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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Andrew Odom

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues singer Andrew Odom. Enjoy!

^{Andrew "Voice" Odom – Take Me Back To East St Louis}

"Monopolies, oligarchy, the striving for domination and not for freedom, the exploitation of an increasing number of small or weak nations by a handful of the richest or most powerful nations—all these have given birth to those distinctive characteristics of imperialism which compel us to define it as parasitic or decaying capitalism."

-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

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News and Opinion

“It’s Not A Genocide” Is Not A Defensible Claim In The Year 2025

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This is the world’s largest association of genocide scholars, with around 500 experts on the subject including many Holocaust scholars. The consensus was reached by an overwhelming supermajority of the experts — 86 percent, to be exact.

Everyone needs to understand that “there is no genocide in Gaza” is not a claim that can be taken seriously in the year 2025. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN human rights experts, Israeli human rights groups like B’Tselem, and the overwhelming majority of genocide scholars all agree it’s a genocide. The debate is over. The hasbarists lost.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry is of course claiming that the IAGS assessment is “entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies.” That’s right folks, the genocide scholars are Hamas.

They’re just so unbelievably evil. Nobody who’s not a cartoon or CGI supervillain has any business being this evil. If you’re going to be this insanely evil you should be animated and cackling while twisting your curly mustache all the time.

Possibly the single dumbest thing we are asked to believe about Palestine is that every major human rights institution on earth is part of a secret antisemitic blood libel conspiracy. This genocide is one nonstop insult to our intelligence.

Israel: We're going to starve Gaza.

The west: Israel is starving Gaza!

Israel: It is antisemitic to say we are starving Gaza.

The west: Okay sorry.

Israel: We're going to starve Gaza some more. https://t.co/Hthd2yxa0f

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 1, 2025

GHF Whistleblower: IDF DISAPPEARING Starving Gazans

‘We are dying for no reason’: Israeli reservists face fresh call-up for a war dividing their nation

Tens of thousands of reservists in Israel will return to active service in the coming weeks amid an intense debate in their ranks over the war in Gaza, which reflects wider divisions in the country. Some will be forced to make their decision within days. The Israel Defense Forces began mobilising tens of thousands of reservists on Tuesday after calling up 60,000 for an expanded offensive in Gaza City, one of the few places in the devastated territory outside its control. More will be ordered to report to military bases if the fighting continues for many months, as analysts expect.

Many reservists interviewed by the Guardian last week said they would face “a hard choice” when asked to serve again, citing personal and ideological reasons. Few said they would refuse the call-up, however. “We are willing to give up our lives … but the obvious truth is that we are dying now for no reason,” said Aviad Yisraeli, a combat medic who was in Gaza last month. “Militarily, there is nothing more to gain … but then it also seems a bad choice to end this war with Hamas with some part of power in Gaza and [holding] some of the hostages and with the kibbutzim [in southern Israel] still vulnerable. So these are hard questions.”

Many oppose the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and want the war to end now to bring back hostages still held by Hamas. “I never trusted [this government] … Every time I’ve gone back to serve since March 2024, I’ve gone with a heavy heart,” said a 47-year-old paratrooper who has served 450 days since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 in which militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted 250. “So if I go, it will be out of commitment to my battalion – because it’s like family, and I feel a huge responsibility toward them.”

A poll in July found that three-quarters of Israelis favoured a deal to release the hostages and more than half said Netanyahu’s war leadership had been bad. ...

Polling last week showed that nearly three-quarters of Jewish Israelis partly or totally agreed with the claim made by Israel’s government that “there are no innocents in Gaza”.

Max Blumenthal : Eyewitness to IDF Nassar Hospital Killings

Five children in Gaza among those killed by Israeli strike while fetching water

At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said. A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.

The attack came shortly after the Israel Defense Forces encouraged people to leave Gaza City for al-Mawasi, before Israel’s looming invasion of Gaza City. The Israeli military has sought to displace people from the city before its offensive and has promised that southern Gaza would be able to accommodate them, despite experts disagreeing with the suggestion.

“We wish to remind you that in al-Mawasi, enhanced services will be provided with an emphasis on access to medical care, water and food,” the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Tuesday afternoon. Israel continued to push ahead with its operation and began the mobilisation of tens of thousands of reservists on Tuesday.

Already Israel has pushed into the western parts of Gaza City, levelling the once prosperous neighbourhood of Zeitoun and declaring the entire city a “dangerous combat zone” last week. It has intensified its strikes, claiming to have killed the spokesperson of Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida, in a strike on an apartment building in Gaza City on Saturday. The Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 76 people across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, Gaza health authorities said. ...

The city is already gripped by famine created by Israeli restrictions on aid entering Gaza, which experts say will worsen even in the absence of a military operation. Thirteen people, including three children, died from malnutrition on Tuesday, bringing the total number of people who have starved to death over the last 23 months to 361 – the majority of whom have died since July. ... Many residents of Gaza City have refused to leave, suspicious of what awaits them in southern Gaza after Israel has attacked so-called humanitarian zones in the past.

The REAL Reason Oct 7th Happened EXPOSED

We Must Stop Israel From Starving the People of Gaza—Here's How

Israel, with US complicity, is committing genocide in Gaza through the mass starvation of the population as well as direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel does the dirty work. The US Government funds it and provides diplomatic cover through its UN veto. Palantir, through “Lavendar,” provides the AI for efficient mass murder. Microsoft, through Azure cloud services, and Google and Amazon, through the “Nimbus” initiative, supply core tech infrastructure for the Israeli army.

This marks 21st-century war crimes as an Israel-US public-private partnership. Israel’s mass starvation of the people of Gaza has been confirmed by the United Nations, Amnesty International, The Red Cross, Save the Children, and many others. The Norwegian Refugee Council, along with 100 organizations, has been calling for an end to Israel’s weaponization of food relief. This is the first time that mass starvation has been officially confirmed in the Middle East.

The scale of the starvation is staggering. Israel is systematically depriving food to more than 2 million people. Over half a million Palestinians face catastrophic hunger and at least 132,000 children aged under five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition. The scale of the horror is thoroughly documented by Haaretz in a recent article entitled “Starvation is Everywhere.” Those who are able to somehow access food distribution sites are routinely fired on by the Israeli army.

As a former US ambassador to Israel has recently explained, the intention to starve the population has been present from the start. Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu recently declared, “there is no nation that feeds its enemies.” Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently stated, “whoever doesn't evacuate, don't let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want."

Yet despite these glaring declarations of genocide, US representatives at the UN repeatedly deny the facts and cover for Israel’s war crimes. The US alone vetoed Palestine’s admission to the UN in 2024. The US now denies visas to Palestinian leaders to come to the UN in September, yet another violation of international law.

The US has used its power and especially its veto in the UN Security Council to abet Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians and to block even the most basic humanitarian responses. The world is aghast but seems paralyzed before the Israel-US murder machine. Yet the world can act, even in the face of US intransigence. The US will stand naked and alone in its criminal complicity with Israel.

Let’s be clear. The overwhelming voice of humanity is on the side of the people of Palestine. Last December, 172 countries, with more than 90 percent of the world population, voted to support Palestine’s right to self-determination. Israel and the US were essentially isolated in their opposition. Similar overwhelming majorities are repeatedly expressed on behalf of Palestine and against the actions of Israel.

Israel’s thuggish government now counts solely on US support, but even that may not be there for long. Despite Trump’s intransigence and US government attempts to stifle pro-Palestinian voices, 58% of Americans want the UN to recognize the State of Palestine, compared to only 33% who do not. Moreover, 60% of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Here are practical steps that the world can take.

First, Türkiye has set the correct course by ending all economic, trade, shipping, and air links with Israel. Israel is currently a rogue state, and Türkiye is right to treat it as such until Israeli-created mass starvation ends, and a State of Palestine is admitted to the UN as the 194th member, with the borders of June 4, 1967. Other states should immediately follow Türkiye’s lead.

Second, all UN member states that have not yet done so should recognize the State of Palestine. So far, 147 countries recognize Palestine. Dozens more should do so at the UN Summit on Palestine on September 22, even over the vociferous objections of the United States government.

Third, the Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the UAE, should suspend their diplomatic relations with Israel until the Gaza siege ends and the State of Palestine is admitted to the UN.

Fourth, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of two-thirds present and voting, should suspend Israel from the UN General Assembly until it lifts its murderous siege on Gaza, based on the precedent of suspending South Africa during its Apartheid regime. The US has no veto in the UN General Assembly.

Fifth, UN member states should stop the export of all technology services that support the war, until the siege of Gaza ends and Palestine’s membership in the UN is adopted by the UN Security Council. Consumer companies such as Amazon and Microsoft that persist in aiding the Israel Defence Forces in the context of a genocide should face the wrath of consumers worldwide.

Sixth, the UN General Assembly should dispatch a UN Protection Force to Gaza and the West Bank. Typically, it would be the UN Security Council that mandates a protection force, but in this case, the US will block the Security Council with its veto. There is another way.

Under the "Uniting for Peace" mechanism, when the Security Council is deadlocked, the authority to act passes to the General Assembly. After a Security Council session and the almost inevitable US veto, the issue would be brought before the UNGA in a resumed 10th emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine conflict. There, the General Assembly can, by a two-thirds majority not subject to US veto, authorize a protection force in response to an urgent request from the State of Palestine. There is a precedent: in 1956, the General Assembly authorized the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) to enter Egypt and protect it from the ongoing invasion by Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.

At the invitation of Palestine, the protection force would enter Gaza to secure emergency humanitarian aid for the starving population. If Israel were to attack the UN protection force, the force would be authorized to defend itself and the Gazans. Whether Israel and the US would dare to fight a UNGA-mandated force protecting the starving Gazans remains to be seen.

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes—starving civilians to death and shooting them as they line up, emaciated, for food. There is no further line to cross, nor time to lose. The family of nations is being tested and summoned to action as it has not been in decades.

Lt. COL Karen Kwiatkowski : Hunger As a Weapon of War

Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi returns to Columbia University: ‘They have failed to silence me’

Just more than four months after being arrested, detained and nearly deported by the Trump administration for his activism, Mohsen Mahdawi, the 34-year-old Palestinian student and US permanent resident, returned to Columbia University on Tuesday and vowed to continue speaking out.

“They have failed to silence me, and in fact, now I am more outspoken than before, and I will continue to work for peace and justice. I do this work not for myself alone – I do this for the future of children, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis,” he told the Guardian on Tuesday in his first interview since stepping back on to campus to begin his graduate studies.

“I feel excited about this phase and I feel victorious that the government has failed to strip me from my education,” Mahdawi added.

Mahdawi, a prominent organizer of last year’s student protests at Columbia against Israel’s war in Gaza, is beginning a master’s degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (Sipa), where he said he would be focusing on international diplomacy and security, as well as “peacemaking, conflict resolution and negotiation”.

“My resistance is not to run away,” he said. “It’s easier to distance myself and go somewhere else, [but] I choose to be part of a solution, part of a resistance, and part of envisioning what the future would look like.”

Collective West sanctions, BRICS diplomacy w/ Jeffrey Sachs

Modi’s warm meeting with Xi shows impact of Trump’s ‘tariff tantrum’

They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another’s hands affectionately. Except this was no ordinary gathering of three men, but a meeting of three of the most powerful non-western leaders: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi. The overt displays of intimacy were widely regarded by observers as a telling message of defiance aimed at their western counterparts, in particular Donald Trump, who just a few days earlier had slapped India with 50% import tariffs, among the harshest of the US president’s trade penalties.

“India likes other great powers to know that New Delhi has options,” said Christopher Clary, an associate professor of political science at University at Albany, State University of New York. “One advantage of being in lots of clubs is you can make high-profile entrances to those clubs if you’re upset with how things are going in other relationships.” This was Modi’s first visit to China in seven years and the hostilities that had come to define the countries’ relationship in recent years were nowhere to be seen. Instead, as the Indian prime minister arrived in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, he received a far more effusive welcome from the Chinese premier than most guests were granted.

The leaders’ brotherly encounter in the city of Tianjin did not go unnoticed in the Oval Office. Hours after the meeting, Trump went on another tirade against India, calling trade with the country a “one-sided disaster”, while his trade adviser Peter Navarro said in a social media post: “It is a shame to see Modi getting in bed with Xi Jinping and Putin. I’m not sure what he’s thinking.” ...

The US, once seen as an unshakable ally to India, is now viewed in New Delhi as a turbulent, even hostile adversary. The double tariffs on India, which Trump announced without warning, appear to be a punishment after falling out with Modi, who refused to credit the US president with halting possible nuclear war between India and Pakistan in May. Particular umbrage was taken in New Delhi at Trump’s attempts to use tariffs to shape India’s policies. ...

“This meeting was a partial response to Trump’s tariff tantrum,” said Clary. “The core reality for India is that it does not have enough military capability to be confident of how an India-China fight would go. In this Trumpian world, India may not be able to find an outside ally that it can depend on and so it needs to make sure the India-China relationship is calm.” ... Even with the risk of infuriating its western allies, analysts emphasised India had a lot to gain from bettering ties with China. Much of India’s manufacturing, which Modi is trying to boost, is reliant on materials and rare earths from China. China, meanwhile, stands to gain economically if it regains access to India’s market.

Aaron Maté : UK’s Overseas Info War

US conducts ‘kinetic strike’ against drug boat from Venezuela, killing 11, Trump says

The US military has killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela during a “a kinetic strike” in the Caribbean Sea, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Trump trailed the announcement during an address at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters the US had “just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out … a drug-carrying boat”.

“And there’s more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country,” the US president added.

Later, Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to offer further details of the operation, which he said had taken place on Tuesday morning. “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United ​States,” he wrote, alongside footage of the attack.

Critics Allege White House 'Propaganda' After US Bombs Boat Off Venezuela Coast

Critics of US imperialism on Tuesday responded with skepticism after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a deadly military strike on what they claimed was a boat linked to a drug cartel off the coast of oil-rich Venezuela.

Trump said on his Truth Social network that 11 people were killed by a US attack in "international waters" on a boat "positively identified" as being used by the Tren de Aragua gang. Rubio said the "lethal strike" targeted "a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela."

On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last month, the president reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat drug cartels abroad, sparking fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US attacks, invasions, occupations, and other interventions since the issuance of the dubious Monroe Doctrine in 1823.

Trump has deployed numerous US warships and thousands of sailors and Marines off the coast of Venezuela, a country he has repeatedly threatened with regime change in the face of defiant anti-imperialist resistance from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

On Monday, Maduro responded to the US escalation during a press conference, telling reporters that he would declare a "republic in arms" in the event of any attack.

"In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela," he said, calling the US action "an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral, and absolutely criminal and bloody threat."

"Mr. President, Donald Trump," Maduro added, "watch out, because Mr. Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood."

Armed with the knowledge of more than a century of US meddling in Venezuelan affairs—a history that includes supporting coups and brutal dictatorships and policies of economic strangulation—anti-imperialist critics questioned the motives of Tuesday's attack.

"If Venezuela didn't have oil, none of this would happen," one user on the social media site X contended.

Another X user asked, "What happened to Trump campaigning on 'No New Wars?'"

"This has jack shit to do with America First," they added. "Venezuela is zero threat to us. Just another attempt to divert attention away the Epstein files which implicate the rich and powerful across every strata of society."

The independent news site Venezuelanalysis responded to Rubio's announcement in a social media post asking, "Fake propaganda underway?"

"Lil' Marco claims the US military conducted a 'lethal strike' against a drug vessel," the post added, using Trump's old nickname for Rubio. "How did they know it had drugs before striking?"

In an opinion piece published Tuesday by Venezuelanalysis, former Italian parliamentarian and organized crime expert Pino Arlacchi called the latest US aggression against Venezuela a "great hoax" and "geopolitics disguised as 'War on Drugs.'"

"This is not about drugs, crime, or national security," Arlacchi asserted. "It is about oil that the US would rather not pay for."

Judge ORDERS Trump To REFUND TARIFFS

Rising inequality is turning US into an autocratic state, billionaire warns

One of the world’s most prominent hedge fund billionaires has warned that rising inequality is turning the US into an autocratic state and condemned business leaders for failing to speak out against Donald Trump’s policies. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, said “gaps in wealth” and a collapse in trust were driving “more extreme” policies in the US.

Speaking to the Financial Times, the veteran financier said many western countries were affected by growing inequality, leading voters to turn increasingly to autocratic leaders. “I think that what is happening now politically and socially is analogous to what happened around the world in the 1930-40 period,” he said.

“Classically, increased wealth and value gaps lead to increased populism of the right and populism of the left and irreconcilable differences between them that can’t be resolved through the democratic process.

“So democracies weaken and more autocratic leadership increases as a large percentage of the population wants government leaders to get control of the system to make things work well for them.”

Concerns about a significant rise in borrowing by the US government were well founded, said Dalio, who has long predicted a reckoning for economies that allow debts to rise.

Col. Larry Wilkerson: The U.S. Is Falling Apart?! Shocking Warning Signs EVERYWHERE

Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps

US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.

The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government’s use of spyware, Wired reported at the time. That pause has now been lifted, according to public procurement documents, which list US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as the contracting agency.

It means that one of the most powerful stealth cyber-weapons ever created – which was produced outside the US – is now in the hands of an agency that has repeatedly been accused by civil and human rights groups of violating people’s due process rights. The story was first reported by the journalist Jack Poulson on his All-Source Intelligence Substack newsletter.

When it is successfully deployed against a target, the hacking software – called Graphite – can hack into any phone. By essentially taking control of the mobile phone, the user – in this case, Ice – can not only track an individual’s whereabouts, read their messages, look at their photographs, but also open and read information held on encrypted applications, like WhatsApp or Signal. Spyware like Graphite can also be used as a listening device, through the manipulation of the phone’s recorder. ...

John Scott-Railton, a senior research at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, who is one of the world’s leading experts on cases in which spyware like Graphite has been abused by governments, said in a statement that such tools “were designed for dictatorships, not democracies built on liberty and protection of individual rights”.

Does it Matter? Trump Keeps Losing on Immigration in the Courts

Trump illegally deployed national guard during LA Ice protests, judge rules

The Trump administration illegally deployed thousands of national guard troops in Los Angeles earlier this summer amid widespread protests against its immigration enforcement actions, a federal judged said on Tuesday. Judge Charles Breyer ruled in a case brought by the state of California that Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on raids.

In the order, set to take effect on 12 September, Breyer cited the president’s threats to send national guard troops to other cities across the country, “thus creating a national police force with the president as its chief”.

In a statement, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, praised the court’s ruling as a win for democracy and constitutional limits on presidential power, declaring: “No president is a king — not even Trump.” On social media, he marked the legal win with a Trumpian-style post: “DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN,” adding, “The courts agree – his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”

Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, dismissed the ruling as judicial overreach and accused a “rogue judge” of trying to “usurp” Trump’s authority to respond to unrest and violence in American cities. “President Trump saved Los Angeles, which was overrun by deranged leftist lunatics sowing mass chaos until he stepped in,” Kelly said in a statement, vowing the legal fight was not over. The administration was expected to appeal the decision.

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Newsom in June, arguing that troops sent to Los Angeles in June were violating a law prohibiting use of US military troops to participate in domestic law enforcement. At the time, Newsom called Trump’s actions an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”. Lawyers for Trump’s administration have argued the law in question – known as the Posse Comitatus Act, passed by Congress in 1878 – does not apply because the troops were protecting federal officers, not enforcing laws.

Epstein survivors say they're creating their own list to release

US House committee releases more than 33,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein files

The US House of Representatives oversight committee on Tuesday released thousands of pages of records related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from the department of justice. The release comes as the Trump administration has been embroiled in months of controversy over its decision not to release additional files in the case. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and was alleged to have abused hundreds of girls.

The 33,000 pages included years-old court filings related to Epstein and his former girlfriend and associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well as what appears to be body cam footage from police searches and police interviews. The files appear to contain information that is already public knowledge. The records were posted online as the Trump administration was facing renewed attention on the investigation into Epstein. With Congress back in session this week, both Democratic and Republican representatives had planned to hold press conferences to demand greater transparency from the administration in the case. ...

The White House has urged Republican lawmakers not to support a discharge petition from Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, which would force the release of all of the Epstein files. James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, said on Tuesday that there was no need for the discharge petition since the committee had subpoenaed the records. The question of how many of the files will be released by the committee remains unanswered. ...

The release appears to have done little to alleviate the controversy. Robert Garcia, the top Democratic representative on the House oversight committee, chided Republicans for releasing material that he said was almost entirely already available information. “The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American people – don’t let this fool you,” Garcia said in a statement.

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Is Israel/Gaza TEARING DEMS APART?

The Biggest Applause Line From Graham Platner's Labor Day Speech Was About Ending US Bombs in Gaza

Graham Platner, the Democratic hopeful in Maine looking to unseat US Sen. Susan Collins next year, received the largest applause of his Labor Day speech in Portland on Monday when he railed against the ill-spent taxpayer money used to support the Israeli genocide in Gaza—a sharp contrast with many in the party who have shied away from such direct criticism of Israeli's assault and the backing it receives from the US government.

Even as support for Israel's assault on Gaza has plummeted among US voters and Americans across the political spectrum have increasingly demanded an arms embargo on the country, a number of Democratic politicians have struggled to keep up with the electorate in recent weeks.

[https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-maine Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the conflict in Gaza that's killed more than 63,000 Palestinians and starved hundreds of people "complicated," while Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) last week accused a Jewish comedian of "justifying antisemitism" for noting that more than 80% of people killed by the Israel Defense Forces were civilians. Both responses garnered condemnation from Palestinian rights advocates and progressive commentators.

But on Monday—before a packed house of more than 6,500 in Portland—Platner took a much different approach.

"Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza," said Platner, leading the audience to stand up and applaud for a full 30 seconds.

Platner: Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/DwVzZZ7FoG

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 1, 2025

Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer who is challenging Collins—a vehement supporter of Israel—has previously spoken about Gaza in an interview for Zeteo, calling Israel's US-backed attack on the territory "the moral test of our time."

He repeated his message on social media Tuesday, saying: "It's not complicated: Not one more taxpayer dollar for genocide."

Platner was speaking at a rally hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as part of the senator's ongoing Fighting Oligarchy tour—a project that some establishment Democrats have claimed is out of touch with the views of Democratic voters even as Sanders has filled arenas in both red and blue districts across the country.

Rep. Elisa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has claimed the term "oligarchy" is unfamiliar to Americans, but the audience of a reported 6,500 people in Portland evidently didn't have trouble understanding Platner when he named oligarchy as "the enemy" of working Americans.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner: “I grew up in rural Maine and I did four tours in the infantry. And I am not afraid to name the enemy. The enemy is the oligarchy.” pic.twitter.com/JjQz4B1JWm

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) September 1, 2025

The line also garnered a standing ovation.

"I've been waiting my entire life," said journalist David Sirota, "for a politician other than Bernie Sanders to just say this."

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Trump team’s contentious climate report ‘makes a mockery of science’

A group of the US’s leading climate scientists have compiled a withering review of a controversial Trump administration report that downplays the risks of the climate crisis, finding that the document is biased, riddled with errors and fails basic scientific credibility.

More than 85 climate experts have contributed to a comprehensive 434-page report that excoriates a US Department of Energy (DOE) document written by five hand-picked fringe researchers that argues that global heating and its resulting consequences have been overstated.

The Trump administration report, released in July, contains “pervasive problems with misrepresentation and selective citation of the scientific literature, cherry-picking of data, and faulty or absent statistics”, states the new analysis, which is written in the style of the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

“This report makes a mockery of science,” said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University. “It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes and confirmation bias. This report makes it clear DOE has no interest in engaging with the scientific community.”

Hundreds of staff at California national parks to unionize amid Trump turmoil

Hundreds of staff at two of California’s most popular national parks have voted to unionize, a move that comes during a troubled summer for the National Park Service, which has seen the Trump administration enact unprecedented staff and budget cuts.

In an election held between July and August, more than 97% of workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon national parks voted in support of organizing a union, according to a statement from the National Federation of Federal Employees. The Federal Labor Relations Authority certified the results last week.

“I am honored to welcome the Interpretive Park Rangers, scientists, biologists, photographers, geographers, and so many other federal employees in essential roles at both Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon to our union,” said Randy Erwin, the NFFE national president. “By unionizing, hundreds of previously unrepresented employees have obtained a critical voice in their workplace and now have the power to make significant changes to benefit themselves and their colleagues.”

The vote means 600 workers at the parks, including park rangers, researchers, educators, fee collectors and first responders, among others, will be represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE).

Labor organizers have been trying to form a union at the parks for years but did not have the necessary support until this year when the Trump administration’s mass firings left the parks service in turmoil, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, shooting lava 330ft from its crater

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano resumed erupting on Tuesday, firing lava 330 ft (100 meters) into the sky from its summit crater. It’s the 32nd episode of the volcano releasing molten rock since December 2024, when its current eruption began. So far, all the lava from this eruption has been contained within the summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes national park.

Lava emerged from the north vent in Halemaʻumaʻu crater after midnight. The vent began shooting fountains of lava at 6.35am, the US Geological Survey said. By mid-morning, it was also erupting from the crater’s south vent and a third vent in between.

A lower magma chamber under Halemaʻumaʻu crater is receiving magma directly from the earth’s interior about 5 cubic yards (3.8 cubic meters) per second, said Ken Hon, the scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. This blows the chamber up like a balloon and forces magma into an upper chamber. From there, it gets pushed above ground through cracks. ...

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It’s located on Hawaii Island, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s about 200 miles (320 km) south of the state’s largest city, Honolulu, which is on Oahu.

This is the fourth time in 200 years that Kilauea has shot lava fountains into the air in repeated episodes. There were more episodes the last time Kilauea followed this pattern: the eruption that began in 1983 started with 44 sessions of shooting fountains. Those were spread out over three years, however. And the fountains emerged in a remote area so few got to watch. The other two occurred in 1959 and 1969.

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Also of Interest

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

The attack on Gaza City and the imperialist logic behind the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

The Chris Hedges Report: Israel’s War on the UN

Trump Says He’s Done a Lot for Israel, Including Bombing Iran

If You Understand Only One Thing About Chinese Government

Von der Leyen Is Lying About Russian GPS Interference

Trump Claims US Strike on Boat Near Venezuela Targeted Tren de Aragua Gang

Alarm after FBI arrests US army veteran for ‘conspiracy’ over protest against Ice

No Kings Movement Announces Next Day of Nationwide Actions for Oct 18

Global temperatures to remain above average despite return of La Niña, says UN

World’s biggest iceberg breaks up after 40 years: ‘Most don’t make it this far’

Archaeologists in Peru discover 3D mural that could date back 4,000 years

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A Little Night Music

Big Voice Odom - Mother-in-Law Blues

Big Voice Odom - Next Time You See Me

Big Voice Odom - I Made Up My Mind

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Mojo Workin

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Going To California

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Night Shift Lover

Andrew Big Voice Odom - Woke Up This Morning

Andrew Big Voice Odom - A memo blues

Andrew "Voice" Odom - Farther Up The Road

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