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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Johnny "Guitar" Watson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and funk guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson . Enjoy!

^{Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Three Hours Past Midnight}

"Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man ... living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money."

-- George Carlin

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News and Opinion

The Israeli Government Put My Name At The Top Of An ‘Antisemite’ List

My name appears at the top of a list in a document the Israeli government released earlier this month in order to draw false associations between the Bondi Beach shooting and online criticism of Israel and its atrocities.

The PowerPoint document, released by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, is titled “Delegitimization and Antisemitism in Australia — A Snapshot October — December 2025,” and its claims have been cited by Israeli media outlets like Ynet News.

Page five of the document is titled “Actors: Key generators of anti-Semitism and delegitimization in Australia,” where the name Caitlin Johnstone is listed at the top of a column titled “Active influencers and content creators” which is ranked by number of followers. Page seven describes me as an “Anti-Western blogger, promoting conspiracies and complete delegitimization of Israel.”

This word “delegitimization” appears throughout the document, which I personally find funny. They knew the “antisemitism” claim couldn’t stand on its own, so they had to tack on this weird extra complaint about people “delegitimizing” the state of Israel — as though that’s a bad thing. I’ll always deny harboring any hatred toward Jews or Judaism, but I’ll happily admit to trying to delegitimize a genocidal apartheid state that cannot exist without nonstop violence and abuse.

Apparently my opposition to genocide has landed me at the top of a list compiled by the Israeli government. https://t.co/Oe4durqVKl pic.twitter.com/wPA5rLddFp

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 29, 2025

The document attempts to make the argument that in the two months leading up to the Bondi attack there was an epidemic of antisemitic “hate speech” online, absurdly insinuating that those of us who were criticizing Israel and its abuses during that time incited two ISIS guys to commit an act of terrorism. Like ISIS were just a bunch of cuddly wuddly snuggle bears until some Australian influencers tweeted mean things about Israel.

Page 14 of the document is captioned “Examples of recent hate speech in the two months leading up to the attack: Selected anti-Semitic tweets on Caitlin Johnstone,” and it consists of two tweets. You can tell whoever collected them was just doing advanced searches for specific keywords from the people on their list because the word “Jewish” is highlighted in one of their screenshotted tweets, which means they had to scroll past the many tweets I’ve made over the years which would contradict the antisemitism narrative they’re trying to build.

The first tweet is from August 6 of this year, and it features a screenshot from journalist Owen Jones noting that just 6.7 percent of Israeli Jews surveyed had told pollsters that they are “very troubled” by reports of starvation and suffering in Gaza. I captioned the screenshot as follows:

“Poll after poll after poll shows that Jewish Israelis are horrible people who are quantifiably much more cruel and immoral than pretty much any other population. At a certain point you have to stop thinking the polls might be mistaken and see that the only real mistake is Israel.”

Note that I didn’t say “Jews” but “Jewish Israelis”. Poll after poll after poll shows that Israeli Jews are indeed horrible people who hold sociopathic attitudes toward Palestinians, because that’s what happens when you’re the privileged group in an apartheid state. White South Africans were horrible people during South African apartheid too. You can’t have apartheid without indoctrinating your public to see the disempowered groups as less than the empowered group. It doesn’t say anything about Jews or Judaism that this is the case; that’s just how apartheid works.

The second tweet is from October 6 of this year, and it reads as follows:

“Someone who is truly and sincerely worried about a rise in antisemitism will oppose the mass slaughter of children under the Star of David banner by a state which claims to represent all Jews while Jewish billionaires buy up media to silence criticism of that state and Jewish oligarchs openly purchase the president of the world’s most powerful government to ensure the facilitation of that state’s atrocities.”

I guess this one might look antisemitic if you didn’t know that every single part of it is completely true. Israel has indeed been mass slaughtering children and does indeed have a Star of David on its flag. Israel is indeed claiming to represent all Jews when it argues that criticism of Israel is hateful toward everyone who is Jewish. Larry Ellison’s family has indeed been buying up media platforms like CBS where virulent Zionist Bari Weiss has been put in command, and purchasing control of TikTok after Congress forced its sale to stomp out criticism of Israel. President Donald Trump has indeed repeatedly admitted to being controlled by megadonor Miriam Adelson, the world’s richest Israeli. These dynamics are indeed likely to feed into antisemitism in a very real way. I didn’t create those dynamics. Zionists did.

This is the Israeli government’s best argument that Australians like myself incited the Bondi attack. I tweeted about genocide and apartheid and it violently radicalized a father and son in Sydney, who then apparently invented some kind of time machine and traveled back to 2019 to join ISIS. That’s their strongest case.

If you’ve been wondering why I’ve been writing so much about the Bondi Beach shooting, this is why. It’s being used to justify an aggressive assault on freedom of speech and assembly in Australia, and that assault is happening at the forceful urging of the Australian Israel lobby and the Israeli government, which is now going so far as to compile official public lists of Australians whom it deems guilty of dangerous wrongthink.

Zionists always Streisand your best work. https://t.co/SzYrVjJTi6

— 99% Johnny Graz (@jvgraz) December 29, 2025

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism also put together a full-page profile on me and my work back in September in a release titled “Antisemitism & Anti-Zionism in Australia Key Influencers, Incidents, Groups, & Trends”, which I’ll just copy and paste here because it makes me look awesome:

Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian independent journalist and political commentator. Her writings frequently describe Israel as a “genocidal apartheid state” and a “settler-colonialist project” that perpetuates systemic violence and oppression. She argues that Israel’s actions are not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategy to maintain dominance over Palestinians.

On her social media platforms, Caitlin Johnstone frequently shares strongly anti-Israeli content in the context of the ongoing war in Gaza, while largely omitting criticism of Hamas. In a post dated April 15, 2025, she dismissed concerns about Israelis feeling unsafe, suggesting instead that their discomfort stems from a sense of guilt over what she described as the “genocide” in Gaza.

In an Instagram post dated April 7, 2025 Johnstone appeared to indirectly justify the October 7 Hamas attack, stating that “Hamas succeeded in exposing the true face of the empire.” She went on to highlight alleged Israeli actions in Gaza since the attack, while omitting any acknowledgment of the massacre carried out by Hamas.

The profile also includes some banger tweets I made like “Being a liberal Israel supporter these days probably feels like being a defense attorney for an accused murderer who won’t shut up about how much he loves murdering.”

Dossier compiled by Israeli government reveals Israeli intelligence is tracking Australians
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Israeli intelligence services have prepared a dossier published by the 'Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism' that lists Australians described as so-called “key… pic.twitter.com/OAddp3X4XC

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) December 29, 2025

I’m not going to lie, I do regard all this attention I’m getting from Israel as a compliment. Winding up at the top of an Israeli list of enemies is certainly more of an assurance that I’m doing the right thing than winning some shitty western “journalism” award like a Pulitzer would ever be.

But I’m also not going to act like miss tough girl and pretend it doesn’t creep me the hell out at the same time to have this murderous ethnostate keeping an eye on me. Israel is so intensely creepy.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : 2025 Year End Review + 2026 Forecast

Hamas will have ‘hell to pay’ if it fails to disarm, Trump warns after Netanyahu meeting

Donald Trump has warned that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if it fails to disarm while offering full-throated support to Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Florida. In a bravura display of mutual admiration, Netanyahu announced that the US president would be awarded the Israel prize, the country’s highest civilian honour, which since its inception in the 1950s has never before been given to a non-Israeli person.

The trip by Netanyahu to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence came amid a new push by officials in Washington to force concessions from Israel to allow progress towards the second phase of a Gaza peace plan, which in October halted the devastating two-year-long war. Asked if he and Netanyahu had discussed Israel pulling back troops before Hamas fully disarmed, Trump told reporters: “If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do – they agreed to it – then there’ll be hell to pay for them and we don’t want that, we’re not looking for that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time.”

He described the question of Israel withdrawing its forces as “a separate subject”, adding only: “We’ll talk about that.” Last week the US news outlet Axios reported that the Trump administration wanted to announce the Palestinian technocratic government for Gaza and the ISF as soon as possible and that senior Trump officials were growing exasperated “as Netanyahu has taken steps to undermine the fragile ceasefire and stall the peace process”. But Trump himself appeared to show no such qualms after Monday’s meeting. He said he was “not concerned about anything that Israel is doing” and “Israel has lived up to the plan, 100%”. ...

For Netanyahu, who faces an election within 10 months, the prospect of Iran repairing the damage inflicted on its nuclear programme in its short war with Israel and the US this summer and building up its ballistic missile capabilities is another priority. Trump had previously insisted that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “completely and fully obliterated”. But on Monday he said: “I hope they’re not trying to build up again because, if they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup.”

The president added: “Iran may be behaving badly. It hasn’t been confirmed. But if it’s confirmed, look, they know the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time.” Pressed for evidence, he said: “This is just what we hear, but usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Trump Backs Netanyahu's "Colonial" Wars in Gaza, Iran & Beyond

Trump and Netanyahu pledge Middle East bloodbath will continue in 2026

US President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, delivering a tirade of threats to escalate war throughout the Middle East. Speaking after the meeting, Trump declared that the US would “wipe out” any resistance in Gaza. “If Iran is trying to build up again,” he added, semi-coherently, “we’ll knock the hell out of them.” The Washington Post reported Monday that strikes against Iran were a major topic of discussion at the meeting, with Netanyahu seeking US approval for renewed attacks on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Trump’s threats come seven months after the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities. On June 22, 2025, seven US B-2 stealth bombers dropped 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bombs—30,000-pound weapons, the most powerful non-nuclear munitions ever used in combat—on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. For 12 days prior, Israel had carried out an assault on Iran that killed over 400 people and wounded more than 3,000.

The meeting in Mar-a-Lago was a gathering of war criminals. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” Domestically, Netanyahu is on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases. In his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump reiterated his calls for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, telling reporters that if Palestinians “were given the opportunity to live in a better climate, they would move,” adding, “They’re there because they sort of have to be.”

He warned that “there will be hell to pay” unless Hamas ceases any resistance to the US and Israel, threatening to “go in and wipe them out.” In January, Trump told reporters that the United States would “clean out” Gaza’s 1.5 million people. In February, standing beside Netanyahu in Washington, he declared the United States would “take over” and “own” the territory, leveling it to build the “Riviera of the Middle East.” The Israeli government has since established a “Voluntary Emigration Bureau” to administer the ethnic cleansing plan. ...

The “ceasefire” announced in October has given the capitalist powers’ stamp of legitimacy to the permanent Israeli occupation and annexation of a large portion of Gaza, coupled with daily mass killing and the deliberate starvation of the population. Trump declared on Monday that “Israel has lived up to the plan, 100%.” In fact, according to a statement issued Sunday by Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli military has committed 969 ceasefire violations over the 80 days since the agreement took effect, killing 418 Palestinians and wounding 1,141. The violations include 289 incidents of direct gunfire against civilians, 455 shelling attacks on unarmed civilians and their homes, 54 military incursions into residential areas, and 162 cases of demolishing homes and civilian facilities.

CCTV suggests alleged Bondi shooters acted alone and did not receive training in Philippines, AFP says

The alleged Bondi attack shooters did not receive training or come into contact with a broader terror cell while visiting the Philippines, according to current assessments by federal police, with initial investigations indicating the father and son acted alone.

The police assessment came as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, continued to reject calls for a federal royal commission into the Bondi massacre and antisemitism in Australia despite growing demands from families of the shooting victims, Jewish community leaders and the Coalition opposition.

The Australian federal police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said on Tuesday that alleged gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram had spent nearly a month in the Philippines just weeks before carrying out the antisemitic shooting at a Bondi Hanukah event on 14 December, killing 15 victims.

Barrett said police would not yet provide all details of their assessment as investigations continued, but while she said the AFP alleged the terror attack was inspired by Islamic State, the AFP did not believe the gunmen were directed by any broader network.

The initial assessment from the Philippine national police was that the individuals rarely left their hotel, and there was no evidence to suggest they received training or underwent logistical preparation for their alleged attack, Barrett told a press conference on Tuesday.

Trump is too mentally enfeebled to right the ship

US struck ‘big facility’ in Venezuela, Trump claimed without offering details

Donald Trump has claimed that US forces struck a “big facility” in Venezuela last week – but the president did not specify what it was, or where, and the White House has not commented further. “We just knocked out – I don’t know if you read or you saw – they have a big plant, or a big facility, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard,” Trump told Republican donor and New York supermarket owner John Catsimatidis on Friday.

Trump on Monday went further in his characterization of the strike, saying: “Well, it doesn’t matter. But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. We hit the area.” Speaking after a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president said: “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the implementation area… where they implement and that’s no longer around.”

If a US strike or covert action is confirmed, it will mark the first land strike on Venezuela since the Pentagon began a buildup of US strike forces in region to interdict drug traffickers operating – the Trump administration claims – under the direction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Col. Larry Wilkerson: The Alarms Are Screaming And America Is Ignoring It

US military says two were killed in strike on suspected drug vessel in Pacific

The US military announced the killing of another two men in “a lethal kinetic strike”on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday.

The Pentagon released video of the strike, which brings the total number of known naval attacks on suspected drug smugglers to 30 since September, and raises the death toll to at least 107 people, according to US military figures.

The attack was carried out “at the direction of” Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, US Southern Command said in a post on X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform where images of the attacks have been posted.

Alastair Crooke: The West Is Redrawing Strategy: Russia Just Went All In

Russia’s Lavrov Accuses Ukraine of Firing 91 Drones at Putin’s Residence

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that Ukrainian forces fired 91 kamikaze drones at President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Russia’s Novgorod region, and warned the attack would change Moscow’s negotiating position. For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that his forces launched the attack. ...

According to Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, President Trump spoke with the Russian leader by phone on Monday and said he was “shocked” by the attack. “The US president, according to Putin, was shocked by this news and expressed outrage, stating that he could not have imagined such crazy actions on the part of Kiev,” Ushakov said.

Zelensky called the accusation that his forces targeted Putin’s residence “another lie” that will likely be used to justify more strikes on Ukraine. “With this statement about an alleged attack on some residence, they are preparing the ground to strike, most likely the capital and government buildings,” he said.

Ukrainian forces have previously targeted the Kremlin with drones, and Ukrainian intelligence officials have threatened to target Putin for assassination.

Stanislav Krapivnik: Massive Escalation - Attack on Putin's Residence

Trump not worried by China’s simulated attack on Taiwan, he says, as live-fire drills enter second day

Donald Trump has said he is not worried by China’s live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan and that he has a great relationship with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who “hasn’t told me anything about it”. The US president made the comments one day into the surprise attack simulation launched by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday, and which continued into Tuesday with live missile launches into the Taiwan Strait.

The PLA, which is the armed wing of China’s ruling Communist party, said it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers, drones and long-range missiles “in close proximity” to Taiwan on Monday to test “sea-air coordination and precise target hunting and neutralisation”, including attacks on submarines and other maritime targets.

In the 24 hours to Tuesday morning Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected at least 14 navy vessels, 14 coast guard ships, one surveillance balloon, and 130 war planes and drones around Taiwan as part of the exercise China has dubbed “Justice Mission 2025”.

“I certainly have seen it … I don’t believe he is going to be doing it,” Trump said, appearing to refer to an actual invasion. “Nothing worries me.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she was ‘naive’ for believing Trump is man of the people

Marjorie Taylor Greene, now just days away from stepping down as a congresswoman for Georgia, has said in her latest mea culpa interview that she “was just so naive” for believing that Donald Trump was a man of the people. In a lengthy interview with the New York Times that examines her break with the president after years of devotion, Greene explained that a series of minor ruptures with the president culminated in a total breach after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed in September.

The third-term Georgia congresswoman said she was watching Kirk’s memorial service on TV when his widow Erika said she forgave her husband’s killer. But then Trump took the stage to say that unlike Kirk – “a missionary with a noble spirit” who did not “hate” his opponents, Trump said he disagreed. “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them,” Trump said. ...

The Maga landscape post-Kirk has been showing signs of fracture, and Greene has found herself at odds with administration and Republican positions, declaring the war in Gaza a “genocide” as well as casting doubt on economic, healthcare and foreign policy positions that she says do not prioritize working-class Americans. “I was just so naive and outside of politics,” Greene said, adding: “It was easy for me to naively believe.”

Greene’s break with Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress was, she told the Times, completed over a vote to release investigative files related to the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Greene said the Epstein files represented “everything wrong with Washington” and said it was a story of “rich, powerful elites doing horrible things and getting away with it. And the women are the victims”. After meeting with victims, she claimed, Trump called her and yelled “my friends will get hurt” if the files were released.

‘Trump’s Economic Policies Did This’: US Business Bankruptcies Surge to 15-Year High

Businesses in the United States have filed for bankruptcy this year at a level not seen since 2010 as President Donald Trump’s tariff regime has jacked up costs for companies in manufacturing and other major sectors.

Citing data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the Washington Post reported over the weekend that at least 717 US companies filed for bankruptcy through November 2025, the highest figure recorded since the aftermath of the Great Recession and a 14% increase compared to the same period last year.

“Companies cited inflation and interest rates among the factors contributing to their financial challenges, as well as Trump administration trade policies that have disrupted supply chains and pushed up costs,” the Post noted. “But in a shift from previous years, the rise in filings is most apparent among industrials—companies tied to manufacturing, construction, and transportation. The sector has been hit hard by President Donald Trump’s ever-fluid tariff policies—which he’s long insisted would revive American manufacturing.”

Recent data shows that the US has lost 49,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump’s return to office.

The bankruptcy figures add to the growing pile of evidence showing that Trump’s tariffs and broader policy agenda have harmed the US economy—weakening job growth, driving the unemployment rate up to the highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, and worsening the nation’s cost-of-living crisis.

Democrats immediately seized on the new reporting as evidence of Trump’s failed stewardship of the US economy, messaging that’s likely to be central as the 2026 midterms approach.

Trump's economic policies did this. pic.twitter.com/tRfcNxAyAU

— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) December 27, 2025

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday that “when Donald Trump signed his Big Ugly Bill into law, he cemented the Republican Party as the party of billionaires and special interests—not working families, farmers, or small business owners.”

“While millions of working families are already being squeezed to afford groceries, utilities, and rent, Trump chose to strip them of their healthcare and food assistance just so he could give his ultrawealthy friends and donors an extra buck,” said Martin. “Make no mistake: Trump’s ‘signature achievement’ will be the nail in the coffin for the Republican majority when voters head to the polls next November.”

Trump says he’d ‘love to fire’ Jerome Powell in latest attack on Fed chair

Donald Trump launched another attack against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Monday, calling the central banker a “fool” and once again suggesting he would like to fire him.

Trump launched his latest attack on Powell during a press conference with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, repeating false claims about the cost of a renovation of the central bank headquarters, and told reporters that he might file a lawsuit against Powell for “gross incompetence”.

Trump boasted about what he said was the great state of the US economy, before adding that it was so, “despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve.”

“I mean, Biden reappointed him. It’s too bad. You would have thought he wouldn’t have done that,” Trump said, without any acknowledgment that he had first appointed Powell himself, in 2018.

Case dropped against TikTok streamer who was shot by US immigration agents

A federal judge has dismissed an indictment against a Los Angeles TikTok streamer who was shot by an officer during an immigration enforcement operation and accused of assault against a federal agent, citing constitutional violations.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikTok creator who streams local breaking news, was accused in October of ramming his car into immigration agents’ vehicles after they surrounded him during an operation. Body-worn camera footage obtained by the Los Angeles Times shows that an agent fired his gun during the incident, shooting Parias in the elbow. A ricochet bullet also hit a deputy US marshal in the hand. He was indicted by a grand jury and scheduled to go on trial on Tuesday.

But on Saturday, US district judge Fernando Olguin ordered the indictment dismissed, saying that the government deprived ​​Parias of his rights when it decided to detain him at the Adelanto ICE processing center – an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center about 90 miles (145km) east of Los Angeles – immediately after he was ordered released from jail on bond. Olguin also said that once at Adelanto, Parias’ defense team were unable to schedule any legal visits.

“The obstacles and roadblocks that ICE has put in place at Adelanto make it difficult, if not impossible, for defendant to meet with his attorneys, and have caused defendant to suffer demonstrable prejudice or a substantial threat thereof,” the judge said. He also cited in his order the government’s failure to comply with various deadlines in the discovery process, including its failure to release body-worn camera footage that captured the shooting by deadline.

The government had charged Parias with assault, saying that he used his car as a “weapon” to ram against two law enforcement vehicles. But in video footage leading up to Parias’ shooting, reviewed by the LA Times, Parias’ car did not appear to be moving. The footage shows him asking officers why he is being detained, and an officer threatening to shoot Parias if he doesn’t get out. The indictment was dismissed with prejudice, which means prosecutors cannot refile the same charges of assault against Parias.

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Working Families bet on 2026 as the right time for a third US party after a wave of wins

The “time has come” for the Working Families party, the progressive third party’s national director said after a year of big wins and a growing hunger among voters for a home outside the two major political parties. “For 26 years, we’ve been building this argument,” Maurice Mitchell said. “And the argument has met the moment.” The party, founded in 1998, helped elect Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor, worked to get rid of an electoral process in New Jersey that prioritized party insiders, and saw its endorsees win races across the country this year. The party has made inroads beyond deep-blue cities too, with endorsees winning in Dayton, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York.

In next year’s midterms, it will ramp up its involvement in primary elections, supporting candidates that emphasize working-class politics and seek to disrupt the political status quo. Already, Democratic candidates have laser-focused on affordability – something the Working Families party has advocated for.

The Working Families party describes itself as “a multiracial party that fights for workers over bosses and people over the powerful” that seeks to build “an America which realizes the promise – unrealized in our history – of freedom and equality for all”. In practice, candidates the party supports often run in Democratic primaries as insurgents aligned with its goals of affordability, improved conditions for workers, a stronger social safety net and reforms to the democratic process.

Part of Working Families’ success stems from the Democratic party’s flagging brand with some voters, who see it as too moderate or simply unwilling to fight for the interests of its voters. As the Democrats spent the last year soul-searching over how to improve their standing with voters, Working Families peeled off some of those who previously called themselves Democrats. Could the US have a true third party? Mitchell said he wouldn’t do the work if he didn’t think it was “both necessary and possible”. The party is also working to dismantle structural barriers that make the rise of third parties difficult in the US, he said.

“Less and less people are identifying as being a Democrat or Republican,” he said. “The brand of the Democratic and the Republican parties are underwater consistently. I don’t think there’s been a better and more right time for a third party to emerge in this country that speaks to the interest of everyday working people. I believe that our time has come.”

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Watchdog Warns Trump and Burgum’s Halting of Offshore Wind Projects Is Illegal

A week after the US Department of the Interior said it was immediately halting five offshore wind projects in the interest of “national security,” a watchdog group told congressional committees Monday that the move is “not legally defensible” and raises “significant” questions about conflicts of interest concerning a top DOI official’s investments in fossil gas.

Timothy Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), wrote to the top members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Committee on Natural Resources regarding the pause on projects off the coasts of Virginia, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts—projects that account for billions of dollars in investment, employ thousands of people, and generate sustainable energy for roughly 2.5 million homes and businesses.

The announcement made by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last week pertained to “five vague, perfunctory, cookie-cutter orders” halting the projects, wrote Whitehouse, but PEER is concerned that the orders were issued to evade the Congressional Review Act (CRA), under which the action to halt the projects likely constitutes a “major rule.”

Whitehouse explained:

Under the CRA, a rule that meets any one of three criteria (an annual effect on the economy of $100,000,000 or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or in pertinent part significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, or innovation) is a major rule. Interior’s pause likely meets all three.

As a major rule under the CRA, the pause cannot take effect until at least 60 days after BOEM provides Congress the requisite notification and report under the CRA, which, according to GAO’s database, has not yet occurred. Congress must use its oversight authority to unveil the truth and, as appropriate, and to enforce the rule of law.

He said in a statement that “Burgum’s move is designed to bypass all congressional and public input.”

The CRA states that a rule is “the whole or a part of an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency.”

Press statements by the DOI and by Burgum last week were “statements of general applicability and imminent future effect, designed to implement policy,” wrote Whitehouse, who also said the interior secretary embarked on “a coordinated rollout with Fox News entities.”

On December 22, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Burgum at 8:00 am Eastern, “What next action did you want to tell us about this morning?” Five minutes later, FoxNews.com published its first story on Burgum’s orders, citing a press release that had not yet been made public and including a quote from the secretary about the “emerging national security risk” posed by the offshore wind projects.

Burgum’s announcement to Fox came at least one to two hours before Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) acting Director Matthew Giacona provided the orders to the lessees running the five wind projects.

Further, wrote Whitehouse, “Burgum’s voluminous public comments in the hours and days since the pause further show the true purpose of Interior’s singular action.”

“The national security pretext quickly gives way to broad and spurious talking points about the ‘Green New Scam,’ how ‘wind doesn’t blow 24-7’ (evincing Burgum’s seeming unfamiliarity with energy storage technologies), and unyielding promotion of liquified natural gas projects,” wrote Whitehouse.

Aside from the alleged illegality of Burgum’s order, PEER pointed to Giacona’s potential conflicts of interest with BOEM operations and specifically with halting wind projects. Giacona is a “diligent filer” of financial disclosure forms required by the Ethics in Government Act, noted Whitehouse—but those forms point to potential benefits he may reap from shutting down offshore wind infrastructure.

Giacona reported his purchase of interests in the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) on September 16. The fund tracks daily price movements of “natural” gas delivered at the Henry Hub in Louisiana and is subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

“Accordingly, a government employee who has an interest in UNG also has a potential conflict of interest with the underlying holdings of UNG (currently primarily natural gas futures contracts at the Henry Hub),” wrote Whitehouse.

PEER does not know whether Giacona continues to hold a financial interest in UNG or whether the offshore wind pause will have a “direct and predictable effect on a financial interest in UNG,” but Whitehouse noted that Burgum and DIO have entwined the pause with the promotion of liquefied natural gas.

“It is disconcerting that Mr. Giacona temporarily had even a de minimis financial interest in natural gas futures while also leading the agency that manages the development of natural gas resources on the outer continental shelf,” wrote Whitehouse, adding that Giacona also sold interests in the United States Oil Fund on September 3, while overseeing BOEM.

Based on Giacona’s investments, said Whitehouse, “Burgum’s actions on offshore wind appear to be motivated by the personal financial interests of those in the administration, not our collective national interests. This is another misguided step in transforming the federal government into a franchise of the fossil fuel industry.”

“On public lands across the United States, the Department of the Interior has tens of thousands of additional active leases related to oil, gas, wind, solar, and geothermal production and mining for energy-related minerals,” he added. “If last week’s actions are allowed to stand, future presidents will have unchecked authority under the guise of national security to target federal leases related to entire disfavored energy industries for political purposes.”

Stingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first

Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest’s long-overlooked native bees – which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting – now have the right to exist and to flourish.

Cultivated by Indigenous peoples since pre-Columbian times, stingless bees are thought to be key rainforest pollinators, sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem health. But they are faced with a deadly confluence of climate change, deforestation and pesticides, as well as competition from European bees, and scientists and campaigners have been racing against time to get stingless bees on international conservation red lists. ...

Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a chemical biologist, first started researching the bees in 2020, after a colleague asked her to conduct an analysis of their honey, which was being used during the pandemic in Indigenous communities where treatments for Covid were in short supply. She was stunned by the findings. “I was seeing hundreds of medicinal molecules, like molecules that are known to have some sort of biological medicinal property,” Espinoza recalled. “And the variety was also really wild – these molecules have been known to have antiinflammatory effects or antiviral, antibacterial, antioxidant, even anti-cancer.”

Espinoza, who has written a book, The Spirit of the Rainforest, about her work in the Amazon, began leading expeditions to learn more about stingless bees, working with Indigenous people to document the traditional methods of finding and cultivating the insects, and harvesting their honey. Found in tropical regions across the world, stingless bees, a class that encompasses a number of varieties, are the oldest bee species on the planet. About half of the world’s 500 known species live in the Amazon, where they are responsible for pollinating more than 80% of the flora, including such crops as cacao, coffee and avocados.

Hundreds of Detroit home demolition sites may have been filled with toxic dirt

Hundreds of Detroit home demolition sites were potentially backfilled with toxic construction debris from a demolished shopping mall and other sources, creating an unfolding public health threat in the city’s neighborhoods.

Detroit, the nation’s lowest income big city, is in the US industrial heartland. It was left with tens of thousands of empty structures as industrial plants closed and people left the city in past decades – Detroit’s population dropped from nearly 2 million people around 1950 to fewer than 700,000 today. The city’s demolition program is widely considered the largest ever in the US.

Despite repeated requests from the Guardian, Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration and state regulators have so far not disclosed which toxins have been detected. Independent environmental health experts and a former regulator say lead, mercury, cadmium, PAHs, and asbestos – chemicals that are toxic at very low exposure levels – are likely in the type of slag used to backfill the neighborhood sites.

The problem could have been avoided, some demolition experts say. Duggan’s demolition program brought down tens of thousands of homes at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars over his 12 years in office. Contaminated sites were found three times previously, and in 2018 drew federal scrutiny.

The latest round of contaminated sites – potentially 424 so far – is on pace to be the widest scale, and comes as Duggan leaves office this week to campaign full-time for governor as a pro-business independent. He has touted his blight elimination program as a top achievement.

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Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Decline and Fall

Palestinian family fighting to save their West Bank farm

Trump Says He’ll Support an Israeli Attack on Iran If Tehran ‘Continues’ Its Missile Program

Ukraine – Negotiations At A Standstill, The War Progresses

Can You Just Out-Breed Your Domestic Enemies?

Trump BOMBS Venezuela, Greenlights Israel Iran Strikes

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A Little Night Music

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Space Guitar

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Gangster Of Love

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Those Lonely, Lonely Nights

Johnny Guitar Watson - Half Pint A Whiskey

Johnny Guitar Watson - Big Bad Wolf

Johnny Guitar Watson - Cuttin' In

Johnny Guitar Watson - Hot Little Mama

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Looking Back

Billy Preston & Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Hoochie Coochie Man

Johnny Guitar Watson - A Real Mother For Ya

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - I Want To Ta-Ta You Baby

Johnny Guitar Watson - Sweet Lovin' Mama

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