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The Evening Blues - 5-1-26

Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/01/2026 - 4:10pm


eb1pt12

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Hans Theessink

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Vienna Austria folk-blues guitarist Hans Theessink. Enjoy!

Hans Theessink - Maybelline

"Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected."

-- Natan Sharansky

News and Opinion

Protest Laws Should Be Viewed As Efforts To Ban Criticism Of Israel

Laws aimed at pro-Palestine protests should always be looked at as efforts to ban criticism of Israel. That’s what we’re seeing in the UK as the prime minister encourages the prosecution of anyone who says “globalise the intifada”.

“If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,” said Keir Starmer during a Thursday press conference. “It is racism, extremely racism and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong. So, I say again this government will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.”

The UK has already banned any expression of support for the activist group Palestine Action, and recently passed a ban on repeat protests, and has already arrested demonstrators for using of the word “intifada” in their pro-Palestine activism on the basis of “racially aggravated public order offences.” And now the prime minister wants them all to be prosecuted with increased aggression.

This is all a thinly-disguised effort to throw a chilling effect over the entire pro-Palestine protest movement. The goal is to just keep adding more and more protest laws until nobody’s willing to attend a pro-Palestine demonstration without a lawyer present to advise them on exactly what they may and may not say if they want to avoid being sent to prison.


Starmer’s comments were made in response to a non-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday, which the prime minister instantly labeled an “antisemitic attack” and which police say is being treated as a terrorist incident.

The entire western political/media class has of course seized on this opportunity to shriek about antisemitism, and to demand crackdowns on anti-Israel speech and pro-Palestine demonstrations. Here in Australia this story has been receiving frenzied wall-to-wall coverage in our propagandistic mainstream press, despite the fact that it’s a story about a non-lethal stabbing on an island on the other side of the planet which experienced some 53,000 blade-related crimes last year.

Inconveniently for all the narratives we’re seeing advanced about Jew hate and terrorism, there is as of this writing no public evidence that the attack was motivated by hateful ideology. Britain’s Channel 4 News reports that the suspect, a Somali-born British citizen named Essa Suleiman, had left the care of a psychiatric hospital just days before the attack, and that he has an extensive history of mental illness and violent behavior. In 2008 Suleiman was reportedly incarcerated for assaulting a police officer and his dog; we can probably assume the police dog was not Jewish.

Also inconvenient for the antisemitic terrorism narrative is the fact that the two Jewish men weren’t the only victims of Suleiman’s rampage that day. On top of his charges for the Golders Green attack, Suleiman also stands accused of attempting to murder his longtime acquaintance Ishmail Hussein earlier in the day. I’m not an expert at these things but “Hussein” doesn’t sound like a Jewish surname to me, and I think we can safely assume that if there was a third Jewish victim that day it wouldn’t have been kept a secret from the press.


If I saw someone go on a stabbing spree attacking Jewish and non-Jewish people immediately after leaving a psychiatric hospital, my first thought would not be “This was definitely a politically motivated act of antisemitic terrorism.” My first thought would be that this was a mentally ill man who was failed by the system, who flipped out and put lives at risk during some kind of psychotic break.

In 2020 Suleiman was reportedly referred to Prevent — an early-intervention government program designed to steer vulnerable members of the public away from extremism — but his listing was shelved shortly thereafter. We can only speculate at this point, but this could easily have occurred because the relevant authorities deemed that any red flags his behavior might have thrown up were the product of mental illness rather than any dangerous ideology, after which they tossed his file in the “not our problem” bin.

The fact that Suleiman’s violence was not directed only at Jews, combined with the fact that he was struggling with severe mental health issues at the time, would seemingly make it very difficult to prove that his spree had the political or religious motives of a terrorist. Which may be why as of this writing he has only been charged with attempted murder rather than facing any terrorism charges.


As you can see, the narrative that this was an antisemitic hate crime necessitating sweeping authoritarian measures is about as flimsy as it gets. But they’re shoving it through anyway, as hard as they can. They are doing this not to protect Jews but to protect the information interests of the state of Israel, with whom the western empire is intimately intertwined.

I have said it before and I will say it again: there is no greater threat to free speech in the western world than Israel and its supporters. The whole of western society must resist tooth and claw the mad push to stomp out our right to oppose war, genocide, apartheid, and injustice.

Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson: It’s Over: Iran Just Wiped Out Trump’s Blockade - War IMMINENT

Trump administration says hostilities in Iran ‘terminated’ ahead of war powers deadline

A US-Iran ceasefire that began in early April has “terminated” hostilities between the two sides for the purposes of an approaching congressional war powers deadline, a senior official of the Trump administration said on Thursday. Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

“For war powers resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have terminated,” said the official, describing the administration’s thinking. There has been no exchange of fire between the US armed forces and Iran since a fragile ceasefire began more than three weeks ago, the official added. Earlier, analysts and congressional aides had said they expected Trump to notify Congress that he planned a 30-day extension or to disregard the deadline, with the administration arguing the ceasefire marked an end to the conflict.

It is a politically perilous time for Republicans, with public frustration mounting over the conflict and gas prices. The Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, said he didn’t plan on a vote to authorize force in Iran or otherwise weigh in. “I’m listening carefully to what the members of our conference are saying, and at this point I don’t see that,” he said on Thursday. Republican senator Kevin Cramer said he would vote for an authorization of war if Trump asked for it, but he questioned if the war powers resolution – passed during the Vietnam War era as a way for Congress to claw back its power – is even constitutional.

Other Republicans have said in recent weeks they would eventually like to see a vote. Against that increasingly fraught backdrop, on Thursday the Republican-led Senate again blocked a Democratic attempt to stop Trump’s war in Iran, rejecting a war powers resolution that would have limited the conflict until Congress authorizes further military action. It was the sixth time this year that Democrats have forced a vote on a war powers resolution related to the war. All have failed, mostly along party lines.

Pepe Escobar: Iran Just DEFIED Trump, Air Defenses LIGHT UP Over Tehran as War Blows UP


Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Attack On Iran Could Be Imminent

Trump and Allies Ripped for Lying to Dodge Iran War Powers Deadline

Friday marks 60 days since President Donald Trump formally notified Congress of the US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran. However, on the eve of that key deadline under a relevant federal law, the president and other top Republicans claimed that the United States isn’t, in fact, at war.

“Look, the country’s doing really well, and that’s despite a military operation—I don’t call it a war,” Trump, a well-documented liar, told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “Iran is dying to make a deal.”

Since Trump began bombing Iran on February 28, legal experts and US lawmakers have alleged violations of international law and the Constitution, which empowers only Congress to declare war. However, both chambers are narrowly controlled by Republicans, nearly all of whom have refused to support Democratic war powers resolutions intended to end the conflict, most recently in the Senate on Thursday.

Defenders of Trump’s so-called “Operation Epic Fury” argue that he was allowed to strike Iran under the War Powers Act of 1973, which empowers the president to deploy military forces for up to 60 days as long as he notifies Congress within 48 hours. After those two months, he is required to end hostilities or seek permission from federal lawmakers to continue them.

“He seems set against doing so,” Tess Bridgeman and Oona A. Hathaway wrote Friday for Just Security. “If he refuses, he will take a war that is already doubly illegal and turn it into a triply illegal war. He will also make it clear, if it was not already, that he regards the law as no constraint on his use of the US military’s lethal power.”

On Thursday, as the latest Senate resolution was blocked in a 47-50 vote, Trump allies joined the president in suggesting that, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told NBC News in the Capitol, “We are not at war.”

“I don’t think we have an active, kinetic military bombing, firing, or anything like that. Right now, we are trying to broker a peace,” Johnson said. “I would be very reluctant to get in front of the administration in the midst of these very sensitive negotiations, so we’ll have to see how that plays out.”

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7, just hours after Trump’s genocidal threat to wipe out the Middle Eastern country’s “whole civilization.” That truce has since been extended, but it and another deal for Israel’s supposed targeting of Hezbollah in Lebanon are both “fragile, temporary, and in danger of collapse at any moment,” as Amnesty International stressed in a Wednesday statement calling on the international community to push for sustainable peace in the region.

Throughout the ceasefire, Trump has maintained his naval blockade on Iran, which has responded to the war by closing the Strait of Hormuz to most ship traffic. Restrictions on the trade route have driven up fuel prices around the world, including across the United States, where new polling shows that over 60% of Americans say the president’s war was a “mistake.”

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cited the ceasefire on Thursday when questioned about how the administration plans to address the 60-day deadline by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)—a leading voice for war powers resolutions on Iran and other military aggression by the administration—during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.


Hegseth said that “ultimately, I would defer to the White House and White House counsel on that. However, we are in a ceasefire right now, which, [in] our understanding, means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire.”

Interjecting, Kaine responded that “I do not believe the statute would support that. I think the 60 days runs maybe tomorrow, and it’s gonna pose a really important legal question for the administration. We have serious constitutional concerns and we don’t want to layer those with additional statutory concerns.”

A senior Trump administration official on Friday affirmed that what Hegseth laid out is the official White House position, telling Reuters that the US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since April 7 and, for War Powers Act purposes, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have terminated.”


Highlighting Trump’s ongoing blockade of Iran, US Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) called Hegseth “flat wrong,”

and declared that the Pentagon chief “does not get to rewrite the law because following it is inconvenient.”

Another California Democrat, Rep. Sara Jacobs, said on social media Thursday: “Trump’s war on Iran was illegal from day one—Congress never authorized it. Tomorrow, the statutory 60-day clock runs out too. Republicans are out of excuses and should join Democrats and stop this war. Let’s put the pressure on.”

In a video released Friday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) noted his role in the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal—which Trump ditched during his first term—and emphasized the president’s “legal obligation to withdraw troops after 60 days, or come to Congress for authorization.”


Democrats have vowed to keep introducing war powers resolutions. As one went down in the Senate on Thursday, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) introduced another in the House, following in the footsteps of other Congressional Progressive Caucus members.

“Americans don’t even know why we are in this war, and neither does Congress,” Balint said in a statement. “This unauthorized war is yet another example of the Trump administration’s brazen and illegal attempts to consolidate power. At a time when Americans have told us everything is too expensive, it is shameful that we are wasting upwards of a billion dollars a day on this.”

“We need it to end, to bring our service members back to safety, and to get Congress and this administration to focus on lowering the cost of living here at home,” she added. “Today, I introduced a war powers resolution which would direct the president to stop the use of US armed forces in Iran unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war from Congress. It is essential to hold every member of Congress accountable for allowing this war to continue and put them on record for the American people to see.”

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern - Weekly Wrap 1-May

Hegseth ‘dangerously exaggerated’ US military triumph in Iran, Senate hears

Pete Hegseth has failed to give Donald Trump an accurate picture of the war on Iran while resorting to “dangerously exaggerated” statements to create an inaccurate picture of a US military triumph, a senior Democrat told a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, told Hegseth, the defense secretary, that far from victory, US citizens were having to bear the cost of a war they did not support in the form of increased fuel prices.

“American families are bearing the cost of a war they wanted nothing to do with and have gained nothing from and yet, Secretary Hegseth, you declared victory a month ago,” said Reed, a senator from Rhode Island. The comments came at the opening of the second successive day of congressional testimony from Hegseth and Dan Caine, the chair of the US armed forces’ joint chiefs of staff, who are testifying over the Pentagon’s record $1.45tn military budget submission.

As with the previous day’s appearance before the equivalent committee in the House of Representatives, the hearing quickly devolved into confrontation over the war with Iran, which has become stalemated after eight weeks of fighting and seen the regime in Tehran close the strategically vital strait of Hormuz. Reed immediately went on the offensive, accusing Trump of going to war without a “coherent strategy” while declining to “make a case to the American people or consult Congress”.

But his statement reserved the fiercest personal criticism for Hegseth, who stood accused of failing to give Trump essential information or advice, while pursuing a personal agenda as service personnel were injured or killed in battle. “The problem with your statements, Mr Secretary, is they are dangerously exaggerated,” Reed said. “Iran’s hard line regime remains in place. It still retains stockpiles of enriched uranium, and its nuclear program remains viable. “I am concerned that you have been telling the President what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear. Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander in chief and the troops who risked their lives based on them. Our military has performed heroically, but military force without a sound strategy is a path to long-term defeat.”

“Too often you have made dangerous statements that are counterproductive to the mission you boasted about,” he said. “Quote, ‘no stupid rules of engagement’, just days after hundreds of Iranian school girls were tragically killed in a missile strike, you have made troubling statements about showing no mercy and no quarter to the Iranians orders that would constitute war crimes.”

The war just became permanent

Iran war may cause food shortages in Africa, world’s largest fertiliser firm says

The Iran war could have “dramatic consequences”, causing food shortages and price rises in some of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, the head of the world’s largest fertiliser company has said. Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara International, said world leaders needed to guard against soaring prices and shortages of fertiliser causing a de facto global auction that would leave the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, scrambling for supplies they could ill afford.

“The most important thing we can do now is raise the alarm on what we are seeing right now – that there is a risk of a global auction on fertiliser that means it becomes unaffordable for those most vulnerable,” he said. “Africa is actually quite well positioned to be a major food producer, not only for self-sufficiency, but even for exports to the rest of the world, but the reality is that they are massive food importers.

“But we need to be aware in this part of the world of the potential consequences that if we get to a global auction on food, there will not be a famine in Europe – but we need to be aware of who we are taking the food away from.”

Yara International is a Norwegian multinational with plants in 60 countries and sales in 140. Holsether stopped short of predicting actual food shortages in parts of Africa but said he was in London to draw attention of world leaders to the possibility of things spiralling before action was taken. “It is important to communicate the message about the danger of what potentially could happen before it is too late,” he said.

The financial intelligence company S&P Global said the impact of the war was already deepening into supply chains. Chris Rogers, the head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “Food supply chains face both direct and indirect challenges from fuel and fertiliser restrictions. The variability in Africa’s dependence on Middle East nitrogenous fertilisers is high, with Ethiopia and Kenya heavily exposed in sub-Saharan Africa.” With 35% of the world’s supply of urea, a key ingredient in fertiliser coming from Gulf states, Yara has already seen supplies choked and the price of urea up by between “60% and 70% since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran at the end of February”.

US Congress passes short-term renewal of Fisa warrantless spying powers

The US Congress has passed a 45-day extension of a law that grants US intelligence agencies warrantless spying powers. Bitter infighting over section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the Republican wing of Congress has repeatedly tanked conservative leaders’ plans to renew the controversial surveillance law for multiple years. The deadlock continued on Thursday, as the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, refused to include key reforms pushed by hardliners in his party and progressive Democrats.

In remarks before a final vote in the House, lawmakers opposed to a long-term extension of section 702 again called on Johnson to consider their concerns about how the surveillance program is abused to spy on Americans.

“We’re willing to give you 45 more days for us to negotiate this thing if the speaker will actually sit down with us,” said Jamie Raskin, a Democrat congressman from Maryland, who has rallied against an extension of the program with no changes. “We can make this happen if we’re willing to get rid of all the chaos and the pandemonium we’ve seen over the last several days and simply sit down and have a meaningful conversation and write the legislation.”

Hardline Republicans who took issue with section 702 welcomed Raskin’s remarks as they too expressed their fears about how the program surveils Americans’ communications. “Fisa databases have been used to query political activists, members of Congress and their staff, random romantic interests of FBI agents, and we’re being told, ‘Oh, don’t worry, it’s not being abused any more,” said Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky. Massie tried, unsuccessfully, to block the 45-day extension, noting: “A short-term infringement of the constitution is still an infringement of the constitution.”

The contentious vote marks the second time this month that Congress’s inability to agree on Fisa’s renewal has led to a short-term extension. The law expires without being reauthorized; the most imminent deadline was midnight on Thursday. Section 702 was originally set to lapse on 20 April, but Congress passed a stopgap measure to extend the surveillance program by 10 days after disagreements over an extension with no substantive changes. The decision to punt the issue a few weeks suggests those differences are unlikely to be resolved soon.


the horse race


Take that Chuck Schumer ...

Governor Janet Mills suspends Maine Senate bid weeks before primary clash

Janet Mills, the Maine governor, suspended her bid for the US Senate on Thursday, just weeks before the Democratic primary. Mills, who received support from the Democratic establishment in Washington DC, said she no longer had the “financial resources” to face off against first-time candidate Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and former marine, in the 9 June primary. Mills’s exit leaves Platner as the main Democrat vying to unseat Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent, in a race that has become one of the most closely watched competitions in the country this midterm cycle.

Her decision to pull out of the contest now paves the way for Platner, a progressive newcomer with no experience in politics, to clinch the Democratic nomination. Platner has staked his run on fixing a “broken” political system that caters to the wealthy and fosters corruption.

At a campaign event in Augusta on Thursday, Platner said that Mills’s decision to suspend her campaign was an example of the governor’s “commitment” to defeat Collins. “I look forward to working closely with [Mills] between now and November … to turn this seat blue again,” Platner added.

Mills, a two-term governor and longtime Maine politician who also served as the state’s attorney general, has yet to confirm whether she will endorse Platner. The governor was seen as one of Democrats’ top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race last year. She had the backing of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and prominent left-leaning advocacy groups, as they try to pick up at least four seats to reclaim control of the upper chamber of Congress.

Dem Party SHOOK After Platner Dominance Forces Mills Drop Out


the evening greens

Democrats say EPA head’s budget cut proposal ‘reads like climate change deniers’ manifesto’

Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration of abandoning the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment at a congressional hearing Wednesday, slamming agency leadership over a proposal to cut its budget in half.

Lee Zeldin’s appearance before the Senate environment committee was the EPA administrator’s last of three budget hearings this week where he argued for sharply reduced funding for the agency, which already has seen its staffing reduced to its lowest level in decades under his leadership. During much of the week, the former Republican congressman from New York took an aggressive approach, responding to Democrats in the House and Senate with his own questions and at times accusing them of being unprepared or failing to care about the EPA’s record.

Zeldin has eliminated major climate change programs, promoted deregulatory efforts he calls the biggest in US history and cancelled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants to halt what he calls “EPA’s radical diversity, equity, and inclusion programs”.

The Republican administration’s proposed $4.2bn EPA budget would sharply reduce support for state environmental programs and state-administered loans for water projects. It also would halt what it calls “radical climate research” and cut resources for enforcement and compliance. Officials asked for more money for faster project permitting and to address drinking water disasters.

“Zeldin has executed the fossil fuel industry’s agenda. A massive reckoning is coming,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator of Rhode Island.

Also of Interest

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

Voting rights advocates vow to ‘relocate’ fight after supreme court gutting

A Little Night Music

Hans Theessink & Blue Groove - Stormwarning

Hans Theessink, Donovan, Arlo Guthrie - Columbus Stockade Blues

Hans Theessink - Johnny & the Devil

Hans Theessink - Walking the dog

Hans Theessink & Terry Evans feat. Ry Cooder - Delta Time

Tony Joe White and Hans Theessink - Polk Salad Annie

Hans Theessink & Guy Stroobant - Trouble in Mind

Hans Theessink Band - Behind The Sun

Hans Theessink - Blind Willie & Bourgeois Blues

Bo Diddley, Hans Theessink, Ron Wood - I'm A Man

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The Evening Blues
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Submitted by Anya on Fri, 05/01/2026 - 6:25pm

I suppose among other reasons making the ending of the war so difficult for Trump is the enormous profits it’s making for him and his family. MOA article tells about connections his sons have with Defense contractors, and a Forbes Magazine chart shows Donald is worth $6.5 billion as of March 2026.

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Anya

Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/01/2026 - 7:22pm
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@Anya

the grift does seem like a decent explanation, especially when you consider he has to balance the interests of his israeli owners with his gulf donors and not upset either group.

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