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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Canned Heat

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rock band Canned Heat. Enjoy!

^{Canned Heat - Woodstock Boogie}

"The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!"

-- Tennessee Williams

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News and Opinion

Democrats Aren’t Resisting Trump’s Iran War Because They Secretly Support It

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US has been gathering the most air power seen in the middle east since the Iraq invasion in 2003.

CNN says the US military is prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend.

A Trump advisor has reportedly told Axios that “The boss is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks.”

The US is by every indication headed straight toward war with Iran, and Trump’s ostensible opposition has conspicuously little to say about it. We’re seeing some pushback from House Democrats like Ro Khanna, but party leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are completely missing from the scene on this issue of unparalleled urgency.

I asked Schumer and Jeffries' offices whether they support or oppose Trump striking Iran, and whether they consider escalation into a broader regional war an acceptable risk. Silence so far.

— aída chávez (@aidachavez) February 19, 2026

Democratic Party leaders are doing nothing to oppose Trump’s war plans for Iran because they support those plans. They just don’t want to be the ones pulling the trigger.

When the attack begins they’ll do the same thing they did with Venezuela: publicly finger-wag about rules and protocol while providing no meaningful resistance and privately being glad the empire took out another unauthorized leader.

Democratic Party empire managers love Trump. They love having a bad cop who’s willing to get his hands dirty and slit the throats that need slitting while they sit back looking pretty and fundraise off his depravity.

Democrats hate having to be the bad guy. They hated trying to come up with excuses for why it was fine for Biden to aggressively back a live-streamed genocide in Gaza, and they were relieved to finally hand off that PR nightmare to Trump. They wanted to lose in 2024, and they were glad when they did.

Now they get to just coast along and let Trump take the blame for all the imperial depravity.

On Wednesday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner told MS NOW’s Katy Tur that “I think it’s appropriate that the president has all the options on the table” with regard to war with Iran, complaining only that Trump was too incompetent to strike last month when Iranian domestic turmoil was at its peak.

Warner said that “seeing regime change in Iran would make sense” and made it clear that he would like to see the Iranian government removed, with his only criticism being that Trump was going about obtaining it in a clumsy and impolite way.

“First of all, remember the president said in our previous bombing that we had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program,” Warner said. “While clearly our military did an exquisite job, we did not obliterate Iran’s nuclear program, number one. Number two, if the president is calling for regime change in Iran — and Iran is an awful regime — but he should make the case to the American public and to the world of how we’re going to go about doing that.”

This is such a perfect example of the Democratic Party’s relationship with all of Trump’s most depraved agendas. Here’s this monstrous warmonger, poised to unleash violence in the middle east of potentially devastating consequence, and all Warner can do is hem and haw about proper war etiquette and criticize the president for failing to drop enough bombs on Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

The United States has two right wing war parties: the polite one and the rude one. No party or faction which advances peace and human interests is allowed to flourish at the heart of the empire.

Trump is responsible for the war crimes of his administration, and he belongs in a cell in The Hague. But these Republican swamp monsters wouldn’t be able to do the damage they do without the assistance of the Democratic Party.

Alastair Crooke: Trump’s Final Gamble: Iran Dares to Strike Back

Iran deal prospects will be clear within 10 days, Trump says as military buildup grows

Donald Trump has said it will be clear within “probably 10 days” whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as the US military buildup in the Middle East intensifies with the impending arrival of a second carrier strike group. The US president, speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington DC, insisted Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and emphasised that “bad things will happen” if the country continued “to threaten regional stability”.

Giving a possible timeline, Trump said: “Maybe we’re going to make a deal, but you’re going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days,” as the US waits for Iran to respond after talks between the two on Tuesday. The White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Iranian officials in Geneva to discuss Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, set back but not eliminated after US and Israeli bombing during the 12-day war last June.

After the diplomatic meeting, Iran promised to respond within two weeks to US demands that it abandon enrichment altogether in return for sanctions relief – roughly consistent with Trump’s mooted timeline. However, last summer Trump gave himself two weeks to decide whether he would bomb Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow, only to strike it with B-2 stealth bombers within a few days.

Experts say there are already sufficient US military assets in the Middle East to begin an aerial bombing campaign against Iran, potentially in conjunction with Israel, though it is less clear what this would achieve.

LOCKED into a conflict with NO reverse gear

Trump changed mind on Chagos deal ‘after UK blocked use of Diego Garcia for Iran strikes’

Donald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told. In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

In Trump’s post on his own Truth Social site he linked the deal with US military strikes against Iran in connection with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, which are believed to be imminent. He wrote: “Should Iran decide not to make a Deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime.”

A pre-emptive strike on Iran would be unlikely to be in line with the UK’s interpretation of international law. US bases in the UK, like Fairford in Gloucestershire, the home for US B-2 bombers in Europe, are only used for military operations if the UK government agrees and they are considered legal. UK government sources said this was viewed as the reason for Trump to again turn against the Chagos plan.

"Bad Things" to Happen if U.S. Strikes IRAN /Lt Col Daniel Davis & Jeremy Scahill

Dozens of Palestinian journalists beaten, starved or raped

Almost 60 Palestinian journalists detained in Israeli prisons since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack have been beaten, starved and subjected to sexual violence, including rape, a report alleges. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reviewed dozens of testimonies, photographs and medical records documenting what it describes as serious abuses by Israeli soldiers and prison guards against Palestinian reporters. The report draws on in-depth interviews from 59 Palestinian journalists. Of those interviewed, 58 reported being subjected to what they described as torture while in Israeli custody. “While conditions varied at different facilities, the methods those interviewed recounted – physical assaults, forced stress positions, sensory deprivation, sexual violence, and medical neglect – were strikingly consistent,” the report states.

The Israeli prison service and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have both strongly rejected the allegations.

Journalist Sami al-Sai, who has reported for the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera Mubasher and the local broadcaster Al-Fajer TV, said he was taken to a small cell in Megiddo prison, and soldiers removed his trousers and underwear, and penetrated him with batons and other objects. “I did not speak to anyone inside the prison about what happened, except for two senior detainees who have been imprisoned for 25 years,” Sai said.

In December 2025, German journalist Anne Liedtke, detained onboard a Gaza-bound flotilla, alleged Israeli soldiers raped her while in custody. Italian journalist Vincenzo Fullone and Australian activist Surya McEwen made similar accusations. Shadi Abu Sido, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza who works for Palestine Today, was released after 20 months in detention at Sde Teiman last October. He had been seized by Israeli forces at al-Shifa hospital on 18 March 2024, and said he “was shackled, blindfolded, and forced through a corridor of soldiers who beat him with batons and kicks”. He later learned he had a broken rib.

At Ofer prison, radio journalist Mohammad al-Atrash described a coordinated mass assault in November 2023 involving dozens of prisoners, that he and other detainees called “a Shin Bet party” or a “Ben-Gvir party” (named after Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir). Al-Atrash stated that “trained dogs were ordered to attack the detainees, and metal instruments were used to create long-lasting bleeding and scars”. Osama al-Sayed, a report from Al-Aqsa TV, recounted the intermittent use of electroshocking and pepper spray between beatings, which took place shortly after a visit to the prison by Ben-Gvir.

Eleven Palestinian journalists cited the use of a torture method known as strappado, or what the Palestinian journalists termed “ghost hanging”, in which a person is suspended by their arms, bound behind the back, and then pulled upward. Fifty-five of the 59 journalists interviewed reported extreme hunger or malnutrition. Photographs shared with the Guardian by the CPJ show the journalists before and after their detention, showing visibly gaunt and physically diminished men. The CPJ calculated an average weight loss of 23.5kg (52 pounds) among the group by comparing journalists’ reported weight before and after detention.

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern - Special Guest: John Kiriakou

Troops for Gaza and money top agenda as Trump’s Board of Peace meets

The US has proposed commanding a multinational force in postwar Gaza with troops from Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco, as Donald Trump unveiled his ad-hoc Board of Peace in Washington to heavy international scrutiny. The US plan would require the full disarmament of Hamas and support from Israel, which has tempered expectations that the Trump-friendly committee stacked with autocrats and rightwing allies will be able to deliver on the vision of ending the conflict and rebuilding Gaza as a “riviera”.

That did not stop the board from proposing a huge peacekeeping and reconstruction mission in Gaza at a madcap inaugural summit where the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, mooted a Trump peace prize and the head of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, donned a red USA cap before unveiling a partnership with the $1bn-a-seat committee. ...

Maj Gen Jasper Jeffers III, the US officer appointed to command the future international stabilisation force (ISF), said the board planned to deploy 20,000 soldiers in five different sectors of Gaza, beginning with Rafah. He said its long-term objective was to deploy 12,000 police, with Egypt and Jordan committing to training officers in the future. Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, said his country was ready to commit as many as 8,000 troops “or more if necessary”.

The Guardian has revealed that the Trump administration plans to build a 5,000-person military base over more than 350 acres in Gaza, , according tothe board’s contracting records.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure from rightwing coalition allies to maintain a hardline position on Gaza, did not attend. His foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, emphasised Israel’s security concerns and said the plan included the “disarmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip and deradicalisation of Palestinian society”. He said: “It’s the first plan to address the root of the problem.”

Trump Tariffs BLOCKED In SCOTUS Rebuke

Trump defends tariffs in pre-midterms appearance in battleground Georgia

Donald Trump forcefully defended his tariffs on Thursday, claiming “tariffs are my favorite word in the dictionary” and promoting their use to empower American manufacturing at an event in north-west Georgia. “Without tariffs, this country would be in so much trouble right now,” Trump said during his remarks at Coosa Steel Corporation, a steel-processing and distribution firm in Rome, Georgia.

He lamented having to wait for the US supreme court’s decision on the constitutionality of his trade policy, attributing the lawsuit to “China-oriented” people and Canadian partisans. “I’m waiting for a decision from the supreme court,” he said, complaining about having to “justify this, because people come from other countries and have ripped us off for 50 years”.

Trump’s visit to Georgia, a key battleground state in this year’s midterm elections, was ostensibly to promote his economy amid lagging approval numbers. But Trump spent a large portion of his remarks focused on his repeated, unverified claims of voter fraud.

Trump unloaded on Democratic unwillingness to back the Save America Act, which would curtail voting by mail, require voters to present photo ID at the ballot box and require proof of citizenship when registering. The legislation passed in the House last week, but is unlikely to move in the Senate without lawmakers first ending the filibuster.

Trump chose contested territory for his visit Thursday: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district. The former US representative’s resignation in January left a seat open with Republicans holding a razor-thin majority in the House. Early voting is under way in the 10 March election, which appears likely to result in an April runoff between the top two candidates.

White House grants ICE power to detain refugees for aggressive ‘rescreening’

The Trump administration is moving to arrest thousands of people already legally admitted to the US as refugees and detain them indefinitely for aggressive “rescreening”, a report published on Thursday said.

Under the new policy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that federal immigration officers can and should arrest anyone who has not yet obtained the right to permanent residence, a so-called green card, and subject them to interviews to assess their refugee claims while they are in custody, as first reported by the Washington Post.

The memo reverses a 2010 Obama administration policy that said failure to apply for a green card within a year of admission to the US was insufficient basis for such an arrest or detention, the newspaper reported. The DHS move is pertinent to an ongoing case in Minneapolis in which a federal judge last month blocked the Trump administration from further arrests of settled refugees in Minnesota, and ordered the release of at least 100 more arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Officials said “Operation Parris” (post-admission refugee reverification and integrity strengthening), which targeted about 5,600 refugees in Minnesota who had not yet become permanent residents, was “a sweeping initiative re-examining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims”. In his order, district court judge John Tunheim, who is scheduled to hear further arguments on Thursday in the class-action lawsuit brought by refugee groups, lambasted the detentions. “Refugees have a legal right to be in the United States, a right to work, a right to live peacefully,” he wrote.

Army veteran sues federal government after ICE detains him for three days

An army veteran detained by federal immigration agents in southern California during his work commute in July has filed a lawsuit against the federal government. According to the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday with the help of the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice, George Retes was held in a detention center for three days without access to his family, an attorney, or any information about the charges against him, in what the suit argues was an unconstitutional detention.

Retes, a 26-year-old US citizen, was arrested while on his way to his job as a security guard at a farm in Ventura county, where a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents was underway on 10 July. After Retes attempted to explain to agents blocking the roadway that he needed to get through to work, agents shattered his car window, removed him from the vehicle, and detained Retes without checking his identification. He was later held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles without a clear explanation of his detainment.

“George’s rights were violated, and he is filing this lawsuit, not only to protect his own rights, but to have the rights of others be protected too,” Andrew Wimer, director of media relations at the Institute for Justice, told the Guardian. “What happened to George is clearly wrong. No one can be held for three days without being told what they’ve done wrong, without being charged with a crime. Americans deserve justice when their rights have been violated.”

In an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, Retes said he missed his daughter’s third birthday party. “Then I was just let go, with no charges, no explanation for why and no apology,” he added. The lawsuit was filed against the United States government, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the detention center where Retes was held, ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the US navy, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

King says ‘law must take its course’ after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest

King Charles has insisted “the law must take its course” after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Police took him to Aylsham police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning for questioning about allegations he shared confidential material with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Thames Valley police said he was released under investigation, and searches at a property in Norfolk, Andrew’s home on the Sandringham estate, had concluded. Searches at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, his former address, were continuing.

On an extraordinary day that could have profound effects for the royal family, unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers from the Thames Valley force were seen at Mountbatten-Windsor’s residence at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate at about 8am. They searched the Norfolk property as well as his former home in the Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park.

Hours later Charles gave his unqualified backing to the police investigation into his brother, who was arrested on his 66th birthday. The king said the “law must take its course”.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on US law enforcement radar 15 years before UK arrest

While Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest by British police on Thursday came after years of uproar over his association with Jeffrey Epstein, documents show he had been on the radar of US law enforcement for nearly 15 years. Mountbatten-Windsor’s name came up during a 2011 FBI inquiry into Epstein, investigative documents recently disclosed by the justice department reveal. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied all allegations of misconduct related to Epstein.

In March of that year, agents traveled to Australia after an Epstein victim contacted federal prosecutors in south Florida, saying she had “information pertinent” to the late financier and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The victim’s name is redacted from several documents chronicling the interview, but details closely track the public and legal claims made by Virginia Giuffre, a well-known Epstein accuser who died by suicide last year. Giuffre said Epstein abused her and that he and Maxwell trafficked her to other men, including Mountbatten-Windsor. ...

Following Epstein’s arrest, Mountbatten-Windsor appeared to feature more prominently in law enforcement’s inquiries into Epstein, both in private Department of Justice communication and public statements. An internal DoJ memo dated 19 December 2019 revealed prosecutors were interested in speaking to him. Geoffrey Berman, who was the Manhattan US attorney overseeing Epstein’s prosecution, repeatedly criticized Mountbatten-Windsor for alleged unwillingness to help their investigation. Berman said on 27 January 2020 Mountbatten-Windsor had provided “zero” cooperation in their Epstein investigation despite his promises to help.

“Contrary to Prince Andrew’s very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epstein’s co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation and our office is considering its options,” Berman similarly said on 9 March 2020.

Epstein cultivated relationship with CBP officer, causing US investigation

Federal investigators examined Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer who worked at the St Thomas airport to which Epstein regularly flew on his private planes before traveling by boat or helicopter to his private island, newly released documents reveal.

As part of that investigation, which did not result in any charges, investigators also issued subpoenas related to three additional CBP officers working at the Cyril E King airport (STT) on St Thomas, documents show. The Guardian also identified two other CBP officers on St Thomas and in Florida who were in contact with Epstein, based on emails and text messages between Epstein, his staff and the officers. It does not appear the FBI ever investigated those two officers.

The FBI in New York opened a preliminary investigation in October 2019 after receiving a report that a long-serving CBP agricultural inspector “had ongoing friendship with Mr Epstein … while working for CBP Pre-Clearance in Saint Thomas for over 7 years”. The email establishing the investigation into the agricultural inspector, Timothy “Bill” Routch, is among the millions of files related to Epstein’s crimes that were released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) this month. Federal authorities interviewed Epstein’s longtime pilot about the convicted sex offender’s contacts with CBP agents.

US Customs and Border Protection is the federal law enforcement agency tasked with overseeing the entrance of people and goods through US ports of entry, including airports. It claims to be “uniquely situated to deter and disrupt human trafficking”, and is one of the four primary US agencies tasked with enforcing federal anti-trafficking law.

No CBP officer was ever charged for crimes related to Epstein, and the Guardian has not seen any evidence to suggest that CBP officers had direct knowledge or involvement in Epstein’s crimes. The FBI interviewed Routch and subpoenaed credit reports about him and three other CBP officers, but it is not clear whether the investigation went any further. The release of the government’s investigative files on Epstein has been delayed, redactions are inconsistent, and it is not clear how many more files will be made public.

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Trump’s bid to name Penn Station after himself looks like a presidential shakedown

As a real estate developer, Donald Trump built his empire on ostentatious displays of wealth, substantial tax breaks – and lots of free publicity. As president, he has deployed the power of the state to expand his personal brand, adding his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the US Institute of Peace, a class of new navy warships, and even investment accounts for millions of children.

Trump is now eyeing yet more grandiose targets in his self-aggrandizement spree. He wants Congress to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles international airport in his honor. But there’s a catch: Trump reportedly told Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, that he would unfreeze billions of dollars in federal funding for a major infrastructure project in the north-east – if Schumer supported renaming the two sites.

The president seemingly threatened to hold federal funding, which had already been approved by Congress, hostage in his relentless campaign of self-promotion. Even by the standards that Trump set after a year back in the White House, when he has systematically dismantled anti-corruption laws built over decades and used the presidency to enrich himself and his family, trading naming rights as a political favor is a new low. Trump appears to have tried to leverage a $16bn transportation project to build a rail tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting New York and New Jersey, for his personal glorification. ...

After reports of the quid pro quo surfaced this month, Trump said it was Schumer who had suggested renaming Penn Station after the president – a claim that the New York Democrat quickly denied as an “absolute lie”. On 10 February, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, contradicted Trump’s account when she responded to a question about whether her boss had asked Schumer for help renaming the train station and airport. “About the renaming, why not? It was something the president floated in his conversation with Chuck Schumer,” Leavitt said.

For now, Trump has failed to use the cudgel of federal funding to expand his presidential branding opportunity. But he’s still eager to satiate his impulse as a real estate mogul, trying to use his second term to slap his name on as many monuments, buildings and federal projects as possible. And Republicans in Congress are keen to flatter their leader by plastering his moniker on a range of landmarks. One Republican Congress member last year proposed renaming Dulles airport as “Donald J. Trump International Airport”, while another introduced a bill requiring the National Park Service to add Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore, the monument in South Dakota which features sculptures of the US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

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Trump order seeks to protect weedkiller at center of barrage of lawsuits

Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some bodies and studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation. The president’s move, which also seeks to provide “immunity” for makers of the herbicides, was strongly criticized by health and environmental advocates including some figures in the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) coalition.

The order also protects domestic production of phosphorus, which is used in making glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals, as well as a range of other products, including some in military defense. Ensuring “robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security”, the order states. The 18 February order cites authority under the Defense Production Act and instructs US Department of Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins to issue orders and regulations as “may be necessary to implement this order”.

The White House said “the threat of reduced or ceased production” of phosphorous and glyphosate herbicides “gravely endangers national security and defense, which includes food-supply security”. Neither the executive order nor the fact sheet the White House put out accompanying the order discloses that glyphosate-based herbicides have been linked to an array of cancers and other health problems in multiple independent research studies and by cancer experts of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The move by the White House comes as Roundup maker Bayer is facing tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging the company’s glyphosate herbicides cause cancer and the company failed to warn farmers and other users of the risks. The company, which inherited the litigation when it bought Monsanto in 2018, has already paid out billions of dollars in settlements and jury verdicts and said this week it was proposing to pay $7.25bn in a class action settlement to try to head off future lawsuits. Bayer has said that if it cannot find relief from the litigation it may stop making glyphosate herbicides for the US agricultural market.

“This executive order reads like it was drafted in a chemical company boardroom,” said Vani Hari, a food activist, author and one of the grass roots leaders of the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) coalition. “Calling it ‘national defense’ while expanding protections for toxic products is a dangerous misdirection. Real national security is protecting American families, farmers, and children.”

‘A Big F*ck You to Big Tech’: New Jersey Residents Defeat AI Data Center

The New Brunswick, New Jersey City Council voted Wednesday to cancel plans to construct an artificial intelligence data center and instead build a new public park where the 27,000-square foot facility would have gone.

Artificial intelligence data centers—which house the servers and other infrastructure needed to train and power AI models—have major environmental and climate impacts, as they consume massive amounts of electricity and water, as well as rare earth metals and other resources.

According to New Brunswick Patch, hundreds of people packed into Wednesday evening’s city hall meeting to voice concerns that the proposed data center would send their electricity and water bills skyrocketing, and that the facility would harm the environment.

“Many people did not want this in their neighborhood,” New Brunswick NAACP president Bruce Morgan said during the council meeting. “We don’t want these kinds of centers that’s going to take resources from the community.”

The site of the nixed data center, 100 Jersey Avenue, is already slated for development including 600 new apartments—10% of which will be affordable housing units—and warehouses for startups and other small businesses. Now, thanks to Wednesday’s vote, a park is on the agenda too.

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Also of Interest

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

The Incremental Loss of Freedom

Genocide & Brown Shirts Are Being Normalized

Iran War Watch: Why Trump Looks Primed to Proceed Despite High Odds of US Failure

Peace Campaigners Demand Congress Stop Trump From Waging ‘Devastating’ War on Iran

The Hawks Are Lying Us Into Yet Another Middle Eastern War

U.S. – Israel Ready To Strike At Iran

South Korean Ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol sentenced to life in prison for leading insurrection

‘We’re no longer attracting top talent’: the brain drain killing American science

This 18-year-old is protecting his California farm community – and his own mother – from ICE

Tucker Carlson Confronts Mike Huckabee on America’s Toxic Relationship With Israel

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A Little Night Music

Canned Heat - Rollin’ And Tumblin’

Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker – Whiskey And Wimmen

Canned Heat - Let's Work Together

Canned Heat – Big Fat

Canned Heat - Big Road Blues

Canned Heat – Dust My Broom

Canned Heat - Rockin' With The King

Canned Heat - So Sad The World's In A Tangle

Canned Heat – Time Was

Canned Heat – Turpentine Moan

Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chillen No. 2

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