The Evening Blues - 7-13-26
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This evening's music features r&b saxophone player Bullmoose Jackson. Enjoy!
Bull Moose Jackson - Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style
"Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them."
-- Abbie Hoffman
News and Opinion
It’s A Race Between Revolutionary Consciousness And The Implementation Of Police Robots
John F Kennedy was correct when he said “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
That’s why police robots are being aggressively normalized today. The empire managers want to make sure violent revolution is impossible, too.
The New York Times’ sports department The Athletic has a creepy new article out titled “The ‘Robodogs’ on World Cup patrol in Mexico” about how wonderful and awesome it is that the international soccer tournament is being patrolled by surveillance robots.
The article is functionally a PR piece for police robots, gushing about how “cute” and “cool” onlookers find the dystopian technology.
The piece opens with the cheery paragraph, “A group of police officers patrolling a stadium with three dogs on a World Cup matchday wouldn’t usually raise eyebrows. But when those three dogs are high-tech robots equipped with video cameras that can sustain speeds of 20kmph, you can understand the fuss.”
The World Cup has allowed the police department to explain the dogs’ mission to the public and visiting fans, along with how the technology works.@tomas_hill on their presence in Mexco.https://t.co/qAHfeazsaJ pic.twitter.com/HbTIrVimPI
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 8, 2026
“The K9-Xs are made of aluminium and high-strength plastic,” The Athletic writes. “They have facial recognition and behavioural analysis systems installed, which means they detect when a group of people become agitated and send video to the police force’s centre for command, control, communication and computers.”
In a video segment accompanying the article, The Athletic’s Tomás Hill López-Menchero refers to the robots as “creatures” and says the robots “went down a treat with the public” in the World Cup audience.
It’s little things like this that help normalize police robots in public consciousness. Calling them “dogs”, giving them the name “K9”, calling them “creatures” instead of machines. It’s pretty clearly designed to evoke the image of something normal that westerners are familiar and comfortable with.
But westerners should not feel familiar and comfortable with these things, and we should not see them as normal. The fact that we’re seeing more and more use of police robots around the world should frighten us all, and the fact that popular institutions like the World Cup and the New York Times are being used to normalize them should freak us the hell out.
I know we’ve been calling them “robot dogs” this whole time but it is a bit of a misnomer when we’ve known from the beginning they were only ever intended as an all-terrain carrying system for autonomous weapons to suppress revolutions. https://t.co/iUyPtxdM7g
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 4, 2026
Our rulers are always acutely aware that there are a whole lot more of us than there are of them, and that we could turn on them at any time. This has been the case for as long as there have been rulers. History is full of examples of the masses turning against their government and establishing a new order, and the oligarchs and empire managers have long been preoccupied with the task of ensuring that this never happens to them.
Autonomous killing machines nullify many of the problems presented by human security forces. You don’t have to worry about the robot army siding with the people, or refusing to fire upon their fellow citizens. An army of militarized police robots would provide the oligarchs and empire managers of the western empire with a perpetually obedient force of bulletproof trigger-pullers who can shut down any uprising when the time comes.
The increasing ubiquitousness of police robots is not separate from the exploding prevalence of surveillance cameras and AI facial recognition, the push for digital IDs and the eradication of online anonymity, or the increasing instances of online censorship and Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation. A technological cage is being constructed around the public to ensure that we can be stopped from turning against our masters.
The story of humanity in the 21st century is the story of a race between revolution and the technologies designed to prevent it. A race between the awakening of collective consciousness to the urgent need for revolutionary change on one hand, and the technological ability to quash a people’s rebellion on the other.
We’re all in this race, whether we realize it or not. We’d better pick up the pace.
Ro Khanna RIPS Bibi For LIES After IDF Detention
US congressman says ‘IDF is lying’ about his detention by settlers and soldiers
Ro Khanna accused the Israeli government and military of “lying” on Sunday about the US congressman’s detention by armed settlers and Israeli soldiers during a recent visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Khanna – a California Democrat – had posted video evidence on social media of Israeli settlers and soldiers blocking the path of his convoy on Wednesday in the South Hebron hills, near the village of Zanuta, where Israelis have driven Palestinians from their homes in what Amnesty International calls a government-backed “ethnic cleansing campaign”.
During an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, the California Democrat was asked about the Israeli military’s claim that its soldiers “quickly dispersed” the Israeli civilians and reopened the blocked road. “The IDF is lying,” Khanna said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “What happened was unprecedented. They had violent settlers detain American citizens, including an American government official. You had these settlers brandishing M4 [rifles], kicking the tires of our van, laughing at us, mocking at us, videotaping us.
“We were detained for about 20 minutes, fearful of our lives. Then the IDF comes, four soldiers. They tell our translator that they’re on the side of the settlers. They further detain us and block us in.” Khanna was also asked about comments by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared before him on Meet the Press and called the armed settlers who stopped the congressman’s vehicle as a small band of “juvenile delinquents”. Netanyahu maintained they are not part of what he called the “law-abiding” community of Israeli settlers.
Netanyahu “needs to have an investigation on these four IDF officers,” Khanna added. “Security cameras can see that they were involved in the detention of American citizens. How dare they mistreat people with an American passport that way?” Israeli officials responded to Khanna’s detention by claiming that he had rejected their effort to shape his visit to the region by adding a meeting with former Israeli hostages held in Gaza after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. They told the New York Post: “Congressman Khanna didn’t come to understand the situation – he came looking for a headline.”
This is a nation the United States cannot defeat
Trump rejects Iran’s strait of Hormuz closure claim as fight for control goes on
Donald Trump has rejected Iranian claims to have closed off the strait of Hormuz as both sides battled for control over the waterway, leaving a ceasefire agreed last month at the point of collapse.
US forces said they had attacked 140 targets in Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning after Tehran struck and disabled a container ship in the strait, whose transit it said had not been approved. In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) said its targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.
Iran on Sunday struck back with drone and missile strikes it said were aimed at US interests across the Gulf, with reports of aerial attacks in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement declaring the strait of Hormuz closed, although US Centcom said some ships were continuing to cross the waterway. “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing,” the Centcom headquarters, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, said on X.
Later in the day, Trump said US forces were keeping the strait open by force. “It’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme on Sunday. “They’re very, very evil and sick people. We had meetings with them. They agreed to a deal yesterday, a perfect deal for us. No nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything. And then after that, they left the room. And then within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship.”
The US-run Joint Maritime Information Center said traffic was transiting the strait at “reduced levels”. The White House did not provide any more details of Trump’s claimed deal on Saturday, and Iran did not refer to any talks.
Larry Johnson: Iran Widens the War: Oman & GCC Hit as Hormuz Is Hammered
US President Donald Trump on Sunday twice told journalists to stop asking him about the status of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran once again closed after the president declared an end to the ceasefire deal between the two countries.
The first instance came during an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, who pointed to conflicting statements from the Iranian government and US Central Command about the status of the strait, which is an essential shipping lane for global petroleum supplies.
Trump replied that “it’s open, and I don’t want to talk about it because I want to honor the life” of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who died on Saturday from what his office described as “a brief and sudden illness.”
“So I don’t want to talk about it,” Trump continued. “I told you that before the call.”
WELKER: Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is closed. CENTCOM says it's open. Which is it?
TRUMP: It's open, and I don't want to talk about because I want to honor the life of Lindsey Graham, so I don't want to talk about it. I told you that before the call. pic.twitter.com/3ed7dN1bhK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 12, 2026
Shortly after, during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump was again asked whether the strait was still open.
“It’s open as far as we’re concerned,” Trump told Tapper. “Don’t talk about it. Talk about the reason you asked me to speak.”
“Okay,” Tapper replied. “We appreciate your time, sir.”
TAPPER: Iran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. Is that true?
TRUMP: It's open as far as we're concerned. Don't talk about it. Talk about the reason you asked me to speak. pic.twitter.com/TwssTycQdF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 12, 2026
Iran shut down shipping traffic in the strait after Trump launched an illegal war against the country in late February. The strait’s closure resulted in spiking oil and gasoline prices, which coincided with further erosion in Trump’s approval ratings.
Although traffic through the strait initially picked up in the wake of a June memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran, it has since slumped as the ceasefire between the two nations has fallen apart.
Ana Marie Cox, contributing editor at The New Republic, bashed both Welker and Tapper for heeding the president’s requests and not pushing him to answer questions about the war he unlawfully started.
“Frankly astonished that supposed news sources agreed to terms to interview Trump and appeared to be deferential to them,” Cox wrote in a social media post, “enough that they were apologetic in brining up other topics.”
Cox’s sentiment was echoed by Kai Ryssdal, host of NPR’s Marketplace, who remarked that “the guy being interviewed doesn’t get to pick the questions.”
Journalist Helen Kennedy challenged Trump’s assertion that asking about the status of the Iran war was irrelevant when talking about Lindsey Graham.
“Making war with Iran was Lindsey Graham’s favorite thing,” Kennedy observed. “It’s not like it’s unrelated.”
Alastair Crooke: Iran OBLITERATES US Air Base & HIMARS, Trump's War IMPLODING
EU accused of dragging its feet over ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children. But the 27 ministers are not expected to take decisions about trade amid persistent divisions about how to respond to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government.
A part or total ban on imports from settlements is one of three options presented by the European Commission in a paper seen by the Guardian. The other two options are high tariffs that make trade economically unviable or an import licensing system. The leaked paper was first reported by Euronews. Written in cautious, bureaucratic language, the paper notes that the options “can have a substantive impact on the EU-Israel relationship, also in view of the upcoming election”, underscoring that the commission is mindful of Israel’s general election later this year.
At least 10 European member states, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, say the EU has an obligation to end trade with occupied territories, following a ruling from the international court of justice (ICJ) in 2024 that called on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible”. The ruling found multiple breaches of international law by Israel including activities that amounted to apartheid. It said that states had to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assists in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
Trita Parsi: Why the Middle East Is Outgrowing US Dominance
UN Panel Reaffirms Israel Commits Genocide; Calls for Palestinian Doctor’s Release
Just over 1,000 days into Israeli forces’ genocidal violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations commission has forcefully denounced Israel’s treatment of health workers from the besieged territory and specifically demanded “the immediate, unconditional, and safe release” of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
Israel has detained Abu Safiya without charge since capturing him at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he was the director, in December 2024. Renewed calls for Abu Safiya’s release have mounted in recent days following his transfer to the underground Rakefet interrogation facility at Nitzan Prison, where his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said that his life is at risk.
“I have visited Dr. Abu Safiya several times since his detention, but the individual I encountered during this latest visit was not the same person I had previously met,” Odeh said after visiting the prison last week.
“His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger.”
"This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I don't see myself surviving. This is the end." — Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
Tell Congress: Act NOW to save Dr. Abu Safiya's life: https://t.co/tq5d8BPF84
— Feroze Sidhwa (@FerozeSidhwa) July 8, 2026
The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel — established in 2021 by the U.N. Human Rights Council — on Wednesday urged Israeli authorities to immediately free the doctor and provide him with independent medical care.
Abu Safiya “has been subjected to continued and severe abuse” throughout his detention, and his current grave condition “is the direct result” of reported actions by Israel Prison Service guards, the panel said. It “reflects a broader pattern of violations previously identified in the commission’s reports.”
The U.N. experts pointed to their 2025 conclusion that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and a 2024 publication that found
“Israeli security forces deliberately killed, wounded, detained, and severely mistreated medical personnel, constituting the war crimes of wilful killing and torture and the crime against humanity of extermination.”
They further demanded freedom for all arbitrarily detained Palestinian medical personnel, declaring that their continued detention “and the severe mistreatment they are subjected to are deplorable and flagrant violations of international law.”
In addition to Abu Safiya, Israel is holding at least 13 other senior doctors without charge — and they are among around 9,300 Palestinians “currently in Israeli custody, including thousands held arbitrarily without charge or trial,” according to the U.N. Human Rights Office in the territory. At least 91 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since Oct. 7, 2023.
Since the Hamas-led attack that day, the U.S. government has stood by Israel under both the Biden and Trump administrations, even amid growing alarm among the American public and civil society over mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.
Amnesty InternationalUSA Executive Director Nadia Daar urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene to free Abu Safiya.
Noting research that Amnesty previously sent to the State Department in July 2024, suggesting that “US assistance may be funding units of a foreign security force implicated in the commission of gross violations of human rights,” Daar wrote:
“In addition to reviewing US security assistance for Leahy violations, we call on you to swiftly take action to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya. Pending his release, we further call on you to ensure that he is fully protected from further abuses and is provided with adequate access to medical care, food, and hygiene.”
The local UN Human Rights Office urged Israel to either free Abu Safiya, or “promptly charge him with a recognizable criminal offense and grant him a fair trial,” and either way, ensure he is transferred to a civilian hospital to receive necessary medical care.
“Israel must ensure that its laws governing the detention of Palestinians living under occupation comply with international legal norms and standards, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention and fair trial guarantees, and that its detention officials abide by those standards,” the office also said. “All arbitrarily detained Palestinians must be released with immediate effect.”
Efforts to secure their freedom through Israeli courts have been unsuccessful. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said “in its response to the High Court petition on the 14 detained Gaza doctors, the state says that Dr. Abu Safiya has been examined by medical personnel several times since being transferred,” but “does not explain why those examinations were necessary, what their findings were, or how they are consistent with its claim that his life is not in danger.”
“The response also does not address the serious allegations detailed in the sworn affidavit of Dr. Abu Safiya’s lawyer, including severe injuries, repeated loss of consciousness, and a serious concern for his life,” the group detailed. “At the same time, the state asks the court to dismiss, without a hearing, the petition by Physicians for Human Rights Israel petition seeking the release of 14 doctors from Gaza who are being held in Israel without charge.”
PHRI said that the group
“rejects the state’s position, arguing that its response fails to address the central issue raised by the petition: The continued detention of 14 doctors without charge or trial despite the catastrophic shortage of medical personnel in Gaza and the ongoing collapse of its healthcare system.”
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice — the U.N.’s top tribunal — over its mass slaughter in Gaza.
Additionally, the International Criminal Court has issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the territory.
The U.N. commission nodded to those cases in its statement, stressing that
“Israel must adhere strictly to international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” and reiterating panel’s “intent on ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility.
To that end, the commission is committed to investigating alleged violations of international law and identifying those responsible,” it said, “and will continue sharing information collected with relevant judicial authorities.”
John Mearsheimer: “Enormous Damage” of U.S.’s Iran War Loss
Some critics of the Trump administration are reacting with horror to revelations that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as the de facto ruler of Venezuela.
According to a Saturday report in The New York Times, Rubio for the last several months has been acting informally as the “viceroy” of Venezuela ever since its recognized president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted by the American military in January and brought to the US to face charges related to “narco-terrorism.”
The Times’ sources revealed that Rubio “effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources, and its government” and “is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations,” while maintaining regular contact with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez.
Under current arrangements, the US Treasury Department takes in revenue from Venezuela’s exports, including its petroleum, and then disperses the money back to the country through its private banks with strict conditions set by Rubio over what it can be spent on.
In explaining the system, the Times likened it to “parents handing out allowances to children,” adding that it gives Rubio “immense leverage over... Rodríguez, who depends on the money to pay workers and prop up the national currency.”
Elizabeth Saunders, professor of political science at Columbia University, described Rubio’s power over Venezuela as “insane,” as well as “derelict, unconscionable, and impeachable.”
“The secretary of state’s time is scarce, valuable, and not outsourcable,” Saunders emphasized.
Orlando J. Pérez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said the Times report made a mockery of Rubio’s professed claims to want to bring democracy back to Venezuela.
“It appears Rubio has transformed from democracy promotion warrior,” Pérez commented, “to transactional realpolitik operative!”
Kenneth Roth, former executive director at Human Rights Watch, wrote that US control over Venezuela appeared similar to the kind of imperial power wielded by European nations in the 19th Century.
“Trump has turned Venezuela into an effective US colony,” said Roth, “with Marco Rubio as the viceroy and Washington controlling the country’s oil revenue and dictating major foreign and domestic policies. Democracy has been relegated to the distant future.”
Bradley Simpson, historian at the University of Connecticut, also saw the current US arrangement with Venezuela as a return to overt imperialism.
“We are literally back in the Dollar Diplomacy days of the 1910s,” Simpson wrote, “when the United States invaded countries and took over their financial systems and ran them as effective colonies. Flagrantly illegal, enormously corrupt. Where is the organization of American states or UN in denouncing this?”
Trump Admin Escalates War on Press With Subpoena of New York Times Reporters
The Trump administration on Friday escalated its war with the press by subpoenaing several reporters at The New York Times days after the paper published a story on Wednesday that detailed security concerns about the luxury jet the Qatari government gave to President Donald Trump.
According to the Times, the subpoenas are attempting to force reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday next week, a move that the paper describes as an “extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.”
The issued subpoenas do not specifically name the Times’ reporting on the Qatari jet as the reason for the grand jury probe, although they were given to all four journalists—Tyler Pager, Julian Barnes, Eric Schmitt, and Eric Lipton—who reported the story.
Additionally, the Times noted, a senior official at the FBI had asked the paper to hold off publishing its story on the jet before it came out on Wednesday, citing unspecified national security concerns about its content.
David McCraw, the top attorney representing the Times’ newsroom, denounced the subpoenas as an attack on the freedom of the press.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said McGraw. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”
It is highly uncommon for government investigators to subpoena journalists when they are probing national security leaks, as such actions are generally seen as having a chilling effect on reporters’ ability to gather information.
Rick Stengel, former under secretary of state for President Barack Obama, said that the Times’ reporting on the Qatari jet, whose security upgrades are being financed with US tax dollars, is completely within the scope of constitutional protections for press freedom.
“The reporting that the Times journalists have been subpoenaed for is exactly the kind of journalism the First Amendment is designed to protect: matters involving national security and taxpayer dollars,” wrote Stengel in a Saturday social media post. “Reporting that embarrasses a president is protected speech.”
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin also denounced the Trump administration for trying to drag reporters into a grand jury investigation.
“This action by the US government to subpoena reporters for reporting legitimate news on security concerns about Air Force One should alarm every American,” Griffin wrote.
This is the second time in recent weeks that the Trump administration has tried to subpoena reporters to compel their testimony in grand jury investigations.
‘His blood is on Trump’s hands’: man killed by ICE in Texas mourned at vigil
The builder got up every morning long before dawn, left home to pick up his construction crew and then headed out to work on yet another house somewhere across the sprawl of Houston. Fourteen hours later, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would return to the wife he’d met as a teenager in Mexico and the modest house he’d built for his family on the city’s east side. It’s what he’d done for decades, according to Ronaldo Salgado, his oldest son. He said his father built hundreds of houses over 35 years, creating a life for his family and watching as his three sons headed off to college.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Salgado Araujo, 52, on Tuesday after he was pursued by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles while he was taking his crew to their latest job site. The shooting has outraged Houston leaders and renewed public scrutiny over ICE and Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Four Democratic members of Congress who represent the Houston area said at a vigil on Saturday that they would push for an independent investigation into the shooting. “We are never going to forget that his blood is on Donald Trump’s hands,” Christian Menefee, a US representative, said. “We are not at war. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was not a casualty. He was a human being who was murdered by our government.”
Federal agents were looking for someone else when they tried to stop Salgado Araujo’s white van, Democratic congresswoman Sylvia Garcia said, citing a briefing she received from ICE’s acting director. The Department of Homeland Security has said an ICE officer fired at the van in self-defense after Salgado Araujo, who officials described as an “illegal alien”, rammed an ICE vehicle. They have provided no evidence.
The three men that Salgado Araujo was driving said he was shot through a passenger window – and that the ICE officer who fired was not in front of the van or even in danger, a lawyer who has spoken with them said on Friday.
A perfectly revolting specimen
McConnell arranges a proof of life photo:
Mitch McConnell reveals fall led to hospitalization after weeks of silence
The US senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about the Kentucky Republican’s condition after weeks of mounting speculation about his health.
McConnell, 84, said in a statement that he has undergone a battery of tests as doctors try to determine what led to his fall. He explained the long silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older”.
“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it,” he said.
McConnell said he is now in a rehabilitation center and will not be returning to the Senate “quite yet”. He said he continues to work with his staff on Senate business in the meantime.
The statement included a smiling picture of McConnell with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that he had died or was incapacitated. McConnell held a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in his hand.
Mitch McConnell Proof of Life Photo Is INSANE
The plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters – all generously funded by US tax dollars. But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. “This is our place,” she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among corn fields and industrial plants serving the farming industry.
Now a local ethanol plant has spearheaded a project to bury vast stores of carbon deep in the geologic formation that runs under the town and surrounding farms. The government subsidies for the plan, which is supposed to help prevent global heating, are so generous that companies all over the country have been rushing to get permission for similar projects.
But residents around some of these carbon sequestration projects are organizing to stop them, making Clymers an epicenter of emerging national tensions around these projects. While international climate monitors say carbon sequestration projects could be secondary tools to help contain global warming, they also say the main focus must be on urgent and deep cuts to fossil fuels. Some environmental groups question the benefits of carbon sequestration and are concerned it could delay the transition to clean energy and pose risks to surrounding communities.
Harrison said the town of Clymers is already overburdened by hazards from industrial agriculture facilities including a fertilizer supplier, a hazardous waste recycling company and the giant ethanol plant that is proposing the project. She said the community faces contaminated well water, a lack of sewage facilities and high poverty rates. Harrison, like other residents in the area, received a letter about the project. Some were asked to accept $150 a year in exchange for having the carbon sink under their properties. “If they make Clymers bad enough that no one wants to live here, they can take over the whole town, real cheap,” she said.
The undertaking is one of dozens of carbon sequestration projects expected to be given the green light for construction in the US by the Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental regulators in the next year – as a flood of corporate permit applications reach the end of their approval processes. Oil industry companies are often sponsors and benefactors of these projects.
Pacific gray whales facing ‘catastrophic’ die-off as climate crisis hits food supply
Climate change is driving a gray whale “catastrophic mortality event” in the Pacific Ocean as melting sea ice depletes food sources and the animals starve, environmental groups warn. Meanwhile, a range of other issues, like ship strikes, oil spills, microplastic pollution, algal blooms and Russian harvesting are also probably contributing to the die-off that has nearly halved the whales’ estimated population. It fell from 20,000 in 2019 to fewer than 13,000 this year, and the deaths appear to be accelerating.
Environmental groups have petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) to relist the gray whale under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which would alleviate some problems, but its approval is a long shot as the Trump administration moves to gut wildlife protections.
The whales are in “very, very serious trouble”, said Rick Steiner, an Alaska marine ecologist and chair of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility’s (Peer’s) board of directors. “The stranding numbers last year and this year are enormous compared to their annual average,” Steiner said. “Stranding” is the term for whales that wash up onshore.
The gray whales, which travel from Baja California to Alaska to feed each year, came close to extinction in the 1970s, but rebounded following robust conservation efforts. They were delisted from the ESA in 1994, which Steiner called a “colossal mistake”. The estimates are most dire for 2025 and 2026 – somewhere from 2,500 to 8,000 whales are estimated to have died in this timeframe, which meets the criteria for a “catastrophic mortality event”.
The whales that wash up are emaciated, Steiner said, and the scientific consensus is that they are starving due to a loss of access to food sources that is driven by the dramatic reduction in sea ice around Alaska due to climate change. While the whales have been resilient in the past, evidence points to a dire situation, said David Weller, a Noaa marine biologist, in an agency release. “The environment may now be changing at a pace or in ways that is testing the time-honored ability of the population to rapidly rebound while it adjusts to a new ecological regime,” Weller said.
Experts warn of ways screwworm could spread in the US and new difficulties in keeping it at bay
When conservationists set up cameras in remote regions of Central American forests, they wanted to monitor illegal cattle movement, which can lead to deforestation. But in recent months, they discovered another alarming development: wildlife rapidly infected with the new world screwworm. It’s a warning sign of how the fly could spread in the US – and it signals new difficulties in pushing it back south, a process that will probably take years, experts say.
“We got a really unique perspective throughout the beginning of the process,” said Jeremy Radachowsky, director of the Mesoamerica and Caribbean program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, which recently released a study on the phenomenon.
The cameras captured all types of wildlife – jaguar, puma, tapir, deer, white-lipped peccary, even porcupines – covered in the unmistakable wounds caused by the parasitic fly. Some of the mammals shared water sources with the cattle, which were moved across national borders without requisite health and safety checks. From there, the fly ripped through wildlife. “We see infestations in the deepest parts of the interiors of the forest, so now it’s become endemic in wildlife, far from the cattle infestations,” Radachowsky said.
Screwworm has been detected in 34 animals in the US – most in Texas, with one in New Mexico. So far, they have only been found in livestock and pets, with no wildlife detections in the US.
The US is now dropping 100 million sterile flies in the south-west and Mexico – which may be enough to slow the northward movement of the parasitic fly, but will not be enough to eradicate it from the region. For that, they’d need about 500 million sterile flies.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
How Israel Could Push The U.S. Into Further Bombing Iran
The Oligarchy Moves on Platner’s Voters, Donors and Consultants
Lindsey Graham, Who ‘Never Met a War He Didn’t Want to Send Your Kids to,’ Dies at 71
Zohran Mamdani riding high despite New York Post’s daily demonization
‘Super’ El Niño could cause global food price shock lasting into 2028, analysts say
Trump's Cheap Gas STUNT EXPOSED
A Little Night Music
Bull Moose Jackson - Sneaky Pete
Bull Moose Jackson - I Want A Bow Legged Woman
Bull Moose Jackson - Cherokee Boogie
Bull Moose Jackson and his Buffalo Bearcats - Moosey
Bullmoose Jackson - Fare Thee Well, Deacon Jones
Bullmoose Jackson - Oh John
Bull Moose Jackson - Watch My Signals
Bull Moose Jackson - Nosey Joe
Bull Moose Jackson - Meet Me With Your Black Dress On
Bull Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch Record
Comments
Hey, joe!
I thought I would throw this in here, in case anyone wanted to listen to this 8 minute video analysis of the Proof of Life video. It may be junk, but a couple of points the guy makes seem valid.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
thanks for the video, it seems to be pretty reasonable. i've seen a few videos (including the one upstairs from breaking points) about mcconnell's "proof of life" photo. they all have in common a thread of suspicion that mcconnell has not been forthcoming about his condition.
i guess we will find out more over time.
After Massie can't run,
imho.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
well, there's always hope.
CPR for a fall?
No, joe. Is that a 2023 picture? No mention of Graham gone?
Smiling?
Oh, well, we shall see.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Another excellent agglomeration
.
of news and blues. I don't know how you do it.
You seem to have bottomless pockets of tunes.
Thanks for your efforts!
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
well, the internet is pretty well stocked with tunes, so it's not that hard to find stuff. anyway, glad you're enjoying it, have a great evening!
Mearsheimer is just wrong
The idea that the US defeat in the Vietnam war didn't affect our status in the world is just wrong. It actually forced Kissinger and Nixon and their successors in the white house to make concessions to China that they would otherwise would never have considered making. It was the US alignment with China, or at least covering their six so to speak, that enabled them to confront Russia on their disputed border. This added to the over extension of Russian military power world wide that weakened it temporarily and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact.
That being said, the so called unipolar moment was always an illusion. That illusion prompted the US to do things in Eastern Europe, extending NATO, which were extremely unwise. It's obvious now with hindsight, to all but most brainwashed, that we and Europe were not in a position to support that extension. Further, the alliance went on to embark on military adventurism in the mideast and central Asia that was completely unsupportable, and caused the US to even further erode its power as the so called world's sole superpower. It raised profits for certain special interests, but weakened US power in the aggregate. I saw an article recently which listed the wasted expenditure of resources in the trillions of dollars. We are still living with the consequences, which for some reason, Mearsheimer and to a lesser extent Yanis (but still surprising coming from an economist) choose to deny and minimize respectively.
The US capability to project power, to marshal resources in support of its own economy, or even conduct a war or project power actually called for by military necessity namely a legitimate case of self defense, was permanently impaired. The fact is we were never challenged by the right sort of adversary in a position to reveal our internal weaknesses until much more recently, first in Afghanistan and now in Iran.
Alistair is always a breath of fresh air.
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
i think that yanis is more correct than mearsheimer here. though he doesn't mention it, the u.s. profits from destroying smaller competitors in markets as they do through wars. for example, think of all of the oil that has been taken off of the market over the years by u.s. aggression. that has certainly benefitted u.s. corporations in the oil market as the u.s. has become the world's largest producer of oil.
in my view, mearsheimer understates u.s. power losses over the years, particularly as a predictable pattern developed. on the other hand, the u.s. post-vietnam and until recently has been able to flex its power (militarily and economically) to effect and benefited from the lack of a globally-organized resistance that empowers the smaller nations that it has been picking on.
most of the u.s. loss of power has been self-inflicted by foolish leaders and greedy corporate mobsters who have bled the economy dry and de-industrialized the nation to the point where it produces very little and is globally uncompetitive and declining fast.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. America the Geriatric,
we have no faith in thee ...
Meanwhile Zelinsky is in La Belle France, and in a slip of the tongue, Dima said he had fled to France. First he sent bills to the legislature extending Marshall law yet again. I can't help but have visions of them voting the extension down while he's still in France, but I doubt that it is in the cards.
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...
heh, it seems like elensky doesn't spend a great deal of time in kiev, he's always popping up in some other country to beg for money and weapons or attending some conference of a group that ukraine is not a member of. flee to france? i'm sure that he'll find somewhere comfortable to land with all of the money he's pilfered if he gets his timing right.