The Evening Blues - 7-9-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus. Enjoy!
Charles Mingus - Shortnin' Bread
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it."
-- Edward Bernays
News and Opinion
Manipulators Do Not Use Language The Same Way Normal People Do
The world would be a much better place if everyone understood that manipulators do not use language the same way normal people do. Normal people use language to communicate and connect, while manipulative people use language to control and extract.
Propagandists, hasbarists, politicians, and people with disorders which incline them toward manipulative behavior like narcissistic personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder, use language with the goal of advancing agendas rather than to convey information and connect with other people.
Manipulators use their words to influence the thoughts people think about themselves, about others, and about their world. They use language to extract favors, money, resources, sex, esteem, loyalty, or submission from other people. They use it to trick people in order to ensure that life transpires in accordance with their will.
For the manipulator, language is a tool you use to move people around and get them to do what you want them to do. They use it like a physical force in the world. When you have a narcissist standing in front of you trying to snow you with a barrage of manipulative language, it can actually feel like you’re being physically whipped around or pushed downward by their voice.
This is a completely different use of language than you see in normal, healthy people. For normal people, words are how we join our minds with others. I have a sad feeling, I use language to tell my friend about my feeling, and now my friend understands my inner state and can make me a cup of tea to help me feel better. My husband has a thought about tacos, he uses language to suggest that we go out for tacos together, and then a few minutes later we’re sitting at our favorite taco place thinking about what to order.
It’s a kind of magic, if you think about it. Through a process of internal cognition, small mouth noises, and vibrations in the air causing vibrations in the eardrum of another human, we can actually cause the thoughts we think in our minds to appear similarly in the mind of another. I’m doing the same thing right this very moment with the written word, conveying all these complex abstract thoughts from my own mind to the mind of you, the reader.
It’s amazing. Kind of miraculous. But that’s not how it happens for the manipulator.
The manipulator isn’t interested in using language to convey a thought in their mind to the mind of someone else. The manipulator has a thing in mind that they want from the other, and then they make whatever noises they need to make in order to obtain it. They don’t begin with the goal of communication, they begin with the goal of obtaining.
This is completely night-and-day different from how the rest of us are interacting with each other. The two truly could not be more different. But because we’re all speaking the same language and using the same words, normal people tend to think a manipulator is using language in the same way they are. They think they’re speaking with someone who’s trying to communicate with them, so their guard is down, and they don’t notice the manipulations.
Manipulators rely on this, because manipulation only works if its target isn’t aware they’re being manipulated. If more people were acutely aware of the fact that there are individuals walking among us who use language in a completely different way than how normal people use it, manipulation would have a greatly diminished role in our society.
This would make the world a much better place, because so many of the abuses in our world are made possible by manipulation — be it large-scale or small.
Westerners grow up swimming in an ocean of propaganda from the moment they’re able to learn about the world, because the manipulators who rule the western empire understand that the public could turn to revolution if they are not indoctrinated into accepting all the injustice, inequality, exploitation, war and tyranny that the empire is built upon. That’s why the news media, the mainstream pundits, the Silicon Valley algorithms, and the trolls in our comments sections are always working to manipulate our perception into accepting the imperial status quo.
Abusive interpersonal relationships are always rife with verbal manipulation, because language is a powerful tool for both bending someone to your will and for dissuading them from leaving. A skillful manipulator can have their partner bending over backwards to accommodate their every desire and tolerating every kind of unfair treatment without ever even raising a hand to them.
Abusive partners, abusive parents, abusive employers, abusive clergy members and cult leaders, abusive class systems, abusive governments and abusive empires all use manipulation to exert control and to get what they want. The more people become aware of the many ways manipulation affects their lives and their world, the less often the manipulators will get their way.
The best way to cut through manipulation is to ignore the words and watch their actions. Watch where the resources go, where the money goes, where the weapons go, and who keeps getting their way. Watch who’s getting the real material goods, and who is getting fed mountains of empty narrative fluff.
If you see all the world’s resources moving from the global south to the global north, that tells you all you need to know about what’s really going on, regardless of all the narrative spin the propagandists try to put on it.
If you see Israel constantly inflicting genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and abuse on people, then that tells you all you need to know about its true nature, regardless of the mountains of verbiage the hasbarists may try to throw at you.
If you see millionaires becoming billionaires and trillionaires while working people have to toil harder and harder to pay their bills, then that tells you all you need to know about the systems we live under, regardless of how many spinmeisters tell you that capitalism is working out great.
If your spouse is getting most of the relaxation time, energy, orgasms, money and resources and always gets their way while you’re feeling more and more exhausted and strained, then that tells you all you need to know about your marriage, regardless of what language they throw at you to rationalize what’s happening to you.
Watch the raw, material data and ignore the narrative spin, and the manipulations will start to stand out like a black spot on a white page.
And then start taking back what the manipulators have stolen.
Andrei Martyanov: IRAN BOMBSHELL: Hypersonic Missile Hit U.S. Targets in 6 Minutes — Trump WARNED!
Trump Says US-Iran MoU Is ‘Over,’ Calls Iranian Leadership ‘Scum’
President Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire and US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding are “over” and called Iranian leadership “scum” after the US bombed Iran again and the Iranian military hit back at US bases in the region.
“To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. I think they’re scum,” the president told reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” he added.
Later in the day, Trump said the US wasn’t even “attacking at the highest level” and threatened that the US could destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including bridges and desalination plants, attacks that would be clear war crimes under international law.
Russia's Patience Is OVER. Iran War Starts Again. NATO Summit Joke. | Larry C. Johnson
US launches strikes on Iran for a second day after Trump says agreement to end the war is ‘over’
The US military carried out strikes on Iran for a second day, hours after president Donald Trump said that an interim agreement to end the war was “over”. Late on Wednesday Iranian state media reported explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas in the strait of Hormuz; in Sirik, another southern coastal city; and the south-western Bushehr province, home to Iran’s nuclear-power-plant complex.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” US Central Command confirmed the strikes, posting on X, “At the direction of the Commander in Chief, US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday three cargo ships transiting the strait of Hormuz were attacked, leading to the most extensive exchange of fire between the two sides since the interim deal was signed last month. The US Treasury also revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Tehran to export oil. The latest escalation dented hopes of turning the memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides on 17 June into a permanent deal to end the war. Iran said earlier on Wednesday it had attacked US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the earlier US strikes on infrastructure.
Wednesday night’s strikes were expected to be bigger than those carried in the first round, an unnamed US official told Reuters. Iranian state TV reported that further explosions were heard on Abu Musa Island. The island is one of three small islands claimed by the United Arab Emirates which provide the backbone of Iran’s control of the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that the attacks on Bushehr province in southern Iran did not cause damage to the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Trump CARPET BOMBS Iran, Tehran Hits US Bases HARD – All-Out War BACK ON | KJ Noh
Iran May be Preparing "Major Strike" Against US in next 36 hrs /Lt Col Daniel Davis
This is unconscionable.
Children were murdered in the first days of Trump’s illegal, pointless war that has wreaked havoc across the world.
It is an abomination. It is a war crime. And it is why I’ve introduced Articles of Impeachment against Pete Hegseth.
I urge my colleagues… https://t.co/Qk7gg6MJcA
— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) July 8, 2026
US-Iran Deal Is Dead, Strikes Resume. Hormuz Set To Close as Oil Reserves Run Low
Photo of bound Palestinian detainee corroborates Israeli torture reports, say rights groups
An Israeli soldier’s photo of a Palestinian man from Gaza stripped to his underwear, blindfolded and bound face-down to an iron rod corroborates extensive reporting on Israeli torture of Palestinians in detention and itself may constitute a war crime, rights groups have said. The image was shared on a now-deleted personal social media account, with the Hebrew-language caption “good morning”. It was brought to wider public attention by a Palestinian writer and activist who goes by Tamer.
“Both abusive treatment of detainees and the public sharing of humiliating or degrading images of them can constitute war crimes,” said Oneg Ben Dror from the prisoner and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI). The photo “confirms what thousands of testimonies from Palestinian detainees have exposed, and what we and other organisations have been reporting for nearly three years now,” she added. “Israeli detention facilities are torture camps for Palestinians.”
Israel’s military confirmed the authenticity of the photo. “The incident does not align with IDF values and regulations,” a spokesperson said, adding that an inquiry was under way.
Holding and photographing the man semi-naked also broke international law, said Sari Bashi, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. “There is no security justification for holding a detainee in his underwear,” she said. “Forced nudity followed by capturing and sharing sexualised images on social media is a form of sexual violence and also a war crime.” After the photo was widely shared on social media at least two mothers claimed the bound man as their son, highlighting the painful limbo of Palestinian families searching for loved ones missing since their detention by Israeli forces, Bashi added.
“This is not the first time Israeli soldiers have published humiliating photos of Palestinian detainees while depriving families of information or access to them. It has become a grotesque and unlawful way for families to get information about their loved ones.”
Oil prices rise sharply after Iran launches attacks on tankers near strait of Hormuz
Oil markets have recorded their sharpest price rise in nearly two months after a series of attacks on fossil fuel tankers near the strait of Hormuz led Donald Trump to declare that the ceasefire deal with Iran was over.
Brent, the global crude benchmark. jumped by nearly 6% on Wednesday to more than $80 a barrel, the highest price since the US and Iran agreed the ceasefire while negotiating an end to the war last month.
At least four oil and gas tankers have turned back from trying to transit the strait, according to ship-tracking data, which has hampered efforts to normalise flows of oil and gas through the vital trade route after months of disruption.
Jorge León, the head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, said: “Tanker traffic through the strait of Hormuz has essentially stopped, which tells you more about risk perception right now than any statement from Washington or Tehran.”
The “real test” will come after the burial ceremony of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later this week, said León, once the US and Iran “show whether there is still an appetite for a diplomatic off-ramp”.
US stock markets fall amid Iran strikes and potential higher interest rates
US stock markets fell on Wednesday as the US continued strikes on Iran and the Federal Reserve flagged concerns that would warrant higher interest rates.
Donald Trump’s declaration at the Nato summit in Ankara that the Iran-US ceasefire is over sent oil prices sharply higher on Wednesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped more than 5% to crest $80 a barrel. US stocks fell in step, with the Dow down 1.09%, or 500 points, at closing Wednesday afternoon. The S&P 500 saw a small loss while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose slightly. Global stocks had fallen earlier in the day, with the UK’s FTSE 100 down 1% as Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.1%.
The economic impacts of the Iran war have reverberated across the globe. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global economic growth forecast to 3%, down from 3.1% in April, citing conflict in the Middle East and pressurized AI spending. Global growth in 2024 and 2025 averaged 3.5%.
While oil prices fell sharply during the ceasefire, gas prices have remained high. US gas prices at the pump sit at an average of $3.79 per gallon – $0.65 per gallon higher compared with a year ago, according to AAA. US diesel futures also rose 13% on Wednesday after Russia implemented a diesel export ban following a Ukrainian drone strike that hit key refineries.
In May, the annualized US inflation rate jumped to 4.2%, a three-year high and more than double the Federal Reserve’s target inflation rate of 2%. Minutes from the last Fed board meeting, which were released two weeks later, showed that while there was some disagreement over when inflation will ease, there appeared to be little discussion of lowering interest rates in the near future. This is a change from previous Fed meetings, where some officials argued that inflation would be temporary.
President Trump heaped praise on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, expressed support for Ukraine’s long-range attacks inside Russia, and said he would allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missile interceptors.
When asked about Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries, the president said, “It’s an escalation, but it’s also an escalation that could help lead to an end.”
Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks rely on intelligence provided by the US, and Ukrainian officials told The Financial Times this week that the Ukrainian military was able to strike multiple Russian oil refineries recently because US intelligence has allowed it to find the optimal flight path for its drones to get through Russia’s air defenses.
US judge throws out Trump’s $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post
A federal judge in Florida has thrown out Donald Trump’s $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post over an article that said a bank with links to the pornography industry helped fund his fledgling social media operation.
In a brief order granting summary judgment to the newspaper, Tampa district court judge Thomas Patrick Barber, a Trump appointee, said the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) had “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that the Post acted with actual malice, the benchmark for such an action to succeed.
Barber said a full opinion would be forthcoming, according to the website Reason, which first reported the development.
It marks the latest defeat for Trump in a series of lawsuits against media outlets that have published articles that displeased him.
Trump to ask US supreme court to reconsider birthright citizenship ruling
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the US supreme court to reconsider its ruling that the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees birthright citizenship in light of what he described as shocking new evidence: a hospital in Texas advertising its services to expectant mothers in Mexico on a pair of billboards.
“Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’, the president wrote on his social media platform, in what appeared to be a wild exaggeration of a Fox News report on just two billboards.
The president went on to claim that the justices “will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision”.
The high court last month rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the US, ruling that his directive violated language in the US constitution’s 14th amendment that confers citizenship to those born in the United States who are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”.
The US supreme court rarely grants requests to rehear cases and has not done so after issuing a ruling in an argued case in decades.
Former Wisconsin judge spared prison for obstructing ICE arrest of immigrant
A former Wisconsin judge who was convicted of felony obstruction for ushering a Mexican defendant out of her courtroom to evade US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents has been spared prison. A federal judge on Wednesday instead fined Judge Hannah Dugan $5,000, citing her otherwise law-abiding life in issuing the sentence.
Dugan, 67, was convicted in December. Her lawyers argued during her trial that Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee county circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary”. Tom Tiffany, a Republican US representative and fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.
Two Marquette University law professors spoke on Dugan’s behalf, including a former state supreme court justice and a Jesuit priest who read a statement describing Dugan as a defender of oppressed people and saying he didn’t believe there was a need for punishment. “Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” Gregory O’Meara said. Dugan then rose to address the court, saying she had tried to do her best as a judge, and that her actions that day in April 2025 were not done maliciously but rather to maintain the “decorum and safety of the courtroom”.
“I have been cast as both a scofflaw and a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she had had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.
Fourth person killed by agents from Trump’s Memphis anticrime taskforce
Federal agents killed a man at a Memphis motel on Wednesday morning in a Drug Enforcement Administration operation with the Memphis Safe Task Force, the fourth officer-involved death since the anticrime initiative began in September. Donald Trump established the federal taskforce by executive order last year, amid a surge of troops and federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-run cities that he claimed were overrun with crime. All four of the deaths have occurred in the last two months.
Authorities said agents from the taskforce surrounded an extended-stay motel on Poplar Avenue, about 11 miles (18km) east of downtown Memphis, in support of a DEA operation.
“Federal and local law enforcement officers were attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted fugitive facing felony drug charges out of Shelby county,” said a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service, which is the lead agency for the taskforce. “After issuing numerous verbal commands for the individual to surrender, officers made a forced entry into the building. Additional commands were given for the individual to exit. During the encounter, the individual pointed a handgun at members of the Memphis Safe Task Force. Taskforce members responded to the immediate threat by discharging their firearms.”
The Tennessee bureau of investigation is investigating the shooting. Police have not yet identified the deceased.
Last September, when Trump signed the executive order, Memphis had among the highest rates of violent crime of large cities in the United States. However, violence had fallen sharply in the year preceding Trump’s order, as it had been in many cities as the pandemic crime spike subsided.
‘He did not deserve to die’: family of man fatally shot by ICE agent speaks out
The family of a Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent on Tuesday in Texas called for an independent investigation into his killing, as questions swirl around federal officials’ claims and lack of transparency.
“He did not deserve to die,” said Ronaldo Salgado, the son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, during a press conference led by the League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac) on Wednesday in Houston, Texas.
Salgado, 52, was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official on Tuesday morning, while on his way to work at a construction site. Salgado’s family said he was a “hardworking family man”, had lived in the US for more than 30 years and was in the process of obtaining his work permit.
Salgado’s family, including his wife and three sons, found out about his death from news reports. Neither ICE nor local officials informed the family, they said, despite Ronaldo Salgado visiting the site of the shooting to search for answers on Tuesday morning.
Civil rights groups and elected officials also called for independent investigation into the shooting, questioning claims by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS has repeatedly come under fire for false and misleading statements and a lack of transparency with ICE-related deaths.
Graham Platner ends Maine Senate campaign after sexual assault allegation
Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, is suspending his campaign following sexual assault allegations. Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, in which he angrily accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of “using these allegations to take away all of the things we need to run a campaign”.
“For the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” he said. “For that reason, we are suspending campaign operations.” In the video, Platner vehemently stood by his assertion that the accusations are “not remotely true,” claiming they are driven by “large forces ... working against [him] personally”.
“This is all false,” Platner said of the allegations. “The things that have been claimed did not happen. It’s not real.”
“I learned about this through press inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner,” he said. “Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.”
"He Could SEXT My Mom" The Establishment Left's Mea Culpa On Platner (w/ Kshama Sawant)
Trump administration threatens states with criminal charges in elections fight
The US Department of Justice sent letters to election officials in every state threatening potential criminal charges for officials if noncitizens vote, an escalation in an ongoing push by the federal government. As Donald Trump’s administration pushes to exert greater control over elections, the justice department confirmed letters went out to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, “asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections”.
The letters go through federal laws and potentially criminal liability if they are broken. Any election officer, the letter states, who “knowingly retains noncitizens” on state voter lists or “facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots” could face criminal charges, wrote Harmeet K Dhillon, the head of the department’s civil rights division. “We encourage you to contact us to discuss what steps your state should take to maintain clean voter lists as required by law,” Dhillon wrote.
The letter concludes with a request that states respond within five days to inform the justice department how it will ensure compliance with federal laws “and how the Department can assist in those efforts”.
The letters to state officials come as the federal government has tried, largely unsuccessfully, to increase its control over elections, which are administered by state and local officials nationwide.
Threatening criminal charges escalates a longstanding back and forth between the federal government and the states over voter data. The federal government has previously sought access to state voter rolls, which contain the personal data of millions of Americans. States have refused to turn the data over, resulting in lawsuits that the administration has been losing.
Wyoming tightens wastewater rules after Meta datacenter contractor flushed contaminated water
Officials in Wyoming said a contractor for Mark Zuckerberg’s tech company, Meta, flushed bacteria-contaminated water into public sewers during construction of a controversial new AI datacenter. The incident prompted water authorities in Cheyenne to implement strict safety regulations on how wastewater from such projects is disposed of, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, which first reported the incident.
Meta has ordered its general contractor, Fortis, to cooperate with the Cheyenne board of public utilities (BOPU) to ensure there is no repeat, the newspaper said, insisting it wanted to be “a good neighbor”. The company, however, noted that contamination by the rare but naturally occurring Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium did not affect drinking water supplies, and that its contractor’s own water testing by an independent environmental specialist found no trace of it.
The incident comes amid growing nationwide backlash to the construction of resource-hungry datacenters, which opponents say place unbearable demands on local water and energy supplies. According to Data Center Map, the US has almost 4,500 datacenters, some consuming up to 300,000 gallons of water each day, equivalent to the demands of about 1,000 households.
The Cheyenne contamination was discovered in February during routine testing of wastewater discharged into public sewers from the cooling system of the datacenter campus in the High Plains Business Park, the Tribune Eagle reported. Officials identified Goat Systems LLC, a Delaware-based contractor on the 800,000 sq ft facility known as Project Cosmo, as being responsible. The city permanently revoked Meta’s authority to discharge waste into Cheyenne’s water treatment facilities, where it is recycled and used for irrigation in parks and other public spaces.
Cupriavidus gilardii is a naturally occurring bacterium found in soil, regarded by health experts as an “opportunistic pathogen” harmful only to people with existing serious health conditions or weakened immune systems.
US Food and Drug Administration rejects petition to set Pfas limits in food
The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected a legal petition demanding it set limits on toxic Pfas “forever chemicals” in food, marking another setback for public health advocates’ push to limit exposures to the dangerous compounds. The agency is refusing to set limits despite a growing body of science and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding food is the biggest source of Pfas exposure. Testing has found the levels of Pfas in single servings of some contaminated foods to be equivalent to drinking many glasses of contaminated water.
While regulators have focused on reining in Pfas in water, the chemicals are widely used throughout the food system, and there was hope that the agency under Robert F Kennedy Jr would take the threat more seriously. Kennedy leads the “make America healthy again” (Maha) movement, of which eliminating toxic chemicals from food is a cornerstone.
The FDA’s decision is “disappointing”, said Sandra Daussin, an attorney for the Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force (TEJTF), which in November 2023 filed the legal petition. The group is planning to sue and ask a court to order the FDA to set thresholds. “If it’s important enough to regulate in water then we need to regulate it in food – that’s a no-brainer,” Daussin said.
The November 2023 petition called on the FDA to check for up to 30 Pfas compounds in a range of produce, fish, eggs, milk and bread. The agency did not respond within the six-month timeframe required by law, but TEJTF scaled back its petition in 2025 to ask the agency to set advisory thresholds for PFOA and Pfos, two of the most common and dangerous Pfas compounds, in seafood and milk.
Recent FDA testing found 70% of seafood samples contain the chemicals, while independent milk testing found it in 12% of 50 samples, including extremely high levels in Whole Foods and Kirkland Signature brands. The FDA rejected the revised petition, stating it plans to take action on setting standards for Pfas, and there is “insufficient evidence to support [TEJTF’s] request”.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
War On Iran: Both Sides Declare Their MoU To Be Ineffective
America Attacks Iran & Declares The Truce Over
US and Iran Test Each Other’s Red Lines Over Strait of Hormuz
Aid worker who organised World Cup screenings in Gaza killed in Israeli strike
The Machine Gets Its Man in Maine
Democrats look to key Senate race to define party – but ‘fed-up’ Michigan voters just want change
Charlie Kirk hearing zeroes in on statement by suspect’s roommate
A Little Night Music
Charles Mingus - Devil's Blues
Charles Mingus - Jelly Roll
Charles Mingus - Devil Woman
Charles Mingus - Summertime
Charles Mingus - Better Get It In Yo' Soul
Charles Mingus - Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me (Alternate Version)
Charles Mingus - Boogie Stop Shuffle
Charles Mingus - Haitian Fight Song
Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
The Mingus Big Band performs 'Fables of Faubus'
Comments
Scott Ritter in RT:
Scott Ritter: NATO is spending itself into oblivion
https://www.rt.com/news/642797-nato-military-spending-oblivion/
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...
i think that ritter's right. the europeans don't have the exhorbitant economic privilege that the u.s. does of having the global reserve currency such that other countries fund their drunken sailor military spending.
have a good one!
Almosf orgot, RIP Bonnie Tyler
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 --
heh...
wow, there's a blast from the past. rip.
Always liked her.
She had serious medical issues beginning a couple of months ago. An admirable personal life. Avoided showbiz glitz and active in charities.
Every podcast seems to be
....cycling .... through yesterday's news with no further insight. But that's understandable. since no one is making any news.
All of Iran is focused fully on their state funeral. No coherent news reporting is covering the "severe" damage at the US military bases in the region. Quite a few folks in the know have been counting the US's shrinking missile inventory. Yet, no powerful third-party nation is weighing in and stepping up to push a temporary work-around to keep supply chains working. No citizen journalists are showcasing photos to bring attention to the extensive US military attack on Iranian civilians. No one is bringing breaking news to the podcasts, or touting their own predictions about tomorrow and the weeks that follow.
One hardly knows what to think without musical cues from the Lego Rappers.
I did note that there are quite a few investment experts stepping up to deliver dramatic messages about "the one move you must make before the stock markets closes tomorrow...!" I mean, credible voices who rarely speak, not hustlers. And there are short, tense YouTubes from numbers-oriented people who are warning folks to stop messing around and take some emergencies precautions today. The US absolutely cannot dodge a major economic hit that is landing before the end of July. The math speaks for itself.
Trump cannot rescue USians from serious misfortune, even if he wanted to. It's way too late for that. I get the impression that Trump believes that a secret group of Trillionaires from Switzerland is going to rescue the US at the last moment because Americans are the only people who can stop the looming Communist takeover that threatens the planet.
The US will be out of toilet paper in the next two weeks ... because that's how we roll. There's big money riding on that wager.
evening pluto...
heh, i guess we are in the summer doldrums and the spin cycle of politics. trump is probably loath to act decisively before the midterms and i guess he expects that he can keep goosing mr. market until then, putting off the inevitable. of course, netanyahu's elections are in october, so he probably needs to get his war on before the november midterms, so i guess we'll see where that goes. on the third hand, iran seems fit to boil over with vast numbers of its citizens wandering around with red signs that say "kill trump." perhaps iran will break out the weapons cache and go for it preemptively.
i guess we'll see.
Why is the the US failing?
Here is just one example. About 12 minutes.
This is probably better for the world overall. Choking out weapons manufacturers = fewer dead humans.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
yeah, it's doesn't seem like much of a problem that the most vicious terrorist country on earth can't seem to get it together to produce what it needs to make its terrible weapons of mass destruction.
thanks for the video, it's really good.