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The Evening Blues - 5-22-26

Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 4:21pm


eb1pt12

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Young Jessie

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer and songwriter Young Jessie. Enjoy!

Young Jessie - Mary Lou

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

-- H. L. Mencken

News and Opinion

Nobody Sincerely Believes Cuba Threatens The United States

In a sign that the US is preparing for yet another evil war, Marco Rubio is now claiming that Cuba poses a “national security threat” to the United States, saying the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is “not high”.

“Cuba not only has weapons that they’ve acquired from Russia and China over the years, but they also host Russian and Chinese intelligence presence in their country — not far from where we’re standing right now,” Rubio told the press on Thursday. “So Cuba has always posed a national security threat to the United States. They, by the way, have been one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region.”

Rubio’s comments come as a US intelligence report laundered through Axios claims that Cuba may be preparing to launch a drone strike against US military forces. Havana said the Axios report misrepresents Cuba’s defensive measures as a preparation to attack, accusing the US of “fabricating pretexts, creating and spreading falsehoods, and distorting as extraordinary the logical preparation required to face a potential aggression.”

The US has also unsealed an indictment for Raul Castro, the 94 year-old brother of Fidel Castro, in a move that resembles the playbook used for the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.


The excuses for military action are already being rolled out. This happens as US war machinery relocates to the Caribbean, and as Cuba flounders under a crushing US oil blockade that is already inflicting a severe humanitarian toll.

And everyone knows it’s all based on lies. You know it. I know it. Marco Rubio knows it. The war propagandists know it. The gusanos brigading social media begging for war know it. We all know it’s a sham.

Not one person sincerely believes Cuba poses a threat to the United States.

No one sincerely believes Cuba just coincidentally became an urgent menace to US national security all of a sudden right when the US began scrambling to consolidate geostrategic control in the middle east and the western hemisphere.

Nobody actually thinks that a tiny, impoverished island nation is preparing to launch a war of aggression against the United States.

This is a performance put on by warmongers and bootlickers. It insults our intelligence and robs us of dignity.


If things cool down with Iran, then it’s a safe bet they’re going in for the kill shot on Cuba. The US empire never makes peace, it just moves the crosshairs of its war machinery from nation to nation.

We see this over and over again.

Yay! The troops are leaving Afghanistan — oh, now they’re waging a proxy war in Ukraine.

Excellent, they’re deescalating against Yemen — whoa, now they’re kidnapping the president of Venezuela.

Oh hey, it looks like the mass slaughter in Gaza has slowed down — oh, now they’re going to war with Iran.

Look, they’re pulling thousands of troops out of Germany — oh, it’s so they can move them to Poland.

Hey these Iran negotiations are finally getting somewhere — ah man, now they’re invading Cuba.

Over and over and over and over again. As soon as the human butchery slows down in one place, it picks up somewhere else.

The US empire exists in a constant state of war. War is the glue that holds the empire together. If the wars stop, the empire stops.

That’s why the denizens of the empire are never allowed to vote for an end to wars. You can vote for candidates who will end abortions or trans rights or corporate regulations, but you can’t vote for a candidate who will actually end the wars. Peace is never on the ballot, because war is too critical for the functioning of the empire.

Which is why it’s so important for us all to stand against the war machine. If we can end the wars, we can end the empire. Not until then will we have a shot at building a healthy world.

“WORST CASE SCENARIO” Leaked in Secret Cuba Files—Here’s What They Hid

With Straight Face, Rubio Tells People of Cuba That US Oil Blockade Is Not Cause of Their Energy Crisis

A five-minute address to the people of Cuba by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime advocate of regime change in the communist country, was called “Orwellian” by one former Obama administration staffer as the diplomat claimed the “unimaginable hardships” Cubans now face are the fault of their own government—not the US blockade on oil that began nearly four months ago.

On the country’s 124th Independence Day, Rubio—the son of Cuban immigrants who left the island for the US several years before Fidel Castro took power—said he wanted to “share with you the truth about the reason for your suffering. And I want to tell you what we, in the US, are offering to help you not only alleviate the current crisis, but also to build a better future.”

Rolling blackouts have been a frequent occurrence since the Trump administration cut off Cuba’s main oil supply after it invaded Venezuela in January, followed by a threat to impose tariffs on any country that supplied Cuba with energy. Rubio insisted that the blackouts are “not due to an oil ‘blockade’ by the US” and said that Cubans know “better than anyone” that the island has suffered from energy shortages “for years.”

The secretary of state didn’t mention the embargo the US has imposed on Cuba for more than six decades, exacerbating the country’s struggles with its power infrastructure.


“The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” said Rubio—echoing comments he made in April about Iran’s government, which he said has spent “billions of dollars, supporting terrorists or weapons,” instead of “helping the people of Iran.”

At the time, Rubio’s accusations were ridiculed by progressives who noted the Trump administration had already spent billions of dollars on the Iran War as Americans struggled with rising grocery, healthcare, and gas prices.

On Wednesday, the Republican Party appeared to have adopted Rubio’s recycled talking point as tensions with Cuba grew following the US government’s indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro. On Fox News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Cuban officials “take all their money and they give it to the military and the police and themselves, and to hell with the good people.”


Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said late Thursday that President Donald Trump and Rubio “are pulling straight from the imperialists’ playbook to justify another unauthorized and unlawful military invasion–just as they did in Venezuela and Iran.”

“The administration will continue to claim that their actions serve the freedom of Cubans, but history has shown us that peace and democracy has never been realized through US imperialism or unilateral military intervention,” said Ramirez.

As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, Rubio also took aim at Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a company founded by Castro which controls an estimated 40-70% of Cuba’s economy.

“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the US and Cuba. But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with GAESA,” said Rubio, adding that the administration is offering $100 million in food and medicine with the stipulation that it be distributed by the Catholic Church “or other trusted charitable groups.”

“In the US we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries,” said Rubio. “And, currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser under former President Barack Obama, noted that the secretary of state “works for a guy who has looted far more billions of dollars for himself and his cronies than even the most corrupt Cuban officials,” and condemned his claim that the US oil blockade is not behind Cuba’s energy crisis, which has caused a healthcare crisis as hospitals have struggled to provide services.


Democrats on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee noted that as a senator, Rubio worked to “make every effort” to block Obama’s push to normalize relations with Cuba—only to claim that he wants to forge a new path with the country after strangling its energy supply.

“Sen. Rubio made it his mission to block every serious effort to build a new relationship with the Cuban people,” said the Democrats. “Now, as secretary of state, he’s peddling disingenuous rhetoric of a ‘new relationship’ while the administration’s Cuba policies exacerbate the humanitarian crisis there.”

Rubio Says Chance of a ‘Peaceful Agreement’ With Cuba Is ‘Not High’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that the chances of reaching an “agreement that’s peaceful” with Cuba are “not high,” comments that come after the US indicted a former Cuban president, setting up a pretext for a potential attack.

“We’re very serious. We’re very focused. As I told you a moment ago in the context of Iran, the president’s preference is always a negotiated agreement that’s peaceful … That remains our preference with Cuba. I’m just being honest with you. You know, the likelihood of that happening, given who we’re dealing with right now, is not high,” he added. Rubio has made clear his ultimate goal is regime change.

When asked if the administration would use force against Cuba, “The president always has the option to do whatever it takes to support and protect the national interest and national security of the United States. He has the option to do that if there’s a threat to the national security of the United States. And he has shown his willingness to do that when he identifies such a threat.”


Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro as fears of military strikes grow

A new question in being asked in Havana as people digest the news that the US has brought criminal charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president, Raúl Castro: who’s your neighbour? If you happen to live near a senior figure in Cuba’s government or armed forces, others suck their teeth in an expression of concerned sympathy. For the first time, US military strikes on the island are being considered a serious possibility.

There is also anger at Washington, from a population that had previously lost its faith in its own government. “How dare they?” said a teacher in Havana, who was considering attending a march against the indictment on Friday morning. “I’d never normally go to something like that, but it’s despicable. Who are they to threaten us in such a way?”

It’s now 30 years since Cuban fighter jets shot down two unarmed Cessna planes belonging to the exile group Brothers to the Rescue in international airspace just north of Havana. Four people died. At the time, it was seen not only as an atrocity, but a terrible strategic error. Now the incident is at the heart of the US indictment of Castro.

Brothers to the Rescue was a group originally founded by a Bay of Pigs veteran José Basulto to spot Cuban refugees trying to reach the United States on makeshift rafts. By the mid-90s, it had turned to provocation by buzzing Cuba itself and dropping leaflets – something Fidel Castro himself said the US would never tolerate over its own capital, according to the book Back Channel to Cuba, by William LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh.

Despite pleas from the Cuban government, the US continued to tolerate the flights and eventually the Cuban leadership snapped. “Fidel was trying to find a diplomatic solution, he had sent several messages to Bill Clinton saying, ‘You have to stop this, we cannot stand it,’” said Carlos Alzugaray, who was Cuba’s ambassador to Brussels at the time.

Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson: Iran's Unseen Move: US Laser Destroyers Can't Stop What's Coming

Israel deports foreign Gaza-bound flotilla activists after global outcry

Israel has said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, after a global outcry over their treatment in custody that led the UK to join other countries in summoning Israeli diplomats for a formal dressing down. More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

The activists were put on planes and landed in Istanbul on Thursday evening, reportedly flashing two-fingered salutes and chanting “Free Palestine” as they descended stairs to the runway on arrival, with some appearing to be limping.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked widespread condemnation and diplomatic backlash on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground as he taunted them.

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires, and Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Thursday he had askedthe EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to discuss sanctions on Ben-Gvir, “for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights”.

Human rights groups have documented widespread, systemic torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres during Israel’s war in Gaza, prompted by the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023. But the humiliating treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists has drawn unusually strong international condemnation of Israel, reflecting growing frustration with the country’s policies in Gaza, Lebanon and in its joint war with the US against Iran.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Did Netanyahu Plot a Tehran Coup?

‘They Were Afraid It Would Pass’: House GOP Cancels Iran War Powers Vote for Second Straight Day

After four US Senate Republicans on Tuesday helped Democrats advance a war powers resolution intended to halt President Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran, GOP leadership in the House of Representatives canceled a similar vote on Wednesday, and again on Thursday.

Progressive and Democratic Party leaders in the House were quick to call out Republican leadership, including Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said “has cemented his legacy as the speaker who handed the most corrupt president ever complete control over the House.”

“Republicans can run from Trump’s disastrous war, but they can’t hide. Thousands are dead, and gas and grocery prices are up, and progressives will not stop demanding votes... until the war is actually ended,” Casar pledged, as Americans prepared to spend an estimated extra $3.5 billion on gasoline over the holiday weekend.


CPC Chair Emerita Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) similarly said on social media: “Republicans just called off the vote on a war powers resolution because they were afraid it would pass and Trump’s war of choice in Iran would be ended. This is absolutely ridiculous, and a failure of leadership from the Republican Party.”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) also accused Republicans of refusing to hold a vote “because they knew it would pass,” adding: “The GOP doesn’t care about your skyrocketing costs for gas, groceries, and everything else. They only care about appeasing Trump.”

Absences were the apparent issue for the House GOP on Thursday. Eight Republicans were not there for votes, according to C-SPAN Capitol Hill producer Craig Caplan, and retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who joined with nearly all Republicans to block a resolution last week, had made clear that he intended to support the measure this week.

Cheered on by colleagues, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) took to the House floor to demand answers about the schedule: “Are we not voting on it because the American people are sick and tired of this illegal war that is costing tens of billions of dollars? Gas prices are through the roof. People can’t afford their groceries. Is that why you’re pulling it? You guys don’t have the guts or the balls to vote on this.”


Republican Congressmen Tom Barrett (Mich.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), and Thomas Massie (Ky.) had broken ranks and joined Democrats for last week’s vote. While Massie was absent on Thursday after a stinging primary loss earlier this week, “some Republicans believed Fitzpatrick and Barrett would vote for the resolution again Thursday before they pulled it,” Politico reported.

Fitzpatrick confirmed that, telling Punchbowl News’ Briana Reilly: “They’re claiming they have two more days to bring it. I was prepared to vote for it.”

After the cancellation, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said that “as tonight shows, the deck is stacked against pro-peace Americans: Even when a majority of Americans oppose a war, and a majority of Congress opposes a war, congressional leaders find ways to cancel a vote so that the war can continue!”

“This cowardice makes a mockery of the democratic process—but it will not silence Americans who are in the right that oppose this catastrophic, illegal war,” NIAC added. “We will keep up the momentum until we bring this disastrous and backfiring war to a close.”

Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, suggested Thursday that “the best thing” for Trump and the GOP would be to lose a war powers vote, because then the president “would have cover to make a deal with Iran and let gas prices come down.”

The cancellation of the war powers vote was part of what Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill called “a BIG mess” in the chamber “as lawmakers want to leave for Memorial Day recess,” given that “reconciliation 2.0 is already iced,” and a “GOP-led bill to create a women’s museum is set to fail amid a GOP revolt.” That vote was held, and failed as expected.

Iran Just BLINDSIDED Trump in Strait of Hormuz, War IMMINENT | Alexander Mercouris

U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described to The Washington Post.

The imbalance, according to three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes during Operation Epic Fury, and raises questions about U.S. military readiness and security commitments around the world.

The United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel — roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory — along with more than 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors fired from naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, said the U.S. officials, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. By contrast, Israel fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors, some of which were used against less sophisticated projectiles fired by Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon.

“The numbers are striking,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “The United States absorbed most of the missile defense mission while Israel conserved its own magazines. Even if the operational logic was sound, the United States is left with roughly 200 THAAD interceptors and a production line that can’t keep pace with demand.”

If the United States and Israel resume hostilities against Iran in the coming days, as President Donald Trump has threatened to do, the U.S. military is likely to expend an even greater share of interceptors because of a recent decision by the Israeli military to take some of its missile defense batteries offline for maintenance, said an administration official. “The imbalance will likely be exacerbated if fighting restarts,” the official said.

All-Out War in Iran, That's What Netanyahu Needs /Alastair Crooke & Lt Col Daniel Davis

Israeli Soldiers Detail Ongoing Looting in Southern Lebanon

With the “ceasefire” in Lebanon that Israel continues to violate, having been extended another 45 days last week, Israeli commanders are finding themselves increasingly unclear about why exactly they’re still in Lebanon, whether the ceasefire is meant to be complied with or designed to fail, and indeed what purpose the further presence is meant to serve. ...

This adds to the controversy surrounding an ongoing series of reports from Haaretz in which Israeli soldiers report that the primary thing they’re actually doing inside Lebanon is looting and destroying Lebanese villages.

The soldiers said they view looting as an unofficial but “primary” mission of the ongoing occupation of southern Lebanon. Haaretz has repeatedly reported on the ongoing problem of troops bringing loot back across the border, saying Israeli military leadership is not holding looters to account, and citing troops who say they assumed it was acceptable behavior. One reservist described the systematic taking of goods out of Lebanese villages and bringing them back to the Israeli outpost “so they’d be waiting for the soldiers when they went home.”

Oil markets nearing ‘red zone’ as Iran crisis continues, warns IEA chief

Oil markets will enter the “red zone” by July and August as stocks dwindle before the summer travel season amid a shortage of fresh oil exports from the Middle East, the executive director of the International Energy Agency warned on Thursday. Fatih Birol added that the most important solution to the Iran war energy shock was a full and unconditional reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

Speaking to the London thinktank Chatham House, Birol said it was open to IEA members to release more strategic oil reserves, as they had previously in March, and said the IEA stood ready to coordinate. As much as 80% of IEA’s collective reserves have not been released.

He warned that while stocks were eroding, no new oil was coming from the Middle East and the demand was increasing, mainly caused by the travel season. “This may be difficult and we may be entering the red zone in July-August if we don’t see some improvements,” Birol said.

Adding that he had “never seen the dark and long shadow of geopolitics so dominant in the energy sector”, Birol also said he feared extremist parties in Europe might opportunistically abuse the coming inflation to argue it represents the failure of existing political systems when, in truth, the price of oil is set internationally.

He saw no prospect of oil production recovering fully for at least a year, including in the United Arab Emirates, and said that some countries heavily dependent on oil revenues to fund their budget, such as Iraq, could find it impossible to reinvest in oil production for many years. Overall, the reputation of the Middle East as a secure supplier of energy had been damaged, he said, predicting that countries would pay a premium for supplies from secure sources and for renewable energy.

Fetterman Secret Israel Handler EXPOSED


Video shows ICE violently arresting Oregon farm workers and using facial recognition

Newly released body-camera footage shows US immigration officers stopping a van of farm workers in Oregon, smashing their windows and using facial recognition software to try to identify one of them. Videos from a 30 October 2025 operation were disclosed in court as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrest tactics and racial profiling by agents. Lawyers for one of the detained farm workers shared the footage with the Guardian. The officers did not have warrants to detain the workers, and a federal judge later said the arrests appeared to be unlawful and unjustified.

The footage shows an agent using his phone to capture the face of one of the detained workers, and agents later admitted in court that they used a facial recognition app during the operation. The case provides a window into ICE’s expanding use of this surveillance technology across the US, which has raised significant privacy and civil liberties concerns, particularly since the app can yield inaccurate results.

In the early morning on the day the footage was filmed, a team of ICE agents surveilled an apartment complex in Woodburn, a city south of Portland and home to many agricultural workers. An officer identified in court as JB later testified that the agents had chosen that location in part based on data surfaced from an ICE mobile app called Elite, which was built by the tech firm Palantir. The agent said the app helps officers find areas where they might find “targets” to potentially detain.

Agents decided to follow a white van leaving the apartment complex after running license plates and discovering the van’s owner was potentially an immigrant in the US without authorization, JB said. The officer said in court they did not confirm whether the driver of the van was, in fact, the vehicle’s owner, but that he felt it was suspicious the driver was making multiple stops for passengers: “You don’t know if it’s human trafficking or smuggling.” Lawyers with Innovation Law Lab, an immigrant rights’ non-profit that filed the class-action and represented one of the farm workers, said the van was simply carpooling to a job site.

During cross-examination, CM, the only agent who recorded body-cam footage, acknowledged he did not know the identity of any passengers when the officers stopped the van. The agent JB also revealed in court that his team was given a verbal order to target eight arrests per day, providing rare insight into DHS arrest quotas. US judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled against ICE in February in the class-action suit led by MJMA. He said officers had engaged in “misconduct” in Oregon and issued a preliminary decision broadly restricting agents in the state from arresting people without warrants.

Jeffrey Epstein assistant fiercely denies she was an accomplice and claims he abused her

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistants has fiercely denied she was an accomplice of the convicted sex offender, claiming in a congressional interview she was “sexually and psychologically abused” by the late financier. “I am here today to answer your questions, to dispel rumors and conspiracies, and to tell you the truth,” Sarah Kellen told lawmakers on the House of Representatives oversight and reform committee on Thursday morning, as part of its review of the federal investigation into Epstein.

Kellen, 46, testified behind closed doors after lawmakers on the committee requested her appearance. Earlier this week, she participated in an interview with MS Now, in which she claimed she was also a survivor of Epstein’s abuse. James Comer, the Republican who chairs the committee, told reporters after the interview with Kellen that she gave the lawmakers “three names of people that were involved” with Epstein’s abuse. “These were new names for us,” he added.

“Sarah Kellen has been very helpful,” Comer said. “Of all the people we’ve interviewed thus far, this was by far the most substantive and productive interview we’ve had.” Comer said the committee would be releasing the transcript “as quickly as possible”.

Kellen was employed by Epstein as a personal assistant for more than 10 years, beginning in 2001, and has faced public scrutiny for years since it emerged that she was listed as one of the four women named as possible “co-conspirators” and granted immunity from prosecution in Epstein’s controversial 2007 plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida.

US Senate refuses to push through ICE funding amid row over Trump’s ballroom

A bid to restore funding to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol has been derailed by rows over a $1bn proposal for security measures tied to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom and controversial plans to create a $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund.

The US Senate will not pass the $70bn legislation ahead of a 1 June deadline set by the US president, Republican senators told reporters on Thursday, as lawmakers leave Washington for the Memorial Day recess.

It comes amid backlash from members of Trump’s own party against an attempt to latch funding for his ballroom project on to the immigration bill.

The plan prompted intense anxiety among congressional Republicans, who feared diverting taxpayer dollars toward Trump’s “East Wing modernization project” amid mounting cost of living concerns across the US would risk alienating voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Senate Democrats pledged to oppose the funding for Trump’s ballroom, and push “vote after vote” in an effort to force Republicans to publicly endorse it.

Tulsi Gabbard resigns as the director of national intelligence, ending a rocky tenure.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, submitted a letter of resignation to President Trump on Friday, saying that she was stepping away to support her husband after he recently was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.

The departure will bring to an end Ms. Gabbard’s rocky tenure overseeing the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. She had been largely sidelined by the White House on significant national security issues, including Iran and Venezuela.



the horse race


Democrats belatedly publish 2024 election autopsy report: ‘It won’t meet your standards’

The Democratic party has belatedly published a postmortem on its disastrous 2024 election defeat, after an initial decision to withhold the document triggered an angry backlash. Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), released the report – which fails to mention Gaza or Joe Biden’s age – accompanied by an apology to party members angered by his initial decision to keep the analysis of Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump and defeat in both houses of Congress under wraps.

The report focuses on key demographics that Harris lost – including Latinos, men and rural voters in many states – and compares her performance to other Democrats in key state races, such as North Carolina governor Josh Stein. “Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate,” the report says. “The math doesn’t work.” The autopsy concludes that Stein’s success in the state that Harris lost provided a clear lesson for Democrats: focus less on “abstract issues and identity politics”.

Notably, the autopsy does not delve deeply into Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election at age 81, or his decision to effectively hand over his campaign to Harris after he dropped out. The report makes no mention of the role that the US’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza played in the wider Democratic defeat, despite widespread polling about the impact of those issues, nor does it engage with the criticism that racism and sexism were a factor in Harris’s loss.

Martin acknowledged the lack of comprehensive findings, saying that he was “not proud” of the report and cautioned that it would not “meet your standards”. But he added its release was dictated by the public’s need “to trust the Democratic party”.

Congressman Ro Khanna says enabling 'genocide in Gaza' cost the Democrats the 2024 election

Congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California thought to be considering a run for the presidency in 2028, joined the criticism of the Democratic National Committee’s reluctantly released, incomplete postmortem on the party’s disastrous 2024 election defeat.

In a social media video, Khanna said: “There’s not a single mention of Gaza in the 192-page DNC autopsy report that was just released today. As someone who campaigned in Michigan and Wisconsin, let me tell you: one of the reasons we lost is our blank check to Israel and Netanyahu while they committed genocide in Gaza. We must speak and confront hard truths if this party is to win in 2028.”

Israel-Firsters Take UNHINGED Victory Lap After Massie Defeat

AIPAC’s Worst Nightmare Is About to Come True…


the evening greens

Trump’s EPA to roll back refrigerant rule for grocery stores in push it claims will lower prices

The Trump administration is set to loosen a federal rule that requires grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gases used in cooling equipment, in what officials say is a push to lower grocery costs.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said the Biden-era rule imposes costly restrictions that limit the type of refrigerants US businesses and families can use.

The new rule will “allow businesses to choose the refrigeration systems that work best for them, saving them billions of dollars. This will be felt directly by American families in lower grocery prices,” Zeldin said in a statement released before a White House event on Thursday where Donald Trump is scheduled to announce the changes. Executives from Kroger, Piggly Wiggly and other grocery chains are expected to join him.

With voter concerns over the cost of living growing before pivotal elections in November, the Republican administration is trying to address affordability issues. It is not clear how much or how quickly the loosening of the refrigerant rule might ease grocery prices.

Risk of snakebites increasing as reptiles adapt to changing world

The risk of snakebites is increasing across the world as reptiles shift their habitats to cope with rising temperatures and growing human pressures, a study of venomous snakes has found. Spitting cobras in Africa, vipers in Europe and South America, cottonmouth moccasins in North America and kraits in Asia are coming into greater contact with people as a result of climate disruption and landscape change, according to the research, which was led by the World Health Organization.

This trend is forecast to become more pronounced in the coming decades as snakes – like many other species – adjust their range to escape hotter conditions. Most species will suffer a decline of habitat, but a significant number of the deadliest snakes are likely to spread more widely, taking them into areas where they have not been seen before and potentially affecting billions of people.

“The overlap between humans and venomous snakes will be greater,” said one of the authors, David Williams of the WHO and the University of Melbourne. “You could consider this a risk of walking out of the back door, stumbling and getting bitten.”

In some cases, the shift of range is likely to take venomous snakes into places where human populations are unaccustomed to such a threat. Cottonmouth moccasins in the US are forecast to head as far north as New York. “In 50 years, species will appear where they have not been found before, putting them into contact with people who have not been used to this particular problem in the past,” Williams said. He predicted that in some countries there would be encounters in farmyards or near water sources. In others, near playgrounds or running tracks.

Atlantic hurricane season forecast to be milder than normal thanks to El Niño

The US will see a below-normal hurricane season in 2026, federal government scientists said on Thursday, predicting eight to 14 named storms with winds at 39mph (63km/h) or more. The milder-than-usual forecast is thanks to a developing El Niño weather pattern in the central and eastern Pacific.

The announcement came days before the start of hurricane season, which begins on 1 June and runs through 30 November.

The season has a “55% chance of being below normal, 35% chance of near normal and a 10% chance of above normal,” said Neil Jacobs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) administrator, at a press conference.

Of the eight to 14 named storms, one to three hurricanes are expected to become category 3 to 5, with winds at 111mph or more. Three to six storms will also develop into category 1 hurricanes, with winds at 74mph or more, the forecasters expect.

An average hurricane season has 14 named storms with seven hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.

Also of Interest

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

The Indictment of Raúl Castro: A New Low in US Cuba Policy

After Castro Charges, Critics Ask: When Are Indictments Coming for Trump-Hegseth ‘Extrajudicial Murders’?

Iran War: Trump-Netanyahu Dust-Up Over Negotiations – Bona Fide or Deception? Oil Speculators Cheer Three Supertankers Leaving Gulf, as Continued Bond and Financial Market Decline Seems Likely

Axios Announces Date For New Attack On Iran

The Forgotten Story of Palestinian Christians

Student sues University of Michigan over alleged surveillance tied to Gaza protests

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A Little Night Music

Young Jessie - Hit Git & Split

Young Jesse - Hot Dog

Young Jessie - Lula Belle

Young Jessie - I'm A Lovin' Man

Young Jessie - I Smell A Rat

Young Jessie – Don't Happen No More

Young Jessie - Shuffle In The Gravel

Young Jessie - Well Baby

Young Jessie – Oochie Coochie

Young Jesse - Be Bop Country Boy

Ronnie Hawkins - Mary Lou

Steve Miller Band - Mary Lou

Bob Seeger - Mary Lou

Frank Zappa - Mary Lou

Tags: 
The Evening Blues
Open Thread
Young Jessie
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Submitted by QMS on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 6:15pm
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due to her exposing the US funding of biolab operations
in Ukraine may have something to do with her resignation.
She is still in charge until the end of June, so taking the lid off
the dirty dealings is still possible. I would not rule out her walking
away with a messy FU in her wake. Pay backs are coming due.

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Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 6:46pm

@QMS files from her office, including the JFK assassination and the MK Ultra operation might have something to do with it.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by QMS on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 7:42pm
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@on the cusp
.
for trying to untangle the mess our 'security' apparatus
has become. It is a severely difficult position to be in for
someone with moral fiber. She was not syncopated enough
therefore was sidelined. Let's hope she doesn't get suicided.
Knowing too much can get one dead.

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Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 8:52pm

@QMS She did what she could while she could, but it sure seems she was almost surrounded with no escape.
Tulsi and her husband live in Texas. They will have access to superior oncologists. I wish them well. I think Tulsi meant well for the country.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 8:53pm
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@QMS

i suspect that in the trump administration that the only things that get you fired is a lack of fealty or becoming inconvenient. perhaps as the pressure mounts on trump, the ante for enthusiastic, ideologically aligned service is increasing to the point that disagreements can no longer be tolerated.

perhaps we'll hear more as time goes on.

have a great weekend!

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Submitted by QMS on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 7:49pm
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the response of RUS to the latest neonazi civilian attack.
Get the feeling the gloves will come off. Teach them a lesson
which they can not ignore.

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Zionism is a social disease

Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/22/2026 - 9:00pm
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@QMS

there's currently a lot of speculation going on amongst the kremlinologists in my feed that putin is at a point where he is just about ready to deal a major blow to the ukies and their european allies as partially evidenced by russia's strong threat to blow central kiev sky high if the victory parade was attacked. many folks are saying that the russian public's patience is at a breaking point and the pressure on putin to act decisively is becoming hard for him to ignore.

i guess we'll see.

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