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The Evening Blues - 11-12-25

Submitted by joe shikspack on Wed, 11/12/2025 - 3:35pm

eb1pt12

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Robert Wilkins

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and ragtime guitarist Robert Wilkins. Enjoy!

^{Robert Wilkins - That's No Way To Get Along}

"Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within."

-- Arthur Erickson

News and Opinion

This Is All Our Rulers Are Offering Us

Pentagon contractor Elon Musk, currently the richest person alive, has posted a video clip showing off how people can use his AI video generation tool Grok Imagine to create the image of a woman’s face saying “I will always love you.”

The AI-generated clip looks fake and creepy, and everything about Musk’s post is downright depressing. But it’s not quite as fake, creepy and depressing as the capitalist dystopia which birthed it.

Grok Imagine prompt:

She smiles and says “I will always love you” pic.twitter.com/cjDu3MuDCZ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2025

This is all the ruling class has to offer you. Fake love. Fake connection. Worthless technological parlor tricks at the expense of our dying biosphere.

The underlying argument for continuing with the capitalism experiment even though it’s destroying our ecosystem is that these megabillionaires will save us all with green energy and carry humanity’s surplus population out into the stars to colonize the galaxy, which is a terrible vision for the future in and of itself.

But that isn’t even happening. They know they’ll never colonize Mars. We’re not meaningfully any closer to knowing how to keep humans alive completely separate from Earth’s biosphere than we were a thousand years ago; human space travel thus far has consisted of glorified scuba expeditions wherein everything needed for survival is imported directly from the planet our anatomy is intimately interwoven with.

And meanwhile ecocidal capitalism keeps incinerating our world.

This is it. Once they burn through the generative AI scam and sell a few million AI sex robots that cost as much as cars, they’re basically out of ideas. Maybe someone invents an app that helps people sell their kidneys and get them delivered to the purchaser via drone or something, but that’s pretty much it in terms of profit-driven tech innovation. And from there the plan is to just grab up as many resources as possible and hole up in a bunker somewhere while the world burns.

And in the meantime they’re not even happy. The world’s richest man says he has no social life and works almost every waking hour of his existence, and here he is projecting his own loneliness onto the rest of the world by telling everyone how awesome it is that you can have an AI create an image of a woman’s face telling you it will always love you.

That’s right, kids: work your fingers to the bone, catch a few lucky breaks, pour all your blood, sweat, tears and time into winning the capitalism game, and you too could one day be as miserable and alienated as Elon Reeve Musk.

These are the sorts of people who are ruling our world. These are the people who are holding the steering wheel of human civilization and determining the future of our species.

Nothing about this is healthy. Nothing about this is functional. We need drastic revolutionary change and we need it soon, because these freaks are driving us to our doom.

Israel attacked Palestinian water sources over 250 times in five years, data reveals

Israeli armed forces and settlers have attacked Palestinian water sources more than 250 times in the past five years, amounting to the most sustained assault on civilian water supplies in recent years, new research reveals. Bombs, dogs, poison and heavy machinery were among the weapons used to attack Palestinians and their infrastructure at drinking water, irrigation and sanitation sites in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on at least 90 occasions between January 2024 and mid-2025, according to the Pacific Institute, a California-based nonpartisan thinktank tracking water conflicts.

In February 2024, Israeli snipers killed eight Palestinians collecting water near Naser hospital in Gaza, while in April Israeli airstrikes on two schools in Gaza City killed and injured 100 people, and destroyed five mobile latrines and a solar-powered desalination unit that were installed in October 2024 as part of an EU-funded project.

An estimated 90% of water and sanitation facilities in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by direct attacks as military targets, or are inaccessible to Palestinians as they are located in areas blocked by the Israeli army. These actions have contributed to a public health catastrophe, according to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“Such practices in Gaza, but also in other armed conflicts such as Sudan, constitute violations of international law, and have been documented as patterns of behaviour that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, that in the case of Gaza in particular, are an important part of a genocidal strategy,” said Arrojo. “Israel has systematically used water to displace and segregate the Palestinian population in their own territories, illegally occupied since 1967, as part of its strategy of apartheid and progressive colonization,” he added.

Phil Giraldi : Netanyahu and Prison Rape

Israeli embassy writes to US senators defending detention of Palestinian American teen

The Israeli embassy in Washington has been circulating a letter on Capitol Hill defending its nine-month detention of a 16-year-old US citizen in military prison as pressure mounts from senators and civil society groups who have called for his release.

The document, obtained by the Guardian, describes Israel’s allegations against Mohammed Ibrahim and the medical treatment he has allegedly received in prison. It does not mention his dramatic weight loss or the fact that his family has had virtually no contact with him since his arrest in February. Ibrahim, a dual Palestinian American teenager from Florida, has been charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles.

It is unclear how many congressional offices the letter had reached, but comes after 27 Democratic lawmakers last month wrote to Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and to the US ambassador to Israel expressing “grave concern” over Ibrahim’s treatment. The letter also circulated ahead of a scheduled 9 November court hearing in Ibrahim case, which has been postponed to mid-December.

The embassy letter asserts that Ibrahim “threw rocks at vehicles belonging to Israeli citizens” and cites his confession during interrogation the night of his arrest on 16 February. The document does not mention that Ibrahim later wrote in a sworn affidavit: “The interrogator threatened that if I did not comply, he would instruct the soldiers to beat me. Out of sheer fear, I ultimately confessed.”

“As is often the case with information from the Netanyahu government, this letter deals in half-truths and is missing critical facts,” said Chris Van Hollen, a US senator from Maryland. “It must be the priority of the US government to secure the release of this American boy.” The embassy claims Ibrahim “has been under weekly BMI monitoring”; has been examined by doctors 10 times; and was treated for scabies. A prison medical report on 22 April recorded him as having “low BMI” after losing roughly a quarter of his body weight, according to the family.

Aaron Maté : Should Israel Pay Reparations to Gaza?

‘State-Backed Terrorism’: Israeli Settler Attacks on West Bank Palestinians Hit Record High

Palestine defenders this week decried the ongoing surge in attacks by Israeli settler-colonists on Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, which the United Nations humanitarian office says are occurring at the highest rate it has ever seen.

Israeli settlers seeking to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their lands in order to steal them have ramped up violent attacks on local residents including olive farmers, as well as their trees and equipment, during the crucial harvesting season. Journalists who document the assaults and international activists trying to protect locals from the rampaging assailants have also been attacked.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday that "October 2025 recorded the highest monthly number of Israeli settler attacks since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006, with more than 260 attacks resulting in casualties, property damage, or both—an average of eight incidents per day."

"Settler violence during this olive harvest season has reached the highest level recorded in recent years, with about 150 attacks documented so far, resulting in the injury of more than 140 Palestinians and the vandalism of over 4,200 trees and saplings across 77 villages," OCHA added.

October 2025 had the highest number of Israeli settler attacks since we began tracking them in 2006.

One in every five Palestinians that Israeli forces killed so far in 2025 across the #WestBank was a child.

More: https://t.co/Vegap7GxZf pic.twitter.com/JZLNoEzvyU

— OCHA OPT (Palestine) (@ochaopt) November 7, 2025

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has documented 704 settler attacks this year through October, up from 675 in all of 2024. Israel's military says that police and Shin Bet—the internal state security agency—have failed to address this violence due to pressure from members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, right-wing lawmakers, and religious leaders who believe that Israel has a divinely ordained right to steal all of Palestine.

However, Israeli and international human rights groups have long documented IDF participation or complicity in settler attacks.

On Tuesday, at least dozens of masked settlers launched a sweeping assault around the village of Beit Lid east of Tulkarm, setting fire to farmland, vehicles, and the al-Junaidi dairy factory.

The settlers reportedly wounded at least four Palestinians, attacked IDF soldiers, and damaged an army vehicle. Israeli police said they arrested four Israelis who allegedly took part in the raid.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported additional settler attacks Tuesday targeting a Bedouin community and the nearby village of Deir Sharaf, east of Beit Lid. Videos show residents trying to extinguish fires set by the attackers. Eyewitnesses told reporters that IDF troops prevented emergency responders from helping to put out the fires.

Over the weekend, dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters, activists, and journalists, injuring more than 10 people including Reuters photographer Raneen Sawafta—who was severely beaten—people who tried to help her, a Palestinian medic, an IDF reservist, and local farmers.

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villagers and journalists, including Reuters reporter Raneen Sawafta, near Nablus. The assault is the latest in a surge of settler attacks across the occupied West Bank during the olive season, with over 760 attacks recorded in October. pic.twitter.com/cu3g8XfMaH

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 9, 2025

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) said it was "appalled" by the surge in settler attacks.

"Journalists, both local and foreign, have proven to be a clear target as they document an unprecedented level of unchecked violence against Palestinians during this year's olive harvest," FPA said. "Israeli forces routinely harass and intimidate journalists, in some cases detaining them and threatening them with deportation. This is all part of a deepening climate of hostility toward the media by Israeli authorities."

Palestinian human rights activist Ihab Hassan said Tuesday on social media: "Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank is state-backed terrorism. Armed, funded, and protected by the Israeli government and army. The world must stop watching in silence. Sanction the Israeli government that enables and sponsors the settler terrorism."

Mohammed Hijaz, a West Bank olive farmer, told NPR Monday: "We want to live in peace. We don't want this war, and we want to be able to get to our land, and to have a better life than what we have right now."

Settler violence has surged as the world's attention was focused on Israel's genocidal assault and siege on Gaza, which has left more than 249,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

During that period, OCHA says Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including at least 213 children and 20 women—among them a 78-year-old who died after being denied medical care for a heart attack suffered during an IDF raid northwest of Ramallah last week.

The Trump administration—which supports Israel with billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic cover—has lifted limited sanctions imposed during the tenure of former President Joe Biden against the most extreme settlers, some of whom have been slapped with sanctions by other countries.

This, even as President Donald Trump and his administration publicly oppose Israeli moves to steal and colonize more and more of the West Bank, which has been under illegal occupation since 1967.

"The systematic escalation forms part of a broader effort to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank by depopulating it and expanding the territorial and operational influence of settlements," the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement Sunday.

"This includes turning settlers into practical extensions of the army in attacks and land seizure operations, while imposing new patterns of field control that entrench separation and isolation between Palestinian communities, undermining any possibility of establishing a contiguous or independent Palestinian entity," the group added.

In a recent interview with ITV News' Peter Smith, Daniella Weiss, an extremist settler leader who advocates the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from not only the West Bank but also Gaza, denied that Israelis are attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss tries to claim that "there is no settler violence" against Palestinians.

In response, ITV News' Peter Smith pulls out his phone and plays a video of a recent attack on a grandmother in the West Bank.

Watch her reaction: pic.twitter.com/2o2FWCDQOu

— Decensored News (@decensorednews) November 1, 2025

When asked by Smith who supports plans by Israel's far-right to annex the West Bank given their illegality under international law and even opposition from the Trump administration, Weiss—who is under British and Canadian sanctions—replied, "Our sovereignty's here anyway, 'cause we got it from God."

Asked if her understanding of "God's plan" includes divine endorsement of violence to force Palestinians from their lands, Weiss rejected the premise of the question and refused to view footage of settlers attacking an elderly Palestinian woman.

"There is violence against settlers," she insisted, "there is no settler violence."

The Media's Responsibility in Genocide

US To Build $500 Million Military Base in Israel on the Gaza Border

The US is planning to build a large military base in Israel on the Gaza border, according to a joint report from the Israeli investigative outlet Shomrim and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report said that the construction of the base would cost about $500 million and would be designed to house thousands of US and international troops tasked with maintaining the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The US has already established a military outpost in southern Israel to oversee the ceasefire, known as the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), but the construction of such a large base would mark a significant escalation of the US military presence. It would also increase the US involvement in Gaza, where Israel is regularly carrying out attacks and killing Palestinians despite the truce deal.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of building such a base,” an Israeli security official told Shomrim. “Since the Six-Day War, Israel has sought to minimize international involvement in the territories. The establishment of an American base on Israeli soil shows just how determined Washington is to be involved in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Max Blumenthal: Levin & Shapiro UNLEASH on Tucker Carlson - Middle East ERUPTS

Kiev Crisis; Zelensky Corruption Probe Target; Pokrovsk Troops Surrender; Zaporozhye Panic; Kupiansk

UK pauses intelligence-sharing with US on suspected drug vessels in Caribbean

Britain has suspended the sharing of intelligence with the US on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean amid concerns information supplied may be used to engage in lethal military strikes by American forces.

Such a decision – a rare rupture between the normally close military allies – would indicate that the UK does not believe the Trump administration’s controversial practice of sinking boats allegedly used by drug traffickers is legal.

The UK, which retains oversight on several island territories in the Caribbean, has long shared intelligence with the US about the movements of suspect vessels travelling from Latin America, so they can be seized by the US Coast Guard.

But, CNN, which first reported the story, said that British intelligence-sharing relating to possible drug-related shipping had been paused shortly after the US began a campaign of lethal strikes in September.

Pentagon’s largest warship enters Latin American waters as US tensions with Venezuela rise

The US navy has announced that the USS Gerald R Ford, regarded as the world’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, has entered the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean.

The deployment of the ship and the strike group it leads – which includes dozens of aircraft and destroyer ships – had been announced nearly three weeks ago, and its arrival marks an escalation in the military buildup between the US and Venezuela.

The regime of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, meanwhile, announced what it called a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces, as well as civilian militia, to counter the US naval presence off its coast. ...

On Sunday, at the close of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) summit in Colombia, a joint declaration signed by 58 of the 60 nations present rejected “the use or threat of use of force and any action not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations” – without making any direct reference to the US.

Venezuela and Nicaragua were the only countries not to sign the declaration, but Maduro’s regime had reportedly expected a stronger condemnation of the US.

Max Blumenthal CALLS OUT Kash Patel

California police intervene as ICE agent in plain clothes points gun at woman

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent briefly held at gunpoint a woman whom he claimed was following him, prompting a southern California police officer to intervene, authorities said.

The police department in Fullerton, a city in Orange county almost 30 miles (48km) from Los Angeles, said that on Sunday one of its officers had just finished taking an incarcerated person to a county jail when he saw two vehicles stopped in an intersection in Santa Ana.

The officer stopped when he saw a man exit one of the vehicles and point a firearm at the other driver, the agency said in a statement. He did not initially know the identity of the armed man, who was dressed in plain clothes and soon provided credentials showing he was an ICE agent.

Video of the incident surfaced online appearing to show the police officer “assisting” the ICE agent, and the department sought to clarify its role in a press release. In footage of the incident, a man in sunglasses and a green shirt can be seen standing in the middle of an intersection, pointing a gun at a driver when an officer pulls up.

“What are you doing?” the woman being held at gunpoint asked in the video. “Are you for real right now? And now these cops are helping them … I’m just driving.” The agent said the woman had been following and filming him, the department said, and the officer informed him he could not assist if no crime had been committed. The woman soon left, followed by the officer, according to the statement.

BOMBSHELL EPSTEIN EMAILS CLAIM TRUMP KNEW EVERYTHING

US flight cancellations and delays to get worse even if shutdown ends

Air travelers should expect worsening cancellations and delays this week even if the US government shutdown ends, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rolled out deeper cuts to flights at 40 of the nation’s major airports Tuesday, officials said.

The FAA ordered domestic airlines last week to drop 4% of their flights at the airports in question, saying absences and signs of stress among traffic controllers made it imperative to act in the name of public safety. After already canceling more than 7,900 since Friday, the goal for cutting flights is set to rise to 6% on Tuesday – and again to 10% on Friday.

Monday saw airlines scrap over 2,300 flights and more than 1,000 flights set for takeoff Tuesday, all due to the restrictions. Though it was unclear exactly how many additional flights would need to be canceled Tuesday, with the average cancellation rate over the last several days already exceeding the FAA’s requirement, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. By about 5am ET Tuesday, more than 1,100 flights had been canceled, and more than 540 had been delayed.

The FAA on Monday had also expanded its flight restrictions, barring business jets and many private flights from using a dozen airports already under commercial flight limits.

Unpaid for more than a month, some air traffic controllers have begun calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs.

Economy BLEEDING 11K Jobs Per Week

Top House Democrats vow to oppose shutdown bill over healthcare funding

As House Republican leaders move to hold a vote on legislation to reopen the US government, top Democrats vowed on Tuesday to oppose the bill for not addressing their demand for more healthcare funding. Democrats have for weeks insisted that any measure to fund the government include an extension of tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, which were created under Joe Biden and due to expire at the end of the year, sending premiums for enrollees higher. ...

The Senate passed that legislation on Monday evening, and the House of Representatives is expected to vote on it on Wednesday afternoon. The House rules committee will consider the bill on Tuesday evening, setting the stage for it to come to the House floor on Wednesday.

Top House Democrats oppose it, with the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, calling it a “partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people. “It’s our expectation that the House will vote at some point tomorrow and House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries told CNN on Tuesday. ...

The Democratic opposition threatens to make for a tight vote for the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, who has kept the House out of session for more than 50 days in an attempt to pressure Senate Democrats into caving to the GOP’s demands. With a 219-member majority assuming full attendance, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes on the bill, and the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is likely to vote no.

But Democrats may have their own defectors. Maine’s Jared Golden, who last week announced he would not seek another term representing a district that voted for Trump last year, was the only Democrat in September to vote for a Republican funding bill that did not extend the tax credit. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whose Washington state district is similarly friendly to the president, also expressed her support for that bill.

“They’re Posing As ICE Agents To COMMIT CRIMES!”

US supreme court extends Trump pause on $4bn in food aid benefits

Millions of Americans grappling with food insecurity will face more uncertainty this week after the US supreme court enabled the Trump administration to continue withholding funds for food stamps.

In an administrative stay issued on Tuesday, the highest court upheld the administration’s request to extend a pause on a federal judge’s ruling that would have required $4bn in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Snap, the food aid relied on by 42 million people, to be distributed. The funding freeze has been given two additional days, and will now remain in place until midnight on Thursday.

With the House planning to vote Wednesday on a package that could spell the end to the longest government shutdown in US history, the administration has dug its heels in on fully funding the essential food program, insisting the funds will only be cleared when Congress comes to a compromise.

“The only way to end this crisis – which the executive is adamant to end – is for Congress to reopen the government,” solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in the Trump administration’s filing.

Trump DRAGGED By HIS OWN BASE For DISASTROUS Fox News Interview

Ro Khanna on Senate Shutdown Deal, Why Schumer Should Step Down & Epstein Files

the evening greens

Removing CO2 from atmosphere vital to avoid catastrophic tipping points, leading scientist says

Removing carbon from the atmosphere will be necessary to avoid catastrophic tipping points, one of the world’s leading scientists has warned, as even in the best-case scenario the world will heat by about 1.7C. Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who is one of the chief scientific advisers to the UN and the Cop30 presidency, said 10bn tonnes of carbon dioxide needed to be removed from the air every year even to limit global heating to 1.7C (3.1F) above preindustrial levels.

To achieve this through technological means, such as direct air capture, would require the construction of the world’s second biggest industry, after oil and gas, and require expenditures of about a trillion dollars a year, scientists said. It would need to be done alongside much more drastic emissions cuts and could also have unintended consequences. Rockström was among several leading climate experts who spoke at a first public event for the Science Council, which was set up as an advisory body by the Belém Cop30 presidency.

In the next five to 10 years, they said the world would overshoot the 1.5C target of the Paris agreement. This already happened temporarily in 2024, but UN scientists do not consider the goal breached until the trend is confirmed over an average of 10 years combined with forecasts of the following 10 years, said Thelma Krug, the coordinator of the council.

Another member, Chris Field of Stanford University, said that despite the overshoot, the world should retain the 1.5C target because the longer and higher the world remains beyond that, the greater the risk of more dangerous tipping points in the Antarctic, Greenland, ocean circulation and the Amazon rainforest. It is thought that many coral reef systems will already have passed that point of no return at 1.5C of heating.

Tim Lenton, a tipping point expert at the University of Exeter, outlined the range of risks that are already close. Still greater dangers lie ahead, he warned, particularly if there is a collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation system of ocean currents.. “This would trigger other tipping points,” Lenton said. “We must do everything we can to prevent this.”

California governor calls Trump ‘an invasive species’ at Cop30 climate talks

California governor Gavin Newsom has said Donald Trump is an “invasive species” whose dismissal of the climate crisis is an “abomination”, in a fiery attack at the UN climate talks in Brazil – from which Trump and his administration have been completely absent. Newsom is the most senior American politician at the Cop30 summit in Belém, after Trump took the unprecedented step of not sending a delegation to the talks. Newsom sought to fill the notable void of official US activity by lambasting the president for tearing up climate policies and pushing for burning more of the fossil fuels that have caused dangerous global heating.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Trump has drawn up plans to open up the coast of California for oil and gas drilling, a move that Newsom said would happen “over my dead body, full stop. He said he wants to open up the coast of California, but he doesn’t want oil-drilling rigs off the coast of Florida, not across the street from Mar-a-Lago. He’s silent on that. But it’s not going to happen. It’s dead on arrival.”

Accusing Trump of an assault upon the climate and on democracy, Newsom said of the president: “He’s an invasive species, he’s a wrecking-ball president. He’s trying to roll back progress of the last century. He’s trying to recreate the 19th century. He’s doubling down on stupid.” ... Newsom said Trump’s rolling back of climate policies and removing the US from the Paris climate agreement is “an abomination, it’s a disgrace” and added this would benefit China, which is dominating the world in the manufacture and deployment of clean energy such as solar and wind.

“You know who is cheering, who is singing his praises? President Xi of China,” Newsom said. “They are sitting back and dominating supply chains, because they understand the great opportunity of clean energy.”