The Evening Blues - 8-26-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer and harmonica player Big Mama Thorton. Enjoy!
Big Mama Thornton - Let's Go Get Stoned
“We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut
News and Opinion
Those Who Condemn Hamas Lack Empathy And Humility
Whenever I see someone going out of their way to denounce the Palestinian resistance while expressing some vaguely pro-Palestine sentiment, I take it as an admission that they aren’t capable of basic human empathy. They look at October 7 and think “I can’t imagine myself doing that,” and conclude from this that the perpetrators of October 7 must be worse people than they are.
They stop their examination there. They never ask themselves what it would have been like to live the life of a young man who ended up joining Hamas. They never ask themselves what it would have been like to live one’s entire life in a giant concentration camp under the thumb a genocidal apartheid state which routinely murders and abuses your countrymen. They simply look at the actions of October 7 from the prism of their own experience as a comfortable western suburbanite on the other side of the world and think, “I would never conduct such an attack; I am much too virtuous and compassionate.”
No you’re just too comfortable and coddled, and you’re too much of an emotional infant to consciously put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Any one of us who lived their life in Gaza would have experienced the effects of the tyranny and abusiveness of the Israeli regime, and our worldview would have been shaped accordingly. You would come to hate those who hate you. If they were sufficiently abusive toward you and your loved ones, at some point you would probably experience the desire to return some of the violence your people have been receiving.
This would not make you a bad person. It would not mean that you are less moral or righteous than some white westerner sitting on their couch condemning Hamas on social media between mouthfuls of doritos. It would simply mean you were shaped by the conditions of your life, just like everyone else.
You can understand Israeli violence using the exact same empathy tools, by the way. Rather than viewing Israelis as innocent little victims responding defensively to unprovoked attacks by murderous savages, or doing the opposite and viewing Jewish people as an inherently wicked race, you can simply ask yourself what it would be like to grow up in an apartheid state whose existence depends on dehumanizing those who don’t belong to the group which that state empowers.
How would it shape you to be raised in a very young ethnostate which was dropped on top of a pre-existing civilization whose people never accepted that they ought to be displaced, deprived of basic rights, and live as a permanent lower caste just because they’re a different ethnicity? How would your mind and conscience be formed if you were indoctrinated from a very young age to believe there’s a perfectly good reason why you’re living a much better life than the people in that other group, and that the reason is because the other group is inherently inferior to yours? How would the formation of your worldview play out if you were always being told that you’re surrounded by mindless barbarians who want to kill you because of your religion and can only be brought to heel by brute force?
If you think you’d be any better than the average Israeli after such an upbringing, you’re fooling yourself. With a little empathy and humility you can understand that both the Israelis and the Palestinians are conditioned in different ways by the circumstances of their lives and the systems under which they live.
The existence of this inherently racist and tyrannical state shapes everyone who lives under it. The creation of a state which cannot be sustained without nonstop violence and abuse was always going to give rise to hatred, trauma and enmity. We were always headed for this point.
Between the Palestinians and the Israelis there is a very clear victim and a very clear victimizer, but that’s not because anyone involved is inherently evil. It’s egoically comfortable to sit on our high horse and see Virtuous Good Guys over here and Villainous Bad Guys over there, but real life doesn’t work that way. In real life, any of us could have been Hamas, and any of us could have been a genocidal IDF soldier. If you can’t see this, it’s because you lack empathy and humility. That’s a character flaw, and you should do what you can to change that about yourself.
As with so much else, it’s not about the individuals, it’s about the system. The unjust system upon which the Zionist state is based has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can never exist without nonstop violence and abuse, so that system needs to be dismantled and replaced with something radically different, just as was the case with Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. And just as was the case with Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, external pressures will probably need to play a role in forcing that change to take place.
That’s the only way forward. That’s the only way there can be peace.
Max Blumenthal : Trump’s Indifference to Journalist Murders
Israel bombed Gaza hospital a second time, killing rescuers, say health officials
Israel bombed the main hospital in southern Gaza on Monday and then struck the same spot again as rescuers and journalists rushed to help the wounded, killing at least 20 people including five journalists, health officials said. The first strike hit the top floor of a building at the Nasser hospital, killing the Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri and others. Journalists and rescuers then rushed to the scene to help the wounded, when a second bomb struck the same spot, 15 minutes later.
A live video from AlGhad TV captured the moments of their killings, showing civil defence workers wearing bright orange vests and journalists raising their hands to shield themselves seconds before the second bomb kills them. A second video showed the aftermath of the bombings, with the bodies of the first responders and journalists lying on top of one another, bloody and covered in dust.
The “double tap” strike and killing of journalists prompted a wave of international condemnation, including from the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy. “Horrified by Israel’s attack on Nasser hospital. Civilians, healthcare workers and journalists must be protected. We need an immediate ceasefire,” Lammy wrote on X.
The US president, Donald Trump, told reporters: “I’m not happy about it,” when asked about the attack, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described it as “intolerable”.
Israel Crocodile Tears OVER Killing Aid Workers, Journos
"Time to Cut Ties with Israel": U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese on Gaza Hospital Bombing
As has now become the norm for journalists working in Gaza, Mariam Abu Dagga prepared her will despite being just 33 years old. She left behind two sets of instructions: to her colleagues, do not cry at her funeral; to her 13-year-old son, Ghaith, make her proud.
Despite her instructions, Dagga’s colleagues could not help but weep over her body on Monday. She was killed by Israel, alongside four other journalists, while rushing to check on a colleague struck by Israel in al-Nasser hospital, where she had often reported throughout the war in Gaza.
“Mariam had left us instructions not to cry for her when we bid her farewell. She wanted us to spend time with her body, speak to her and take our fill of her before she left,” said Samaheer Farhan, a 21-year-old freelance journalist and close friend of Dagga. The 33-year-old photojournalist was an inspiring figure to Farhan and many other journalists in Gaza who admired her relentless reporting, despite the often deeply personal losses she suffered throughout the war.
Her rise to prominence as a journalist began with tragedy. She filmed the death of a protester who was shot during the 2018 Great March of Return in Gaza, where Israeli forces shot protesters marching towards the Gaza border fence, killing more than 220 people and wounding more than 9,200. She later discovered that the protester was her brother.
Dagga continued her work as a journalist during the war in Gaza over the last 22 months, working as a freelancer with the Associated Press and Independent Arabia. Independent Arabia said that she was the “example of dedication and professional commitment”, and praised her for carrying “her camera into the heart of the field, conveying the suffering of civilians and the voices of victims with rare honesty and courage”. Her photography and reporting highlighted the humanity of her subjects and focused on the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
AMB. Chas Freeman : When Israel Attacks Iran
Top Senate Dem Says Gaza Famine is a 'Shameful Black Mark on Humanity,' Admits Party Failed to Act
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday that Congress had failed to act to prevent starvation in Gaza, which she acknowledged was the fault of Israel's blockade on aid entering the strip.
On Friday, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared that an "entirely man-made" famine is taking place in Gaza—marking just the fifth time the notoriously cautious organization has declared a famine since it was established in 2004.
In reaction to this news, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) issued her most forceful condemnation of Israel's actions in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation, describing it as "a shameful black mark on humanity that the world has allowed this to happen and that Israel is allowing this to happen."
Shaheen, who was calling in from Amman, Jordan, after visiting the country's Humanitarian Assistance Program, said, "They are trying to get 150 trucks a day into Israel."
"Israel," the senator said, "has prevented those trucks from going in in a way that would provide the nutrition that Gazans need to prevent starvation."
According to the IPC report, a quarter of all Palestinians in Gaza–more than 500,000 people–are starving, with that number expected to rise to more than 640,000 by the end of September.
Rebuking claims from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office that famine designation was an antisemitic "blood libel," Shaheen said, "The reality is that we have people dying because they are systematically being starved to death because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive."
"Not only that," she said, "they've already started planning another incursion into Gaza in ways that are going to kill more people."
"This is not acceptable," she said. "The world needs to speak out."
The world, notably, has been speaking out against Israel's conduct in Gaza for well over a year as evidence mounted of its leaders' genocidal intent.
South Africa accused Israel of genocide in January 2024, citing statements by numerous top Israeli officials who expressed the goal of wiping out or displacing the people of Gaza entirely, often through the policy of intentional starvation.
The IPC, meanwhile, warned as early as December 2023 that Gaza faced a "very high risk of famine" unless access to humanitarian aid was improved immediately.
Shaheen, who has since said she will not seek reelection in 2026, was among the first wave of Democrats to publicly break with the mainstream party line on Gaza, saying that then-President Joe Biden was "too slow in pushing Netanyahu to come to a ceasefire," and voting to block weapons shipments to Israel. However, she did not voice these criticisms until December 2024, after Donald Trump had already been reelected.
It took until late last month—when starvation had become so widespread that one in five children in Gaza City faced malnutrition—for the majority of Senate Democrats to finally back a resolution to block more arms to Israel.
"We should be doing more, and we should have done more. Absolutely," Shaheen said Sunday. "Everybody should have said more sooner."
Mohammad Marandi: Yemen’s DEVASTATING Missile Retaliation Leaves Netanyahu on His Knees!
Zelensky Wants $1 Billion Per Month From NATO Countries To Buy US Weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he wants $1 billion per month from NATO countries to purchase US weapons, comments that come as a peace deal seems increasingly unlikely following the summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
NATO recently announced a new scheme under which member states commit to spending on US weapons to ship to Ukraine, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative. So far, about $2 billion has been committed to the effort in pledges from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Canada.
“Our goal is to fill this program with no less than $1 billion every month,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Ukraine. “We also discussed our domestic drone production and joint opportunities with partners. Investments now can help not only physically but also force Russia to end this war.”
EU Admits Anti-Russia Sanctions Failed, Places Hopes On US; Zaluzhny Plots Swirl; Nord Stream Arrest
Trump says he hopes to meet Kim Jong-un and raises prospect of US taking over some South Korean land
Donald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, possibly this year, in an attempt to revive the failed nuclear diplomacy of his first term as US president. “I’d like to have a meeting. I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un in the appropriate future,” Trump said during an occasionally awkward meeting at the Oval Office with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, in which he raised the prospect of taking ownership of South Korean land that hosts a US military base.
Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term, hailed his relationship with the totalitarian leader and said he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister” – a reference to Kim’s younger sibling and confidante Kim Yo-jong. “Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters, saying he hoped the talks would take place this year.
Lee said the US president, who has attempted to bring peace – so far unsuccessfully – to longstanding disputes in Ukraine and the Middle East, was the “only person” who could end the decades-old standoff between South and North Korea, whose three-year war in the early 1950s ended in a truce but not a peace treaty. ...
But there were ominous signs for Lee in the hours leading up to his meeting in Washington, after Trump criticised the South Korean government, apparently over its handling of investigations related to the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and removed from office after a botched attempt to impose martial law late last year. The US president posted on his Truth Social platform: “What is going on in South Korea? Seems like a purge or revolution. We can’t have that and do business there.”
The remarks cast a shadow over the high-stakes talks for Lee, although Trump later appeared to mellow after 40 minutes in which his South Korean counterpart heaped praise on the US president. Trump later rowed back on his post, saying, “I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding” as “there is a rumour going around”. ... The US president, who frequently accuses European allies of freeloading off the US, made clear he would press hard for a greater contribution from South Korea towards the cost of hosting the 28,500 US troops in the country. ... He suggested the US could seek to take over base land, an idea likely to enrage Lee’s allies on the left of South Korean politics.Trump said: “We spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea, but I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base.”
Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against individuals who burn American flags during protests.
The order tells the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to look at cases where people burned flags and see if they can be charged with other crimes like disturbing the peace or breaking environmental laws.
It’s an attempt by Trump to go around a supreme court decision from 1989, when the court ruled 5-4 in Texas v Johnson that destroying the flag is protected political expression under the first amendment.
That court ruling threw out flag-burning laws in 48 states and made it clear that people have the right to burn flags as a way to express their political views.
“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. ... Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself doesn’t include details about a potential jail sentence.
Trump administration to restore $6.8bn in education funds after multi-state suit
After a multi-state lawsuit over Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to freeze more than $6.8bn in education funding to US schools, the Trump administration has agreed to restore the funds for a range of educational services, including after school and summer learning, teacher training, and support for English-learners.
The administration did not give a clear explanation as to why it had withheld the congressionally-allocated funds, though a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget had indicated that review found instances of federal education money being “grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda”.
Following a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of California and 22 other states, as well as the governors of two states, the administration released some funding. On Monday, California attorney general Rob Bonta announced that the states secured an agreement to have the funding fully restored.
“The Trump administration upended school programs across the country when it recklessly withheld vital education funding just weeks before the school year was set to begin,” Bonta said. “Fortunately, after we filed our lawsuit, the Trump Administration backed down and released the funding it had previously withheld … Our kids deserve so much better than what this anti-education administration has to offer, and we will continue to fight to protect them from this president’s relentless attacks.”
In their lawsuit, states accused the administration of holding back money illegally, as the US constitution gives congress the rights to appropriate funding, and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 bars the president from unilaterally withholding funds designated by congress.
Republican-led committee subpoenas documents from Jeffrey Epstein estate
A Republican-led congressional committee has subpoenaed documents from the estate of the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to a release on Monday. The subpoena was signed by congressman James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee. The estate is registered in the US Virgin Islands. The letter demands that Epstein’s estate produce documents including a book that was compiled with notes from friends for his 50th birthday, his last will and testament, agreements he signed with prosecutors, his contacts, “Black Book”, any non-disclosure agreements, and his financial transactions and holdings. ...
Comer wrote to Epstein’s executors, attorneys Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, saying the committee “is reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them, and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials”.
Earlier this month, the committee issued a subpoena to the justice department for records on the Epstein case. About 33,000 pages were handed over last week but Democrats on the committee said many were already in the public domain. Additionally, the committee has issued deposition subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton, former attorney generals James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, William Barr and Jeff Sessions, among others.
Maxwell honored at Clinton event years after sexual abuse allegations emerged
Ghislaine Maxwell was honored by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2013, four years after sexual abuse accusations against her emerged – and two years after the former president Bill Clinton’s staff recommended banning her from official events, CNN has reported. Maxwell – who in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and related crimes – attended the CGI conference as a guest of merit, where she was applauded for her work on ocean conservation alongside other “Commitment to Action” leaders, according to the network.
Maxwell’s complimentary access to the conference indicated that her invitation was personally recommended by either Bill or Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, secretary of state and US senator, the outlet said. That is because a top Clinton aide, Doug Band, had instructed CGI staff to “remove Ghislaine, from all lists” for Clinton-related events, as CNN put it. The conference invite came four years after Jeffrey Epstein’s accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed in a 2009 lawsuit against Epstein that Maxwell had recruited and groomed her for – as well as participated in – her sexual abuse. And the claims had already surfaced in press reports.
In that same year, Maxwell was hit with a subpoena to testify in that suit as she was leaving a CGI event – and a year later attended the 2010 wedding of Chelsea Clinton. A representative for Clinton said more than 600 complimentary tickets were approved for the CGI conference in 2013. “The decisions on those comps were made, as they have been historically, at the staff level, which included the office of President Clinton,” they said. A spokesperson for the former president said that Maxwell’s appearance at the event “is about someone working on ocean conservation attending a charitable conference 12 years ago, along with thousands of other people, and nothing more”.
“As we have consistently said, the Clintons know nothing about Jeffrey Epstein’s terrible crimes,” the spokesperson added.
Judge halts Trump administration from deporting Kilmar Ábrego García for now
Kilmar Ábrego García – who has been thrust into the middle of an acrimonious deportation saga by the second Trump administration – has been detained after reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in Baltimore on Monday, but a judge later ruled that he cannot be deported for now. His detainment comes just three days after his release from criminal custody in Tennessee.
“The only reason he was taken into detention was to punish him,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney representing Ábrego, told a crowd of supporters outside a Baltimore Ice field office on Monday. “To punish him for exercising his constitutional rights.” The attorney also said his client filed a new lawsuit on Monday morning challenging his potential deportation to Uganda and his current confinement. Hours later, US district judge Paula Xinis issued a temporary halt to Ábrego’s possible deportation.
Xinis, who was appointed by former president Obama, told justice department lawyers that the government is “absolutely forbidden” from deporting Ábrego until she holds an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Friday. Xinis further instructed that Ábrego must remain at his detention center in Virginia. She then asked deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign whether her order was sufficient for the justice department to follow, which he agreed it was.
“Your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States,” Xinis told Ensign. The judge also raised concerns about accusations that the justice department attempted to pressure Ábrego by threatening deportation to Uganda if he did not plead guilty to human trafficking.
Bernie/AOC "Are Compromised, They are Class Traitors." Labor SILENT on Israel? (w/ Chris Smalls)
Pfffffftttt!!! You have to ask? Who writes these idiotic headlines?
Will the DNC End Their Complicity in Israeli Genocide or Double Down?
This week will go down in history as a time when the governing body of the Democratic Party had a chance to oppose the U.S. government’s arming of Israel. But with the first Democratic National Committee meeting in seven months getting underway on Monday, the DNC’s leadership is determined to derail a resolution calling for “an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel.”
Maneuvering to sidetrack that resolution, DNC Chair Ken Martin and all five vice chairs are sponsoring a counter-resolution that does little more than repeat the kind of hollow rhetoric that President Biden and Vice President Harris offered about Israel and Gaza last year.
Martin and the vice chairs “have aimed to blunt the power of the resolution on Gaza by introducing their own, watered-down resolution that stops far short of calling for an end to arms shipments to Israel,” my RootsAction colleague Sam Rosenthal points out. It’s an approach that helped to defeat the Democratic ticket last year, as polling clearly shows. Recycling it now is even more oblivious to the roar of public opinion.
But the half-dozen top DNC officers are eager to scuttle the arms-embargo resolution as fast as possible without having to vote on it themselves. If the Resolutions Committee rejects the resolution on Tuesday, as appears likely, it won’t get to the entire 448-member DNC for a vote.
That seems to explain the response from DNC Vice Chair Shasti Conrad a few days ago, when I asked whether she would cosponsor the arms-embargo resolution. “I haven’t decided,” she replied. “Will probably see how the [resolutions] committee votes and the discussion, and will make a real-time decision.” Waiting to “see how the committee votes” is a way to stall until the resolution is no longer on the table.
A different but no less evasive response came from the most powerful DNC vice chair, Jane Kleeb, who is also the president of the ASDC association of state party chairs (“the only national party organization focused exclusively on the current and future needs of State Democratic Parties”). When I asked Kleeb whether she supported, opposed or was neutral about the arms-embargo resolution, she would only say: “I've sponsored a resolution on Gaza with other officers. I hope everyone comes to the table with agreed upon joint language.”
Martin and his allies have already tried—and failed–to drastically weaken the arms-embargo resolution. Its sponsor is a new DNC member, Allison Minnerly, a 26-year-old youth organizer in Central Florida. On her way to Minneapolis for the meeting, Minnerly told me that—while she wasn’t closed to the possibility of accepting amendments to her resolution—it must “keep the core message.”
The resolution’s core message—“an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel”—is exactly what has provoked such strong opposition from the DNC leadership. In sharp contrast, the counter-resolution from party leaders doesn’t even slightly criticize Israel for its methodical large-scale killing of Palestinian people, now in its 23rd horrendous month.
Just days ago, the Guardian reported that “figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.”
The official estimate of the carnage in Gaza—60,000 direct deaths, including 18,500 children—is very likely a significant undercount. Meanwhile, by providing upwards of 69 percent of Israel’s arms imports, the United States has been making it all possible.
Chair Martin and three of the DNC vice chairs—Pennsylvania state representative Malcolm Kenyatta, attorney Reyna Walters-Morgan in North Carolina, and Nevada-based labor advocate Artie Blanco—did not respond to repeated requests for comment on whether or not they support the arms-embargo resolution.
Along with backing from all the vice chairs, Martin’s resolution got some outside help in the drafting process. “This resolution was crafted with the input of Democratic Majority for Israel, a group whose super PAC worked to oust former Representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush,” The Nation reports. Naturally, DMFI has put out a press release denouncing the arms-embargo resolution.
More than ever, on the subject of Israel and Palestinian people, it’s DNC leadership versus a huge majority of Democrats nationwide. One poll after another this year has found that—in the words of a headline over a Brookings analysis this month—“support for Israel continues to deteriorate, especially among Democrats and young people.”
A Gallup poll in July found that only 8 percent of Democrats said they approved of Israel’s military action in Gaza. That poll lines up with the conclusions from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other (including Israeli) human rights organizations that have reported Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Minnerly’s resolution for suspending military aid has gained notable support from young Democratic leaders.
Midway through last week, the president of the official College Democrats of America organization (who is also a DNC member), Sunjay Muralitharan, tweeted: “As the National President of @CollegeDems I'm proud to co-sponsor the DNC Resolution calling for an arms embargo and explicit recognition of a Palestinian State. Young Americans have made their voices clear. A modern Democratic Party must stand against global injustice.”
On Friday, the leader of the official group High School Democrats of America put out a similar statement. “As National Chair of @hsdems, I represent American youth in the Democratic Party,” Zayed Kadir tweeted. “That’s why I’m proud to co-sponsor a DNC Resolution demanding an Arms Embargo and recognition of Palestine. The youth voice is clear. Our party must stand against injustice—at home and abroad.”
The top of the DNC power structure has exerted pressure on Minnerly to dilute or withdraw her resolution, but she has refused to be intimidated. When we spoke over the weekend, her tone was measured, emphatic, and resolute. And in response to follow-up questions about her approach to organizing, she emphasized that “we don't wait for change: we create it. It isn't easy, but it's worth fighting for policies and ideals that represent you.”
Minnerly added: “The reality is that not many folks know that resolutions can relate to policy. This experience has taught me—and many watching from the sidelines—that even within the party structure there is the ability to work towards the future we want as Democrats.”
But the counter-resolution from DNC leaders shows that they are continuing to drift into a sealed-off political galaxy, very far from where Democrats actually are now in the United States. Consider the responses this month when the Economist/YouGov Poll asked Democrats this question: “Do you think that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians?” Here are the results: Yes, 65 percent. No, 8 percent. “Not sure,” 27 percent.
Those numbers show that, on the subject of Israel and Gaza, the DNC’s officers are guilty of political malpractice—and actively complicit with what most Democrats in the nation see as genocide.
At the same time, to put it mildly, the party can hardly afford to further alienate its base.
The New York Times has just published an in-depth analysis of voter registration data, with stunning conclusions: “The Democratic Party is hemorrhaging voters long before they even go to the polls. Of the 30 states that track voter registration by political party, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every single one between the 2020 and 2024 elections—and often by a lot. That four-year swing toward the Republicans adds up to 4.5 million voters, a deep political hole that could take years for Democrats to climb out from.”
The possibility that the Democratic Party will actually climb out of the “deep political hole” is especially remote because its leaders —not only DNC Chair Martin but also Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries—are functioning as if navigating politics in some bygone era. As apologists for Israel, they’re doing major damage to Democratic prospects for next year’s midterm elections or defeating the Republican ticket in 2028.
Meanwhile, Israel continues with mass killing and genocide made possible by the US government.
Dems EXISTENTIAL CRISIS With Voter Registration Collapse
Heatwaves are making people age faster
Repeated exposure to heatwaves is accelerating ageing in people, according to a study. The impact is broadly comparable with the damage smoking, alcohol use, poor diet or limited exercise can have on health, the researchers said. Extreme temperatures are increasingly common owing to the climate crisis, potentially causing widespread and long-lasting damage to the health of billions, the scientists warned.
The research represents a “paradigm shift” in the understanding of the extent and severity of heat’s impact on our health, which can be lifelong, according to one expert.
It was already known that heatwaves cause short-term spikes in early deaths with, for example, almost 600 premature deaths linked to a June heatwave in England. But the new analysis is one of the first to assess the longer-term impact.
The researchers followed 25,000 people in Taiwan for 15 years and compared their exposure to heatwaves with their biological age, a measure of overall health. They found, for example, that biological age increased by about nine days for people who experienced four more heatwave days over a two-year period. Manual workers, who tend to spend more time outside, were strongly affected, with their biological age increasing by 33 days. While the increase in biological age may seem quite small, the scientists noted that this was only over a two-year period. They are investigating the impact of heatwaves on ageing over people’s entire lifetimes.
The researchers also said that the total impact on populations around the world would be large, because everyone suffers during heatwaves, and higher biological age is a strong predictor of increased risk of death.
Fema staff warn Trump’s cuts risk exposing US to another Hurricane Katrina
Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) risk exposing the US to another Hurricane Katrina, staff at the agency have warned Congress in a withering critique that also takes aim at its current leadership. Writing in the run up to this week’s 20th anniversary of the devastating 2005 storm that killed 1,833 people and caused widespread destruction in New Orleans and the Gulf coast, more than 180 current and former Fema employees say the Trump administration’s policies are ignoring the mistakes that led to it.
The letter, sent to members of Congress and a council formed to examine the agency’s future, follows months of criticism of Fema from Trump and senior administration officials, who have threatened to close it, prompting more than 2,000 staff – about one-third of its permanent workforce – to depart, leaving it short of institutional expertise in key positions.
It comes after last month’s deadly flooding in Texas that left at least 135 – including 37 school children – dead. Experts said the death toll may have been inflated by the upheaval at Fema, claiming it diminished its capacity to respond quickly. The letter, entitled The Katrina Declaration, accused the Trump administration of disregarding the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act (PKERMA), passed in 2006 with the intention of absorbing the lessons of the disaster.
“Hurricane Katrina was not just a natural disaster, but a man-made one,” the signatories wrote. “The inexperience of senior leaders and the profound failure by the federal government to deliver timely, unified, and effective aid to those in need left survivors to fend for themselves. Two decades later, Fema is enacting processes and leadership structures that echo the conditions PKERMA was designed to prevent.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Ukraine - Zelenski Rejects Giving Land As Fascists Promise To Kill Him
Israel’s attack on hospital in Gaza may constitute a war crime on many fronts
Public Safety & Presidential Power
France has ‘no lessons to take’ from US on tackling antisemitism, says minister
The Chris Hedges Report: When Religious Mafia & Rightwing Extremists Take Over
French prime minister to face potential ousting in high-stakes confidence vote
Trump casts home-town shadow as he weighs role in New York mayor’s race
Burner phones, wiped socials: the extreme precautions for visitors to Trump’s America
Gaza journalist believed she would be killed ‘today or tomorrow’
Kyle Anzalone : Why Progressives and Libertarians Agree
The Zionist Takeover Of Cyprus
Iran builds up air defenses for future conflict
Corporate Vultures Are SNAPPING UP Public Utilities & Electric Bills To SKYROCKET!
Breaking Points ATTACKED By Pro Israel Outlet
A Little Night Music
Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Big Mama Thornton - Ball and Chain
Big Mama Thornton - I'm Feeling Alright
Big Mama Thornton - Little Red Rooster
Big Mama Thornton - Rollin' Stone
Aretha Franklin & Big Mama Thornton - Nobody Knows You When You're Down
Big Mama Thornton - I smell a rat
Big Mama Thornton - Ain't Nothin' You Can Do
Big Mama Thornton - Eugene Oregon 1971
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Trump repeated a number of errors at the summit
I guess one could blame Trump for "failed" nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, but it's only fair to say that John Bolton and Mike Pompeo intentionally drove the negotiations off the rails. This was the second time Bolton sabotaged nuclear negotiations.
Trump made other mistakes and misrepresentations. The US does not pay for construction at its military facilities in South Korea. For example, South Korea paid approximately 10 billion dollars to construct the largest US overseas military base at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. The US is basically a tenant at South Korean military bases. It pays no rent, and never did. This is why the reference to South Korea paying its fair share for the US Forces is nonsense. There are 28,500 US troops in South Korea, not "over 40,000" which is an error Trump has made so often in the past during his first term, at this point it appears intentional. South Korea also provides civilian personnel support to US active duty forces, and also ROK Army KATUSA soldiers to act as interpreters and guides to US military units.
ROK payments under the terms of the SOFA were increased to 1.19 billion a year with inflation adjustments allowed up to 5 percent max. The new 5 year SMA term with the Biden admin, was concluded a year early to avoid Trump's extortionate demands for 5 billion a year.
"Ominous signs for Lee.." The truth is that Lee signaled in public statements prior to the summit that he would play a cooperative role with the US and Japan while emphasizing the common interests in economic and North Korean security issues. He played to Trump's self image, and was completely composed the entire time. From the first moment at the entrance to the White House, Trump was very courteous. I noticed throughout that he never did the hand crush/dominance move on Lee and must have been aware of Lee's handicap. That's why Trump commented at the guest book signing "that chair is heavy" and pulled it out for Lee.
When Trump raised the far right canards about the search of US military facilities at Osan and other searches of religious organizations, Lee explained he doesn't control the investigations. Trump walked it back right away and said we can talk about that later, "it may be a misunderstanding."
The summit went about as well as it could go, and the fact that it opened at least a possibility of reduced tensions with North Korea, was a plus.
Thanks for posting the Guardian article, Joe.
When I watched the Fox channel coverage of the summit yesterday to refresh my memory, I was somewhat shocked by the racist and vehement far right rhetoric in the comments posted against Lee, calling for the restoration of Yoon's freedom etc. It was almost exclusively of this nature, I'm thinking the comments are an intel op. Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court, not Lee. Lee was elected in a free election afterwards. It wasn't a fraudulent election and the Chinese didn't interfere.
Yes, there is going to be a perp walk of all the US friendly corrupt politicians, prosecutors and other South Korean government officials who supported Yoon's coup attempt, his corruption and that of his wife. TK of the Blue Roof pointed out something interesting in his newsletter this week saying that cash found in connection with search warrants on "Master" Geon-jin's property was a 50 million won Central bank of Korea wrapped and sealed bundle (about 36 thousand dollars US). The seal which shows the custody chain, authenticity and value of the bundle, was removed, in an effort to conceal the source. This means the source had to be a government agency of some kind with access to Central Bank cash bundles. Geon-jin's temple had a secret chamber dedicated to the Japanese Sun God, Amaterasu, indicating the shaman's pro-Japanese bias. Yoon and Kim had a number of shamans.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
heh, i guess i had zero expectations of success from trump's nuclear negotiations with north korea, especially considering the infestation of neocons in his administration.
as you point out, trumps grasp of facts reflects his inattention to important details and preparation before a diplomatic event. it seems to me that putin did well this time because he understood that trump is an untutored moron and that there's nobody in his cabinet of yes men that can fix that.
thanks for reading the guardian article and pointing out the deficiencies and fine points, it helps those of us in the cheap seats.
have a good one!
I thought of a bad joke
Trump: Sometimes you gotta walk.
Kim Jong-eun: All the way to Kursk.
Trump: I know Kim better than anyone except his sister.
Kim Jong-eun: That's disgusting, I have a wife and a mistress.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks
for the Judge Nap/ Freeman interview clip. Also the tunes were great as usual.
The Dore clip was shocking because TPTB do treat it like a Monopoly game. I'm certainly glad I have a public utility supplying my power. Knock on wood.
Incidentally, my recent electric bill showed a rate of $.0703 per kWh. and it's 94% renewable sourced.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
evening earthling...
yep, i hope peoples eyes get opened to the cause of their energy bills going up. there must be some way of keeping billionaires from pushing up the cost of electricity for regular folks by dramatically increasing demand for their stupid ai crap. they should be forced to pay for the creation of their own separate energy supply system for their data centers.
Hey, joe!
I will write in Chris Smalls for President next time.
An Enron VP lives on a 200 acre ranch about 2 miles from us. His home on the hill is 12,000 sq. ft.
His barn is 2-story, every worker on the place is an illegal migrant from Mexico. But then, the dude across the road from him on his 88 acre commercial tree farm has a huge hidden home, and a tiny double wide mobile home with 3 illegal Mexican families taking care of it for cheap. Those darn capitalist know what they are doing!
Have a great evening, joe, and thanks for the ebs, dear friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
heh, we could (and undoubtedly will) do much worse than chris smalls as president. i'd write him in, too, but becoming president now seems more like a curse than an accomplishment.
12,000 square feet? Is it an airplane hangar or a house?
have a good one!
China Decoupled from the US Today
.
In energy and elsewhere.
evening pluto...
oops! did trump cause a business boo-boo?