians in Gaza should “starve away” while also claiming the reports of people dying of hunger due to the US-backed Israeli blockade are a “lie.”
Fine made the comments in response to the news that 15 Palestinians, including four children, died of starvation over 24 hours.
“Release the hostages. Until then, starve away,” Fine wrote on X from his official Congress account. “(This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.)”
GAME OVER, Israel: Iran's Secret Weapon the IDF Didn't See Coming w/ Mohammad Marandi
Ansarallah Launches Hypersonic Missile at Lod Airport, Israel Closes Airspace
The Israeli military announced on Tuesday morning that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards Israel, triggering air raid sirens in multiple areas at dawn.
According to Israel’s Channel 2, Israeli airspace was closed following the launch of the missile from Yemen.
Meanwhile, Ansarallah confirmed in a statement read by the group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, that their missile forces had carried out a “qualitative military operation,” targeting Lod (Ben Gurion) Airport in Tel Aviv with a ‘Palestine-2’ hypersonic ballistic missile.
Saree said the operation achieved its objective, forcing millions to flee to shelters and halting airport operations.
On Monday, Ansar Allah also announced it had targeted five Israeli sites with drones, including Ben Gurion Airport, Ramon Airport, and the port of Eilat. In response, Israel said it had struck facilities inside Yemen’s western port of Hodeidah.
Max Blumenthal: The Epstein Files & Rise of Anti-Israeli Sentiments in the US
Students at Netanyahu's former US high school campaign for his removal from hall of fame
More than 200 students from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former high school in Pennsylvania have petitioned to oust him from their hall of fame.
The students submitted a petition to the Cheltenham High Alumni Association last month to have a photo of the alumnus removed from the school's hall of fame, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The campaigning students cited Netanyahu's arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, as well his indictment on corruption charges in Israel.
The New York Times reported that students sent an email to the alumni association that read: "When students see these alumni on the wall of fame as we walk past every day, we understand that these are people we should look up to, and we strive to be like them one day.
"As such, we feel it is not right for him [Netanyahu] to continue to be recognised in our school."
John Mearsheimer on Israel, Russia, Iran & WW3
Columbia announces deal to pay Trump administration more than $220m
Columbia University announced a much-anticipated deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220m, an agreement meant to bring a resolution to the threat of massive funding cuts to the school, but certain to rankle critics given the extraordinary concessions made by the Ivy League university.
Under the agreement, the school will pay a $200m settlement over three years to the federal government, the university said. It will also pay $21m to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “This agreement marks an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty,” acting university president Claire Shipman said.
The administration pulled the funding because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Gaza war that began in October 2023.
Columbia first agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism. Wednesday’s agreement codifies those reforms, Shipman said.
Israel To COURT MAGA Influencers in DESPERATE PLOY To Rehab Image
Black student faces long recovery after police beat him at traffic stop in Florida
A Black college student shown on video being punched and dragged from his car by Florida law enforcement officers during a traffic stop faces a long recovery from injuries that include a concussion and a lip punctured by one of his teeth, his lawyers said on Wednesday. At a news conference in Jacksonville, 22-year-old William McNeil Jr spoke softly as he made a few brief comments with his family and civil rights attorneys by his side.
“That day I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and why I needed to step out of the car,” he said. “I knew I didn’t do nothing wrong. I was really just scared.” McNeil is a biology major who played in the marching band at Livingstone College, a historically Black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina, the school’s president, Anthony Davis, said.
Footage of the violent arrest has sparked nationwide outrage, with civil rights lawyers accusing authorities of fabricating their arrest report. The video shows that McNeil was sitting in the driver’s seat, asking to speak to the Jacksonville officers’ supervisor, when they broke his window, punched him in the face, pulled him from the vehicle, punched him again and threw him to the ground. An officer then delivered six closed-fist punches to the hamstring of his right thigh, police reports show. ...
The cellphone footage from the 19 February arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, “What is your reason?” He had pulled over and had been accused of not having his headlights on, even though it was daytime, his lawyers said.
SUBPOENA APPROVED For Ghislaine Maxwell To Testify To Congress
'Huge Win for the American People' as House Subcommittee Votes to Subpoena Epstein Docs
A congressional subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over files related to deceased convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, thwarting an apparent effort by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to delay further action on the matter until after summer recess.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement voted 8-2 on a motion by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to subpoena the DOJ for all records related to the investigation into Epstein. The longtime former friend of President Donald Trump was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008 and faced federal child sex trafficking charges at the time of his suspicious 2019 jailhouse death, which was officially ruled a suicide.
"Numerous members of this committee and this subcommittee have called for answers and transparency," said Lee, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. "So let's do something about it."
In addition to Lee, the motion was backed by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Reps. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
UPDATE: We just forced the Oversight Committee to subpoena the Epstein files — a massive win for transparency, accountability, and healing.
Pam Bondi must release them immediately.
I will never stop fighting for my fellow survivors. pic.twitter.com/rKjYlXn3xK
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) July 23, 2025
"Today, Oversight Democrats fought for transparency and accountability on the Epstein files and won," Garcia said in a statement. "House Republicans didn't make it easy, but the motion was finally passed to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files."
"Let's be clear: This is a huge win for the American people," he added. "The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government. Today's vote was just the first step toward accountability, and we will continue pushing for the truth."
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) must now sign the subpoena so it may be officially issued to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Comer agreed to subpoena Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes as part of Epstein's alleged operation—following a separate Oversight subcommittee's vote on Tuesday.
Johnson (La.) on Tuesday said the lower chamber would adjourn on Wednesday, one day earlier than scheduled. Critics called the move a blatant attempt to thwart a vote on the Epstein documents, pointing to other recent moves, including the House Rules Committee blocking an amendment that would have forced the DOJ to release the full files to the public, as proof of GOP stonewalling.
Epstein allegedly ran a sex trafficking network involving underage girls, whom he is accused of flying aboard his personal jet—dubbed the "Lolita Express"—to his private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the billionaire financier and his guests abused the children.
Trump partied with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s and flew on the "Lolita Express" numerous times—although there is no evidence that he ever visited Little St. James or was involved in any of Epstein's crimes. Still, the president has appeared eager to move on from the issue after he and key members of his administration repeatedly advocated for the release of the Epstein files. Trump has accused Democrats of amplifying the Epstein "hoax" and has derided his supporters demanding full disclosure of all related documents as "weaklings."
Apparently confirming what estranged Trump adviser Elon Musk and others have asserted, Bondi informed the president in May that his name appears in the Epstein files, according to Wall Street Journal reporting published Wednesday. Trump is suing the paper and two reporters, as well as parent company News Corp and its founder Rupert Murdoch, over reporting about a bawdily illustrated letter Trump allegedly wrote for Epstein.
Asked by CNN Wednesday whether her constituents care about the Epstein case, Lee replied, "Yes, I think the American people want transparency."
"At the end of the day, we have to send a message that whether you are the littlest guy or you are the most powerful person in this nation, that if you commit a crime, if you do things that we aren't supposed to do, that there will be some accountability," she added. "Right now, if we don't vote on this, or if we don't release these files, we're sending a message that if you are a powerful abuser... you'll be covered."
COVERUP: Judge Denies Epstein Transcript Release
Looks like the Trumpster is getting the results he was hoping for:
US judge rejects Trump administration’s bid to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts
A US federal judge on Wednesday denied a justice department request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to a criminal investigation of the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in south Florida from the mid-2000s.
The move is the first ruling in a series of attempts to release more information on the case by Donald Trump’s administration, which has been mired in a scandal in recent weeks, after the justice department announced it would not be releasing any additional files related to the Epstein case – despite earlier promises from the president and the the US attorney general, Pam Bondi. ...
On Friday, the justice department filed a motion asking the court to unseal the grand jury transcripts related to the federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, according to court documents. But on Wednesday, US district judge Robin Rosenberg ruled that the department’s request in Florida did not fall into any of the exceptions to rules requiring grand jury material be kept secret.
Rosenberg wrote that the court’s “hands are tied” and said the government had not requested the grand jury’s findings for use in a judicial proceeding, pointing out that district courts in the US are largely prohibited from unsealing grand jury testimony except in very narrow circumstances.
Donald Trump’s name reported to feature in DoJ files about Jeffrey Epstein
Donald Trump faced a fresh crisis on Wednesday as it was reported that his name appears in US justice department files about Jeffrey Epstein and the Congress subpoenaed testimony from the sex offender’s partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell.
The US president’s spokesman denied an account in the Wall Street Journal newspaper that Trump was told in May by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, that he is named in the now notorious Epstein files. Citing senior administration officials, the Journal said Trump was also informed that many other high-profile figures were named and the department did not plan to release any more documents related to the investigation.
The White House sought to downplay the relationship between Trump and Epstein. Spokesperson Steven Cheung said in an emailed statement: “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.” ...
The justice department concluded earlier this month that there was not a basis to continue the Epstein investigation, triggering a fierce backlash among Trump’s support base over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein’s crimes and high-level connections. It has also fuelled speculation about Trump’s 15-year friendship with Epstein. In June Elon Musk, a billionaire friend-turned-foe of the president, tweeted that Trump is “in the Epstein files”.
The Journal reported on Wednesday: “When justice department officials reviewed what attorney general Pam Bondi called a ‘truckload’ of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times.” Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, said in a statement: “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts. As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings.”
‘Wells Fargo is complicit’: seven arrested at climate protests outside bank’s offices
Seven people were arrested as hundreds of climate and Indigenous rights activists participated in non-violent demonstrations at Wells Fargo’s corporate offices in New York City and San Francisco on Wednesday, in what marks the launch of a summer of civil disobedience against billionaires and corporations accused of cowering to Donald Trump. In New York City, dozens of protesters stormed the lobby of the bank’s corporate offices, disrupting employees by blocking the entrance and calling out what they describe as Wells Fargo’s complicity in the climate crisis.
Wells Fargo, currently ranked 33rd in the Fortune 500 list, became the first major bank to abandon its climate commitments – just weeks after the president signed a slew of executive orders to boost fossil fuels and derail climate action. The US bank is among the biggest financiers of planet-warming oil and gas companies, with $39bn in fossil fuel investments in 2024 – a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the most recent annual Banking on Climate Chaos report.
“As dozens of teenagers die in climate-driven floods in Texas and thousands die in heatwaves around the world, it’s unconscionable that a bank like Wells Fargo would just completely walk away from its climate goals,” said Liv Senghor with Planet Over Profit, the non-profit group that led the New York protests. In San Francisco, seven people were arrested as activists blocked every entrance of the bank’s global headquarters for several hours, with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal nation locked themselves to a sleeping dragon tripod.
The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River tribes spearheaded the 2016 and 2017 fight against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) – the opposed fossil fuel pipeline built through Lakota lands that Wells Fargo helped finance. “DAPL was built through the Lakota Unceded Treaty Territory, without proper consent. That land holds our history, our spirit, and our ancestors. We’re in a time where we should be protecting the Earth, not pushing more oil through it. We owe that to our people and the future generations,” said Trent Ouellettefrom Waste Wakpa Grassroots.
Wednesday’s protests were part of the Stop Billionaires Summer campaign – a series of planned civil disobedience to disrupt the tech billionaires and corporations backing the Trump administration’s dismantling of democratic rights and climate action. It follows last year’s summer of heat campaign targeting Citibank, another major fossil fuel funder. This year Wells Fargo is being specifically targeted by a coalition of non-profit organizations, who accuse the bank of capitulating to Trump and supporting the rise of planetary destruction, autocracy and land occupation – in the US and Palestinian territories.
Earth’s underground networks of fungi need urgent protection
The underground networks of fungi that underpin the planet’s ecosystems needs urgent conservation action by politicians, a research organisation has said. Scientists from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (Spun) have created the first high-resolution biodiversity maps of Earth’s underground mycorrhizal fungal ecosystems.
The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that 90% of the biodiverse hotspots of mycorrhizal fungi were in unprotected ecosystems. Loss of the ecosystems could lead to reductions in carbon drawdown, crop productivity and ecosystem resilience to climate extremes. Mycorrhizal fungi have “remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land”, said Dr Toby Kiers, the executive director of Spun.
“They cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail and biodiversity above ground begins to unravel … 450m years ago, there were no plants on Earth and it was because of these mycorrhizal fungal networks that plants colonised the planet and began supporting human life. If we have healthy fungal networks, then we will have greater agricultural productivity, bigger and beautiful flowers, and can protect plants against pathogens.”
Mycorrhizal fungi are found on the roots of plants and help regulate Earth’s climate and ecosystems. Its underground networks provide plants with essential nutrients, while drawing more than 13bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year into soils – equivalent to roughly one-third of global emissions from fossil fuels.
Fema director defends Texas flood response as ‘model’ for disasters
David Richardson, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), on Wednesday defended his agency’s handling of recent deadly floods in Texas, claiming the response was a “model” for “how disasters should be handled”. The comment came as Richardson faced accusations that the response to the floods was botched, characterized by ignorance and carelessness.
“This wasn’t just incompetence. It wasn’t just indifference. It was both,” Greg Stanton, a Democratic representative from Arizona, told Richardson at the House transportation and infrastructure committee hearing. “And that deadly combination likely cost lives.”
The hearing followed a slew of reports saying Richardson was nowhere to be found during the flood. Earlier, the acting director, who has no previous experience in disaster management, reportedly said he was unaware that hurricane season exists in the US – something the White House later said was a “joke”.
Richardson denied any agency wrongdoing in the Texas floods. “What happened in Texas was an absolute tragedy,” he said. He and other officials under Donald Trump were aiming to restore the agency to its original goals, he said, encouraging states to take on more financial and logistical responsibility for disasters.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Gaza as Dress Rehearsal for War With China
When the bodies of starving children in Gaza reach a ‘point of no return’
Vanuatu Rips US-Led Fossil Fuel Expansion After Landmark World Court Ruling
New photos and videos highlight close ties between Epstein and Trump
Erdogan fights to hold on to Damascus
A Little Night Music
Lloyd Glenn - Old Time Shuffle Blues
Lloyd Glenn - Boogie Woogie On St. Louis Blues
Lloyd Glenn & Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - First Take And Blue
Lloyd Glenn and Band - Southbound Special
Lowell Fulson Feat Lloyd Glenn - Blue Shadows
Lloyd Glenn & Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Heat Wave
Lloyd Glenn And His Joymakers - Angora
Lloyd Glenn - Young Date
Lloyd Glenn - Jungle Town Jubilee
Lloyd Glenn - Boogiology (Rockin' Boogie)
Comments
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. Classics stuff.
The poor people of Vanatu are seemingly blithely unaware that the US routinely ignores the world court and will almost certainly continue to do so wrt this decision. Ah well.
be well abd have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
if the people of vanatu want the u.s. to respect them and their rights, they should probably invest in long-range nuclear weapons. it seems to be the only way to get the empire's attention.
have a great evening!
The Max Blumenthal interview video
is really good. He doesn't go out on a limb and endorse any of the speculative rumors -- ie that Epstein was murdered, that he was Mossad etc. Although he does label Les Wexner as a Zionist which imho may be an overstatement. However, Epstein was moving a lot of cash around for Wexner in tax avoidance schemes and very likely moved cash into Mossad pockets for operations. Appears to have done the same for Glenn Dubin and Leon Black, but there may have been others that so far haven't been identified. (The three named clients could easily have funded the billion dollars that Epstein ran through and collected.)
evening marie...
yep, one thing that i really like about max and his associate aaron mate is that they are careful journalists, cautious about making claims if the proof isn't fully there, they don't seem to get out over their skis, so to speak. on the other hand, when they have nailed something down, they are articulate and well-versed when questioned about it. i admire them both.
Absolutely --
just recommended both to my sister who told me she was watching something called the Meidas Touch videos as an antidote to the sea of Trumpsters she lives around. The immediate problem I saw with that youtube platform is that it's partisan. Will see if I've expanded her news sources.
What happens to a politician
.
after their graft dries-up?
They go dark. No longer able to
afford a PR firm to put them 'out there'
they just meld into the framework.
Take J. Bolton as an example.
Big mover and shaker (for a spell)
until he tripped over his message.
In the media spotlight until he was disappeared.
Was it the wrong message or lack of funding for
an aggressive PR campaign? You decide.
Doesn't matter. Just the fact that that idiots like
that no longer hog headlines is good enough for me.
Whoever is the media darling of the moment get
total coverage is telling, in and of itself. When they go
dark - well that is another tell.
Like Macron's wife or Obombas wife actually being
males? Can't have that. Bad for publicity. The
'normies' still want heterosexual context associated
with their leaders. Or so the polls will tell.
I just want to know when Lindsey Graham goes dark.
Zionism is a social disease
Politically based libel has a VERY long history
and you need to consider who is trying to do what with, to, or for whom. There is a small but EXTREMELY vocal and far too powerful coterie of transphobes who are trying by whatever means they can use to shove trans people out of society, back into the closet, and (perhaps) even into extinction. One of their nastiest tricks is to assert that (popular female figure) "is really a man", in hopes of shaking up the "normies" and getting homophobes onto their side. It also serves to circumscribe "acceptable female behavior" and "acceptable female appearance" ever more tightly, which plays right into misogyny in general.
They actually don't CARE if it's true or not, as long as they can raise a public stink with it.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
this is beauty
.
and balance
https://twitter.com/i/status/1948263519423500577
for some reason ? can not post or embed
but worth a look nonetheless
Zionism is a social disease
Dress Rehearsal
Liked the Naked Capitalism piece-
Anyone who's looked at the bombing campaigns in WWII understands that massive killing of civilians was part and parcel of that war. The nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the ultimate demonstration of this practice. The same was true in the Korean conflict in our bombing campaigns there. Virtually every cultural feature of any significance down to mud and grass shacks was destroyed with approximately 2 million civilians killed. This is why North Korea has nukes today. MacArthur unsuccessfully promoted the use of nuclear weapons in that conflict as well.
Ellsberg recounts well the history of the so called strategic bombing campaigns in WWII and the alleged "military objective" of slaughtering as many civilians as one could primarily through bombing. After WWII, the purpose of the use of nuclear weapons was alleged to be deterrence. Yet, from my own reading I learned that limited nuclear attack plans were to be crafted which ostensibly were more "practical" or "limited" in application than the existing nuclear war plan to kill all our enemies in one massive comprehensive attack (principally Russia and the Warsaw Pact) aka mutually asssured destruction. Kissinger described these limited nuclear attack contingencies in one of his books in the 50s about nuclear weapons strategy.
So we know the practice of slaughtering civilians on a massive scale and destroying their communities was already a not unfamiliar practice, long before Gaza. There was an effort to reject such practices, including the kill all, burn all, destroy all practice in My Lai first demonstrated by Japan in China during WWII. The US public reaction to My Lai suggested that more humanitarian standards of the law of armed conflict may have taken hold to some extent in the public mind. The public revulsion in response to My Lai had to be carefully managed. For similar reasons, the earlier US bombing practices in Korea had to become the "forgotten war."
There isn't much difference between the landscape in Gaza, the slaughter and other practices there, and these earlier conflicts. The total destruction of the cultural features, the wholesale murder of civilians, "making the rubble bounce," etc., is similar in nature.
I don't agree with the so called military justice experts on the "law of armed conflict" who think they can justify the wholesale destruction of residential communities, hospitals, schools, colleges, water and sewer systems, and killing those civilians living and working in them, up to and including entire nations. I can't understand these "new Jags" who also can and did justify torture in our so called war on terror. They're simply wrong.
The notion that the genocidal model demonstrated in Gaza provides some meaningful template for application to China is delusional.
There is no legal maneuver space for genocide. There was no legal maneuver space for torture during the war on terror. Claiming there was didn't make it so. Anyone who advocates for these practices has simply sold out or is delusional.
Pull this with China? Ours is a culture of impunity. Acting with impunity won't be possible in a war with China, nor will China otherwise collapse. These suggestions are clearly signs of a deranged leadership and a failing society.
Thanks for the EBs Joe! Wasn't able to post this last night.
edited spelling/clarification
語必忠信 行必正直
Interesting perspective
.
empire kills to justify
their rule
in so many words
No: China, Russia and Iran
are insurmountable to the
chaos which is the 'west'
Too many balls in the air.
Zionism is a social disease