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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: James Carr

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features soul singer James Carr. Enjoy!

^{James Carr - Pouring Water on a Drowning Man}

"Civilization has made man, if not always more bloodthirsty, at least more viciously, more horribly bloodthirsty."

-- Fyodor Dostoevsky

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News and Opinion

Slaughter In Gaza And Lebanon As War With Iran Approaches

Israel appears to have begun its long-planned ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, with the IDF dropping bombs, issuing evacuation orders for multiple hospitals, attacking civilians with sniper drones, and besieging civilian populations in order to force tens of thousands of people to either move south or die. Israel has reportedly been dropping leaflets on the Jabalia refugee camp ordering people to leave, and then shooting anyone who tries to.

Since the seventh of October last year Israel has committed roughly 100 October sevenths in Gaza; scores of American medical workers who volunteered in the enclave signed an open letter to president Biden estimating the real death toll from Israel’s onslaught at over 118,000. Israel has also committed about two October sevenths in Lebanon during that time, with the majority of the 2,100 Israeli killings in that country coming just in the last few weeks.

As Israeli murderousness ramps up in both Gaza and Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement addressed to the Lebanese people telling them that they need to somehow defeat Hezbollah in order to “save Lebanon before it plunges into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

So we went from “limited operation” to Israel threatening what they did to Gaza—an ongoing genocide—in Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/6k7cH6np2b

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 8, 2024

Israeli officials have been saying they’re going to destroy Lebanon like they destroyed Gaza for months. Back in December Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said, “Every person in Lebanon can take the map, the aerial photograph of Gaza, place it on an aerial photograph of Beirut, and ask themselves if this is what they want to happen there.” Now Netanyahu himself is saying this.

Notably, Netanyahu’s statement was delivered in English, with English subtitles. This wasn’t actually a plea made to the people of Lebanon, it was propaganda made for western consumption. Netanyahu does not actually believe the Lebanese people are going to take up arms against Hezbollah to stop their country from being destroyed, he’s just creating a narrative to justify what he already plans on doing to Lebanon.

And the US is encouraging Israel to move forward. On Tuesday State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told the press that the Biden administration no longer supports a ceasefire with Hezbollah, saying “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability” instead. Two weeks ago CNN reported that the administration has also essentially given up on a ceasefire in Gaza.

.@NBCNews claims US officials have discussed joining Israel in offensive strikes against Iran, and passing them off as “defensive" after the fact.

This should raise alarm bells - Congress has not declared war on Iran, which would be disastrous for the U.S. and the region. pic.twitter.com/tA6r9vGFvS

— NIAC (@NIACouncil) October 8, 2024

And we haven’t even talked about Iran yet. NBC News reports that US military officials have been discussing directly joining in Israel’s planned attack on Iran, potentially launching their own airstrikes on the Iranian military whenever Israel begins its attack. 

Whether the US joins with Israel in its coming attack or not, Iran has already made it clear that it will retaliate against any further aggressions by Israel, and Israel has made it clear that if Iran strikes back it’s going to ramp up its aggressions and perhaps start attacking Iranian energy infrastructure. If this blows up into full-scale war, as looks increasingly likely, it’s inevitable that the US will come to Israel’s defense.

Axios and its Israeli intelligence insider Barak Ravid have a new report out on how super duper frustrated the Biden administration is becoming with Israeli warmongering. In typical Axios fashion the outlet reports that the White House is becoming “increasingly distrustful” of Israel’s planned military operations against Iran and Lebanon, but that, in typical Biden administration fashion, its American sources admit that the US “would very likely help Israel defend itself regardless” of whatever happens.

Whoever wins the US election in November appears to be committed to riding with Israel down this path into the depths of hell.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Vice President Kamala Harris defended the Biden administration’s genocidal support for Israel, saying the weapons it has been giving them “allow Israel to defend itself.” She also named Iran as the number one enemy of the United States.

In an appearance on The View, Harris was asked what she would have done differently from President Biden, and she said “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” Then later she added, “You asked me what is the difference between Joe Biden and me, that will be one of the differences: I’m going to have a Republican in my Cabinet.”

And lest you make the mistake of thinking Trump would be any better, last week the former president said that Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and criticized the Biden administration for not being sufficiently aggressive on this front.

Trump says Israel should "hit" Iran's nuclear facilities. Yet another bold "anti-war" statement on his part -- a terrifying blow to the Deep State and military-industrial complex pic.twitter.com/BXwfCiR46Y

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 5, 2024

“They asked [Biden], what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?” Trump said at a campaign event on Friday. “And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right? I said I think he’s got that one wrong.”

Anyone who still says Trump is a peacemaker is a damn fool. Statements like this are in full alignment with the absolute worst warmongers in Washington like John Bolton or Lindsey Graham.

Anyway, that’s where we’re at right now. That’s the trajectory the US empire has us on. An active genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the threat of another extermination campaign in Lebanon, and acceleration toward a direct war of unimaginable horror with Iran.

These psychos must be stopped.

“The First Live-Streamed Genocide”: Al Jazeera Exposes War Crimes Israeli Troops Filmed Themselves

Israeli military deploys fourth division in Lebanon ground offensive

Israel has said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division after another night of intense airstrikes across the south and east of the country. The reservist 146th division was sent to southern Lebanon overnight, hours after Israel announced the mobilisation of a third standing division, meaning the number of troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000.

Launching what it has called Operation Northern Arrows last week, the Israeli army said the ground offensive would involve “limited, localised and targeted raids” to remove Hezbollah infrastructure along the disputed de facto border between the two countries, known as the blue line. However, the rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages on the coast upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south and east and the capital, suggests Israel is preparing for a wider push north against the Lebanese militia.

In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s acting secretary general, Naim Qassem, said the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes, including Beirut bombings that killed the group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and much of the militia’s top command. “You see that our daily accomplishments are great. Hundreds of rockets and dozens of aircraft [drones], a great number of [Israeli] settlements and cities have come under rocket fire … I would like to reassure you that our capabilities are fine,” he said.

Hezbollah had replaced all of its senior commanders, he said, and Israeli ground troops had not made any advances after a week of fighting.

AMB. Chas Freeman: Is Israel Its Own Worst Enemy?

Ziad Abu Halil was a community leader, known for standing up to the IOF's attacks on and abductions of Palestinian youth in the occupied West Bank.

Today, the IOF raided his home and beat him to death. pic.twitter.com/OrYv2qIpxI

— CODEPINK (@codepink) October 7, 2024

'Jabalia Is Being Wiped Out': Gaza Pleads for Help as Israel Intensifies Assault

Israel's latest dayslong assault on besieged northern Gaza intensified Tuesday as the nation's tanks advanced deeper into the Jabalia refugee camp, where terrified residents reported being fired on by the Israeli military as they tried to flee.

Citing eyewitness accounts, CNN, Al Jazeera, and other news outlets reported that Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately at people in Jabalia, who are under Israeli evacuation orders. Residents are being told to move to Al-Mawasi, a badly overcrowded so-called "humanitarian zone" in southern Gaza that Israel's military has attacked repeatedly.

"Drones were firing at everyone passing by on the road," 28-year-old Mohammad Sultan, whose family fled their home in Jabalia, told CNN on Tuesday. Sultan said he and other civilians came under Israeli fire when he returned to grab food, water, and blankets.

"Three people were shot right in front of me," he said. "My brother and I tried to help the injured get to the hospitals, but a little girl was shot in the neck, and her father was also injured."

Reuters reported that the warning "Jabalia is being wiped out" was "repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza" as Israeli forces assailed the refugee camp and nearby areas, killing dozens of people over the past several days.

"Jabalia is being bombed as if the war has just begun and the world is blind about it," a 60-year-old father of five told Reuters.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that "the threat of yet another massacre in northern Gaza is very real."

"Israel must be ordered to stop assaulting the Palestinians trapped there and withdraw immediately from the occupied Palestinian territory, as already decided by the [International Court of Justice]," she added.

Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist reporting from northern Gaza, wrote on social media Tuesday that "the situation in the north is horrific and very dangerous; there are currently hundreds of thousands trapped, and the shelling is nonstop."

"Please share what's happening in the north," he added.

Israeli occupation forces have asked all residents of northern Gaza (300k+) to evacuate as a means of ethnically cleansing North Gaza . However, they then besieged Jabalia refugee camp, and when people tried to leave, they were shot at by snipers. Many residents are on the…

— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) October 8, 2024

The northern part of Gaza has been utterly devastated by the Israeli military's yearlong assault, carried out with the support of the United States and other world powers. The United Kingdom-based humanitarian group Christian Aid said Monday that mothers in northern Gaza have reported "losing up to 30kg of weight" as the region faces famine conditions fueled by Israel's suffocating blockade and relentless airstrikes.

"We often survive on one meal a day if we can find one," one mother told Christian Aid's partners in Gaza. "My children cry and fall asleep hungry, and I spend nights crying because I am helpless and heartwrenched as their tears of hunger feel like a knife cutting through me, even though I always prioritized them over myself."

Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that at least 56 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 24 hours, while noting that "the number of deaths reported by sources vary" given the difficulties of counting casualties under Israeli bombardment.

Al Jazeera's Abu Azzoum said the Israeli army is "systematically working to empty northern Gaza."

Such an effort would be consistent with reported Israeli proposals to "liquidate northern Gaza." As +972 Magazine reported last month, prominent Israeli officials including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have "called on the military to carry out mass extermination in northern Gaza."

"For some, it might be easy to write off Israeli proposals to 'finish the job' in northern Gaza as genocidal bombast, unlikely to be carried out," the magazine added. "Regardless of what happens over the coming months, the very fact that open proposals to starve and exterminate hundreds of thousands of people are up for debate demonstrates precisely where Israeli society stands today."

Aaron Maté : Tension Between Biden and Netanyahu

US Considers Launching Airstrikes Against Iran To Support Israeli Attack

The US has discussed the idea of supporting Israel’s expected attack on Iran with intelligence or with airstrikes of its own, NBC News reported on Tuesday, citing two unnamed US officials.

The report said senior US military officials have discussed launching “very limited” airstrikes against Iranian targets inside Iran or outside of the country, though the US officials said intelligence support for Israel was more likely.

So far, no final decision on US action has been made, according to the report, and the US officials said Israel has not briefed the US on its specific plans to strike Iran in response to the Iranian missile barrage that hit Israel last week.

“People are sick of the bullshit in here” - Liam Cosgrove goes off on State Dept spox

Zelenskyy ‘victory plan’ summit in doubt after Joe Biden pulls out

Joe Biden has called off a four-day trip to Germany this week that had been intended to culminate in a summit to discuss Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” for Ukraine. The White House said on Tuesday evening that the president would stay at home “to oversee preparations for and the response” to Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday.

It was not clear how Biden’s absence would affect the planned summit, the first time world leaders were due to gather at the Ramstein US airbase, normally the location of a regular meeting of defence ministers to discuss military aid for Kyiv.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, promised that the Biden trip would be rescheduled and said he understood the president’s reasons for calling it off. “It would have been a very important meeting and we prepared it on all sides,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Germany had said the UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron would attend the event alongside Biden and Scholz. A total of 20 leaders were expected to attend. They were to hear Zelenskyy unveil the latest version of his “victory plan” to end the war, which is expected to focus heavily on a demand to allow Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow and other western long-range missiles deep into Russia.

Cauldrons in Donbass. Zelensky buying time, hopes US enters conflict

Viktor Orbán would celebrate Trump victory with ‘bottles of champagne’

Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orbán has said he will open “several bottles of champagne” if Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, underscoring his differences with mainstream European leaders. The Hungarian prime minister is due to host fellow EU leaders for a summit in Budapest a few days after the US presidential election on 5 November.

“We will open several bottles of champagne if Trump is back,” Orbán said on Tuesday, describing the EU’s November summit as a moment for the bloc to come together “to try to find a common voice”.

Orbán said that Trump, if elected president, would not wait until his inauguration but would act immediately “to manage a peace” between Ukraine and Russia “so we don’t have as European leaders any time to waste”. He added: “We have to react intellectually first, philosophically and then strategically.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed he could bring peace to Ukraine “very quickly”, without offering any details about how a durable settlement could be achieved. Orbán’s views on the Russian invasion closely mirror those of the former US president, who has been accused by the US vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, of echoing Vladimir Putin’s ideas. ...

Speaking to journalists in Brussels more than halfway through Hungary’s controversial EU presidency, Orbán was unrepentant about his so-called peace missions over the summer that included visits to Moscow, Beijing and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The EU’s approach to Ukraine was “stupid”, he claimed, because the war could not be won on the battlefield and negotiations had to take place.

HERE’S WHY They Won’t Allow Volunteer Hurricane Aid!

Capitalism's finest hour. Allocating resources better than anyone could possibly imagine.

Airlines and Hotels Price Gouge Floridians Fleeing Milton

U.S. President Joe Biden called on Floridians in evacuation zones to leave their homes "now, now, now" on Tuesday, and the mayor of Tampa issued a stark warning that those who "choose to stay" are "going to die" from the expected impact of Hurricane Milton—but desperate residents are grappling with the fact that hotels and airlines may make evacuating impossible for many.

Florida bars companies from price gouging during an emergency like Milton, but as thousands of people began evacuating the state's western coast on Monday, accusations poured in about sky-high airline ticket prices and hotels in neighboring states that are charging exorbitant rates.

A Hampton Inn in Brunswick, Georgia was offering rooms for $617 for Wednesday night, when Milton is expected to hit, but as The Daily Mail reported, comparable rooms are available in the middle of the week in November for just $131.

Hilton hotels in Kingsland, Georgia more than doubled their rates, and a Marriott hotel that normally charges just $94 per night was offering a stay for $548 per night—or more than $700 for people who wanted to park their cars.

"I'm about to show you why it's almost impossible for anyone to evacuate, and it will piss you off," said one man in a video posted to social media. He pointed out one-way ticket prices for airlines including American and United, flying from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Columbus, Ohio.

The tickets ranged from $812 to $2,199 per person.

"My wife's flight was canceled for tomorrow morning at 7:00 am," he said. "The only other flights out of the entire state of Florida right now are out of Ft. Lauderdale, and they are jacking their prices up."

Pro-worker media organization More Perfect Union also cataloged cases of alleged price gouging by airlines, with flights out of Tampa—expected to face devastating storm surges this week—costing more than $1,405.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department had taken notice of the price gouging allegations and would be "keeping a close eye on flights in and out of areas affected by Hurricane Milton to make sure airlines are not charging excessively increasing fares."

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody activated the state's price gouging hotline (1-866-966-7226) earlier this year, but price gouging was reported during Hurricane Helene last month in Florida as well as other affected states—including ones that ban price gouging during emergencies.

Evacuees also faced difficulty filling their cars on Tuesday, with 16% of gas stations in the state and 43% of those in the Tampa area without fuel.

Milton was classified as a Category 4 hurricane as of Tuesday afternoon, with 155 mile-per-hour winds. The storm weakened somewhat from Monday, when 175 mile-per-hour winds were reported, but forecasters said it "rebounded" in intensity. Meteorologists have expressed shock this week at how quickly the storm gathered strength in the Gulf of Mexico, which they said was due to record-high temperatures in the gulf and the Atlantic Ocean.

Former aide to Eric Adams arrested on charges of witness tampering

A former aide to Eric Adams was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and destroying evidence in relation to a federal investigation that has spawned FBI raids, a string of resignations and bribery charges brought against the New York mayor.

Mohamed Bahi, who ran the mayor’s community affairs office, had already stepped down when he was charged on Tuesday with instructing multiple witnesses to lie to federal investigators about a December 2020 fundraiser for Adams’ victorious mayoral election campaign.

Federal prosecutors in New York allege that Bahi, 40, deleted Signal, an encrypted messaging app that he used to communicate with the mayor from his phone, when he realized the FBI was on his trail.

“The charges unsealed today should leave no doubt about the seriousness of any effort to interfere with a federal investigation, particularly when undertaken by a government employee,” Damian Williams, US district attorney for the southern district of New York, said in a statement.

At least three federal corruption investigations are focused on Adams and his aides. Prosecutors charged the mayor in September with five counts of public corruption, including bribery and violating campaign finance laws.

Trump administration protected Brett Kavanaugh from full FBI investigation

The Trump administration protected Brett Kavanaugh from facing a full FBI investigation in the wake of serious allegations that he sexually assaulted two women – once in high school and once in college – during his controversial 2018 Senate confirmation to become a supreme court justice, according to a new report.

An investigation led by the Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse also found that both the Trump White House and the FBI “misled the public and the Senate” about the scope of the investigation it did conduct into the sexual assault allegations by falsely claiming that the FBI had conducted its investigation thoroughly and “by the book”.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation by the Senate seemed to be in doubt after Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, alleged he had sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school. A classmate at Yale, named Deborah Ramirez, alleged in a report published by the New Yorker that Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party. Kavanaugh denied both allegations. The Senate judiciary committee agreed after Ford publicly testified about her allegations that the FBI conduct a supplemental background check to examine those allegations before the full Senate voted on his nomination.

In the aftermath of Kavanaugh’s ultimate confirmation by the Senate, in a 50-48 vote, Whitehouse and his staff set out on a six-year investigation to try to find answers about how the FBI conducted its investigation. The investigation was hampered, Whitehouse said, by executive branch delays, reluctance to answer even basic questions, and often incomplete answers. ... “This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.”

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Earth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance

Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts have said. More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, says the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found that 25 were worse than ever recorded, including carbon dioxide levels and human population. This indicates a “critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”, it says.

The temperature of Earth’s surface and oceans hit an all-time high, driven by record burning of fossil fuels, the report found. Human population is increasing at a rate of approximately 200,000 people a day and the number of cattle and sheep by 170,000 a day, all adding to record greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists identified 28 feedback loops, including increasing emissions from melting permafrost, which could help trigger multiple tipping points, such as the collapse of the massive Greenland icecap. Global heating is driving increasingly deadly extreme weather across the world, they said, including hurricanes in the US and 50C heatwaves in India, with billions of people now exposed to extreme heat.

The assessment, published in the journal Bioscience, says the concentrations of CO₂ and methane in the atmosphere are at record levels. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 80 times more powerful than CO₂ over 20 years, and is emitted by fossil fuel operations, waste dumps, cattle and rice fields. “The growth rate of methane emissions has been accelerating, which is extremely troubling,” said Dr Christopher Wolf, formerly of OSU, who co-led the team.

While wind and solar energy grew by 15% in 2023, the researchers said, coal, oil and gas still dominated. They said there was “stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel based system”.

Deforestation ‘roaring back’ despite 140-country vow to end destruction

The destruction of global forests increased in 2023, and is higher than when 140 countries promised three years ago to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, an analysis shows. The rising demolition of the forests puts ambitions to halt the climate crisis and stem the huge worldwide losses of wildlife even further from reach, the researchers warn.

Almost 6.4m hectares (16m acres) of forest were razed in 2023, according to the report. Even more forest – 62.6m ha – was degraded as road building, logging and forest fires took their toll. There were spikes in deforestation in Indonesia and Bolivia, driven by political changes and continued demand for commodities including beef, soy, palm oil, paper and nickel in rich countries.

The researchers said attempts at voluntary cuts on deforestation were not working and strong regulation and more funding for forest protection were needed. The report highlighted a bright spot in the Brazilian Amazon, where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s new government cut deforestation by 62% in its first year.

“The bottom line is that, globally, deforestation has gotten worse, not better, since the beginning of the decade,” said Ivan Palmegiani, a consultant at the research group Climate Focus and lead author of the report. “We’re only six years away from a critical global deadline to end deforestation, and forests continue to be chopped down, degraded, and set ablaze at alarming rates,” he said. “Righting the course is possible if all countries make it a priority, and especially if industrialised countries seriously reconsider their excessive consumption levels and support forest countries.”

Biden sets 10-year deadline for US cities to replace lead pipes

A decade after the Flint, Michigan, water crisis raised alarms about the continuing dangers of lead in tap water, Joe Biden is setting a 10-year deadline for cities across the nation to replace their lead pipes, finalizing an aggressive approach aimed at ensuring that drinking water is safe for all Americans.

Biden announced the final Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule during a visit to the swing state of Wisconsin in the final month of a tight presidential campaign. The announcement highlights an issue – safe drinking water – that Kamala Harris has prioritized as vice-president as well as during her presidential campaign. The new rule supplants a looser standard set by former president Donald Trump’s administration that did not include a universal requirement to replace lead pipes.

“Folks, what is a government for if it cannot protect the public health?” Biden asked a crowd of union members at a cavernous department of public works warehouse in Milwaukee. The city has the fifth-highest number of lead pipes in the nation, according to the EPA.

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Also of Interest

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

Rashid Khalidi, America’s foremost scholar of Palestine, is retiring: ‘I don’t want to be a cog in the machine any more’

Biden administration marks one year of Gaza genocide with Zionist-imperialist propaganda

Scott Ritter: The Fall of Israel

For Doubters - Hizbullah Reports That It Is Back

The Observer’s Defense of Genocide

Double Standards and Distortion: How the NYT Misreports Sexual Violence in Israel/Palestine

How Lack Of Aggression Cripples Resistance Orgs

Ukraine - FT Proposes Impossible Peace Deal, Demands More Violence

Eric Adams and the Death of Black Politics

Klamath River dam removal: before and after images show dramatic change

Biden REFUSES To Rein In Netanyahu, And Harris Is LITTLE Different: Niall’s Notes

Kabul Drone Strike Survivors SPEAK OUT

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A Little Night Music

James Carr - That's What I Want To Know

James Carr - Love Attack

James Carr - The Dark End of the Street

James Carr - I'm a Fool for You

James Carr - Forgetting You

James Carr - Life Turned Her That Way

James Carr - You've Got My Mind Messed Up

James Carr - That's the Way Love Turned out for Me

James Carr - That's What I Want to Know

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