The Evening Blues - 10-30-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Stax soul singer and songwriter Eddie Floyd. Enjoy!
Eddie Floyd - Raise Your Hand
"We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying."
-- Douglas Adams
News and Opinion
Australia’s “Antisemitism Envoy” Says The Pro-Palestine Left Are The Real Nazis
Australia’s “antisemitism envoy” Jillian Segal has released a new report claiming that the primary threat to Jews in our country comes from left-wing pro-Palestine activists, which Segal hilariously labels “issue-motivated antisemitism”.
(Genocide. The “issue” is genocide.)
This, obviously, is an admission that Jillian Segal’s whole entire mission in Australia is to encourage government powers to stomp out pro-Palestine activism and protect the information interests of the apartheid state of Israel.
So there we have it. Segal's new report openly accuses progressives of being the main vector of antisemitism in society. The corollary: the left and its calls for justice and equality must be defeated.
— Nick Riemer (@NickRiemer1) October 29, 2026
“Modern, progressive antisemitism is the most pervasive manifestation of antisemitism facing Australia today,” Segal’s report asserts. “It is often not a standalone hatred like the other sources. Rather, it serves to justify and legitimise antisemitism, providing it with intellectual and cultural credibility and, ultimately, making it fashionable. It does this by effectively laundering far-left antisemitism and Islamic extremism through a progressive lens, such as social justice and human rights, together with traditional antisemitic tropes, giving fundamentally extremist ideologies an apparently acceptable face.”
In a section titled “Far-left antisemitism or issue-motivated antisemitism,” Segal’s office complains that “Israel is portrayed as a colonial project that is inherently racist,” which she says “allows longstanding antisemitic motifs to be repackaged in the academic language of antiracism, decolonisation, human rights, social justice and intersectionality, often in service of a traditional Marxist revolutionary agenda.”
Here’s an excerpt:
“Over time, the language of human rights and its greatest crimes — apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. — has increasingly been appropriated to portray Israel (and, relevantly, members of the Jewish community who support it) as morally evil, often to the point of being equated to Nazis.
“In contemporary Australia, elements of Australia’s historically fringe radical left have sought to appeal to well-meaning mainstream progressive Australians who may perceive the Palestinian cause as a matter of social justice. This ‘gateway’ issue, of sorts, has been used by far-left activists to magnify their appeal and prominence and to attempt to introduce traditionally moderate Australians to radical and anti-Jewish propaganda that would previously have been of little interest.”
Segal repeatedly warns that antisemites are guilty of the “conflation” of Jewish people with the state of Israel while also repeatedly going out of her way to lump Jews in with support for the Israeli state, complaining of the view that “anyone who identifies as a Zionist is themselves fundamentally wicked, notably including the overwhelming majority of Jewish Australians who, as an inextricable part of their Jewish identity, hold a belief in the right of Israel to exist.”
In reality, Israel lobbyists like Segal are the ones who are guilty of conflating all Jews with the actions of Israel. That is what you are doing when you claim that opposition to a genocidal apartheid state is hateful toward Jews.
To help curb the actions of the “issue-motivated” antisemites, Segal recommends the implementation of exclusion zones for protesters, a ban on face coverings for demonstrators, extra review measures for people who are in this country on visas, and extra oversight of public broadcasters the ABC and SBS to ensure fair and balanced coverage of Israeli atrocities.
She wants Australian judges to be coached by pro-Israel lobby groups to apply the IHRA definition of antisemitism to Australian law. https://t.co/84vlEQN085
— Alternate Media Watchers (@AltMediaWatch) October 30, 2026
Segal’s office also recommends incorporating the authoritarian, pro-Israel IHRA working definition of antisemitism into every level of the law, calling for “Facilitation by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and judicial education bodies of ongoing, appropriate and tailored education to their members regarding antisemitism, its contemporary expressions and the application of the IHRA definition.”
Segal also recommends forcing online platforms to adopt “the IHRA definition into community standards and policies for content moderation,” which would see people banned from social media for such self-evidently correct actions as comparing Israel to Nazi Germany or saying that Zionism is a racist endeavor.
As you might expect, the Australian press are dutifully regurgitating Segal’s left-punching propaganda with zero pushback. The Australian ran the story on the new report with the headline “‘Pervasive progressive hate’: antisemitism envoy’s new blueprint,” while The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald went with “New wave of Australian antisemitism comes from progressive social justice critics, says antisemitism envoy.”
I have said it before and I will say it again: anyone who talks about “left-wing antisemitism” like it’s a real problem which presents a real threat is a lying manipulator and should be treated as such. They are pretending to believe things that no one actually believes in order to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state.
The antisemitism envoy told the Royal Commission that Gaza’s death toll was “grossly inflated” and that the UN accepted this. The UN said otherwise. When I asked she said she “notes” the UN’s views. https://t.co/VdPbTfv7Ge
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) October 27, 2026
At a recent Senate hearing, Jillian Segal was confronted by the leader of the Australian Greens, David Shoebridge, for her false Royal Commission testimony asserting that the Gaza death toll has been “grossly inflated” according to the United Nations. The spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General directly refuted this claim earlier this year, saying, “For us the Ministry of Health in Gaza is a source we, and many others, often cite. Independent validation of subsets of the data has found no significant discrepancies in their numbers.”
Jillian Segal is an immoral, manipulative white South African whose job is to deceive the public in order to facilitate genocide and apartheid. That is the light under which her recommendations should be viewed, and any government which espouses them should be viewed as supportive of the most extensively documented crimes against humanity in the history of the human species.
Amb. Chas Freeman: BREAKING: Israel Fears Trump May End Iran War Too Soon
Netanyahu accused of smearing Arab voters to hold on to power
Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of using smear tactics to cling to power, after he claimed that Arab Israeli parties had used foreign backing to “steal” Tuesday’s election, in which the prime minister’s coalition lost its parliamentary majority. Netanyahu and his allies called on the internal security service, Shin Bet, to investigate alleged vote buying and other irregularities in Palestinian communities in Israel, supposedly funded by foreign money.
Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the main opposition bloc, accused the prime minister and his Likud party of trying to derail the election results. “It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organised campaign seeking to delegitimise the results of the election,” Eisenkot said in a video message.
The prime minister’s allegations were quickly disowned by a range of government officials, including police officers and members of the election committee. Netanyahu was also rebuked by the president for “tarnishing an entire community”. On Wednesday night, the prime minister posted a statement by Likud online, which described the claimed violations as “an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamisation of Israel, and the overthrow of rightwing rule”.
Tuesday’s elections led to Netanyahu’s far-right coalition losing its majority after four years in power. The main Jewish opposition bloc also fell short, however, leaving two Arab Israeli parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, holding the balance of power. Final results released early on Friday local time showed the pro-Netanyahu bloc winning 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset and Eisenkot’s bloc taking 48 seats. Joint List and Ra’am won the remaining 19 seats, a historic high for the Arab Israeli community, which makes up about a fifth of Israel’s population.
The prime minister’s attack appeared aimed at stopping the Jewish and Arab opposition from voting together in the new Knesset to oust the incumbent speaker, Amir Ohana, a Likud politician and former Shin Bet official, and advancing their own legislation. The Likud statement posted by Netanyahu on X said: “It is clear that no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset speaker through votes bought for cash, and form a government that is dangerous to Israel.”
Col. Larry Wilkerson & Larry Johnson: BREAKING: Iran Uses Limpet Mines- Super Tankers Stop in Hormuz
JD Vance letter may offer last chance to avert fresh conflict between US and Iran
Hopes of averting a major new conflagration between Iran and the US soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections could rest on Iran’s response to a personal letter from the US vice-president, JD Vance, offering to restart diplomacy. The letter, written after predominantly Qatari mediation, was sent to the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei on Sunday. It requires Tehran to agree to make commitments on its nuclear programme at the start of a process that would lead to the opening of the strait of Hormuz within seven days in return for US sanctions relief.
A reply is imminent, but Iran is reluctant to give upfront and irreversible commitments on its nuclear programme, such as exporting its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country, if the compensatory US steps, such as lifting sanctions on Iranian oil exports, are reversible. Some form of third-party guarantee that both sides will adhere to their commitments has been discussed, with China often mentioned as the only country of sufficient status to underwrite it.
One Democratic senator briefed on the targets the US military had identified in Iran said the plan for a renewed attack was “insane” and would lead to “the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law”.
In a sign of Iran’s reluctance to meet US demands about sequencing, its chief negotiator, Mohammad Ghalibaf, wrote on X, “Iran’s conditions have been repeatedly and clearly stated to the mediators. The carrot-and-stick approach has no effect on Iran. Progress can only be achieved once Iran’s seven conditions have been agreed upon.” Those conditions include lifting sanctions, ending asset freezes and ending the war on all fronts, a phrase that requires an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon.
Although Tehran trusts Vance marginally more than most White House politicians and envoys, the Iranian high command is still suspicious about his status after he negotiated a 14-point memorandum of understanding which then fell apart when other members of the US administration took charge of its implementation.
U.S. BOMBS BANDAR-E-JASK IN SOUTHERN IRAN - w/ Anthony Aguilar
Hegseth reportedly fires high-ranking army strategist over alleged leaks
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public. The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential “to protect sensitive information”, the Washington Post reported.
Sylvia had served as the director for strategy, plans and policy on the joint staff. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell acknowledged the dismissal in a statement on social media, though he did not mention Sylvia by name. “Following an extensive Air Force OSI investigation, the Department took necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information,” Parnell wrote. “To protect the integrity of the investigation, no further comment will be made regarding the individual or the circumstances of this action.”
Sylvia’s removal represents one of the most significant actions so far in Hegseth’s extensive campaign to identify officials suspected of sharing information with journalists, as the unpopular US war on Iran moves into its ninth month.
Lavrov in Tehran; Vance Reaches Out to Iran Hardliners; Strike After Midterms
As Israelis await the results of this week’s elections with a sense of uncertainty, Palestinians are certain of one thing—that their suffering will continue regardless of who emerges victorious.
“We don’t care about their elections in any way. Gaza is in the same state. Their elections change nothing here,” one elderly Palestinian woman told The Specter on Wednesday from a refugee camp in the obliterated strip, where three years of US-backed Israeli genocide have left 250,000 people dead or wounded, nearly 2 million inhabitants displaced, and the territory in ruins.
A younger woman in the camp told the outlet that “things in Gaza won’t change, and they will get worse” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reelected.
“The first thing he’ll do is pick up where he left off, displacing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank... and from the Gaza Strip,” she continued.
What do people in Gaza think about the Israeli elections?
“They are all guided by the same ideology,” another said. Watch how people in Gaza responded https://t.co/M5WGysX9JX
— The Specter (@specter_affairs) October 29, 2026
If former lawmaker and ex-Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot wins, “things may unfold a little differently,” she predicted, but Israeli policy will stay the same. It’s the policy the Israeli state was founded on.“
Like Netanyahu, Eisenkot emphatically rejects Palestinian statehood, calling the two-state solution “a mistake” and “delusional,” given the October 2023 attack led by the militant resistance group Hamas—whose animus was fueled by over a century of Zionist usurpation.
With around 90% of ballots counted as of Thursday, Israeli media projected that Netanyahu’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox allies would capture 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with 48 for the opposition led by Eisenkot.
The Knesset has 120 seats, so 61 are needed for a parliamentary majority. The candidates’ shortfall means either side would likely need support from Arab parties to emerge victorious—a prospect rejected by many Jewish political leaders.
Netanyahu would remain caretaker prime minister throughout any negotiations to form a new coalition.
Palestinian American fashion designer Alana Hadid—the half-sister of models Gigi and Bella Hadid—said in a video posted to social media that “it’s important for people to understand that the intention of an election in Israel to make you think that there will be change. And of course, there will be some change in that there will be a different brand of Zionism.”
“Zionism is universal across Israelis,” she added, “so whoever wins this election, the change will be in name only.”
Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, on Thursday published an article in which Gazans mostly shrugged off the Israeli elections.
“Honestly, I don’t feel anything about the results. As someone from Gaza, I’m just waiting to see who will bomb me next—the right or the left,” a young man named Mahmoud said. “In the end, the bad will go, and the worse will come. They’re two sides of the same coin, and both support your killing as a Gazan.”
“I think people in Gaza will be happy to see Netanyahu fall, not because of Eisenkot, of course, but because they experienced Netanyahu and saw what he did,” he added. “They hope Eisenkot will deal with Gaza differently, or that there will be some relief. But, as I said, even though the two are against each other, both want you killed.”
Washington Insiders Expose What America Hid About Israel's War On Gaza | Akbar Shahid Ahmed
US Journalist and Activist Detained After Israeli Settler Attack in West Bank
An American journalist and an activist who reportedly suffered a concussion from being beaten by armed Israeli settlers remained in detention Wednesday night, hours after Israeli police arrested them following the attack.
Adele Shoko, a Russian activist, reported that settlers had attacked her, Israeli-Russian activist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, and US journalist Jasper Nathaniel late Wednesday in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank.
“They beat us, threatened to shoot us, stole Andrey’s phone and my glasses, and pepper-sprayed Jasper,” Shoko said on the social media platform X.
According to Shoko, Khrzhanovskiy was denied medical treatment after losing consciousness “several times in front of police.” He and Nathaniel were taken to a police station, where they remained hours later.
TODAY: Settler-terrorists attacked Andrey, Jasper and me. This video shows the assault.
Andrey was severely beaten and lost consciousness several times in front of police. Despite this, he was denied hospital treatment. He was put in an ambulance—but instead of being taken to hospital, he was taken to a police station.
He is still there, arrested and being denied medical care.
Jasper and I were also beaten. Jasper was then pepper-sprayed and arrested.
— Adele Shoko (@AdeleShoko) October 28, 2026
Nathaniel was heard yelling, “I just got beat up!” while being led away by police.
“Andrey was severely beaten and lost consciousness several times in front of police,” said Shoko. “Despite this, he was denied hospital treatment. He was put in an ambulance—but instead of being taken to hospital, he was taken to a police station. He is still there, arrested and being denied medical care.”
One video appeared to show Khrzhanovskiy losing consciousness.
In this video, you can see Andrey losing consciousness.
Yet he was taken to the police station instead of the hospital, and they’re keeping him there overnight.— Adele Shoko (@AdeleShoko) October 28, 2026
Drop Site News cited Shoko as she reported that Nathaniel and Khrzhanovskiy eventually were able to speak with a lawyer, but remained at a police station. They were reportedly “physically okay.”
“Israeli state terrorism knows no boundaries,” said historian Zachary Foster of the footage of the attack.
The assault came less than two weeks after both Nathaniel and Khrzhanovskiy came to the aid of Heidi Levine, a Washington Post journalist, after she was brutally beaten and robbed by Israeli settlers while she was covering an attack by dozens of masked men on Palestinian olive groves in the West Bank.
State-backed settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have ramped up significantly since October 2023, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also began a military campaign against Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in what leading human rights groups have called a genocide, and a United Nations commission said this week that at least 1,080 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in the last three years.
Top officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have pushed to further annex the West Bank as the IDF has backed settler raids on villages and attacks on Palestinian communities as well as recent assaults on journalists, US lawmakers, and a group of European diplomats.
Nathaniel, who has spent years covering the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for outlets including Drop Site and Zeteo News, spoke recently to The New Yorker about the attack on Levine, emphasizing that Palestinians had thrown stones at her attackers to allow her colleagues to reach her.
“The IDF soldiers who have been there, who’ve been tear-gassing the Palestinians and providing cover for the settlers, stormed the village,” Nathaniel said of the assault on Levine. “Rather than go after the settlers who have just nearly killed a woman, they stormed the village and started firing their weapons, and they shot a Palestinian man in the leg.”
A little over a week ago Jasper Nathaniel, an American journalist, spoke out about witnessing a brutal attack on a Washington Post reporter in the West Bank. Now he's been threatened and attacked by Israeli settlers, then hauled off by police.
— Joshua Hunt (@viajoshhunt) October 28, 2026
On Substack this week, Khrzhanovskiy wrote that “all the Palestinian villages in the West Bank are under siege,” and that Netanyahu’s government aimed to use a recent strike against Israeli soldiers “to start a war in the West Bank.”
“The only way to stop this is pressure from all directions. We know it works,” said Khrzhanovskiy. “Call your representative, hold a demonstration, organize direct action against the occupation’s assets abroad. Keep attention on the West Bank.”
"I Believe in Capitalism": Marxist DEBUNKS Abdul El-Sayed's Defense of Capitalism (w/ David Harvey)
US economy grows faster than expected but inflation rises to 3.7%
The US economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter while inflation accelerated in September, according to new commerce department data released on Thursday, less than a week before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 3.4% annualized rate last quarter, the commerce department’s bureau of economic analysis said in its advance estimate of the third-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP advancing at a 3.2% pace.
The change is in stark contrast to households’ downbeat assessment of the economy, reflected in Donald Trump’s record-low approval ratings and a sharp deterioration in consumer sentiment.
The consumer price index, a separate measure of inflation released by the Department of Labor that was released earlier in October, had also shown inflation rising in September, with the annualized inflation rate going from 3.4% in August to 3.7% in September.
DHS cites risk to more than 40,000 personnel in effort to take leaked data offline
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked an Icelandic hosting company on Thursday to take down or limit access to data related to thousands of agency personnel, saying the content put them at risk, according to the request posted online by hosting company FlokiNET.
The database “places more than 40,000 identifiable individuals at risk of harassment, stalking and physical harm”, the request said.
ZeroFox, a company authorized by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to pursue content removal actions, cited the figure in an email to FlokiNET.
FlokiNET’s CEO, Kolja Weber, told Reuters that his company would not remove the DHS data because it included government employee work addresses and work phone numbers, not personal phone numbers and addresses.
DoJ reportedly issues subpoenas over same name Alaska candidates
The US justice department on Thursday is reported to have issued subpoenas in response to a report that the Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign collaborated with party operatives to get a challenger with the same name as the Republican senator Dan Sullivan on the midterm ballot.
ABC News reported the subpoenas, citing sources familiar with the matter. The federal investigation comes a day after the New York Times found that the effort to recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan in the Senate race set to be decided on Tuesday was led by Peltola’s campaign, which had for months denied involvement.
Trump administration opens criminal investigation over alleged noncitizen voting in California
The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation in California over claims that thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in the state, and has begun subpoenaing election officials. The development, which was reported by Bloomberg Law and the New York Times, comes just days before the US midterm elections in which the president’s party is expected to see major losses.
Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged California’s elections are “corrupt” and “rigged”, and in recent days his administration has taken aggressive steps to cast doubt on election results long before polls have closed. Some employees from the office of the Los Angeles county registrar-recorder received grand jury subpoenas, the office confirmed. Dean Logan, the Los Angeles county registrar, said in a statement that court rulings have affirmed that election officials are following the law and that “threats and intimidation have no place in elections”.
“At every step, the US Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach,” Logan said. “We will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and to remain focused on serving the voters of Los Angeles County so they can exercise their voting franchise.”
The Orange county registrar of voters also received a subpoena this week related to a criminal investigation, the office confirmed to the Guardian, in addition to three in September. The federal grand jury subpoenas seek “unredacted voter registration information” for 77 possible registrants, the office said.
Visit Norway makes shithouses ‘great again’ after Trump insult
Some might find it decidedly incommodious to be dumped on by Donald Trump as a “shithouse country”. Not the Norwegian tourist board, which chose instead to lift the lid on some of the nation’s loveliest lavatories. “Are these the world’s best shit houses?” asked Visit Norway on its website, days after the US president vented his fury once more over failing to win the Nobel peace prize by describing Norway as a “shithouse country” at a rally on Sunday.
“Norway makes shit houses great again!” the agency continued above pictures of some of the country’s most striking public conveniences, adding: “These toilets are worth a visit, both when you really have to go – and when you don’t.”
Trump delivered his tirade at a rally in Michigan days before the US midterm elections. “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” he declared, using a term he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. He added that he would welcome migrants from some countries but not Norway, “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize”. Earlier this month, Trump denounced the decision to award the prize to Navi Pillay, a former international criminal court judge.
“This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” he said. “I never heard of this person. The Nobel peace prize has been forever discredited … And we will not forget, Norway.”
Along 18 designated scenic routes around Norway, Visit Norway said, leading architects had been tasked with transforming the humble wayside privy into an attraction in its own right. Several have since won international architecture awards. The agency pictured a series of designer public conveniences, many of them architecturally striking and all offering breathtaking vistas overlooking fjords, beside rushing rivers and foaming waterfalls, and at stunning scenic viewpoints.
Establishment Dems Beg For AIPAC Support in Calif Races
Pelosi SLAMS Abdul In Final Days
Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre site
Finnish police have launched a criminal investigation into possible breaches of the country’s environmental laws at the site of a planned Google datacentre in rural northern Finland. Authorities allege that Tuike Finland, a Google subsidiary, cleared and drained 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at the planned site in Muhos before environmental impact assessments required by Finnish law had been completed.
Like other Nordic countries, Finland is attractive to tech companies seeking to build datacentres because of its relative geopolitical stability and abundance of land, but also because its cool climate should allow them to cut energy costs.
“Based on preliminary information, there have been ambiguities and shortcomings in the drainage and water management at the construction site of Tuike Finland Oy’s datacentre project,” Finnish police said in a statement on Thursday. “The criminal investigation will examine, among other things, circumstances related to these issues,” they added.
Finnish authorities are considering applications for a total of 145 new datacentres at various stages of planning, including a €13bn (£11bn) artificial intelligence infrastructure project by Google that the US company has called its largest investment in Europe. Earlier this month Finnish authorities ordered Google to suspend work at two sites – Muhos and Otanmäki, about 100km to the south-east – after the company failed to complete environmental impact assessments before clearcutting the land.
Revelations over Google’s alleged misconduct have sparked a national debate over what datacentre deals mean for communities, the environment and energy prices. The issue could impact parliamentary elections due in April. More than 93,000 people have signed a petition demanding more datacentre regulation and compensation for environmental damage. Experts say datacentres bring a limited number of local jobs, and benefits on a national level are minimal.
Minnesota officials surveilled activists urging closure of waste incinerator, emails show
Newly released emails show local government officials in Minneapolis have quietly surveilled environmental justice activists who are working to close a controversial waste incinerator that is emitting pollution into low-income neighborhoods around it, activist groups allege.
County officials sent an employee who is also an environmental justice activist to collect intelligence, among other tactics, emails show. The information was then used to help successfully kill state-level environmental legislation opposed by the incinerator’s leadership, and try to stay one step ahead of activist campaigns and protests. In another instance, a county employee presenting himself as an ally allegedly tried to obtain the identity of a whistleblower, a recording shows.
The county allegedly sent other employees to try to grow close to activist groups for the purpose of collecting information, and developed reports and dossiers on local environmental justice leaders. The operation is laid out in emails that the Zero Burn Coalition, Minnesota Environmental Justice Table (MNEJT), and other advocacy groups and leaders obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. The groups published some of those emails in a report to support their allegations.
The emails reveal how information collected was shared among top county environmental officials, who then in some instances sent information to industry, including the company that operates the controversial trash incinerator. “Why are public resources and county staff time being directed toward monitoring community members who are simply organizing to shut down an ageing, outdated trash burner that should have been closed nearly a decade ago?” Minneapolis organizer Audua Pugh, who was among those surveilled, asked county political leadership during a board meeting this week.
The north Minneapolis trash incinerator, called Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), incinerates 365,000 tons of trash annually. Nearly 100 municipal or hazardous waste incinerators operate nationally, including seven in Minnesota. They have drawn increased scrutiny in part because they are known to release high levels of Pfas “forever chemicals” that are widely used across the economy and concentrate in municipal waste, but cannot be fully destroyed by the incineration process. They are also known to emit high levels of other pollutants, but the powerful waste management industry markets them as recycling or “green” operations. Similar battles to close polluting facilities are playing out in cities like Baltimore and Miami.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Patrick Lawrence: The Same Old but Worse in Israel
CENTCOM Chief Briefs Trump on Options for Bombing Iran
Iran launches first export freight train from Qom to China amid US naval blockade
Report: Trump Links Israeli Withdrawal to Lebanon Signing Abraham Accords
Saudi Propaganda Satellites Converge Over AP‘s Office
Video Shows ICE Agents Slashing Tires of Lawful Observers
They Thought They Owned Britain. Then Macklemore Sold Out Wembley
A Little Night Music
Eddie Floyd - Knock On Wood
Eddie Floyd - Got To Make A Comeback
Eddie Floyd - Bring it on Home to Me (Remastered)
Eddie Floyd - Don't Rock The Boat
Eddie Floyd - Things get better
Eddie Floyd - Big Bird
Eddie Floyd - On A Saturday Night
Eddie Floyd - Love is a Doggone Good Thing
Eddie Floyd - Soul Street
Janis Joplin - Raise Your Hand (Live at Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany)
Comments
A funny item is your column
.
About Norway being proud of their outhouses after trumpet
called the country a shit hole. He's still mad about not
getting the peace prize. What a childish thing to say.
Also read a company in Minnesota offered to sell an empty prison
to the state for $75 M. ICE bought it for almost $500 M to make it
into a detention center. Shrewd business dealers those DHS dudes are.
Thanks for the EBs and hope you enjoy the weekend.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
it's nice to see the trumpster's shit-talking bring out the best in people for once and subtly make fun of him for being the spoiled little entitled brat that he is.
ice has been overpaying for all kinds of facilities that they say they want to turn into detention facilities, i've read that sometimes these overpayments seem to go to trump donors. so maybe they're being dumb like foxes.
Trouble in the global markets
.
My guess: By 3PM, it finally became obvious to someone other than myself that the US was absolutely losing the so-called AI race?
But, surely, a global level economic crash has to be caused by something more significant than the corruption and clinical insanity of the United States. Isn't that right?
evening pluto...
i read an article a couple of days ago that said that the chinese ai bubble had burst because it became obvious that lots of big datacenters would not be needed since more compact ai models that could run on smaller machines had been successful, the article mentioned deepseek in particular.
perhaps the chinese experience has made u.s. investors more reticent to invest in the datacenter boom?
Maybe
I seem to be watching a news feed from outer space.
Iran attacks Israel.
Trump warns US citizens to stock up on for and water now.
That might have been click bait.
No mention of Iran attack in Israel. I watched it in skim fashion. Did I miss actual news?Click bait is the new thing.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
probably click bait...
i see titles like that all the time in my youtube feed, most seem to turn out to be some yahoo from india or pakistan and have little to do with the title.
Thanks, Professor for the Eddie Floyd playlist.
Now, I need to go and check my Stax/Volt compilations.
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
evening orlbucfan...
sounds like a worthy pursuit that could wind up producing an enjoyable weekend of listening.
have a good one!
Good evening Joe, et. al. Thanks for the EB's Joe. Somebody
raided polymarket and made off with the coin. I recalled that just now while wondering what the line was on tuesday or before versus wednesday or later. So whatever the bet was, some hackers seem to have been the real winners. Heh
Have a great weekend
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 suppose that it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of folks.
have a great weekend, or maybe considering the holiday... eekend!
Fiesta Fireworks from the front porch
From the article linked above-
Continuing the behavior that continues to drive North Korea- Freedom Flag joint US-ROK exercise began Oct 26.
N. Korea slams S. Korea, US' Freedom Flag air drills, vows to deter with force
The Response from North Korea
Below was the shortest version of the fiesta fireworks as Kim Jong-tae bitingly referred to them. Is there a fiesta today? I think the firepower demonstration was broadcast today from KCNA, but might be from the 29th. It took place in Wonsan on the East Sea/Sea of Japan. Kim has a residence there, looks like family is watching from the porch patio. Targets are islands around the harbor. There are quite a few military facilities in the area, testing grounds, an airfield. I think the submarine yard is there as well. DongA media in South Korea was broadcasting this for hours, along with the border story, Starbucks artillery cafe, etc. I think the video is worth a look because it shows the spectrum of drone, missile and rocket attacks, somewhat similar to the threats in Ukraine and Iran.
So the US blows off the defensive line construction by North Korea in the DMZ, while at the same time carrying out joint exercises with South Korea, creating a tense military situation between North and South Korea, which could have been avoided with measures initially undertaken in 2018 and then abandoned by the US. Yoon put the finishing blows on dialogue and the military agreement governing military activity near the DMZ with tacit US approval.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
well, the u.s. clearly wants tension in the koreas to justify their presence. i guess the question is, does south korea want peace enough to kick the u.s. out? so far, not so much.