The Evening Blues - 8-14-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features r&b singer and piano player Little Richard. Enjoy!
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally, Tutti Frutti
"Look, all administrations, all governments lie, all officials lie and nothing they say is to be believed. That's a pretty good rule."
-- Daniel Ellsberg
News and Opinion
The Biblical Case For Supporting Israel
During a speech in South Carolina, US Senator Lindsey Graham warned that God will “pull the plug” on Americans if they stop supporting Israel.
“This is not a hard choice if you’re an American. It’s not a hard choice if you’re a Christian,” Graham said. “A word of warning: if America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us. And we’re not going to let that happen.”
If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us.⁰
I’m not going to let that happen. pic.twitter.com/4pboBftQlO
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 13, 2025
The senator is correct, of course.
What, do you doubt him? God clearly and explicitly commands Christians to support the modern state of Israel. It’s right here in the Holy Bible; give me a moment and I’ll find the verse for you.
Aha! Got it. Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
Wait, hold on, that’s not it.
Here it is, Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Hang on, shoot, that’s not the one. What I meant to say is Lamentations 2:19, “Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.”
Ah, wrong one, lemme thumb through this a bit more. Got it! Proverbs 24:11, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”
Wait, sorry, no, it’s Psalm 101:7, “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.”
Oh no actually it’s Proverbs 6:16–19, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
Oops, no, it’s definitely not that one. Actually it’s Deuteronomy 27:25, “Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.”
No, dang it, that makes AIPAC recipients sound bad. Gimme a minute. Ah! Mark 12:31, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
No, wait, got it! Here it is, Romans 14:19, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
Oh no, that isn’t the one I was looking for, it was Second Corinthians 13:11, “Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Oh actually that one sounds kind of antisemitic in this context, gimme a sec.
Got it! Ephesians 4:3, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Hold on, that’s not it either. The one I meant to cite was Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Oh boy, this really isn’t going well. Lemme see… oh! James 3:18, “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
Gosh darn it, I made a mistake. The verse I meant to point to was First Peter 3:11, “They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.”
Wait, no, it was Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Actually it was Luke 6:35–36, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Oops, no, nope. Man this is way harder than I thought it was going to be. Oh! Hey! Found it! It was right here in Genesis the whole time, chapter 12, verse 3: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
There! See? It’s right there in black and white. God’s saying we are commanded to support a modern state that we created in 1948, no matter what it does. The Bible is entirely clear and unequivocal about this, and says absolutely nothing to the contrary.
Checkmate, heathen.
IDF Chief Says He’s Approved Plans for the ‘Conquest of Gaza’
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday that the Israeli military has approved plans for the “conquest” of Gaza as Israel is planning a significant escalation of its genocidal war.
“This morning, we approved plans for the conquest of Gaza, and now we are in Lebanon. At the same time, we are operating in Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and monitoring events in Iran. We are in a multifront war,” Zamir said during a visit to an Israeli occupation outpost in southern Lebanon, according to The Times of Israel.
Zamir has been at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the plans to escalate in Gaza, as the IDF has been warning that it will take heavy casualties and that the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza could be killed in the offensive.
According toIsraeli media, the message Netanyahu and his allies have sent to Zamir is that he had better approve the plans to take over Gaza or resign, and Netanyahu favors the total takeover of Gaza even if it means the Israeli captives could be harmed or killed.
Bibi MASK OFF ON 'GREATER ISRAEL' Conquest
The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza. “Of course it’s important to recognize the state of Palestine,” Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. “It’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already.”
But she argued that the prolonged debate around Palestinian statehood has so far yielded no political progress, and instead enabled the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territory which have all but precluded the possibility of a Palestinian state. “The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,” she said.
This week, Australia joined the United Kingdom, Canada, France and other countries in pledging to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations general assembly next month. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, (no relation) described the two-state solution as “humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East”.
But the special rapporteur cautioned that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood should not “distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide”. She called for an embargo on all arms sales to Israel and a cessation of trade agreements – as well as accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the international criminal court has charged top Israeli officials. She also called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory by the 17 September deadline set by the UN general assembly.
“Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: end the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid,” she said. “This is what’s going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live – in two states or one state, they will have to decide.”
Israeli Officials Reportedly Held Talks About Displacing Palestinians to War-Torn South Sudan
Israel has reportedly discussed pushing the Palestinian population of Gaza to another war zone in South Sudan.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Israeli leaders had been engaged in talks with the African nation and that an Israeli delegation would soon visit the country to look into the possibility of setting up "makeshift camps" for Palestinians to be herded into.
"It's unclear how far the talks have advanced, but if implemented, the plans would amount to transferring people from one war-ravaged land at risk of famine to another," the AP said.
Like Gaza, South Sudan is in the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis caused by an ongoing violence and instability. In June, Human Rights Watch reported that more than half of South Sudan's population, 7.7 million people, faced acute food insecurity. The nation is also home to one of the world's largest refugee crises, with more than 2 million people internally displaced.
On Wednesday, the South Sudanese foreign ministry said it "firmly refutes" the reports that it discussed the transfer of Palestinians with Israel, adding that they are "baseless and do not reflect the official position or policy."
However, six sources that spoke to the AP—including the founder of a U.S.-based lobbying firm and the leader of a South Sudanese civil society group, as well as four who maintained anonymity—said the government briefed them on the talks.
Sharren Haskel, Israel's deputy foreign minister, also arrived in South Sudan on Tuesday to hold a series of talks with the president and other government officials.
While the content of these talks is unclear for the moment, the Israeli government is quite open about its goal of seeking the permanent transfer of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries.
In addition to South Sudan, it has been reported that Israeli officials have also approached Sudan, Somalia, and the breakaway state of Somaliland, all of which have suffered from chronic war, poverty, and instability.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with the Israeli TV station i24 that "the right thing to do, even according to the laws of war as I know them, is to allow the population to leave, and then you go in with all your might against the enemy who remains there."
Though Netanyahu has described this as "voluntary migration," Israeli officials have in the past indicated that their goal is to make conditions in Gaza so intolerable that its people see no choice but to leave.
Finance minister and war cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich, who has openly discussed the objective of forcing 2 million Palestinians out to make way for Israeli settlers, said in May: "Within a few months, we will be able to declare that we have won. Gaza will be totally destroyed."
Speaking of its people, he said: "They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places."
Contrary to Netanyahu's assertion, international bodies, governments, and human rights groups have denounced the so-called "voluntary migration" plan as a policy of forcible transfer that is illegal under international law.
"To impose inhumane conditions of life to push Palestinians out of Gaza would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer or deportation," said Amnesty International in May.
Israeli human rights organizations, led by the group Gisha, explained in June in a letter to Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, that there is no such thing as "voluntary migration" under the circumstances that the Israeli war campaign has imposed.
"Genuine 'consent' under these conditions simply does not exist," the groups said. "Therefore, the decision in question constitutes explicit planning for mass transfer of civilians and ethnic cleansing, while violating international law, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity."
The plan to permanently remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip has received the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to turn the strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
The U.S. State Department currently advises travelers not to visit Sudan or Somaliland due to the risk of armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping. However, the United States has reportedly been involved in talks pushing these countries to take in the Palestinians forced out by Israel.
After Israel announced its plans to fully "conquer" Gaza, U.N. official Miroslav Jenča said during an emergency Security Council session on Sunday that the occupation push is "yet another dangerous escalation of the conflict."
"If these plans are implemented," he said, "they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction—compounding the unbearable suffering of the population."
Doctor SHOCKS Theo Von With Gaza Reality
IDF Brags of 'In-Depth Review' That Confirms Israel Is Starving Sick Children to Death
Using terminology that's all too familiar to the U.S. public—and treated by the for-profit health system as synonymous with those who are entitled to less care—the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday released an "in-depth review" of widespread reports that Israel has killed hundreds of people in Gaza so far through its deliberate starvation policy.
The military claimed the analysis found that many Palestinians who have died of malnutrition so far had previous illnesses.
"Most 'malnutrition' deaths were due to severe preexisting conditions," said the IDF in a post on social media. "The expert review concluded that there are no signs of a widespread malnutrition phenomenon among the population in Gaza."
The fact that a number of people who have died had health conditions before Israel began bombarding Gaza in October 2023—decimating its healthcare system, among other civilian infrastructure—is hardly a surprise, said journalist Ryan Grim of Drop Site News.
"Children dying first in a famine Israel caused by restricting food aid also had comorbidities and preexisting conditions," said Grim. "Of course they did. That is who dies first, as any child can tell you."
The IDF and its top military funder, the U.S. government, have persistently denied that Israel is intentionally starving Palestinian civilians with its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.
As the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that famine is now unfolding in Gaza, experts have called the starvation crisis that's killed at least 235 people "entirely man-made," and Amnesty International has gathered extensive testimony from healthcare workers and civilians describing how Israel is using starvation as a "weapon of war," the Trump administration has continued to claim that any malnutrition in Gaza is the result of Hamas "stealing aid."
Last month, even IDF officials were forced to admit previous claims that Hamas was stealing humanitarian aid deliveries could not be verified.
With that claim debunked, the "in-depth review" focused instead on dismissing the starvation victims themselves.
The IDF presented the case of 4-year-old Abdullah Hanu Muhammad Abu Zarqa, who had a genetic disease that caused "deficiencies, osteoporosis, and bone thinning."
It also posted on the social media platform X the medical records of a 2-year-old named Abed Allah Hany Muhamad Abu Zarka, which showed the toddler had hair loss and rickets—a bone disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. The document showed he had a "positive family history of similar cases" and was shared in the apparent hope that disclosing the information would tamp down outrage over Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid.
"I can't understand how anyone thinks 'We're only starving the SICK kids to death' is any kind of justification, even if it were true?!" said New York Times columnist Megan K. Stack.
The in-depth review, which Israel said verified "only a few cases" of starvation, came weeks after the Times appeared to bow to pressure from the Israeli government and media after it reported on Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, an 18-month-old who was born with cerebral palsy and had also been suffering from starvation. Israel claimed the use of photos of the toddler in media coverage was misleading because outlets like the Times didn't disclose al-Mutawaq's previous medical condition, and the Times issued an editorial note pointing out his diagnosis soon after.
The editors' move provoked outcry from progressive observers, who called the addendum "ghoulish" and "depraved."
One noted that an institution that took pains to "clarify" that "some portion of Nazi death camp victims had preexisting conditions" would rightly be accused of denying the impact of the Holocaust.
"It took an 'in-depth IDF review,'" one critic asked Wednesday, "to determine that children with preexisting conditions will be the first victims of a man-made famine?"
Gaza’s sick children wait in torturous limbo for medical evacuations
Abdel Karim Wahdan no longer has the energy to speak. When visitors arrive, the eight-year-old pretends to be sleeping so that no one looks at him. Between his frequent dialysis sessions, he cries. His bones hurt, he says. Abdel Karim is dying. His death should be preventable but because he lives in Gaza he cannot access the treatment that would save his life. What started as acute kidney failure is now chronic: his small body has begun to swell and he spends his days between hospital beds and injections that he hates.
“My son suffers greatly. The hospital has become his home. The doctors stand helpless and I can only watch and pray,” said his mother, Najwa Wahdan. As the sickness progressed, Abdel Karim was also diagnosed with malnutrition as food began to disappear from Gaza’s markets. His only hope is to be evacuated from Gaza to receive medical treatment abroad. Wahdan filed a medical referral four months ago but is still waiting.
Abdel Karim is one of thousands of people in Gaza waiting for treatment abroad. Getting approved for a medical evacuation is a long, arduous process that can take years. Zahir al-Wehadi, the head of the information department at the Gaza ministry of health, said: “We have more than 16,000 patients [in Gaza] who need treatment abroad. We have already lost more than 600 patients who died while still waiting to travel.” ...
Israel controls who enters and leaves Gaza. People who need medical treatment abroad must have their exit approved by Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians. In December, the World Health Organization said the pace of medical evacuations out of Gaza was so slow that it would take five to 10 years to clear the backlog.
Waiting for medical evacuation is torturous. Patients and their families have no ability to speed up the process and can do nothing but hope that approval comes before death does.
ANOTHER Israel-Iran War Is Coming Soon
Rights Group Pushes Delaware AG to Revoke Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's Corporate Charter
A leading U.S. legal advocacy group on Wednesday urged Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings to pursue revoking the corporate charter of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose aid distribution points in the embattled Palestinian enclave have been the sites of near-daily massacres in which thousands of Palestinians have reportedly been killed or wounded.
Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urgently requested a meeting with Jennings, a Democrat, whom the group asserted has a legal obligation to file suit in the state's Chancery Court to seek revocation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) charter because the purported charity "is complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide."
CCR said Wednesday that Jennings "has neither responded" to the group's request "nor publicly addressed the serious claims raised against the Delaware-registered entity."
"GHF woefully fails to adhere to fundamental humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence and has proven to be an opportunistic and obsequious entity masquerading as a humanitarian organization," CCR asserted. "Since the start of its operations in late May, at least 1,400 Palestinians have died seeking aid, with at least 859 killed at or near GHF sites, which it operates in close coordination with the Israeli government and U.S. private military contractors."
One of those contractors, former U.S. Army Green Beret Col. Anthony Aguilar, quit his job and blew the whistle on what he said he saw while working at GHF aid sites.
"What I saw on the sites, around the sites, to and from the sites, can be described as nothing but war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of international law," Aguilar told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman earlier this month. "This is not hyperbole. This is not platitudes or drama. This is the truth... The sites were designed to lure, bait aid, and kill."
Israel Defense Forces officers and soldiers have admitted to receiving orders to open fire on Palestinian aid-seekers with live bullets and artillery rounds, even when the civilians posed no security threat.
"It is against this backdrop that [President Donald] Trump's State Department approved a $30 million United States Agency for International Development grant for GHF," CCR noted. "In so doing, the State Department exempted it from the audit usually required for new USAID grantees."
"It also waived mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards and overrode vetting mechanisms, including 58 internal objections to GHF's application," the group added. "The Center for Constitutional Rights has submitted a [Freedom of Information Act] request seeking information on the administration's funding of GHF."
CCR continued:
The letter to Jennings opens a new front in the effort to hold GHF accountable. The Center for Constitutional Rights letter provides extensive evidence that, far from alleviating suffering in Gaza, GHF is contributing to the forced displacement, illegal killing, and genocide of Palestinians, while serving as a fig leaf for Israel's continued denial of access to food and water. Given this, Jennings has not only the authority, but the obligation to investigate GHF to determine if it abused its charter by engaging in unlawful activity. She may then file suit with the Court of Chancery, which has the authority to revoke GHF's charter.
CCR's August 5 letter notes that Jennings has previously exercised such authority. In 2019, she filed suit to dissolve shell companies affiliated with former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Richard Gates after they pleaded guilty to money laundering and other crimes.
"Attorney General Jennings has the power to significantly change the course of history and save lives by taking action to dissolve GHF," said CCR attorney Adina Marx-Arpadi. "We call on her to use her power to stop this dangerous entity that is masquerading as a charitable organization while furthering death and violence in Gaza, and to do so without delay."
CCR's request follows a call earlier this month by a group of United Nations experts for the "immediate dismantling" of GHF, as well as "holding it and its executives accountable and allowing experienced and humanitarian actors from the U.N. and civil society alike to take back the reins of managing and distributing lifesaving aid."
COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Will Trump Outfox Putin?
Prof. John Mearsheimer : Will Putin Outfox Trump?
Putin faces ‘very severe consequences’ if no Ukraine truce agreed, Trump says
Vladimir Putin will face “very severe consequences” if he does not agree a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine at his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska, the US president said on Wednesday. Speaking after a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer, Trump also suggested he would push for a second summit if his meeting with Putin goes well – this time including his Ukrainian counterpart.
“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there.” Trump did not provide a timeframe for a second meeting. He is to meet Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. The meeting will reportedly be held at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, a military facility crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the height of the cold war. ...
The president’s remarks followed what he described as a very good call with European leaders in which he consulted about the goal and strategy for his summit. He pleased Europe’s leadership by giving reassurances that a ceasefire was his priority and he would not make any territorial concessions without Kyiv’s full involvement.
Trump’s approach at the video conference, as described by France’s Emmanuel Macron, appeared to reassure some of the leaders, who were making a final collective plea to the unpredictable US president that he had a duty to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty – and European security – at the talks.
The European leaders spoke to Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, in a hastily convened one-hour meeting in an effort to shape Trump’s negotiating strategy. Zelenskyy and European leaders have been excluded from the summit and fear that Trump, intent on fulfilling his election campaign guarantee that he could easily end the bloodshed in Ukraine, will make concessions that compromise Ukraine’s future sovereignty.
Moscow Firm On Terms For War's End Trump NO Zelensky Rutte In Alaska; Russia Smashes Kiev's Missiles
Peru enacts amnesty for military and police accused of human rights abuses
Human rights groups and families of victims of Peru’s two-decade internal armed conflict have expressed outrage after the country’s government granted a blanket amnesty for all military and police officers accused of human rights crimes from 1980 to 2000. The Peruvian president, Dina Boluarte, signed the amnesty – which was approved by the country’s congress last month – into law on Wednesday, to the applause of military top brass and ministers at Lima’s government palace.
The legislation prevents the criminal prosecution and conviction of former soldiers, police officers and self-defence committee fighters accused of serious human rights violations in the country’s fight against leftist insurgents of the Mao-inspired Shining Path and other groups.
Gisela Ortiz, the sister of one of the victims of a 1992 death squad massacre, said on X: “A government that violates human rights enacts an amnesty law for those who support it: police and military personnel who murdered, disappeared and raped between 1980 and 2000.” Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, described the law as a betrayal of Peruvian victims. “It undermines decades of efforts to ensure accountability for atrocities and weakens the country’s rule of law even further,” she said.
The brutal and protracted conflict was marked by atrocities committed by both sides. Between 1980 and 2000, nearly 70,000 people were killed and 20,000 disappeared, according to the findings of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Shining Path fighters were responsible for about 54% of the deaths and the military for the rest. ...
There has been widespread concern about backsliding on human rights under Boluarte’s government. In 2023, the former president Alberto Fujimori was released from prison, where he was serving a 25-year term for human rights crimes, despite a request from the regional inter-American court of human rights to delay his release. Last year, Peru’s congress approved a bill establishing a statute of limitations for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed before 2003. The UN Human Rights Commission expressed alarm about the amnesty bill in July, warning Peru that it had a “duty to investigate, prosecute, and punish serious human rights violations” and that “international standards prohibit amnesties or pardons for such serious crimes”.
US judge orders Trump administration to restore part of UCLA’s frozen funding
A US judge on Tuesday ordered Donald Trump’s administration to restore a part of the federal grant funding that it recently suspended for the University of California, Los Angeles.
US district judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that the grant funding suspensions violated an earlier June preliminary injunction where she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore dozens of grants that it had terminated at the University of California. That order had blocked the agency from cancelling other grants at the University of California system, of which UCLA is a part. ...
UCLA said last week the government froze $584m in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over pro-Palestinian student protests against US ally Israel’s military assault on Gaza. The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that the judge’s order asked for the restoration of more than a third of the suspended $584m funding.
The University of California said last week it was reviewing a settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA in which the university will pay $1bn. It said such a large payment would “devastate” the institution.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Small US towns cancel fairs celebrating Latino culture: ‘climate of fear is real
Harrisonburg, Virginia, a town of 50,000 people in the Shenandoah Valley, should have been alive with the color, sound and smells of local Latino culture. Soccer tournaments, taco trucks, Salvadorian chanchona musical bands and about 4,000 visitors were last month set to attend the town’s Hispanic Festival held at a sports complex outside the town.
But this year, it’s not happening.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents have been active in the Harrisonburg area for months, prompting organizers to cancel the festival. “There have been instances of raids targeting immigrant families and workplaces in the past. While we had no confirmed reports that Ice planned to target the festival, the general climate of fear is very real,” says Crimson Solano, executive director of the Coalición Solidaria Pro-Inmigrantes Unidos (COSPU), which runs the festival. This fear undermines the purpose of the festival, which is to create a safe, celebratory space for our community.”
Festivals and fairs are a mainstay of small-town American life. But now from rural Indiana to a tiny village in Washington state to cornerstone Appalachian towns such as Harrisonburg, Latino and other international festivals are being cancelled this summer due to fears of raids by Ice agents.
“Our polling shows 43% of Latino voters fear they could be arrested by immigration authorities – even if they are citizens or have legal status – which has disrupted the daily lives of the Latino community,” says Rita Fernández, director of immigration policy project at UnidosUS, the country’s largest Latino civil rights organization.
Trump says he’ll seek ‘long-term’ control of DC police and signals he’ll target other cities next
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask Congress for “long-term” control of Washington DC’s police department and signaled he expected other Democratic-led cities to change their laws in response to his deployment of national guard troops and federal agents into the capital. The president’s comments came as the White House took credit for dozens of arrests overnight in Washington as part of Trump’s campaign to fight a “crime crisis”, which the city’s leaders say does not exist. ...
A White House official credited Tuesday night’s deployment with a total of 43 arrests, twice the total of the previous evening. It was unclear how much more that was than a typical night. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police department said a total of 76 arrests were made throughout the day citywide on Tuesday; the agency’s data showed they made an average of 56 arrests per day in 2024.
More than 1,450 officers participated in the deployment, about half of whom were from the city’s police department, while only 30 national guard troops were deployed of the roughly 800 whom defense officials have said are expected to arrive for the mission. A White House official said to expect a “significantly higher” presence of national guard troops over the days to come, as well as round-the-clock patrols by federal agents, which have thus far only been present in the evenings.
Democratic lawmakers have condemned Trump’s incursion as an authoritarian move intended to distract his supporters from outrage over his refusal to make public files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a one-time friend who has become a fixation of conspiracy theorists.
Andrew Cuomo PITIFULLY Tries To Re-Launch FAILED Mayoral Campaign
New York mayor frontrunner Mamdani trains fire on Trump as Cuomo attacks
New York City’s mayoral race is heating up, with Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive who leapt ahead of establishment figures in the primary to win the Democratic party nomination, appearing to widen his lead over his main rivals this week. Mamdani, 33, edged further ahead of the former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, with the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, far behind, in advance of the election this November to pick a leader for the largest city in the US.
In a metropolis that leans Democratic, he was also far ahead of the Republican talkshow host Curtis Sliwa, and also another independent, the sky-diving former federal prosecutor Jim Walden. According to a poll released on Tuesday, Mamdani, who has been endorsed by fellow leftwingers on the national stage such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, held a 19-point lead over Cuomo, his nearest rival. ...
Mamdani, meanwhile, has launched a “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour of the city, shifting his focus to what many Democratic New Yorkers could agree is the common enemy, the Republican US president. Trump has threatened to intervene in New York – a threat made vivid with the national guard now patrolling Washington DC’s streets – if Mamdani is elected, and Cuomo posted that that was likely to happen and that “Trump will flatten him like a pancake”. ...
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a state assembly Democrat whose district includes much of eastern Brooklyn, is among moderates who are coming around to the leftwinger and attended a Mamdani-led anti-Trump meeting on Tuesday. “Democrats, both moderate and progressive, are uniting around urgent issues like affordability, housing, and protecting our democracy,” Hermelyn said.
Will Dem HISTORIC UNPOPULARITY Save Republicans?
At dawn, a veil of mist clings to the canals of Hawizeh, where sky and water seem to blur into a mirror. In the stern of a narrow wooden boat, 23-year-old Mustafa Hashim scans the marshes’ shallows, cutting the motor and switching to a traditional pole to avoid snagging on invasive roots or thickening mud. It takes him about half an hour to push through the shrinking marshes to reach Um al-Nea’aj, once a vibrant lake teeming with boats and birdsong. Now, the water is about half a metre deep.
“Two years ago, there were families and fishermen everywhere,” Mustafa says, leaning out of the boat. “You could hear laughter, the splash of fish. Today, there’s nothing.” On the horizon, flames from the Halfaya oilfield flicker.
Iraq’s southern wetlands – known collectively as the Mesopotamian marshes – are among the world’s most endangered ecosystems. Their expanse is believed by some to have contained the biblical Garden of Eden. Recognised as a Unesco world heritage site in 2016 and protected since 2007 as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, the marshes once stretched nearly 120 miles (200km) from Nasiriya to Basra, forming a rich and vast aquatic world.
But beneath the surface lies another kind of wealth: oil. Three strategic oil concessions overlap with the protected area: Halfaya, Huwaiza, and Majnoon. The latter, Majnoon, takes its name from the Arabic word for “crazy”: it is considered one of the world’s “super-giant” oilfields, with estimated reserves of up to 38bn barrels (5.2bn tonnes). But the processes used to extract that oil have a voracious appetite for water. In a land already threatened by drought and desertification, the wetlands are being sucked dry.
The connection between oil extraction and water scarcity is direct and devastating. The Halfaya oilfield – in which the French energy company TotalEnergies also holds a stake – is operated by a consortium led by PetroChina. ... About a decade ago, shortly after PetroChina began operations in the region, six water-pumping stations were built along the Tigris River – the lifeline that feeds the marshes. Every day, they extract about 60,000 cubic metres of water, roughly the daily consumption of a mid-sized city. That water is diverted to the oilfields, where it is injected into wells to boost crude extraction – a standard practice across the region.
The pumping stations are drawing from already diminished reserves. Dams built upstream in Turkey and the Kurdish region of Iraq have reduced water flow into southern Iraq by more than 50% since the 1970s, while Iranian dams on the Karkheh River – which feeds the Hawizeh marshes – have also reduced the region’s water supply. Now, feeding this industrial oil complex is costing residents their environment and their way of life, they say.
Scientists rush to bolster climate finding Trump administration aims to undo
Veteran climate scientists are organizing a coordinated public comment to a US Department of Energy (DOE) report that cast doubt on the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. The report, published late last month, claimed concerns about planet-warming fossil fuels are overblown, sparking widespread concern from scientists who said it was full of climate misinformation; it was an attempt to support a proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undo the “endangerment finding”, which forms the legal basis of virtually all US climate regulations.
“A public comment from experts can be useful because it injects expert analysis into a decision-making process that might otherwise be dominated by political, economic, or ideological considerations,” said Andrew Dessler, a climate researcher at Texas A&M University who is organizing the response to the report. “Experts can identify technical errors, highlight overlooked data, and clarify uncertainties in ways that improve the accuracy and robustness of the final policy or report.”
The response comes as part of a broader wave of experts’ attempts to uphold established climate science as the Trump administration promotes contrarian and unproven viewpoints.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Nasem), the country’s top group of scientific advisers, has launched a “fast-track” review of the latest evidence on how greenhouse gases threaten human health and wellbeing – a move announced following the proposed endangerment-finding rollback.
Nasem, which advises the EPA and other federal agencies, plans to release their findings in September, in time to inform the EPA’s decision on the endangerment finding. The initiative will be self-funded by the organization – a highly unusual practice from the congressionally chartered group, which usually responds to federal bodies’ calls for advice.
Barriers prevent severe flooding in Alaska capital after glacier outburst
Newly installed river barriers held back record levels of flooding and prevented widespread damage in Alaska’s capital city on Wednesday, after an ice dam at the nearby Mendenhall Glacier released a huge surge of rainwater and snowmelt, officials said. Water pooled on several streets and in some yards in Juneau after the Mendenhall River crested earlier in the day, and high water was expected to persist for hours. But many residents in the flood zone had evacuated before peak water levels, and there were no damage reports similar to the past two summers, when about 300 homes were flooded. ...
The Mendenhall Glacier fills a large valley north of Juneau, creating an ice dam for a meltwater lake that fills Suicide Basin. Since 2011, outburst floods from the depression have been pouring into Mendenhall Lake and rushing down the river toward Juneau each year. But the annual Mendenhall glacial lake outburst flood is judged to be intensifying as a result of climate change.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (Noaa), said in a statement that Alaska had warmed twice as fast as the rest of the US over the last several decades. Over the last century, Alaska’s average annual temperature has risen 3.1F and the overall trend continues to increase, according to data from Noaa’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Scientists have attributed the retreat, melting and thinning of glaciers over the last century to Earth’s warming climate. Alaska’s glaciers are among the fastest-melting glaciers on Earth and have been in steep decline since the late 1980s, according to the Alaska Climate Science Center.
On the record amounts of water that threatened Juneau, Rick Thoman, Alaska climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, told Climate.gov, Noaa reported: “Without climate change, there is no reason to think that this would be happening on the Mendenhall Glacier, then in the lake, and downriver.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Starving Indigenous Peoples — Then & Now
Israeli Forces Kill 123 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours
How German media outlets helped pave the way for Israel’s murder of journalists in Gaza
Iran and Russia Vow to Block U.S. Caucasus Ambitions
Colombian Sen. Cepeda on Sentencing of Far-Right Ex-Pres. Uribe, U.S. Ally, Paramilitary Accomplice
"The Fort Bragg Cartel": Book Exposes U.S. Special Forces' Involvement in Drug Trafficking & Murder
Laura Loomer Predicts DEATH OF MAGA Post Trump
Zionist Shill Senator Fetterman CONFRONTED Over Supporting Genocide
A Little Night Music
Little Richard - Rip It Up
Little Richard - Keep A-Knockin'
Little Richard - Send Me Some Lovin'
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly
Little Richard - Taxi Blues
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin'
Little Richard - Ready Teddy
Little Richard - True, Fine Mama
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It
Comments
The world is holding it breath
waiting for the Alaska meet. Seems like anything could happen.
The next 24 hours are going to be really tense. Unless you are comfortably numb.
I need a beer.
Thanks for the EB.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
evening earthling...
i don't know. i don't really expect much to happen in alaska. my best guess is that trump will try to put a good face on it and push any action off to after a future meeting.
trump has been all over the map as to what he is aiming to do, mostly depending on who was the last person he talked to. on the other hand, the reason the meeting is happening at all is because trump got out over his skis and didn't want to have to impose the sanctions that he fulminated about (after 50 days, er, 12, er, august 8th). trump, i think realizes that he doesn't have any cards and needs to avoid hurting himself.
Fort Bragg Cartel
"The Fort Bragg Cartel": Author Seth Harp on Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces
This journalist is a brave soul. In the spirit of Gary Webb, and Michael Hastings.
It's already Gwangbokjeol (광복절), also known as National Liberation Day in South Korea. Now that it's more or less the 80th Anniversary of the end of WWII in Asia, there has been a lot of media focus on Japanese war crimes. Perhaps the largest Chinese contribution is a blockbuster movie, Dead to Rights, about the Nanjing massacre. There are a few short trailers on the youtube and a discussion or two. I won't embed the trailers, they are pretty disturbing to look at. They say it will be released at over a hundred theatres here in the US. The Japanese deny the atrocity occurred. This is a discussion with an American about the movie and a photo album he acquired and how it changed his life. They discuss Dead to Rights in the first half of this 15 min video. The second half is about the photo album with evidence of war crimes.
Truth keeper: The American who brought WWII's darkest evidence to light
This is long but a worthwhile comparison of "alternative energy" programs in China and the US. One only needs to read a few paragraphs to get the picture.
Trump Cedes the Energy Future to China
Caitlin's essay is the perfect response to the bs from the Hack a bees. Thanks for the line up today, and Little Richard.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
i sure hope that this guy comes to a better end than gary webb and michael hastings.
all the empires do their best to hide their genocidal actions, it's no surprise that japan wants to get in line with all the others (u.s., turkey, uk, israel, etc.).
trump is stupid and eager to support the fossil fools and throw the alt energy to the wind (so to speak) - his idea of where future profit is looks like it comes from a dodgy old-man brain.
Lots of speculation in the news....
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...about what to expect from the meeting tomorrow (Friday) between President Putin and President Trump regarding the Ukrainian Proxy War and other matters. I cut to the interviews and essays of Dmitry Orlov, who has covered this war from inside Russia. Orlov reminds readers that Russia is embodying the "Realist" position in debate on this conflict.
This means Russia’s narratives relies initially on the Facts on the Ground (common reality) — and it will not entertain paranoid speculations or delusional projections that sneak into the negotiations. Russia, of course, also continues to adheres to its original motives and objectives for the Special Military Operation (SMO) — which Russia presented in advance of its engagement in the proxy war. To summarize : Russia will not sacrifice its national sovereignty by allowing the Western-NATO-NAZI alliance — actively weaponizing the failed state of Ukraine in order to install NATO missiles on the outskirts Moscow — along the recently established Russian border with Ukraine (c.1997).
Western nuclear missiles that would likely be deployed in Ukraine would create an existential threat to the Russian civilization. People-Who-Can-Think will be immediately reminded of the Soviet nuclear missiles that were installed in Cuba in 1962 — to which the US vehemently objected. People-Who-Can-Think are aware that those Russian missiles were placed in Cuba as a retaliation for America’s aggressive installation of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey — pointed at Russia. The US removed its missiles, which ended the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Orlov advises Alaskan-summit observers to review the historical realities of the Cold War — and to set their hopes and fantasies about a cease fire a bit lower. He suggests that this summit may drift, and could instead lay the groundwork for new strategic weapons treaties that would limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons — treaties that the US allowed to expire after the "Little Pearl Harbor" cosplay that occurred on 9/11. The creation of sane nuclear weapons agreements would be a positive outcome for the entire world, says. Orlov.
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The Realist's view, of the US Proxy War in Ukraine is that there is a side that is winning, and it is not Trump's side. The Russians remain keenly aware of this — while the propagandized, misinformed Americans are off in the weeds and being hysterical about it.
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Russia has very specific tasks to achieve and complete in Ukraine, which includes Ukraine’s future neutrality and non-NATO stance as a nation. Another condition for serious negotiations is a commitment to the complete deNAZIfication of Ukraine. Russia has already lost millions of souls defeating the NAZIs 70 years ago. It does not intend to fight a war with tattooed NAZI streets fighters and NAZI fan-boy mercenaries, who inhabit Ukraine, at the moment. In addition Russia also insists on the involvement of the International Criminal Court with an investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed during this conflict.
There are several additional Russian conditions that must be met before the war can simply stop and negotiations can begin. Dmitry Orlov covers these in his reports.
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— Read Dmitry Orlov at https://boosty.to/cluborlov
evening pluto...
i don't really expect much to come of this meeting. nothing was done in advance, there are no agreements to finalize as you would expect when heads of state meet.
the only hope i see for some sort of climb-down by trump is if putin dazzles him with dreams of sugar plums in the form of business dealings and trade that would be possible if trump ends the proxy warring.
regarding the nuclear deals, i don't think that trump or his administration are really capable of understanding such a deal, much less creating and negotiating one. the best hope on that front is to make an agreement to make a deal and kick the can down the road until a more competent bunch of people takes over the u.s. government.
Orlov knows the US is unprepared for the summit
...because they have exhibited no thinking on the matter. Perhaps the US believes that Russia is on the ropes and secretly desperate to end the conflict. Delusion has been fueling much of this century, so far.
He asks:
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It's actually a very long essay, but ultimately he comes away like you. With no expectations. There is no "there" there. And the US is not participating in any known reality, yet.
Good evening, Joe, thank for the EBs. A little Little Richard
always gets the blood (and body) moving. The Z-man won't accept any result except what is essentially an Ukie victory, hence there can be o deal. He won't even accept any truce that prevents NATO from re-arming Ukiestan during said truce. All Drumpf has to do to save face it to point out those facts and say not Rus fault there's no deal and walk, if he has the brains to do so.
be well and 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...
yeah, there were a couple of times that i thought trump was ready to walk because the eurocrats and the ukronazis were not capable of recognizing the reality that faced them. i'm not sure that the neocons would let him get away with it though.
well, i guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.
have a good one!
Quite4 a few pundits are insisting
....that all of this noise is Trump demonstrating that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
He apparently made a call on Monday to the Nobel Committee asking if they have decided who gets the award yet — and what the deadline is for nominations. He apparently has no self-awareness.
A cogent conversation inspired by
.
....the Alaskan Summit. Dropped today.
thanks pluto...
i've gotten a ways into it, and it's quite good.
over at moa, there's a concise comment that's also worth a peek.
Some Thoughts On The Upcoming Summit
Actually, it was MOA that got me going
... on the Summit Quest. I am rather astonished how little is published in English explaining Russia's view in this matter.
Has the past three years of US reporting on this conflict actually been a fever dream of the US media convincing Readers and each other that Russia was being completely destroyed by Ukraine? Were US official sources reporting that Russia is on the brink of either collapse or surrender? Has Russia been confessing or admitting that it is out of bombs, and Russia's big secret is that the constant fighting has wiped out millions of Russian casualties? Has Russia been begging Communists everywhere to come to Russia and fight for communism?
I noticed there were people at MOA that seemed to believe this.
No wonder Russia was making a big deal about adhering to reality.
Good golly, joe!
Nothing from tomorrow's Big Beautiful Meeting will save soldiers' lives, but might be a band aid to get Trump that Nobel Peace Prize. Proof of his mental state is his completely insane fixation on the prize.
Great bunch of news items, and even a greater music offering, my friend! Much appreciated!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
trump does exert himself mightily in seeking legitimacy and praise. perhaps they ought to give the prize to him so that he can form a new group, "schoolyard bullies for peace."
have a great evening!