The Evening Blues - 7-2-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features St. Louis blues singer and guitarist Clifford Gibson. Enjoy!
Clifford Gibson - Ice and Snow Blues
"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
News and Opinion
Genocide by design: The Gaza massacre is made in Washington
On Friday, Reuters reported that the United States has sent Israel 14,000 2,000-pound bombs since October for use in the Gaza genocide. These massive bombs, among the largest in the US arsenal, are capable of destroying entire city blocks and can kill people up to 1,200 feet away. The Reuters report, which for the first time revealed the exact breakdown of US arms shipments to Israel, showed that the Biden administration sent Israel more 2,000-pound bombs than all other types of bombs and missiles combined.
There is only one explanation for why the US has sent so many of these vastly destructive weapons for use in a densely packed urban area: The Biden administration is consciously and deliberately seeking the complete destruction of Gaza and the massacre of as many Palestinians as possible. Israel’s “war” in Gaza was, in fact, conceived by its architects in Washington as a war of annihilation. The systematic destruction of civilian homes, schools and hospitals is not an accidental byproduct, but the deliberate aim of US policy. The goal is not to minimize, but to maximize the civilian body count.
It is a genocide by design, planned and organized in Washington. ...
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported the existence of a plan to relocate the population of Gaza to a series of concentration camps, in which they will be permanently displaced and imprisoned. In an article titled, “The Postwar Vision That Sees Gaza Sliced Into Security Zones,” the Wall Street Journal reported a US-Israeli plan to create “temporary shelter” in the form of “fenced-off geographic islands located next to their neighborhoods and guarded by the Israeli military.” The entire population of the Gaza Strip will either be killed or permanently imprisoned in accordance with Washington’s “final solution of the Palestinian problem.” ...
American imperialism has effectively instigated a war with Russia in Ukraine. At the same time, it is actively preparing for war with China. The Biden administration has proclaimed a “decisive decade” in which the US will seek to establish a “new world order” through the use of overwhelming military force and violence. In seeking to create its “new world order,” US imperialism is making clear that it will be absolutely ruthless and there are no limits on the number of people it is willing to kill.
In a panel discussion in May, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley openly defended and legitimized the mass murder of civilians, proudly declaring that “the United States killed a lot of innocent people.” His fellow panelist, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, declared, “[Y]ou have to be willing to be fierce,” and “You have to scare your adversary.” Whether consciously or not, the general and the CEO were echoing the words of Adolf Hitler to his general staff: “Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality.”
This Obvious Genocide Is Not What It Looks Like
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like, smirks the man behind the podium.
Don’t trust your lying eyes, or your lying ears, or your lying mind, or your lying heart.
Silence that part of you which sees. Which feels. Which knows. Which cares.
Stomp it down until it stops moving. Pour concrete over it if you have to.
Stop feeling the feelings that you are feeling. Those feelings have not been authorized by the Israeli government.
We are waiting for the IDF to investigate itself to determine if your feelings are permissible. Until the results of that ongoing investigation, your feelings are antisemitic.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. The IDF will tell you when it is doing a genocide.
It helps if you don’t think about it too hard. Think about something else instead, like housewives in conservative homes do when their husbands climb on top of them.
Think about celebrities and Donald Trump, or that latest TV series you’re binging. Relax. Go to your happy place. It will be over in a minute.
Strangle that sacred spark within yourself that cannot accept what it is seeing. Grab it by the throat and squeeze until it is as dead as a Palestinian child.
Pour concrete over its dead body and then have a few drinks with your friends in congress. Are you not journalists? That is what journalists do.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. Forget what you’ve seen. Forget what you know.
Relax. Don’t struggle. Think of the beach. Daddy’s almost finished. Let the amnesia sink in, and float away.
What does Netanyahu care? He's got his American stooges to fight the war for him.
Iran Warns Israel of ‘Obliterating War’ If It Launches Full-Scale Attack on Lebanon
Iran’s mission to the UN has warned Israel that a full-scale attack on Lebanon would result in an “obliterating war” that could involve all of Iran’s allies in the region.
The mission wrote on X that it believes Israel’s recent threats against Lebanon could be “psychological warfare” and “propaganda” but said that if Israel does “embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue.”
The mission added, “All options, including the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”
Israel will be destroyed in a war with Hezbollah
Freed Gaza hospital head accuses Israel of repeated torture
The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital has accused Israel of torturing him and other detainees, following his release after seven months in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, was among dozens of Palestinians freed and returned to Gaza on Monday, according to Israeli authorities.
The doctor, who had been held by Israel without charge since arrest at his workplace in November, said he and other prisoners were subjected to “almost daily torture” while in detention in Israel. Mistreatment included assaults with batons and dogs, deprivation of food and medicine, as well as physical and psychological humiliation, Abu Salmiya said.
Other detainees released alongside Abu Salmiya also alleged abuse. The claims could not be independently confirmed but matched other accounts of Palestinians who have been held in Israeli custody.
The release of Abu Salmiya prompted a political row in Israel, with the country’s most senior officials denying prior knowledge of the move. Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had decided on the release with the Israeli military “to free up places in detention centres”. The agency said it “opposed the release of terrorists” who had taken part in attacks on Israeli civilians “so it was decided to free several Gaza detainees who represent a lesser danger”.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, who controls the police and prison service, said the release of Abu Salmiya and others constituted “security negligence” and blamed the defence ministry, which denied responsibility. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said Abu Salmiya’s release was another sign of the government’s “lawlessness and dysfunction”.
Amb. Chas Freeman : Why Israel Is Losing Its War
'A Full-Fledged War Crime': Israel Condemned Over New Human Shield Footage
The latest video evidence of Israel's use of Palestinians as "human shields" during combat was condemned by one human rights advocate on Monday as "horrifying but not surprising," as campaigners emphasized that the Israel Defense Forces has long used civilians in Palestine to shield their own soldiers from harm while bombarding Gaza and the West Bank.
Footage released by Al Jazeera on Sunday night showed Israeli forces attaching body cameras to handcuffed Palestinians who they had detained, dressing them in IDF uniforms, and sending them into buildings and tunnels to ensure the locations weren't rigged with explosives.
The footage presented "evidence of a systematic tactic of the army," said the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
"The leaked horrific scenes that were obtained and published by Al Jazeera reveal how the Israeli army uses civilians, including injured detainees, as human shields and forces them into hazardous combat zones after installing cameras on their bodies and binding them with rope," said Euro-Med. "Each of the aforementioned acts of criminal, brutal, and inhumane behavior constitutes a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law, and is a full-fledged war crime. These crimes, and dozens of similar cases, require urgent intervention from the international justice system to ensure the protection of civilians, prevent their use as human shields, and hold the Israeli political and military perpetrators."
The Israeli government has long blamed Hamas' use of "human shields" for deaths in Gaza, which now number at least 37,900, saying the group operates out of civilian infrastructure and places Palestinians in harm's way.
Journalist Dan Cohen pointed out that the IDF has used what it calls "the neighbor procedure" for decades, forcing Palestinian "messengers" to approach the homes of suspected fugitives alone and unarmed while Israeli soldiers announce over a loudspeaker that they are surrounding the building.
The procedure "is so commonplace that the military tried to justify it as a lifesaving measure in use since the 1980s," said Cohen. "The images... show the reality of this criminal practice."
In its statement on the new footage, Euro-Med detailed numerous instances in which Israel has appeared to use human shields as defined by the Geneva Conventions: "cases where persons were actually taken to military objectives in order to shield those objectives from attacks."
As Euro-Med reported:
During the Shifa Medical Complex raid in March 2024, Israeli forces used civilians, including patients and displaced individuals sheltering inside the complex, as human shields. To protect their military operations within the hospital and its vicinity, Israeli forces exploited Palestinian civilians by making them form human barriers to surround Israeli soldiers and military vehicles, or sending them under threat to residential homes and buildings to either help arrest or forcibly evacuate other civilians before army raids and the subsequent destruction of many of these buildings.
[...]
Furthermore, several families residing near the Shifa Medical Complex reported that Israeli forces arrested young men from inside the medical facility, then used them to enter the families' homes and demand that they immediately evacuate to the central and southern Strip.
The group also cited a recent example from June 22 in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, where Israeli forces placed a wounded Palestinian man on the hood of a military vehicle and drove through the Jabariya neighborhood, and "a compound and comprehensive crime" against a civilian family in Gaza City on June 27.
"A family comprising an elderly woman and her four children, including three young women and a one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, was attacked with gunfire and bombs by Israeli forces who stormed their house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Shujaiya," said the group. "They were later taken outside and detained for over three hours near Israeli tanks in a dangerous combat zone, despite the injuries they sustained in the initial attack on their home, and were used as human shields. The 65-year-old mother, identified as Safiya Hassan Musa Al-Jamal, was run over by an Israeli tank and killed in front of her son."
On Monday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the footage released Sunday from the incident in Gaza while noting that Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was recorded over the weekend calling for Palestinian prisoners to be executed and fed reduced food rations as a "deterrence" tactic.
Almost 10,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces, including women and children, CAIR said, demanding that the U.S. end its military support for Israel.
"Israeli war crimes, and calls for more war crimes, are occurring daily in Gaza and the West Bank, while the Biden administration rushes more American bombs to Israel to complete the genocide," said CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper. "The U.S.-Israeli partnership in genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation will shape the international community's image of America for generations to come. The Biden administration must change course to uphold universal human rights and recognize Palestinian humanity."
Israel INVADES Khan Younis Again As Biden Does NOTHING To Stop Netanyahu
Israel Orders New Khan Younis Evacuation, Signaling It Will Re-Invade
Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate from the eastern portion of Khan Younis, signaling its forces are preparing to re-invade the southern Gaza city, which has mostly been destroyed by the previous Israeli assault.
Many of the over one million Palestinian civilians who fled the Israeli assault on Rafah have been sheltering in Khan Younis and are being forcibly displaced again. According to The Associated Press, Palestinians have been told to go to the nearby al-Mawasi camp on the coast, which Israel has declared a “safe zone.” But like other so-called safe zones in Gaza, the camp has come under repeated Israeli attacks.
Beelzebub Smotrich is stirring the pot again:
Israel approves flashpoint West Bank settlements
The Israeli government has approved five flashpoint settlements in the occupied West Bank and imposed additional punitive measures against the Palestine Authority (PA).
The decisions made Thursday night by the security cabinet include seizing some of the PA’s limited civilian authority in the so-called "Area B" of the West Bank.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who pushed for the moves, said they came in response to PA legal action against Israel at international courts, and the recent recognition of Palestine's statehood by five European countries.
“These are steps that protect the state of Israel and convey a clear message - we will never establish a terrorist state in the land of Israel!” Smotrich said on social media platform X, referring to the Palestinian aspiration of establishing part of their future state in the West Bank.
Ukraine Pushing NATO To Create No-Fly Zone Over Western Ukraine
Ukrainian officials are pushing NATO countries to impose a no-fly zone over western Ukraine using air defense systems in eastern Europe, a step that would mean direct NATO involvement in the war with Russia. ...
The idea is for NATO to protect Ukrainian industry and energy infrastructure in the western portion of the country. But a no-fly zone would require NATO to shoot down Russian missiles and potentially Russian aircraft, and the direct NATO involvement would make nuclear war much more likely.
Despite the huge risk of escalation, Ukraine’s Western backers appear to be entertaining the idea of a no-fly zone. A European diplomatic source told AFP that talks about the issue were “in progress,” adding that it was “not a simple decision.”
Viktor Orbán expected to make surprise trip to Kyiv on Tuesday
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is expected to travel to Kyiv on Tuesday, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans, in a surprise visit for one of Europe’s most pro-Russian leaders, which comes as Hungary takes over the rotating presidency of the EU. Two sources in Budapest said Orbán was expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, in the Hungarian prime minister’s first trip to neighbouring Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion more than two years ago. ...
One of the Budapest sources said the trip plans came together after lengthy negotiations on the issue of rights for Ukraine’s Hungarian-speaking minority, who live in the far west of Ukraine close to the two countries’ border. “It was a precondition for the meeting that the issue of nationality rights was resolved. In recent weeks, an agreement has been reached. They will be able to announce this as a success,” said a source in Budapest with knowledge of the buildup to the visit. ...
On Monday, Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, to the dismay of many other European politicians, given the country’s frequent clashes with Brussels over domestic rule-of-law issues and foreign policy.
Scott Ritter: Russia Will Demolish the Ukraine Military
Pepe Escobar: How Russia Will Defend Itself
Putin Says Russia Should Follow US and Produce Previously Banned Missile Systems
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia should follow the US in developing missile systems that were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019.
The INF prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles. After leaving the treaty, the US immediately began developing and testing batteries that could fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 miles and are primarily used by US Navy ships and submarines.
“We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where — if necessary to ensure our safety — to place them,” Putin said on Friday, according to The Associated Press.
Matt Hoh: US Is a Dying Empire
Worth a click:
The EU ‘Doom Loop’: Bloc Set to Embrace More Austerity Despite Evidence It Will Cause Further Rightward Shift
As expected, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally came out on top in the first round of French elections yesterday, solidifying the country’s move to the right after the European vote earlier in the month.
The EU’s three largest countries by population and three largest economies – France, Germany, and Italy – are now all led by far right parties or on that path.
In France, Macron should get a thank you card for helping to make the National Rally’s victory possible:
The story is the same across much of the EU as the centrists – as they call themselves – continue to dismiss working class voter concerns, pursue disastrous economic confrontations, and now appear prepared to plunge the bloc back into austerity in the coming months.
While the Davos crowd that runs the EU is still expressing widespread disapproval of voters’ choices following the recent European elections, and no doubt there will be more after the vote in France, they keep doing their best to empower the far right with their choices of policy.
The effort to explain away the increasingly rightward shift of the European electorate typically blames the voters. Take your pick: media explanations range from lumping populism in with fascism to blaming the Covid lock downs(!), but they all strike the same note that it is not the people in power that need to change; it is the fact that the voters are dangerous.
SCOTUS Recap: Excessive January 6 Prosecutions
"A King Above the Law": Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have Broad Immunity from Prosecution
US supreme court rules Trump has ‘absolute immunity’ for official acts
The US supreme court has ruled that former presidents are entitled to some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution, a major victory for Donald Trump that guts the 2020 election subversion case against him and any prospect of a trial before November. The court’s conservative majority – which Trump helped create – found 6-3 that presidents were protected from prosecution for official actions that extended to the “outer perimeter” of his office, but could face charges for unofficial conduct. ...
To determine whether Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results were official acts, the supreme court remanded the case back to the presiding US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who will have to review the indictment line by line. The review will be done under a three-part test: whether particular conduct is a core presidential function that carries absolute immunity, an official act within the outer perimeter of the presidency that carries presumptive immunity, or an unofficial act that carries no immunity.
To defeat presumptive immunity, the opinion said, Chutkan would have to decide if charging Trump would “pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch”. The court left the analysis up to Chutkan. But Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, preemptively determined that Trump’s interactions with justice department officials were official acts because they are part of the executive branch and answer to the president.
Roberts also determined that Trump’s interactions with Pence were presumptively immune, since the president discussing responsibilities with the vice-president was an instance of official conduct. The burden was on prosecutors to prove otherwise, Roberts wrote. And on the matter of Trump’s remarks on January 6, Roberts wrote that they too were probably protected, since presidential addresses were an integral function of the office. But the opinion also allowed that in Trump’s case, it may be appropriate to categorize his speech as that of a candidate for office.
The most damaging part of the ruling for prosecutors will be the prohibition of using any conduct determined to be official acts as evidence at trial. Prosecutors had hoped they could introduce official acts – even if they weren’t charged – as evidence to show Trump’s intent.
Biden debate debacle
Biden’s family reportedly tell him to stay in presidential race as blame shifts to advisers
Joe Biden’s family have urged him stay in the race after a disastrous debate performance last week, according to reports in the US media, as senior democrats and donors have expressed exasperation at how his staff prepared him for the event.
The president gathered with his family at Camp David on Sunday, where discussions were reported to include questions over his political future. It came after days of mounting pressure on Biden, after a debate in which his halting performance highlighted his vulnerabilities and invited calls from pundits, media and voters for him to step aside.
During the meeting at Camp David – which included the president’s wife, children and grandchildren – Biden’s family told him he could still show Americans that he is capable of serving another four years, according to the New York Times. ...
The Associated Press reported that the strongest voices imploring Biden to resist pressure to drop out were his wife, Jill, and his son Hunter, who last month became the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a felony after a jury found him guilty of lying about illegal drug use when he bought a handgun in 2018.
Climate crisis leads to more wonky vegetables in Netherlands
When 31-year-old Dutch farmer Bastiaan Blok dug up his latest crop, the weather had taken a disastrous toll. His onions – 117,000 kilos of them – were the size of shallots. “We had a very wet spring and a dry, warm summer, so the plants made very small roots,” said Blok, who farms 90 hectares in Swifterbant, in the reclaimed province of Flevoland. “Half of them were less than 40mm and normally at this size they aren’t even processed. We would have probably sold them for very little for biomass, or maybe to Poland for onion oil. It’s either far too wet and cold, or far too warm and dry, and there’s no normal growing period in between.”
Blok is one of a number of farmers in Europe’s largest agricultural exporter linking the climate crisis to ever more “imperfect” fruit and vegetables, rejected by a food system based on standardisation and cosmetic appearance.
Last month, a crowdfunding scheme to help him was launched by social business the No Waste Army, which runs a quarterly food box scheme, with soups, sauces, pasta, drinks and jams made from rescued fruit and veg. Thanks to its commission, public donations – some sending onions to food banks – and a pickling order from Amsterdam “Gherkin King” Oos Kesbeke, Blok’s sheds are finally empty and a year’s work wasn’t wasted.
But Thibaud van der Steen, co-founder of No Waste Army, said farmers are suffering from weather extremes, linked to the climate crisis, making it ever harder to meet modern standards of perfection. “One of our founders, Stijn Markusse, was working for 12 years with farmers with a meal box concept, and was astonished that so many vegetables and fruit stayed in the ground or were thrown away because they didn’t fit a kind of beauty ideal,” said Van der Steen.
Hurricane Beryl: Caribbean leader calls out rich countries for climate failures as ‘horrendous’ storm makes landfall
The prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has decried a lack of political will in western Europe and the US to tackle global climate change as Hurricane Beryl has made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm.
Speaking from his residence in SVG on Monday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves described the unfolding catastrophe as the “monster” storm ripped off rooftops, including that of the 204-year-old St George’s Anglican cathedral in the country’s capital, Kingstown. “We have no electricity, and while I am talking to you, the rain is beating on the official prime minister’s residence, and the winds are howling. And it’s going to get much worse,” he said. “The coming hours are going to be horrendous.” ...
Scientists say that human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical storms, because warming oceans provide more energy and increase their strength.
With the winds howling in the background, Gonsalves said: “For the major emitters of greenhouse gases, those who contribute most to global warning, you are getting a lot of talking, but you are not seeing a lot of action – as in making money available to small-island developing states and other vulnerable countries. I am hopeful that what is happening – and we are quite early in the hurricane season – will alert them to our vulnerabilities, our weaknesses and encourage them to honour the commitments they have made on a range of issues, from the Paris accord to the current time.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
New evidence US blocked Ukraine-Russia peace deal, and a new Ukrainian excuse for walking away
In Destroying Ukraine's Power Grid the Russians are Following Our Lead
Chris Hedges: Craig Murray’s Campaign Against Empire
Patrick Lawrence: The State Failed to Break Assange
Battle-Tested in Gaza: Britain’s Next Drones?
Greece introduces ‘growth-oriented’ six-day working week
Macron sought clarity – and has brought his centrist project tumbling down
French centrists must decide: support the left – or hand the keys of power to the far right?
Lula Visits Chomsky Recovering from Stroke: "You Are One of the Most Influential People in My Life"
First Amendment Scores A WIN!! SCOTUS Rules Social Media Companies Can't CENSOR Political Beliefs
72% of Voters Say Biden NOT FIT To Serve!
A Little Night Music
Clifford Gibson - Don't Put That Thing On Me
Clifford Gibson - Blues Without A Dime
Roosevelt Sykes w/Clifford Gibson - The Way I Feel Blues
Clifford Gibson - Hard-Headed Blues
Clifford Gibson - Railroad Man Blues
Jimmie Rodgers with Clifford Gibson - Let Me Be Your Side Track (Take 2)
Clifford Gibson - She Rolls It Slow
Clifford Gibson - Keep your windows pinned
Clifford Gibson - Sneaky Groundhog
Comments
What does it gain Washington
-
-
to obliterate the Palestines I wonder. Smells like the zionists are in control of
the US. Only thing that makes sense to me. And our spineless leaders oblige.
Thanks for the EB's joe!
question everything
An oil field
and a canal being built that will make the Suez a joke.
Can't remember the name of the female author/journalist who now lives in S. America.
She has written extensively about it. Her name will come to me eventually.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Whitney Webb
Is that who you are thinking of? Just a guess, I hadn't heard her report on this subject yet.
語必忠信 行必正直
Yes! Whitney Webb!
She has dug deeply into this.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening qms...
my guess is that it is all tied up with u.s. competition with china's belt-and-road initiative. the u.s. wants israel as a terminal point (it's haifa port particularly) to move goods to the mediterranean from the east. then as otc mentioned, there's a lot of gas off of gaza which europe needs desperately.
Trump will encourage South Korea- Japan ties
This Reuters article appeared widely in English language press internationally, including South Korea and Japan.
Exclusive: Trump will encourage Japan, South Korea ties, allies tell foreign officials
And the reality in South Korea after pro-Japan ruling party suffers landslide loss in National Assembly general election last April...I cued this OhMYNews TV video from today to the point where National Assembly member Kim Byung-ju (a former 4 star general and former Combined Forces Command Deputy Commander) has already questioned the ruling party Prime Minister about his party's discussions about a potential military alliance with Japan, and then questions the current Defense Minister about his order directing the courts-martial of Col. Park in the deceased Cpl Choe coverup incident.
Democratic Party Representative Kim Byung-chu basically turns and asks of the disruptive conservative party assembly members "A Korea-Japan alliance, have you gone out of your minds?" The session which was disorderly from the outset, due to yelling, insults, and demands to apologize from the conservative party members (the ruling minority that supports President Yoon Seok-yeol's "bowing to Japan foreign policy"). The Assembly leader tries to get Kim to apologize to the members. LOL. Kim says, "I don't apologize to the Korea-Japan alliance." They're all pissed off because they know it's true, and it is one of the major fault lines in domestic South Korean politics. It is very unlikely military agreements directly with Japan will outlive the current unstable pro-Japan Yoon administration. The military cooperation with Japan adopted thus far by President Yoon is not accepted by the majority of Koreans.
Thanks for the great EBs Joe! BBL to digest more.
語必忠信 行必正直
Not helpful
in re world peace, is it, soryang?
Sigh...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening soryang...
heh, looks like american diplomacy (such as it is) will continue to crumble under trump, though trump might be smart enough to recognize a deal that has gone south.
I was thinking of making a list
...of who to avoid in Trump's cabinet. Bolton, of course is on the top of the list. I'd avoid Pompeo, who obviously is looking for a position. Also, Colby, Pottinger and their ilk. I'd get rid of the so called Asia Czar, Kurt Campbell. This is not exhaustive by any means.
I'm posting this article link below not for the purported "irrefutable" argument which I think is not adequately supported, at least in the open source reports I've seen; it's just advocacy, an argument, an estimate. It may be true, it might not. There is possible, likely, probable and so on. Irrefutable is a word not a fact. I don't think it's that critical. Stigmatizing North Korea is always low hanging fruit. KJ Noh, i think still disputes the report, but I never thought of him as a technical analyst. To make a clear and convincing argument, you have to furnish authenticated primary evidence. I'm not convinced Leff has done so. I don't think there is any question that Leff and his organization works for the US. So I question how independent the assessment is. Also, it seems like he changes his expertise depending on the war du jour. Sometimes he's a counter terrorism expert, then a small arms expert, now a missile expert. All that wouldn't matter if the report was released in its entirety. Then it could be fairly judged. And then what difference would it make really?
I'm posting the link, because it has a summary of the characterizations of US policy by UN reps of Russia, North Korea, and China, which don't seem all that far off the mark. Their rebuttals of US policy if you will.
Research Expert Tells UN It Has 'Irrefutably' Established Missile Debris in Ukraine Is North Korean
語必忠信 行必正直
Excuses excuses and even more excuses for dementia Joe's
poor debate performance.
First the poor baby had a cold. Then it was those incompetent advisors prepping him for the debate. Now we get this but it doesn't seem to hold up.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4752878-joe-biden-debate-almost-fe...
I just threw up
in my mouth.
He is not going to step down and will have to be forced out.
Question: by whom? How can they doing without revealing to the hoi polloi who is really in charge?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The only solution to stupidity --
is more stupidity.
Since the whole country can see that Joe Biden has dementia, the only real problem is that we're not pretending hard enough that he doesn't.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
It’s unbelievable to me
that any american believes that their government is benevolent. All they have to do is look around themselves at all the suffering of their own people and all others wherever the u.s. is involved. My impression is, that despite the brainwashing and fear inducing nature of the media, many consciously choose to ignore it, and the only reason they can is because they have enough and are more willfully blinded than stupid.
Well...
there's definitely not a serious concern with outcomes among the remaining D faithful. Joe Biden, as I've suggested elsewhere, is a vortex of irresponsibility.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Obama may be looking for his fourth term
via a proxy Michelle. Immediately after the Biden implosion, voter registration solicitations were mailed in Michigan with a smiling Michelle on the outside of the envelope. Just a coincidence?
I doubt it. It’s just the ‘ticket’ to rally all the Dem loyalists around some of that magical Hopey-Change rhetoric.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
evening humphrey...
heh, when one set of excuses fails to resonate, they just invent another. the faithful will eat it all up. the rest of the people, not so much.
Ya know
when you start your argument
with ‘man-made climate change’
what I hear is ‘unprovoked aggression’
Just another lie
and when you use ‘scientific consensus’
I know it’s not science ‘cause
Science is Contentious not consensus
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
evening tb&u...
thanks for the continuing stream of information. the little poking around that i've been able to do, suggests that this is a very contentious scientific claim.
so in answer to your introduction, when i hear somebody start an argument with, "there's nothing to this climate change stuff," i hear, "who ya gonna believe, me or your lying sweat glands?"
its my guess we are going to hear a lot of competing claims, which is as it should be, while we continue to experience unexplained but unpleasant phenomena.
You’ll never
hear me say climate change ain’t real
I just got a beef with the man-made part
We’ll screw ourselves over(already have)
with pollution, chemicals, and poison food
not to mention War
the solutions they sell
for a problem no one can remedy
gives them moar control and
us less livability
I got a beef with that, too
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
consensus
I think the word does not mean what you think it means. Or what you want us to think it means.
When I read statements like this, I know the person is not well-versed in science. Why? Because there is scientific consensus on countless thousands of things are are true correct and verifiably real unlike solar forcing making the hurricane bigger.
Let's start with gravity. We can't see or feel it. Yet the scientific consensus is that it exists and is real, what it does and how it works. The scientific consensus is good. Just like why the sky is blue. Or how about 30% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is identifiable as manmade by its isotopes.
I find it interesting that at say Yale Climate Connections where there have been daily articles about this hurricane, and where there is a fairly well-informed meteorologically commentariat, not one mention or comment of the phenomenon of the solar forcing. Now, or ever. Why are they not talking about it, the top hurricane scientists in the world?
edit to change dollar sign to percentage sign, and take an extra s off of as
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Oh boy this
is too easy a reply
In academia, if you Don’t publish you’re dead
career-wise: no money, no advancement
Who’s controlling the cash flow to Get published, hmmm?
It was consensus for six feet Safe
It was consensus to wear masks
It was consensus for safe and effective
It was consensus for stopping transmission
It was consensus for rare and minor side effects
Need I go on in this vein?
and YALE? You use Yale as an example?
See above; Harvard , MIT, Yale, Stanford, ALL of Them
were All In on covid.
Should I go find examples of the Hundreds of
papers that have been retracted in AGW?
Or would you like to visit the site above for
the links to literally hundreds of New studies
in just the last half decade on solar forcing?
The guy reviews new papers Daily
from all the journals in his updates
pertaining to solar forcing.
But okay, a Minor, glancing blow from a cme and
The Next Day Beryl, that nobody predicted
would amount to much, Blows up into a Cat 4
yeah, no weakening of the magnetic shield There
I seem to remember plate techtonics being laughed off
for decades growing up, Now it’s Accepted science
until somebody proves That wrong.
Again, I’m NOT denying climate change, never have, never will.
Highever! I am questioning the Cause of cc.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Plenty of people might agree with this.
could be antny...
might be jake sullivan. both of them are the sort of idiots that would do the stuff the white house is doing.
I have no idea what this might entail but the Houthis have been
upping their game recently despite US and UK bombing efforts.
Hi bluesters
Hi all, Hey Joe,
Great tunes man, love the seminal early original stuff. The roots of it. I don't mind if you scrape my ale off the bottom of the barrel either.
Biden's family all told him to stay in because they all have grifts ongoing, ya know? Be a shame to lose all that.
I am 25% Dutch, and have been called a wonky vegetable a couple times...
Thanks for the great sounds Joe!
happy trails all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
evening dystopian...
yeah, the thought crossed my mind, too, that biden's family would push him to stay on if for no other reason than pure greed.
have a good one!