The Evening Blues - 6-17-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Louisiana blues singer King Karl - (Bernard Jolivette). Enjoy!
Guitar Gable with King Karl - This should go on forever
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
News and Opinion
The World’s First Trillionaire Is Not Your Friend
It’s so pathetic watching Elon Musk’s groveling bootlickers fall all over themselves on social media to defend their favorite oligarch from criticism as he becomes the world’s first trillionaire.
They’re like “Don’t be mean to the trillionaire, just become a trillionaire yourself! All you need is luck, connections, wealthy parents, the ruthlessness to step on anyone who gets in your way, and a willingness to cooperate with murderous imperial institutions like the Pentagon and the CIA!”
Elon Musk is a military-industrial complex plutocrat who is balls deep in the US intelligence cartel and recently facilitated the US-Israeli attempted regime change operation in Iran. You have infinitely more in common with the average person in Iran, Cuba, Lebanon or Palestine than you have with the world’s first trillionaire.
It’s so gross how many fawning admirers this freak still has. The trillionaire is not your friend.
Prof Pape: Trump 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER' To Iran
Aaron Maté : How Iran Got the Best of Trump
Iran’s top envoy says peace deal with US dependent on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon
Iran’s top diplomat has said a peace deal with the US would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, as concern grows that Israel could undermine diplomatic efforts to finally end the Middle East war, with Donald Trump even criticising his ally and war partner as irresponsible. “Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” said the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
A Hezbollah media relations official also said the group had received assurances from Iran that it would demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in its next phase of talks with the US. The comments came as Donald Trump, speaking at the G7 leaders summit, rounded on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he had to behave “more responsibly in Lebanon”, adding that a recent Israeli bombing attack on Beirut was “vicious”.
“Israel has been fighting Hezbollah for too long and too many people are being killed,” Trump said. “You don’t need to knock down an apartment house when you are looking for somebody because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they are not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.” He suggested the Syrian government may do a better job in “dealing” with Hezbollah. While Damascus is run by former rebels who fought against Hezbollah during the Syrian civil war that overthrew President Bashar al-Assad, the government there now seeks stability.
Trump’s remarks suggest he is losing patience with Israel’s apparent refusal to accept a ceasefire, and the threat it is posing to the 60-day ceasefire he has negotiated with Iran. “Without the US, without me,” he said, “there would be no Israel because there is no other president prepared to do what I did”. Trump added he did not like that Israel had attacked Beirut only two hours before Iran was due to sign the memorandum.
Richard Wolff: U.S. Defeat in Iran & End of the U.S Empire
Where does Iran deal leave US-Israel relationship as they reach ‘a fork in the road’
It took more than a day after news of Donald Trump’s deal with Iran went public for Benjamin Netanyahu to speak out. When he finally appeared at a press conference on Monday evening, the Israeli prime minister skirted a cornerstone of his past public appearances: his excellent relationship with the US president. “There are cases in which President Trump and I do not see eye to eye,” he said when asked about that. “I am responsible for Israel’s security interests, and it needs to be done wisely.” As to the deal, he told its many critics not to pass judgment yet: “We do not know what the agreement will be.”
Increasingly, the Israeli prime minister who had dominated relations with five US presidents has had to face the prospect of Israel going it alone against Iran. It is a remarkable turnaround from a mere four months ago, when his intervention and a White House presentation that he had given to successive US administrations finally hit home, convincing Trump to mount a joint attack.
For Netanyahu, who has leveraged enormous lobbying support in the United States, this was a nightmare turnaround. The combined pressure of a US president desperate to exit the war he launched and of an upcoming Israeli election challenge have flipped the script, leaving him as a potential spoiler to a grand bargain that could have enormous political consequences for him. On the one hand, he has led the country in three wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without a clear victory in any. Declaring peace, particularly one dictated from abroad, will bolster criticism of his foreign policy as he faces a tough re-election in the autumn.
On the other, with the US now relying on Gulf intermediaries and Pakistan to broker a peace, the strategic interests of the United States and of Israel are diverging. During a briefing on Monday, one senior Trump administration official extolled the direct, high-level conversations that the US was now holding with the Iranian leadership. “We’ve reached a fork in the road,” said Alan Eyre, a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute and former senior US diplomat. “Netanyahu sold President Trump on this action plan that went sideways quickly, and now President Trump wants to end this war as quickly as possible.”
“So he’s done with that, but Netanyahu is paying as prime minister of a country – the only country in the world where this is a really popular war,” he added.
Pepe Escobar: Israel Just Got Outplayed - The MoU That 'Beat' Israel Where It Hurts
Matthew Hoh: "CHANGE COURSE OR ELSE!" – Trump to Israel
Funny how Republicans are completely sanguine with Trumpster starting wars everywhere - no scrutiny or votes required, but want to examine the finest of details before Trumpster is allowed to end hostilities or (heaven forfend) make peace ...
Skeptical Republicans demand details of US-Iran outline peace deal
Republicans have expressed tentative skepticism of the agreement Donald Trump has reached with Iran, and urged the White House to release more information. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) announced on Sunday to end the war in Iran, set for a ceremonial signing on Friday in Geneva, is centered around reopening the strait of Hormuz and lifting the US naval blockade in the region, along with financial incentives for Iran if it meets certain benchmarks. Both Trump and JD Vance, the US vice-president, have digitally signed the document, along with Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf on Tehran’s behalf, a senior US official confirmed.
“I just don’t know enough about it,” Republican John Thune told reporters in the Capitol. “Even the people who follow this stuff closely up here don’t know that much about it.” Congressional leaders and intelligence committees generally receive higher-level intelligence briefings before rank-and-file members, and they are notified of major developments before they are announced. But Thune, who is the Senate majority leader, said he had not been personally briefed on the deal. “I think that my understanding of what it entails – and, again, not having seen anything … I think the issues are going to be compliance, and how are you going to enforce that,” Thune said.
Thune’s concerns were echoed by several other Republican senators. “If it’s a secret deal then how can I take it seriously?” asked Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Democrats have also joined the call for more information, with the US Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, demanding Trump “release the details publicly, brief Congress immediately, and end this war for good”.
Trump has not yet explained how his agreement will address Iran’s nuclear program, including who will be in charge of verifying that Iran is in compliance and who will destroy or remove highly enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were badly damaged by US strikes last summer. Vance said such questions would be addressed during a 60-day technical negotiation phase, adding that he expected IAEA access to happen “very quickly” given the “broad agreement” on the issue. The MOU also includes the possibility of releasing Iran’s frozen funds, sanctions relief and a $300bn fund to help rebuild Iran if Tehran meets certain benchmarks, US officials told reporters on Monday. But the document has not been released.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump and a longtime hawk on Iran, expressed scepticism over the emerging agreement, saying he wanted to see the memorandum that the two countries have agreed on, and that Congress would need to review and vote on it. “The way Iran describes it, it’s awful. The way we describe it, it makes sense to me,” Graham said. “Let’s look at it and see what it actually is.” Vance responded to Graham’s most recent diatribe on Monday, saying in an interview with ABC that he would “caution Lindsey Graham and anybody else not to believe the hardliner propaganda in Iran, but to believe what’s actually in the agreement.”
Israel-First Media MELTS DOWN Over Iran Deal
Iran’s Military Warns of ‘Harsh Response’ If Israel Continues Attacks in Lebanon
The Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters on Tuesday called for Israel to halt its continued attacks in Lebanon, warning there would be a “harsh response” if it doesn’t.
The headquarters said in a statement that Israel has violated the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran, which calls for an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, 84 times over the past two days, and that Israel had been continuing “crimes and the killing of the oppressed people of Lebanon.”
“If the child-killing army of the Zionist regime does not end its evil acts in southern Lebanon, it must await a harsh response from the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian military command added.
Hezbollah Downs Key Israeli Drones Using Secretive Iranian Missile
Israeli Air Force Chief Says Major Attack on Iran Was Called Off Last Week
The head of the Israeli Air Force has said that a major strike on Iran using the “entire Air Force” was called off last week after Iran bombed northern Israel in response to Israel’s strikes.
Israel did launch strikes against Iran following the Iranian attack, but according to media reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scaled down the strikes after a phone call with President Trump, who initially said he would tell Israel not to respond at all.
Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Omer Tischle did claim that Israel hit “dozens of targets” in Iran on Monday, June 8, but added that a much larger operation didn’t go forward.
According to The Times of Israel, Tischle told Israeli soldiers on Tuesday that “the entire Air Force was ready to take off for a broad strike sortie” that would have included attacks on “hundreds of targets in the heart of Iran.”
‘The G7 is a Team of Losers’– MEP BLASTS Europe’s War Agenda
Brazil’s supreme court has sentenced Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison after finding him guilty of courting US interference in his father’s coup plot trial last year. The office of Brazil’s prosecutor general had charged Eduardo Bolsonaro – who lives in the US - courting interference from the Trump administration to help Jair Bolsonaro’s case, by imposing sanctions on the court’s justices and tariffs on Brazilian goods.
His father, the former far-right president, is serving 27 years in prison for plotting a coup in 2022 after losing the elections to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The younger Bolsonaro, a former lawmaker, moved to the United States in 2025, months before the trial that convicted his father of plotting a coup.
In the US, he has been active in building support, especially from the Trump administration, for his father. Eduardo Bolsonaro said in a statement after Tuesday’s conviction that he had not been properly notified about the court’s legal process.
He had previously told Reuters that his work in the US was not aimed at getting his father acquitted by Brazilian courts, but at forcing the Brazilian supreme court to punish officials who, according to the son, were not complying with Brazil’s constitution.
Killed walking home from school: why did Somali children become targets of US drone strikes?
Shortly after 9am on 15 November 2025, Jamaame, a town in southern Somalia, shuddered from a series of explosions. The home of Abdullahi Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali, who was out tending his fields that day, was among those obliterated. The family were killed during a US airstrike in Somalia. According to a Guardian investigation, at least 12 civilians, including eight children, died during the attack.
It is the deadliest US operation for civilians in Somalia during either Trump administration. The US had not killed so many innocent people in a single incident in the east African country for 18 years. The previous highest confirmed toll was the bloody, botched US military operation in the capital, Mogadishu, that became known as the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident.
Despite the scale, no investigation appears to have been launched into the attack on Jamaame six months ago. No one has been held accountable for the deaths – the US refused to admit that a single civilian died in the town that day. Using photographs, video footage, and X-rays of children’s shrapnel injuries, alongside witness testimony, the Guardian has pieced together the first detailed account of the massacre. The killings raise questions not only about US intelligence, but Washington’s intensifying campaign in the Horn of Africa. Hundreds of strikes have been carried out by the Trump administration in a legally ambiguous, secret war with no apparent accountability for civilian deaths.
Who signed off the attack on a densely populated family neighbourhood? Why and who, if anyone, was the intended target? Testimony indicates that it is highly probable the US drone teams knew children were in the vicinity. More broadly, Jamaame invites scrutiny over how the US military values the lives of ordinary Somalis. The commander-in-chief of the US armed forces – Donald Trump – has repeatedly attacked Somalis, labelling them “stupid”, “low IQ” and their country as “disgusting”. Did presidential disdain imply to senior officials they could get away with killing civilians? [Much more detail at the link. - js]
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees relocated, ICE announces
Detainees from Florida’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail have been relocated to other facilities, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The detention facility in the remote Everglades, celebrated by Donald Trump for its harsh conditions, has been widely expected to close. It quickly attracted headlines for the brutal treatment of detainees after opening last year.
ICE announced on Tuesday that all detainees at the state-run site had been moved, but did not specify how many, or where they were taken.
The agency, NBC Miami reported, said: “As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft sided facility. For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities.”
The transfers come amid allegations of human rights abuses at the detention center. In a report published in December 2025, Amnesty International alleged that detainees were shackled inside a 2ft-high metal cage and left outdoors without water for extended periods. According to the report, the cage was used as a form of arbitrary punishment. One detainee told Amnesty International: “One time, two people in my cell were calling out to the guards telling them that I needed my medication. Ten guards rushed into the cell and threw them to the ground. They were taken to the ‘box’ and punished just for trying to help me. I saw a guy who was put in it for an entire day.”
The jail, which opened in July 2025, costs Florida taxpayers an estimated $1.2m a day to operate, according to an investigation by the Florida Tributary.
Fifteen people charged over alleged interference in Minnesota immigration crackdown
Fifteen people in Minnesota were charged with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers over their response to a controversial and deadly immigration enforcement crackdown in the state earlier this year. The US attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, and the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Minnesota, Michael McCarthy, announced the charges at a press conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
The prosecutors allege the defendants were part of two Minneapolis-based “antifa” groups that “violently oppose immigration law enforcement”. The indictment names the two groups as Direct Action Minnesota and Black Cat Worker’s Collective, which it described as a subgroup. Of those charged, 12 people were arrested on Tuesday and one was already in custody on other federal charges, according to officials, who said two remain at large.
Chaotic scenes erupted outside the federal courthouse in Minneapolis on Tuesday, where some of the defendants made their first appearance on Tuesday. Protesters clashed with federal agents, who deployed teargas and pepper spray as they tried to disperse the crowd, according to video footage and witnesses. Earlier in the afternoon, a group of dozens of people gathered to speak out against the charges, including Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was charged in a separate case involving a protest at a church. Signs among the crowd carried messages such as “stop FBI entrapment” and “protesting is not a crime”.
The new charges come as other cases from the federal government against protesters have fallen apart. The US attorney’s office’s track record with charges filed related to the crackdown, which was known as “Operation Metro Surge”, was the subject of media questions during the press conference. MPR News noted that the office has so far dropped 18 of its 36 prior cases, including one where a judge called a charging document a “false affidavit”. With these new charges, Rosen said, “the evidence will prove it all out”. Rosen showed social media posts and videos of a couple of the people indicted to underscore the allegations that they intended to impede law enforcement. In one video, a man declares he is antifa and discusses bringing guns to a demonstration. He showed another post of a defendant saying people needed to “become ungovernable”.
At the demonstration, Bruce Nestor, a former president of the National Lawyers Guild, spoke to the crowd, saying: “What’s wrong with being ungovernable?” Nestor described the charges as “thought crimes” and an “act of political retribution” designed to quell dissent. Rosen did not answer repeated questions about whether any agents or officers were injured by the defendants. The indictment does not allege officers were injured, though it mentions kicking a federal vehicle and knocking notes from an agent’s hands. “Whether or not they actually at the end of the day caused bodily harm is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious crime,” he said.
AIPAC Tracker NEW PLEDGE To PIN DOWN Dems On Israel
Trump’s DoJ intervenes to back Elon Musk in datacenter pollution lawsuit
The Trump administration is coming to the defense of Elon Musk in a lawsuit over claims that his artificial intelligence company, xAI, is polluting residential neighborhoods in north Mississippi. The justice department told a federal court late on Monday to throw out the case. The lawsuit was filed by the NAACP in April over allegations that xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech set up dozens of methane-gas turbines to power its datacenter in Southaven, Mississippi, without air permits. The suit claims these turbines emit toxic pollutants in violation of the Clean Air Act, and is asking a judge to block xAI from operating the machines.
The Department of Justice says this datacenter is being used to train and develop AI models that are “critical to the economy and the Department of War” and the turbines are necessary to power the facility. In a 33-page memo filed in Mississippi federal court, the government also claims that under the Clean Air Act, it can terminate such “citizen lawsuits”.
xAI’s central focus is a chatbot called Grok, which is similar to ChatGPT but has been known for controversy including nonconsensual deepfakes, sexualized images of woman and minors and referring to itself as “MechaHitler”. The justice department wrote in its filing that Grok’s continued availability was “paramount” to national security and the military version of the chatbot had assisted US forces “to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours” in the war against Iran.
Lawyers representing the NAACP said affected communities had long had the right to file suits against polluters and that the justice department cannot simply quash those cases. They added that all companies, even those contracting with the federal government, must follow environmental laws.
“There is no moral or legal precedent for this,” said Laura Thoms, the director of enforcement for Earthjustice, which is representing the NAACP, along with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “This isn’t about national security; it’s a desperate attempt to protect wealthy tech companies from obeying the laws meant to protect people from pollution.”
US screwworm cases rise as outbreak spreads beyond initial contamination zones
Screwworm cases are rising in the US as the outbreak spreads beyond the initial contamination zones. Twelve animal cases have been confirmed so far, a significant increase from the first case detected in a calf in south Texas on 3 June. The growing number of infections has alarmed agricultural experts, who warn that a wider outbreak could have serious consequences for the Texas beef industry.
Of the 12 reported cases, 11 remain active and one is inactive, according to an update issued last Thursday by the US Department of Agriculture’s animal and plant health inspection service. The most recent case was reported on 12 June in Sutton county in west Texas, where a sheep was discovered with the infection. Other cases have been identified in the Texas counties of Edwards, Tom Green, Gillespie, La Salle and Zavala, as well as in Lea county, New Mexico. The infected animals include cattle, goats, sheep and one dog.
The screwworm is a fly larva that burrows into open wounds on livestock and other warm-blooded animals, feeding on living tissue. For nearly six decades, the parasite was rarely seen in the US after being largely eradicated in the 1970s. However, its re-emergence and rapid spread have raised concerns that the parasite is making a comeback at a time when beef prices are at record highs.
‘Elon Musk Should Have to Pay For This’: Trump Admin Says It Needs $1 Billion to Combat Screwworm
When Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” took its chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy last year, it created bottlenecks that may have hampered the fight against the screwworm infestation currently menacing the southwest while making it much more expensive.
The annual US Department of Agriculture (USDA) spending to combat the flesh-eating insects only amounted to about $15 million per year. But along with about $382 million aimed at combating animal-borne illnesses around the globe, it was terminated in March 2025 as part of DOGE’s effort to root out what it described as government “waste.”
But now, with the pests bearing down on Texas and New Mexico, and at least 12 infections already identified in the US as of Tuesday, the Trump administration is spending at least $1 billion to fight the outbreak.
Brooke Rollins last November: We have screwworm under control south of the border. Beef prices will come down by spring 2026.
(The screwworm has just been detected in Texas for the first time in 60 years) pic.twitter.com/ozXdI88jXk
— FactPost (@factpostnews) June 4, 2026
Last week, during a Senate hearing, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins attempted to shift blame for the screwworm outbreak onto the Biden administration, while portraying herself and President Donald Trump as proactive in response to reports last spring that the insects were rapidly climbing through Central America.
Rollins said she asked Trump for “$1 billion to build a significant facility” in Texas that would breed hundreds of millions of sterilized male screwworm flies, a method that had been used to keep them contained in South America for decades. “Without hesitation, a couple questions, he said, ‘go.’”
That facility is expected to release around 300 million sterile flies per week. But it is not expected to be fully operational until the end of 2027.
In addition to the $15 million cut to monitoring the spread of the bugs from Panama, the Houston Chronicle reported that DOGE paused plans for a facility in Mexico that the Biden administration had authorized in 2024 as part of a $165 million emergency package to fight screwworm.
Amid mass layoffs at the USDA, it reported that funding for the facility—which was supposed to produce between 60-100 million sterile flies per week—was not announced until May 2025.
While the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) still says fly production at the facility is expected to begin “as early as summer 2026,” it is still listed as “under construction.”
Kevin Shea, who served as administrator of APHIS under the Obama administration and retired from the agency in January 2025, told the Chronicle that efforts to contain the screwworm were put on hold at the start of Trump’s second term.
“This administration came in so skeptical of the career people, they didn’t really want to listen,” he said. “The hold up in the money going to Mexico for the sterile fly facility was most likely caught up in the whole DOGE thing. It probably looked like some sort of foreign aid.”
Journalist Christopher Collins wrote in the Texas Observer on Tuesday that, additionally, “deep staffing cuts” to APHIS, which lost nearly 1,900 employees during Trump’s first year back in office, eliminated “the first line of defense against incoming parasites,” who are responsible for “inspecting the cattle awaiting import from Mexico to ensure no screwworms are hitching a ride.”
Not joking but @elonmusk should have to pay for this right?
You broke it, why do we all have to pay for it? https://t.co/7SSgyuP0yr
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 16, 2026
As the spread of screwworm across cattle country threatens to further drive up beef prices that have already increased by over 20% since Trump returned to office, critics of the administration are seizing on it to highlight the failure of the president’s so-called “efficiency” initiative, which—despite the grandeur of Musk’s cost-cutting claims—ended up costing taxpayers an estimated $165 billion, according to an April 2026 report from the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called the screwworm saga a prime example of DOGE’s “peak incompetence.”
“Trump and Musk’s DOGE ‘saved’ $15 million by cutting a program dedicated to preventing the spread of screwworm,” she said. “Now, there’s an outbreak infecting our beef and the administration is spending $1 billion.”
Reacting to the news that the government was spending at least $1 billion to confront the screwworm crisis, Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim wrote on social media, “Not joking but Elon Musk should have to pay for this right?”
“You broke it,” he said, tagging the man who recently became the world’s first trillionaire. “Why do we all have to pay for it?”
California’s tectonic systems at highest levels of stress in 1,000 years
Southern California’s San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems are at their highest levels of tectonic stress in 1,000 years in what scientists describe as a “critically loaded state”, according to a study published earlier this month.
“Our results show that stress levels on multiple fault segments are now at or above the highest values seen in the past millennium and that the region may be capable of a large through-going rupture involving both fault systems,” Liliane Burkhard, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, said in a statement.
Cajon Pass, which sits at the junction of the faults, could play a key role, acting as an “earthquake gate” that can block large ruptures from traveling between the faults or involve both systems in one event, according to the research. It has been more than a century since the last major event, and stress “has continued to accumulate and is now at unprecedented levels”, which has increased the chances of a large quake in the future.
“The conditions that determine whether the ‘earthquake gate’ at Cajon Pass opens or stays closed appear to be related to how closely the stress levels on the two fault systems are aligned with each other at the time of rupture,” said Burkhard.
“Right now, with stress at historically high levels across the region and more than 160 years elapsed since the last major rupture, the system is in a critically loaded state.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Craig Murray: The UK Joins the Pirates
Patrick Lawrence: Trans–Pacific Paskudniks
Lebanon – U.S. Offers To Ignite Sectarian War
Aipac seeks assurances Iran deal 'preserves Israel's right to respond'
The Cruelty Is the Point: American Execution Edition
The Obama Center is a Monument to the More Effective Evil
The era of trillionaires will be dire for democracy. Here is how we can fight back
Trump and His War Have Been Great for Chinese EV Sales
How the fight over US datacenters is scrambling Pennsylvania politics: ‘We don’t want it’
US lawmakers fight Trump cuts to $386m ocean monitoring program: ‘supreme stupidity’
A Little Night Music
King Karl - Goodbye Whiskey
Guitar Gable feat. King Karl - No Matter Who
Guitar Gable feat. King Karl - Irene
"Chuck" Brown (King Karl) - Hard Times At My Door
King Carl - Do You Like To See Me Cry
King Carl - Just Because
King Carl - I'm Just A Lonely Man
Guitar Gable feat. King Karl - Walking in the Park
Wanda Jackson - This Should Go On Forever
Comments
I like to say I am a neo Brandeisian
after I first heard of the idea, and I've always liked Lina Khan.
That said, I'm not a Musk fan, nor do I suffer Musk derangement syndrome. Musk is great at trying new things and not being afraid of failure. He is willing to fail and keeps trying for success.
Play this thought game. If Musk were to lose ownership of 99.99% of his fortune and live on a measly 100 million would it change anything he does? No. As long as he is able to direct those funds to doing whatever he wants to do with it, he's happy. The guy owns no yachts like Bezos, no hundreds of miles of ranch like Turner.
Musk's DOGE was stupid, a failure, ridiculous, harmful. He has no idea how to make public policy. He did make electric cars normal. I just got one last week, C-HR Toyota $41K including all taxes etc. I wanted a Tesla for the self driving but the car was my wife's. Now she wishes she'd of gotten the Tesla. When she told our 20 year old daughter we wish we'd of gotten a Tesla she looked at us in uncomprehending disbelief and loathing. Musk is a cultural thing.
Musk is assisting to stop the worst tyrant to ravage Europe in three quarters of a century.
Musk is helping the blind to see via Neurolink.
Musk made putting things in space somewhat affordable, his goal is something like $10 a kilo.
We need to reign in the distortions to our democracy via $$, at the same time we should encourage people to think big and to try great things.
evening ban nock...
i have little use for musk. the electric car would have happened without him.
i don't care for his political adventures, his racism and support for nazis or his massive environmental destruction and its effects on americans.
i'm not obsessed with him, he's far from the only thing wrong with our society but i think we'd be better off without his influence.
King Carl is pretty cool
.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
BTW, why does UK want to give Ukronazis nukes?
Isn't that a bit crazy? It's like signing your own death warrant.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
karl and his frequent partner guitar gable were both great, overlooked musicians. glad you like his stuff.
the british elites have had a centuries-long case of russia derangement syndrome. i suspect that they want to give the ukronazis nukes because they are crazy enough to use them.
@QMS are you thinking of
are you thinking of Finland? They just changed their policy to allow nukes in their country in case Nato wants to bomb moscow. That way if Russia gets so sick of losing they resort to nukes they lose their major cities. Russia is about out of anti ballistic missiles, used them all trying to hit drones.
Let's hear it for Cajon Pass. Half way from San Berdoo to
Victorville, Lessee; Escondido, Temecula, Victorville, Barstow, Baker are the high points on the shortest drive from San Diego to Las Vegas, through said Pass,. Whoopee!
Anyway, damn fine pass, heh,
Come Saturday, I've been hearing about that sucker for 80 damn years and sat out tons of quakes,and some biggies, but never the biggie. It's ferkin bait and switch, I tell ya, How about they put up or shut up.
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...
they've been talking about "the big one" for as long as i can remember. i guess sooner or later somebody is going to get the prediction right. or perhaps yellowstone's super-volcano will go off first. hopefully it won't ever happen.
have a great evening!
At least they've stopped talking about the long valley caldera.
Prior eruption rearranged the entire west, but they now say that it .can't/wont happen again
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 --
OT — Night Dancing is taking off across China.
In city parks and gardens across China, the "elderly" come out to dance every night. In recent years, night dancing (cringe-dancing) has become a national obsession. And a tourist attraction.
.
Scroll forward half way, and watch the Rave evolve as the sun goes down.
.
(I'm sure the Red Chinese Communist dictators are going to come out at any moment and arrest them.)
Dancing plagus, St. Vitus Dancing, Ergot, or
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 --
My tour group joined a group of elderly dancers in the early
morning in Shanghai. Traditional Chinese music, dance, using fans to carry on the tradition. It was for exercise, amusement, and community, a celebration of their traditions. I have my fan on the wall decorating a bedroom.
I can't believe they are doing this rave stupid shit now.
Oh, well...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
PR you might be interested in this
This is a county cultural center in Anhui province, I think. Tan's parents go here in their free time. This place is on a scale I hadn't expected. The dance classes are at the beginning, then Tai Chi, then calligraphy, then music, etc. I'd seen small community social centers in South Korea based on the same idea, but nothing like this.
The calligraphy class was very interesting.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Well, now that you mention it
China has opened up its universities to Elders, as well. The retirement age in China is very low. Last I looked, women retired at 50, so basically, they can start a second life and pursue other interests. When I lived in San Francisco, Chinese were always in the parks practicing Tai Chi in the mornings. Now, In China, square dancing is a really big. The only non-traditional part of this story are the enormous boom box amplifiers. The Chinese are also adopting the Burning Man festival, except, of course, it's a Burning Dragon. I think they are very good at socialism. Community is essential to their resilience and well being. And, of course, that is the essence of Confucism.
evening pluto...
heh, not wild about their taste in music, but community building sounds like a great thing.
have a good one!
How long will it take for Netanyahu to scuttle the agreement?
Odds are that it will likely be soon!
The rest of the tweet:
evening humphrey...
i'm sure that he's already plotting and scheming a multi-pronged plan of action calling in all of his assets. perhaps we'll see some more epstein revelations soon if trump puts up too much resistance.
Paskudniks
I couldn't agree with Patrick Lawrence more. I remember watching the fiasco in Anchorage, with Jake Sullivan, and Blinken. The know it alls, the masters of the universe. That act caused me to feel that the US was doomed.
Musk put his factory in Shanghai because that's where the batteries and supply chain were. He can't compete with BYD and other Chinese manufacturers.
Looks like Iran's clone of the Raytheon coyote is just what they needed. The seeker head and the video feed is all electrooptical in appearance but they keep saying its RF. Do they mean RF seeking?I don't understand what they mean. Anyway, that kind of drone is a sitting duck. It's too big, and too slow. I'm surprised they were able to operate this long. It's the little ones that look like a kid's toy that are extremely difficult to counter. I recently heard some Japanese national security analysts refer to the Ukraine front line as as being a high tech WWI type stalemate. The new technology entirely changed the nature of warfare. Same goes for Hormuz situation.
The UK is stupid under the circumstances to seize Russian cargo ships. Freedom of navigation, blah, blah, blah. How does Israel pull off some massive air strike against Iran, without US tanker support?
Thanks for keeping us informed JS!
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
when blinkiman and sullivan were in anchorage i remember thinking what a couple of clueless twits they were. patrick lawrence seems to have a pretty sharp analysis.
i am not sure of what they meant by rf in the drone video, i'm not up on the war hardware, but my best guess would be rf seeking as the drone that it shot down was not a filament-guided drone.
heh, i've found it darkly amusing that britain has the nerve to complain about "freedom of navigation" in the strait of hormuz while seizing ships in international waters for the "crime" of not being insured by lloyd's of london and carrying the "wrong" oil.
have a great evening!
For me, basically, the us was finished
...when they freaked over the "Chinese Spy Balloon" and used three Tomahawks to shoot down what was obviously an amateur weather balloon. (Perhaps not Tomahawks, but some obscenely expensive missiles.)
I never had a moment of uncertainty about the fate of the US after that.
Looking back at the 20th century, Vietnam wrote the final chapter of the US story, and closed the book. Everything after that was an exercise in predatory capitalism and the inevitable slide to the wrong side of history.
And shit howdy, a lot of psychological mutants crawled out the cracks in the US.
But don't get me wrong. It was possible to live an interesting life here while the US was sliding into abject failure, especially if you were careful to never watch the news. As long as the "government" was pointedly ignored — and one could move on at any time with complete indifference.
heh...
for me, the u.s. ended in may 1886. it's been all downhill, but utterly predictable since then.