The Evening Blues - 1-26-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Tejano band The Texas Tornados. Enjoy!
Texas Tornados - Mendocino
"The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history."
-- Noam Chomsky
News and Opinion
UN court orders Israel to ensure acts of genocide are not committed in Gaza
The UN’s international court of justice has ordered Israel to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a historic decision.
In an interim judgment delivered on Friday, the president of the court, Joan Donoghue, said Israel must “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts that fall within the scope of the genocide convention and must ensure “with immediate effect” that its forces do not commit any of the acts covered by the convention.
The court stopped short of granting South Africa’s request to order an immediate ceasefire to the war, which has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
The ruling is not the final word from the court on whether Israel’s actions amount to genocide, but it provides a strong indication that the judges believe there is a credible risk to Palestinians under the genocide convention. Granting South Africa’s application for special measures, the court did not have to find whether Israel had committed genocide, which will be determined at a later date, but only that its acts were capable of falling within the genocide convention and that urgent preventive action was necessary.
Donoghue said Israel must “take all measures within its power to prevent” killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction in whole or in part of the Palestinian group, and imposing measures intended to prevent births of Palestinians.
“The court is also of the view that Israel must take measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to the members of the Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip,” the US judge said. “The court further considers that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Donoghue said Israel must ensure the preservation of evidence of alleged genocide and must report to the court within a month. The six provisional measures were approved by a wide majority of the judges – two of them by 16 to one and four by 15 to two.
International Court of Justice Orders Israel to Prevent Genocide in Gaza, Fails to Order Ceasefire
Israeli officials accuse ICJ of antisemitic bias
Israeli officials have accused the international court of justice of antisemitic bias and expressed dismay that a South African case alleging that the war in Gaza amounts to genocide was not thrown out altogether, after the court issued an emergency interim ruling.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in response to the ruling that his country was committed to upholding international law, as well as defending its people. He said in a statement:
The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right [to self-defence] is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected.
Can Israel Ignore World Court's Order? Experts Weigh in on ICJ Genocide Case
Qatar accuses Netanyahu of deliberately obstructing Gaza mediation efforts
Qatar has harshly criticised Israel’s prime minister, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately obstructing ceasefire and hostage release negotiations with Hamas for personal political gain. Doha’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said on Wednesday night that his government was “appalled” by leaked remarks allegedly made by Netanyahu in which he criticised the country’s mediation efforts over the war in Gaza, adding that the Israeli leader’s comments were “irresponsible and destructive” but “not surprising”.
“If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritising saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” Ansari wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Netanyahu’s office is yet to issue a response in the public spat, which threatens to complicate the already arduous negotiations on aid, a ceasefire and the release of approximately 130 hostages believed to still be in captivity in the Gaza Strip. On Thursday, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, fanned the flames with a post on X accusing Qatar of being responsible for the 7 October Hamas attack, calling the Gulf state the “patron of Hamas” and “a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism”.
Ansari’s statement came in response to recordings of Netanyahu’s closed-door meeting with family members of hostages earlier this week obtained by Israel’s Channel 12, in which he reportedly said Qatar’s role in the mediation process was “problematic”. The prime minister allegedly told the relatives he had intentionally not thanked Doha for its efforts to date and that he had expressed anger towards the US, Israel’s most important ally, for deciding to keep a military base in the semi-democratic oil state.
“Qatar in my opinion is no different, in essence, from the UN. It is no different, in essence, from the Red Cross, and in some ways it is even more problematic,” he said. “I am prepared to use any actor at the moment that will help me get [the hostages] home. I haven’t any illusions about [Qatar]. They have leverage.”
ICJ delivers ruling in favour of South Africa
The Chris Hedges Report: Joe Sacco, Author of ‘Footnotes of Gaza,’ on Journalism and Palestine
CIA chief to discuss fresh Gaza hostage deal and ceasefire with Israel and Qatar
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency and his Israeli counterpart will meet Qatari officials in coming days for talks on a second potential Gaza hostage deal and pause in fighting, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
William Burns and the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, will meet Qatari prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe this weekend, one official briefed on the meeting told the news agency.
Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will also participate, a second source said.
Reports in the US media also said Burns would travel to Europe for meetings with Israeli and Qatari officials about a ceasefire.
The administration of Joe Biden has been trying to facilitate the release of the more than 100 remaining hostages taken during Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, igniting the war in Gaza. However, there remains a considerable distance between the two sides’ demands.
Experts Say Israel's 'Buffer Zone' Plan Violates International Law
Along with openly flouting the Biden administration's demand that Palestinian territory not be reduced by Israel's bombardment of Gaza, human rights and policy experts on Wednesday said that Israel's efforts to create a so-called "buffer zone" by demolishing buildings near its border structure are a violation of international law.
After satellite imagery and verified online videos have for weeks shown the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carrying out controlled demolitions of buildings, including some near the Israel-Gaza border, Israeli officials for the first time this week acknowledged they were pushing ahead with clearing border areas of residential and other buildings to create a "buffer zone."
The IDF said it aims to create additional "layers of security" following Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, but with Israel's Channel 12 reporting that 1,100 out of 2,850 buildings in the planned half-mile buffer zone already demolished, experts posited that the clear aim is to further shrink the already densely-populated enclave.
"If the Israeli government wants a buffer zone, it has every right to create one in far larger Israel, but it has no right to seize land in Gaza, squeezing the 2.3 million Palestinians into an even tinier area," said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Israel acknowledged the plans less than a week after videos of one of its most high-profile recent demolitions, that of Israa University, were posted online. The institution was destroyed when the IDF detonated more than 300 mines on the campus—an operation that would have required Israel to "have full control" of the site, one observer noted, suggesting that the military could not have been targeting Hamas as it has repeatedly claimed.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that it has also verified recent videos showing the demolition of residential buildings about one kilometer from the fence separating Gaza and Israel, including one in which 11 buildings were destroyed at once.
"Civilian properties are protected under international humanitarian law," Basel al-Sourani, an advocacy officer for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, told the Post. "These houses are empty, and nobody is in them. Why are they making these explosions other than part of their plan of forced displacement?"
"Now with this 1-kilometer buffer they are talking about, and I'm sure it's more, what are we going to do?" he added.
Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, noted that the Biden administration has previously suggested it would be against the construction of a buffer zone within Gaza's borders, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying in November that the U.S. would support "no reduction in the territory of Gaza."
But on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported that the Biden administration's position on the issue is now "subject to some uncertainty," with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reiterating that Gaza's territory should not be reduced but Blinken saying the White House may support a buffer zone for some amount of time.
Blinken said on Tuesday that security measures enabling Israelis to return to their homes in southern Israel may be "appropriate."
"If there need to be transitional arrangements to enable that to happen, that's one thing," he said. "But when it comes to the permanent status of Gaza going forward... we remain clear about not encroaching on its territory."
Geoffrey Nice, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor, toldAl Jazeera that Israel's "landgrab" of farmland near the border which is "crucial to Gaza's economy" is clearly illegal.
"If you want to a demilitarized zone that you're going to fill with landmines, why not have it on the Israeli side and stop people crossing it?" Nice told the outlet. "What they're proposing, effectively and in anyone's interpretation, is occupation."
"But the process has already started," he said. "A large number of buildings have already been flattened. It is unjustified, by any view, under international law."
WATCH: State Dept refuses to say whether IDF shooting an unarmed civilian in a group waving white flag is a war crime, or even whether they’d support an investigation
“That is for the IDF to undertake...”
They also won't say if they've talked to Israel about their tank attack… pic.twitter.com/n5uQuOOJAc
— Decensored News (@decensorednews) January 25, 2024
How Israel has destroyed Gaza’s schools and universities
Grade five and six students at the Rosary Sister’s School in Gaza were supposed to sit for a science test on October 9, 2023, two days after Israel launched its devastating military assault on Gaza. But they never got to sit the test. The school along with its library and theatre was destroyed by the Israeli army on November 4, according to Ruwaida Amer, who taught science at the private school.
Hundreds of schools, including those run by the UN, in the besieged Palestinian enclave have been bombed, and students and teachers killed, in more than 100 days of Israeli bombardment that has ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students.
January 24 marks the sixth International Day of Education as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, but tens of thousands of Gaza students cannot go to schools, which are lying in ruins. ...
It is not just schools that have borne the brunt of the Israeli onslaught. Centres of higher education, including universities, have been completely paralysed. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that 12 higher education institutions in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, completely disrupting university education. ... Additionally, the Israeli army has killed 94 university professors, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said. The monitor deemed the Israeli destruction of schools an “intentional destruction of Palestinian cultural and historical properties”.
PROTEST THE PARTY: Staffers TURN ON Biden Over Israel Support, Pentagon: WE ARE NOT AT WAR
Iran bars Hassan Rouhani from seeking re-election to key body
The Iranian regime has taken its crackdown on any internal opposition into a new phase by disqualifying the reformist former president Hassan Rouhani from seeking re-election to the assembly of experts, the body that chooses the country’s supreme leader.
Reformists reacted angrily on Thursday to the regime-controlled guardian council’s announcement. The 88 assembly members serve an eight-year term, and since the incumbent supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is 84, it is highly likely that the next assembly will choose his successor.
Republican States RALLY to Texas as Fight with Biden Admin Over Border 'INVASION' Heats Up
Half of US Governors 'Stand With Texas' in Defying Supreme Court at Border
Twenty-five Republican governors have lent their support to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott as he doubles down on his defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court order to allow the federal government to remove the razor wire that the state had put up along a stretch of the United States-Mexico border with Mexico at Eagle Pass.
Abbott first posted on social media on Tuesday that the Texas National Guard would "continue to hold the line" at Eagle Pass. Then, in a statement released Wednesday, Abbott claimed that the Biden administration had "broken the compact" between the states and federal government by, in Abbott's view, failing to enforce immigration laws. He has won the support of at least 25 governors for declaring immigration an "invasion" and invoking "Texas' constitutional authority to defend and protect itself."
In a column published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, Will Bunch observed that some online commenters had likened the potential standoff at Eagle Pass to the one at Fort Sumter, North Carolina, that triggered the Civil War. However, he thought another historical comparison had merit.
"Abbott's reckless, cruelty-is-the-point policies and his defiant stand are also posing the greatest threat to federal authority since the South's 'massive resistance' in the 1950s and '60s to the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Ed ruling that mandated school integration," Bunch wrote.
In his statement, Abbott referenced founding fathers James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and based his argument on the U.S. Constitution. He pointed to Article IV, Section 4, which promises federal protection against "invasion" and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges a state's "sovereign interest" in protecting its borders. He wrote:
The failure of the Biden administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this state the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas' constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
After Abbott posted his statement on social media, several GOP governors reshared it with messages of support. ...
In his column, Bunch pointed out what is at stake in this disagreement, arguing that the comparison to Fort Sumter might be "a little unfair":
No one was actually killed during the bombardment of the federal fort off of Charleston by rebel forces of the newly formed Confederacy. But four migrants trying to reach U.S. soil at or near the disputed park in Eagle Pass, Texas, have drowned under circumstances that are arguably linked to the dispute between the militaristic approach of the Texas National Guard and the comparatively humane, locked-out agents of President Joe Biden's administration.
starting civil war ii over a states right right to drown children in a river with razor wire https://t.co/Zn6XneYFtj
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 25, 2024
Bunch wrote that Biden could either back down or follow the example of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who federalized the Arkansas National Guard in order to end a standoff over the integration of Little Rock Central High School. He continued:
It won't be an easy decision. The possibility for a Fort Sumter-style gunpowder spark exists in this crazy, mixed-up nation. If Biden does successfully reassert control of Eagle Pass, the same brand of yahoo who screamed "states' rights" in the 1950s and '60s to justify Jim Crow racial apartheid will yell that the American dictator is Biden, not [former President Donald] Trump. And if the 45th president does return as 47th, he would cite Biden's justified actions as an excuse for wildly unconstitutional uses of the Insurrection Act to crush political dissent with tanks and occupy cities run by Democrats.
If Biden is the one who backs down at Eagle Pass, then—at the risk of paraphrasing Trump—we won't have a country anymore.
Democratic Texas Congressmen Greg Casar and Joaquin Castro have called for Biden to take federal control of the Texas National Guard.
"We can create an immigration system that is safe, orderly, and humane," Casar posted on social media. "It's Democrats' job to push back on razor wire, inhumane cages, and broken policies of the past."
Kentucky To Legalize “Deadly Force” Against Homeless On Your Property!
Seattle: racial justice protesters who sued police win $10m payout
Seattle has agreed to pay $10m to 50 demonstrators who sued over the police department’s heavy-handed response to racial justice protests in 2020, in a settlement announced by attorneys from both sides on Wednesday.
The protesters were among tens of thousands who rallied downtown and in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for weeks following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police – a period that saw Seattle’s police department abandon its East Precinct building as well as the establishment of the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest”, a six-block zone taken over by protesters.
The police department – led by then chief Carmen Best – used aggressive techniques to disperse the crowds, including flash-bang grenades, foam-tipped projectiles, and blast balls that explode and emit pepper gas. ...
Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit was Aubreanna Inda, who was standing in the middle of a street before a phalanx of officers in riot gear when a blast ball hit her in the chest and exploded, causing her to go into cardiac arrest. Volunteer medics and other protesters performed CPR and brought her to a hospital.
Others included a teenager whose finger was partially blown off, a disabled veteran with a cane who was teargassed and tackled, and dozens who suffered hearing loss, broken bones, concussions, severe bruises, PTSD or other injuries, according to the lawsuit.
Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds
Toxic emissions from the Canadian tar sands – already one of the dirtiest fossil fuels – have been dramatically underestimated, according to a study. Research published in the journal Science found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca oil sands in Canada exceed industry-reported emissions across the studied facilities by a staggering 1,900% to over 6,300%.
Academics said this means that damaging reactive pollutants from the oil sands are equivalent to those from all other human-made sources across Canada with severe health implications.
Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada, said: “In quantifying the astonishing and largely unreported levels of health-damaging air pollution coming out of oil sands operations, these scientists have validated what downwind Indigenous communities have been saying for decades. This is making people sick, so our governments can and should require these companies to use some of their record-breaking profits to clean up the mess they’ve made.”
Canadian tar sands, also called oil sands, are a massive site of oil extraction in the state of Alberta. They cover an area larger than England, are one of the biggest industrial projects on the planet, and have seen record production levels this year.
The type of oil in the tar sands is called “bitumen”. It is extremely heavy and difficult to extract. Getting it from deep in the ground to the surface can use up massive amounts of water – enough to rival what a small city may use on a daily basis. Even more water and energy is needed to refine it for commercial use and the amount of climate-polluting greenhouse gases emitted per barrel of tar sands oil can be 30% higher than conventional oil.
‘How to greenwash’: propane industry tries to rebrand fuel as renewable
Members of a propane industry lobbying group strategized to downplay the full climate impacts of propane and market it as renewable or “clean energy”, recordings reviewed by the climate newsletter Heated and the Guardian reveal.
The Propane Education & Research Council (Perc), a US lobbying group, has spent nearly $30m over the last two years on advertisements for the fossil fuel, according to data compiled by Drilled, a multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability. The ads often promote propane, the vast majority of which is a by-product of natural gas or crude oil refining, as a form of clean and renewable energy.
But in a public November 2022 meeting recorded by the Energy and Policy Institute, Perc board members acknowledged that that characterization was inaccurate. “Twenty-five percent [of people consider] natural gas to be renewable, in this millennial and gen Z bucket,” an unidentified Perc board member said. “There’s a perception out there – not reality, but that’s perception. We can attach to that for propane.”
“You can’t say natural gas is renewable,” Perc board member Leslie Woodward cautioned. “Perception”, the unidentified board member repeated.
Erin Hatcher, Perc’s senior vice-president of communications and marketing, agreed that propane should be perceived as clean energy. “We don’t want to be in that coal bucket,” she is heard saying on the recording. “We want to be in that clean energy bucket.” In a comment to Heated and the Guardian, Hatcher said she “did not recall any kind of comment” about mistaking propane as renewable. “Our concern about perception is that all fuels are demonized.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Biden's Choice: Gaza Cease-Fire or Devastating Regional War?
Israel and US Military Operations in the Middle East Going Wobbly Under Multi-Front Pressure
After U.S. Again Bombed Yemen, Houthi Attack DoD Transport Ships
Israel Bombs the Starving in Gaza as Biden Bombs the Starving in Yemen
VIPS MEMO: To Biden — Avoid a Third World War
UN Security Council on Gaza Massacres
Houthis now drawing support from former enemies in Yemen
NYT Engages in Front-Page IDF ‘Womenwashing’
The first lady and the Dior bag: the scandal shaking up South Korean politics
‘Laying claim to nature’s work’: plant patents sow fear among small growers
What Does the ICJ's Provisional Ruling Mean for Gaza? Experts Preview Political Pressure on Israel
Craig Murray (Former British Ambassador) : Analysis of ICJ Ruling
A Little Night Music
Texas Tornados - Baby What You Want Me To Do
Texas Tornados - Soy De San Luis
Texas Tornados - Cancion Mixteca
Texas Tornados - She Never Spoke Spanish To Me
Texas Tornados - Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio
Texas Tornados - She's About A Mover
Texas Tornados - 96 Tears
Texas Tornados - Who Were You Thinkin' Of
The Texas Tornados - [Hey Baby] Que Paso
Texas Tornados - Wasted Days & Wasted Nights
Texas Tornados - Una Mas Cerveza
Comments
Good evening Joe - always looking for good news.
And we have had some this week.
This got past me completely until someone sent me an email. This young Maori lady gave voice and heart to her people in the New Zealand parliament.
CJ Hopkins was acquitted in a case that should never have been brought. This is in German as he lives there and the court is there.
Reporter's analysis in English
Aya Velazquez
His personal substack report
listen to CJ give his speech.
His speech is to me one of the best. And I don't believe for a minute that it moved the court. The decision was made and handed to the judge who was none too happy having to render the acquittal.
The rest is in CJ's substack report and well worth the time to read. I thought he would be another Gonzalo Lira, but somehow it did not turn out that way.
While you would never know it to look at French TV, all over France farmers are rising up in protest over the EU regulations which are strangling their efforts to farm. But we have various ways to find out what is going on. Local videos and social media are posting what people see and experience. The local direction signs are upside down all over France. Most people are on their side. We want local farm products and local farmers to be able to thrive.
Our little dog, Teddy has had a bad run with bugs and the vet provided shots and pills have not prevented ticks or fleas. So we looked for natural products to sooth him and hopefully get rid of his pests. Well, we succeeded in making him very sick with supposed safe essential oils.
Once we got what was happening we stepped back and started over with natural solutions. We are now using a mix of Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda in clean water. He doesn't mind it and experiences relief from the little buggers.
He is back to his old self and chasing the kitties, George and Ira, around being obnoxious and ready for anything. We continue to look for best safe ways to ward off minute pests. Ideas are most welcome.
Finally, we have since August been working with a pellet hydro stove which is really a boiler.It is a new Macedonian stove with a hot water heating system inside which we have connected to our ground floor underfloor hot water tubing and our first floor radiators.
When it's working it is superb. But it is tempermental and must be attended to at least daily. So we have days, some which have been quite cold while we have had to sort things out and restart our procedures, but we have gotten to the point where we can repeat the steps to get the stove up and running after a shut down.
Weather was pretty cold around Christmas and now is unseasonably warm, but the critters and we love the heat this system can provide have enjoyed the company of French friends during the holidays.
Our best treat this season has been music. We listened to several recording of the Messiah recommended by our favorite music critic David Hurwitz. His incredible memory for each recording and performance he has ever heard is remarkable. And he is blunt in his assisments. So we checked out his choices for recordings and listened to them start to finish.
We can't thank you enough for bringing us music and like it or not the news. Happy New Year to all at Caucus 99!
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Great to hear from you!
You think French media keeps you out of "the know", US media is their model.
Last time I was in France, the Yellow Vests were in protest. I want the small farmers to stick it to The Man! I come from a long family line of those. They fed the hoi polloi. My heroes.
Take good care, chica!
edit: I thought CJ Hopkins was a goner. Miracles happen!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening dm...
great to hear from you! thanks for the video and the news about cj hopkins, glad to hear that he got off.
good luck to the french farmers, who like all farmers in the world seem to be oppressed by a few large corporations and their flunkies in elective office. it seems to me that climate change and their unsustainable practices will topple these big ag corporations if we are lucky and we can get on with redundant, small scale, sustainable, regenerative agriculture.
for years i have been quite successfully giving my dog ivermectin/pyrantel and afoxolanter/ moxidectin/pyrantel chewables monthly for heartworm and ticks/fleas. they have worked flawlessly and i live in a place crawling with deer and deer ticks.
take care!
Thanks Dawn for your update
-
we have been getting pretty regular
updates on the defiance of French and German farmers,
albeit in alternate media. Damn right, farmers matter.
Glad you can conquer the bugs in the stove and animals.
Life is a learning experience.
Really enjoyed Texas Tornadoes She's about a mover
tonight (thanks Joe!)
ETA:
Special thanks for the young Maori woman's maiden speech in NZ
parliament. That was the most powerful political address I have ever
witnessed.
Good luck and happiness.
Q
question everything
evening qms...
i am a big fan of all of doug sahm's projects/incarnations over the years, he was a great musician.
have a good weekend!
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
was like he anthem of bar room drunks on Friday nights in these parts. Saturday nights was reserved for dates, assuming you could get one.And a bit of sobriety was required for bodily function.
Talk about memories.
Tejano and conjunto music are huge, huge favorites in Texas, as is to be expected.
I was a little sad that the Mavericks concert I attended recently was attended by a crowd of oldsters. They have swung hard toward Cuban influenced music, but it is infused with the country and western flavors Texas Tornadoes brought to the table. The young just can let this slip and slide away. It is as important as Chicago blues, or NYC folk. It must be cherished and preserved.
The hard and heavy rains predicted have gone around us so far today.
We are having tacos tonight. I must ask, "Why the hell not?"
Thanks, joe, for all you do for all of us.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
heh, happy taco night! tomorrow night is pork enchilada night at the local rib joint, that's where i'll be.
have a great weekend!
I worry about your salsa, joe.
And pickled jalapeno slices are puke worthy. Insist on fresh ones, then take your knife, dig out the seeds, then slice. It is the seeds that will burn your nose hair, your tongue, your esophagus, and make your next bowel elimination a torture.
As I worry and actually fear immigrants now, I love this, a song I was introduced to by a Hispanic San Antonio lawyer when on the river walk. I requested it on my last trip to Mexico, and the band got tips, everyone was on their feet.
The lawyer later committed suicide. I always think of him when I hear this. RIP, compadre.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
heh...
i'll let you know how it turns out. one of the good things about baltimore is that we have a large community of hispanic people, many of whom work in the restaurant industry and produce some pretty amazing food.
Enjoy!
The tacos tonight were awesome! Enough for leftovers!
Ah, ya ya ya!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
.Hedges on the decision
.
But hey let’s not tell the people who have made this possible to STOP DOING IT! Gawd forbid that the court puts its foot down.
Link
GAZA has been destroyed. Almost every hospital has been destroyed, universities and schools have also been destroyed and the things inside them that are thousands of years old have been wiped from existence and still the countries that support Israel are turning a blind eye to it. Including the 200+ congress members who just yesterday praised Kirby for saying that the charges have no merit.
Gallant:
It seems pretty clear that his intent is to wipe out all Palestinians from Gaza before Israel moves on to wipe them out in the West Bank. But don’t make any statements saying that this action MUST STOP!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
thanks for the link to hedges' substack.
i guess the next move is israel's. it should be apparent within a couple of days whether they intend to alter their behavior (which i doubt they will).
then it is up to the rest of the world to respond. the court has given license to the world to treat what israel is doing as genocide and act accordingly.
i am hoping for some serious consequences from the ccr's suit against biden, blinkiman and austin.
Dior bag v. Yangpyeong County expressway route change
There are a lot bigger scandals involving Kim Gon-hee and her mother than a name brand hand bag. Virtually every western newspaper leaves this one out-
[Editorial] Why allegations of rerouting of expressway in manner beneficial to Korean first lady’s family aren’t going away
Excerpt from the Hankyoreh 7.11.23
This is a screenshot obtained from an 언론 알아야 바꾼다 commentary on the same subject last July.
Black dotted line on the chart shows the initially intended route of the expressway extension to Yangseo Myun ESE of the Seoul city limits. This had been in the planning stages for six years. The budget for the expressway extension is well over a billion dollars. The red dotted line shows a previously unplanned change of the extension whose terminal interchange will be built conveniently enough right next to land owned by Kim's family in Gangsang Myun depicted in orange near a bridge over the Namhan river.
There are allegations that the Yoon administration refusal to use the traditional Blue House residence and presidential office building resulted in tens of milions of dollars of renovations to the former Ministry of National Defense Building in Yongsan, where Yoon's presdiential office is currently located. Yoon and the first Lady's official residence (in Hannamdong) is the old official residence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs which also required extensive renovations to become the official Presidential Residence. The allegations of wrongdoing assert that the First Lady directed no bid contracts to persons or businesses she knew from her prior Covana Contents business. Another allegation is that Covanna Contents was paid tens of thousands of dollars at a time for managing art exhibitions. The payments from major corporate/chaebol donors are alleged to be little more than political payoffs to Yoon to treat the corporations favorably as a public official. There are other business/real estate corruption allegations against Kim's mother, in which Kim was allegedly been implicated. I won't bother detailing these or the other alleged unsavory aspects of her dealings with prosecutors. These allegations are never discussed in English language media. Yoon has been disciplined twice for professional misconduct as a senior prosecutor, including one administrative disciplinary suspension right before his presidential election campaign. A reviewing court upon Yoon's appeal found meritless, said the punishment a two month suspension was light, and he could have (meaning should have) been dismissed from office. The idea that he was elected after this could only happen with the collusion of South Korean major media.
The reason the Dior bag incident is going viral is because the evidence of guilt is on the video for all to see. This renders the SOP of Yoon and Han as senior prosecutors for years and then as the administration to block investigations of Yoon's family and political sponsors, while promoting prosecutions of rivals and critics, irrelevant in PR terms. They just can't make it go away no matter how hard they try.
I know this story pales in the context of what's happening with respect to Palestine, but I feel a need to supplement the English media coverage. That's for posting the Guardian article Joe.
(edited for typos)
語必忠信 行必正直
Really? A handbag is the best the distraction machine can do?
Pretty soon it will be dog meat (maybe already tried that one) or the opposition's choice
of underwear labels. These are the depths of discourse allowed to the public. Really sad.
Many may tire of this and see thru the stupidity. One can hope.
Thanks Soryang!
question everything
Dog meat
Exactly QMS! Good point.
語必忠信 行必正直
evening soryang...
heh, thanks for the korean corruption update, not that korean corruption could be distinguished from any other locale's corruption. they're all the same. nice that it was caught on video.
have a great weekend!
Team Genocide. The US and Israel work hand in hand to
keep the genocide happening. Blinken and Netenyahoo are a tag team.
https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7095676
The Israelis have been caught numerous times lying with regards to events related to Gaza.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4431333-us-halts-funds-unrwa-al...
evening humphrey...
heh, the u.s. is troubled enough by the possible complicity of 12 unrwa employees in war crimes that it will cut off funding for the agency. naturally the u.s. is troubled enough by the possible complicity of the idf, the israeli governmeny and israeli media in war crimes that it will cut off funding for the war it is prosecuting. oh, oops.
It looks like Team Biden are looking forward to the "Doomsday
Clock" hitting midnight. If they can't remain the ruler of the world .....
heh...
i guess biden, like pharoah, wants to have lots of people buried with him when he goes.
Chuckle…
I haven’t heard anything about the war games going on, but if Biden keeps moving nukes around then maybe Russia should think about putting some of theirs in Cuba again. I think it’s okay because of the goose and gander thing.
I’m getting so tired of Biden threatening all life on earth. Who gave him the authority to do that?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Another success story of Operation Prosperity Guardian /S
A follow up with additional information.
A positive look at the decision
.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1750875746040443151.html
Linked from Caitlin’s essay.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Sometimes it is good to have friends.
Will the US be foolish enough to veto a future Security
Council resolution thus showing their complicity in the ongoing Gaza genocide?
https://www.barrons.com/news/security-council-to-meet-after-un-top-court...
SMH! I think that Fetterman is getting close to another visit
to a hospital soon.