The Evening Blues - 7-16-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. Enjoy!
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Detective: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Sherlock Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Detective: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Sherlock Holmes: "That was the curious incident."
News and Opinion
Liberals Have Relaxed About Trump Because They Trust Him To Keep The Wars Going
Have you noticed how the liberal establishment hasn’t been nearly as emotional and outraged about Trump’s second term as they were about his first? Now that he’s the president who bombed Iran, the entire western political/media class is cool with him.
The term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” has always been used by the MAGA crowd as a blanket pejorative to protect the president from criticism, but during Trump’s first term it wasn’t entirely unfair. You’d see Democrats shrieking their lungs out over Trump doing things that other US presidents did all the time like cozying up with dictators and tyrants. They’d lose their minds over relatively sane things like Trump talking about moving troops out of Syria. The whole Russiagate thing was liberals going bat shit over a crazy conspiracy theory that caused them to push for the escalations against Russia which ultimately gave rise to the war in Ukraine.
We’re not seeing any of that in Trump’s second term. That extra layer of screeching emotionality simply isn’t there. There are no Russiagates or emotional support Maddows this time around. Democrats hate Trump, but they hate him about as much as they’d hate any Republican president. The emotional response to his second presidency is wildly, wildly different from the first.
Which is nuts, because he’s quantifiably far worse this time around. His domestic policies are much more tyrannical. He’s as evil a warmonger as the White House has ever seen. He’s so corrupt that he’s just openly admitting to being bought and owned by Zionist oligarchs while making his family a fortune using the power of his office. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about re-election, he’s being completely nakedly monstrous.
And what’s creepy is that’s why the liberal establishment is so much more mellow about him. They’re no longer worried that he’s going to promote “isolationist” foreign policy and roll back the US war machine. He went to war with Iran, so they like him now. Because they know he’s fully compliant.
I’ve had many a Trump supporter tell me that all the anti-Trump vitriol we saw from the imperial political/media class was evidence that he really was fighting the Deep State and draining the swamp, but that was never what was actually happening. As I have been arguing since Trump’s first term, the oligarchs and empire managers never opposed Trump because they believed he was opposed to them. Rather, they simply viewed him as a poor steward of the empire. They didn’t trust him to keep the imperial gears turning in the way they must turn to maintain the status quo.
Clearly that has changed. They trust him now. They know he will keep the bombs dropping, keep the capitalism chugging along, and keep the power centers where they are.
They view him as one of their own now. When he finally dies, he will be lovingly eulogized by all the same liberal institutions which called him a second Hitler during his first term. He did enough to reassure them that the presidency of the United States had not been accidentally awarded to a decent human being.
John Mearsheimer: Iran Inflicting MASSIVE Damage on US, Trump & Israel LOST the War
House defeats bid to end military aid to Israel as over 100 Democrats vote for it
The House on Wednesday defeated a measure to slash military aid to Israel, but more than 100 House Democrats voted for it in a significant rebuke of the longtime US ally as accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government green-lit genocide in Gaza continue to convulse the party ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The amendment proposed by Republican congressman Thomas Massie to a spending measure would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid – much of which would have gone to Israel’s military. But it was rejected by a 104-314 vote, with 10 lawmakers voting present. Massie was the sole member of the GOP to vote yes.
That the amendment received the backing of 103 House Democrats, or nearly half of the 212-strong caucus, underscored how sentiment in the party towards Israel and the Netanyahu government has soured since the 7 October attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, which some international investigations have determined constituted a genocide.
The vote came amid signs that voters in some Democratic primaries are looking for candidates who will take a hard line on Israel and Netanyahu’s government and reject American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful lobby that has backed candidates from both parties for decades.
Khanna, Massie Force Pelosi To CUT Israel Funding Vote
Jewish Voice for Peace, a coalition of anti-Zionist American Jewish groups, called Wednesday’s vote by 104 members of the US House in favor of a failed measure that would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid to Israel, much of it for the Israeli military, “a seismic shift in US politics.”
“This historic vote shows a major break in Democratic support for U.S. complicity in Israeli apartheid, with more Democrats voting to block military funding than actively voting to continue it,” the group said in a statement.
“What was once unquestioning bipartisan consensus to fund Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians is now breaking apart,” Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said. “While it is shameful that the House failed to pass this amendment, it is also now clear that it is impossible for Congress to ignore our voices. The overwhelming majority of Democratic voters are demanding that we halt U.S. military funding to Israel, and every Democrat who ignored these calls should fear for their seat”.
'Strategic entrapment': Dennis Kucinich on disastrous US-Israeli military merger
Which Democrats Voted Against the Massie Amendment to cut military aid to Israel?
The following Democratic representatives voted against the Massie amendment on Wednesday:
Representative Alma Adams
Representative Pete Aguilar
Representative Joyce Beatty
Representative Wesley Bell
Representative Sanford Bishop
Representative Brendan Boyle
Representative Nikki Budzinski
Representative Ed Case
Representative Sean Casten
Representative Kathy Castor
Representative Gil Cisneros
Representative Yvette Clarke
Representative Emanuel Cleaver
Representative James Clyburn
Representative Steve Cohen
Representative Herb Conaway
Representative Lou Correa
Representative Jim Costa
Representative Joe Courtney
Representative Angie Craig
Representative Henry Cuellar
Representative Sharice Davids
Representative Rosa DeLauro
Representative Suzan DelBene
Representative Adriano Espaillat
Representative Cleo Fields
Representative Shomari Figures
Representative Lizzie Fletcher
Representative Bill Foster
Representative Lois Frankel
Representative Laura Gillen
Representative Jared Golden
Representative Dan Goldman
Representative Jimmy Gomez
Representative Vicente Gonzalez
Representative Josh Gottheimer
Representative Adam Gray
Representative Jim Himes
Representative Steny Hoyer
Representative Hakeem Jeffries
Representative Marcy Kaptur
Representative Tim Kennedy
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi
Representative Greg Landsman
Representative Rick Larsen
Representative John Larson
Representative George Latimer
Representative Susie Lee
Representative Mike Levin
Representative Sam Liccardo
Representative Ted Lieu
Representative Lucy McBath
Representative April McClain Delaney
Representative Jennifer McClellan
Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet
Representative Gregory Meeks
Representative Rob Menendez
Representative Grace Meng
Representative Kweisi Mfume
Representative Joe Morelle
Representative Jared Moskowitz
Representative Frank Mrvan
Representative Donald Norcross
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton
Representative Johnny Olszewski
Representative Frank Pallone
Representative Jimmy Panetta
Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
Representative Scott Peters
Representative Nellie Pou
Representative Josh Riley
Representative Luz Rivas
Representative Raul Ruiz
Representative Brad Schneider
Representative Hillary Scholten
Representative Kim Schrier
Representative Terri Sewell
Representative Brad Sherman
Representative Eric Sorensen
Representative Darren Soto
Representative Greg Stanton
Representative Haley Stevens
Representative Marilyn Strickland
Representative Suhas Subramanyam
Representative Tom Suozzi
Representative Emilia Sykes
Representative Shri Thanedar
Representative Dina Titus
Representative Norma Torres
Representative Ritchie Torres
Representative Juan Vargas
Representative Marc Veasey
Representative Eugene Vindman
Representative James Walkinshaw
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Representative George Whitesides
Representative Nikema Williams
Representative Frederica WilsonDemocrats Who Voted 'Present'
Representative Ami Bera
Representative Shontel Brown
Representative Janelle Bynum
Representative Sarah Elfreth
Representative Jared Huffman
Representative Betty McCollum
Representative Kelly Morrison
Representative Chris Pappas
Representative Linda Sánchez
Representative Mike Thompson
Seyed M. Marandi: Strait of Hormuz Choked: Why the US Can't Win
Iran threatens to halt all Middle East energy exports amid renewed US blockade
Iran threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East after the US reimposed a blockade of its ports and ships, as the two countries traded strikes for a fifth day and Donald Trump threatened to attack a site linked to Iran’s nuclear programme while he weighed further expanding US strikes next week.
The US blockade came into force early on Wednesday, and was followed by a 90-minute wave of strikes against Iran’s coastal defence systems and missile sites, according to the US military. Iranian authorities said the previous day of US strikes had killed at least seven troops, and wounded more than 300 people – the highest casualty count of any recent round of violence between the two countries. At least 30 civilians have been killed by US strikes in southern Iran in recent days, according to the Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani.
The strikes came as Trump suggested the US could widen attacks against Iran to force open the strait of Hormuz, with the US president warning that he would hit “Pickaxe Mountain” – a fortified underground facility linked to Iran’s disputed nuclear programme. “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. The facility was not hit in the last two wars.
The US strikes and renewed blockade prompted Iran to shut the strait of Hormuz and carry out a wave of retaliatory airstrikes on countries hosting US bases in the region. “Regional energy exports are either shared by all or denied to all,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared in a statement on Wednesday. It added that the strait would remain closed until the “end of America’s evils”, further disrupting shipping in the waterway that before the war was a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
The flare-up in violence and disruption to shipping further drove up the price of oil, with the price of crude on Wednesday continuing to rise past the one-month high reached on Tuesday. Shipping companies were avoiding transiting the strait through a US military programme meant to keep commerce flowing, Reuters reported, after continued Iranian attacks prompted safety concerns.
JD Vance FREAKS Over Israel Influence OP To Derail Deal
Gaza flotilla activist tells of rape in Israeli detention
The third time Anna Liedtke was subjected to an illegal strip-search in Israeli detention, female prison guards forced her on to her knees, covered her mouth to stop her screaming and raped her, according to interviews and a criminal complaint filed in Israel. She described hearing male guards laughing during the attack, which she believes they watched and may have filmed. It took place in an area separated from the prison hallway by a partially drawn curtain that her attackers had left open.
Liedtke, 25, joined a flotilla sailing from Europe to Gaza with humanitarian aid last autumn. Israeli forces intercepted her boat in international waters on 8 October and took her to Israel, where she was detained for five days.
The abuse and violence directed at flotilla participants in Israeli prisons, including rape, was intended to intimidate, Liedtke said. “It’s clear they want to break our will and silence us, making this so traumatic that we will never talk about Palestine again,” she told the Guardian.
Instead, she told friends and doctors within days. In December she became the first flotilla activist to talk publicly about rape in Israeli detention. More than a dozen others have reported sexual assault, most anonymously. Now lawyers acting for Liedtke in Israel have filed a complaint demanding authorities investigate her allegations. Israeli law defines rape as all non-consensual penetration.
Khanna, Massie, Epstein Files Transparency Act, LAUGH At JD Vance On Joe Rogan
Pete Hegseth says soldiers over age 30 to be screened for testosterone deficiency
Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense will offer testosterone deficiency screening for soldiers 30 and older. The US defense secretary unveiled plans for a new screening program for testosterone deficiency among troops that will work to ensure service members have the “right testosterone levels” to perform at their optimal condition in a video posted to X.
“I’m authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best,” Hegseth said in the video. “As we know, the modern battlefield is brutal and unrelenting,” he added. “It requires and demands maximum psychological and mental readiness, and by addressing these health markers early, we’re keeping you on the leading edge of lethality, and giving you the same level of support that you give this nation – the absolute best.”
“Warfighters” aged 30 and above will undergo annual tests as part of their health assessments, while those under 30 can choose to opt in, Hegseth said. Treatment, including testosterone replacement therapy, is voluntary and aimed at “restoring and optimizing” natural capabilities.
Hegseth is not the first member of the Trump administration to address the so-called “crisis” of low testosterone, or “low T”. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the 72-year-old health secretary, has spoken about injecting testosterone as part of his personal “anti-ageing regimen”. In October, he warned, without evidence, that today’s American teenagers have “50% of the testosterone of a 65-year-old man”.
China and Xi Jinping seen more favourably than the US and Trump in poll of major countries
The world has largely viewed the US more favourably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing’s favour this year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies. More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel were engaged in a war against Iran.
In only six countries – Poland, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Japan and Israel – do people still see the US more positively than China, according to the findings released Wednesday. Views in 22 out of the 36 countries and territories also are more favourable of Chinese leader Xi Jinping than US president Donald Trump, including in Canada, Mexico and major European powers including France, Germany and the UK. However, people in many of the countries have low confidence in both men.
It marks the first time in the roughly 20 years Pew has been tracking global opinions that China has been viewed more positively than the US, said Laura Silver, associate director of Pew’s Global Attitudes Research and one of the researchers on the study. Views of Beijing and Washington have been very similar at some points in the past but have not been significantly more favourable for China until now, she said.
White House overturns DHS halt to ICE traffic stops despite killings of two men
The White House overturned a one-day old homeland security department (DHS) memo that said they would be halting traffic stops in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week on Wednesday morning, hours after Donald Trump insisted ICE keep making them.
On Tuesday, federal officers across the US had been told to temporarily stop pulling drivers ove . That directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what had happened. The president’s Wednesday declaration made no mention of either killing.
In a Truth Social post, Trump insisted that “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.” He added that the partial rein-in “won’t happen on my watch”.
The whiplash from the post initially rebuked his own homeland security department, which had just spent a day trying to contain the fallout from back-to-back killings. Trump used the moment to credit ICE with falling crime rates, repeated his inflated claim that “25,000,000 people” crossed the border unchecked under Joe Biden, and instructed agents to “keep those Crime Stat Records coming”. He concluded by telling officers they are “loved and respected in America” though no reassurance was offered to the families of the men they killed.
Venezuelan man becomes 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year
Another person has died in federal immigration custody this week in Georgia, officials announced on Wednesday. His is the 22nd death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this year.
Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man, died on Monday morning while being transferred between detention facilities in Georgia. In a press release, ICE said Arenas-Silva was arrested last Thursday and had been detained at the Irwin county detention center, a privately run facility in Georgia. He was being transferred to another ICE facility, the Folkston ICE processing center, when he was found “unresponsive” in a transport bus. ICE said the “suspected” cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Arenas-Silva’s sister and immigrants’ rights groups in Georgia said in a press statement that ICE did not provide him with necessary medications during his time in detention for an unnamed condition he was dealing with, despite his family’s pleas that he take the medications during his arrest last week.
“He went without medication during his detention until he tragically died in ICE custody on Monday,” the press statement said.
Arenas-Silva’s death comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, is facing renewed calls for accountability after three other people died in the past week during the department’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.
Drained reflecting pool reveals Trump’s ‘American flag blue’ liner is now closer to gray
The newly drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring.
An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off reflecting pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it.
Trump’s problem-plagued effort to revamp the landmark has stretched well past his initial goal of having the reflecting pool ready by 4 July for the nation’s 250th birthday.
The president at first suggested his renovations would cost $1.5m, but the bill ballooned to more than $16m by June.
Trump had said the repairs would last a century, but within days of the project’s initial completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
US trial could reveal who paid hackers to target Exxon climate critics: ‘on the edge of our seats’
A group of American climate activists are closely watching a US court case that could reveal who hired hackers to target their inboxes a decade ago. In 2015, a set of explosive media reports revealed that ExxonMobil’s own scientists determined as early as 1982 that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels caused the climate crisis – but Exxon went on to fund climate denial campaigns anyway. The reports prompted attorneys general to investigate the company.
In 2016, as a group of climate activists sought to hold Exxon accountable for climate deception, they found themselves targeted by a wave of phishing emails. Kert Davies, the founder of the Climate Investigations Center, a group that monitors the fossil fuel industry, received more than 80 phishing emails, including one pretending to be his colleague sharing a Dropbox document titled “ExxonMobil (confidential).docx”. A Department of Justice investigation eventually confirmed the successful hacking of more than 100 victims, including the group of Exxon critics.
Details about who ordered the hacking operation have long been a mystery. But this spring, the extradition and arraignment of the Israeli private investigator Amit Forlit in a US federal court in New York sent shock waves through the American climate community. With Forlit now facing hacking and wire fraud charges, court documents allege the hack was ordered by a firm representing Exxon itself.
With Forlit potentially facing up to 45 years in prison, his lawyer referenced the then-sealed justice department indictment and named the alleged client for the first time, in a filing arguing against his extradition from the UK: “The hacking is alleged to have been commissioned by DCI Group, a lobbying firm representing ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies.”
A newly unsealed indictment from the US attorney’s office in New York also alleges that a lobbying firm working on behalf of an oil giant matching Exxon’s description hired Forlit to execute a project that involved hacking climate activists. Separately, Reuters reported that the FBI investigated DCI Group, a lobbying firm with a longtime relationship with Exxon, regarding the hacking operation. (Public documents published by the political finance tracker Open Secrets show Exxon was a major client of DCI Group, spending more than $3m on lobbying, including $320,000 in 2015, the year the hacking was allegedly commissioned.)
[Much more detail at the link. -js]
Extreme temperature warnings in place as ‘heat dome’ bakes US
Extreme heat warnings are in place for large swaths of the United States this week, as an unusual weather pattern eclipses record temperature highs. In Billings, Montana, residents experienced a sweltering 111F (43.9C) on Sunday, the hottest day in its history. Salt Lake City in Utah also hit an all-time record high on Sunday at 109F. Boston has seen more 90F days than average, according to NPR station WBUR-FM.
The high temperatures have been attributed to a “heat dome”, a phenomenon where pressure in the atmosphere traps heat over a region for a prolonged period of time, suppressing clouds and storms and causing hot and dry conditions, according to Cara Schulte, a researcher at the advocacy group Climate Rights International. The heat has not subsided at night in certain parts of the midwest and north-east. That lack of night-time cooling compounded with daytime heat can increase the risk of heat illnesses or cardiovascular strain for vulnerable groups, including older people, Schulte said.
The heatwave comes amid a deadly wildfire season. In late June, three firefighters were killed as they fought to suppress a blaze along Colorado and Utah’s border. This week, a helicopter pilot responding to a fire in Colorado died after his aircraft crashed under circumstances that remain unknown. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there are now dozens of wildfires burning in states including California, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Minnesota and Idaho.
Meanwhile, heavy smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning in Canada have given Toronto the worst air quality in the world, with winds pushing the pollution south into the US. Warnings about dangerous, unhealthy air on Wednesday extended from Minnesota into New York City, where unusually hot summer temperatures were also expected.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Lindsey Graham Was the Face of the Duopoly
Jonathan Cook: Two-State Solution Was Always a Sham
As US Bombs Pound Iran, JD Vance Says the US Is Engaged in a ‘Delicate Diplomatic Dance’
Sen. Graham’s Legacy: He Helped Israel Get Away With Genocide
EU Taxpayers Pay For (Sanctioned) Chinese Drones Used For War In Ukraine
An Indoctrination Plan for US Schools
Our Carefully Designed Hell Society
A Little Night Music
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues
Ma Rainey - Moonshine Blues
Ma Rainey - Deep Moaning Blues
Ma Rainey - See See Rider Blues
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Victim of the Blues
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Walking Blues
Ma Rainey - Shave 'Em Dry Blues
Ma Rainey - Bo-Weavil Blues
Ma Rainey - Booze And Blues
Ma Rainey - Prove It on Me Blues
Comments
Trump's corruption has NO limits. Anything to make a quick buck
The rest of the tweet:
evening humphrey...
the trumpster's administration is such a hive of scum and villainy. all previous modern administrations pale in comparison.
Thanks to Anya one can follow the air quality alerts due to the
wild fires in Ontario.
https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi?opt=%2F1%2Flp...
heh...
thanks for the link. guess i better stay inside.
Unconfirmed but if true it would look good on the deranged
Cheeto.
The rest of the tweet:
heh...
trump probably has insurance on them. on the other hand, i would imagine that his rates are about to go up.
The Epstein Files:
Jeffrey Epstein, Howard Lutnick,&
"Simon Andriesz was a trader at one of Lutnick’s Wall Street firms, but it wasn’t until the Epstein files were released earlier this year that he says he confirmed a longstanding suspicion that his boss was misrepresenting his relationship with Epstein." More or less driven mad by Cantor Fitzgerald human resources.
The List of House Democrats
that support arming the Israeli Zionists should be bookmarked for targeting in the 2028 primaries. Without checking can see three of those that opted for "present" know damn well that their constituents would turn on them if they voted Nay as they preferred.
evening marie...
heh, i'm preparing to fire off a letter to my congressworm who is on the list. no vote in november for that jackass.
the "present" voters are just cowards.
Take Ed Case (D-HI) — please!
Just another stooge for oligarchy and Empire, fooling good, but naïve, Island folks into thinking he speaks for Hawai‘i and Hawaiians.
Trump's Make DC Beautiful Projects
Another report on the Reflecting Pool plus more failed projects:
Trump's DC projects
Gilding old outdoor bronze status is particularly creepy (and also remains to be completed).
These are merely the cheap projects. The destruction of the WH East Wing will be the biggie. May never be finished and will still cost the Federal Treasury a multiple of the current estimate.
heh...
the trump administration will put the nails in the coffin for "the government should be run like a business," since trump is clearly running the government like one of his businesses. bankruptcy can't be far off.
Government contracting
was one business sector that wasn't broken in 1980. Reagan through Clinton did some damage -- mostly because of reducing government oversight. Bush/Cheney did serious damage by awarding contracts on a no bid/no surety bond basis. Will be a serious mess after Trump. (Suggest monitoring Clark Construction -- the GC on the ballroom. Good people and a good GC thirty years ago.)
More people favor China over the US, Pew study suggests
Gee, I wonder why that could be?
South Korea has had trade conflicts with China since former president Park Geun-hye allowed the US to introduce THAAD missile batteries into South Korea. So it's natural for there to be some hard feelings or misgivings there. I heard this referred to today as Chinese mercantilism. On the other hand, dealing with the US generally, and the current administration in particular is no rose garden. Tariffs, sanctions threats, extortionate capital demands, threats to the migrant community in the US (there are a lot of Koreans in the US, naturalized US citizens, and those hoping to become so, tourists as well). Naturally, South Koreans and Korean-Americans take a dim view of current ICE practices. Beyond that the anti-China campaign in South Korea sponsored by the domestic far right, US and Japan promoted politicians and groups, has attempted to build upon that with a very provocative disinformation campaign. Michelle Steel the new US ambassador to Seoul, who hasn't arrived yet, is regarded as a US "trojan horse." But now we're talking about money, livelihoods, trade, national pride, and sovereignty. The refrain is look at Ukraine, look at the Persian Gulf allies. Do we want this to happen to us? What is better? Steering a balanced approach, without committing our trade structure to one side or the other. Why antagonize our huge neighbors? This is a natural approach to take.
Similar to "section 219" for South Korea, except the US is beneficiary
CSIS Plan to have the US absorb South Korea's industrial base, defense industry, high tech infrastructure and supply chain by integrating it into US dominated great power "ecosystem." This would bind South Korea to the US at the hip, and according to a discussion I heard from a South Korean professor, would adversely affect SK current trade with China, still it's largest trading partner. Also a large amount of the increase in non chip exports to the US lately is export of intermediate goods used to build South Korean factories in the US. When the infrastructure is built out in 2030, SK export trade with the US will contract. The national security aspects such as shipbuilding by South Korea in the US or elsewhere, of US warships or maritime shipping will probably alienate China. The discussion also makes the position of US corporations in South Korea such as Coupang a cybersecurity issue that the US suggests SK isn't dealing with adequately. The quote by CIS about the shrimp between two whales entirely misapplies the national security and economic issues for South Korea.
Export Nation or Ecosystem Power: South Korea’s Choice in the AI Industrial Age
https://www.csis.org/analysis/export-nation-or-ecosystem-power-south-kor...
I heard yesterday in South Korean youtube media a former South Korean general say that CentCom was acting as a restraint on the CinC. fwiw
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
heh, if trump wanted to improve china's standing in the world at the expense of the u.s. he couldn't do much more.
a lot of the talking heads that i listen to have been suggesting that nations outside of the middle east have been watching the events in the conflict with iran and are mumbling amongst themselves that dealing with the u.s. is a bad deal that in addition to what you mention "Tariffs, sanctions threats, extortionate capital demands, threats to the migrant community in the US ..." the u.s. can't really protect it's allies from even a middling power.
have you been seeing evidence of this shift in opinion in asia?
There is definitely insecurity there
I think South Koreans are the most objective about it. Naturally, the right there isn't. They've bought into the commies under every rock routine, waving US flags etc. There is definitely a drive to build up the military in Japan and get rid of Article 9 restrictions on having a "military like a normal country." This was Abe's objective all along. From what I hear, the Philippines is all onboard with the US especially promoting their bs claims to the South China Sea. If the US isn't careful, the Philippines will drag them into a war there. Japan and Philippines are pretty tight, both right wing anti-China, pro US. Takaichi is almost deliberately provocative toward China. There is a huge amount of tension between China and Japan, which goes largely unreported in the west. China is the bad guy in the script, threatening Taiwan, outrageous illegal claims in the South China Sea and East Sea, breaking through the first island chain to the western Pacific blah, blah, blah. I think these elements see US military bases as a necessity, and consider themselves the alliance to stand up against the Chinese aggressors with the US.
I heard Kevin Rudd on this a couple of days ago. Didn't know the former PM of Australia and China "expert" was here in the US. He sounds like a 19th Century British Imperialist.
I'm pretty sure there are a fair number of people in South Korea and Japan that want nukes, especially on the right. I know Lee wants nuclear submarines SSNs. I've seen expert criticisms of the so called "kill chain" defense system in South Korea which is more likely to provoke the very war with North Korea they definitely don't want to have. The system includes provisions for preemptive strikes which are terribly risky and unwise. Then the last step in the kill chain progression is US assured nuclear deterrence. Is the US going to give up Hawaii and west coast cities for Seoul, most don't think so. So there is a wide spread why shouldn't we have nukes view among the public.
Australia is all on board with the US. The Taiwan executive branch and media it seems under President Lai is all onboard as well. This is a lot of caution in the opposition in Taiwan. They are not antagonistic to China. So there is a split there like in South Korea domestically.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
heh...
perhaps after the u.s. is undeniably defeated in west asia the more reasonable people in asia will figure out that diplomacy is a better tool than military provocation.
thanks for the info!
Does LG’s consumer TV and computer-monitor spying on end users
ultimately trace back to some kind of secret deal with the South Korean government and NATO-CIA-Mossad, I wonder?
That LG video warning was informative
Thanks lotl!
I've been aware of being spied on by my "personal" electronic devices for years. I have an LG monitor that was obtained for us by a family member. I assumed even before that, google and hand phones whether Iphones or Samsung were doing the same thing. They sell the private data for "commercial" purposes ostensibly. It's a small step from that to government use. If that isn't a scam, I don't know what is. There is just no government regulation of these issues whatsoever. So much for privacy rights and the fourth amendment.
I'm not technically competent, so I don't know how to shut off these features or if it's even possible. This represents a total government failure, and victory of the corporations/surveillance state. I remember when the conversations between Han Dong-hun a government prosecutor in South Korea who worked for Yoon, and Yoon's wife, became an issue when Han's Iphone was seized by another prosecutor who had obtained a warrant to seize and search the phone. It was likely the conversations on the phone were probably directed toward taking down leading political figures in the opposition, by lawfare, and leaking accusations to the conservative media. Even just the metadata on the phone would have been very incriminating to Han and the first lady, who had already been recorded by a reporter saying she spoke to Han regularly, as other accusers had alleged. Kim Gon-hee's (Yoon's wife) admissions to this effect, were recorded in a conversation with a reporter and published on youtube.
When a late model Iphone was seized in another earlier unrelated case, the South Korean government did not have the capability of decrypting the phone's password (if that's what the technical issue was iirc) So they sent it to their elint connections in Israel who decrypted it and the criminal case went forward. The whole process request, shipment, decrypting, return, only took a couple of weeks at best.
In the case of Han Dong-hun, the phone was sent to Israel, and the phone was never decrypted. The story and the case just died right there, when the "lab" or whatever in Israel claimed they couldn't decrypt the phone. I think Han may have actually gotten the phone back still locked. The prosecutor whom Han struck during the service of the warrant, was arrested for assault on Han, which is ridiculous.
I think my LG tv was a 23 model, I never got the warning or advisement discussed in the video but I've gotten the MacAfee pop ups on all the laptops I've ever attached to that TV. Of course the laptops already had a "free MacAfee" installation good for one year already on them when purchased whether manufactured in Taiwan or South Korea. I had associated these macafee popups chronologically with the original programming on the computer, and the ms updates. I've never seen the pop up on that particular LG tv that didn't originate from the laptop.
The TV has all the "free" LG channels which we have never used. I personally don't use mapping functions on the Android phone, or the mapping display on the South Korean made car. If one does, they study your driving routes and plot the route they think you are most likely to use next. Everything said in the car is recorded as well as far as I can tell by resulting advertising I see on my phone and laptop shortly thereafter. This is all my subjective impression based on experience. Like i said, I'm not technically qualified.
I wouldn't believe for a minute that all laptops, phones, and digital tvs wherever made aren't subject to these features. I noted in the CSIS article and other media reports the claim that there is something deficient in cybersecurity peculiar to South Korea, not present in the US government corporate complex. They say this while at the same time noting the advanced state of South Korean digital technology as a whole and expressing a desire to take it over in the manner of section 219. I should call it, section 219 2.0 plus, the expansive imperial model.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
I would be hard stretched
.
to give a flying f*ck whether the government/corporations want to
"harvest" my data on the net, phone or whatever. Maybe AI can figure
out something worthwhile to apply to their LLM? I'm already a shadow.
Call me radical.
Zionism is a social disease
Since I didn't watch or listen to Trumps speech I came across
this brief summation of it. There was a mention of something about China.
heh...
i didn't bother listening to his speech, your summation is pretty much what i expected of it.
I'm probably very late to the party,
but of late have been liking Kyle Kulinsky's presentations
Dens surge with double-haters
(He's married to Krystal Ball.)
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. The list of Democrats
is yet more proof that whoever you elect, you always wind up with
There's one there who really should change his name out of resspect for a truly great drummer:
Lotsa stressing going on around the world today and lotsa hassles
Kierkegaard has his, imho, stupid leap to faith. I've got my own, that this will all still be here mañana. See you then
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
well, at least morelle had the decency to change the last vowel.
yeah, it's a stressful world whether you pay attention or not, i guess.
have a good one!
Evening joe and bluesters
I have such little respect for RFK Jr when he announces figures that aren’t evidenced, and especially when it gives voice to Hegseth’s stupidity. Why are they making testosterone testing mandatory for the military? I thought their capabilities were proven through training. And what specifications are they demanding? It sounds like they just want to shoot up the murderorus chemicals.
Thanks joe for you're eb's
evening janis...
apparently an army runs on its testosterone. just look at hegseth, i bet he chugs testosterone supplements every morning.
go figure.
have a good one!