The Evening Blues - 3-31-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues guitarist Big Daddy Kinsey. Enjoy!
Big Daddy Kinsey – Baby Don't Say That No More
"Religion is a salve for confusion and misdirection."
-- Robert Kennedy
News and Opinion
The More Murderous Israel Gets, The More We Hear About “Antisemitism”
Whenever Israel is killing tons of civilians the western media always start churning out articles about “antisemitism” and Jewish feelings.
“Jews Begin to Wonder: Is Anywhere Safe?” blares a recent headline from The Wall Street Journal, subtitled “‘It feels like the 1930s again.’ Hostility against Jews surges in Western countries where they felt safe in recent decades.”
An article for The Atlantic titled “Canada’s Polite Pogrom” bizarrely tries to argue that “tolerance for zealotry” is somehow “purging Jews from public life.”
A Washington Examiner headline proclaims that “Jewish voters feel ‘politically homeless’ as antisemitism rises on both sides.”
A headline for The Telegraph asserts that “Many Jews are sensing frightening echoes of 1930s Germany in 2020s Britain.”
War Criminal Tony Blair writes an article for The Free Press titled “Why the West Fails to Stop Antisemitism”.
What about 92 million people in Iran, 5 million people in Lebanon, 2.7 million people in the West Bank, and 2 million people in Gaza? Is anywhere safe for them? https://t.co/ztMlGrpK4f
— Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) March 27, 2026
Meanwhile, in real life, people are being mercilessly butchered in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine by Israel and its allies. The uglier it gets, the more aggressive the concern-trolling about “antisemitism” becomes.
The Jewish Chronicle has published an article by Maureen Lipman titled “Does the world have any idea of how tired the people of Israel are?”, subtitled “A dear friend told me that his grandchildren have needed to enter their safe room more than 200 times since the current battle began.”
“The BBC and reporters worldwide do not go into the shelters where children are trained to lie on the floor when the sirens go off,” writes Lipman. “Neither do they report on the closure of schools. Most Israeli kids have missed some school every day since Covid. Are the media even aware of the fear of the elderly in Israel?”
Absolutely incredible. She writes as though Israelis are the only people on earth whose country is being bombed. Only Zionists could drop bombs on neighboring populations every single day for years and then go “NOBODY IN THE WORLD CAN IMAGINE WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LIVE IN FEAR OF AIRSTRIKES!”
We do not care Maureen, not an ounce pic.twitter.com/cObeT8b37d
— keewa (@keewa) March 26, 2026
Western news reporters face so much pressure to pad Israel’s image and advance Israeli information interests that the Associated Press just ran an editorial titled “AP is calling Israel’s attack on Lebanon an invasion. What does that mean and why does it matter?” justifying its decision to call what is self-evidently and indisputably an invasion the thing that it is.
You never saw them do this with Ukraine. You never saw the media holding long internal deliberations about what to label it and then publishing editorials going “We’re going to call this a Russian invasion, we’re pretty sure that’s what this is called, please don’t be mad at us!” That’s how cowed they are by Israel’s supporters, and how much pressure they feel to toe the imperial line no matter what.
At the same time in the Israeli press we’re seeing op-eds like The Jerusalem Post’s “Long-term deradicalization in Gaza faces major hurdles,” which argues explicitly for the total ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory.
The article’s author Martin Sherman dismisses claims that the people of Gaza can be “deradicalized” — as though the radicalization of Palestinians is the problem, and not the radical political ideology of the people who’ve been waging an extermination campaign upon them. Instead, Sherman argues, everyone must accept the “harsh reality” that only annexation and ethnic cleansing can lead to a lasting peace in the Gaza Strip.
To be clear, this is an opinion column in a major Israeli newspaper advocating ethnic cleansing. https://t.co/0Bd8SXzWMv
— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) March 29, 2026
“The only way Israel can ensure how the Gaza Strip will be governed, and who will govern it, is to govern it itself,” writes Sherman. “Moreover, the only way Israel can govern the Gaza Strip without becoming an external oppressor of ‘another people’ is to remove ‘the other people’ from the confines of the Gaza Strip itself.”
“This is not radical right-wing radicalism. It is merely sound and sober political science,” Sherman writes.
If it isn’t right-wing radicalism to advocate the mass purge of a colonized indigenous population from their homeland for being the wrong ethnicity, then right-wing radicalism does not exist. That’s pretty much as right-wing extremist as it gets.
And this is an entirely mainstream Israeli publication.
If anyone on earth needs to be deradicalized, it’s the Israelis and their supporters.
The War On Iran Is Spiraling Out of Control, w/ Trita Parsi
Seyed M. Marandi: Yemen STRIKES Israel - They Hit Iran’s WATER & POWER… Now RETALIATION Has Started
How do you spell delusional? T-r-u-m-p.
Trump threatens to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s energy grid if ceasefire not reached ‘shortly’
Donald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran does not agree to peace terms “shortly”, even as he claimed diplomatic progress in ending the war that was instigated by the US and Israel. Tehran has remained defiant during the month-long conflict, describing US peace proposals as “excessive, unrealistic and irrational” and firing waves of missiles at Israel. The risk of further escalation, including a US ground operation to seize Kharg Island, continued to send tremors through financial markets. Oil prices are on course for a record monthly rise.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump expressed confidence that a negotiated settlement would soon be reached, adding that the US was in “serious discussions” with what he characterised quixotically as “a more reasonable regime” in Tehran. But he said if a deal was not struck – including to reopen the strait of Hormuz shipping lane – US forces would destroy “all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”. Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and would probably constitute a war crime.
Later on Monday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump would be willing to ask Arab countries to help foot the bill for the Iran war. “I think it’s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,” she told reporters. “It’s an idea that I know that he has.” The proposal adds a striking new dimension to the warfare, suggesting Washington may seek to offload war costs on to the very Gulf states now scrambling to broker a peace deal.
The US president’s social media post and indications from the White House press team came amid continued garbled messaging. In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said his preference would be to “take the oil in Iran”, which analysts believe would require using US troops to seize Kharg Island, the terminal through which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass.
CPT. Matt Hoh : Are US Troops Combat Ready?
Trump’s distorted reality on Iran war runs into a brick wall
“Let me say, we’ve won,” he told a rally in Kentucky on 11 March. “I think we’ve won,” he said on the White House south lawn on 20 March. “We’ve won this war. The war has been won,” he said in the Oval Office on 24 March. “We are winning so big,” he promised a fundraising dinner on 25 March. Donald Trump keeps declaring victory in Iran. But saying it over and over does not make it so. While the US president insists that his military campaign in the Middle East is a historic success, the world is bracing for a conflict that continues to metastasize and could wreak havoc on the global economy.
The war is turning into the ultimate test of an operating principle that has guided Trump for decades: construct a narrative, declare it to be true and relentlessly force the world to submit to it. It has proved effective in Manhattan boardrooms, on reality television and even at the heart of power in Washington. But in Iran, Trump’s unique brand of “truthful hyperbole” has collided with the truthful truth. His reality distortion field has run into a brick wall.
Trump has led a charmed life that bred self-belief. He grew up in a secluded suburb of Queens, New York, where his father Fred, a wealthy property developer, is said to have taught him to never apologise or show weakness. Sundays were spent at a church where the head pastor was Norman Vincent Peale, author of the influential bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking. The book’s directives include: “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture … Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.”
A month into the conflict, Trump is in trouble. It has already cost 13 US lives and billions of dollars. Yet there is little sign of the Iranian regime losing its grip. Instead, as many observers predicted, Tehran has triggered a global energy crisis by blocking the strait of Hormuz. Opinion polls show the war is already unpopular with US voters and a ground invasion would be even more so. There is no obvious exit strategy.
It is a battle with deadly geopolitical consequences. Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, argues that Trump’s belief in his own mental supremacy fundamentally misunderstands the mechanics of warfare. “Trump clearly is a real believer in the power of the mind to control events and to shape how people perceive events and shape reality,” Rubin said. “The problem with that in the case of the war is the Iranians don’t have to bend to that. There are time-tested ways to win wars and end wars through force of arms or diplomacy that have nothing to do with the mind and willpower and willing it because the other side will do what we want. He’s going to buck up against that and the sooner he relies not just on the reality of military power but the reality of diplomatic power the more likely he is to be successful.” Media reports suggest that Trump is getting “bored” of the war and looking to move on. If and when that happens, the president and his allies will once again face the challenge of spinning it as an overwhelming victory that only he could have achieved.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Israel Might Not Survive This… END EVERYTHING… Israel & Iran Nuclear Scenario
Turkish Journalist Kemal Öztürk:
"Israel’s alleged game plan:
Prolong the war so that all countries in the region become exhausted
Drag Gulf countries into the conflict and fuel sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias
Turn a Saudi–Iran war into a wider conflict by… pic.twitter.com/T3hRE1IfVO— Turgay Evren (@TurgayEvren1) March 29, 2026
Iran OBLITERATES Oil Tanker, Strikes Tel Aviv HARD as Trump FUMES | Stanislav Krapivnik
Spain closes airspace to US military over Iran war, widening rift with US
Spain has ramped up its opposition to the US-Israel war on Iran by closing its airspace to US aircraft involved in attacks, underlining its position as Europe’s leading critic of the conflict. The move, first reported by El País newspaper and confirmed by the defence minister on Monday, comes after Madrid said the US could not use jointly operated military bases in the country for operations related to the war.
“We don’t authorise either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” the minister, Margarita Robles, told reporters. “I think everyone knows Spain’s position. It’s very clear,” she added, calling the war “profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust”. The closure will force military planes, including those based in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, to bypass Spain en route to targets in the Middle East except in emergencies.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has already angered Donald Trump with his unequivocal opposition to the war. Sánchez has called on the US, Israel and Iran to stop the war, saying: “You can’t respond to one illegality with another because that’s how humanity’s great disasters begin.”
The refusal to let the US use the bases prompted Trump to threaten to cut off trade with Madrid. Asked on Monday if the move to restrict access to its airspace could worsen Spain’s fraught relations with the White House, Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, told local radio: “This decision is part of the decision already made by the Spanish government not to participate in or contribute to a war which was initiated unilaterally and against international law.”
South Africa, Cuba Torch Israėl and the U.S. at the UN
Israel passes law to give death penalty to Palestinians convicted of lethal attacks
Israel’s parliament has passed a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks, a measure sharply criticised as discriminatory by European countries and rights groups. The legislation makes the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed acts of terrorism by a military court.
According to the bill, those sentenced to death will be held in a separate facility with no visits except for from authorised personnel, with legal consultations conducted only by video link. Executions will be carried out within 90 days of sentencing. Israel has rarely used the death penalty, applying it only in exceptional cases. The Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was the last person to be executed, in 1962.
The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the bill’s strongest backers, has repeatedly worn a noose-shaped lapel pin, symbolising executions under the proposal. He described hanging as “one of the options” alongside the electric chair or “euthanasia”, claiming some doctors had offered to assist.
A security committee made some amendments to the bill, which last week passed its first vote. Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported that executions would be carried out by hanging.
The measure will allow courts to impose the death penalty without a request from prosecutors and without requiring unanimity, instead permitting a simple majority decision. Military courts in the occupied West Bank will also be empowered to hand down death sentences, with the defence minister able to submit an opinion.
Scott Ritter : Why Iran is Winning
US directs American embassies to wage campaign against foreign ‘hostility’ – with Musk’s help
The United States has directed every American embassy and consulate across the world to launch coordinated campaigns against foreign propaganda and endorses Elon Musk’s X as an “innovative” tool to help do it. The cable, signed by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Monday and obtained by the Guardian, also suggests embassies and consulates work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation. It lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.
It comes as the United States is at war with Iran, whose government has for decades operated one of the world’s most sophisticated and prolific state disinformation apparatuses, and as Russian and Chinese influence operations continue to target American allies across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The cable instructs those embassies and consulates to pursue five broad goals: countering hostile messaging, expanding access to information, exposing adversary behavior, elevating local voices who support American interests, and promoting what it calls “telling America’s story”. Embassies are told to recruit local influencers, academics and community leaders abroad to carry counter-propaganda messaging, an approach designed to make American-funded narratives feel locally organic rather than centrally directed.
“These campaigns seek to shift blame to the United States, sow division among allies, promote alternative worldviews antithetical to America’s interests, and even undermine American economic interests and political freedoms,” the cable says. “Using digital platforms, state-controlled media, and influence operations, they pose a direct threat to US national security and fuel hostility toward American interests.”
Notably, the cable tells diplomatic offices to coordinate their work with “the Department of War’s Psychological Operations” – the military unit more commonly known as Miso, or Military Information Support Operations, formerly Psyop, which is part of the Pentagon.
Iran War ALREADY Causing OIL CRISIS in Asia
Brent crude hits $116 a barrel as Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ Iran’s oilwells and export hub
The price of oil hit nearly $117 (£89) a barrel on Monday as Donald Trump threatened to “blow up” and “completely obliterate” Iranian electricity plants, oilwells and its export hub Kharg Island if it did not agree to a deal. Brent crude rose after the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that if a deal was not agreed and the strait of Hormuz was not reopened, the US would take further action.
Jerome Powell, the US Federal Reserve chair and a regular target of the president’s ire, claimed on Monday that the central bank was in a “good place … to wait and see” how the economic fallout of the war on Iran unfolds. But he cautioned that policymakers would monitor two conflicting factors – the stability of both the US workforce and prices – as they consider what to do with interest rates.
“There’s sort of downside risk to the labor market, which suggests keep rates low, but there’s upside risk to inflation, which suggests maybe don’t keep rates low,” Powell said during a Q&A session at Harvard University. “You’ve got tension between the two objectives.”
Trump, who has repeatedly provided conflicting signals around the aims and possible duration of the conflict, threatened to seize the Iranian export hub of Kharg Island in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday. Trump said: “To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people. Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” he said.
The oil price rose by 2% to $116.89 a barrel in early trading on Monday – not far off the $119.50 highest level since the US-Israel war with Iran started on 28 February – before later dipping to $112 a barrel. In Europe, stock markets rose slightly, with the European Stoxx 600 index rising by 0.9%. The UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 share index rose 1.6%. In the US, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were up slightly in early afternoon trading on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was roughly flat. Natural gas prices rose slightly in Europe on Monday. Dutch month-ahead futures rose 1% to €54.70 a megawatt-hour. In Asia, where economies are highly exposed to the shortage in oil and gas coming out of the Gulf, stock markets dropped sharply before Trump’s latest post.
Gas Hits $4 Gallon: Trump TACO WILL NOT SAVE Us
IMF warns Middle East conflict will lead to higher prices and slower global growth
The International Monetary Fund has warned that “all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth worldwide” should the conflict in the Middle East continue to throttle the amount of oil, gas and fertiliser making its way out of the Gulf.
In a stark message that countries on all continents will be affected, the Washington-based organisation said a rise in energy and food costs would harm economic growth this year and could leave lasting scars on the global economy.
Coming only hours after Donald Trump threatened to obliterate Iran’s energy infrastructure unless it agreed to a peace deal, the IMF’s analysis is likely to be viewed as a warning to the White House over the war’s lasting consequences for struggling households.
In a blogpost by the IMF’s main department heads, including the chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF said governments with high levels of borrowing will also have limited access to funds that could be used to cushion the worst effects of the crisis.
“Although the war could shape the global economy in different ways, all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth,” it said.
Alarm mounted Monday over the Trump administration’s “Greater North America” plan, a geopolitical blueprint for US imperial hegemony from Greenland to Guyana that’s drawing comparisons with a messianic project being pushed by President Donald Trump’s far-right allies and war partners in Israel.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first unveiled the plan earlier this month, telling reporters: “Trump has drawn a new strategic map, from Greenland to the Gulf of America to the Panama Canal and its surrounding countries. At the Department of War we call this strategic map the Greater North America.”
“Why? Because every sovereign nation and territory north of the Equator, from Greenland to Ecuador and from Alaska to Guyana, is not part of the ‘Global South,’” Hegseth added. “It is our immediate security perimeter in this great neighborhood that we all live in.”
Graeme Garrard, a Canadian professor at Cardiff University in Wales, said Monday on social media in response to Hegseth’s comments: “By ‘Greater North America’ he means ‘Greater United States. The US is now and has long been a menace and threat to the sovereignty and independence of its hemispheric neighbors.”
Pete Hegseth presents Washington's “Greater North America" concept like "Greater Israel" of dominating everything from Greenland to the Panama Canal pic.twitter.com/Ft6PcKVYDK
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) March 30, 2026
Numerous observers have compared Trump’s “Greater America” with the “Greater Israel” movement, whose most zealous proponents want to conquer everything between the Nile and Euphrates rivers—that is, all of Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan; most of Syria and Kuwait; large parts of Egypt and Iraq; and some of Turkey—for Israel.
“Hesgeth’s ‘Greater North America’ should be taken VERY seriously as a real threat,” University of Lausanne professor Julia Steinberger, who is Swiss-American, said on social media. “Right now the US and Israel are realizing ‘Greater Israel’ by attacking-invading Lebanon and Iran. Hegseth is saying it’s Greenland, Cuba, Canada, and Mexico next.”
Based on the biblical boundaries of ancient Jewish kingdoms, Greater Israel is rooted in the supremacist supposition that the Abrahamic deity figure God promised the Jews all of the lands between the Nile and Euphrates.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—and other prominent right-wing Israelis support the Greater Israel vision and are working to make it a reality by accelerating the illegal settler colonization and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, preparing to annex the dwindling Palestinian territories, and planning to occupy—perhaps permanently—parts of Syria and Lebanon.
For nearly two centuries, claims of divine favor have also underpinned US expansionism, most famously expressed in Manifest Destiny and mid-19th century plans to annex lands “from the Arctic to the Tropic.” This notion drove the US conquest of half of Mexico, as well as later takeovers of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. The US also took control over the Panama Canal, which it built at the cost of thousands of laborers’ lives, most of them from Barbados and other West Indies isles.
“It is part of the great law of progress that the weak should give way to the strong, and that the superior should displace the inferior races,” one New Orleans newspaper opined in 1848.
Nearly 178 years later, Hegseth echoed this supremacist ideology, telling Latin American leaders that the region must remain “Christian nations under God” and stand united in the face of “radical narco-communism.”
Like the 19th century US imperialists, Trump has also repeatedly expressed his goal of “taking Cuba”—an objective that goes back over 200 years, when Thomas Jefferson, then a former president, called the island “the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of states.”
Two-year-old held by ICE sick and not getting adequate care
A two-year-old detained in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, is sick and not getting adequate help, said Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from San Antonio. The boy, Kaleth, has a fever and is not eating the food served at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, which Castro said detainees have complained of having mold and worms.
“When his mother asked for help, the staff said it was all ‘mental’,” Castro wrote in a post on X. “A vulnerable child at the Dilley trailer prison was suffering and ICE denied their reality and their needs. It’s shameful and must stop.” Dilley has been criticized for not providing adequate care and food for families. In February, the detention center reported two measles cases. It’s the same facility where five-year-old asylum seeker Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were kept for a week after being detained in Minneapolis.
Castro has been calling for the detention center to be “shut down immediately” and has long said Donald Trump’s immigration agenda is inhumane. The congressman has sought to get several immigrants released from Dilley. Castro said: “I am calling for ICE to provide proper medical care to Kaleth and to release him and his mother Joani immediately.”
Earlier this week, Castro posted a video on his social media underscoring his demand to close Dilley. “As a country we have made the decision to commodify child suffering,” he said. “We have allowed investors to profit from the imprisonment of innocent children. Some are as young as two months old. We must shut down the Dilley trailer prison and #FreeOurChildren.” The facility, formally titled the South Texas Family Residential Center, is run on behalf of ICE by the private corrections and detention company CoreCivic, which expects to make $180m annually in revenue from the property through at least March 2030.
José Guadalupe Ramos, a Mexican national, dies in ICE detention in LA
A Mexican immigrant has died at a detention center outside Los Angeles, marking at least the 14th death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since the year began.
Security staff at the Adelanto detention center found José Guadalupe Ramos unconscious and unresponsive in his bunk on 25 March, according to an ICE press release. Staff attempted to carry out life-saving procedures, including CPR, then called emergency services, who took Ramos to Victory Valley Global medical center in nearby Victorville. He was pronounced dead there at 9.29pm.
At his medical screening on 24 February, ICE found that Ramos suffered from diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. He received “daily medication to treat his illness”, according to ICE. It was not clear whether he received medication for a single illness or all three.
Some 32 migrants died while locked in immigrant detention centers last year, marking the deadliest year in detention since 2004. The number of detainee deaths so far is already on pace to exceed last year’s.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, said at a press conference Monday that Mexico would protest the deaths of Mexican nationals. “We’ll be taking several actions to protest the death of another Mexican, another countryman, in the United States,” Sheinbaum said. “Especially in that detention center in Los Angeles,” she added, referring to Adelanto, noting that several other Mexican migrants had died there since Trump took office. Ramos was the fourth Mexican national to die at Adelanto since last year.
Trump to revoke protections for endangered species in Gulf of Mexico
Donald Trump is dispatching a so-called “God squad” of top officials to revoke protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, purportedly to protect national security by expanding oil and gas industry operations. If successful, the administration may kill off dozens of protected species – from Rice’s whales and whooping cranes to sea turtles.
The rarely used “God squad” provision in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows a president to convene a committee of agency heads empowered to effectively veto protections for species on the brink of extinction. The committee essentially weighs whether the benefits from a proposed project outweigh the continued existence of protected wildlife. The Trump administration is attempting to justify the ESA exemption for “reasons of national security”, marking the first time a security claim has been made. However, oil and gas companies have not asked for the exemption, raising questions about why it is being requested, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which has sued to stop the committee from convening.
The move is presumably aimed at bringing down gas prices that are soaring amid the US-Israel war on Iran, opponents say. Trump wants to make it appear as if the administration is taking action over the growing crisis, but the claim that there is a national security threat is “nonsense” for a multitude of reasons, Hartl said. “What is the threat here? Or is the main threat Donald Trump’s abysmal polling numbers?” Hartl asked. “This is performative and it’s red meat being thrown to the far-right and industry.”
Only about 51 Rice’s whales remain, and they and other wildlife are largely on the brink of extinction because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill, which devastated the gulf when it leaked about 210m gallons.
The squad, officially called the Endangered Species Committee, includes seven federal agency leaders, who, in the rare instances in which a federal action of significant public or economic interest comes into “irresolvable conflict” with the ESA, each vote on whether the project’s benefits outweigh the protected species’ wellbeing. If five of the seven votes are in favor of a project proceeding, it moves forward, which could drive species to extinction. It convenes on 31 March.
Demand for hydropower surges as Trump clamps down on clean energy
Submersible hydroelectric technology deployed across the Great Lakes could become a key cog in clean energy efforts, supporters say, amid surging electricity demand and costs. Home to one of the largest deposits of freshwater on the planet, the Great Lakes region has on its shores some of the largest cities in North America in Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and Detroit, where electricity demand is growing. While none of the five Great Lakes have significant tides or currents to fuel hydropower, several of the waterways that link the lakes do.
Last month the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), an entity that has operated submersible hydroelectric projects in Alaska and Maine for years, announced its first urban venture on the St Lawrence River in Montreal, which is set to begin operating two hydroelectricity devices later this year.
“The St Lawrence River is one of the best opportunities in North America for our technology because it has consistent, high-velocity water for hundreds of miles. In the Montreal area, there’s 60-90 megawatts of resource potential alone,” says ORPC’s chief executive officer, Stuart Davies. “The Niagara River, the St Lawrence River are big powerful rivers driven by the hydrology of the lakes draining out.”
The devices use turbines made from carbon fiber that look like the blades of an old-school push lawnmower and are turned by the flow of water. Current- and tidal-powered hydroelectric generators have been growing in popularity and efficiency across the world. In Scotland, the world’s most powerful tidal hydro generator can power up to 2,000 homes. In Korea, the Sihwa Lake tidal power station generates about 550GWh (gigawatt-hours) of electricity annually, the equivalent of 862,000 barrels of oil.
Orbital Marine Power, the company running the Scotland project, announced in November that it plans to deploy up to three O2-X tidal devices in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Passage in Nova Scotia. ORPC is expected to begin a second Great Lakes project on a section of the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York, later this year.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Chris Hedges: Trump Has No Soul
Children Among Those Killed by US With Mysterious New Weapon Fired on Iran
War On Iran: “And then? What?”
DAYS 25-29: WAR ON IRAN — Remaking the Middle East
Trump Threatens To ‘Blow Up’ Iran’s Desalination Plants
It’s Time For Iraq To Free Itself And Get Revenge For the Gulf and Iraq Wars
‘Unforgivably Cynical’: Top House Dem Ripped for Siding With Trump on Domestic Spying
CNN Crew ASSAULTED LIVE By IDF In Shocking Footage
The Genocide That Is Not Over | Iranian LEGO War-Themed Video
A Little Night Music
Big Daddy Kinsey - Gary, Indiana
The Big Daddy Kinsey - Ramblin' man
Big Daddy Kinsey & Sons - Can't Let Go
Big Daddy Kinsey – The Queen Without A King
Big Daddy Kinsey - Dancing shoes
Big Daddy Kinsey - Kinsey's Mood
Big Daddy Kinsey - For The Love Of A Woman
Big Daddy Kinsey & Sons ~ Howlin' Wolf'
Big Daddy Kinsey – Mannish Boy
Comments
Well, someone has to say it.
.
This is probably the most dangerous "crisis" ever discussed in the Evening Blues.
Dangerous for the world, and dangerous for the American people ...
... whether it gets discussed or not.
This threatened danger does not include the deeper danger that befalls a society when it has no real control over its own government. Furthermore, arming the Neocon Psychopaths (who do effectively control the US Federal government — with nuclear weapons — may be the greatest mistake ever made on this planet. Especially when these delusional religious narcissists are rapidly running out of defensive weapons and interceptors.
If we do survive this crisis, humans will probably need to contain and monitor the earth's population of psychopaths, and ban them from certain occupations. Capitalism is a huge trigger for them, and it needs to be carefully regulated, just as t was after the last Great Depression.
The global crisis the US has unleashed (for no good reason except to create chaos — the Psychopath's favorite pastime) is much more immediate, however. Right now, the US military is standing ready to commit massively evil War Crimes in Iran. We, as a human society, do not know how to prevent this. A nation that is this dangerously insane and out of control, should have never popped into existence, at all.
Whom shall we hang first?
The politicians or the military brass?
Only the least responsible will die.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
We .... cannot do anything to stop it.
That is exactly why the US is an aberration. A monster.
The US has shown the world its rotten evil core. We cannot walk away from this like it didn't happen. Billions of people around the world are looking at us right now. We are clearly destructive. We can never be trusted again.
@Pluto's Republic Along these lines, Glen
Along these lines, Glen Diesen interviews MIT professor Theodore Postol who wants Israel and the world to know Iran’s likely nuclear response capability. He describes how they will build it. Strongest message is at the end where he describes what these weapons will do and how much the world has come to detest Israeli actions.
https://youtu.be/JtUobr7xGz4
Anya
evening pluto...
i think you're pretty much spot on. i have no idea of what to do about the situation. it's clear that the levers of control have long ago been put out of the reach of the people, so even if we can all mostly agree on what the government should do, there's not much chance of imposing our will. i think that we are left with the hope that the morons that are running the ship of state will run it aground and be unable by hook or crook to use it to continue working their will upon the larger world. perhaps at that point there will be an opportunity to arrange an evolution (or revolution as a final resort).
i guess we'll see.
It popped into existence
because it is the most profitable thing around. There's just no better way to make a lot of money than keeping the general population sufficiently frightened of the boogeyman-du-jour to want said boogeyman, and all his or her heirs and assigns, rendered ballistically dead ASAP.
Seems to be part of human nature. Sad, innit? Luckily, we still have the teevee...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good evenng Joe, thanks for the EBs. Iwas positively shocked,
shocked, I tell you to see that the national average for ga is 4 bux per gallon. Last Tuesday we paid $7+ in Paso Robles and On Wednesday the signage in Santa Cruise was in the $6.15 to $6.25 range. So who the hell is getting the 1 and 2 dollar gas to average that down?
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...
for some reason, california seems to have the highest gas prices in the continental u.s.
the last time i filled up (a day or two ago) gas was $3.99 for regular and $4.39 for premium at the cheapest gas station in my area. there are others that were a dime or so higher.
i suspect most of the mid-atlantic area is around that amount (for now) diesel is another story, it's at the mid 5's here.
i think that triple a has a gas prices page on its site from which you could survey the various states.
anyway, have a great evening!
Hey joe et.al
noticed a remark by petey hegseth where he coined
a new phrase - narco-communists to scare latin america.
Where do they come up with this terminology? Guess the
terrorist term has lost its charm.
thanks for the eb's
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
i guess the turbo-fascist "pistol pete" hegseth likes creating neologisms just as much as i do.
@joe shikspack Read a comment the
Read a comment the other day, on NC I think, that referred to him as Secretary of War Crimes. I thought it a catchy name and definitely fitting.
Looks like the moron in chief is ready tp tuck tail and run, leaving the strait problem to his un-loyal allies. I think he's destroyed himself, just sorry he's taking half the world down with him.
All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth. John Lennon
evening burnt...
it would be great if the trumpster would pack up his war crimes and go home as quickly as possible. i just don't know if bibi will let him.
burnt out, half the world
going down in flames is optimistic.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Matt Hoh is a great observer
...of the contemporary geopolitical situation.
There is a lot of material here in the Evening Blues. I haven't had the opportunity to review more than a part of it. In the current crisis Matt brings insights because of his experience, but also because of his age, that others can't.
It would be difficult for me to enlarge on his comments. His last two interviews have been extraordinary. I had been in recent years a student of PACOM and INDOPACOM because I felt it was a neglected field. Many style themselves as experts but really aren't. In my youth, my focus in operations was primarily on the middle east and Europe/cold war/eastern med. The one insight or revelation that I gained from Matt's presentation today, is that the INDOPACOM strategy in the Far East suffers from the same structural, institutional, and conceptual weaknesses as the current US/CENTCOM vision in the Persian Gulf. I hesitate to say and usually don't say more specifically because now this is much more than an academic exercise. Matt suggests not doubling down or reinforcing failure. He's commented on the nature of the post World War II death toll overseas. Nineteenth and twentieth century strategies have outlived their shelf life. The world has changed, but the leadership doesn't have the moral or intellectual honesty to recognize that. Did the Nuremburg principles go out of style?
As always, thanks for the EBs Joe.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
afternoon soryang...
hoh is spot on, but i wonder how you can convince people who cannot recognize failure not to double down on it.
the nuremburg principles are still solid as long as we are talking about countries other than the u.s. or israel breaking them.