The Evening Blues - 10-21-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and hokum guitarist Tampa Red. Enjoy!
Tampa Red - Boogie Woogie Dance
“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”
-- Terry Pratchett
News and Opinion
The Imperial Propaganda Machine Is Failing In Unprecedented Ways
Cristina on Twitter asks, “Can you please write another of your beautiful posts about hope. I am not sure I have any left. We need hope.”
I don’t understand how anyone can be without hope right now, personally. The imperial propaganda machine is crumbling in ways we’ve never seen in our lifetime. They wouldn’t work so hard on shoring up narrative control if they didn’t need it, and their narrative control is falling apart.
Look at Israel. This is an arm of the empire that understands the importance of narrative manipulation so acutely that they’ve got their own term for the practice, “hasbara”, with countless systems in place for influencing the way westerners view the Zionist entity. But they’re losing.
Israel and its supporters are more keenly aware of how important it is to control the narrative than maybe any other population on earth, and yet they are losing control of the narrative. Worldwide support for Israel is plummeting
, with more American voters
sympathizing with the Palestinians than the Israelis for the first time in history.
For the first time in polling history, more Americans sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis.
And the shift just isn’t with Democrats.
Younger Republicans — those under 50 — are 41 points less likely than older Republicans to side with Israelis. pic.twitter.com/70oS87Fdz6— Yashar Ali (@yashar) October 9, 2025
And Israel is panicking. They’ve been ramping up spending on propaganda and influence operations while billionaire Zionists like Larry Ellison use their fortunes to shore up more control over social media platforms and mainstream news outlets. They wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t feel the need to, and it won’t even work. No amount of propaganda is going to cause people to unsee two years of live-streamed genocide. Propaganda is a powerful tool, but it isn’t magic.
The Zionists in the White House are panicking as well. Donald Trump has stated that his goal in securing a ceasefire was to rescue Israel from the PR crisis created by the Netanyahu regime, saying, “Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world. Now I am gonna get all that support back.”
These sentiments were echoed in a recent 60 Minutes interview with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said that the president “felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control” and needed to rein them in, not for the sake of Israel’s victims but to “stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
So we’re already at a point where elements of the empire are starting to change their behavior in response to public perception of the empire’s actions. They are not doing this because they suddenly evolved a conscience, they are doing it because they need to maintain perception management. They understand that if the public turns against them past a certain point, they’re in some very dangerous territory.
Every time history has seen the public rise up against their tyrannical rulers and lop their heads off, the world’s oligarchs and empire managers have sat up and taken notice. The rich and the powerful are always urgently aware that there are a whole lot more of us than there are of them and that we can use those superior numbers to get rid of them whenever we want to, so they have an existential interest in preventing us from wanting to.
That’s why Israel, the United States and their allies have poured so much energy into sustaining the most sophisticated propaganda engine ever created. They know that the empire they operate depends on the ability to manipulate the way normal people think, speak, act and vote, continuously steering us toward convenient thoughts and behaviors and away from inconvenient thoughts and behaviors.
This entire dystopia is sustained by mass-scale mind control, and the mind control machine is getting weaker and weaker by the day. More and more people are waking up to the fact that we are ruled by tyrants, that our politicians and media have been deceiving us, and that everything we were taught to believe about our nation, our government and our world was a lie.
So while in the short term things might look darker than ever before, what’s spelled out in the trends we are seeing tells us that the bars of our cage are made of melting ice. We are freeing our minds from the artificial delusions that have turned us into docile and obedient gear-turners, and awakening the healthy animals within us.
I find it impossible to feel hopeless under such circumstances. I don’t feel certain that everything will work out perfectly fine, but I find it impossible not to have hope.
They’re on the back foot. This has never happened before.
We’ve got a real shot at winning this thing.
Israel BREAKS Ceasefire, Trump MOCKED on Fox | Useful Idiots
At least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel to Gaza had been held in a notorious detention centre already facing allegations of torture and unlawful deaths in custody, officials from Gaza’s health ministry have told the Guardian.
The director general of the health ministry, Dr Munir al-Bursh, and a spokesperson for Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies are being examined, said a document found inside each body bag indicated the bodies all came from Sde Teiman, a military base in the Negev desert where, according to photos and testimonies published by the Guardian last year, Palestinian detainees were held in cages, blindfolded and handcuffed, shackled to hospital beds and forced to wear nappies.
“The document tags inside the body bags are written in Hebrew and clearly indicate that the remains were held at Sde Teiman,” Bursh said. “The tags also showed that DNA tests had been carried out on some of them there.” Last year the Israeli army launched a criminal investigation, which is continuing, into the deaths of 36 prisoners detained at Sde Teiman.
As part of the US-brokered truce in Gaza, Hamas has handed over the bodies of some of the hostages who died during the course of the war, and Israel has so far transferred the bodies of 150 Palestinians killed after the 7 October 2023 attack. Some of the photographs of Palestinian bodies seen by the Guardian – which cannot be published due to their graphic nature – show several of the victims blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs. One image shows a rope fastened around a man’s neck.
Doctors in Khan Younis said official examinations and field observations “clearly indicate that Israel carried out acts of murder, summary executions and systematic torture against many of the Palestinians”. Health officials said the documented findings included “clear signs of direct gunfire at point-blank range and bodies crushed beneath Israeli tank tracks”.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Every Warning Sign Is Flashing Red — The U.S. Can’t Escape This
The Guardian is still lying a day after the story about Hamas attacking the IDF has been debunked and it is widely known that the incident occurred due to an Israeli bulldozer running over an unexploded Israeli munition.
Israel will disarm Hamas and demilitarise Gaza, says Netanyahu
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he is committed to disarming Hamas and demilitarising the Gaza Strip during a speech before the Knesset on Monday, as Palestinian officials arrived in Cairo for further peace negotiations. In his speech, Netanyahu said that the current deal provided for the return of all Israeli hostages, the Israeli military’s control over the majority of Gaza’s territory and an internationally backed consensus that Hamas would be disarmed. He added that he expected to forge additional peace agreements in the region with the US president, Donald Trump.
The speech came just hours after Netanyahu met the US Middle East envoy, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who flew to Israel to discuss Sunday’s breaches of the Gaza ceasefire. The US vice-president, JD Vance, was expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday to further discuss the implementation of the ceasefire.
The 10-day ceasefire in Gaza was rocked on Sunday after an attack by Hamas militants that killed two Israeli soldiers, prompting Israel to launch a wave of airstrikes across the Strip, resulting in the deaths of 44 Palestinians. Hamas denied being involved in the attack.
The Israeli government initially said it would cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza after the attack, but walked back its statement on Sunday night after consultations with the US. ...
Humanitarian agencies have said that aid remains scarce across the territory. The ceasefire was meant to be accompanied by a surge in aid, but Israeli restrictions on what enters the Strip have remained in place. Sam Rose, the director of the UN Palestinian refugees agency Unrwa in Gaza, said that aid is still “way below what is needed”.
Matt Hoh : Why Israel Can’t Be Trusted
Masked Israeli Settlers Assault Palestinians, Torch Cars in West Bank
Israeli settlers on Sunday were caught on camera violently assaulting Palestinian civilians with batons as they were harvesting olives in the West Bank.
As reported by Middle East Eye, several attacks were reported in the town of Turmus Ayya, where Israeli settlers targeted Palestinian farmers and international volunteers who had come to help with the harvest.
One of the victims in the assault was a 55-year-old Palestinian woman named Umm Saleh Abu Alia, whom BBC reports had to be hospitalized after being knocked unconscious by a baton-wielding masked settler. Abu Alia was initially admitted into an intensive care unit, and she is currently in stable condition, according to BBC's sources.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a statement saying it "strongly condemns any form of violence" by settlers, but Jasper Nathaniel, a US journalist who filmed the attacks, told BBC that Israeli forces suspiciously "sped off" away from the area shortly before the assault began.
Nathaniel told Drop Site News that settlers are "hunting Palestinians" in the town.
BBC's report noted that more than a dozen masked Israeli settlers were seen throwing rocks at Palestinians during the Sunday harvest, and Middle East Eye cited reports that the settlers had also set Palestinians' cars on fire and stole their olive crops.
According to The Times of Israel, no arrests have yet been made of any of the settlers who took part in the attacks.
Israeli settlers, who under international law are living illegally in occupied territory, have for years carried out attacks on Palestinian civilians harvesting olives in an attempt to drive them from their lands—sometimes with the participation of IDF soldiers.
Middle East Eye reports that the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission estimates there have been more than 7,000 settler attacks on Palestinians over the last two years that have claimed the lives of 33 people.
Also on Monday, Drop Site News reported that nearly 1 million of Gaza's 1.1 million olive trees have been bulldozed by the IDF, dried up from lack of water, or are inaccessible due to Israel's assault on the exclave that began in October 2023.
"Trapped in a suffocating Israeli siege since 2007, Palestinians in Gaza have long relied on local agriculture as one of the few ways to survive," wrote Gaza-based journalist Mohamed Suleiman. "Now, even that has been stripped away."
Trump TERRIFIED Bibi Will BREAK Ceasefire
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces have killed at least 80 Palestinians and wounded 303 since October 11, the day after the ceasefire went into effect.
The Health Ministry said that a total of 45 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks were brought to hospitals over the previous 24-hour period.
The IDF unleashed a heavy wave of airstrikes across Gaza on Sunday after alleging its troops in Rafah came under attack by Palestinian militants, though a White House official told The American Conservative that Hamas didn’t violate the truce and that an Israeli “tank hit an unexploded IED that has probably been there for months.”
The IDF announced on Sunday night that the heavy bombardment was over, but it killed at least two more Palestinians on Monday. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, they were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City. The IDF claimed its forces fired on two “terrorists” who allegedly crossed the “yellow line,” referring to the line Israeli troops withdrew to when the ceasefire went into effect, but the statement didn’t allege the Palestinians were armed.
Mohammad Marandi: Iran and Israel Cross the Point of No Return
US Ambassador Barrack Threatens ‘Major’ Israeli War If Lebanon Fails to Disarm Hezbollah
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack is once again threatening Lebanon with war, this time from Israel, if they fail to meet US demands to fully disarm Hezbollah. He suggested that even hesitation would “inevitably” lead to a major war with Israel, and dire consequences.
This isn’t the first time Barrack has threatened Lebanon with war. Back in July he suggested that both Israel and Syria would conquer them outright and annex Lebanon if they didn’t give in, later threatening to withdraw the Lebanon file from US diplomatic priorities entirely. He also gave Lebanon a 90 day deadline to disarm Hezbollah, and claimed Israel made up that deadline.
Underpinning the threat of an Israeli attack on Lebanon is that Israel is already actively attacking Lebanon on a virtually daily basis, and indeed has been since the ceasefire was signed in November of last year. At least three strikes were reported Monday.
Iran SHOCKS Israel with Russian Su-35 Jets in BOMBSHELL Leak | Mark Sleboda
Alastair Crooke : Israel and its Neighbors After Two Years of War
Colombia recalls US ambassador amid spat with Trump over strikes on alleged drug boats
Colombia has recalled its ambassador to Washington amid a furious war of words between the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and Donald Trump over deadly US strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
The row took a sharp turn this weekend when Petro accused the US of “murdering” a Colombian fisher in an attack on a vessel in its territorial waters. Petro and his administration said the mid-September strike was a “direct threat to national sovereignty” and that the victim was a “lifelong fisherman” and a “humble human being”.
In response, Trump, who has claimed such attacks are designed to stop drug-smuggling to the US, called Petro an “illegal drug dealer” and vowed to end aid payments to Colombia, one of the largest recipients of US counter-narcotics assistance. He also ordered Petro to “close up” drug cultivation sites, saying if not “the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”. Speaking onboard Air Force One, Trump added that he would announce new tariffs on Colombian goods.
In response, Colombia recalled its ambassador to the US for talks in Bogotá on Monday, while its interior minister, Armando Benedetti, said the remarks were a “threat of invasion or military action against Colombia”. Petro said that Colombia’s five-decade conflict stemmed from “cocaine consumption in the United States” and claimed American contributions had been “meagre and null in recent years”.
Analysts have warned the feud marks one of the most serious breakdowns of relations between the longtime allies, and casts doubt over the future of security and counter-narcotics cooperation between the two countries. The row comes at a critical time for Colombia which is facing its worst security crisis in a decade. Yet Colombia has not backed down, with the foreign ministry saying Trump’s statements “contain a direct threat to national sovereignty by proposing an illegal intervention in Colombian territory”.
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Senate vote fails again as shutdown becomes one of the longest in US history
One of the longest government shutdowns in US history just got longer after the Senate again failed to pass a funding resolution after a majority of Democrats continued their pressure campaign after the No Kings nationwide weekend protests. The Senate vote fell for the 11th time with a vote of 50 to 43, with no new defectors from the Democratic side.
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has for weeks kept the House shuttered on an extended recess, and defended his strategy as necessary to push Senate Democrats into passing the House’s continuing resolution without policy additions. But Democrats have refused to support the measure without provisions addressing healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Johnson, in a Monday morning press conference flanked by other Republican congressional leaders including Andy Harris, the House freedom caucus chair, said the reason for the shutdown was to appease Democratic voters, particularly putting blame on the No Kings rallies. “It is exactly why Chuck Schumer is pandering, in this whole charade. We’ve explained from the very beginning, the shutdown is about one thing and one thing alone: Chuck Schumer’s political survival,” Johnson said. ...
The shutdown, which began on 1 October, has become the longest full government shutdown in US history, and the third-longest when including partial shutdowns. If it extends past Tuesday, it will surpass the 21-day shutdown of 1995-96 to claim second place. Only the 35-day partial shutdown during Donald Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, has lasted longer.
TWO Recession Indicators FLASH BRIGHT RED
Trump claims ‘unquestioned power’ in vow to send troops to San Francisco
Donald Trump has again pledged to send troops to San Francisco, claiming in a Fox News interview he has “unquestioned power” to deploy the national guard and that residents want the military in their city. “We’re gonna go to San Francisco. The difference is I think they want us in San Francisco,” Trump said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo.
His comments came after tech billionaires including Elon Musk, David Sacks, a major Trump donor who the president appointed to serve as his AI and crypto czar, and Marc Benioff, the Salesforce chief executive, expressed support for a deployment in the city. Sacks argued a “targeted operation” could quickly clean up San Francisco while Benioff suggested troops could help with policing duties. Benioff later apologized for his stance after facing backlash, and said he no longer thought troops were necessary.
Since ordering controversial deployments to Los Angeles and Washington DC, Trump has sought to send the military to other Democratic-run cities, including Chicago and Portland. His efforts have been met with fierce pushback, protests and legal challenges. ...
In September, a judge found that Trump’s move to dispatch the military to accompany authorities on immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles violated federal law. ... Still, in recent weeks the president has continued to suggest he would deploy troops to San Francisco. Trump said he can use the “unquestioned power” of the Insurrection Act to order a deployment.
The Insurrection Act is a US federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize national guard troops inside the country to quell domestic uprisings. It enables troops to take part in domestic law enforcement activities such as making arrests and performing searches. The act has been invoked on dozens of occasions, including during the civil rights movement in the 1960s to protect activists and students, and to respond to riots in Los Angeles in 1992.
“We Are Under Attack”: Rep. Delia Ramirez on Immigration Crackdown in Chicago, Gov’t Shutdown & More
Oregon governor urges Trump national guard ruling to be overturned
Oregon governor Tina Kotek, has called on a federal appeals court to review and overturn a decision made by a three-judge panel on Monday that would permit Donald Trump to deploy federalized national guard troops to the streets of Portland against the wishes of state and local officials. Kotek said that she hopes the full ninth circuit court of appeals vacates the panel’s 2-1 decision, as the dissenting judge, Portland-based Susan Graber, urged her colleagues to do.
“I’m very troubled by the decision of the court,” Kotek told reporters. “I still urge the Trump administration to send all the national guard members home.”
The ninth circuit panel earlier on Monday decided to lift a lower court’s recent ruling that had prevented Trump from sending troops into the Democratic stronghold. Trump has claimed the right to deploy national guard troops to Portland for the purported purpose of protecting federal property and agents.
Oregon’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, also called on the full appeals court to follow judge Garber’s dissent and reverse the decision made by the panel. “Oregon joins Judge Graber in urging the full ninth circuit to ‘act swiftly’ en banc ‘to vacate the majority’s order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur’,” Rayfield said. “And, like her, we ‘ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little while longer’.”
'A March About Nothing!' ON-THE-GROUND at NO KINGS Harlem Rally
Congressional Democrats were among the critics taking aim at US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Monday for the Louisiana Republican's "genuinely insane" remarks on his refusal to swear in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona.
Twenty days into a federal government shutdown that resulted from Republicans' fight for healthcare cuts set to negatively impact tens of millions of Americans, Johnson said he would administer the oath of office to Grijalva, "I hope, on the first day we come back."
"Instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents," Johnson added. "She could be taking their calls. She could be directing them, trying to help them through the crisis that the Democrats have created by shutting down the government."
Another Democrat elected to represent Arizonans, Congressman Greg Stanton, fired back at the speaker: "How pathetic. Mike Johnson is now blaming Adelita Grijalva for not doing her job. Quit taking orders from Trump and swear her in now."
This is getting ridiculous. She won. Swear her in. Then she can serve her constituents. https://t.co/lnPVt1zXDa
— Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc) October 20, 2025
Grijalva won the special election for her late father's seat last month, pre-shutdown. Johnson could have swiftly administered the oath of office, and despite the shutdown, he can still do so. He has denied that he has intentionally delayed swearing her in to push off a vote on releasing files about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump—but many critics don't believe him.
Responding to the speaker on Monday, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said: "Republicans refuse to swear in an elected member of Congress. Why? They are covering up the Epstein files."
As Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes threatens legal action over the delay—with a filing expected this week—Grijalva, Democratic lawmakers, and others have used various social media platforms to call out Johnson.
In one such video, posted online last week, Grijalva speaks with Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), the newest member of the House, about how he was sworn in just a day after winning his special election, like two of his GOP colleagues.
As viewers of Grijalva's videos know, she finally got access to her office on Capitol Hill last week, but her ability to functionally serve constituents remains limited.
Pointing to similar comments that the House speaker made last week on CNN, Congresswoman Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.) explained Monday: "Unlike Mike Johnson, I actually spoke to Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva this week. She does not have access to an official website for constituents to receive updates, an office phone number for constituents to call, or a congressional email to receive news like the rest of Congress. Why? Because until Johnson swears her in, she is not a member of Congress."
Podcaster and writer Matthew Sitman is among those highlighting how this is bigger than Grijalva. He said: "I really don't think it's possible to make a big enough deal of this. If it's accepted that this quisling has absolute, unilateral power to decide when, or even if, to swear in duly elected representatives, they will further abuse that power—why not refuse other Democrats?"
Writer Nick Field similarly wondered, "So why do we think Donald Trump and Mike Johnson will accept the results and seat new House members if they lose the majority in next year's midterms?"
As voters sour on Israel after over two years of genocide in Gaza, an internal poll suggests that backing from the pro-Israel lobby may be a liability for Democrats seeking to win their primaries.
The Democratic polling firm Upswing Strategies canvassed 850 Democratic voters in congressional districts across Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. The survey asked voters for some of the most competitive Democratic primaries in the 2026 election cycle a number of questions about their sympathies in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
It also zeroed in on their feelings about pro-Israel lobbying groups, including the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supported 152 Democrats who received more than $28 million in total during the 2024 election and had a role in toppling several House progressives, including then-Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
The poll found that nearly half of voters in these competitive districts (48%) agreed with the statement that they "could never support" a candidate for Congress that was funded by AIPAC or the pro-Israel lobby more generally. Over a quarter of voters, 28%, said they strongly felt they could never support a candidate backed by AIPAC.
Just 40% said they "could see" themselves supporting a candidate backed by AIPAC, "especially if I agreed with them on most other issues," but just 10% expressed that belief strongly, while the other 30% said they only agreed with it somewhat.
The poll was posted to social media by Matthew Eadie, a reporter for the Illinois news outlet Evanston Now, on Saturday. He said that since it was conducted in early September, its results have been "circulating among Democrats in over a half-dozen competitive primaries in mostly Illinois."
With Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's seat coming open in 2026, several current Illinois congresspeople have signaled their intent to run, leaving their own House seats up for grabs. Among them are some AIPAC favorites, including Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who received over $63,000 from pro-Israel groups during the 2023-24 election cycle and nearly $269,000 since his first campaign in 2016; and Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), who received over $17,000 last cycle and nearly $109,000 since her first campaign in 2012.
Pro-Israel groups will also likely seek to hold off yet another primary challenge to Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) from the progressive community organizer Kina Collins, who has run against him during the last three cycles. During the 2024 election, an AIPAC affiliate, the United Democracy Project, spent approximately half a million dollars running ads attacking Collins, who had described Israel's actions against Palestinians, including its blockade of food and water supplies, as "war crimes."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a progressive who has referred to Israel's actions as a "genocide" and sponsored a bill to halt military aid to the nation, was targeted with more than $157,000 worth of digital ads and mailers in 2022 by the AIPAC ally Democratic Majority for Israel. However, in 2024, while blitzing other races, the groups held off on targeting Ramirez, whose support was deemed to be too strong.
Other districts in the survey included that of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has weathered multiple challenges from AIPAC, which likewise held off in 2024 due to her popularity.
On the flip side, it also included the district of one of Israel's strongest soldiers, the self-described "centrist" Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Pa.), whom AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups armed with more than $5.4 million in 2024 to take down the progressive Jewish incumbent Rep. Andy Levin, whom AIPAC's former president called "the most corrosive member of Congress to the US-Israel relationship.”
While the poll's results were not broken down by congressional district, they do show that in a political era defined by the Gaza genocide, the Israel lobby's influence within the party may be on the wane. Last week, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a centrist challenger to the progressive Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), seemed to exemplify this when he pledged to return the money he'd received from AIPAC, saying, “I’m a friend of Israel, but not of its current government, and AIPAC’s mission is to back that government."
This wane is partially due to the collapse of support for Israel among Democrats over the past two years. Affirming what past polls have shown, the Upswing poll found that Democratic voters overwhelmingly have a wildly positive view of not only Palestine, but international organizations that have shown support to Palestinians like the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders, while having overwhelmingly negative views of Israel and especially its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Favorable/Unfavorable of Israel/Palestine issues:
Israel — 27/50
Palestine — 60/13
Netanyahu — 6/74
AIPAC — 16/40
Pro-Israel lobby — 14/52
UN — 73/7
Doctors w/out Borders — 82/3 pic.twitter.com/tVwc907vsJ— Matthew Eadie (@mattheweadie22) October 19, 2025
And while it was less salient to voters than holding President Donald Trump accountable and lowering the cost of living, 53% of voters in the poll said "putting pressure on the Israeli government to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza" was a 10 out of 10 issue on the scale of importance for Democrats to focus on, while 72% said it was at least an 8 out of 10.
Peter Beinart, the editor-at-large of the progressive magazine Jewish Currents, said, "It's astonishing how quickly the politics are moving."
Democratic politicians, he continued, now "don't fear AIPAC. They fear being associated with AIPAC. The political rules of the last almost half-century are changing before our eyes."
Brazil greenlights oil drilling in Amazon as environmentalists raise alarm
Brazil’s Petrobras has been given permission to drill for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River, casting a shadow over the country’s green ambitions as it prepares to host UN climate talks. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president, has come under fire from conservationists who argue his oil expansion plans clash with his image as a global leader on climate change.
Petrobras said drilling in the Foz de Amazonas region would begin immediately and would last for five months, after its five-year battle to get permission to explore the area. ... The company will drill an exploratory well at an offshore site that lies 500km (310 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon River at a depth of more than 2,800 meters (9,200ft).
The drilling of Block 59 – which is 160km from the coastline – has been a passion project for Lula, who insists oil revenues will help fund Brazil’s climate transition. Environmentalists have raised alarm about drilling for oil off the coast of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, a biodiverse area that is home to several Indigenous communities. Brazil’s Climate Observatory NGO said civil society organizations would go to court to fight the decision, based on “illegalities and technical flaws” in the licensing process.
Ibama denied Petrobras an exploration license in 2023, citing inadequate plans to protect wildlife in case of an oil spill. As Petrobras appealed, pressure rose from Lula who said earlier this year that Ibama was a government agency acting as if it was “against the government”. In February, an opinion signed by 29 Ibama technical staff and seen by AFP said the recommendation remained to “deny the environmental license”, highlighting the risk of “massive biodiversity loss in a highly sensitive marine ecosystem”.
However, in May, Rodrigo Agostinho overruled the opinion and allowed Petrobras to go ahead with an oil spill accident response drill that was considered the last step before the license is granted. In September, Ibama approved the pre-operational environmental assessment, despite Petrobras failing to demonstrate it can “reliably protect fauna in the event of an oil spill”.
Germany’s dash for gas raises questions over climate targets
Peering out on a clear day from the windswept dunes that dapple the north-western tip of Germany, on a gull-shaped island in the Wadden Sea nature reserve, tourists hoping to spot seals may soon see a dark metal platform rise out of the water. The planned structure is one of several fossil fuel projects that Germany is pushing to build despite a legal deadline to stop polluting the atmosphere with carbon emissions in 20 years’ time. The joint Dutch-German venture, which received the green light from regional authorities last month, seeks to extract 13bn cubic metres of gas from just outside a protected area at the marine border between the two countries.
Campaigners have criticised the project because it will mean drill for gas more than four years after the International Energy Agency warned that new oil and gas development was incompatible with its roadmap to stop the planet heating by 1.5C (2.7F). ... Europe’s largest economy raced to find new gas providers after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ramping up piped supplies from Norway and building liquefied natural gas terminals at speed to import LNG from the US and elsewhere.
More quietly, it has also sought to drill for more at home. This summer, a court cleared the way for an important but contested cable for the project in Borkum, Lower Saxony, while drilling began at a separate test site in Bavaria. A third gas extraction project in Brandenburg has been delayed after state officials viewed the plans as being too vague to approve.
Activists say the dash for gas has sped up since a coalition of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and centre-left Social Democratic party took office in April. The new economy minister, Katherina Reiche – a former lobbyist for utility companies who until May was the CEO of Westenergie, a subsidiary of E.ON – is pushing to build 20 gigawatts of gas-fired power plants by 2030, while calling for a “reality check” on Germany’s renewable energy plans.
Carla Reemtsma, a climate activist with Fridays for Future, said there had been “some wriggle room” under the last government’s Green party-led economy ministry but that the new coalition was “pushing for gas everywhere”. The field near Borkum was relatively small, she added, but would pave the way for more projects with a “catastrophic” impact on the planet. “We’re just normalising the destruction of the climate,” she said.
'A Betrayal': Ranchers Slam Trump Plan to Buy Beef From Argentina With US Tax Dollars
US ranchers and industry groups are responding critically to President Donald Trump's proposal that the United States "would buy some beef from Argentina," in a bid to "bring our beef prices down," while pursuing an up to $40 billion bailout for the South American country.
Trump made the suggestion to reporters on Air Force One Sunday, according to the Associated Press. A few days earlier, he'd said that a deal to cut the price of beef was "gonna be coming down pretty soon." The AP noted various reasons for "stubbornly high" US prices, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico.
"President Trump's plan to buy beef from Argentina is a betrayal of the American rancher," Christian Lovell, an Illinois cattle producer and senior director of programs at the organization Farm Action, said in a Monday statement. "Those of us who raise cattle have finally started to see what profit looks like after facing years of high input costs and market manipulation by the meatpacking monopoly."
"After crashing the soybean market and gifting Argentina our largest export buyer, he's now poised to do the same to the cattle market," he continued, referring to one of the impacts of Trump's tariff war. "Importing Argentinian beef would send US cattle prices plummeting—and with the meatpacking industry as consolidated as it is, consumers may not see lower beef prices either. Washington should be focused on fixing our broken cattle market, not rewarding foreign competitors."
"With these actions, President Trump risks acting more like the president of Argentina than president of the United States," Lovell declared. The US leader is a key ally of the nation's actual president, Javier Milei, whose austerity agenda has created the need for a massive bailout from Washington, DC.
Farm Action's proposed fix for the US is to tackle the "structurally flawed system" with three steps: "Reinstate Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL) for beef and pork, restore competitive markets by enforcing antitrust laws, and rebuild the US cow herd to achieve national self-reliance in beef production."
The group was far from alone in criticizing Trump's weekend remarks and offering alternative solutions to reduce US prices.
"We appreciate President Trump's interest in addressing the US beef market, which has been producing all-time record-high consumer beef prices," said Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, the nation's largest cattle association, in a statement. "We urge the president to address the fundamental problems in the beef market, not just its symptom."
"The symptom is that the US has shrunk its beef cow herd to such a low level that it can no longer produce enough beef to satisfy domestic demand," he continued. "But the fundamental problem is that decades of failed trade policies have allowed cheap, undifferentiated imports to displace the domestic cow herd, driving hundreds of thousands of cattle farmers and ranchers and millions of domestic beef cows out of the domestic beef supply chain."
"In addition, the nation's beef packers and beef retailers have been allowed to concentrate to monopolistic levels, enabling them to interfere with competitive market forces," he asserted. "Attempting to lower domestic beef prices simply by inviting even more imports will both exacerbate and accelerate the ongoing dismantling of the domestic beef supply chain."
National Cattlemen's Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall said that "NCBA's family farmers and ranchers have numerous concerns with importing more Argentinian beef to lower prices for consumers. This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices."
"Additionally, Argentina has a deeply unbalanced trade relationship with the US," Woodall noted. "In the past five years Argentina has sold more than $801 million of beef into the US market. By comparison, the US has sold just over $7 million worth of American beef to Argentina. Argentina also has a history of foot-and-mouth disease, which, if brought to the United States, could decimate our domestic livestock production."
Justin Tupper, president of the US Cattlemen's Association, highlighted the rising costs that ranchers are enduring.
"The cost of producing beef today is accurately represented in the consumer markets where it is sold," he said. "Ranchers are facing historic highs for feed, fuel, labor, and land—and those costs have risen far faster than beef prices on grocery shelves."
"When policymakers hint at intervention or suggest quick fixes, they can shake the market's foundation and directly impact the livelihoods of ranchers who depend on stable, transparent pricing," Tupper warned in the wake of the president's recent remarks. "Sudden price moves make it harder for independent producers to plan, invest, and keep their operations running."
"Efforts to support consumers must consider the economic realities on the ground and ensure the voices of independent ranchers lead the discussion," he added. "Market-driven prices—not mandates or panic interventions—have delivered value for generations. Let's focus on transparency, market integrity, and maintaining the conditions for sustainable rural economies."
Somehow, buying beef from Argentina, instead of struggling US farmers, is “America First.”
I’d like reporters to ask Republicans to explain how. https://t.co/4SM5nFbmTY— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) October 20, 2025
Trump's signal that the US may buy more beef from Argentina comes as poll after poll shows that Americans—whose federal minimum wage hasn't increased in over 15 years—are stressed about the climbing costs of groceries. In addition to beef, shoppers are facing higher prices for staples such as coffee and eggs.
The Democratic National Committee also called out Trump's proposal on Monday, with Kendall Witmer, the DNC's rapid response director, charging that "Trump has done more in the past month to help Argentina than he has to help the American people, who are struggling to afford everything from rent to groceries."
"Because of Trump, farmers are on the brink of bankruptcy, and the government has been shut down for almost a month," Witmer added. "You would think that the so-called 'America First' president would be focused on reopening the government and saving millions of Americans from skyrocketing healthcare premiums—but Trump is showing his true colors. He only cares about helping himself and his friends, even at the expense of the American people. Let's be clear: MAGA now stands for Make Argentina Great Again."
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
It Was Never a Gaza ‘War.’ The ‘Ceasefire’ Is a Lie Cut From the Same Cloth
A Return to the Balfour Declaration
Israeli Scramble for Gaza’s Gas Reserves
Chris Hedges: The Speech a Press Club Banned
Has China Put America Into the pre-WWII “Japan Trap?”
Patrick Lawrence: Desperation Row
Emmanuel Todd – The Institutionalized Europe Is Far-Right
Prince Andrew tried to hire ‘internet trolls’ to hassle Virginia Giuffre, book claims
Trump’s Trade War Just Blew Up In America’s Face!
How Project 2025 Architect Russell Vought Became "Shadow President" Under Trump
Epstein Prosecutor DINED AT HIS HOUSE
Jamie Dimon Says Wall St. Crash WORSE THAN 2008 STARTING!
A Little Night Music
Tampa Red And His Hokum Jug Band – Come On Mama, Do That Dance
Tampa Red Bumble Bee Blues
Tampa Red - Sweet Black Angel
Tampa Red -You Can't Get That Stuff No More
Tampa Red – What Is It That Tastes Like Gravy?
Tampa Red – Things 'Bout Coming My Way
Tampa Red - Don't You Lie to Me
Tampa Red - I'm A Stranger Here
Tampa Red Feat Johnny Jones – It's A Brand New Boogey
Tampa Red - The Way To Get The Lowdown
Comments
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs Tomorrow,
Oakland, CA, will hold Bobby Seale Day, The corner of 57th and MLK Jr will be named Bobby Seale Way and the mayor, ex Black Panther and former congressperson Barbara Lee, will speak. Trump, ICE and the National Guard are NOT invited.
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...
glad to hear that seale is being honored in the hometown of his activism.
have a great evening!
Hey Joe,
been awhile since I said thanks for the EBs. Thought it was about time I did. Man you've been helping us stay informed for a long time! And still doing a first class job at it. It's much appreciated, and I especially thank you for including the Greens and giving us climate news that otherwise rarely gets the attention it warrants. Anyways, thanks for all you do.
"Oil drilling is good for the country because oil revenues will help the country navigate thru climate change transition?"
I don't even know how to respond to such a ridiculous statement. Sounds like something trump would say. Apparently Ibama is about as powerless in Brazil as the EPA is in the us, It seems that most world "leaders" feel that only way to fight climate change is to build taller sea walls, relocate drowning villages, tap deeper into the aquifers, etc. sigh.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
evening burnt...
good to see you! i hope all is going well.
thanks for the kind words, i always appreciate knowing that somebody reads the stuff i post.
yeah, that line about risking the destruction of the amazon is good because it will fund the preservation of it caught my eye, too. i guess i won't need my irony supplement today.
sadly ibama, like the epa is not a viable institution when big money sees something it wants.
Hey, joe!
That first song you posted was like something you would see in a museum. Fascinating stuff!
I am half-way through the ebs, so far, news is crazy. I must say, I didn't want Putin to meet up in Bucharest because I do't think he would have been safe, and it would have been more of the same shit anyway.
The temperatures are dropping here, and I just may have to get some warm and fuzzy lounge wear out of the closet. It will be strange, but so welcome.
The Dialogue Works interview with Wilkerson was great!
Thanks for all you do, 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...
i would guess that if anything happened to putin in hungary, whoever was responsible for it would no longer trouble the world with their presence. i suspect that after putin, people who are far less likely to take the high road despite the ignorance and brutality of their opponents will come to the fore.
at any rate, i guess we live another day as the trump administration is incapable of understanding what the russians have been saying repeatedly to them and continues to ask for an unconditional ceasefire.
have a great evening!
Hey, Joe, I really appreciate the news you gather.
Many thanks for keeping the light on.
The passage about election polling for the upcoming midterms was like a bucket of ice water. That's one kabuki shitshow that is never going to die. And that is a poor prognosis for the future.
Now, if US Federal elections were publicly-funded, the political process in the US would begin to resemble an actual Democracy. But, due to a lame constitution that forgot to include Election Rules, the US Federal Government succumbed to a Neocon globalist coup.
But in militarized capitalist countries — like the US — the candidates in national elections are allowed to be privately-funded by unregulated, profit-obsessed, globally networked, Special Interest cartels and ultra-wealthy campaign Donors. So much for Democracy, when money does all the talking.
Thus, winning candidates are beholden to their “special interest” Donors — and they consistently divert social spending into ‘industry spending’, and produce legislation and destructive foreign policies that ultimately result in Net Harm for society, for humanity, and for the planet, itself.
We are all living in the world that gullible, know-nothing, scaredy-cat Usians vote for.
Meanwhile, I found it interesting that Caitlin wrote a pep talk for today's editorial, ending with:
.
Um.... no we don't. Really. I cannot imagine a scenario where the people of the US manufacture a win out of the current situation. Of course, that does depend on how one defines "win."
Does a win mean the Democrats win the next election? That just points to continuing depravity and genocide (no change there) ... and maybe more affordable doctor co-pays, for those who can afford to buy health care insurance. Or does a win mean defeating Donald Trump? That would simply put us back where we started, in the Biden hypocrisy.
However, there is a win out there that is a sure thing. Although Caitlin Johnstone doesn't name it, it is inevitable.
The American people will win if China prevails and ends the tariff wars and the tariff inflation that American consumers are forced to pay. The American people will win if the US finds a way to extend the term of its impossible-to-pay debt and avoids a default that could result in a long and extended economic depression. The American People will win if foreign central banks stop buying US Treasuries (US debt) to hold for settling international trades — and if they instead use China's CIPS trading software rather than the SWIFT spyware demanded by the US. That way, the US would be forced to cut its military spending in half, and close most of its foreign military bases, I n order to afford to pay the interest payments on its current debt.
Above all, American children deserve to receive a complete world-class education so they can fulfill their dreams, and make the country great again. That should be a first priority for the US. Nothing else really matters right now..