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This evening's music features blues saxophone player Noble 'Thin Man' Watts. Enjoy!

"It is the height of stupidity to claim that men who for a thousand years have had the power to berate us, to fleece us and to oppress us with impunity, will now agree, with good grace, to be our equals."

-- Jean-Paul Marat

News and Opinion

Please Understand That Nothing Will Be Done About The Epstein Files

I need you to understand that nothing is going to be done about anything in the Epstein files.

Nothing.

The people in the documents will suffer no consequences. The institutions responsible for the abuses you’ve learned about will not change anything about how they operate. Your government will change absolutely nothing about its policies and behavior.

Nothing will be done if you vote in the other political party. Nothing will be done if you vote in new politicians. Nothing will be done if you write letters to your senators and representatives. Nothing will be done if you hold protests outside government buildings.

No meaningful laws will be passed. No prosecutions of any meaningful consequence will occur.

Don’t believe me? Just watch and pay attention.

This verse has been stuck in my head for days. pic.twitter.com/CeWbqU8RQ8

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 3, 2026

The power structure which birthed the Epstein abuses is not going to do anything about the Epstein abuses. The only thing that might possibly change is that some people may become radicalized against that power structure.

That’s the only real benefit that might come out of these Epstein releases the public has been demanding for years. That a few more eyes might get opened to how creepy and evil the people in charge of their society actually are.

How creepy and evil capitalism and the western empire are. How creepy and evil Israel and Zionism are. That the collective might become a bit more aware that we live in a dystopia which elevates the very worst among us to positions of leadership and control.

That’s it. That’s the only positive change that might come out of all this. Our rulers won’t do anything to help right the wrongs, but the people might become a bit more ready and willing to overthrow our rulers.

That’s the only way health and humanity is going to win this one. By waking up to reality one pair of eyelids at a time and realizing that the reason everything is fucked is because we live under a fucked up system which elevates fucked up people, and we’re not going to have a healthy world until we abolish the fucked up system that put the fucked up people in power.

The Epstein releases won’t change the abusiveness of the system. But they might nudge people toward dismantling that system.

COL. Doug Macgregor - Preparing for the Next Phase

Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked

Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a “crime against humanity”.

In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents and the Guardian, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law.

“I have lost my faith in the integrity of how we do our work and our commitment to principled reporting on the facts and application of the law,” Shakir wrote in his resignation letter. “As such, I am no longer able to represent or work for Human Rights Watch.” The resignations have roiled one of the most prominent human rights groups in the world just as HRW’s new executive director, Philippe Bolopion, begins his tenure.

In a statement, HRW said that “the report in question raised complex and consequential issues. In our review process, we concluded that aspects of the research and the factual basis for our legal conclusions needed to be strengthened to meet Human Rights Watch’s high standards. For that reason, the publication of the report was paused pending further analysis and research. This process is ongoing.”

Shakir said that his experience illustrated that while public opinion has evolved on Israel in the last several years – with “concepts of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing” increasingly voiced in mainstream circles – the right of return remains a third rail. “The one topic,” he said, “even at Human Rights Watch, for which there remains an unwillingness to apply the law and the facts in a principled way, is the plight of refugees and their right to return to the homes that they were forced to flee.” Israel supporters say that allowing Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes would end the Jewish state by depriving it a Jewish majority.

Schumer CAUGHT ON VIDEO DEMANDING More Aid To Israel

French magistrate reportedly summons two French-Israelis over ‘complicity in genocide’

A French investigating magistrate has issued summonses to two French-Israeli nationals in relation to “complicity in genocide” over allegations they tried to block the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, French media have reported. The summonses, which reportedly mark the first time a country has considered the blocking of aid “complicity in genocide”, were issued for Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Touitou in July, Le Monde and Agence France-Presse reported.

They require Touitou, whose Tsav 9 group obstructed and attacked aid convoys, and Kupfer-Naouri, of Israel is Forever, which supported the actions, to appear before a magistrate, but do not require their arrest. In 2024 the Biden administration described Tsav 9 as a “violent, extremist” group and imposed sanctions on it for “blocking, harassing and damaging” humanitarian convoys. The sanctions were lifted by the Trump administration.

Israel restricted aid shipments into Gaza during the war, causing widespread hunger and tipping parts of the territory into a human-made famine last summer. Tsav 9 opposed even the limited shipments that entered. Kupfer-Naouri told the pro-Israel news site the News in an interview on 16 January that she had been summonsed, describing the French investigation as “antisemitic madness” and saying she would “no longer be able to set foot in France”.

She said on social media on Tuesday: “In addition to the military fronts on which our IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers are fighting with bravery, an additional front has opened: that of truth and justice. I am proud to fight on this front! No one will silence me.” Touitou said the charges were political persecution, and claimed Tsav 9 demonstrations were a non-violent response to Hamas organising mass diversions of humanitarian aid during the war, allegations that are unsubstantiated.

Summonses do not automatically lead to arrest, although people can potentially be detained after interview. They can be issued by investigating magistrates without approval from anti-terrorist prosecutors, who are responsible for genocide cases. Pro-Israeli French activists were also being investigated for “public incitement to genocide”, sources close to the investigation told Agence France-Presse, with summonses potentially being issued for 10 other people.

Scott Ritter: Game Over? Trump’s Iran Strategy Might Blow Up and Start a Regional War

US shoots down Iranian drone flying towards aircraft carrier, navy says

The US military says it shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier “with unclear intent” when an F-35 fighter jet shot it down, US Central Command said on Tuesday.

“An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defence and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” Capt Tim Hawkins, a navy spokesperson at Central Command, said. No US service members were harmed or equipment damaged, he said.

Iran’s UN mission declined to comment on the claims, while Iran’s Tasnim news agency said connection had been lost with a drone in international waters, but the reason was unknown. The semi-official Fars news agency reported that an Iranian drone had completed a “surveillance mission in international waters”.

Central Command said that in another incident on Tuesday, in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) harassed a US-flagged and crewed merchant vessel. “Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins said.

The drone incident came as diplomats attempted to arrange nuclear talks between Iran and the US, and Donald Trump said that with US warships heading toward Iran “bad things” would probably happen unless a deal could be reached.

On-the-Ground in Iran as US Prepares New Bombing Campaign

Outrage in Mexico at Trump praise for ‘legendary’ 19th-century US invasion

A message from Donald Trump celebrating the 19th-century US invasion of its southern neighbour – and the subsequent loss of more than half its territory – has touched a historical nerve in Mexico, with some seeing it as a veiled threat for future incursions.

Reacting to the US president’s statement, which described the invasion as “a legendary victory”, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said during her morning news conference on Tuesday: “We must always defend our sovereignty.” Others were less subtle in their criticism. “Never, in the recent annals of Mexico-US relations had we seen anything like this,” wrote the former Mexican ambassador to the US Arturo Sarukhan, on X. “This is not only spiking the ball in the end zone; it’s an in your face F… You.”

The message, posted by the White House on Monday, said the US-Mexico war “reasserted American sovereignty, and expanded the promise of American independence across our majestic continent”. But the conflict has long been a historical sore spot for Mexico: Following the capture of Mexico City by US troops in 1847, Mexico gave away 55% of its pre-war territory, including the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, much of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Trump not only celebrated the war as a “a triumphant victory for American sovereignty” but suggested that much of his policy in Latin America was being “guided by our victory on the fields of Mexico 178 years ago”, including efforts to defend “our southern border against invasion”.

Blowback Pod REPORT From Cuba: Trump STRANGLING Island To Death

House Democrats ensure passage of Trump’s global military rampage and domestic dictatorship

On Tuesday, 21 House Democrats provided the margin of passage for a funding package that ends a partial government shutdown and bankrolls Trump’s military through September, as he wages war across the globe. The bill also includes a two-week stopgap to fund the ongoing campaign of murder and violence by Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Trump signed the $1.2 trillion bill into law the same day.

The House Democrats voted for the bill after it had already cleared the Senate on Friday, 71-29, with the support of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Whip Dick Durbin and Conference Vice Chair Mark Warner. In all, 23 Senate Democrats voted in favor. Schumer personally negotiated the deal with the Trump White House. The passage of the spending bill in the House on Tuesday was a carefully calibrated maneuver between the Democratic and Republican leaderships. The bill passed the House by a narrow 217–214 margin. Twenty-one Republicans—primarily from the fascistic House Freedom Caucus—voted against the bill. The Democrats responded by supplying the exact number of votes needed to offset Republican defections.

These votes demonstrate that the Democratic Party functions not as an opposition but as an enabler of the Trump administration. Its priority is to ensure the uninterrupted funding of the US military while diverting popular opposition with calls for meaningless cosmetic changes to the administration’s efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship. ... Trump has dispatched thousands of soldiers and National Guard troops to Los Angeles, New Orleans and Washington D.C., spending close to half a billion dollars on domestic deployments this year. The Pentagon placed 1,500 soldiers from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division on standby for deployment to Minneapolis. ...

In a January 31 interview with the New York Times, Schumer made clear the extent to which he has been serving as a loyal advisor to the Trump administration as it attempts to establish a presidential dictatorship in the face of mass popular opposition. “The American people hate what is going on in the streets,” Schumer said he told Trump, adding: “Frankly, it’s hurting your credibility in every way. They know that this is hurting them,” Schumer told the Times, “and if these lawless, thuggy bands continue to roll through the streets, it is very bad for them. They have an impetus to reform it, particularly now that Trump sort of gave them green light.” The leader of the Senate Democrats is not opposing Trump’s attack on Democratic rights. He is coaching the administration on how to carry it out more effectively.

Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the next in line for Democratic leadership, told Semafor Monday: “Either Trump decides this is a political death spiral for him and he needs to get out of it… or we’re not going to have a deal.” While the overwhelming majority of US workers and young people would like to see Trump removed from office, tried, and prosecuted for his systematic attack on the Constitution, the concern of the Democrats is to rescue the Trump administration from its “political death spiral.”

Trump signs $1.2tn funding bill, ending partial government shutdown

Donald Trump on Tuesday signed legislation to end a government shutdown hours after it was approved by the House of Representatives, as top Democrats warned they will block further funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if their demands for restrictions on Trump’s mass deportation campaign are not addressed.

The Republican-controlled House approved the $1.2tn appropriations measure by a narrow 217-214 vote, with all but 21 Republicans voting in favor and all but 21 Democrats against. The president signed it later in the afternoon at the White House, bringing to an end the shutdown that began after midnight last Friday, which had halted many operations at departments including defense, health and human services, labor, and transportation.

Democrats initially blocked passage of the spending package in the Senate last week, prompting the White House to agree to a deal by which DHS would be funded until 13 February while the rest of the departments would have spending authorized through September, when the 2026 fiscal year ends.

The prospects for a bipartisan agreement on agents’ conduct remain unclear, though the Trump administration has taken some steps to address the public outcry that followed Pretti and Good’s deaths. On Monday, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, announced all federal agents in Minneapolis will immediately begin wearing body cameras, with plans to expand their usage nationwide. However, Schumer argued, the policy was not good enough to assuage Democrats’ outrage over the killings in Minnesota’s largest city, as well as allegations of brutal tactics and racial profiling of US citizens by ICE agents.

LtCOL. Bill Astore : When Domestic Policy Looks Like War

Judge temporarily halts ICE from using teargas and projectiles on protesters in Portland

A federal judge has temporarily restricted immigration officers from shooting teargas or projectile munitions at protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, which has been the site of repeated demonstrations since last year that the Trump administration has increasingly met with force. The US district judge Michael Simon’s ruling comes after a weekend in which immigration agents at the ICE building fired teargas, pepper balls and rubber bullets into a crowd of thousands of protesters that included children. Local officials had described the protest as peaceful prior to the excessive force.

“Defendants’ violence is in no way isolated,” the order reads, adding that “the culture of the agency and its employees is to celebrate violent responses over fair and diplomatic ones”.

The order bars federal officers from using chemical or projectile munitions unless the person targeted poses an imminent threat of physical harm. Simon also limited federal officers from firing munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person”. The temporary restraining order will be in effect for 14 days.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists covering demonstrations at the flashpoint ICE building. The suit names as defendants the Department of Homeland Security and its head Kristi Noem, as well as Donald Trump. It argues that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions and excessive force is a retaliation against protesters that chills their first amendment rights.

Chomsky ADVISED Epstein, FANTASIZED About Island

New Epstein files fail to quell outrage as advocates claim documents are being withheld

The release of about 3m Jeffrey Epstein investigative files has failed to quell outrage over justice department officials’ handling of these disclosures, with advocates claiming potentially millions of documents are still being withheld. Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files by 19 December under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA). While the justice department did release some documents on that date, last week’s disclosure came nearly six weeks after this deadline.

The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, told reporters last week that this disclosure marked “the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act”.

“After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department’s obligations under the act will be completed,” Blanche said. He also said that while the justice department had found “more than 6m pages being identified as potentially responsive” that was because “we erred on the side of over-collection of materials from various sources to best ensure maximum transparency”.

“The number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected,” Blanche added. “That’s why I mentioned a moment ago we’re releasing more than 3m pages today and not the 6m pages that we collected.”

The missed deadline and up to 3m files that remain unreleased have prompted criticism and calls for further disclosure to answer how Epstein sexually abused girls with impunity for decades and landed a sweetheart plea deal about 20 years ago that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution.

Georgia Democrats call for inquiry into Gabbard’s presence at Fulton county search

Georgia’s Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, this morning, inquiring into the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, at the scene last week of an FBI seizure of Fulton county election records from 2020.

The letter from Senator Raphael Warnock and representatives Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams asks “whether the Trump administration is investigating a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus, which would legally require immediate congressional briefing”. The group requested a briefing from the Department of Justice “concerning this activity and its related investigation by February 13, 2026”.

Williams serves on the House oversight and investigations subcommittee. McBath is the ranking Democratic member on the House subcommittee on crime and federal government surveillance. Both represent part of Fulton county.

Tulsi Gabbard running solo 2020 election inquiry separate from FBI investigation

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.

Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid. But Gabbard, whose role ordinarily focuses on overseeing the intelligence agencies, has played only a minimal role in the criminal investigation, according to three administration officials. “She’s doing her own thing,” one of the officials said.

The parallel investigations into the 2020 election underscore the extent to which it has returned as a priority for the president. And Gabbard being sent to the raid showed the interest on voting machine manipulation claims that Trump has cited as evidence the election was stolen.

The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference. As part of that effort, Gabbard has been briefing Trump and senior White House advisers every few weeks. Officials said Trump directed her to travel to Fulton county, Georgia, so she could observe the FBI executing a search warrant on Wednesday.

The raid itself was overseen by Andrew Bailey, the deputy FBI director, who was also sent by Trump to Georgia. A copy of the search warrant cited possible violations of federal laws governing the preservation of election records and the procurement of false ballots or voter registrations. The warrant authorized agents to seize sweeping amounts of voter data from Fulton county, including all physical ballots from the 2020 election, voting machine tabulator tapes, images produced during the ballot count and voter rolls from that year.

Why US household energy bills are soaring – and how to fix it

Donald Trump promised to cut energy prices by 50%. Instead, average electricity prices over the past year have risen by about 6.7%, while natural gas prices have increased by 10.8%. Energy prices are influenced by many factors beyond any president’s direct control, including market conditions, weather-driven demand, regional infrastructure constraints and the rapid growth of energy-intensive datacenters that are driving new system costs. Policy choices do not determine prices on their own, but they do shape market outcomes, and the direction of this administration’s energy policy has been clear.

From his first days in office, President Trump made clear that his energy agenda would prioritize fossil fuel producers over consumers. His administration moved to expand US liquefied natural gas exports, increasing exposure to volatile global markets. At the same time, it froze wind power projects that provide some of the cheapest new electricity, intervened to keep costly coal plants running, and backed the elimination of energy-efficiency tax credits that lower household energy bills. The administration also proposed cutting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Weatherization Assistance Program, the federal government’s primary tools for protecting low-income households from rising energy costs even as electricity and gas prices were climbing. Congress ultimately blocked those cuts, sparing millions of families from immediate harm.

Supporters claim these policies promote “energy independence”, but increasing reliance on global fuel markets while dismantling the lowest-cost sources of new domestic power and demand reduction does the opposite. The outcome is predictable: higher prices, greater volatility and protected fossil fuel profits, with households – especially low- and moderate-income families – left to pay the price. The result is that energy is becoming increasingly unaffordable. For example, we are projecting that home heating costs will increase by 9.2% this winter, more than three times the rate of inflation, driven by higher electricity and natural gas prices and colder-than-average weather.

The solution is neither complicated nor ideological. If the goal is lower energy bills, policy must focus on lowering system costs and reducing household exposure to price volatility. That means prioritizing the cheapest resources available: energy efficiency, weatherization, and renewable power that lowers demand and stabilizes prices. It means expanding existing tax credits that help families improve the efficiency of their homes and install rooftop solar, permanently reducing electricity and natural gas use. And it means protecting households from short-term price spikes through targeted bill assistance, rather than forcing families to absorb the shock. These are not untested ideas. States and countries that have leaned into efficiency, renewables, and consumer protections have achieved lower long-term costs and greater price stability. The tools exist, and the economics are well understood. What is missing is political will. An administration that claims to stand with consumers cannot continue to write energy policy for fossil-fuel producers and expect a different outcome.

Trump administration uses mascot called ‘Coalie’ to push dirtiest fossil fuel

The Trump administration has turned to an unusual weapon in its attempt to resurrect coal mining – a cartoon lump of coal, complete with giant eyes and yellow mining garb, called “Coalie”. The administration’s new mascot, kitted out with a helmet, boots and gloves, was introduced in a seemingly artificial intelligence-generated picture posted online by Doug Burgum, Donald Trump’s interior secretary.

“Mine, Baby, Mine!” Burgum wrote on X, adding that Coalie will act as a “spokesperson” for Trump’s “American Energy Dominance Agenda”.

Climate activists criticized the latest attempt by the administration to boost the image of the dirtiest fossil fuel despite its effects on the planet and public health, with one critic describing it as “one of the most heinous ways to produce energy that our world has ever seen”.

Coalie, whose large eyes and grin appears to invoke a Japanese style of cuteness used in toys and animated characters, is to be an ambassador for the office of surface mining reclamation and enforcement (OSMRE), the US government agency responsible for regulating coalmines.

Further images of Coalie appear on the OSMRE website, where the anthropomorphic hunk of carbon is depicted joyfully posing with what appeared to be an AI-generated family, standing on an office table during a meeting while giving cheeky wink and happily showing off an abandoned coalmine that has been turned into a bucolic picnic site.

Also of Interest

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

American and Chinese Elites Both Achieved Their Goals

‘Era of Unconstrained Nuclear Competition’ Looms With US-Russia New START Treaty Expiring

Israel Has Killed at Least 529 Palestinians in Gaza Since Signing Ceasefire Deal

Ukraine – ‘Security Guarantee’ Details – Why The Energy Ceasefire Ende

Colombian president and Trump put aside insults for amicable White House meeting

Judge Dismisses Bid to End ‘Occupation’ of Minneapolis

Epstein associated with Silicon Valley elite years after his release from prison

Newly released files shed new light on Chomsky and Epstein relationship

French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit

‘Tariffs Haven’t Helped’: 72,000 Manufacturing Jobs—and Counting—Obliterated Since Trump’s Liberation Day

A Little Night Music

Noble Watts - Boogie Sax

Noble ''Thin Man'' Watts - F.L.A.

Noble 'Thin Man' Watts - Midnite Flight

Noble Watts - John Friday's Son

Noble 'Thin Man' Watts - Hard Times (The Slop)

Noble 'Thin Man' Watts - Flap Jack

Noble ''Thin Man'' Watts - The Beaver

Noble "Thin Man" Watts - Florida Shake

Noble Watts - Jookin

Noble "Thin Man" Watts - Hot Tamales