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This evening's music features Chicago blues mandolin and guitar player Johnny Young. Enjoy!

"I built a new house. There were people living where I wanted to build it so I just started building it on top of them. They tried to stop me so I had to kill them for being terrorists. If you disagree with my actions you’re basically a Nazi. I have a right to defend my house."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Report from Gaza: Refaat Alareer on Israel’s “Barbaric” Bombardment Campaign

'A Massive War Crime': Israel Announces Total Blockade of Gaza Strip

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip on Monday, pledging to block food and fuel from entering the occupied enclave and cut off the territory's electricity—steps that international law experts and other observers decried as a clear war crime that will devastate civilians.

"There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed," said Gallant.

Using rhetoric that one commentator called "blatantly genocidal," Gallant added that "we are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."

Israel has been imposing a land, air, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades, impoverishing much of the crowded enclave's population and denying millions sufficient access to clean water and other necessities. Children, who make up roughly half of Gaza's population, have been disproportionately affected.

An intensification of the blockade against Gaza—often described as the world's largest open-air prison—would be both unlawful and catastrophic, analysts warned.

"Starving 2 million people who cannot move and are under a land siege and naval blockade is genocide," Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto wrote on social media. "This is a war crime."

Tom Dannenbaum, a legal scholar and associate professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, agreed with that assessment, pointing to International Criminal Court statutes.

"Gallant is ordering a massive war crime (ICC 8(2)(b)(xxv)) and very likely a crime against humanity (ICC 7(1)(b), 7(2)(b) [extermination] / 7(1)(k) [inhumane acts])," Dannenbaum wrote. "Presence of combatants within a civilian population does not affect its civilian character (AP I 50(3)). ICC has jurisdiction."

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, called Gallant's comments "abhorrent" and said that "depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war."

"The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime," said Shakir.

The announcement of a total blockade on Gaza comes as Israel is preparing for a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory and asking the U.S. to ramp up military support in the wake of Hamas' deadly attack on Saturday, which killed more than 700 people.

Israel has since launched a wave of airstrikes in Gaza, killing more than 500 people and injuring thousands. Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly killed Monday by an Israeli attack on Gaza's largest refugee camp.

"The intense bombardment has so far displaced more than 120,000 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave," Al Jazeera reported.

An analysis published earlier this year by the human rights group Euro-Med Monitor estimated that Israel's 16-year blockade "has impoverished more than 61% of Gaza's total population" and "left nearly 53% of the population facing food insecurity."

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that Israeli officials "who now call for killing, destroying, crushing, smashing, and even starving the residents of the Gaza Strip" in the wake of Hamas' attack "forget that this is already Israeli policy."

"At this moment, Israel is attacking in the Gaza Strip, when it is clear that once again many of the victims are civilians—including women, children, and the elderly," the group added. "Deliberate harm to civilians is always wrong and prohibited. There can be no justification for such crimes, not when they are committed as part of a struggle for freedom and liberation from oppression, and not when they are justified as a fight against terrorism."

MUST-WATCH interview on CNN. Genuinely shocked they have aired it. pic.twitter.com/madjVCpBOb

— David Adler (@davidrkadler) October 8, 2023

Israel declares siege of Gaza as Hamas threatens to start killing hostages

Israel has declared a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food and power supplies, as Hamas militants threatened to start killing Israeli civilian hostages if the bombing of civilian areas in the enclave continued without prior warning. Palestinian militants abducted more than 100 people during a surprise multi-front attack in which they killed more than 700 – making Saturday the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Israeli media said on Monday the death toll had climbed to 900.

In response to the attack, Israel has launched strikes from the air and sea, which medics said had killed more than 680 Palestinians in Gaza, an area home to 2.3 million people with nowhere to flee.

Separately, about 120 miles to the north of Gaza, Israel said its forces had fought off gunmen crossing from Lebanon – an incident that raises the spectre of a second front in the unfolding war.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called on the political opposition to join a government of national unity and said the offensive had “only started”. In a televised address late on Monday, Netanyahu pledged to “eliminate terrorists” still present in Israel and said: “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

Israel formally declared war on Sunday and called up 300,000 reservists for duty, signalling a possible ground assault into Gaza – a move that in the past has always brought further bloodshed. However, Israeli forces face the unprecedented task of fighting an urban war while dozens of hostages are likely to be hidden in tunnels and basements across the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians in Gaza move from place to place, only to discover nowhere is safe

'There Is No Safe Haven': Israeli Bombing Rampage Hits Gaza Refugee Camp, Homes, and More

Israeli airstrikes rained down across the densely populated Gaza Strip on Monday, reportedly killing dozens at the enclave's largest refugee camp, damaging the children's wing of a major hospital, and hitting the occupied territory's main university and residential buildings.

"Everything ground up has been bombed," Raji Sourani, a lawyer with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, told Democracy Now! as bombs could be heard falling in the background.

"There is no safe haven in this place," said Sourani.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have already been displaced by the Israeli bombing campaign, which has killed hundreds of people thus far—including dozens of children and entire families, according to the besieged territory's health ministry.

Far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted to social media a minute-long video of airstrikes leveling buildings in Gaza.

התחלנו. ישראל תנצח pic.twitter.com/tCwDLXkyaY

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 9, 2023

Those attempting to flee the assault, which follows a deadly Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend, often have nowhere safe to hide. The Associated Press reported that 57-year-old Nasser Abu Quta believed he and his extended family would be protected at his four-story residential building after the Israeli military fired a warning shot on Sunday signaling that a nearby home would be targeted.

"But the house of Abu Quta's neighbor was never hit," AP noted. "In an instant, an explosion ripped through his own home, wiping out 19 members of his family, including his wife and cousins, he said. The airstrike also killed five of his neighbors who were standing outside in the jam-packed refugee camp, a jumble of buildings and alleyways."

On Monday, a Red Crescent paramedic toldThe New York Times that an Israeli airstrike on Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp killed at least 60 people. According to the Times, the bombing began "as vendors and customers packed the marketplace, stocking up on food and produce amid widespread fears that Israeli airstrikes will intensify."

Doctors Without Borders said its team treated more than 50 people in Al Awda hospital following the bombing.

"Our Palestinian colleagues are working day and night to cope with the influx of wounded," Matthias Kannes, the organization's head of mission in Gaza, said in a statement.

In addition to ordering a total blockade of Gaza—a move that legal experts called a war crime—Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant demanded an intensification of the destructive bombing campaign on Monday as human rights organizations issued pleas for an immediate cease-fire.

"This escalation in violence comes on top of an existing dire humanitarian situation for the 2.2 million people who live in Gaza, a strip of land just 365 km2 in size," the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in a statement. "Power cuts and fuel shortages warn of a looming disaster for people, damaging access to healthcare, electricity, and clean water. As of now, electricity is limited to only four hours a day, and fuel supplies will run out within a few days."

"The fighting must stop immediately," the group added. "The events are going to have long-term humanitarian consequences on Israeli and Palestinian civilians involved."

Jan Egeland, NRC's secretary-general, told AP in response to Israel's blockade on Gaza that "there is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law."

"If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of a lack of energy, electricity, and supplies," Egeland added, "it could amount to war crimes."

Among the buildings impacted by Israeli bombing on Monday was the children's ward of the Shifa Medical Complex Hospital. Citing Gaza's health ministry, Middle East Eye reported that the facility "has been damaged in Israel's bombing of the besieged enclave."

"The shelling has caused parts of the ceiling to collapse and fall, almost hitting a premature baby," the outlet added.

Far from pushing for an end to the violence, the U.S. is preparing to send weaponry and warships to support Israel as it carries out its large-scale assault on the Gaza Strip and readies a ground invasion.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz observed Monday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "deleted a tweet where he called for a cease-fire—the second such instance in the past several days when U.S. officials have deleted tweets encouraging Israeli restraint."

"The new tweet replaced the cease-fire language with 'Israel has the right to defend itself, rescue any hostages, and protect its citizens,'" the outlet reported.

The prospects of months of deadly fighting and a potentially broadening Middle East war sent the share prices of major weapons makers surging, with Lockheed Martin's stock rising more than 8% on Monday.

"Israel is bombing Gaza now harder than ever," Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American political analyst, wrote on social media. "People in Gaza, who have survived many wars, are saying this is more barbaric than anything they have seen before. No one knows where to go and the bombs are being dropped everywhere."

The Palestinians Had NO OTHER OPTIONS – Norman Finkelstein

All This Death Is The Fault Of The Western Press

The western press are largely to blame for all this. If they’d just told the truth instead of running “Palestinian child walks into bullet” headlines this whole time and telling everyone that boycotting Israel is genocide, political pressure could’ve long ago been brought about to force a peaceful and just resolution to this mess.

If they’d just done their jobs and reported the facts to the public, there never would’ve been enough public consent for the US empire to back a brutal apartheid regime which cannot exist without nonstop violence, and peaceful resolutions would’ve become unavoidable.

Instead they hid all those abuses from the public for generations, creating an environment where peaceful resolutions are impossible and giving rise to Palestinian factions which understandably see violent force as the only viable answer.

This is their fault. They created this mess with a mountain of lies and obfuscation, and now those lies are being paid for with rivers of blood. The western press are war criminals. They’ve committed crimes against humanity.

Tucker Carlson DESTROYS Hawks Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham After They Call For WAR In M.E.

Israel"s License To Kill

During a special session of the UN Security Council on Sunday, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour questioned the stance taken by some countries and media houses regarding Israel’s so-called “right to defend,” saying that it was a wrong understanding of history which only starts when Israelis are hurt.

The UNSC did not decide on any immediate course of action due to disagreements among the permanent members. While the US demanded condemnation of Hamas’ actions, the Russian and Chinese ambassadors refused to issue any blanket condemnation naming Hamas and instead demanded an immediate ceasefire and the start of a peace process which has been stalled for decades.

Mansour reiterated that Palestinians have been enduring Israeli atrocities for decades, which is never acknowledged, while repeated Palestinian pleas to the UN are ignored. “When Israel now tries to justify yet another assault (on Gaza) by the same faulty premise, no one should say or do anything to encourage it down this path. We know only too well that the messages about ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’ will be interpreted by Israel as a license to kill, to pursue the very path that led us here,” he added.

Mansour also demanded accountability from international organizations who he said have repeatedly failed to hold Israel accountable for violating international laws. “You cannot say ‘nothing justifies killing Israelis’ and then provide justifications for killing Palestinians. We are not sub-humans. We will never accept rhetoric that denigrates our humanity and reneges our rights. A rhetoric that ignores the occupation of our land and oppression of our people.”

Bibi Tells Biden Gaza INVASION Imminent With 360k Troops

Israeli Lawmaker Says ‘Pogroms’ Against Palestinians Provoked Hamas Assault

An Israeli lawmaker told Al Jazeera on Saturday that his party had been warning that Israeli policies toward Palestinians would “erupt” into the violence that Israel is experiencing in the wake of Hamas’ assault.

The comments were made by Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset and the leftist Hadash party, which holds four seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

“We condemn and oppose any assault on innocent civilians. But in contrast to the Israeli government that means that we oppose any assault on Palestinian civilians as well. We must analyze those terrible incidents [the attacks] in the right context – and that is the ongoing occupation,” said Cassif, who is Jewish.

“We have been warning time and time again… everything is going to erupt and everybody is going to pay a price – mainly innocent civilians on both sides. And unfortunately, that is exactly what happened,” he added.

How the Latest Israel-Gaza War Will Scramble Regional Politics

EU/UK swap out Ukraine flag. Haaretz blames Bibi. Iran denies involvement. Neocons want war.

SAS troops ‘executed Afghan males of fighting age’, inquiry hears

Britain’s SAS faced allegations that it shot dead nine Afghans while they were sleeping and engaged in a policy of “executing Afghan males of fighting age” between 2010 and 2013, on the first day of a public inquiry into the killing of 80 civilians in Afghanistan.

Oliver Glasgow KC, the counsel to the inquiry, focused on seven deadly operations in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, including one in February 2011 where only three AK47 assault rifles were recovered after the nine had been killed. “The central allegation at the heart of this inquiry is stark,” Glasgow told the high court. Raids on family compounds, intended to target Taliban commanders, “were abused by elements within UK special forces”.

They “carried out a policy of executing Afghan males of fighting age in circumstances where they posed no immediate threat or were hors de combat [unable to perform combat duties],” in scenarios where they were vulnerable or said to have suddenly produced a gun or grenade.

The public inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, is expected to take 12 to 18 months to produce an interim report. It marks the start of a process long sought by the victims but was only granted by Conservative ministers after two families took the British government to court. Secrecy conditions imposed by the inquiry mean large parts of it will be held without the public or press present – and that the identities of any soldiers involved have been redacted, as well as the names of their commanding officers and other members of the SAS and many others in the British military.

Biden Weighs FORCING Ukraine Aid By Tying To ISRAEL Assistance Per SCOOP

Far-right AfD says it is now ‘major all-German party’ after state elections

The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland has declared itself a “major all-German party” after winning its biggest ever vote share in a western German state.

The AfD, once seen as a party most relevant to post-communist eastern states, won 18.4% of the vote on Sunday in the powerhouse state of Hesse, around Frankfurt, and came second only to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In Bavaria it came third, behind the rightwing populist Freie Wähler (Free Voters) party.

Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, said the gains were a breakthrough moment, showing that “AfD is no longer an eastern phenomenon, but has become a major all-German party. So we have arrived.”

The three parties that make up the coalition government of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz – his Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP – received a drubbing in the two elections, with the FDP failing to get into parliament in Bavaria. ...

Around a quarter of all German voters live in Hesse and Bavaria. In Bavaria, the Greens lost 3.2% of their previous vote share, the SPD 1.3% and the FDP 2.1%. In Hesse, the results were even worse, with the SPD losing 4.7%, the Greens 5%, and the FDP 2.5%. In contrast, the AfD made a gain of 5.3% in Hesse, while in Bavaria it gained 4.4%, bringing it to 14.6%.

Manfred Güllner, the head of the Forsa polling institute, attributed the far right’s success to “the huge alienation between the governing parties in Berlin and the many normal working people”. The ruling administration ignored their concerns at their peril, he added.

NEWSOM SUCKS UP TO BIG PHARMA: Psychedelics, Insulin

Robert F Kennedy Jr announces independent run for 2024 US election

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Kennedy political family who has spent the last six months running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, announced on Monday he would continue his long-shot pursuit of the White House as an independent.

The 69-year-old conspiracy theorist and vaccination opponent gave a fiery speech from Philadelphia, declaring his “independence from the Democratic party and all other parties”, and telling a gathering of several hundred supporters of his “pain” at leaving the party of his uncle and father, John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy.

“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for president for the United States. I’m here to join you in making a new declaration of independence for our entire nation,” he said, in a lengthy and often rambling speech taking aim at Wall Street, big pharma, military contractors, the “mercenary media”, and the “two-party establishment” he said was “leading us all over a cliff”.

“A rising tide of discontent is swamping our country. There’s a danger in this discontent but there’s also opportunity and promise,” he added, in what appeared to be a reference to the leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump. “We seem to be cycling from despair to rage and back to despair. This country is ready for a history making change. They are ready to reclaim their freedom, their independence.”

MAGA FREAKS Over RFK Jr Independent Run

California to require big firms to reveal carbon emissions in first law of its kind

A groundbreaking California law will force large companies doing business in the state – including major global corporations – to disclose their planet-heating carbon emissions. The measure, signed into law by the governor, Gavin Newsom, on Saturday, will be the nation’s first of its kind, serving as a blueprint for national climate accountability. It comes as federal regulators have dragged their feet on crafting similar rules, which could be finalized this month.

SB 253 will require California regulators to create rules by 2025 for public and private companies whose annual revenues exceed $1bn. That affects about 5,300 corporations, including Chevron, Wells Fargo, Amazon and Apple.

By 2026, those companies will have to publicly disclose how much carbon is produced by their operations and electricity use. Critically, by 2027, they will also be required to report emissions generated by their supply chains and customers, known as “scope 3” emissions, which are highly controversial among business interests, including the fossil fuel industry.

A companion bill passed by the state’s legislature, SB-261, would additionally require businesses with more than $500m in yearly revenue to disclose their climate-related financial risks beginning in 2026, or face annual penalties. Both bills will make new data public beyond California’s borders, which supporters say could be game-changing.

Climate crisis costing $16m an hour in extreme weather damage

The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate.

Storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts have taken many lives and destroyed swathes of property in recent decades, with global heating making the events more frequent and intense. The study is the first to calculate a global figure for the increased costs directly attributable to human-caused global heating.

It found average costs of $140bn (£115bn) a year from 2000 to 2019, although the figure varies significantly from year to year. The latest data shows $280bn in costs in 2022. The researchers said lack of data, particularly in low-income countries, meant the figures were likely to be seriously underestimated. Additional climate costs, such as from crop yield declines and sea level rise, were also not included.

The researchers produced the estimates by combining data on how much global heating worsened extreme weather events with economic data on losses. The study also found that the number of people affected by extreme weather because of the climate crisis was 1.2 billion over two decades.

Two-thirds of the damage costs were due to the lives lost, while a third was due to property and other assets being destroyed. Storms, such as Hurricane Harvey and Cyclone Nargis, were responsible for two-thirds of the climate costs, with 16% from heatwaves and 10% from floods and droughts.

Microplastics detected in clouds hanging atop two Japanese mountains

Microplastics have been found everywhere from the oceans’ depths to the Antarctic ice, and now new research has detected it in an alarming new location – clouds hanging atop two Japanese mountains. The clouds around Japan’s Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama contain concerning levels of the tiny plastic bits, and highlight how the pollution can be spread long distances, contaminating the planet’s crops and water via “plastic rainfall”.

The plastic was so concentrated in the samples researchers collected that it is thought to be causing clouds to form while giving off greenhouse gasses. “If the issue of ‘plastic air pollution’ is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future,” the study’s lead author, Hiroshi Okochi, a professor at Waseda University, said in a statement.

The peer-reviewed paper was published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, and the authors believe it is the first to check clouds for microplastics.

The pollution is made up of plastic particles smaller than five millimeters that are released from larger pieces of plastic during degradation. They are also intentionally added to some products, or discharged in industrial effluent. Tires are thought to be among the main sources, as are plastic beads used in personal care products. Recent research has found them to be widely accumulating across the globe – as much as 10m tons are estimated to end up in the oceans annually.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The Hypocrisy at the Heart of Western Reaction to Hamas' Attack on Israel

The True Face Of Israel

Egypt Says Israel Ignored Warning That ‘Something Big’ Was Coming

Thinking About A Hezbollah Intervention

Is Israel Weaker Than Widely Seen in Hamas/Palestine “War”?

WSJ Joins Neocons To Instigate War On Iran

War Profiteers' Stocks Soar as Israel Bombs Gaza

Hamas says it has enough Israeli captives to free all Palestinian prisoners

Why captured Israelis are so important for Hamas

We feel fear, anger and helplessness: all of Israel is in a state of war. But revenge is not the answer

EPA refuses to examine toxicity of ‘inactive’ pesticide chemicals to crops

The Marvelettes Katherine Anderson obit

Mohammed El-Kurd: How Much Palestinian Blood Will It Take to End Israel’s Occupation & Apartheid?

ADL LOSES IT On MSNBC Anchors For Israel Palestine Coverage

Here’s What You NEED To Know About Gaza’s History w/ Norman Finkelstein

U.S. Politicians Call For Wipeout Of Gaza!

Politico Gives NAZISM Its Finest Makeover; Worst Op-Ed IN HISTORY?!: Matt Taibbi

FURIOUS GOP Elites Plot REVENGE On Matt Gaetz After Speaker COUP

Harvard Students Blame ‘ISRAELI REGIME’ for ALL VIOLENCE

A Little Night Music

Johnny Young And His Chicago Blues Band – Wild, Wild Woman

Johnny Young - Worried Man Blues

Johnny "Man" Young - Let Me Ride Your Mule

Johnny Young's South Side Blues Band – Tighten Up On It

Johnny Young And His Chicago Blues Band – Hot Dog!

Johnny Young & his Chicago Blues Band - Slam hammer

Johnny Young And His Chicago Blues Band – Keep On Drinking

Johnny Young - Mandolin Boogie

Johnny Young And His Chicago Blues Band – Cross Cut Saw