The Evening Blues - 5-25-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features string band Martin, Bogan & Armstrong. Enjoy!
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong - Za Za Zoo
"They made up lies about atrocities so that they could justify committing atrocities. They made up lies about rape so that they could justify rape. They made up lies about dead babies to justify killing babies. They framed themselves as victims to justify victimizing others."
-- Caitlin Johnstone
News and Opinion
They’re Not Mad At Ben-Gvir For Being Evil, They’re Mad At Him For Being Honest
Western and Israeli officials are currently wagging their fingers in faux outrage at Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for publicly boasting about the mistreatment of flotilla activists attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Ben-Gvir’s Twitter account shared a video
of the minister taunting activists who were abducted by Israeli forces
in international waters earlier this week, captioning it “This is how we accept the supporters of terrorism” in Hebrew and “Welcome to Israel” in English.The video shows flotilla activists from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand being shoved, held in stress positions on the ground, and mocked by Ben-Gvir while restrained. This all of course pales in comparison to the abuses endured by Palestinian captives on a daily basis, but it’s the subject of international outcry today because the victims are from the west.
Welcome to Israel pic.twitter.com/7Hf8cAg7fC
— (@itamarbengvir) May 20, 2026
Western officials from the United States, the UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand have issued huffy, indignant statements denouncing Ben-Gvir and demanding the return of the activists, while Israeli officials put on a display attempting to distance themselves from the actions of their own national security minister.
“The way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” tweeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the controversy.
“You knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display — and not for the first time,” Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar admonished Ben-Gvir on Twitter, adding, “No, you are not the face of Israel.”
“Itamar Ben Gvir’s reckless grandstanding is not representative of government policy,” tweeted Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, adding, “Ben Gvir’s antics take a sledgehammer to our diplomatic efforts while Israel’s enemies gleefully jump on every unfortunate nonsense to discredit and demonize.”
All this posturing about how Ben-Gvir’s actions do not represent Israel or its values would probably have carried more weight if they were not taking place in the immediate aftermath of an international scandal over a New York Times report on Israel’s fondness for using sexual torture on its captives — including the use of trained rape dogs.
Also important to understand that Ben-Gvir posts torture videos like that all the time, with Palestinian prisoners.
And the world has been silent until now, when Europeans appeared in the videos instead of Palestinians. https://t.co/QTqLdrkQQO pic.twitter.com/Lv2g6tW7Pg
— Zionism Observer (@receipts_lol) May 20, 2026
Analysts have noted that Israel’s national security minister appears to be sharing these materials in order to drum up support from his far-right base in an election year, which tells you everything you need to know about the political environment in that country today.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Ben-Gvir has posted videos of this sort before — the only difference being that his victims in those videos were Palestinian. We are only seeing outcry from the western world today because the west perceives western lives as infinitely more valuable than the lives of Arabs.
So it is a bit rich for the western political/media class to be making a fuss over this video in particular after enthusiastically supporting Israel’s nonstop violence and abuse this entire time, and it is rather silly for Israeli officials to be claiming their national security minister’s actions do not represent the values of their country.
Ben-Gvir is the perfect embodiment of the racist murderousness of both Israel and the western empire. He represents everything this twisted civilization has become.
They’re not mad at Ben-Gvir for being evil. They’re just mad at him for being honest.
Larry Johnson: U.S. & Iran THROW DOWN Over the Strait of Hormuz "Ticking Time Bomb"
US and Iran inch closer to peace deal as Trump faces criticism from GOP hawks
Donald Trump defended himself against criticism from fellow Republicans on Sunday as he appeared on the verge of agreeing a deal with Iran to end the war. As hawks in his party called the proposed agreement a disaster and questioned why the US president had launched the conflict in the first place, Trump claimed on social media that his deal would be “THE EXACT OPPOSITE” of the one agreed by Barack Obama, which Trump pulled out of in 2018.
He added that he was not rushing into a deal, saying “both sides must take their time to get it right … There can be no mistakes!” Trump insisted “the US blockade of Iran’s ports will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”.
“Nobody has seen” the deal, “or knows what it is”, the US president later added. “It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about.” Facing mounting criticism from inside his own party, Trump insisted: “I don’t make bad deals!”
The proposed deal reportedly offers Iran sanctions relief and the unlocking of as much as $20bn of frozen assets in return for Iran reopening the strait of Hormuz and agreeing to negotiate on its nuclear programme over the next 60 days, starting on 5 June in Pakistan. Details of the final points of dispute were not released. At least $6bn of the assets are held by Qatar. At the centre of the delay is a US demand that the unfreezing of those assets in Qatar be made conditional on progress on the handover of Iran’s enriched uranium.
The deal also reportedly requires Iran and the US, and their allies, to cease fighting, and for Israel to end its offensive in Lebanon. As Trump moved to reassure those concerned about the deal’s contents, several US media outlets, citing unnamed White House officials, reported that it could take days for it to be finalised. Iran’s supreme leader and national security council still need to approve the proposed peace deal between Tehran and Washington, Iranian officials said on Sunday.
Iran War Cheerleaders & the Mixed Messaging Surrounding a Deal /Lt Col Daniel Davis
Trump Says He Told US Negotiators Not to ‘Rush Into a Deal’ With Iran
President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday that he told his negotiators not to “rush into a deal” with Iran, comments that come after a series of reports said that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran could be reached soon.
“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” the president wrote.
Amjaj Media reported on Saturday that the deal would also release billions in frozen Iranian funds, withdraw American forces from the immediate vicinity of Iran, start a 30-day period for negotiating nuclear issues that could be extended, and bring a real ceasefire in Lebanon, though it’s unlikely Israel will agree to end its occupation of southern Lebanon and attacks in the country.
While both US and Iranian sources spoke positively of the negotiations on Saturday and notable Iran hawks in the US expressed panic, the chances of a deal seemed less likely on Sunday. Ali Hashem, a reporter for Al Jazeera, cited an Iranian source who told him that the US was now backing away from two key tenets of the potential deal: the unfreezing of Iranian assets and a real truce in Lebanon.
The threat of a resumption of the full-scale US-Israeli bombing campaign remains, though Trump isn’t expected to do so until after the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which will end on May 29. According to a report from Middle East Eye, the US’s Gulf allies warned Trump not to resume the attacks during the pilgrimage.
Republican lawmakers warn of ‘disastrous mistake’ as Trump nears deal with Iran
Republican hawks have issued a rare rebuke of Donald Trump over his planned peace deal with Iran, describing it as a “disaster” and questioning why the US president launched the war in the first place. Allies of Trump who strongly backed his controversial decision to order war on Iran alongside Israel urged him to “hold the line” this weekend, despite mounting economic costs and no sign of progress on many of the the initial objectives set out by his administration.
With the Iranian government apparently in jubilant mood, members of Trump’s own party responded furiously to reports that a proposed deal contained major concessions from Washington. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate armed services committee, said the “rumored 60-day ceasefire” would be a “disaster” in a post on social media. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught,” he added.
Trump had claimed on Saturday that a memorandum of understanding to end the war had been “largely negotiated” and was waiting to be finalized. The US president said on his Truth Social platform that the agreement would include opening of the strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint for global trade, which Iran has effectively shut since the US and Israel started the war in February.
But the US president did not mention Iran’s nuclear program and highly enriched uranium, despite repeatedly insisting that Tehran renounce any nuclear ambitions was a “red line” in negotiations to end the war. Iranian officials have sought to negotiate those matters at a later date. The peace draft includes a 60-day ceasefire extension, during which the strait of Hormuz would be reopened, according to Axios. Iran would agree to clear mines it deployed in the strait and allow ships to pass freely, and in exchange, the US would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports. During that time Iran would also be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on the nuclear issue.
The apparent concessions from Washington have triggered alarm among several Republican foreign policy hawks. Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, warned: “If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution.”
Israel PANICS And Withdraws From Two Bases In Lebanon
Israeli strikes pound Lebanon despite signs US and Iran are close to peace deal
Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon on Sunday, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war and claims that the US and Iran are about to reach a peace deal. Saturday’s strike in Sir al-Gharbiyeh “resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman”, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Israel’s military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that began on 17 April and was recently extended for several weeks. The Iran-backed group has also maintained attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and across the border, including firing rockets on Sunday at Israeli troops operating on Lebanese territory.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on several locations in southern and eastern Lebanon on Sunday, in some cases causing casualties. Some of the raids came before the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings covering more than a dozen villages in Lebanon’s south and in the eastern Bekaa valley.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said its chief, Naim Qassem, had received a message from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, saying Iran’s latest proposal through Pakistani mediators emphasised “the demand to include Lebanon” in the broader ceasefire. Qassem expressed hope for an agreement between his group’s backer, Iran, and the US, and that Lebanon would be part of its terms.
Mark Sleboda | "The Nature Of War Has Changed"
The Dumbest Man On The Internet?
Conservative commentator Dave Rubin, who for months has been a top booster of President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran, was inundated with mockery on Sunday after a viral video exposed months’ worth of his failed predictions about the conflict.
The video, which was posted on social media Saturday, begins with Rubin telling viewers to not listen to any of the prognostications being made by critics of the war, which Trump launched in late February without any authorization from Congress.
“I’m pretty good with predictions,” Rubin says. “And my prediction here is that everything the media is now going to say about Iran—it’s going to close the Strait of Hormuz, and energy prices are going to go crazy—none of this is going to come to pass.”
Iran war: greatest hits from the last 12 weeks pic.twitter.com/9pgXyvmsgF
— Dave Rubin Clips II (Parody) - Retired Jan.20/2025 (@DaveClips) May 24, 2026
The video then cuts to Rubin wrongly predicting that gas prices during the conflict “will continue to come down,” before switching to claims that Iran lacks the military capability to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed in the face of US military power.
“If the United States wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, which it does,” says Rubin, “and Donald Trump says we’ll escort ships through if we have to, it’s going to stay open.”
From there, the video shows Rubin hyping of the prospect of Iranian dissident Reza Pahlavi swooping in to take over the country after the war, and then getting fooled by a fake artificial intelligence-generated video of Iranians giving thanks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bombing their country.
The video compilation of Rubin’s failed predictions drew immediate ridicule from critics.
“He’s the Jim Cramer of Iran war predictions,” joked Krystal Ball.
Commentator Adam Mockler wrote of Rubin that “it’s brutal watching him make failed predictions week after week.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that the video should be the last nail in the coffin of whatever credibility Rubin had left.
“Imagine having sat through and listened to all of this Israeli propaganda, which turned out to be (predictably and completely) false,” commented Greenwald, “and then thinking there was some value in continuing to listen to this person.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller said that while he knew Rubin was “a smooth-brained hack,” he still “couldn’t even fathom how bad these war takes would be.”
Political analyst Omar Baddar, meanwhile, said the video should erase any doubt that Rubin is “the dumbest man on the internet.”
Russia Plans More Oreshnik Strikes Speeds Up Zaporozhzhye Offensive; Europe Ukraine Funds Run Short
CIA director brought paramilitary leader involved in Maduro capture to Cuba meeting
When CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana last week for a rare meeting with senior Cuban officials, he brought along one of the operators involved in the U.S. mission to capture then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, multiple people familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Venezuela and Cuba were allies before Maduro's arrest, and the Cuban government has said 32 of its military and police officers were killed in the January operation to extract Maduro.
Ratcliffe made a point of introducing the paramilitary leader to the Cubans as the one who killed their people in Venezuela, several sources said.
‘Biggest Wealth Divide in Modern History’: Graphic Shows Shocking Reality of US Economy
Multiple polls and surveys released in recent days have shown US consumer sentiment cratering—and all the while, the US stock market keeps hitting record highs.
The Kobeissi Letter, a financial newsletter, posted a graphic Saturday that matched consumer sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers with the performance of the S&P 500 stock index over a 30-year span.
The graphic shows that, up until around 2020, consumer sentiment matched stock market performance closely, although there was a large divergence between the two leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, where stocks briefly outperformed consumer sentiment before crashing downward as the housing bubble burst.
But throughout the last six years, the graphic shows, the S&P 500 has produced an almost continuous upward surge even as consumer sentiment spirals downward.
Absolutely incredible:
Over the last 6 years, the S&P 500 has risen +130% while US Consumer Sentiment has collapsed by -55%, to its lowest since data began in 1952.
We are witnessing the formation of the biggest wealth divide in modern history. https://t.co/XGMR6DfuNc pic.twitter.com/2w7cRvn7ok
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 23, 2026
“Absolutely incredible,” commented Kobeissi Letter. “Over the last six years, the S&P 500 has risen +130% while US Consumer Sentiment has collapsed by -55%, to its lowest since data began in 1952. We are witnessing the formation of the biggest wealth divide in modern history.”
Kobeissi Letter produced the graphic one day after the University of Michigan’s latest survey found consumer sentiment hitting the lowest level on record.
Joanne Hsu, director of the survey, observed that “the cost of living continues to be a first-order concern, with 57% of consumers spontaneously mentioning that high prices were eroding their personal finances, up from 50% last month.”
On the same day, Gallup published new data showing that Americans’ economic confidence has fallen to its lowest level since October 2022, with just 16% of Americans rating the economy as excellent or good, and nearly half describing it as poor.
Axios reported on Saturday that even Republicans have been growing sour on the US economy, citing a recent poll from The Associated Press showing GOP approval of President Donald Trump on the economy to be at around 60%, down from 80% just three months ago.
“The growing GOP gloom could hardly come at a worse time for Trump and the party,” Axios noted, “less than six months out from a midterm election that’s likely to turn on the economy.”
The gap between overall consumer sentiment and stock market performance also lines up with recent consumer spending trends. Data published by The Financial Times earlier this year showed that the top 10% of earners in the US now account for nearly half of all consumer spending, while the bottom 80% of earners now account for less than 40% of all consumer spending.
A February report from TD Economics economist Ksenia Bushmeneva noted that “the economic divide between America’s households at the top of the income spectrum and everyone else continued to widen last year,” as “upper-income households benefited from the still-robust wage growth, strong gains in equity markets, and better access to consumer credit.”
Trouble follows Epstein associate ...
Police investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are looking into an allegation that he behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot, according to a report. The alleged incident is said to have happened at the annual five-day racing event in Berkshire in 2002, according to the Sunday Times.
On Friday, Thames Valley police (TVP) indicated that their investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor was wider than many had previously believed, and also covered sexual misconduct. He was arrested on his 66th birthday in February and questioned under criminal caution on suspicion of misconduct in public office, related to his role as a British trade envoy,
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February after allegations arising from documents released by the US Department of Justice that he passed information to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
On Friday, TVP asked witnesses to contact them if they believed they had information about alleged sexual misconduct, corruption, fraud or the sharing of confidential information involving the king’s brother. The appeal came amid concern that people who may have information about criminal offences wrongly think detectives are interested in only the alleged sharing of confidential information.
TVP is still assessing a claim from a woman that she was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes. It is not yet a full criminal investigation. The woman lives in the US and detectives have contacted her through her lawyer. Three British police forces are conducting full criminal investigations triggered by other revelations in the Epstein files, with several others assessing claims about flights linked to the disgraced financier entering the UK.
Gunman who opened fire near White House was known to Secret Service
A gunman who opened fire outside the White House on Saturday before he was shot by federal agents was already known to the US Secret Service, court records show. The man, 21, was taken to a nearby hospital, before he was later pronounced dead. He had previously tried to enter the complex, according to an affidavit filed in DC superior court in 2025, following an arrest nearby.
The White House was briefly locked down shortly after 6pm on Saturday after the suspect approached a checkpoint at a gate near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, took a pistol out of a bag and fired, the Secret Service said. Officers returned fire, the agency said, striking the suspect. A bystander was also struck in the exchange, the Secret Service said, but it was unclear whether they were struck by the suspect or shots returned from officers. No agents were injured.
Donald Trump, who was inside the White House at the time of the incident, claimed the gunman as having “a violent history” and a “possible obsession” with the White House. The US president praised the “swift and professional action” of law enforcement officials on social media. The individual – identified in US media reports as Nasire Best – was “known to the Secret Service” for “walking around the White House complex inquiring how to gain access at various entry points” on multiple occasions last summer, according to a July 2025 court filing.
It took three days for Arianne Betancourt’s joy at the release of her father from months of detention in Florida’s notorious so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail to fully evaporate. At first, she was able to overlook his shockingly gaunt appearance and weight loss, hesitant movements and moments of slurred speech. The tonic of being back in her Miami apartment, she thought, would surely hasten his return to health.
That was on Thursday. By Sunday, however, Justo Betancourt was in the emergency room, with doctors suspecting he had suffered a series of mini strokes, during his detention and since his release. They were unable to perform an MRI scan on his brain to confirm the diagnosis because of the electronic monitoring tag affixed to his ankle. “If he had a headache, if he didn’t feel good, if his glucose was high, they’d just tell him to drink more water,” Arianne Betancourt said of his guards’ reaction to her diabetic father’s requests for medical help and his twice-daily insulin injections. “I’m furious at the condition he’s in now. He’s not the same person he was before they took him in there, and I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same.”
The detention center, hastily constructed last summer on a disused airstrip adjacent to fragile wetlands and Native American ancestral tribal lands in the mosquito-infested Florida Everglades, will close next month. It was condemned as “a failed experiment in human suffering” by critics, and still costs Florida taxpayers more than $1m a day. Its imminent shuttering follows lawsuits from environmental groups; protests from immigration advocates; unannounced visits by Democratic politicians who called conditions inside the facility “inhumane”; and a 2025 Amnesty International report highlighting commonplace physical abuse of detainees and human and legal rights violations.
Beyond that, there are the individual human stories such as Betancourt’s that will endure after the jail’s closure, and become part of the legacy of Ron DeSantis, Florida’s hard-right governor, who will be termed out of office in January. DeSantis, a champion of the remote tented camp surrounded by alligators and Burmese pythons, celebrated that 22,000 detainees, all slated for deportation, were kept in metal cages during the nine months of the jail’s existence. “We did not create the Four Seasons [hotel]. That’s not the intent of this,” he said last year.
The Florida division of emergency management, which runs the jail using a combination of state employees, military personnel and private contractors, has denied any mistreatment or deprivation. The homeland security department has called reports “hoaxes”. But other former detainees have described conditions inside as “hell”, with cramped and dirty cages, no privacy for showers, overflowing toilets, lights on 24 hours a day, malfunctioning air conditioning, and tiny food portions sometimes infested with worms or maggots. DeSantis, who is also reportedly mulling another run for the US presidency, already appears to be distancing himself from the jail he once supported.
Thomas Massie DROPS Bombshell!
Trump has ‘alienated’ voters ahead of midterms, warns ousted Republican Thomas Massie
Donald Trump’s Republican party is on course for a damaging rejection at the ballot box in November, according to a maverick US congressman ousted by a challenger handpicked by the president. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, became the latest of Trump’s targets to be defeated in the party’s primaries this week. He had repeatedly broken with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
As control of US Congress hangs in the balance, Massie warned on Sunday that Trump has “disenfranchised” many of the Americans who voted for him – and their party – in November 2024. The libertarian-minded congressman, who will remain in the House of Representatives for the rest of year, promised to stay engaged in politics, even if “it’s from the outside”, and expressed no regrets for the actions that angered Trump, even though they helped prompt his defeat.
“It was completely worth it,” Massie told Meet the Press on NBC. “And I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain, which means voting for principles and for people over party.” In a nod to “Trump derangement syndrome”, the label frequently used by the president to accuse his critics of an obsession with him, Massie said: “There’s a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called Trump disappointment syndrome.
“And I think what’s going to happen to the party this fall, is they’ve disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House, in the Senate majority, and in the House majority.” Massie pointed to several significant constituencies – including “Make America healthy again” campaigners, fiscal hawks pushing for sweeping government budget cuts, and voters who don’t want the US engaged in wars – who he claimed had been “alienated” by the administration’s actions. “And so, I’m worried that in November, this is going to cost the party a lot.”
Massie suggested in the interview that the “biggest crime” he committed against “the swamp” was joining with Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, in writing a bill to release the Epstein files. “That’s probably the only bill that’s passed Washington DC in the past 10 years that lobbyists haven’t written,” Massie said. “That’s when they decided that I had to be taken out – I was becoming effective so they wanted to eliminate me.”
Thomas Massie CALLS OUT TPUSA For ISRAELI INFLUENCE
Less than three weeks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a congressional map rigged for his fellow Republicans into law, Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz came under fire on Friday for switching districts.
First elected to Congress in 2004, Wasserman Schultz currently serves the 25th District, a target of Florida Republicans’ recently redistricting—which is part of President Donald Trump’s national push to retain control of the House of Representatives.
DeSantis split up the Democrat’s District 25 “into five different districts in his newly approved maps, leaving her with complicated options as Black Democratic leaders and candidates fight to keep her out of at least one of those districts,” the Miami Herald reported earlier this month.
Despite that opposition, Wasserman Schultz announced in a Friday video featuring various local figures that she is indeed running there—in District 20.
“I’ve fought for the people of Broward County my whole adult life, and you’ve always been able to count on me to deliver results for our community,” she said. “And I’ve waged these battles when our values were on the line, all while still raising a family, beating cancer, and answering President Barack Obama’s call to lead our national party.”
Wasserman Schultz chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2011 until her 2016 resignation—after WikiLeaks published her emails showing bias in that year’s presidential primary. She didn’t acknowledge her scandalous departure from DNC leadership in the video, but she did speak in front of an Obama poster and an American flag.
Putting an Obama poster in the background of your campaign announcement for a majority-Black district that you have no connections to is like the most shameless thing I’ve seen a politician do in a while lol https://t.co/fPCkAljHPL
— Uncrewed (@Uncrewed) May 22, 2026
“I’m announcing my candidacy for reelection in Congressional District 20, because we cannot let Trump destroy Broward County’s power. And we know Republicans couldn’t care less about lowering your healthcare, gas, or grocery bills,” she continued. “But I’ll use all my seniority and influence in Washington to continue to make our lives more affordable, and make Broward a safer, less expensive place to live, raise a family, and retire. This district deserves a representative who won’t be learning on the job and has a proven record of results.”
As the Herald detailed last week:
Only two of the five districts her voters were split into favor a Democratic candidate—and both of those districts were created in 1992 under the Voting Rights Act to ensure Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice.
Rep. Frederica Wilson’s district, the 24th Congressional District, was drawn to pack an even larger Black majority into the district in the new maps. But DeSantis’ office intentionally broke up Black neighborhoods in District 20 as a justification for redrawing surrounding districts in a way that favors Republicans.
Black candidates and party leaders in that district say a well-funded, white Democrat jumping into the race would work to further weaken Black political power.
Elijah Manley, one of the Black Democrats who was already running in District 20, criticized Wasserman Schultz’s potential run to the newspaper earlier this month, and again on Friday, after she confirmed her decision, calling her “Jim Crow Debbie.”
“Debbie Wasserman Schultz is carpetbagging to FL-20, a Black opportunity district, instead of running in her own,” Manley said on
social media. “DWS is everything that’s wrong with the Democratic establishment. From insider trading to payday lenders.”
“She is no different than the Jim Crow Republicans that are eviscerating Black Representation across the South,” he added in a statement. “I look forward to retiring her from public office permanently.”
As Politico reported Friday:
The district Wasserman Schultz is seeking to represent was previously held by Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned from her seat in April following ethics and legal deliberations over allegations she denies that she stole federal emergency funds and routed them to her campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick is running again. The seat was held by a Black lawmaker for more than 30 years—a fact often raised by existing CD-20 Democratic candidates, all of whom are Black, as Wasserman Schultz was weighing whether to run for the seat...
The other candidates in the race include Manley, Luther Campbell, a former 2 Live Crew member who won a landmark free-speech Supreme Court case, physician Rudolph Moise, and former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness. Several of the candidates have accused Wasserman Schultz of counting on the county’s African American and Caribbean American voters splitting their allegiances, drawing an advantage to her candidacy despite the 20th District having been historically drawn to help with Black representation.
The Florida Legislative Black Caucus said in a lengthy statement that Wasserman Schultz’s “decision to pursue reelection in this historically Black district, despite explicit requests from the Black community to seek candidacy in a neighboring district, is disheartening,” and stressed that “this is more than a political issue; it is a pressing voting rights and civil rights issue.”
“The residents of District 20 deserve transparency, engagement, and genuine commitment to listening,” the caucus continued. “Building trust with Black leaders and constituents should be paramount for anyone seeking to represent a majority-Black district. Unfortunately, the actions taken by Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz suggest a failure to prioritize these essential values, perpetuating a narrative of performative allyship rather than meaningful connection.”
Wasserman Schultz also faced criticism for her move beyond Florida. Nina Turner, a former Democratic Ohio state senator and congressional candidate, declared: “Time to retire her. Where are you DNC? Her run illustrates her clear disregard and disrespect for the Black community, especially in this moment. This is just as bad as what the GOP is doing across the country.”
Mason Pressler, a national committeeman for Young Democrats of Michigan, said that “as progressives field Black candidates for majority-Black seats (PA-03, MO-01, MI-13, etc.), establishment Democrats like DWS are showing their true colors when it comes to protecting black representation. They don’t care, and voters must reject this at the primary ballot box.”
Why an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists
An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists as new data shows its ecological and environmental effects are intensifying. The unusual area of warm water has persisted since peaking in size during September 2025 and still stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline – more than halfway across the Pacific – affecting a vast triangle-shaped region of oceanic habitats from Hawaii to British Columbia and southward to Mexico.
As recently as early April, marine scientists had hoped that the heatwave might diminish and the worst of its effects might be avoided. However, new projections released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show it is now expected to expand and strengthen in the months to come.
Scientists say the effects may already be far reaching. A surge in the marine heatwave would accompany the formation of El Niño in the tropical Pacific – resulting in an atmospheric and oceanic mélange that could influence everything from record-breaking temperatures on land to disrupted marine food chains. Additional data acquired in recent weeks has left climate scientists gobsmacked and re-examining their assumptions of how the complex interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere could accelerate the effects of human-caused climate crisis.
“I’m out of superlatives,” Kim Wood, a University of Arizona atmospheric scientist, wrote on social media last month. Wood was reacting to data showing ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific had recently surged to a level warmer than typically seen during peak hurricane season. Climate scientists said the persistent marine heatwave had contributed to shockingly extreme temperatures downstream across most of the United States. Abnormally warm Pacific waters tend to retain atmospheric heat from the warmer summer months and re-release it during relatively cooler winter months – significantly altering weather patterns.
In March, a remarkable land-based heatwave – what one meteorologist called “one of the most astounding global weather events of the century thus far” – sent late winter temperatures soaring more than 30F above seasonal norms to 88F (31C) or warmer in relatively temperate places such as Minnesota, Colorado and Idaho. In a series of posts on social media, Robert Rohde, lead scientist for the climate data non-profit Berkeley Earth wrote that the March heatwave “would have been impossible without a boost from climate change”. [much more at the link. -js]
Overheated chemical tank in southern California ‘will fail’, EPA chief says
Government officials in Orange county, California, have warned that an overheated chemical tank “will fail” and could result in a chemical explosion in the area, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator said on Sunday. “We’re being told that the tank will fail, but there are different scenarios as to what that means,” Lee Zeldin, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. Zeldin, a former Republican congressman with no prior experience in environmental policy, was chosen by Trump as the head of the EPA.
“The most catastrophic scenario” at the aerospace facility in the city of Garden Grove, just 5 miles from Disneyland, Zeldin said, would be “an explosion that results in other tanks to explode. That’s the reason why you see such a big evacuation that’s been done in the surrounding areas.”
About 50,000 people in the area have now been evacuated from their homes so far given concerns of a possible leak or explosion. Stephanie Klopfenstein, Garden Grove’s mayor, warned residents to take evacuation orders seriously. “This is a very dangerous situation,” she said on Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported. Agencies in Los Angeles county have said that there is “no current threat to LA County communities”, in a post to X on Sunday.
The chemical incident began on Thursday afternoon after a leak was reported at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft. The tank contained 6,000-7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, local authorities said, a highly flammable chemical used to produce plastic and resin. Firefighters have been spraying the tank with water to try to cool the chemicals inside and prevent an explosion.
In a later update on Instagram, Klopfenstein said “we had a somewhat positive briefing” from the Orange county fire authority team on the scene. The good news, according to county fire chief TJ McGovern, was that late Saturday night, firefighters discovered “a potential crack in the tank, which could potentially be relieving some of the pressure in there”, making an explosion less likely. Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems and even render someone unconscious. It can also cause neurological problems and irritate the skin, eyes and throat, according to fact sheets about the chemical.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Not just the US: How 51 countries armed Israel during Gaza war
The Russian-Chinese Communiqué
The Central Node of Great-Power Politics
Tens of Thousands Rally in Havana Against US Aggression as Cuba Prepares Citizens for War
A Little Night Music
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – Knox County Stomp
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – If You'se A Viper
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – Hodoo blues
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – In The Bottom
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – Carl's Blues
Howard Armstrong and Ted Bogan - Blues Before Sunrise / Sitting on Top of the World
Carl Martin - Crow Jane
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – Let's Give A Party
Martin, Bogan & Armstrong – Old Man Mose
