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The Evening Blues - 11-26-25

Submitted by joe shikspack on Wed, 11/26/2025 - 4:27pm

eb1pt12

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

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer Etta James. Enjoy!

^{Etta James – Something's Gotta Hold On Me}

“No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.”

-- Benjamin Disraeli

News and Opinion

Worth a full read:

By The People? For the People?

The simplest measure of a government’s legitimacy is whether or not it works for the benefit of the people. Democrats also believe the government should be selected by the people.

America does not meet either criterion at this time. Yes, there are elections, but the duopoly means that voters tend to choose from a small slate, pre-selected by others. The most visible occasion of this was when Obama had every Democratic presidential nominee candidate drop out so that Biden could defeat Bernie Sanders. Year in, year out, most of the candidates put up for election are those chosen by party insiders.

This is not always true, of course. It is less true on the Republican side, where primarying incumbents often works and where a vocal but grassroots minority does have significant power in choosing candidates. On the Democratic side it’s mostly true, but some candidates do slip thru: Mamdani for New York City mayor being the most recent example.

Still, overall, it’s questionable that Americans really choose their own government, and that’s true in most Western countries. In Romania, for example, the unacceptable candidate who was going to win was simply arrested and banned from running and there is a movement to make Germany’s AfD illegal. In Canada the party leaders simply refuse to allow pro-Palestine candidates, even those who are selected as candidate by their riding, to run.

The more accurate view is that political parties in most ostensibly democratic countries are political oligarchies. How much this is true varies. First past the post system tend to have very strong oligopolies, while proportional representation countries allow more flexibility.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : No One Can Trust Netanyahu

Israel letting in only one-third of agreed aid trucks under truce

Israel is allowing no more than 200 aid trucks into Gaza per day out of the 600 agreed upon under a ceasefire deal with Israel, local authorities have said.

Ismail Al-Thawabteh, who heads Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu on Monday that Israel allows only “less than one-third” of the aid supplies needed for Gaza’s 2.4 million population. “Israel is managing hunger in Gaza deliberately, slowly, and cumulatively,” he said, warning that malnutrition levels among Gaza’s population have exceeded 90 percent.

Under the ceasefire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel on October 10, 600 trucks of aid were supposed to enter Gaza daily. Israel, however, has not adhered to the agreement, launching almost daily attacks that have killed at least 342 Palestinians since October 10. ...

He urged mediators and ceasefire guarantors “to apply serious and effective pressure to compel the Israeli occupation to comply with what it signed and to stop these grave violations immediately.”

Weapons of Willpower: Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Trump's Gaza Plan

Israel Bars U.S. Surgeon From Entering Gaza to Help Thousands Despite Initial Approval

Israel is refusing to allow an American surgeon to enter the Gaza Strip to provide vital treatment to thousands of wounded patients, despite having initially granted him permission to do so. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who volunteers in conflict-zone hospitals around the world, possesses specialized expertise urgently needed in Gaza. Since the start of the war, he has visited the Strip twice, and on November 12, he was scheduled to enter again as part of a medical delegation organized by the international NGO MedGlobal.

After receiving preliminary approval from Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), he traveled from the United States to Jordan. But at midnight – just hours before the team was to leave Amman at 5 A.M. – COGAT notified the delegation that his entry had been denied. He has now been stranded in Jordan for roughly ten days.

Attorney Yotam Ben-Hillel, who represents Sidhwa, argues that Israel's refusal is endangering many wounded patients in the Strip. A significant share of the injured in Gaza have suffered abdominal trauma and undergone colostomy surgery. According to estimates, tens of thousands of patients – among them thousands of children – have received this procedure, and to recover, they need a reversal surgery to restore normal bowel function.

Sidhwa was expected to perform such operations in the coming days and to train medical teams at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza so that they could carry them out independently. He stresses that there is an urgent need to train local staff to perform the large number of surgeries required for patients to recover. Delays or mistakes in performing these procedures can lead to bowel obstructions, severe infections, and even death. ...

After returning from Gaza, he gave interviews to numerous media outlets describing what he had seen in Gaza's hospitals, wrote articles in newspapers and medical journals, and even appeared before the UN Security Council. International humanitarian officials believe this may be the reason his entry was blocked – Israel, they say, wants to signal to doctors and international personnel entering Gaza that they should avoid speaking publicly about their experiences.

Phil Giraldi : Israel First Policy Will Ruin the US

US revokes visa of former South African minister who initiated genocide case against Israel

The United States revoked the visa of South Africa's former international relations minister Naledi Pandor earlier this week, in what is being seen as the latest effort by Washington to punish Pretoria for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the charge of genocide.

The development, which Pandor announced on Thursday, comes just days before Johannesburg hosts the G20 Leaders' Summit - an event already marred by the US's decision to send a low-level delegation, instead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Pandor, who headed South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation between 2019 and 2024, and is widely credited for spearheading the country's case against Israel at the ICJ, told local media that she had received an email from the US Consulate stating that her visa had been cancelled with immediate effect.

Pandor told Middle East Eye she had no idea why her visa has been revoked but it appeared to stem from her work on Palestine. ... "There is a sort of malevaloence if one is not toeing the line when it comes to question of Palestine. We have seen actions taken against South Africa following the case at the ICJ," she added.

Sarah Leah Whitson on Israel, Gaza & Trump-MBS Meeting

Rebuilding ‘human-made abyss’ in Gaza will cost at least $70bn, UN says

Israel’s war in Gaza has created a “human-made abyss”, and reconstruction is likely to cost more than $70bn (£53bn) over several decades, the United Nations has said. The UN’s trade and development agency (Unctad) said in a report that Israel’s military operations had “significantly undermined every pillar of survival” and that the entire population of 2.3 million people faced “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”.

The report said Gaza’s economy had contracted by 87% over the course of 2023-2024, leaving its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at just $161, among the lowest globally. The report also found that “violence, accelerated settlement expansion and restrictions on worker mobility” hd “decimated the economy” in the West Bank.

“Plummeting revenues and the withholding of fiscal transfers by the Israeli government have severely constrained the Palestinian government’s ability to maintain essential public services and invest in recovery,” it said. “This comes at a critical time when massive spending is needed to rebuild shattered infrastructure and address worsening environmental and socioeconomic crises.”

The report found that the steepest economic contraction on record had wiped out decades of progress across the West Bank and Gaza. “By the end of 2024, Palestinian GDP fell back to its 2010 level while GDP per capita returned to that of 2003, erasing 22 years of development progress in less than two years,” it said. “Even with substantial aid, recovery to pre-October 2023 GDP levels could take decades.”

Laith Marouf: COUNTDOWN Begins: Hezbollah Prepares RESPONSE to Israel

Netanyahu’s 2024 Diary Reveals Frequent Meetings and Calls With Sen. Lindsey Graham

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2024 diary reveals that he spoke frequently with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was working at the time to ensure the US continued providing unconditional military aid to Israel to support its genocidal campaign in Gaza.

According to Haaretz, the diary, published by the Israeli non-profit Hatzlacha, shows that Netanyahu held seven meetings and nine phone calls with the South Carolina senator in 2024. What was discussed during the meetings and calls was not included in the diary, but one call, made on May 7, came one day before Graham grilled Biden administration officials at a Senate hearing about military aid to Israel.

At the time, the Biden administration had paused a bomb shipment to Israel over its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, though the US ultimately supported the offensive. “If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” Graham said at the hearing. “This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

In one meeting that was made public, Netanyahu praised Graham for his support of Israel. “We have no better friend, and I mean it, than Senator Lindsey Graham,” Netanyahu said when hosting Graham at his office in Jerusalem on May 29, 2024. At the time, Graham was also working against efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over his role in war crimes in Gaza.

Shocking LEAK Of Witkoff Call w/ Russia

Trump envoy reportedly told Kremlin official that Ukraine must cede land for peace deal

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told a senior Kremlin official last month that achieving peace in Ukraine would require Russia gaining control of Donetsk and potentially a separate territorial exchange, according to a recording of their conversation obtained by Bloomberg. In the 14 October phone call with Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy aide to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said he believed the land concessions were necessary all while advising Ushakov to congratulate Trump and frame discussions more optimistically.

“Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere,” Witkoff told Ushakov during the five-minute conversation, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. “But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here.” ...

The envoy also offered tactical guidance on how Putin should raise the subject with Trump, including suggestions about scheduling a Trump-Putin telephone conversation before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s White House visit later that week. Ushakov appeared to take some of the advice on board. Putin “will congratulate” and will say: “Mr Trump is a real peace man,” he said. ...

Putin said this month he believed the US plan could serve as the “basis for a final peaceful settlement”, though the Kremlin maintains it has not discussed the proposal in detail with Washington.

Moscow Says US Diplomacy In Chaos Witkoff Kushner To Moscow Failed UAE Meeting Media Leaks; Pokrovsk

US to send envoy to Moscow to discuss proposals to end Ukraine war

Donald Trump said he would send special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss developing proposals to end the Ukraine war, but despite White House optimism there was little sign of progress on core sticking points.

The US president said negotiations had left “only a few remaining points of disagreement” but there was no breakthrough on the issues of territorial control and security guarantees and he dampened expectations of immediate peace summits. “I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after a day of negotiations involving US, Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he would be willing to meet Donald Trump as soon as possible to discuss the final details of an agreement. Ukrainian officials said they were close to accepting the framework of a deal, but that some details could only be discussed at presidential level. However, Trump said he would instead dispatch Dan Driscoll, the US army secretary, to Ukraine for further discussions. The official, who has suddenly taken a central role in the peace negotiations, is expected in Kyiv later this week, according to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian officials had been working “on the text of the document” prepared in a previous round of talks in Geneva and said that “the principles in this document can be developed into deeper agreements”. But there was no suggestion that the revised US-Ukraine agreement discussed in Geneva on Sunday would be something to which Russia would agree.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Venezuela War Will Cost Trump His Presidency

Jair Bolsonaro ordered to start 27-year prison term for plotting Brazil coup

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq metre bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.

The far-right populist, 70, who governed Latin America’s largest democracy from 2019 until 2022, was handed the punishment in September after the supreme court found him guilty of leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power.

The plot – which involved a plan to assassinate Lula and his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin – foundered after military chiefs refused to take part and the court later convicted Bolsonaro and six accomplices of trying to “annihilate” Brazilian democracy and plunge the country back into dictatorship.

On Tuesday, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Bolsonaro should start serving his sentence after the case formally ended following a period for appeals. Bolsonaro has been living under house arrest since August and was taken into preventive custody on Saturday after unsuccessfully trying to cut off his electronic ankle tag with a soldering iron.

Bolsonaro’s six co-conspirators were also ordered to start their sentences.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : US Wars Without Morality

US justice department memo about boat strikes diverges from Trump narrative

The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration’s internal legal argument. The legal analysis rests on a premise – for which there is no immediate public evidence – that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.

As a result, according to the legal analysis, the strikes are targeting the cocaine, and the deaths of anyone on board should be treated as an enemy casualty or collateral damage if any civilians are killed, rather than murder. That line of reasoning, which forms the backbone of a classified justice department office of legal counsel (OLC) opinion, provides the clearest explanation to date how the US satisfied the conditions to use lethal force. But it marks a sharp departure from Donald Trump’s narrative to the public every time he has discussed the 21 strikes that have killed more than 80 people, which he has portrayed as an effort to stop overdose deaths.

A White House official responded that Trump has not been making a legal argument. Still, Trump’s remarks remain the only public reason for why the US is firing missiles – when the legal justification is in fact very different. And it would also be the first time the US has claimed – dubiously, and contrary to the widely held understanding – that the cartels are using cocaine proceeds to wage wars, rather than to make money. ...

But despite the plausible legal framework, the OLC opinion relies on a fact pattern about the cartels for which no public evidence appears to exist. The closest analogy is perhaps the Taliban and al-Qaida trafficking opium during the war on terror to finance its terrorist activities. But in that instance, it was clear their primary goal was to wage armed attacks against the US and Nato allies, and the opium financed their weapons. It is uncertain whether the same applies to drug cartels in Latin America.

REPORT: Jobs Losses SURGE, Consumer Confidence Plummets

Judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants

A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump’s administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by US immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond.

US district judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed.

Sykes ruled last week that the Trump administration’s policy adopted in July of denying bond hearings to migrants detained during domestic enforcement operations in the US was illegal, joining dozens of other federal judges. While those decisions involved individual migrants or small groups, Sykes on Tuesday extended her ruling nationwide. ...

The Trump administration has argued that individuals’ differing circumstances required the issue to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but Sykes said that being deprived of the right to a bond hearing was an injury common to the class.

Trump may have inadvertently issued mass pardon for 2020 voter fraud

Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say. The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.

But, the federal pardon could wind up having a big effect on people like Matthew Alan Laiss, who is accused of voting in both Pennsylvania and Florida in the 2020 election. According to a federal indictment handed down in September, Laiss moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in August of 2020 and voted first with a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania and then in person in Florida on election day. Both votes were for Trump, Laiss’s lawyers wrote in court documents. He has pleaded not guilty.

The case is still in its early stages. Last week, Laiss’s lawyers, public defenders Katrina Young and Elizabeth Toplin, argued that the charges should be thrown out because Trump had pardoned him. They argued that Trump’s 7 November pardon was sweeping. It applies to any US citizen for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official, in connection with the 2020 presidential election.” And while it lists a number of people the pardon specifically applies to, it also says the pardon is not limited to those named.

That language is so broad, lawyers for Laiss wrote, it also applies to their client. “When Mr Laiss cast two votes in the general election for President Trump for the office of president of the United States in Pennsylvania and Florida, he support[ed], vot[ed for] … [and] advoca[ted] for [a] slate or proposed slate of presidential electors … in connection with the 2020 presidential election,” they wrote. “By its plain language, the pardon extends to Mr Laiss, and his motion to dismiss should therefore be granted.”

That reading of the pardon’s text is believable, said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, who first wrote about the request Laiss’s lawyers were making. “Here you’ve got kind of a broad set of conduct and an undefined group of individuals who are protected,” Muller said in an interview. “It’s quite plausible to read this and suggest that anyone involved in voting for slates of presidential electors in 2020 has now been pardoned.”

Anti-Zionist PAC LAUNCHES To UNSEAT AIPAC Stooges - w/ Michael Rectenwald

the evening greens

Officials find source of leak in Olympic pipeline two weeks after first report

Investigators have identified the source of a leak in the Olympic pipeline two weeks after fuel was first spotted in a ditch near an Everett, Washington, blueberry farm. Oil and gas company BP, the operator of the pipeline, shared in a statement that it had determined the leak occurred in a 20in pipeline and not a neighboring 16in pipeline, allowing that pipeline to be restarted. ...

The news follows announcements by the Washington and Oregon governors, Bob Ferguson and Tina Kotek, respectively, declaring states of emergency due to the disruptions in fuel supplies. The Olympic pipeline carries gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products to both states, including 90% of Oregon’s transportation fuel and much of the Seattle-Tacoma international airport’s jet fuel.

The leak was first reported on 11 November between the Washington towns of Everett and Snohomish. The state department of ecology determined the leak consisted of a combination of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. BP shut off two pipelines that ran side by side in the Olympic pipeline system to determine the source of the leak, either a 16in or a 20in pipeline. ...

On Monday, BP reported that it had excavated “over 200 feet of pipeline” and expected to “continue overnight operations tonight”. By Tuesday morning, the company had found the source of the leak. ...

Repairs to the 20in pipeline come as Washington state’s ecology department has fined BP $3.8m for a 2023 gasoline spill from the Olympic pipeline. The Olympic pipeline has leaked at least 13 times since 1999, when a leak near Bellingham caused an explosion that killed a teenager and two younger children. According to the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Washington state-based non-profit, the pipeline has leaked three times in 2025.

US, Russia and Saudi Arabia create axis of obstruction as Cop30 sputters out

More than two decades ago, the US railed against the “axis of evil”. Now, after international climate talks spluttered to a meagre conclusion, the US finds itself grouped with unflattering company – an “axis of obstruction” that has stymied progress on the climate crisis. Donald Trump’s administration opted to not send anyone to the UN climate summit in Brazil that culminated over the weekend – a first for the US in 30 years of these annual gatherings and another representation of the president’s disdain for the climate crisis, which he has called a “hoax” and a “con job”.

But even without the administration touting “drill, baby, drill” at the grey conference center in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon river, 194 other countries were unable to bring down the curtain on the era of coal, oil and gas. The words “fossil fuel” were not mentioned in the agreement text after fierce opposition led by Saudi Arabia, which has previously been cajoled by the US to take a more moderate line at climate talks.

But even without the administration touting “drill, baby, drill” at the grey conference center in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon river, 194 other countries were unable to bring down the curtain on the era of coal, oil and gas. The words “fossil fuel” were not mentioned in the agreement text after fierce opposition led by Saudi Arabia, which has previously been cajoled by the US to take a more moderate line at climate talks.

The US can now be considered in the latter group, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Russia, according to Jacobs. “I think today we have witnessed what the three countries have agreed,” he said of Trump’s separate dealings with Saudi Arabia and Russia over the past week. “Geopolitically, this is the creation of a new axis of obstruction – actively promoting fossil fuels and opposed to climate action.” The US now finds itself ranged against a loose coalition of about 90 countries, including much of Europe, that demanded a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels – the root cause of the worsening climate crisis – in Belém.

US triples national park fee for non-residents, amid ‘new’ fee for Americans

The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday. Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.

According to a department press release, non-residents will be able to choose between purchasing a $250 annual pass or paying $100 per person “to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee”. In a video posted to his X account, interior secretary Doug Burgum said: “This year we’re making it easier and more affordable for every American to experience the beauty and freedom of our public lands.”

“Starting in 2026, United States residents will be able to purchase an annual interagency pass for just $80,” he added. The current, annual interagency America the Beautiful pass is already $80. ...

In his video, Burgum noted that plans to increase fees for international visitors were focused on conservation. “As Theodore Roosevelt once said, there can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country,” he said. Under Burgum and Trump’s leadership, the interior department has lost nearly a quarter of national parks staff, proposed billions of dollars in cuts to public lands, opened logging in national forests, defunded conservation organizations and proposed allowing oil and gas drilling off California’s coast.