The Evening Blues - 10-1-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features gospel and blues singer Roebuck "Pops" Staples. Enjoy!
Pops Staples - Down In Mississippi
"It’s silly how people call it “the Holy Land”. If the land was holy it would have turned Israelis into decent people."
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
The Trumpanyahu administration is pushing a “peace plan” for Gaza which critics are saying would damn Palestinians to permanent subjugation under the thumb of Israel. The proposed plan would see Gaza supervised by Trump and by war criminal Tony Blair, and Netanyahu is already saying that the deal will allow the IDF to remain in the Palestinian territory indefinitely.
The last time the US brokered a “peace plan” between Israel and Hamas, the US and Israel torched it in a few weeks, laid siege to the enclave, and announced a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. So even without all the major problems with the offer, there’s not going to be a whole lot of enthusiasm about it.
I’m seeing a lot of purportedly pro-Palestine voices proclaiming that Hamas needs to accept the deal in order to end the genocide. I personally will never tell Palestinians what they should do to address their abuse at the hands of the empire or what deals they should accept. My job as a westerner is to oppose the western empire that is butchering them, not to finger-wag and moralize at the empire’s victims.
The onus is on the party committing genocide to stop committing genocide. The onus is not on the victims of the genocide to sign agreements in the hope of saving themselves from the genocide. This is obvious to anyone who isn’t a psychopath.
Well there you have it. Usually we have to wait more than a few hours before confirmation that the Israelis were lying about ceasefire negotiations. https://t.co/ItvifFgyS6
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 30, 2025
Col Doug Macgregor: U.S. Prepares for War
Prof. Jeff Sachs : Netanyahu Undermines Trump's Gaza Deal
Netanyahu pledges to violate Gaza “peace” plan just hours after its announcement
On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced a proposed “peace” agreement between Israel and Hamas that was hailed in the US media as a major breakthrough. The New York Times promoted it in an editorial as a “promising” agreement that “contains the pillars of a just ceasefire, including an end to military attacks, the return of all hostages, and a Gaza free of Israeli occupation and Hamas governance.”
Despite the media cheerleading, the “peace” proposal was quickly exposed as a ridiculous fraud by the Israeli government. After having just stated his agreement to a document that states that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza,” Netanyahu published a video in Hebrew on Monday declaring that Israel would continue to occupy the Gaza Strip. Responding to calls for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu proclaimed, “No way, that’s not happening.” Netanyahu said that Trump had stated that if “Hamas refuses [the agreement], he will give Israel full backing to complete the military operation and eliminate them.” Netanyahu reiterated that he will “not agree” to a Palestinian state, even though the US-Israeli “peace” plan calls for a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
Netanyahu’s remarks make clear the true content of the peace agreement. It is intended to allow the US media to claim that the US and Israeli governments are seeking “peace,” while placing the onus on Hamas for rejecting a US-Israeli peace plan. This, in turn, would create the most favorable conditions for the US-Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who makes it a habit of openly stating the actual policy of the Israeli government, said the “peace” agreement would not be implemented because “the enemy’s obstinacy will once again save us from ourselves”—implying that Hamas could not accept the proposal. ...
The plan is designed to be rejected in order to clear the way for the actual US-Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse and annex Gaza, which has been the modus operandi of the Netanyahu government since the start of the onslaught on Gaza. As a comment in the Wall Street Journal summed it up, “As long as they are unable to close the deal, Netanyahu is better placed to fend off further international condemnation if he continues to fight. Very little may change on the ground.” Yaakov Katz, a fellow at the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute, told the Wall Street Journal, “It makes all the criticism of [Netanyahu] no longer relevant because Israel is saying we’re willing to end the war, we’re aligned with America and every Arab country.”
A particularly foul role is being played by bourgeois nationalist governments in the Middle East and the broader region, including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which endorsed the deal and agreed to implement it.
Israel BRIBES Influencers With 7K DOLLARS Per Post
Charlie Kirk Told Netanyahu: “Do Your Own Propaganda!” - w/ Max Blumenthal
Trump gives Hamas ‘three or four days’ to respond to his peace plan for Gaza
Donald Trump has given Hamas an ultimatum of “three or four days” to respond to his proposed peace and reconstruction plan in Gaza, warning the militant group would “pay in hell” if it rejects the deal, as the Israeli offensive continued, inflicting further civilian casualties.
Trump’s proposal was announced in a joint press conference in Washington with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and seeks a definitive end to the relentless two-year-long war. At least 31 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Tuesday, local hospitals said.
Asked how long Hamas had to respond, Trump said on Tuesday: “We’re going to do about three or four days.” He later warned that Hamas would face severe consequences if they refused.
“We have one signature that we need, and that signature will pay in hell if they don’t sign,” Trump told US generals and admirals gathered at a military base in Quantico, Virginia. The president has already made clear that he would support Israel continuing the war if Hamas rejects the proposal, or reneges on the deal at any stage.
Hamas has not issued its response, with its officials only saying they are reviewing the proposal, which will be discussed internally and with allied Palestinian armed factions. A Hamas source told Agence France-Presse that the group had “begun a series of consultations within its political and military leaderships, both inside Palestine and abroad”, which would “take several days due to the complexities of communication among leadership members and movements”.
Israel-backed militia groups potentially threaten new peace plan for Gaza
Armed militia and gangs supported by Israel are seizing control of parts of Gaza, exacerbating its humanitarian crisis and potentially threatening any efforts to bring order if Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza takes hold. The Israeli military and security services have for several months been arming and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy appears to have gathered momentum in recent weeks.
The so-called Popular Forces under a commander called Yasser abu Shabab have been operating in the south of the territory for several months, coordinating closely with Israeli forces around controversial aid distributions sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an opaque US- and Israel-backed private organisation. Now up to a dozen new militias have emerged across much of Gaza, in addition to the Popular Forces. ...
The proliferation of armed militias in Gaza is causing further problems for aid organisations already struggling with Israeli restrictions and massive logistic obstacles. ... Many such armed groups have a record of looting aid or extorting protection payments from humanitarian organisations as well as from other Palestinians living in Gaza.
In a recent report, the independent conflict monitor Acled said that since October 2023, it had recorded more than 220 “intra-Palestinian violent incidents that have resulted in the deaths of around 400 Palestinians”. Victims included police officers, clan and gang leaders, thieves, anti-Hamas activists, individuals accused of collaborating with Israel and merchants accused of profiteering, Acled said.
“Looting of aid, theft, and violent activity by gangs, clans, and armed groups have become widespread,” the report noted, adding that nearly 70% of such incidents occurred after a two-month ceasefire was broken by Israel in March 2025.
Total deaths from malnutrition have reached 453, of which 150 are children — the result of Israel and the U.S.’ systematic weaponisation of food and aid https://t.co/9NUfzFLoTl
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 30, 2025
Interesting article, worth a click and a full read:
The Greater Israel Cult & the US Alliance
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recently asked on Israeli i24 TV whether he supported the idea of a Greater Israel — the biblical land that God purportedly promised to the Jewish people encompassing a major portion of the Middle East — he replied “very much.” While the interview went virtually unnoticed in the Western media it attracted wide condemnation throughout the Arab world. Jordan called it “a dangerous and provocative escalation,” Qatar said it was “arrogant and destabilising” and the Arab League declared it was “blatant violation of Arab sovereignty.”
The Zionist vision of a Greater Israel has remained mostly unspoken by Israel’s leaders because they want to maintain the fiction that Israel’s control over the occupied territories is strictly for security purposes. But Netanyahu let the cat out of the bag. His comment is a bold assertion that Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank are just the first stages of an expansionist Greater Israel vision.
Far from sitting on the sidelines, the U.S. is a full partner in this project that aligns with their objectives in the region. The idea that Netanyahu has a pliant U.S. President Trump (and Biden before him) wound around his little finger is strictly political theatre and a convenient cover for American ambitions. The U.S. has always called the shots and, if anything, Israel is a useful proxy to further American economic and strategic interests in the region which includes tacit support for Greater Israel.
The Old Testament defines Greater Israel (Eretz Yisrael) as the land promised four thousand years ago by God to Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people. In the book of Genesis and elsewhere, this God-given inheritance encompasses the vast swath of land from the Nile River in Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River in Iraq and Syria. It includes all of historic Palestine, most of Lebanon and Syria, Trans Jordan and large parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
The Greater Israel cult has been a fundamental Zionist project from the outset. Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wrote in his diaries that Eretz Yisrael not only included areas within Palestine but the totality of the land stretching from “the brook of Egypt [the Nile] to the Euphrates.” ... The idea was fervently embraced by far-right Revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky, head of the violent terrorist Irgun militia, who in 1923 wrote that Zionist colonisation “can proceed and develop only under the protection of an iron wall [guns and bayonets], which the native population cannot breach.” ... Israel’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion only accepted partition as a stepping stone to a Greater Israel.
WALLS CLOSING IN ON ISRAEL: Global Sumud Flotilla Approaches Gaza | Patrick Henningsen
Italy to end support for international Gaza flotilla as it nears destination
Italy has said it will stop tracking an international flotilla attempting to deliver aid to Gaza with a military vessel, as activists on board announced they were on “high alert” as they moved closed to their destination. The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of more than 40 civilian boats with over 500 people including parliamentarians, lawyers and Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, aims to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Once the convoy got within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of Gaza’s shoreline, the Italian frigate accompanying was set to stop, the Italian defence ministry said in a statement, adding that it expected it to happen at around midnight GMT. Italy has urged flotilla members to accept a compromise proposal to drop aid in a Cyprus port and avoid a confrontation with Israeli forces. Flotilla representatives have refused the offer.
“We say again: the flotilla sails onwards. The Italian navy will not derail this mission. The humanitarian demand to break the blockade cannot be walked back to port,” the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement.
Italy and Spain deployed navy vessels last week to assist the flotilla, after it was hit by drones armed with stun grenades and irritants in international waters off Greece, but without any intention to engage militarily.
Max Blumenthal: Charlie Kirk BOMBSHELL Revelation | Middle East Faces Total COLLAPSE
Mahmoud Khalil Responds to Court Ruling Against Trump in Landmark Free Speech Case
Judge issues blistering opinion against Trump policy to deport pro-Palestinian students
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s policy to detain and deport foreign scholars over their pro-Palestinian views violates the US constitution and was designed to “intentionally” chill free speech rights. The case was brought by the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP); its Harvard, Rutgers and New York University chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association (Mesa), following the arrest and detention of several non-citizen students and scholars who have spoken out for Palestinian rights.
In a 161-page ruling issued on Tuesday, the judge, William G Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, called the case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court”.
“This case … squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” Young wrote in the ruling. “The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do’.
“‘No law’ means ‘no law’,” Young continued – a reference to the first amendment’s stipulation that Congress “shall make no law” abridging the freedom of speech. “No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike.”
Farmers RAGE At Trump Argentina Bailout BETRAYAL
‘Deeply Un-American’: Trump Tells Generals to Use US Cities as Military ‘Training Grounds’
President Donald Trump told hundreds of senior military commanders Tuesday that the country is “under invasion from within” and that they should use American cities as “training grounds” to target domestic “enemies”—remarks that drew warnings of encroaching fascism as the president expands his invasion and occupation of US communities.
Speaking to nearly 800 US generals and admirals stationed around the world who were summoned to Quantico, Virginia by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for a highly unusual assembly, Trump told military leaders they would be used against the American people.
“They’re vicious people that we have to fight,” the president said, referring in this case to critical journalists, whom he called “sleazebags.”
“Just like you have to fight vicious people, mine are a different kind of vicious,” he added.
Trump then said that cities “run by the radical left Democrats... San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles” are “very unsafe places, and we’re gonna straighten them out one by one.”
“And this is gonna be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he continued. “This is a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Referring to Hegseth, Trump said, “and I told Pete, “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
Trump is admitting that he’s going to use the US military, on US soil, against US citizens — calling those who protest him and stand up against his attacks on our communities and democracy the “enemy from within.”
Whether you agree with the term is irrelevant.
This is fascism. https://t.co/abEAoFfZrq
— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) September 30, 2025
Responding to this, Naureen Shah, director of government affairs at the ACLU’s Equality Division, told Common Dreams that when Trump said “the enemy within,” he meant “those who disagree with him.”
“We don’t need to spell out how dangerous the president’s message is, but here goes: Military troops must not police us, let alone be used as a tool to suppress the president’s critics,” Shah said. “In cities across the country, the president’s federal deployments are already creating conflict where there is none and instilling profound fear in people who are simply trying to live their lives and exercise their constitutional rights. Our country and democracy deserve far better than this.”
Trump also said during his Tuesday speech that “only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia while America is under invasion from within,” a false assertion given centuries of US imperialism and colonization, first in the Americas and then around the globe.
“We’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms—at least when they’re wearing a uniform you can take them out; these people don’t have uniforms,” Trump said. “But we are under invasion from within; we’re stopping it very quickly.”
He then turned his attention to “radical left lunatics, that are brilliant people but dumb as hell when it comes to common sense,” falsely accusing the previous administration of opening US borders to Venezuelans after that country’s government “emptied its prison population into our country.”
In another lie, Trump said that “Washington, DC was the most unsafe, the most dangerous city in the United States of America, and to a large extent, beyond.”
The president claimed that “we took out 1,700 career criminals” during his recently launched takeover of DC—almost certainly another false statement given that more than 80% of arrests made in the capital were for misdemeanor offenses, many of them immigration-related.
Trump said US troops are “following in a great and storied military tradition” of presidents who have deployed military forces against “domestic” enemies.
“Today, I want to thank every service member from general to private who’s helped secure the nation’s capital and make America safe for the American people,” he said, adding in another blatant lie that “we haven’t had a crime in Washington in so long.”
“We’re going into Chicago very soon,” he said, although Operation Midway Blitz is already underway in the city.
“How about Portland?” he asked, adding in a comment utterly divorced from reality that the laconic Oregon city “looks like a war zone.”
Trump ordered troops to invade Portland despite the city ranking 72nd in violent crime in the US, according to FBI data.
In an apparent moment of doubt, Trump asked during a Sunday NBC News interview, “Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening?”
Recounting how Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek asked Trump to not deploy federal forces to Portland, Trump said during Tuesday’s speech that “unless they’re playing false tapes, this looked like World War II. Your place is burning down.”
Amid small-scale protests in Portland over Trump’s authoritarian Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown, Fox News aired a report conflating video footage from 2020 protests against the police murder of George Floyd with the recent images. Anti-ICE protesters have burned an American flag and set small street fires in Portland, but no structures have been burned down.
Trump also said that any anti-ICE protesters who throw objects at federal vehicles or agents can be met with unlimited force.
“You get out of that car, and you can do whatever the hell you want to do,” the president said.
Critics swiftly pushed back on Trump’s suggestion of using American cities as military “training grounds.”
Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Marine Corps combat veteran who served multiple tours during the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, said on the social media site X that “today’s speeches by Trump and Hegseth were weak portrayals of ‘leadership’ by two small, insecure men.”
“US cities should never be ‘training grounds’ for the military,” Moulton added. “There is no ‘enemy from within.’ The reputational and operational damage being done to our military will take years to undo.”
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State said on social media, “This is authoritarian, unconstitutional, and a direct threat to our democracy.”
Chris Rilling, a former senior official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said on
“Trump should be impeached for this statement alone. Period.”
Some legal experts noted that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
Leaders of the Not Above the Law Coalition—which includes progressive groups such as Public Citizen, MoveOn, and Stand Up America—called Trump’s remarks “deeply un-American.”
“This dangerous rhetoric delivered during an unprecedented gathering reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of our military’s purpose and the people it serves,” the coalition co-chairs said. “Make no mistake: This isn’t about public safety—it’s about turning our own military into a force to be used against Trump’s perceived political opponents or anyone who questions his administration.”
“Americans cannot stay silent when our leaders express plans to use our military against us,” they added. “We must reject any attempt to normalize this outrageous and unlawful directive.”
Observers abroad also expressed shock at Trump’s remarks.
“In Trump’s speech today, Trump mentioned something very dangerous: using US cities (Democrat-run, I bet) as US troops training ground,” said José Antonio Salcedo, a professor at University of Porto in Portugal. “This is definitely contrary to the US Constitution.”
“It comes right out of the fascism playbook that Project 2025 and its fringe lunatic authors have been advocating and planning,” he added. “Wake up, people, the US is fast approaching a point of no return.”
US on brink of government shutdown after Senate rejects funding plans
The US government is on the brink of a shutdown after the Senate on Tuesday rejected competing plans to extend funding beyond midnight. Senate Democrats blocked legislation put forward by the Republican majority to fund the government through 21 November, while Republicans united to stop a separate Democratic-backed measure that would have extended healthcare benefits and other priorities. Both proposals failed to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the chamber.
“Far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted to show down with the president, and so Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests,” Senate majority leader John Thune said after the vote. The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, accused the GOP of refusing to negotiate with them on his party’s demands, which center on an extension of tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans and a reversal of cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans. “Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s healthcare,” he said.
The White House has threatened to fire federal workers en masse if the government shuts down. “When you shut it down, you have to do layoffs, so we’d be laying off a lot of people,” Donald Trump said earlier in the day, adding: “They’re going to be Democrats.” ...
Democrats who broke with their party indicated they did so out of concern for what the Trump administration might do when the government shuts down. Federal law gives agencies and departments some leeway in determining which operations continue when funding lapses.
Shutdown a chance to ‘get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want’, says president
Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for stalled talks that have made a US government shut down all but certain, and has threatened to punish the party and its voters during any stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts. ...
“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump said at an earlier White House event. The president added that a “lot of good can come down from shutdowns” and suggested he would use the pause to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things”. ...
Several US federal agencies on Tuesday began blaming Democrats for an impending government shutdown, in a move that experts say appears to violate the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of government employees.
Some agencies reportedly sent emails to employees on Tuesday afternoon, while others posted public statements faulting Democrats, the “radical left” and “radical liberals in Congress” for a potential government shutdown at midnight.
FCC chair claims he never threatened TV networks over Jimmy Kimmel
Brendan Carr, the tough-talking, pro-Trump chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), claimed on Tuesday that Democrats and the media had “misrepresented” critical comments he made about Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talkshow.
Television conglomerates including Nexstar and Sinclair opted to pull the show for “business” reasons, Carr argued, not because of anything he said.
“There was no threat made or suggested that if Jimmy Kimmel didn’t get fired, that someone was going to lose their license,” Carr said during a press conference that followed the FCC’s monthly meeting.
On 17 September, ABC announced it would “indefinitely” pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live!, hours after Carr had appeared on a conservative podcast and appeared to pressure network affiliates to stop airing the show over comments by Kimmel on the death of the far-right pundit Charlie Kirk.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr had said, explaining that he wanted broadcasters to “take action” on Kimmel.
Ruwa Romman, the first Palestinian-American elected to state-level office in Georgia, was fighting for a speaking slot a year ago at the Democratic national convention, hoping to draw attention to concerns among progressive voters about the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. On Monday, she announced her candidacy for governor in Georgia – looking for a different kind of attention.
“I’m running to build the movement,” she told the Guardian. “Because for over the 20 years Republicans have controlled our state, hospitals have shut down, the minimum wage on our books is still $5.15 an hour, and our education continues to drop. In order to fix all of those things, the first things, the first thing we need to do is replace who the governor is.”
Romman, a 32-year-old state representative, enters a crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination. Lucy McBath, a Georgia congresswoman, who had widely been considered a frontrunner, withdrew from consideration last year, citing her husband’s health. Jason Esteves, a former state senator, Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, Michael Thurmond, a former DeKalb county CEO, Derrick Jackson, a state representative, and Geoff Duncan, a former lieutenant governor and previously a Republican, are competing in the May primary.
She laughs at comparisons with Zohran Mamdami’s progressive run in the New York City mayoral race. “I am not here to define any other candidate but myself, for the average everyday voters, as someone who cares about economic issues,” she said. “A typical voter, for me, is young and progressive, but I’m also going after the older voters that understandably are very cynical and very nihilistic right now, and think this is the way the world is, and it will always be.
“We are trying to rebuild the coalition. And to do that, we are building it so that we can bring those groups back that just don’t see anybody fighting for them, which inadvertently, by the way, ends up being everybody.”
World’s major cities hit by 25% leap in extremely hot days since the 1990s
The world’s biggest capital cities are now sweltering under 25% more extremely hot days each year than in the 1990s, an analysis has found. Without urgent action to protect millions of people from high temperatures, more and more will suffer in the dangerous conditions, analysts said.
From Washington DC and Madrid to Tokyo and Beijing, the analysis shows a marked rise in hot days as the climate crisis intensifies. Overall, the assessment by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), found the number of days above 35C in 43 of the world’s most populous capital cities rose from an average of 1,062 a year from 1994-2003 to 1,335 from 2015-2024.
The rise was seen across the world, with the average number of days above 35C doubling in Rome and Beijing, and tripling in Manila. In Madrid, there are now an average of 47 days a year over 35C, compared with 25 before. In London, which has a relatively cool climate, the number of days above 30C doubled.
Global heating caused by fossil fuel burning is making every heatwave more intense and more likely. Extreme heat is likely to have caused the early death of millions of people over the past three decades, with elderly and poor people in fast-growing cities most deeply affected.
“Global temperatures are rising faster than governments probably expected and definitely faster than they seem to be reacting,” said Anna Walnycki, an IIED researcher. “Failing to adapt will condemn millions of city dwellers to increasingly uncomfortable and even dangerous conditions because of the urban heat island effect.”
US energy department cracks down on workers’ use of climate crisis language
The US Department of Energy has told employees in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to avoid using the words “climate change” in what seems to be the latest incident in a crackdown on discussing the climate crisis in the US government. “Please ensure that every member of your team is aware that this is the latest list of words to avoid – and continue to be conscientious about avoiding any terminology that you know to be misaligned with the Administration’s perspectives and priorities,” says an email from an agency acting director seen by the Guardian.
Employees in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which is the government’s largest funder of carbon-slashing technologies, were told to avoid using the terms in both internal dealings and public-facing work. “Whether you work directly on communications or not, this email applies to you,” says the email, which was first obtained by Politico.
It’s a continuation of the anti-environmental agenda Trump has pushed since entering the White House, said one anonymous agency staffer. It follows a move by Trump to gut EERE’s funding of green technologies. “My reaction was: same shit, different day,” the worker said.
In addition to “climate change”, the banned terms include “decarbonization”, “sustainable”, “emissions” and “green”. Also on the list are “energy transition”, “‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ energy” and “carbon/CO2 ‘Footprint’”. Another set of words to be avoided: “Tax breaks/tax credits/subsidies”, probably because of the terms’ association with Joe Biden’s efforts to subsidize green technologies, which the administration is clawing back.
“Banning the use of these words would silence key elements of DOE’s mission,” another anonymous current agency staffer told the Guardian. “But what is even more worrying is that Secretary Wright is also illegally freezing and cancelling programs that fund advanced research into solar, wind, and other clean energy technologies. DOE leadership can choose to stick their heads in the sand, but that won’t make the climate crisis go away or stop super storms and wildfires from destroying more homes.” The Trump administration has this year asked agency leaders to avoid some 200 terms – a list that also includes words like “activism” and “injustice”.
Uncertainty lingers over US national parks as government shutdown looms
On Tuesday evening, in the final hours before a now imminent US government shutdown, the National Park Service (NPS) began preparations to close down parts of popular public lands across the country – while trails and other open-access areas remain open. The guidance for park leaders in the event of a federal shutdown had been uncertain as the impasse loomed, raising fears that the parks could be forced to stay open without anyone to staff them.
A plan released late on Tuesday, mere hours before the shutdown was set to begin, outlined how swaths of land not able to be locked down – including open-air memorials, park roads, and trails – will remain accessible to the public. The document also detailed that more than 9,200 employees will be furloughed, reducing staff by roughly 64%. Only workers deemed necessary to protect “life and property”, will remain on duty. ...
Irreversible damage was done at popular parks, including Joshua Tree in California, following a month-long shutdown in Donald Trump’s first term, when his administration demanded parks be kept open while funding was paused and workers were furloughed.
Without supervision, visitors left behind trails of destruction. Prehistoric petroglyphs were vandalized at Big Bend national park. Joshua trees, some more than a century old, were chopped down at Joshua Tree national park, as trash and toilets overflowed. Tire tracks crushed sensitive plants and desert habitats from illegal off-roading vehicles in Death Valley. There were widespread reports of wildlife poaching, search-and-rescue crews were quickly overwhelmed with calls, and visitor centers were broken into.
There were 26 pages of listed damages, according to Kristen Brengel, the senior vice-president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, who added that those effects happened in late December and January – a season when many parks are typically quieter. The autumn months, and October especially, still draw millions of visitors even as the peak of summer visitation begins to slow. In 2024, there were more than 28.4 million recreational visits in October alone, according to data from the NPS.
RIP
Jane Goodall, legendary chimp expert, dead at 91
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Trump administration celebrates the perpetrators of the Wounded Knee Massacre
US Gaza ‘Ceasefire’ Plan Edited by Netanyahu
The Kushner-Blair Gaza plan is a moral atrocity – and a policy catastrophe
Israeli Navy prepares to intercept aid flotilla as convoy approaches Gaza shores
‘Unprecedented Savagery’: Israel Advances Bill Allowing Execution of Palestinian Prisoners
DoJ sues pro-Palestinian activists under law often used to protect abortion clinics
Top Trump Officials Intensify Push for Regime Change in Venezuela
Trump Declares War on the U.S.
Patrick Lawrence: The War Dept’s War on Media
Megyn Kelly GRILLED Over Israel at TPUSA Event
What Trump & Hegseth's Lecture to Generals Really Means
A Little Night Music
The Band - The Weight feat. the staples singers
Pops Staples - Waiting for My Child
Staple Singers - Why Am I Treated So Bad
Pops Staples - World In Motion
Albert King, Steve Cropper & Pop Staples – Tupelo
The Staples – Mystery Train
Pop Staples - Nobody's Fault But Mine
Pop Staples - This May Be The Last Time
Pop Staples - No News Is Good News
The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
Comments
Updates on Israel once again committing acts of piracy on the
high seas.
A larger version of the image.
evening humphrey...
thanks for the updates from the twitterverse! i guess what we all expected is finally happening, hopefully the backlash that is also expected will be larger and more effective than anybody thought.
Nothing on Ukraine?
I can't copy or link as I've no subscription to the WSJ but saw a screenshot here. https://x.com/RALee85/status/1973528045152559427
I guess the Trump admin is now giving intel on locations of oil processing infrastructure and if they also get Tomahawk missiles Russia might experience revenue problems. A gas station with an army is in trouble if they run out of gas.
Quite the war of attrition.
perhaps you are on drugs?
.
administered by the ministry of truth?
what you write is corrosive to intelligence
in this community of observers.
Zionism is a social disease
evening ban nock...
sorry, the past week or two i've been distracted by the genocide going on and haven't focused much at all on the ukronazi defeat as it proceeds. i am skeptical that trump will allow an irresponsible force like the ukronazis to have tomahawks, especially since the russians know that the ukronazis cannot fire them without help from the u.s. - i guess we'll see if trump is dumber than i thought.
ban nock
take a tour of Russia. Upon your return, tell us what you learned. And admit everything you think you know about Russia is propaganda.
I suggest a trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg with a river tour down the Volga. It's not too expensive. Gate 1 Tours has a fantastic tour!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp LOL, maybe N korea on
LOL, maybe N korea on teh way back eh? Iran?
Don't mix up your
"communist " countries. I was discussing Russia, friend. I would LOVE to visit both NK and Iran! Especially Iran!
I know I would have a great time meeting the locals and learning about their history and culture from THEM, not our media.
Maybe, one day, I will get there.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
You sponsor the tour and I will join.
This is just what I had in mind.
Good evening Jjoe, thanks for the EBs
I wondere if Italy was really ready to go to the mat with Israel. I guess that's been snswered.
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...
the italian government was dragged into action by the italian people who appear ready to take serious action against israel. meloni's heart is certainly not in it.
Oh my!
Somewhat related. But it makes sense due to Miller's roots.
You wouldn't be aware of this from his last name but the fascist Steven Miller has Jewish heritage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Miller_(advisor) (excerpts)
"Big Brother" would like these type of actions.
The rest of the tweet:
heh...
well, at least nobody that works there will have any doubt about what sort of people they work for.
Trump Ukraine policy = Biden Ukraine policy
U.S. to Provide Ukraine With Intelligence for Missile Strikes Deep Inside Russia
Let's be clear, though. The US is not just providing "intelligence" for the missile strikes. Ukraine still exists so that the "hurt Russia" crowd can have some plausible deniability.
"PayPal is evil" -- Max Blumenthal
evening cass...
i suppose that it's about time for putin to give trump a call on the red phone and talk some sense into him.
While much of the world's attention is on the Flotilla Israel
is still doing genocidal actions.
humphrey.
humphrey, they are easier targets on the road than under tents or in buildings. The IDF is so smart!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
More Ukraine
Daily one reads of apartments and people blown up via Rusky drones, and I kept thinking that bombing people is not a great way to win a war, and then I thought maybe there is more being bombed but not publicized. Apartment bombings are good for PR, drone factories not as much.
Both countries are producing drones under contract, Russia from Iran, Ukraine from Turkey. Ukraine also has a large domestic industry as does Russia. Of course Ukraine could just move factories over the border into Poland, plus Russia doesn't have much to reach western Ukraine, but Kieve is where the volunteer labor is at. I was reading that many workers are paid a $100 a month living allowance for what is considered volunteer work by mostly young adults.
https://ft.com/content/078b8e70-a58c-47cc-b573-598850dd5685
https://x.com/RALee85/status/1973667195629539817
Any more suggested vacation spots ruled by despotic dictators? Religious fanatics? What of Somalia? too tame? Burma?
Any wagers as to which place falls first, Crimea or Kieve?
I vacation all the time
in a country ruled by a despotic dictator and religious fanatics. It is called The United States of America.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981