The Evening Blues - 10-25-24



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Clifton Chenier

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features "The King of Zydeco," Clifton Chenier. Enjoy!

Clifton Chenier ~ I'm The Zydeco Man

"Most arts have produced miracles, while the art of government has produced nothing but monsters."

-- Louis Antoine de Saint-Just


News and Opinion

The Only Good Thing About This Nightmare Is That It’s Exposing The Monsters For Who They Are

A really extraordinary moment occurred on the CNN “town hall” with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.

Asked by an audience member what she would do to end the slaughter of Palestinians by US-sponsored bombs, Harris delivered her usual canned answer about how “far too many” Palestinians have died and the need for a two-state solution, after which host Anderson Cooper asked a follow-up question.

“What do you say to voters who are thinking about supporting a third-party candidate, or staying on the couch, not voting at all because of this issue?” Cooper asked.

What followed was an absolutely jaw-dropping answer from the vice president. In essence she says that people who have strong feelings about the genocide in Gaza need to get over it and vote for her anyway if they want abortions and affordable groceries, because she supports the genocide and that’s not going to change.

“Listen, I am not going to deny the strong feelings that people have,” Harris said. “I don’t know that anyone who has seen the images who would not have strong feelings about what has happened, much less those who have relatives, who have died and been killed. And I and I know people and I’ve talked with people, so I appreciate that.”

“But I also do know that for many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries,” Harris continued. “They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist. They also care about the fact that we need practical, common-sense solutions from a leader who is willing to work across the aisle on behalf of the American people and not themselves. They want a president who cares about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body, understanding that we’re not trying to change anyone’s belief, but let’s not have the government telling women what to do with their body.”

Which is just wild. I mean, technically she’s not saying anything different from what liberals have been shouting for months at Americans who oppose the Gaza genocide, but she’s not supposed to say that! She’s not supposed to come right out and admit that she’s a genocidal monster and tough shit if you don’t like it because the other candidate is the greater evil. That’s normally the sort of disgusting manipulation you let other people do for you while pretending to be a good person.

The only positive thing coming out of this nightmare is that it’s exposing the real monsters for who they are.

More and more people are seeing that the US government is much too evil to be allowed to rule the world.

More and more people are seeing that the state of Israel is much too evil to be allowed to continue to exist in its present iteration.

More and more people are seeing that the western press are propaganda services for the US power alliance and should never be trusted.

More and more people are seeing that the Democratic Party exists solely to protect the murderous and corrupt oligarchic status quo of the US empire and not to promote the interests of ordinary human beings.

More and more people are seeing that western liberalism is just a more photogenic version of fascism.

When you’ve got a leading presidential candidate standing in front of the nation saying that yes she will continue an active genocide but you’d better vote for her anyway if you want abortions and affordable groceries, that shows people something about the kind of nation they live in that you could never get across to them by sheer argumentation.

When you’ve got evidence of mass atrocities entering people’s social media feeds on a daily basis while the entire political-media class tells them this is fine and normal, that communicates a message which would be hard to receive in words alone.

There is so very, very little to say about this horror that is remotely positive. But it is opening eyes. And enough open eyes is all that’s required to change the world.

"Worse and Worse": Hospital Director in North Gaza Says Israeli Assault on Jabaliya Is Bloodiest Yet

Many Children Among Hundreds Killed, Wounded in Latest Israeli Bombings of Gaza

A devastating wave of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians, including many children, according to local and international media reports.

Citing Gaza Civil Defense officials, Palestine's Quds News Network reported Thursday that at least 150 Palestinian civilians were killed or wounded by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombardment of around a dozen apartment towers on Al-Houja Street in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Local and international media outlets earlier reported at least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded by an IDF strike on the al-Shuhada school in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Medical staff at the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat—where many people killed and wounded in the strike were taken—told Al Jazeera that 13 children under age 18 and three women were among the dead.

The IDF said the strike targeted a Hamas command-and-control center. However, survivors and eyewitnesses said that all of the dead were women and children.

Gaza Notifications published the names of 16 people killed in the attack, including at least five children—the youngest of whom was a baby, just 11 months old.

The outlet said a total of 203 Palestinian civilians have been killed so far on Thursday, and that "all medical and rescue operations have been completely halted by the military administration."

"The Israeli army has warned that ambulances and rescue teams will be directly targeted if they attempt to continue their operations, effectively blocking any humanitarian efforts," the site added.

Gaza's Government Media Office reported 34 Palestinians including 11 children were burned alive in an IDF strike on a youth club-turned shelter in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.


Israeli forces have also reportedly attacked hospitals and healthcare workers throughout Gaza. The Palestine Chronicle reported that IDF troops opened fire on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, "with sick children inside."

Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital's director, told Al Jazeera that IDF tanks surrounded the facility and "directly targeted" it, severely damaging the intensive care unit. On Wednesday, Abu Safia said there were more than 150 wounded people in the hospital, including 14 children in the ICU or neonatal ward.

"There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff," he said. "Our ambulances can't transfer wounded people. Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don't just die in the streets."

The Palestinian Ministry of Health also said several of its employees were wounded by Israeli artillery strikes on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report detailing how "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."

Israel's ongoing offensive in northern and central Gaza has killed or wounded more than 2,000 Palestinians this month alone, according to Gaza officials. Since last October, Israel's war on Gaza—which is the subject of a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice—has left more than 153,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing; millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened; and most of the coastal enclave in ruins.

Thursday's strikes came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East, where he is set to take part in cease-fire negotiations with officials from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar in the Qatari capital Doha.

"Going back to the negotiations on ceasefire and the hostages, one of the things we're doing is looking at whether there are different options that we can pursue to get us to a conclusion, to get us to a result," Blinken said Thursday.

The United States is Israel's primary international backer, providing billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including multiple vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.

At least 17 people killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Nuseirat

At least 17 people, nearly all women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics in the territory have said. ... Rescue efforts were still under way at the school in Nuseirat camp, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency. The Israeli military said the school was being used as a Hamas command and control centre.

Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the overcrowded camp, according to nearby al-Awda hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, it said.

Israel continues a new offensive in northern Gaza, which Bassal said had killed 770 people since it began on 6 October. Thousands of people have fled to the relative safety of the south of the strip in recent days.

The civil defence agency said on Thursday it had been forced to suspend operations in northern Gaza after what it called threats from the Israeli military to “bomb and kill” rescue crews working in Jabaliya camp, the focus of the new Israeli offensive. Three workers had been wounded and another five arrested by the Israeli army, and the crews’ only working fire engine was destroyed by tank fire, he said. A medic was killed by Israeli fire and another detained on his way to work, according to the Indonesia hospital, one of three struggling medical facilities still operating in the area, on Thursday.


Larry C. Johnson | Israel Facing Total Collapse: Crushed by Iran/Hezbollah's Unstoppable Force!

Macron warns Netanyahu against ‘sowing barbarism’ in remarks on Lebanon

Emmanuel Macron has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”, as a conference convened by the French president in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.

Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces. He called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, for which he said there was no justification.

The twin aims of the conference were to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Lebanon and to strengthen Lebanese state institutions including the official army. France has historical ties to Lebanon and has a large Lebanese diaspora population.

In his opening remarks, Macron also said it was a matter of bitter regret that Iran, backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, had “engaged Hezbollah against Israel, while Lebanon’s higher interest required that it stay away from the Gaza war”.

In words directed at the Israeli prime minister, with whom his relationship has deteriorated badly, he said: “We have been talking a lot in recent days about a war of civilisations or about civilisations that must be defended. I am not sure that we defend a civilisation by sowing barbarism ourselves.” Netanyahu had said on Europe 1 radio on Wednesday: “It is a war of civilisations against barbarism; we are at the forefront of this war and France must support Israel.”


Every Israeli Accusation Is A Confession, from Lebanon to Palestine, w/ As’ad Abukhalil

Israeli Rights Group B’Tselem Says Israel Is Carrying Out an Ethnic Cleansing Campaign in Northern Gaza

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said in a press release on Tuesday that Israel was carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza and called on the world to stop it.

“The magnitude of the crimes Israel is currently committing in the northern Gaza Strip in its campaign to empty it of however many residents are left is impossible to describe, not just because hundreds of thousands of people enduring starvation, disease without access to medical care and incessant bombardments and gunfire defies comprehension, but because Israel has cut them off from the world,” the group said. ...

Gaza’s government media office said Wednesday that at least 770 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza in 19 days, dozens more are missing, and over 200 have been “kidnapped” by Israeli forces. According to B’Tselem’s press release, over 50,000 Palestinians have been forced out of their homes.

Israeli Airstrikes Pound Ancient Lebanese City of Tyre

Overnight, Israel demanded an evacuation of civilians from a broad swathe of the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre. They announced that they were going to “forcefully” act against Hezbollah, and if you’ve been following the Lebanon news, that means they’re going to hit a lot of residential buildings. This morning, the first airstrikes started.

At least four airstrikes were reported so far today against the city, with images of smoke seen rising from the city. The casualties aren’t clear, but the strikes were within just a few hundred meters of the UN World Heritage site in Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city and the home of Roman ruins, which includes the city’s Hippodrome. ...

City officials say they hope most of the population was able to flee in the few hours between Israel’s evacuation order and the start of the strikes. They said the orders were centered around the residential and commercial areas in the city. In the first month of the war, residential districts seem to be strongly favored for Israeli strikes.

Max Blumenthal interviews Hamas spokesman on October 7

Much more detail at the link.

US professors face discipline and investigations over Palestine support

Several professors at universities around the US are facing disciplinary actions in regard to their support for the pro-Palestine movement and their students holding protests on college campuses.

At Columbia University, Katherine Franke, law professor and the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, is currently under investigation at the school over an interview she gave early this year. Last week, she announced she had filed a complaint against a law firm she retained after it dropped her as a client. Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor of anthropology at Muhlenberg College, a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was fired in May over a social media repost on Instagram that a student complained about. She has appealed her termination.

Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, is being investigated by the university for her pro-Palestine activism at the same time the institution touts her MacArthur genius grant. These are just three examples of professors facing consequences for supporting the student movement against Israel’s war in Gaza that roiled campuses during the last school year, and prompted scores of new university restrictions on protest.

“Reports of professors being investigated and disciplined for speech about the war are disturbing. The purpose of universities is to stimulate debate, including on controversial topics,” said Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “It severely undermines that purpose when universities act as roving censors that can punish faculty’s private political speech. Professors should be able to speak as citizens without retaliation except in the rarest of circumstances – that is, unless their speech compromises their ability to do their jobs.”

University of Michigan recruits state attorney general to crack down on Gaza protesters

When the University of Michigan governing board this year asked the state’s attorney general to bring charges against campus Gaza protesters, they tapped a political ally with whom some board members have extensive personal, financial or political connections, a Guardian investigation finds.

Frustrated by local prosecutors’ unwillingness to crack down on most of the students arrested at the height of the pro-Palestinian encampments last spring, the regents executed a highly unusual move in recruiting the Michigan attorney general, Dana Nessel, because she was more likely to file charges, three people with direct knowledge of the decision tell the Guardian.

The revelations raise new questions about potential conflicts of interest. Six of eight regents contributed more than $33,000 combined to Nessel’s campaigns, her office hired a regent’s law firm to handle major state cases, the same regent co-chaired her 2018 campaign, and she has personal relationships with some regents. Meanwhile, Nessel received significant campaign donations from pro-Israel state politicians, organizations and university donors who over the last year have vocally criticized Gaza protests, records show.

A Guardian analysis finds Nessel’s office has so far charged about 85% of the protesters who were arrested or for whom arrest warrants were requested last school year. By comparison, Washtenaw county’s office only charged 10% of arrests, while the Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy dropped all five Gaza protest cases forwarded to her office by Wayne State University police in Detroit, data provided by protesters’ attorneys and prosecutors shows.

The county offices are staffed by local prosecutors who typically handle all criminal charges that occur in that county. By choosing to bypass a local prosecutor in favor of a politically allied attorney general – a statewide position that oversees the local offices – the university has “essentially forum shopped”, said Chesa Boudin, a former San Francisco prosecutor now director of the University of California, Berkeley’s criminal law and justice center. Requesting Nessel take the case from the local prosecutors was legal, but generates distrust of the justice process, Boudin said. “While it might not be a clear, bright line ethics violation, it creates the appearance of impropriety because it causes different outcomes for [the regents] based on their power and relationship with the attorney general,” Boudin said. Other victims of alleged crimes do not get to choose a prosecutor as the politically connected regents did, he added.

Jeremy Loffredo on being jailed by Israel for journalism

Judge strikes down Ohio abortion ban as unconstitutional

An Ohio judge has decided that the state’s ban on most abortions was unconstitutional and could not be enforced. Judge Christian Jenkins, of the Hamilton county common pleas court, also granted a permanent injunction in his ruling on Thursday.

Jenkins said that Ohio’s abortion prohibition flouted language in a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that protected reproductive healthcare, “Ohio voters have spoken. The Ohio constitution now unequivocally protects the right to abortion,” Jenkins said in his ruling.

Jenkins’s decision stems from a law that prohibited doctors from performing abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac or embryonic activity. This activity can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy, the Columbus Dispatch reported. ...

Advocates launched a ballot initiative to ensure that reproductive healthcare rights, including abortion, were protected by the state constitution. This campaign passed in November last year, winning 57% of voting Ohioans’ support, the newspaper said.

“This is a momentous ruling, showing the power of Ohio’s new Reproductive Freedom Amendment in practice,” Jessie Hill, cooperating attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said. “The six-week ban is blatantly unconstitutional and has no place in our law.”

Ship owner agrees to pay $102m over Baltimore bridge collapse that killed six

The owner and operator of a ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge in March, leaving six dead, will pay the US a $100m settlement.

The US justice department announced on Thursday that Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singapore-based corporations that owned and operated the Dali agreed to the $101,980,000 sum, settling a lawsuit over the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s catastrophic collapse. ...

The federal government, which led cleanup efforts, had to remove some 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the channel, as well as the ship. Federal officials also had to construct temporary channels to help alleviate the blocked waterway.

This settlement does not include money for re-building the Francis Scott Key Bridge. As Maryland built, owned and operated the bridge, state attorneys are pursuing claims for these damages.

The state estimates that rebuilding costs will range between $1.7bn and $1.9bn and that the project should be completed by fall 2028.



the horse race



Here in Michigan, we know the Democrats have failed on Gaza – and they’ll pay dearly for it

My home town of Dearborn, next to Detroit, is once again under the microscope during a tight election season. While analysts and pollsters see numbers and statistics, I see a beautiful place thriving with diverse communities. Michigan is a key swing state and has the highest Arab-American population in the US, and when I walk in my neighbourhood, I’m greeted by a sea of kofias, Middle Eastern bakeries that make your mouth water, and fancy Yemeni cafes. “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now” signs pepper the town, in yards and on windows. People express their solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon through T-shirts, watermelon earrings, flags, pendants and bracelets. ...

It is less than a month until the election, and there are a lot of people who don’t feel comfortable voting for either of the main presidential candidates. Many are voting for Stein, some are thinking about sitting this one out, and some are considering voting for Trump.

These are people who would have never, ever voted for Trump, but billions of dollars are being spent by the Democrats to slaughter our loved ones and our families. Israel has been decimating south Lebanon, where many of our relatives live, and now this administration is deploying US troops to the Middle East. Not exactly a winning strategy if they actually want our votes.

Some people think of a Trump vote as a protest vote. I have heard arguments being made along the lines of “Trump is not the person who is committing the genocide right now” or “Well, we didn’t have any wars under Trump”. I personally disagree with this, and consider Trump to be a fascist and fearmonger who deeply traumatised our communities during his presidency. He was a hateful leader who slammed the door on refugees by implementing a Muslim ban. While he didn’t start any wars, he did escalate existing wars in the Middle East and vetoed a series of bipartisan bills that aimed at prohibiting arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Some may scratch their heads and say “Arabs and Muslims voting for Trump are voting for somebody who literally hates them”, but it’s much more complex than that. These Trump votes are the result of disingenuous engagement from the Democratic party and limited opportunities to build a political home for Arab and Muslim Americans outside of elections. The Democrats show up to our communities every four years during an election cycle, repeat soundbites to get our votes, then fail to deliver on their promises.

Heh, watch Nomiki Konst make an ass of herself:

DNC AFRAID Of Jill Stein, GUNS For Her In AD Linking Her To David Duke



the evening greens


UN says time for climate delays has run out

The huge cuts in carbon emissions now needed to end the climate crisis mean it is “crunch time for real”, according to the UN’s environment chief. An unprecedented global mobilisation of renewable energy, forest protection and other measures is needed to steer the world off the current path towards a catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1C, a report from the UN environment programme (Unep) has found. Extreme heatwaves, storms, droughts and floods are already ravaging communities with less than 1.5C of global heating to date.

Current carbon-cutting promises by countries for 2030 are not being met, according to the report, and even if they were met, the temperature rise would only be limited to a still-disastrous 2.6C to 2.8C. There is no more time for “hot air”, the report said, urging nations to act at the Cop29 summit in November.

Keeping the international goal of 1.5C within reach was technically possible, said the report, but it required emissions to fall by 7.5% annually until 2035. That means halting emissions equivalent to those of the EU every year for a decade. Delaying emissions cuts only means steeper reductions would be needed in future.

Unep said countries must collectively commit to cut 42% off annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57% by 2035 in their next UN pledges, called nationally determined contributions and due in February. Without these pledges, and rapid action to back them up, the 1.5C goal would be gone, the UN said.

However, the head of Unep, Inger Andersen, said it was misguided to fixate only on whether the 1.5C target was kept or not, because every fraction of a degree of global heating avoided would save lives, damage and costs: “Don’t over-focus on a magic number. Keeping temperature as low as possible is where we need to be.”

Hawaii sets rules to stop spread of tree-killing coconut rhinoceros beetles

Hawaii is doubling down in its fight against invasive coconut rhinoceros beetles, with state authorities greenlighting rules to prevent the damaging insects from spreading across the Pacific archipelago. The Hawaii agriculture board on Tuesday approved regulations, including a ban on moving infested soil and compost between islands and an increase of insect inspections, to thwart an influx in pests, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

These rule changes, which are not yet finalized, come after an approximately 20-month delay. Coconut rhinoceros beetles were first spotted in Hawaii about a decade ago, but “multiple populations” were found on Kauai in May 2023, indicating the problem had worsened, state officials said.

Coconut rhinoceros beetles consume, hurt and sometimes kill palm trees. The beetle can also result in the death of pineapple, bananas, papaya, sugarcane and taro, per Hawaii Public Radio. ...

The rules are also meant to stop the spread of little fire ants, another invasive species that puts local agriculture and native flora at risk, and can cause harm to humans and pets. While these aggressive ants have afflicted the Big Island for years, they have recently spread to Oahu, prompting renewed calls for action, Hawaii Public Radio reports.


Also of Interest

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

Leaked Report Finds Israel Targeting UN Troops in Lebanon, Injured Several With White Phosphorus

Patrick Lawrence: Harris Comes Out of the Closet on Israel

Gaza WILL Get Worse Under Trump. It’ll Also Get Worse Under Harris.

‘Abducted’ Is Not the Word for Israeli Soldiers

Craig Murray: Who Are the Terrorists?
October 24, 2024

‘We’re Witnessing This Global Tidal Wave of Repression’

An unlikely Oakland mayor is fighting for political survival amid a billionaire-backed recall

BRICS Breakthrough? Economists Richard Wolff & Patrick Bond on Growing Alliance, Challenge to U.S.

Israeli Soldiers Refusing To Fight In Gaza!– w/ Scott Ritter & Jose Vega

World Leaders Queue Meet Putin, BRICS Blueprint New Trade Finance System; Ukr Army Dark Day Selidovo


A Little Night Music

Clifton Chenier – Wrap It Up Zydeco

Clifton Chenier Band – Who Who Who

Clifton Chenier – Jolie Blonde

Clifton Chenier – Key To The Highway

Clifton Chenier Band – Squeeze-Box Boogie

Clifton Chenier Band – Calinda

Clifton Chenier – Lafayette Waltz

Clifton Chenier - Bajou Drive

Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet

Clifton Chenier - I'm a Hog For You

Clifton Chenier - Zodico Stomp

Clifton Chenier - Rockin' the Bop


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Comments

snoopydawg's picture

They won't stop us that easily

As Ali explained on the stream, we are not taking this lying down. I am represented by a superb legal team and EI have now also retained lawyers to fight this.

Journalism is not a crime. The police seem to be on a fishing expedition to get to my sources — I won’t allow that to happen without a legal fight.

My sources and contacts can rest assured that I take this extremely seriously and I am currently doing all I can to prevent police from accessing any of my devices in any way.

Stay tuned for all the latest on that.

Everyone wants to know one main thing: what can we do to help? In due course, there may well be more that we will ask you to do, when we learn more about the legal process.

You’ve been doing a lot already. But the number one thing you can do is this: keep the focus on Gaza and Lebanon. Stop the genocide against the Palestinians. These raids are all about this. The sooner there is a ceasefire, the sooner the political pressure for the raids to continue is likely to ease up.

Finally, you can be sure that as long as I have a pen and paper to hand, I will continue to do everything in my power to tell the truth about what “Israel” is doing to the world.

Thank you.

Journalism is not a crime! One day all the stenographer journalists will find themselves facing the same fate if they ever get enough of selling out their standards and conscience for the state and prestige.

First they came for Julian. Every damn one of them should have stood up for Julian Assange.

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11 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

well, if it wasn't before, it's now 1984.

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7 users have voted.
QMS's picture

.
C. Chenier was on all the juke boxes.
Calinda was practically a theme song.
After a few Dixies could hum along.
Them cajuns sure liked to party.
Thanks for the Zydeco boost!

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9 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

there is probably no better music to party with than zyedeco.

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.
studentofearth's picture

Iran is being hit

Russia Times
IDF confirms strikes on Iran

The Israel Defense Forces is conducting “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed in a statement early Saturday.

3 min ago on Associated Press News

In Tehran, the Iranian capital, the sound of explosions could be heard, with state-run media there initially acknowledging the blasts and saying some of the sounds came from air defense systems around the city.
...
The strike happened just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the U.S. after a tour of the Middle East where he and other U.S. officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.

edited link

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13 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

joe shikspack's picture

@studentofearth

thanks for the news. i guess this will be an eventful weekend.

have a good one!

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enhydra lutris's picture

Phil Lesh died today, RIP

be well and have a good one

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8 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

oh, bummer! well, i suppose he was a high-mileage hippie, sad to see him go.

have a great weekend!

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@joe shikspack

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6 users have voted.

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 --

snoopydawg's picture

.

https://www.rt.com/news/606451-tehran-multiple-explosions/

So much for the Russians gave them air defense weapons or that Iran has their own and they are good.

MacGregor discussed what could happen with other countries like Russia and China if America enters the war. He said that Netanyahu would start it before the election so that either candidate is locked into it before they’re elected.

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10 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

macgregor's analysis sounds reasonable to me.

i haven't been able to find any news about what israel was aiming at or if it has hit anything in iran yet. i guess it may take some time to get information out.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-launches-retaliatory-attac...

Israeli Forces Attack Iran With "Precise Strikes On Military Targets" In Retaliatory Response

Israel attacked Iran early Saturday morning local time with what it's referred to as "precise strikes on Iranian military targets," weeks after the Islamic Republic fired around 180 ballistic missiles towards Israel on Oct. 1. Blasts were reported near the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Not much more than from RT. But an Israeli defense guy says that it’s in self defense because Iran was behind the Hamas attacks…pffft. Hamas had every right to attack Israel and the soldiers guarding them. They should have left civilians alone, but Israel killed more of their people than Hamas did.

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5 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

snoopydawg's picture

.

Washington Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan told @maxtani.bsky.social that he has resigned from the newspaper over its decision not to endorse a presidential candidate.

This is from bluesky the other twitter so no embed. Shitlibs are aghast about this and they are canceling their subscriptions and having a pussyfit…

LA Times has also not endorsed anyone either. This is a war between oligarch factions and none of them wants to do anything to tick off the candidate that wins.

Hedges has an excellent essay on this.

The Choice this Election is between Corporate and Oligarchic Power

There is a civil war within capitalism. Kamala Harris is the face of corporate power. Donald Trump is the mascot of the oligarchs. Either way, we lose.

The choice in the elections is between corporate and oligarchic power. Corporate power needs stability and a technocratic government. Oligarchic power thrives on chaos and, as Steve Bannon says, the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Neither are democratic. They have each bought up the political class, the academy and the press. Both are forms of exploitation that impoverish and disempower the public. Both funnel money upwards into the hands of the billionaire class. Both dismantle regulations, destroy labor unions, gut government services in the name of austerity, privatize every aspect of American society, from utilities to schools, perpetuate permanent wars, including the genocide in Gaza, and neuter a media that should, if it was not controlled by corporations and the rich, investigate their pillage and corruption. Both forms of capitalism disembowel the country, but they do it with different tools and have different goals.

Kamala Harris, anointed by the richest Democratic Party donors without receiving a single primary vote, is the face of corporate power. Donald Trump is the buffoonish mascot for the oligarchs. This is the split within the ruling class. It is a civil war within capitalism played out on the political stage. The public is little more than a prop in an election where neither party will advance their interests or protect their rights

One thing that stands out while reading this is how far the oligarchs have dismantled anything that helps we the people while giving the oligarchs everything they want. And there has been quite a few people in congress who have been working to destroy all public services and let the oligarchs privatize what should not be privatized. Things have gone into the toilet since this started happening.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yep. the deck is stacked. it's a big club and you ain't in it.

more people need to listen to george carlin.

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snoopydawg's picture

Smile

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

It’s a fair point.

Heh….

Wonder what would have happened if they endorsed Trump?

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8 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

lookee, somebody put lipstick on a pig.

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

2 pigs actually. Some of the tweets were brutal. Oh well. With as much deaths on their bloody hands I’m not upset about them.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

snoopydawg's picture

History will remember the Hellabitch as the sorest presidential loser ever. Gore actually had a case to be bitter about the election results, but she lost it all on her own. Okay…Obama was also responsible for Trump beating her, but good grief give it a rest already.

She’s talking about the night at the garden with people dressed up in Nazi uniforms.

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7 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

seems like the mainstream media never tire of hillarity's sour grapes.

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QMS's picture

@humphrey
.
.
they woke up Biden to tell him the zionists shot off a few missiles
so he is 'closely monitoring the situation' from his deep state sleep.
Austin called up hisn buddy in Izzy land to catch-up and chew the fat.
Joy Harris laughed hysterically and the US had 'nothing to do with it'.
Balderdash.

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snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

use their airspace to attack Iran then we’ll provide protection for them if Iran punishes them for it.

Larry Johnson on the attacks.

Social media is lit up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve with reports that Israel, finally, delivered on its vow to attack Iran. And attack it did.

The explosions heard around Tehran reportedly came from the Russian-supplied air defense systems, which launched and apparently destroyed the Israeli missiles.

If the early reports from Iran are confirmed — i.e., no significant damage to any target in Iran — then the Netanyahu cabinet are going to be taking some big doses of Xanax. If this is the case, then Israel’s attack was an abject failure. It appears that Israel launched ballistic cruise missiles from aircraft outside the territory of Iran. It also appears that the Russian-supplied air defense systems did their job, along with electronic warfare systems, and defeated the Israeli attack.

What does that mean for Iran’s response? I suspect that Russia will encourage them to take-the-win and not retaliate. Iran will have proved that it can penetrate Israel’s air space at will, but that Israel cannot penetrate Iranian air space.

Phew…if true then the world dodged a bullet and hopefully Israel understands that it’s not the biggest dawg in the pond. They already took a hit of being the baddest military when they let Hamas break out, they can’t defeat Hamas and now this. And I take back my earlier words.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

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7 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i hope that none of israel's missiles got through. if not, i suspect that iran will take the "w" and move on. i bet israel won't, though.

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studentofearth's picture

@joe shikspack Check it sometimes for news Hal Turner Radio Show He broadcasts news on Christian radio stations.

Appears first waves of attacks to test air defense coverage. Second wave targeted strikes. Keep scrolling past donation request.

7:25 PM EDT --
Reports are now confirming there have already been NINETEEN (19) Explosions in Tehran.
...
7:34 PM EDT --
Civilian power plant in Karaj, Iran, reportedly "destroyed."
...
10:59 PM EDT --
YNET News, Channel 12, Reuters and other media in and outside of Israel are all reporting "The Israeli attack upon Iran is complete. Twenty (20) sites were targeted by Israel.

IDF PUBLICLY CONFIRMS: "ATTACK IS OVER. IDF COMPLETED PRECISE TARGETED STRIKES AGAINST MILITARY SITES IN IRAN." (Updates CONTINUE below)

11:12 PM EDT --
A picture is worth 1,000 words: Netanyahu in the Bunker. His face says it all: The attack did NOT go as planned:
...

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

joe shikspack's picture

@studentofearth

i guess i was right the first time. looks like this will be an eventful weekend.

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@studentofearth

The rest of the tweet:

In an eye for eye retaliation, Iran could strike Israeli air defenses in the north of the country, leaving a wide area 100% vulnerable to Hezbollah and Iraqi projectiles.

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snoopydawg's picture

No I don’t think anyone who isn’t voting for Kamala should swallow it and vote for her for the good of the country. Gawd how can anyone overlook this just so they can pay less for eggs?

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

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