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The Evening Blues - 5-21-26

Submitted by joe shikspack on Thu, 05/21/2026 - 4:08pm

eb1pt12

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Amos Milburn

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and boogie woogie piano player Amos Milburn. Enjoy!

^{Amos Milburn - Down The Road A Piece}

"SORCERY, n. The ancient prototype and forerunner of political influence. It was, however, deemed less respectable and sometimes was punished by torture and death."

-- Ambrose Bierce

News and Opinion

American Democracy Does Not Exist

Thomas Massie has lost his congressional seat against a primary opponent whose Israel lobby funding made the race the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history. Massie has been a rare Republican opponent of Israeli abuses on Capitol Hill.

The spending on Massie’s ouster topped out at a staggering $32 million when all was said and done. The second- and third-most expensive House primary races were also heavily slanted by Israel lobby funding, with AIPAC pouring millions into toppling progressive Democrats Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.

Americans just watched the Israel lobby openly manipulate yet another election, and then in like two weeks they’re going to hear their government tell them they need to regime change another foreign country to bring “democracy” to its people. Americans themselves do not have democracy.

My favorite genre of AIPAC tweet is when they dump $16M into a race—making it most expensive primary IN HISTORY—then insist their victory shows support for Israel is “good politics”. If it was good politics you wouldn’t need to spend $16M! Thats evidence Israel is bad politics! https://t.co/sYN68Of5SR

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) May 20, 2026

The ceasefire with Iran is tenuous and could end at any time. Washington is currently drumming up ridiculously transparent pretexts to justify attacking Cuba. And you just know as soon as the bombs start falling on whatever country they’re going to fall on, Americans will be told this is a good thing because it will bring freedom and democracy to whatever population is getting ripped apart by military explosives.

It’s just so silly how often the US propaganda machine bangs on about “democracy” while vast fortunes are poured into slanting the American electoral process to advance the agendas of plutocrats and special interest groups.

Let’s bring democracy to the Iraqi people! Oh no, the Russians are interfering in our democracy!

And meanwhile nothing of the sort actually exists in America. When the elections go toward whoever can afford to spend the most on manipulating and deceiving the public into voting their way, that’s not democracy. That’s plutocracy.

We aren't voting our way out of this. https://t.co/nEzvks5qlc

— James Li (@5149jamesli) May 19, 2026

The rich buy up news outlets and social media platforms, pour funding into think tanks and lobby groups, and sponsor the primary campaigns of anyone who disagrees with them, and in so doing they are able to exert enough influence to get the public to vote in whatever way advances their agendas.

That’s why Americans have a joke of a minimum wage and no normal healthcare system. It’s why corporations are allowed to exploit the working class and pollute the environment without consequence. It’s why AI is being shoved down our throats with zero regulation while it consumes our clean water and takes our jobs. And it’s why American-made bombs are still falling in Lebanon and Gaza.

The rich and powerful are going to keep doing this until they are made to stop. They’re going to keep using their wealth and influence to manipulate public behavior until people stop allowing them to. You can’t vote this problem away, because they control the votes.

Forget about bringing democracy to Cuba. Try bringing democracy to the United States.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Trump Trapped In a Corner

US Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Arrives in the Caribbean Amid Threats of War Against Cuba

US Southern Command said on Wednesday that the US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its accompanying warships have arrived in the Caribbean amid US threats of a potential attack on Cuba.

Welcome to the Caribbean, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group!

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), the embarked Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17), USS Gridley (DDG 101) and USNS Patuxent (T-AO 201) are the epitome of readiness and presence, unmatched reach and lethality, and strategic… pic.twitter.com/83mfzSIKzd

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 20, 2026

The US appears to be following the Venezuela playbook with its buildup against Cuba as the US Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted former President Raul Castro, setting up a pretext for an attack similar to the one launched against Caracas on January 3 to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Ahead of the attack on Venezuela, the US deployed a significant number of warships to the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, which then deployed to the Middle East to take part in the US-Israeli war against Iran. The US has also been ramping up military surveillance flights near Cuba, something that also happened off the coast of Venezuela in the months leading up to the attack.

Bolivia Revolts | Cuba in the Crosshairs | Iran War Reigniting

US indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro as it seeks to oust regime

The United States issued a federal criminal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president, and five others on Wednesday in a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to oust the country’s six-decades-old communist regime. The 94-year-old political figurehead was charged in Miami, Florida, with conspiracy to kill US nationals, four counts of murder and two counts of destruction of aircraft. Other defendants are a fighter pilot who was initially charged in connection with a 1996 incident in which four men were killed by the Cuban military when their aircraft were shot down during a humanitarian mission in the Florida Straits.

Castro, Cuba’s defense minister at the time, is alleged to have given the order to open fire. The indictment, in US district court for the southern district of Florida, comes at a time of heightened tension between the US and Cuba. Donald Trump has threatened military action against the Cuban government, and an energy crisis created by a tight US oil embargo has caused rolling blackouts and prompted protests in the capital.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon after the indictment was handed down, Trump said there “won’t be an escalation” with Cuba. “I don’t think there needs to be,” he said. “Look, the place is falling apart. They’ve really lost control of Cuba.” When asked if there would be an arrest similar to that of ousted Venezuelan president Nicholás Maduro earlier this year, he said: “I don’t want to say that.”

Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban president, condemned the indictment as a political stunt that sought only to “justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba”. In a message on social media, he accused the US of lying and manipulating events surrounding the shooting down, including ignoring repeated warnings by Cuban officials at the time that they would defend against “dangerous violations” of their airspace “by notorious terrorists”.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : The Pentagon and Decapitation Strikes

US and Israel ‘hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader’

Fresh questions have been raised over the US and Israeli effort to depose the Iranian regime after it was claimed that Israel wanted to put the populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. Ahmadinejad’s turbulent presidency, from 2005 to 2013, was marked by incendiary attacks on Israel but he recast himself as a critic of the regime and champion of the poor after falling out with the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

It is claimed that Israel bombed a security building close to his Tehran home to help him escape house arrest but he became uneasy about the operation. The plans, reported by the New York Times, were widely seen as implausible or as disinformation put out by Ahmadinejad’s supporters or the Israeli intelligence services.

However, the episode shows that the US and Israel overestimated opposition to the regime and their own ability to bring it down it with airstrikes. Donald Trump, faced with domestic anger over rising gas prices, has been seeking to extricate himself from the conflict but is considering more airstrikes to force Tehran to meet his terms.

The US president said on Monday that he had delayed a fresh attack after an intervention by Gulf leaders. But on Tuesday he held a lengthy phone call with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, which covered the potential resumption of hostilities. Asked if Israel could be stopped from attacking Iran, Trump told reporters on Wednesday: “Netanyahu will do whatever I want him to do. He’s a great guy, To me he is a great guy.”

Iranian media treated the New York Times report with scepticism, and said the former president had not been under house arrest. At the time of the initial Israeli attacks on Tehran, on 28 February, there were reports in the Iranian media that Ahmadinejad had been killed in a strike on his home. It later emerged that a security outpost outside his home in Narmak, north-east Tehran, had been hit – an attack confirmed by satellite images. It was speculated that Ahmadinejad would use the mayhem to make a bid for power. Ahmadinejad would be an unlikely ally for Netanyahu because of his Holocaust denial and virulently anti-Israeli policies.

Is Trump poised to restart the Iran war? | Trita Parsi | MEE Opinion pic.twitter.com/fXjPXSN62u

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 19, 2026

Israel PANICS After Gov Minister ABUSES Flotilla Prisoners On Camera

Israeli security minister stirs diplomatic outrage with flotilla activist abuse video

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has sparked a diplomatic crisis by publishing footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists who were detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid. Three activists were taken to hospital as result of Israeli violence, lawyers representing the group said. They were subsequently discharged. Dozens of others have suspected broken ribs, resulting in breathing problems.

“The team reports systemic violations of due process, and widespread physical and psychological abuse by Israeli authorities,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement. There were “a large number of complaints of extreme violence”.

Ben-Gvir’s video drew a rapid and furious response from countries whose citizens were onboard the boats, including the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in many cases from the top of government. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, one of the country’s staunchest allies, described Ben-Gvir’s behaviour as “despicable” and said the minister had “betrayed the dignity of his nation”.

The video includes images of dozens of men and women kneeling in rows, with their foreheads to the ground and their hands zip-tied behind their back. Ben-Gvir posted it on his social media account with the caption “Welcome to Israel” in English. He appears waving an Israeli flag, mocking and taunting the detainees, including shouting: “The people of Israel live” in the face of one bound man.

The global outrage at the activists’ treatment prompted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to condemn Ben-Gvir within hours of the video being published online. “The way that minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” he said, adding that he had ordered the deportation of the group “as soon as possible”.

Tucker STUNS Israeli TV: ‘You Are Not Democracy’

Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson: Trump Is FUMING After Iran, China & Russia’s MASSIVE Move

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Has Only Brought More Death and Suffering to Gaza

Six months in, US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” has failed to deliver on its promise of a “secure and prosperous future” for Palestinians in Gaza, who are still being killed, maimed, and deprived of food and other crucial supplies by Israel’s ongoing genocide.

“The humanitarian infrastructure sustaining life in Gaza remains in peril over six months after the ceasefire agreement in October 2025,” Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

“As the Board of Peace prepares to brief the United Nations Security Council on May 21 on its newly-issued six-month progress report, Israeli authorities are undermining humanitarian lifelines,” HRW continued.

“Continuing Israeli attacks have killed at least 856 Palestinians and wounded 2,463 others, according to Gaza Health Ministry,” the group said.

“Aid volumes remain far below required levels and critical humanitarian access routes have been repeatedly obstructed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),” HRW noted.

HRW continued:

In its May 15 report, the Board of Peace said that aid distributed by UN agencies and partners increased by over 70% during the reporting period compared to pre-ceasefire levels, and that “basic food needs have been stabilized for the first time since 2023.” The Board’s headline figures leave out that aid volumes have fallen since early 2026, have not recovered to where they were before the US and Israel-Iran war began in late February, and have never reached the minimum the UN says is needed. Four UN agencies warned in December 2025 that famine, pushed back only weeks earlier through the ceasefire, could rapidly return without sustained access and supplies.

“The plan was supposed to bring relief. Instead, Palestinians in Gaza are still hungry, still cannot reach medical care, and civilians are still being killed,” HRW Middle East deputy director Adam Coogle said in a statement. “Whatever the Board of Peace tells the Security Council, that is what life looks like six months in.”

HRW said that while “commercial trucks have started entering Gaza again in larger numbers,” total aid deliveries—which were dramatically curtailed following the launch of the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran—are “far short of what Gaza’s population needs.”

Furthermore, “none of Gaza’s 37 hospitals were fully operational, and only 19 were even partially functioning, according to OCHA.”

“Over 43,000 people have suffered life-changing injuries, 1 in 4 of them children, and more than 50,000 need long-term rehabilitation care, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates,” HRW said. “No rehabilitation facility is fully running. Israeli delays in approving specialized surgical equipment are limiting complex care, and at least 46% of essential medicines are out of stock, according to WHO.”

“According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 1,400 patients have died waiting for medical evacuation since the Rafah crossing was seized in May 2024, and over 18,500 patients, including 4,000 children, still await evacuation,“ the publication reported.

“Israeli restrictions on bringing in generators, engine oil, and spare parts are causing breakdowns across healthcare, sanitation, debris removal, and humanitarian work,” HRW said.

“Rodents and insects are spreading across displacement camps, and skin infections and other diseases are on the rise, OCHA reported,” the publication noted. “UN agencies and aid groups working on water and sanitation warn that severe shortages of lubricant oil and spare parts are causing generators to fail.”

Israeli forces are still killing and wounding humanitarian workers in Gaza.

“As of late April, OCHA had recorded the killing of at least 593 aid workers in Gaza since October 2023, including 8 since the ceasefire,” HRW said.

Funding pledges have also fallen far short of what’s needed.

“At the Board of Peace’s inaugural meeting in February, 10 Board member states and observers pledged a total of $17 billion for reconstruction against UN estimates of $70 billion needed,” HRW said. “As of April, the Board had received less than $1 billion of the pledged amount, with only three contributors having delivered funds, according to Reuters.”

“When the Board of Peace briefs the Security Council, members should weigh what they hear against what UN agencies are reporting from the ground,” Coogle said. “No spin can hide the fact that aid is not entering at the needed scale, patients do not have access to adequate medical care, and crossings to Gaza remain limited.”

The HRW report came a day after the UN Human Rights Office urged Israel to prevent further “acts of genocide” in Gaza, while raising concerns about escalating “ethnic cleansing” in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine.

A panel of UN human rights experts found last year that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice that’s now backed by nearly 20 nations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation. The ICC is also reportedly seeking to arrest Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over the illegal settler colonization and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Nearly all of the coastal strip’s approximately 2.1 million people have also been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened during that period. Through it all, the Biden and Trump administrations have provided Israel with more than $20 billion in armed aid and diplomatic cover, including vetoes of several UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions.

Iran Supreme Leader STUNS Trump With Nuclear Red Line

US puts pressure on Palestinian leaders to withdraw bid for UN vice-presidency role

The US has ordered its Jerusalem embassy to press the Palestinian leadership into dropping a bid for a senior position at the UN general assembly, anxious that the role could allow Palestinians to chair high-profile debates on the Middle East.

A 19 May state department cable seen by the Guardian instructed the US embassy in Jerusalem to issue a demarche (a formal protest) to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority. It put pressure on them to withdraw the bid for a role as vice-president of the general assembly by 22 May, warning that “consequences will follow” if they failed to comply.

The Trump administration, which has resisted all moves towards Palestinian statehood, is seeking to pressure the Palestinian observer mission at the UN to withdraw its bid for one of 16 vice-presidential positions on the general assembly, which are due to be elected on 2 June alongside the president of the assembly’s next year-long session. The US mission has “repeatedly appealed” to the Palestinians to stand down, according to the cable.

“In a worst case scenario, the next PGA [president of the general assembly] might assist the Palestinians in presiding over high-profile sessions related to the Middle East or during UNGA81 high-level week,” the cable read, referring to a week of summits and leaders’ speeches planned for September in New York.

The Palestinians are running as one of four delegations on a Asia-Pacific group slate. Although the vice-presidential role is less prominent than the presidency, the cable noted that vice-presidents could be deputised to oversee general assembly sessions.

Israel, Gaza, and the Weaponization of Sexual Violence w/ Aaron Maté

Trump and Xi just rewrote the rules

Xi and Putin condemn ‘irresponsible’ US foreign policy at Beijing summit

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin issued a joint condemnation of “irresponsible” US foreign policy on Wednesday, warning of “a drift back to the law of the jungle”. The statement came after the Chinese and Russian leaders held a summit in Beijing that followed a visit to the capital by Donald Trump. The exchanges between Xi and Putin were notably warm and Wednesday’s summit appeared to be more substantive than Xi’s meetings with the US president.

In their joint statement, Xi and Putin said they looked forward to further bilateral cooperation ranging from artificial intelligence to the protection of rare tigers, leopards and pandas. However, they failed to finalise an agreement over a pipeline that would allow Russia to double its fossil gas exports to China. Industry observers suggested that pricing was the biggest obstacle to a contract being signed.

The two leaders scolded the US for undermining global stability, in particular for seeking to develop a “golden dome” missile defence system, and for allowing a nuclear arms treaty to lapse in February. “The global agenda of peace and development is facing new risks and challenges, with the danger of fragmentation of the international community and a drift back towards the ‘law of the jungle’,” the joint declaration said, according to the Kremlin.

Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought Russia and China closer together while increasing the Russian leader’s dependence on Beijing for support in the face of isolation by western countries. Reuters cited three European intelligence agencies as saying China had secretly trained about 200 Russian soldiers late last year, some of whom had returned to fight in Ukraine. Beijing is officially neutral in the conflict but has continued to conduct military exercises with Moscow, and there have been numerous reports of covert Chinese assistance.

In comments after the signing ceremony, Xi said relations between Beijing and Moscow were at “the highest level of comprehensive strategic partnership”, as he called on both countries to oppose “all unilateral bullying” in the international arena. Xi’s sentiments echoed his opening remarks, in which he said the world was in danger of reverting back to the “law of the jungle”. He added that further hostilities in the Middle East were “inadvisable”, and a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency”, state media reported.

Bolivia rocked by protests as US warns of ‘coup d’état’

Protests blocking roads across Bolivia and turning the centre of the capital, La Paz, into a battleground between demonstrators and police have entered a second week. It is the most turbulent moment of the centre-right president Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s mere six months in office since he ended nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).

In response to the protests, the president said later on Wednesday that he would carry out a cabinet reshuffle and would not “dialogue with vandals” involved in acts of violence, but would set up a council to allow Indigenous groups, farmers, miners and other workers who have been on the streets “to be part of the decision-making process”. After taking office in November, one of the former senator’s first moves was to restore relations with the US, which now describes the uprisings as “an ongoing coup d’état” against Paz Pereira.

Alongside the domestic unrest, Bolivia’s president has triggered a diplomatic crisis after ordering the immediate expulsion of Colombia’s ambassador in La Paz on Wednesday, in retaliation for remarks by Colombia’s leftwing president, Gustavo Petro. On Sunday, Petro reposted a video claiming that Paz Pereira was a “puppet of the US” and commented that Bolivia was experiencing a “popular insurrection” that was “the response to geopolitical arrogance”.

Bolivia is going through its worst economic crisis in four decades, with shortages of dollars and fuel and rising inflation dating back at least to the final years of the previous president Luis Arce’s term under Mas. At a press conference on Wednesday at the presidential palace, Paz Pereira said: “We need to reorganise a cabinet that must have the capacity to listen.” Although he has not yet provided details of the changes he plans to make, the president said it would become a “more agile cabinet, closer [to the population]”.

Paz Pereira, the son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, who governed from 1989 to 1993, took office promising an “economic shock therapy”, but conditions have not improved and some of his measures have proved deeply unpopular. One of his first decisions was to end a two-decade-long fuel subsidy, promising that a free market would bring higher-quality fuel into the country. Instead, shortages continued and, shortly afterwards, the “dirty fuel” crisis erupted, after part of the supply was found to have been adulterated. The president said he had been the victim of an alleged “sabotage” by former officials supposedly linked to Mas.

Trump envoy says it’s time for US to ‘put its footprint back on Greenland’, during visit to arctic territory

The US special envoy to Greenland has said it’s time for Washington “to put its footprint back” on the Arctic island, as he wound up his first visit to the island since his appointment in December 2025. Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that the US needs to control Greenland – a Danish autonomous territory – because of national security concerns, claiming that if it does not, the island risks falling into the hands of China or Russia.

Greenland is on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the US. It is also believed to have untapped rare-earth minerals and could be a vital asset as the polar ice melts and new shipping routes emerge. “I think it’s time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland,” the US envoy Jeff Landry told Agence France-Presse, adding “Greenland needs the US.

At the height of the cold war, the US had 17 military facilities in Greenland, but closed them over the years and currently has just one – the Pituffik base in the north of the island. The US wants to open three new bases in the south of the territory, according to recent media reports. A 1951 defence pact, updated in 2004, already allows Washington to ramp up troop deployments and military installations on the island provided it informs Denmark and Greenland in advance.

Trump backed down from threats to seize Greenland in January, and a US-Danish-Greenlandic working group was set up to address his concerns.

US employers spend more than $1.5bn a year to fight labor unions, report finds

US employers spend more than $1.5bn a year on labor union opposition efforts, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Employers spent company money hiring consultants and law firms specializing in union avoidance and on legal counsel, representation, and litigation services during union elections and organizing campaigns.

US employers spend $442m on union-avoidance consultants annually, according to an estimate by the EPI. Amazon alone spent $26.6m in 2025 on union-avoidance consultants, based on filings with the US Department of Labor. An Amazon spokesperson blamed external groups for hiring union-avoidance consultants. “It’s important that our teammates and partners understand the truth, so we’ve continued to work with experts in the field who are able to share objective facts about what it actually means to have an external party take their voice,” they said in an email.

“This is millions or even billions of dollars that’s not going towards workers and investing into their workplace,” said Margaret Poydock, a co-author of the report and a senior policy analyst at the EPI. Poydock attributed the decline of unionization membership and density over the past several decades, in part, to the role of these union-avoidance law firms and consultants. Union density in the US is now at 10%, compared with 20.3% in 1983.

Despite this decline, Gallup polls report nearly 70% of Americans approve of labor unions.

A previous report by the EPI found that US employers are charged with violating labor law in 41.5% of all union elections. Through delay tactics and appeals, it takes an average of 465 days for workers to reach a first union contract, and it can be much longer in many cases, such as at Starbucks, where workers have yet to reach a first contract since the first US store won a union election in 2021.

Immigration activists whose homes were raided accuse federal agents of intimidation campaign

Federal agents have raided the homes of three southern California immigration activists in what the activists allege is the latest escalation in a Trump administration campaign to harass a volunteer-led advocacy group that organizes neighborhood ICE-watch patrols.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the main investigatory branch of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), executed a pre-dawn raid on 13 May at the home and business of Leonardo Martinez, whose group VC Defensa runs a rapid response hotline and supports immigrant families across Ventura county. The homes of two other current and former VC Defensa volunteers were also targeted. No arrests were made.

Members of the group were previously arrested in an HSI operation last October in connection with protests over massive immigration raids at cannabis greenhouses last July. VC Defensa alerted the community to the July raids after a government convoy headed to the greenhouses was spotted, rallying large numbers of protesters to the scene.

The July raids led to the death of a farm worker and hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, while immigration agents, flanked by the national guard, deployed less-lethal ammunition at demonstrators.

The group’s lawyer, Reem Yassin, described last week’s 3am raids as “fishing expeditions” built on “baseless” search warrants. “These raids are nothing more than an intimidation tactic to suppress free speech,” Yassin said during a press conference on Thursday at the federal building in Los Angeles, which houses an HSI office. Yassin said a coalition of lawyers was preparing a civil lawsuit alleging violations of the volunteers’ constitutional rights. Supporters chanted, “Trump, escucha, ¡estamos en la lucha!” (in English, “Trump, listen, we’re in the fight!”). Passing cars honked and federal officers watched from behind glass doors.

Progressive Chris Rabb wins closely watched Democratic primary in Pennsylvania

Chris Rabb, an unflinching progressive state representative, declared his campaign for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district was “indomitable” after winning the Democratic primary in a race that became a proxy battle over the direction of the Democratic party. In a significant victory for the party’s left wing, Rabb took roughly 45% of the vote in Tuesday’s contest, comfortably ahead of the early frontrunner, state senator Sharif Street, who fell to under 30%, and surgeon Ala Stanford.

Rabb addressed supporters, in an emotional victory speech, who had powered a grassroots campaign backed by the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families party. “I have been critiqued along this campaign for being too radical, being too bold,” he told the crowd. “They ain’t seen nothing yet.” Framing his win as a populist breakthrough, Rabb called the result “a triumph of the many over the money” before issuing a warning to those who might seek to undermine the movement his campaign had built. “They’re going to try and tear us apart. We’re not going to let that happen,” he said. “We are indomitable.”

Some Democratic operatives saw the party’s primary as a key test of whether the “Mamdani moment” – in Zohran Mamdani reshaping New York’s mayoral race last year, inspiring progressives across the US – could be replicated elsewhere.

Rabb, who was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive caucus, Justice Democrats, the Palestinian rights centered PAL PAC and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is now on an almost certain path to Congress. Rabb ran on universal healthcare, a universal basic income, publicly owned grocery stores and ending US military aid to Israel. He has called the war in Gaza a genocide and describes Israel as an apartheid state.

Amid Wave of Working-Class Victories, Poll Shows Platner With Clear Lead Over Collins

After a strong night for progressive candidates in Democratic primaries across the country on Tuesday, things are continuing to look up for Maine’s presumptive Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, as he seeks to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

A poll out Wednesday from the independent firm Pan Atlantic Research showed the 41-year-old former Marine leading the incumbent senator by a clear margin of 48%-41% in November’s general election among likely voters.

It’s a three-point jump in Platner’s favor since the last Pan Atlantic poll in March, where he led with 44% of the vote to Collins’ 40%. According to the New York Times’ poll aggregator, it’s the seventh straight poll to show Platner with a clear lead.

Pan Atlantic Research poll | 5/8-5/18 LV

US Senate Maine 2026 (crosstabs)

Overall: Platner +7
Female: Platner +19
Male: Collins +3
Democrats: Platner +65
Republicans: Collins +69
Independents: Platner +13
——
Favorables (net)
Graham Platner (+3)
Susan Collins… https://t.co/343sy8K3Hz pic.twitter.com/bLA2snCVr6

— Politics & Poll Tracker (@PollTracker2024) May 20, 2026

Wednesday’s poll showed Platner having striking success with women and independent voters, where he leads Collins by margins of 19 points and 13 points, respectively.

But crucially, Platner is also tied with Collins among non-college-educated voters, who broke hard for President Donald Trump in 2024, even as former Vice President Kamala Harris ultimately carried the state.

Platner’s continued momentum—on a platform built around Medicare for All, tax hikes for billionaires, and an end to reckless and costly overseas military engagements—comes alongside a series of election results that Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of the left-wing advocacy group Our Revolution, said demonstrated that populist economic messaging from working-class candidates can galvanize voters.

“The throughline across many of these races is that voters are responding to candidates willing to directly challenge concentrated power, rising costs, political corruption, and the growing disconnect between working people and political establishments in both parties,” Geevarghese said.

“What’s notable is that this energy is manifesting in very different political terrains—from deep blue urban districts to tougher working-class and red-to-blue areas,” he continued. “Whether it’s Bob Brooks speaking to economic frustration in Pennsylvania, Chris Rabb unapologetically confronting establishment politics and endless war, or Ruwa Romman building a grassroots organizing operation in Georgia, these campaigns reflect a growing appetite for candidates rooted in economic populism, movement politics, and multiracial working-class organizing.”

the evening greens

Young Americans demand court halt Trump’s biggest rollbacks of pollution protections

Eighteen American youth are demanding that a court immediately halt the Trump administration’s repeal of the scientific finding underpinning virtually all US climate regulations. The plaintiffs sued the Trump administration in February days after officials revoked the 2009 endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gas pollution threatens public health and welfare. Filed in the Washington DC circuit court of appeals Venner v EPA alleges that the move infringes upon rights guaranteed by the US constitution, including to religious freedom, life and liberty.

“My faith has taught me to protect and nurture all children, all life, all creation,” said Elena Venner, the 21-year-old named plaintiff in the case. “With these repeals, the conditions for life are not being protected.” The rule must be halted urgently, says a motion for a stay filed on Wednesday, and shared with the Guardian, because it is already causing damage: car companies are already changing their business plans to lock in more gas-powered vehicles, it says.

The filing also asks the court to immediately halt the repeal of annual motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the day it rolled back the endangerment finding. In the time it could take for their lawsuit to wind through the courts, the filing says, the rescissions may result in an additional gigaton of additional planet-warming C0₂ pollution – more than Japan’s total emissions in one year. That figure is based on EPA’s 2024 calculations of pollution cuts attributable to the regulations each year.

“The increased exposure to all of the pollutants that will result from this rule can’t be undone,” said Julia Olson, the founder and chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm behind the lawsuit. “The harm to the petitioners is irreversible.” More than a dozen environmental groups and public health advocacy organizations also sued the EPA over the February repeals, but the Venner v EPA plaintiffs are the first to call for a stay. They are also the only ones calling for the repeal to be struck down on constitutional grounds.

San Francisco turns to AI to save whales from ship strikes as deaths soar

Ferries, cargo ships and tankers cut through choppy waters in the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday as a whale surfaced nearby, its spout barely visible against the white caps. Until now, whales could easily go unnoticed by mariners, but an AI-powered detection network launched this week is designed to track them day and night. The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

“They’ll be able to make adjustments way before they get anywhere close,” said Thomas Hall, director of operations for the San Francisco Bay ferry. “It will also allow us to track data over time and see where the whales are camping out so we can adjust our routes during whale season to avoid those areas completely.” The effort comes amid an alarming rise in gray whale deaths in the bay. Last year, 21 dead gray whales were found in the wider Bay Area – the highest number in 25 years, according to the Marine Mammal Center – with at least 40% killed by ship strikes. At least 10 more have died in the Bay Area so far this year. Scientists say those figures probably underestimate the true toll as many whale carcasses sink or are swept back out to sea before they are ever found or reported.

Gray whales have long migrated along the California coast on their roughly 12,000-mile (19,300km) journey between breeding lagoons in Mexico and feeding grounds in the Arctic. But instead of simply passing offshore, increasing numbers are now diverting into San Francisco Bay and lingering for days or even weeks inside the crowded estuary – a shift scientists increasingly link to climate change. Warming temperatures and shifts in sea ice in the Arctic are disrupting the food web gray whales rely on during summer feeding months, according to a 2023 study in Science, leaving many malnourished during migration.

The eastern north Pacific gray whale population was once hailed as a conservation success story after rebounding from commercial whaling and being removed from the Endangered Species Act in 1994. But numbers have since plummeted, decreasing by half over the last 10 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Just 13,000 remain. “They may not be getting the quality or quantity of food they’re used to in the Arctic,” Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory who led the initiative said. “That means they’re starting this incredibly long migration at a disadvantage.”