The Evening Blues - 6-22-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player Shakey Jake Harris. Enjoy!
Shakey Jake - Hey Baby
“Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.”
-- Abraham Lincoln
News and Opinion
Israelis Invaded Lebanon And Then Cried Victim When Their Soldiers Got Killed
In a move that surprised precisely zero people, Israel once again bombed the shit out of Lebanon while Netanyahu continued to insist that the IDF will continue its extensive occupation of Lebanese territory. Israel’s actions resulted in Tehran calling off scheduled peace talks with Washington, but now we’re seeing reports that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to another ceasefire.
Israel pretty much never abides by its ceasefire agreements in Lebanon, but we’ll see what happens I guess.
One major factor in this new development may have been Iran’s threat to bomb Israel without warning if Trump doesn’t pressure Netanyahu to end the war in Lebanon, which we learned about from a recent report by Drop Site News.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been creating viral content with tough talk about Israel’s need to make peace and stop killing people in Lebanon, but all that matters in this instance is action. Either they’re willing to exert the leverage they have over Israel to make sure this peace deal happens or they’re not. If Israel keeps sabotaging the agreement without suffering severe consequences from Washington, we may safely conclude that the Trump administration was all talk.
And in case anyone’s unclear, Trump will never deserve any “credit” for making peace with Iran, even if he does end up pushing Israel to comply with the deal. You don’t get praise for starting an unprovoked war of aggression and then losing. That’s not a thing.
Zionists are screaming bloody murder about Hezbollah killing a tank crew of four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, with war propagandist Mark Levin taking to Twitter to say that “Israel will hit back very hard” and that “No MOU or final agreement will change who these terrorists are,” while Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir proclaims “For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!”
From all this melodramatic garment-rending and victim-LARPing you’d assume the four Israelis were killed in their beds in Tel Aviv, not traveling by tank through a foreign country they’d invaded. As Ryan Grim put it, “I have never heard of a country invading a neighbor and then calling it unfair that their soldiers died in that invasion. I don’t think any other country ever even thought to make that complaint.”
Alastair Crooke: An Irreversible Blow to Israel
US-Iran talks strained as Trump threats spark Iranian walkout
High-stakes talks between the US and Iran were expected to continue into the early hours of Monday in Switzerland, a US official said, after a tense start that saw Iranian negotiators walk out in protest at a stream of threats issued by Donald Trump on social media. The US president had threatened to bomb Iran and even to kidnap the Iranian negotiating team unless the strait of Hormuz was reopened, forcing mediators Qatar and Pakistan to continue negotiations in the background.
Iranian state media said the talks had entered a “difficult phase” and recessed after the “publication of an insulting message by the US president”. The Iranian delegation met Qatari mediators and then left the negotiating site, the state media reported. A US diplomat at the venue in Bürgenstock said talks were expected to continue through the night, with key aspects under discussion including clarifying Iran’s intentions for the strait, “mechanisms” to ensure the strait remained open and ensuring that a ceasefire in southern Lebanon was enforced, and as well with “robust” discussions on the nuclear issue.
Before leaving the face-to-face talks in Bürgenstock, Iran reached a draft agreement over how the US will issue a waiver lifting sanctions on Iranian oil exports, one of the key preconditions before Iran will open talks on its nuclear file. Iranian officials claimed the waivers would be issued soon, adding progress had also been made on unfreezing Iranian assets in overseas bank accounts.
Trump’s stream of aggressive threats on social media and in TV interviews filtered across the Atlantic to the negotiating site, causing anger among the Iranian negotiating team, who said they represented an unacceptable threat to their personal safety. They pointed out the memorandum signed by Trump last week included a non-aggression pact.
Iran said it had remounted its blockade in the strait of Hormuz in protest at the continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon and said Trump was allowing Israel to breach the memorandum of understanding signed by the US president and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, last week. The memorandum clearly calls for a ceasefire on all fronts, but Israel killed more than 30 people in attacks on Saturday in central and southern Lebanon. “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump wrote on social media. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again.”
Worth a full watch:
Brian Berletic: Iran SMASHES Trump's MoU Deception, New War Front Just BLEW UP!
"We'll take over the rest of your country ... I'll blow the shit out of them" -- here is Trey Yingst's entire segment about the bonkers phone call he says he had with Trump this morning that apparently included threats to assassinate Iran's leadership, impose draconian US tolls… pic.twitter.com/RLi9bos14Q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2026
It's over for Israel in the USA
Secret correspondence claims suggest tensions at top of Iranian government
A former member of Iran’s negotiating team in the previous round of talks with the US in Islamabad is facing the threat of prosecution and dismissal from parliament after he went on the main state broadcaster to reveal what he claimed were confidential letters from the country’s supreme leader. The interview with Mahmoud Nabavian, the deputy chair of Iran’s national security council, was eventually cut off, but only after he said he had seen secret correspondence written by Mojtaba Khamenei in which the ayatollah allegedly said Iran’s negotiating team had overstepped its mandate
Nabavian’s claims were dismissed by a spokesperson for the negotiating team as old and distorted. ... Centrists and reformists have long argued that the state broadcaster Irib acts as an agent for hardliners in the Paydari or Stability Front, of which Nabavian is a supporter. The episode, apart from revealing tensions at the top of government in near real time, also appears to show that the newly appointed supreme leader has been taking a much more hands-on approach to the talks than was previously known, and has also been ordering the negotiators not to relent on the nuclear file or the immediate payment of tolls to Iran by ships in the strait of Hormuz.
In a letter to Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, that Khamenei published on Thursday, he said he took a different view on the outcome of the talks to the president but had deferred to his judgment on certain conditions. Nabavian claimed the supreme leader had in fact set 11 conditions for continuing the negotiations, including receiving compensation from the US, maintaining the right to uranium enrichment, lifting sanctions, releasing Iran’s frozen assets and exercising full sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz, including the immediate charging of fees.
According to Nabavian, Khamenei emphasised “Iran’s monopoly on the management of the strait of Hormuz, collecting tolls from passing vessels, restrictions on enemy ships, and allocating the revenues from the tolls to the people, families of martyrs, and veterans.” The reopening of the waterway should only happen when the US agreed to pay compensation, he ordered. The US has agreed to set up a $350bn (£264bn) development fund but has said it will not contribute.
Nabavian also claimed Khamenei wrote in a message to the negotiating team: “What was agreed upon in the Pakistan talks is completely different from what was supposed to happen and was a condition for the legitimacy of the talks, and the talks must be stopped.” He was referring to the talks in Islamabad in which the negotiating team did discuss aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Why Iran Can't Trust Trump
Israel’s attempts to sabotage the peace agreement between the United States and Iran appear to be working again, with its relentless attacks on Lebanon reportedly prompting Iran to once again close the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, mere days after it reopened.
“In light of the United States’ clear bad faith and breach of its commitment to implement the first clause of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for ending the war, and in response to the continuous and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon, it is hereby announced that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to maritime traffic,” said the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters of the Iranian armed forces on Saturday.
US Central Command claimed that traffic through the strait had continued, with 55 commercial ships traveling through it, though it was unclear when those crossings took place.
The announcement that the strait had once again closed came after days of escalating attacks by Israel despite the memorandum of understanding signed this week, which included terms for a ceasefire “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Israel’s continued violations of the Lebanon ceasefire have placed the entire U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in jeopardy, with Washington failing to uphold its commitment to restrain Israel.
Baghaei said the… pic.twitter.com/kDDXLg2wZK
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 20, 2026
A ceasefire mediated by the US and Qatar between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on Friday afternoon despite continuing bombardments by Israel earlier in the day that killed 47 people and wounded 97 after Hezbollah killed four Israeli soldiers occupying Lebanese territory.
Within an hour of the agreement taking effect, Israel began carrying out additional attacks across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley that continued through the night and into Saturday. One strike, on a three-story apartment building in the town of Barish in the Tyre district, reportedly killed a mother, father, and their two children, while wounding 12 others and leaving seven trapped beneath rubble.
Israel said its continued attacks were in response to Hezbollah’s firing of projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah said it launched as Israel attempted to further expand its occupation toward the strategically important Ali al-Taher hills “under the cover of the ceasefire.”
JD Vance on Fox & Friends this morning: "One of the things the president has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the straits. That's now happened." (The strait has since been closed lol) pic.twitter.com/iulcWtvUdR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 20, 2026
Israel’s leaders have explicitly stated in recent days that they have no intention of abiding by any ceasefire reached between the US and Iran, leading President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to issue uncommonly blunt criticism of Israel’s tactics.
Quoting a senior Trump adviser on Friday, Zeteo reported that behind the scenes, the president is “madder at the Israelis than the Iranians,” believing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag him back into a war that has brought his popularity to new lows and sparked a global economic crisis.
Just as it has for months, Israel’s tried-and-true tactic of raining hell upon Lebanon every time a US-Iran ceasefire appears close seems to be working once again. The wave of attacks earlier this week led peace talks in Switzerland planned for Friday to be postponed.
As Iranian negotiators departed for Switzerland on Saturday, Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said little was likely to happen there unless there was evidence that the US would “fulfill its obligations.”
Those obligations include stopping Israel’s occupation and ethnic cleansing campaign in southern Lebanon, which has now killed more than 4,000 people, wounded nearly 12,000, and led to the forced expulsion of more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians by Israeli forces.
“Israel is still trying to sabotage the ceasefire with Iran by continuing to launch attacks in Lebanon,” said Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “When will Trump impose consequences for this obstructionism?”
Iran’s military says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz over Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon that have killed at least 32 people since dawn.
Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall joins live from Tehran. pic.twitter.com/bwyOo65QBX
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 20, 2026
The renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz raises the stakes considerably for the Trump administration, which has described opening it and restoring economic normalcy as a core objective, with Trump warning of “bedlam” in a matter of weeks if the deal fails and the critical oil shipping route remains closed.
James Bays, the diplomatic editor for Al Jazeera, explained that as Iranian diplomats prepare to negotiate with the US, they feel that “now is a time of maximum leverage” and that they are “using that weapon now” to try to force the US to restrain Israel.
While Trump has had no shortage of angry words and is reportedly “swearing a lot” about Netanyahu behind closed doors, Joe Kent, Trump’s former counterterrorism chief—who resigned earlier this year because of his vocal opposition to the Iran war—argued that unless the US exerts material pressure on Israel, the prime minister has no incentive to stop attacking Lebanon.
“For the MOU to hold and result in a lasting peace, we must restrict aid to Israel immediately and make it clear that we will not defend them should Iran opt to strike in response to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon,” he said. “Israel has not responded to our verbal and written demands—that is not going to change, unless we change it by taking action.”
WHY IRAN TALKS WILL FAIL /Patrick Henningsen & Lt Col Daniel Davis
‘Psychopath’ Ben-Gvir Slammed for Demand That ‘All Lebanon Must Burn’
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir drew widespread condemnation on Friday when he declared that “all Lebanon must burn” shortly after four Israeli soldiers were killed in a fight with Hezbollah.
In a social media post, Ben-Gvir said that Israel should retaliate for the deaths of the soldiers with a scorched-earth military campaign aimed at killing large numbers of Lebanese people.
“For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep,” the far-right Israeli Cabinet member wrote. “Enough with the ping-pong. In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint—you need to go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.”
Ben-Gvir also took a subtle shot at the Trump administration, which has called for Israel to cease its military operations in Lebanon so that the US and Iran can negotiate an end to the illegal war of choice President Donald Trump launched earlier this year.
“With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit,” he wrote. “All of Lebanon must burn.”
Congress ‘Desperate’ to Save the US-Israel Alliance Before Time Runs Out | w/ Prem Thakker
The attack on a girls’ elementary school in the Iranian town of Minab was one of the US military’s deadliest civilian bombings in decades. But nearly four months on, the Pentagon has produced no answers about why the military fired a Tomahawk cruise missile into a school on the first day of the war, killing at least 175 people, mostly children. Some critics doubt that the Pentagon ever will, or will bury the results under classifications to keep the worst mistakes secret from the public.
As the US signs a shaky memorandum of understanding on a ceasefire with Iran, the secretive investigation into the attack has also become a test case for the self-styled secretary of war Pete Hegseth’s new approach to what he calls “warfighting”. As he said in early March, nearly two weeks after the attack, “our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it”. Shortly after the attack, Donald Trump suggested that it was carried out by Iran. When it became clear that the strike used a US-made Tomahawk missile, he suggested that Iran also had access to the cruise missiles. It does not.
As he celebrated a ceasefire deal to open the strait of Hormuz last week, Trump signalled he was ready to write off the attack as a mistake. “It’s such a strange question to be asked at this date, because you’re talking about a long time ago,” Trump said when he was asked about the investigation during a press conference at the G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France. “But nobody did that on purpose.”
It was at the beginning of what Trump has taken to calling a “little excursion” into Iran that the back-to-back or “double tap” strikes on the school building took place, killing mainly children under the age of 12. Officials have told media anonymously that the site was believed to be an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base.
Several former Pentagon and national security officials expressed doubt to the Guardian that the US government would take responsibility for the deaths of the schoolchildren in Minab or even release the full report into the attack. “It’s very rare that you would have a military operation and not have some incidents where there was a mistaken target and civilians are harmed or killed, but then there is a system for investigating, assessing accountability and taking responsibility” in those cases, said one former senior Pentagon official. “Even without the civilian harm mitigation office, there’s a very clear process for this, and I’m very doubtful that the Hegseth Pentagon will follow through,” the former official added.
Trump Official CONFRONTED Over Iran Polling DISASTER
Starmer expected to announce exit plan to clear way for Burnham to become PM
Keir Starmer is expected to announce a timetable for his departure on Monday morning, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to become prime minister without a formal contest by the autumn. Cabinet ministers say Starmer will set out his intentions outside No 10 Downing Street, starting a process of the UK installing its seventh prime minister in a decade.
No 10 officials were still insisting Starmer stood by his pledge on Friday to fight an anticipated leadership challenge from Burnham, who returned to Westminster via an overwhelming win in the Makerfield byelection. But with more than half a dozen cabinet ministers having privately told him his time is up – and the additional pressure of a hostile cabinet meeting on Tuesday – the prime minister spent the weekend at the Chequers country retreat finalising a likely exit plan.
While other options remained open, Starmer and his inner circle began work on drafts of a resignation speech on Saturday. The most likely timetable involves him staying in office until the autumn, allowing a new leader to rally Labour troops at the party’s annual conference at the end of September. It is understood he will do so without having had a discussion with Burnham about his plan since the Makerfield result.
One obvious uncertainty is whether Burnham would be the only candidate, allowing for an effective coronation, or if other challengers will emerge and gain the necessary support.
Starmer Finally Quits; BBC Admits Kiev Faces Donbas Crisis Losing Konstantinovka; Neocons Iran Rage
Trump loyalist Jim Jordan linked to group that received ‘dark money’ from ICE detention contractor
Jim Jordan is among the most famous names in this stretch of Ohio. The congressman and chair of the powerful House judiciary committee is considered among the most conservative and influential members in Congress, and is a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump. But a report released last month by Pogo Investigates, a nonprofit newsroom, highlighted the close ties between Jordan and a company profiting from the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown, which has sometimes been violent and even deadly.
The report found that the American Liberty Foundation, a political action committee (Pac) tied to Jordan, last year received $250,000 in “dark money” payments from Geo Group, the Florida-headquartered company that runs dozens of detention centers on behalf of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the country. The money transfer came 11 days after the passing of the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last July, which saw the federal government’s budget for ICE and other immigration enforcement efforts trebled to $170bn – an amount greater than the GDP of Morocco.
“A company and or a company’s political action committee is permitted to contribute funds to a Super Pac, but a federal contractor [such as Geo Group] is not,” says Nick Schwellenbach, the author of the Pogo Investigates report. “Geo Group’s Pac had not disclosed this. Only American Liberty Foundation had. Both have legal obligations to disclose. This raises a lot of questions about the broader universe of dark money contributions from Geo Group or other private prison companies.”
Campaign Legal Center, a litigation advocacy organization, has since filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Geo Group, alleging it violated federal campaign finance laws by making an illegal, misreported contribution. Critics say that taxpayer money is helping to create a “deportation-industrial complex” that puts Geo Group, which runs ICE detention facilities across 16 states, including Delaney Hall in New Jersey, at the forefront of the benefactors.
All the while, conditions at many of the 52 detention centers that Geo operates on behalf of ICE have been reported as being very poor. Detainees at Delaney Hall last month launched a hunger strike to protest against the state of their living conditions and accused the contractor of denying them access to medical care. This month, the state of New Jersey sued Geo Group, seeking full access in order to inspect the facility.
Memphis observers tracking Trump’s anti-crime taskforce
Nine months after Donald Trump ordered an anti-crime taskforce onto the streets of Memphis, a small band of dedicated observers is attempting to monitor its actions. They have alleged widespread intimidation by agents, who stand accused in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee of having tailed cars, surveilled homes and even “falsely arrested” one community observer.
“You know, I personally feel called to do this work, but I don’t want to give the wrong impression; I’m terrified,” said Hunter Demster, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I’m terrified when I go out in a lot of cases.”
Thousands of federal and state law enforcement officers flooded Memphis in a surge that Tennessee governor Bill Lee has said will last “for ever” to drive down crime. Activists trying to track this taskforce claim it is responsible for rampant violations of the first amendment in the name of public safety, wreaking havoc on their streets – and targeting members of the community who have done nothing wrong.
“I just have no clue where they’re getting their intel from, but they tend to show up at the wrong house regularly,” said Demster. “Out of the dozens and dozens and dozens [of operations] that I have witnessed, I’d say 90% of them were at the wrong house. And what that looks like in practice is 30 to 50 federal agents in paramilitary body armor and assault rifles and helmets and battering rams, showing up at a house, traumatizing an innocent family, pointing weapons at children, dragging people out of the houses in their underwear, looking for somebody in a lot of cases has never lived in that house.”
Texas environmentalists lose bid to block Musk’s SpaceX from closing beach
A Texas beach can be closed during rocket launches by Elon Musk’s SpaceX after the state’s supreme court ruled unanimously against a bid by environmental organizations to sue over preserving public access. The court’s decision that the organizations did not have legal standing upheld a trial court’s dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice, preventing the groups from filing the case again with revisions.
It means Boca Chica Beach, located near the sprawling Starbase site where SpaceX holds rocket launches, is likely to close during future operations. The rockets, satellites and artificial intelligence giant went public earlier this month, in the biggest stock market debut in history, which made Musk – its CEO – the world’s first trillionaire.
The legal challenge began in 2021 when the environmental organization Save RGV filed suit against the Texas general land office, commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Cameron county. The group contended that officials had improperly closed Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4, the only roadway providing access to the beach, during SpaceX launch operations. According to Save RGV, those closures violated the Texas constitution, which was amended in 2009 to protect the public’s right to access and use state beaches. The constitutional amendment passed with the support of 77% of Texas voters, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Sierra Club and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas later joined the lawsuit, which sought to invalidate a 2013 state law allowing SpaceX to temporarily close Boca Chica Beach for safety reasons during spaceflight activities. The Texas attorney general’s office intervened in the case to defend that law. The Federal Aviation Administration approved the SpaceX launch site, whose blast radius includes Boca Chica Beach, after Musk’s company demonstrated it had authority to limit public access to the launch area under House Bill 2623, the 2013 legislation that amended the state’s Open Beaches Act.
Save RGV argued that the beach closures authorized under the 2013 law infringe on the “beach-access rights” of members who use the beach for conservation efforts or recreational activities. “This is a premeditated scheme by a private company, with the State’s help, to take control of public land for its own profit, impairing the public’s constitutional right in the process,” the group wrote in its initial lawsuit.
Utah wildfire forces evacuation of small town as extreme heat roasts US west
Extreme heat and dry, windy conditions are fueling multiple wildfires across the US west, including a massive blaze in Utah that forced the evacuation of a small town, with hot weather in the forecast raising the risk of more blazes in the week ahead. The Iron fire in Utah’s Juab county was first detected on Saturday and has so far blackened more than 2,000 acres. The fire, about 70 miles (113km) south-west of Salt Lake City, forced the evacuation of Eureka, population 1,000, and people at a nearby ranch.
Kelly Wickens, a fire prevention specialist with the Utah division of forestry fire and state lands, warned that the fire was continuing to grow amid drought conditions. Wickens said the fire was human-caused and remains under investigation. Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, visited the town on Sunday. “We knew that there was going to be extreme fire danger, and sure enough we had multiple fires,” Cox said. The Iron fire was one of six fires burning in Utah at varying levels of containment.
In neighboring Colorado, the south-west corner of the state was under a red-flag warning issued by the National Weather Service until Monday, due to gusty winds and low relative humidity. A wildfire prompted evacuations over the weekend near Sedona, Arizona, burning about 300 acres (120 hectares) of steep and rugged terrain near Oak Creek Canyon. As of Sunday afternoon, the fire remained uncontained. Residents evacuated earlier were still not being allowed to return home.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
UK Jury Hung in Israel Protest Case
Palestinians May Pay for Netanyahu’s Defeat in Iran
Israel’s Support Is Eroding In the US
Zelensky’s Ultimatum To Lukashenko Gives Putin The Chance To Finally Restore Deterrence
Bolivia’s president declares a state of emergency as road blockades choke supplies
Condemned to plutocracy? The relentless rise of US inequality
El Niño is back with a vengeance – and fears of ‘Godzilla’ strength may be the least of our worries
Rubio GOES NUMB as Trump Does 180 on Iran
A Little Night Music
Shakey Jake Harris – Love Is Strange
Shakey Jake And The Allstars – Too Hot To Hold
Shakey Jake - Call Me If You Need Me
Shakey Jake – Love My Baby
Shakey Jake Harris – More Bad Luck
Shakey Jake And The Allstars – A Hard Road To Travel
Shakey Jake & T-Bone Walker - Call Me When You Need Me
Shakey Jake Harris - Good Times
Shakey Jake Harris - Roll Your Money Maker
Comments
DJT DOJ flops again
DoJ subpoenas
"Federal judge quashes subpoenas against Walz, Frey in DOJ criminal investigation
Judge found ‘overwhelming evidence’ that subpoenas in criminal investigation related to immigration enforcement were issued to ‘harass, coerce and retaliate’"
"A federal judge nullified six subpoenas issued by the U.S. Department of Justice back in January — during the height of Operation Metro Surge — as part of a criminal investigation into whether Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other state and city officials impeded federal immigration enforcement.
In an order unsealed Monday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz — an appointee of President George W. Bush — wrote that the “information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation range from extremely weak to nonexistent (and) only adds to the overwhelming evidence that these subpoenas were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce and retaliate.”
Note: Judge Schlitz clerked for Scalia and appointed by GW Bush. Scalia was a staunch advocate for free speech.
Will DJT run to the SC?
evening marie...
it's good to see that judges are not hesitant to laugh the trumpster's retaliatory lawfare out of court. he's piling up quite a pile of fails.
Yes, but might be short-lived
as the Roberts court has been handing Trump mostly wins. Roberts must be delighted to see his longed-for unitary executive in action.
Hey joe there is a good chance that you might like this image.
evening humphrey...
you are quite right, i do indeed appreciate that image a great deal.
Good evening! Thanks for the news and blues as usual!
Made the journey from Texas up to Santa Fe. The weather here is quite warm and at present the Homeowners Association is trying to decide what to do about our aging evaporative coolers. In the meantime, working to mitigate the heat coming in especially in the evening. I am lucky in that I have an air purifier fan for the front room and nice fan for the bedroom.
Was horrified to hear that Musk and his cronies won the argument to allow him to continue to close Boca Chica when he needs to use the space. Kinda know how the indigenous people felt when their treaties were ignored.
Glad to see the outpouring of support for stopping the building of a wall through the Big Bend area. You just have to go there and see how difficult this journey actually is.
Have a good evening and working on my strategy for El Niño. There are already fires in two of the National forests outside of Santa Fe.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
evening jb...
good to hear from you! i hope that all is well and your hoa gets it together to deal with cooling issues quickly, from what i've been reading this looks to be a particularly hot summer for the southwest. hopefully fire season won't be as bad as some prior years.
i suspect that musk probably owns or can quickly acquire as much of the texas government as he needs to continue doing whatever he damned well pleases regardless of how many citizens it tramples on.
take care and stay cool!
Oh my! It looks like the Zionists are starting to panic and
grasping for straws.
The rest of the tweet:
uh oh...
i hope that uri doesn't activate the jewish space lasers that marjorie taylor greene was on about some time ago.
These charlatans are like zombies.
The Amazing Randy discredited Uri Geller decades ago. Or maybe he just took his spoon bending claim out of his magic trick.
Hey, joe!
I am working my way through the news, but dude, you didn't post anything about the most important national news. It's the Reflection Pool, the arrest warrants for the bad guys who did some vandalism to screw up the Beautiful Blue pool bottom that increased the water temperature and caused algae, and those bastards that put "stuff" in the pool should go to prison for life, and nothing is more important for this country, and the blue is algae green, and our president is furious, and thank Dawg, his friend got paid to paint it, but we tax payers will pay for repairs of the water system, and we must have priorities!
Thanks, joe, and please, in the future, think about the Reflection Pool and its' importance to the people, ok?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
heh, you're right, i haven't been reflecting on the reflecting pool. the story does seem to be plumbing the depths of the strategic reserves of stoopid, though.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. It's another lovely day
here in The Shining City Upon The Hill(tm) except that our hitherto stalwart President has become some America hating terrorist loving communist.
Meanwhile, casa lutris is starting to suffer from a surfeit of apricots, which is going to create some time management issues. Ah well -
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...
good to see that you've made it back up onto the hill. perhaps you can have an apricot jam? that usually dispenses with large quantities of fruit to make smallish amounts of delicious product.
have a great evening!
Brian summed it up well
Thanks one of the best analyses I've seen by Brian. I recommend it. He also mentions the nuclear threat from the I country as a proxy ruse.
I differ with him somewhat on South Korea. While the US does their best to undermine the Lee government with the crazies on the streets and the still radicalized Yoon faction in the PPP, the majority in South Korea have no desire for war with either North Korea or China. Nor are they interested in a trilateral alliance against China.
There is a realistic concern in South Korea that the Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae intends to release Yoon, who received a thirty year sentence for treason recently. The "treason" charge was based upon Yoon's scheme to provoke a military confrontation in the fall of 2024 to justify martial law in South Korea. The plan involved sending drones into North Korea repeatedly. One came down in North Korea and pictures of it were publicized in South Korea. The effort appeared to have been repeated by a "civilian" previously associated with the former Yoon administration more recently. The attempts to provoke NK were met with remarkable restraint. Cho Hee-dae's term ends in June 2027. Will the Lee administration hold up that long. Releasing Yoon would be highly destabilizing.
According to the South Korean press, Trump is still interested in a meeting with Kim, and that was a main topic at the G-7 in his tete a tete with Lee. According to analysts in South Korea, North Korea is in the strongest position it's ever been in with support in both Moscow and China simultaneously. A meeting with Trump would just strengthen his position. I'll just make a note that this is classic Korean strategy.
This domestic move in Congress is congruent with the covert activity going on with Unification Church members aka Church of the Iron Rod, to wit, firearms, and the other crackpot extremists still demonstrating in the Olympic Park area about the Jun 3 election. There are lots of US flags along with Korean flags, photos of Trump, release Yoon signs etc. Brunson as I mentioned recently has been very provocative. The OPCON issue over South Korean command of its own armed forces in lieu of being subordinated to US command under Brunson is still a touchy issue, that needs resolution.
Japan is also trying to get in the back door
[Q&A] Why Japan is angling for a military logistics pact with South Korea
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
i think that berletic is on to something in his analysis and it's not something that i've been hearing anywhere else. his analysis is certainly plausible. i sure hope that the south korean people are able to overwhelm the forces supported by the u.s. that only want more war. thanks for the update on the region.
The DJT swamp is symbolic of his entire administration.
Public works was one area in which this country worked for a long time. Was somewhat invulnerable until the Trump era. In the old days, pre-2016, cleaning up or fixing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool would begin with the Park Service engineers defining the scope of the work to be done. Then contract bids would be solicited. Bid bonds are required on federal projects of this size. That a good thing because the surety will evaluate the capabilities and financial stability of the contractors. The Reflecting Pool is obviously a specialty contract and therefore, there may be few qualified contractors. The contract would be awarded to the low bidder. If all parties did their part properly, the project would be delivered on time and within budget.
The Trump way -- call up a buddy and award him the contract. Cost $13 million and the reflecting pool is no better than or worse than it was before the work. Same MO for Trump's Iran war but that one cost billions and killed a lot of people and has left many of Trump's allied hopping mad,. Trump might want to consider fixing the reflecting pool that same way he fixed the WH Rose Garden. Call in one of his NYC concrete contractor (mob) buddies and pave over the whole thing. `
heh...
i'm surprised that trump hasn't demolished the reflecting pool to replace it with some gilded atrocity that deflects drones, to be paid for by his rich, er, the taxpayers.
Jon Stewart's version is much funnier
DJT swamp
Although It appears not to have had any lasting consequences it
is worth viewing to see expressions on their faces.
I suggest viewing the video in its expanded form to get the best effect.
heh...
i'm sure that vance was reviewing the possibility of a market crash in his mind as the negotiators walked out.
Iran, Qatar, and Pakistan
sent diplomats. The US insults all of them by sending a couple of Zionists property developers and Vance who trying to figure out who he is.