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"Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions."

-- Mark Twain

News and Opinion

You Don’t Actually Need To Pick A Team

Thinking you need to choose a favorite empire manager is like thinking you need to choose a favorite Nazi.

You don’t have to pick a team.

You don’t have to side with Democrats because Trump is bad.

You don’t have to side with Trump because Democrats are bad.

You don’t have to give Trump “credit” for anything.

You don’t have to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

You don’t have to buy into narratives that Trump presents some dangerous new threat that other US presidents did not.

You don’t have to trust right wing media just because the liberal mainstream media are liars.

You don’t have to like Trump just because bad people don’t like him.

There’s this weird assumption that Americans are under some kind of moral obligation to take a side side either with Trump or with his pretend opposition in the Democratic Party, and it’s just silly nonsense. You don’t have to, and you should not.

The US empire is the single most murderous and corrupt power structure on this planet, by an extremely massive margin. Everyone at the upper echelon of empire management is the sort of person who is willing to facilitate the incomprehensible atrocities and abuses that are necessary for the continuation of that empire. Thinking you need to choose a favorite empire manager is like thinking you need to choose a favorite Nazi.

A lucid mind does not look at the turmoil of corruption and psychopathy of the Washington swamp and start calculating which of the vampiric slime beasts are their friend. A lucid mind looks at all the managers of the US-centralized power structure as part of the same enemy.

Sure the swamp monsters bicker and contend with one another along various fronts; you’ll see that under any power structure. That doesn’t mean they’re not all devoted to advancing the interests of an empire that feeds on human blood, and it certainly doesn’t mean they are your friend.

No US president will ever be your friend. No Washington politician, empire manager or oligarch will ever be your friend. Donald Trump is not your friend. Chuck Schumer is not your friend. Elon Musk is not your friend. Hakeem Jeffries is not your friend. Marco Rubio is not your friend. Bernie Sanders is not your friend. JD Vance is not your friend. AOC is not your friend. RFK Jr is not your friend. Elizabeth Warren is not your friend. Tulsi Gabbard is not your friend. Joe Biden is not your friend.

These people have some differences, but what they all have in common is that they have all knowingly made careers out of serving the interests of a globe-spanning empire that can only be maintained by nonstop tyranny, abuse, and murder. That one quality rules them out as anyone you should side with, sympathize with, or support. The only reason this isn’t immediately obvious to everyone is that the entire western world is marinating in a highly controlled information ecosystem where such obvious facts are hidden from our perception.

Whenever I talk about how everyone in Washington is a corrupt monster I get called negative or “blackpilled”, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have plenty of hope for positive outcomes for our world, I’m just not delusional enough to believe those outcomes will ever come from the heart of the power structure most responsible for our world’s problems.

I have plenty of hope in humanity as a collective. Plenty of hope in the real revolutionary movements of the global south. Plenty of hope in the possibilities that could potentially open up with the rise of a multipolar world. I just have no hope in the one power structure on earth nobody should ever place any hope in, in the same way nobody should look to a rapist currently committing rape for solutions on how to curb sexual assault. They are the problem. They are what needs to be fought.

Real solutions will begin emerging as soon as there is sufficiently widespread understanding of our problem. Our task — and it is a difficult one — is to punch through the propaganda matrix of imperial narrative control by circulating as much true information as we can about our world, our rulers, their abuses, and their lies. In this way we can start opening eyes to the reality of our situation and begin organizing together to effect real change using the power of our numbers.

Is that easy? No. Is it harder than casting a vote for your preferred presidential candidate? Yes. But unlike voting and cheerleading for your favorite swamp monster, it stands a chance of actually bringing positive change to our world.

Worth a click and a read:

Why Trump’s Plan for Gaza Is So Dangerous

Let’s be clear: The forced displacement of Palestinians is not a new idea. U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to take “long-term ownership” of Gaza, to “clean out” the “mess,” and to turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” is just the latest iteration of efforts aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homeland. What makes Trump’s comments dangerous is not the immediate threat of U.S. military intervention in Gaza followed by the expulsion of its 2.2 million residents. The real danger lies elsewhere.

First, Israel may interpret Trump’s words as a green light to push Palestinians out of Gaza or the West Bank.

Second, the U.S. could tacitly endorse another Israeli offensive under the guise of fulfilling the president’s wishes.

Third, Trump’s remarks suggest his foreign policy on Palestine will remain largely unchanged from his predecessor’s.

Trump’s so-called “humanitarian” ethnic cleansing proposal will similarly go down in history as another failed attempt, particularly as Arab and international solidarity with the steadfast Palestinian people is stronger than it has been in years.

Some Democrats have seized this moment to criticize Arab and Palestinian Americans who voted for Trump or abstained from supporting Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the last elections. However, the idea of ethnic cleansing was already being floated during the Biden administration.

Shiri Bibas not among returned hostages, Israeli military says, accusing Hamas of ‘serious violation’

One of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.

The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, in the early hours of Friday. However, it added “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.”

“We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages,” it said. There was no immediate response from Hamas.

Bibas and her children – who Hamas says were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war – became a symbol of the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. The body of the fourth hostage has been confirmed as that of 85-year-old Oded Lifshitz, according to his family.

Israeli Leaflets Distributed Today in Gaza Reflect Brutality and the Law of the Jungle, Threatening Civilians

These leaflets serve as a message of intimidation and terror from the Israeli army to Gaza’s residents. They include distorted religious texts manipulated for… pic.twitter.com/hV37PJiYKZ

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 20, 2025

Key messages in the leaflets:

1. The implementation of Trump’s expulsion plan, "which will force you to be forcibly displaced whether you like it or not".

2. "The map of the world will not change if all the people of Gaza disappear from existence, and no one will ask about you".

3. "Neither America nor Europe care about Gaza at all, nor even your Arab countries, which are our allies now and provide us with money, oil and weapons, and they send you shrouds."

4. Promises of aid in exchange for collaboration, an effort to sow division amongst the population.

Bus blasts in Israel are ‘suspected terror attack’, say police

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has ordered the military to conduct an “intense operation” against “terror hubs” in the West Bank after a series of explosions on three parked buses that authorities said was a suspected terrorist attack. No injuries were reported.

The explosions on Thursday happened on a day when Israel was grieving after Hamas returned the bodies of four hostages from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. The bus explosions were reminiscent of bombings during the Palestinian uprising of the 2000s, but such attacks are now rare.

Explosives were found on two other buses but did not detonate, police spokesperson Asi Aharoni told Channel 13 TV. Israeli police said the five bombs were identical and equipped with timers, and bomb squads were defusing the unexploded bombs.

Investigators in white coveralls searched for evidence inside the burned-out metal shells of the buses, which blew up in a parking lot in Bat Yam, a city outside Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu Adds New Demands in Talks on Second Phase of Gaza Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has added several new demands amid negotiations for the second of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, Israel’s Channel 13 has reported.

The report said Netanyahu is demanding Hamas leadership be exiled, for Gaza to be demilitarized, and for Israel to continue maintaining “security control” of the Strip, which would mean a continued Israeli military occupation or blockade.

Hamas has rejected Israeli calls for the group to be disarmed, and its main demand has been for an Israeli withdrawal, meaning it would be unlikely to agree to an arrangement that keeps Israeli troops in Gaza. On Wednesday, Hamas offered to release all remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal.

Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s envoy for the Middle East, acknowledged on Thursday that it would be “difficult” for the second phase of the ceasefire to be implemented but said it was a possibility.

Aaron Maté : Legacy Media and Europe

UK/EU take ownership of project Ukraine. Preemptive coup

Stop criticising Trump and sign $500bn mineral deal, US official advises Kyiv

White House officials have told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the country’s mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable. The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should “tone down” his criticism of the US and take a “hard look” at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn worth of natural resources, including oil and gas.

Waltz said Kyiv was wrong to push back against the US president’s approach to peace talks with Moscow, given everything the US had done for Ukraine. He denied accusations the US had snubbed Ukraine and America’s European allies by excluding them from talks earlier this week with Russia. This was routine “shuttle diplomacy”, he said.

“Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv … and insults to president Trump were unacceptable,” Waltz later told reporters at the White House. “President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with president Zelenskyy, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered.”

On Wednesday, Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator” who refused to hold elections and blamed Ukraine for the war. Zelenskyy, for his part, said Trump was living in a Kremlin “disinformation bubble” and that he wished Trump’s team were “more truthful”.

ABOLISH IRS?! Agency FIRING Around 7,000 WORKERS

IRS to lay off roughly 7,000 employees in Trump downsizing spree

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will lay off roughly 7,000 workers in Washington and around the country beginning on Thursday, a person familiar with the plans told the Associated Press.

The layoffs affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments, according to the person, who was not authorized to disclose the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. Compliance work includes ensuring that taxpayers are abiding by the tax code, filing their returns and paying their taxes, among other duties. ...

It’s unclear how the layoffs may affect tax collection services this year. As the nation’s revenue collector, the IRS was tasked during the Biden administration with targeting high-wealth tax evaders for an additional stream of income to the US, which is $36tn in debt. By the end of 2024, the IRS collected over $1.3bn in back taxes from rich tax dodgers.

Would Trump's Tariffs Backfire?: With Economist Prof. Ha-Joon Chang

Trump administration can continue mass firings of federal workers, judge rules

The Trump administration can for now continue its mass firings of federal employees, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to halt Donald Trump’s dramatic downsizing of the roughly 2.3 million-strong federal workforce. The ruling by the US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington DC federal court is temporary while the litigation plays out. But it is a win for the Trump administration as it seeks to purge the federal workforce and slash what it deems wasteful and fraudulent government spending.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and four other unions sued last week to block the administration from firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and granting buyouts to employees who quit voluntarily. The unions are seeking to block eight agencies including the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Veterans Affairs from implementing mass layoffs.

In his 16-page order, Cooper started by acknowledging Trump’s “onslaught of executive actions that have caused, some say by design, disruption and even chaos in widespread quarters of American society”. He went on to add: “Affected citizens and their advocates have challenged many of these actions on an emergency basis in this Court and others across the country.” However, Cooper on Thursday said, he likely lacks the power to hear the case, and the unions instead must file complaints with a federal labor board that hears disputes between unions and federal agencies.

Appeals court denies Trump’s plea to reinstate birthright citizenship ban

A federal appeals court in San Francisco denied the Trump administration’s request to reinstate a ban on birthright citizenship. Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that ordered an end to birthright citizenship for children for whom neither parent is a US citizen or legal permanent resident.

Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the constitution. Civil rights groups argue an end to birthright citizenship would create a “permanent underclass” of stateless people denied basic protections.

The appeals court denied the administration’s request for an emergency appeal, saying that the justice department has not made a strong case that it would succeed on merits. A concurring opinion written by a Trump-appointed judge said the administration had not convinced her it was an emergency.

House Dem Launches Probe After White House Says Musk Not Part of DOGE

The top Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday demanding answers about billionaire Elon Musk's involvement in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the Republican administration's efforts to gut federal agencies.

"I write to express my concern regarding your direct contradiction of a sworn statement by a White House official, provided under penalty of perjury, regarding Elon Musk's role within your administration," Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wrote to Trump. "As the American people can plainly see, Mr. Musk wields immense authority over the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS or DOGE) and the federal government generally, with the purported power to feed congressionally authorized and funded federal agencies "through the wood chipper[,]" yet parts of the White House appear intent on obscuring the facts of his role."

"To ensure transparency on the authority you have granted Mr. Musk and the legal authority he has to direct DOGE, I request that you provide substantive documentation regarding his formal role," the congressman continued, giving Trump two weeks to respond to questions about DOGE staff as well as Musk's role, decisions, directives, and authority to access Americans' sensitive data.

Since announcing DOGE shortly after winning the November election, Trump has publicly presented Musk, the richest person on Earth, as its chair. Connolly wrote, "You have repeatedly portrayed Mr. Musk as the head of DOGE, including at an Oval Office press conference in which you referred to DOGE as Mr. Musk's 'team' in response to a question, and in which Musk repeatedly referred to DOGE's efforts as his efforts, saying, for example, that 'we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website.'"

However, Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration, said in a Monday declaration to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan—who is overseeing a case challenging DOGE's attacks on federal agencies—that Musk is not the administrator or an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or its related temporary organization. Instead, he said, Musk "is an employee of the White House Office," specifically, "a senior adviser to the president" with "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."

Connolly wrote to Trump that "in direct contradiction to Mr. Fisher's sworn statement, at a press conference on the evening of February 19, 2025, you stated, 'I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge.' This contradiction raises significant concerns that either you are lying about Mr. Musk's role or Mr. Fisher perjured himself—a criminal offense that can lead to up to five years in prison."

"The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate 'any matter' at 'any time' under House Rule X," he reminded the president. "It also has legislative jurisdiction over the federal civil service and the 'overall economy, efficiency, and management of government operations, and activities[.]'

The letter followed a flood of criticism directed at Democrats in the wake of the November election for not effectively fighting for working people or standing up to the GOP and oligarchy. It also came after a closely watched contest between Connolly and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to serve as the committee's ranking member.

US firm running Guantánamo migrant jail accused over rights abuses

A corporate conglomerate now running the US government’s immigration detention center at the Guantánamo Bay naval base on a lucrative contract has been the subject of critical audits and a civil rights complaint over conditions at three other migrant lockups it has run within the US, documents reviewed by the Guardian show.

In one example, a federal audit report on a migrant facility run by the company in Miami found multiple incidents of alleged “inappropriate use of force” – including guards pepper-spraying a man in solitary confinement even though he posed no threat to them, the report said.

Akima, the Virginia-headquartered company running the Guantánamo Bay migrant lockup, has over 40 subsidiaries and more than 2,000 contracts with the US government. From IT maintenance to armed security, with work stretching from Saudi Arabia to Arizona, Akima provides government contracting services to dozens of federal agencies. Last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) awarded a contract to one of Akima’s subsidiaries to run the Guantánamo migrant operations center. ...

Ice awarded Akima Infrastructure Protection a government contract to run the stricter detention section of the [Guantanamo] migrant facility. The company was required to guarantee they could quickly expand capacity at the site for up to 400 migrants with the construction of a “tent city”, according to a US government contracting website.

“Guantánamo is an example of how immigration enforcement is expanding past Ice – it is involving the Department of Defense, it is going offshore, in a remote location, to a place that is a place symbolic of abuse and torture,” said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network. She added: “It is that much more infuriating to know that there are massive corporations profiting off of people’s lives and the abuse that people are experiencing in immigration detention.”

Six New York prison workers indicted for murder in beating death of inmate

Six New York prison workers have been indicted for second-degree murder in the beating death of an incarcerated man who had been handcuffed, while four others were charged with lesser crimes. The beating of Robert Brooks by multiple officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in December was caught on body cameras, triggering widespread outrage and calls for justice. ...

Prison guards Nicholas Anzalone, David Kingsley, Anthony Farina, Christopher Walrath and Matthew Galliher were among the people charged with second-degree murder, according to court documents. The name of the sixth person charged was redacted, so it’s unclear whether they were a guard. All six were also charged with first-degree manslaughter, meaning prosecutors believe they are criminally liable for the conduct of others. ...

Body-camera video shows officers pummeling Brooks, whose hands are cuffed behind his back. Officers strike him in the chest with a shoe and lift him by the neck and drop him. The video recorded on the night of 9 December has no sound, but the guards meting out the punishment and watching it appear unconcerned. Brooks, 43, died the next day.

An autopsy report issued by the county medical examiner’s office in January concluded that Brooks’s death had been caused by compression of the neck and multiple blunt-impact injuries, and that the manner of death was determined to be a homicide, according to Brooks’s family’s attorneys. ...

Brooks had been serving a 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault since 2017. He arrived at the prison 200 miles (320km) north-west of New York City only hours before the beating, after being transferred from another nearby facility, officials said.

"Gum Up the Works": David Sirota's Advice to Democrats on Reversing Trump's Power Grab

Fossil fuel firm’s $300m trial against Greenpeace to begin: ‘Weaponizing the judicial system’

A fossil fuel company’s $300m lawsuit against Greenpeace opens in rural North Dakota on Monday, in a case that has been widely condemned by constitutional rights experts as baseless, bad faith litigation that threatens free speech. Energy Transfer Partners, a Dallas-based oil and gas company worth almost $70bn, accuses Greenpeace of defamation and orchestrating criminal behavior by protesters at the Dakota Access pipeline (Dapl).

The anti-pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017 were organised by Standing Rock and other Sioux tribes and supported by more than 300 sovereign tribal nations, inspiring an international solidarity movement after Energy Transfer’s private security unleashed attack dogs and pepper spray against nonviolent protesters. Tens of thousands of people from across the country and world participated in the Dapl protests, and Greenpeace was among scores of non-profit groups that supported the Standing Rock tribe’s opposition to the pipeline.

But Energy Transfer alleges in court filings that thousands of protestors were “incited” to come to North Dakota thanks to a “misinformation campaign” by Greenpeace. The lawsuit has been widely denounced as a classic strategic lawsuit against public participation (Slapp) – a form of civil litigation increasingly deployed by corporations, politicians and wealthy individuals to deliberately wear down and silence critics including journalists, activists and watchdog groups. ...

“This case is an emblematic example of a Slapp lawsuit – a way of weaponizing the legal system by wealthy and powerful people to silence their critics by dragging them through long, stressful, expensive litigation where winning is almost irrelevant,” said Kirk Herbertson, a New York attorney and the US director for advocacy and campaigns for EarthRights International.

“This was not a Greenpeace event. They were not controlling what the people coming in were doing … there is nothing in the court filings that show Energy Transfer suffered actual harm due to actions by Greenpeace,” added Herbertson. “This case feels more like a trophy hunt and an attempt to shut down free speech rather than an actual good faith attempt to seek remedies for harm.”

Also of Interest

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

Liberals Hate Socialists Because Socialists Are The Real Thing

The Liberal Establishment Is Finally Criticizing Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza Now That They Can Blame Trump

Prominent Canadian activist and author arrested for pro-Palestinian activism

Media Afraid to Call Ethnic Cleansing by Its Name

A Left Behind Europe (And Ukraine) Will Fall Into Chaos

If You Go For The King #2: Romania

The Feds & Their Own Bribery

Pentagon Says Hegseth’s Order Will Redirect Spending, Not Make Actual Cuts

EU Consumers Don’t Trust US Goods: A Look into Trump’s Trade Deficit Claims

FBI’s LONG History Of Targeting Black Leaders! w/ Christian Parenti

A Little Night Music

Old Crow Medicine Show – Brushy Mountain Conjugal Trailer

Molly Tuttle and Old Crow Medicine Show - The Weight

Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All

Old Crow Medicine Show - Sweet Amarillo

Old Crow Medicine Show with Sierra Ferrell - The Greatest Hustler of All

Old Crow Medicine Show - Take 'Em Away

Old Crow Medicine Show - Down Home Girl

Old Crow Medicine Show - Tell It To Me

Old Crow Medicine Show - James River Blues

Old Crow Medicine Show – The Warden

Old Crow Medicine Show - Live At The Orange Peel And Tennessee Theatre (2009)