The Evening Blues - 7-28-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and gospel guitarist and singer Rev. Gary Davis. Enjoy!
Rev. Gary Davis - Sally, Where'd You Get Your Liquor From?
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”
-- Terry Pratchett
News and Opinion
‘Earth’s Greatest Enemy’ Delivers A Penetrating Insight Into The Heart Of Our Dystopia
There’s a powerful new documentary out called Earth’s Greatest Enemy by Abby Martin about the ecocidal abuses of the US war machine, and it addresses the most pressing existential hurdles we face as a species like nothing I’ve seen before.
The film breaks down how the US military has become the single most environmentally destructive institution on our planet by an extremely massive margin, walking the audience through the many ways the Pentagon and its global metastases have been churning out carbon emissions, pouring toxins into the air and water, wiping out precious ecosystems for gratuitous military bases, and pummeling our sea life with sonar and noise pollution, all while gleefully salivating at the prospect of plundering the resources which lay hidden beneath our planet’s rapidly thawing polar ice caps.
Martin skillfully ties the planet-devouring behavior of the US military to the global systems of capitalism and imperialism it was built to uphold. The viewer is left with a crystal clear picture of the ways ecocide, militarism and capitalism are inseparably intertwined, and an understanding that meaningfully opposing any of these malignancies necessarily entails opposing them all. The liberal fiction that one can be pro-environment while also supporting the US military is forcefully exposed for the absurdity that it is.
It’s a jarring film with extremely dark subject matter, but it also manages to be a work of transcendent beauty and optimism. A deep love of humans and all of earth’s creatures shines through in shot after shot, while slick editing and an inspired soundtrack allow the movie to zip along at a lively and entertaining pace. Martin concludes with a galvanizing call to use our outrage to loosen the empire’s already weakening grip on humanity’s collective consciousness, because our entire world depends on it.
Perhaps the most touching aspect of the documentary is the personal element Martin chose to bring in to her overarching narrative. She discusses how she and her husband (antiwar activist Mike Prysner, who co-directed the film) had their lives forever altered when they had kids and experienced a new level of urgency to help give rise to a brighter future. Their family of four becomes a microcosm of humanity’s struggle to liberate itself from the tyranny of the machine to create a better world for our children, and we see Martin’s love for her son and daughter reflected in a great tenderness for the world as a whole.
Anyway, I’ve never felt inclined to write a film review before so I don’t know if I’ve done a good job of encouraging people to watch this thing, but for my own audience I truly cannot recommend Earth’s Greatest Enemy enough. Screening tour dates and further information can be found on the Earth’s Greatest Enemy website.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Yemen Torches Saudi Facilities—Trump and Iran Prepare Their Next Move
Trump warns of return to ‘strong military action’ if Iran diplomacy fails
Donald Trump has once again warned that the US will return to “strong military action” against Iran if diplomatic efforts do not bring a rapid resolution to the crisis in the Middle East. “We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” the US president told Axios on Monday. Asked for how long he would allow the talks to proceed, he answered: “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not at all.”
He reiterated the line to reporters later the same day on Air Force One. “They want to meet, and we’re meeting. Without what we did, they wouldn’t even be talking to us … They would not have requested the meeting if we were doing poorly. The only reason they want to meet is because we’ve been hitting them very hard.” He doubled down at a rally in Michigan soon after. “You can’t bribe them. You’ve got to beat them, and we’ll beat the hell out of them. But we’ll see how it turns out,” he said . “Right now, there are very friendly negotiations going on.”
Earlier, Tehran said there were no direct talks with the US to end the conflict, which began in late February with a wave of US-Israeli strikes and has rocked the region and the global economy. “Mediators may convey messages from the American side to us regarding current developments in the region. But at present we are not engaged in any negotiations with the United States,” said the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei.
The diplomatic back and forth came as Oman and Iran drew closer to an agreement in principle on the future management of the strait of Hormuz, but remained unable to resolve Tehran’s demand that all ships passing through the strategic waterway must pay some type of transit fee or toll to a consortium led by the two countries. Oman and Iran met for technical talks in Tehran on Friday and Saturday that may hold the key to preventing a further round of fighting.
Perceived progress in the talks – backed by China, Qatar and Pakistan – was understood to have fed into the US decision to pause its attacks on Iran after nearly two weeks. Senior US officials are also reported to have warned Trump over dwindling US munitions stockpiles and the impact of Iranian reprisals on US bases in the region, including Kuwait and Jordan. The top US military commander in the Middle East, Adm Brad Cooper, reportedly recommended stopping the bombing campaign around the strait because it had reached the limit of its effectiveness.
Prof. John Mearsheimer : Trump’s Disaster
Rep. Massie Joins Democrats in Attempt To Sue White House Over Iran War
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is joining a group of Democrats who are attempting to sue the White House over its refusal to follow a War Powers Resolution that was passed by Congress and directed President Trump to end the war with Iran, Fox News Digital reported on Monday.
The War Powers Resolution was passed by both the House and Senate in June, marking the first time Congress approved a concurrent resolution under the 1973 War Powers Act directing the termination of an unauthorized war.
Section 5(c) of the 1973 War Powers Act states that “at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”
Massie told Fox that Trump and US War Secretary Pete Hegseth are “in blatant violation of two sections of the War Powers Resolution of 1973.”
“For the first time since the law was enacted, a concurrent resolution has passed in accordance with 5(c) of the law, but the White House has ignored it. It seems they’ve assumed the law is unconstitutional, but no court has ever found that to be the case, so the law remains on the books while the White House flouts it. In the 1983 case INS v. Chadha, the Supreme Court did not opine on the 1973 War Powers Resolution. It’s time for the courts to settle this, and that’s what our legislation directs,” Massie said.
Alastair Crooke: Yemen's Red Sea Siege as a New Front in Iran War
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet with US President Donald Trump this week, Israeli soldiers stormed into several villages across the occupied West Bank on Monday, expanding a rolling campaign of violence waged by illegal settlers in recent days.
Over the weekend, armed settlers rampaged across more than a dozen Palestinian communities, torching homes and farmland, vandalizing buildings and cars, and burning a pair of mosques in Qusra and Kour.
They were acts of retaliation after two armed Israelis were killed while helping dozens of settlers carry out what Palestinian physician and political leader Mustafa Barghouti described as a “terrorist attack” in the village of Tell, near Nablus in the northern West Bank. That assault killed four Palestinians.
Tell was one of dozens of Palestinian communities to be attacked in recent weeks as part of a campaign of escalating settler violence egged on by the Israeli government as it seeks to cement total control over the West Bank.
More than 150 settler attacks involving killings or property damage have been documented in the West Bank so far this month, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that 21 Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year, already more than were killed in all of 2025.
While the Israeli military has said it was working with police to investigate the desecration of the two mosques, which were burned and spray-painted with graffiti calling for “revenge” and “blood,” settlers have almost never faced accountability in Israeli courts.
This weekend’s violence, meanwhile, has been openly egged on by members of Netanyahu’s government, which ordered more troops into the territory, where they have raided over 20 towns as of Monday morning.
The military said it arrested at least 130 Palestinians across the West Bank over the weekend, while just two Israeli settlers tied to extremist violence have been arrested, with no details released about charges or what attack they were involved in.
Nida Ibrahim, a reporter for Al Jazeera, said on Monday this was typical: “Israeli settlers continue their attacks against Palestinians, mostly in their homes, at night, intimidating them. And what happens is that usually Israeli forces would come in and instead of curbing these settlers, they would conduct arrests in the occupied West Bank among Palestinians.”
She said Palestinians felt like they had “no one to protect them,” while “the Israeli settlers have the support of the Israeli army and have the impunity to continue attacking Palestinians without any accountability.”
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, an Israeli analyst who specializes in settlement policy, argued that settlers’ confrontations with Palestinians were meant to provoke retaliation and a military response that allows them to deepen Israeli control of the territory.
“What everyone needs to understand is that the settlers in the West Bank intentionally cause these violent confrontations,” Ben-Ephraim wrote on social media. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, the Palestinian victims don’t even react. Then in the 1% when they do, the IDF treats it as terrorism and starts killing and arresting the victims and giving the land to the settlers.”
“This is a method,” he said. “It will not stop until there is nothing left.”
This weekend’s escalation was met with renewed international outcry from governments and human rights groups who demanded accountability for illegal settlers and the officials enabling them.
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, described the ongoing attacks against Palestinians as “pogroms against defenseless civilians.”
Sarah Sanbar, an Israel-Palestine researcher for Human Rights Watch, said this weekend’s conflagration occurred because “the Israeli government didn’t prevent the settler attacks on Tell village, so now it needs to stop settler reprisals and escalating military action that will make a bad situation worse.”
She added that “governments need to act urgently so that the Israeli government does not continue to act as if it has a green light to commit further atrocities.”
Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned the “escalating settler terrorism” in the West Bank, while the state of Qatar said the attacks were a “flagrant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions.”
The European Union issued a more muted statement, without naming Israel or mentioning the involvement of illegal settlers and instead calling on “all parties to avoid inflammatory language.”
Spain, meanwhile, was much more direct, calling out “violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, who continue to act with impunity” and calling on Israel to “reverse its policies of settlement expansion and of shielding settler violence.”
As of Monday morning, the Trump administration has remained silent on the violent events of the past weekend, beyond a generic State Department statement condemning violence “by any party.”
This is consistent with its policy of unrestrained military support for Israel and legitimation of its project to settle occupied Palestine in violation of international law.
Shock Claim: Trump LOSING ABILITY to Make Rational War-Peace Decisions w/Robert Barnes
Netanyahu and Zelenskyy to arrive in Washington for Lindsey Graham funeral
Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to arrive in Washington simultaneously with the goal of winning the ear of Donald Trump at pivotal moments in wars affecting their respective countries. Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, will attend Tuesday’s funeral of Lindsey Graham, the former Republican senator for South Carolina, who died suddenly on 11 July and was a close ally of both leaders.
Both men are scheduled to meet the president at a time when US policy towards the wars in Iran and Ukraine is in a state of flux. The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu will be the first between the two leaders since February, when they were in lockstep preparing for strikes against Iran that began on 28 February. Since then, tensions between the pair have risen as the war has drifted inconclusively, with Trump calling the Israeli premier “crazy” and declaring: “Without me, there would be no Israel.”
Fueling the tensions between the pair is continuing uncertainty over Trump’s zigzagging approach to the regime in Tehran, which he once openly supported toppling – in line with the stance of Netanyahu, who has long plotted its overthrow. Netanyahu is also believed to be unhappy over a deal announced last week between the US and Saudi Arabia allowing for a civil Saudi nuclear program.
Zelenskyy’s presence is equally significant as it coincides with signs of a dramatic change of Trump administration posture in Ukraine’s war with Russia – with the White House appearing more supportive of Kyiv’s position than at any time since Trump’s return to office. Zelenskyy posted on social media at the weekend that he had instructed Ukraine’s intelligence services to share information on Russia’s support for Iran in the conflict with the US. He wrote on X that Ukraine had recorded Russian satellite surveillance of US military facilities in the Gulf, and that of Washington’s allies in the region.
Trump administration’s revision of Iran war casualties ‘huge disrespect’, say veterans
A controversial move by the Pentagon to reclassify casualties in the Iran war is being taken by US military veterans as a sign of disrespect for the dead. “It’s such a huge disrespect for the families,” said Michael E Smith, a retired US rear admiral and the founder of National Security Leaders for America. “To claim that they weren’t killed as a result of the war – oh, it was just overseas operations – is just ludicrous.”
In a quiet weekend update to the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), a military database for displaying casualties, the US Department of Defense – renamed the Department of War under Donald Trump – added more than 140 wounded service members. They also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7” which splits the count from the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran.
“I definitely think that this isn’t an issue just about numbers, but also about accountability,” said Tristeza Ordex, a US Marine Corps veteran and the national organizer of partnerships and engagement at VoteVets. “Thinking about it now makes me emotional, to think about how we have people coming home now … 19 years old,” she said. “I think about people like her that were excluded. Not only are Latinos being excluded from so much more and being targeted: we have this person that paid the ultimate sacrifice for this country who isn’t even being recognized as a casualty of this war, so it feels like erasure.”
Smith, who completed combat tours in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, likened the administrative change to the manipulation of Pentagon casualty data last seen in the Vietnam war. “It’s so disrespectful to our service members who gave their lives, and the only reason they died was because Donald Trump decided to do this illegal war,” Smith said. “I mean, clearly the president is very sensitive about the deaths. You know, he is comparing it to Korea and Vietnam. Obviously their boss doesn’t want to hear about deaths. OK, well, here’s one way we can make it look like there’s not as many deaths.”
Oil prices fall as US pauses strikes on Iran over strait of Hormuz
Oil prices have dropped sharply as traders bet that a pause in US attacks on Iran could prevent an escalation in the conflict that would further restrict global supply.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, initially fell 9% to below $88 a barrel on Monday after climbing to $100 last week, when the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea.
An attempted recovery later in the day was halted by comments from Donald Trump that the US was having “good talks” with Iran, pushing Brent back down about 8%.
The retreat from the short-lived return to more than $100 a barrel came as the US and Iran paused hostilities after 13 days of fighting, amid Trump’s comments suggesting that talks to end the conflict had resumed.
Iran said it had stopped “retaliatory” attacks after two nights without American missiles, after the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told journalists on Sunday that Trump had decided to pause the attacks to allow more time for diplomacy. Separate reports claimed that US military officials had told Trump that the bombing campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness and warned of dwindling stocks of munitions.
Putin Says Wants Faster Russian Army Advance Kremlin Again Hints SMO Upgrade; Zelensky In US; Odessa
Larry Johnson: Russia's Naval Blockade of Odessa & Ukraine's Attack on Iranian Ship
Pinochet-era soldier jailed for killing folk singer Víctor Jara 53 years ago
More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man.
Chilean police announced on Saturday that Haase Mazzei had been arrested in Puyehue, in the rural south of the country, with a judge ordering his immediate imprisonment.
The Víctor Jara Foundation, set up by his widow, the British dancer and activist Joan Jara, said in statement: “We learned that retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei, who had been a fugitive from justice since 2023, was found and imprisoned. We welcome this news. However, it is important for us to emphasize that, half a century after the murders of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, it is difficult to see this as this justice.”
Jara, a singer and leftwing activist, was arrested in Santiago, the capital of Chile, on 11 September 1973, the day after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s bloody US-backed coup to depose the socialist president, Salvador Allende. Jara was held along with thousands of others at a small covered stadium in central Santiago. Four days later, he was murdered in the changing rooms alongside Allende’s national director of prisons, Littré Quiroga.
Haase Mazzei’s arrest is likely to be the final act in the long quest for justice on behalf of Jara, one of the most recognisable victims of the Pinochet dictatorship, which killed or disappeared more than 3,000 people and detained and tortured tens of thousands during 17 years of repressive rule. At the stadium, Jara was tortured and humiliated by officers who played Russian roulette with him before breaking his hands, shattering his skull, and riddling him with automatic gunfire. His body was found dumped near the main cemetery in Santiago with 44 bullet wounds and 56 broken bones. He was 40 years old. The body of Quiroga, who had been shot 23 times, was found at the same time.
‘Bigotry’ as Government Policy: Trump Orders ICE to Ramp Up Arrests of Haitians
Mass arrests of Haitian immigrants by federal agents could begin as early as this week, according to federal documents regarding President Donald Trump’s new directive to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump could end deportation protections for the community.
A binding mandate was expected to be sent to lower courts on Monday regarding the high court’s decision last month that held the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could strip 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is granted to migrants from certain countries facing disasters, armed conflicts, or other conditions that would put immigrants in danger if they were forced to return there.
After the mandate is transmitted, Haitians across the country will lose their ability to legally live and work in the US, and the administration is reportedly already planning to send ICE agents into states including Ohio—where Haitian communities were targeted by Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 election—to quickly arrest and deport migrants to their crisis-stricken home country.
Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, director-general of Haiti’s National Office of Migration, told the Haitian Times this month that according to the US embassy in the Caribbean country, about 250 former TPS beneficiaries could be forced back to Haiti on flights each week.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, emphasized that the reported operation targeting Haitian communities is just the latest evidence that Trump is rounding up people who have been living and working in the US for years, despite the White House’s claims that it is going after “the worst of the worst.”
They said they were going after “the worst of the worst.” Instead, ICE has been ordered to round up nurses, home health aides, factory workers, teachers, students, and thousands of others who have been living and working here legally for years; who’ve done nothing wrong. https://t.co/FPs8NXxNg6
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) July 26, 2026
“The majority of Haitians with TPS today entered the US lawfully on humanitarian parole during the Biden administration, and then transitioned to TPS before their parole status expired,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “Those people have not spent a single day in violation of immigration law.”
The crisis in Haiti that necessitated TPS for people who arrived in the US from the country, he added, “hasn’t ended.”
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with widespread food insecurity, and large swathes of the country as well as transport routes are controlled by armed gangs. Violence intensified toward the end of 2025 “and remains the dominant force shaping the daily life of Haitians,” daily life of Haitians,” according to the United Nations, with more than 8,100 killings reported last year, and gangs have increasingly used children in violent attacks.
Many healthcare facilities are “barely functioning,” and extreme weather including hurricanes and droughts have worsened the humanitarian crisis. The country has also struggled to fully recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians.
Last week, US Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) spoke out about a Pentagon plan to strengthen coordination between the UN’s Gang Suppression Task Force in Haiti and a private military contractor run by Erik Prince, a close ally of Trump’s. The contractor, Vectus Global, has conducted drone strikes that have killed dozens of Haitian civilians.
Those conditions are what DHS suggested Haitians should voluntarily return to, after having built lives in the US, when the agency told CBS News on Monday that TPS has been used as a “defacto amnesty program” and called on people who are about to lose protections that have been in place for 16 years to “self-deport.”
“What we would say now is it’s closing time which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” DHS told CBS News. “The good news is it’s not too late to get a $2,600 check and a free flight home.”
AI Companies MASS SHREDDING Rare Books
Top McConnell Reporter SHOCKING DETAILS From Hospital Stakeout
Mitch McConnell still not cleared to resume Senate duties, office says
US senator Mitch McConnell is still not cleared to return to work, his office confirmed on Monday, six weeks after he was hospitalized after a fall at his home.
An update released alongside a new photograph of the Republican lawmaker – one of the highest-profile figures in Congress, as a former Senate majority leader – said he was undergoing “intense physical therapy” and is “working hard” to get back to his duties.
“I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” McConnell, of Kentucky, said in a statement released by his office on Monday.
In the statement, he said that he wouldn’t be able to make it to Kentucky this coming weekend for an annual Fancy Farm picnic. “There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton,” said McConnell, 84.
McConnell has been absent from the Senate and not seen in public since mid-June, when his office said he was hospitalized and recovering, but did not elaborate on his condition.
Abdul BLASTS Haley Stevens LIVE For AIPAC Cash
DNC chair faces growing scrutiny amid financial pressure and internal turmoil
Mounting financial pressures and growing internal turmoil at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have intensified scrutiny of chair Ken Martin, as new reporting detailed a deepening cash-flow problem, management concerns and widening divisions over the party’s direction less than 100 days before the November midterm elections.
The latest reporting has underscored both the committee’s financial distress and the toll it has taken on Martin personally. The New York Times reported that the embattled DNC chair, who took the helm last year, became the subject of an internal HR inquiry after throwing his phone in the direction of a junior aide’s desk during a heated exchange in early July, prompting a formal complaint. The Times, citing people familiar with the matter, also reported that the incident nearly cost him his job and has contributed to growing isolation with the party as the committee grapples with mounting financial strain.
The latest revelations include that the DNC put its physical Washington DC headquarters up for collateral last year in order to obtain a $15m line of credit to help invest in off-year elections, Notus reported, citing Washington DC deed records. The New York Times separately reported that the DNC is about $2m in debt, compared with roughly $130m cash on hand held by the Republican National Committee. Another Democrat close to Martin told Notus he had struggled to convince donors to maximize their contributions, which had contributed to the small cash-on-hand total.
Faith in Martin’s leadership had eroded further following his botched handling of a long-promised autopsy of the 2024 election that ultimately failed to address what actually went wrong for the party – from Gaza to the Biden-Harris transition. The release in May prompted a round of calls for Martin’s resignation.
“Ken Martin must resign,” Congressman Sam Liccardo, a California Democrat, wrote on X. “As Democrats, we have become too captured by failing strategies. We must fail forward, and pivot. The urgency of this moment will not reward – and our children will not forgive – torpidity.”
Centrists in SHAMBLES As Socialist Surges to Wisconsin Gov Lead
US environmental groups urge EPA to reject new Pfas to cool datacenters
A coalition of 17 environmental groups is demanding the Environmental Protection Agency reject a new Pfas that chemical giant Chemours is attempting to fast-track for approval for use in cooling datacenters, and would almost certainly pollute regions around the facilities. In formal comments submitted to the agency, the groups accuse Chemours of using bad science to downplay the chemical’s toxicity and climate risks. Approving Chemours’ application as it is would violate the law, the Earthjustice legal non-profit, a lead author of the comments, wrote.
Big tech has faced fierce opposition from across the political spectrum in communities where it plans to build datacenters, in part because some types of the facilities require huge quantities of water to cool. Datacenter developers, like Google, have touted its two-phase cooling systems as an alternative that uses far less water, but few know that those typically use Pfas “forever chemical” gas instead of water.
The new chemical, Opteon 2P50, is probably more toxic and more of a risk to the climate than Chemours claims in its application, public advocates warn. Opteon 2P50 is also the first chemical for which industry has asked the Trump EPA to fast-track approval under the president’s legally dubious executive order that calls for expedited review of datacenter chemicals.
“The datacenter industry knows it is under fire for its enormous use of water so they cast themselves as the good guys by using alternative cooling, but they’re not telling [the public] that they’re using hazardous chemicals,” said Lenny Siegel, director of the Chips Communities United non-profit that works to rein in Pfas waste. “Some are toxic, some are greenhouse gases and some are both.”
France and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave begins
Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday. EU officials have said wildfires could still be burning until early November in what threatens to be a record-breaking year for the area of land burned.
A fire in the hilly terrain of Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, burning 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres). Authorities are battling two separate fires north-west of Madrid, taking the total area of scorched land near the capital to 70,000 hectares.
France was also in “a race against time” to control wildfires before another heatwave this week, said Eric Brocardi, a fire service spokesperson. Weather forecasters have said temperatures could reach 40C (104F) is some parts of the country from Tuesday.
This would complicate efforts to control the wildfire in Gironde in south-west France, which the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, described as “extremely intense and unpredictable … generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area”.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Bordeaux, said: “The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.” But he said a smaller fire in the adjoining Landes – which forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people – was “contained” but remained “virulent”. “We must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days,” he said. The Gironde fire has so far burned 42,000 hectares, making it one of the biggest devastations of land in France since the second world war.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Patrick Lawrence: Only One Way Out for Trump
War on Iran: – Another Hold Of Direct Action While The War Proceeds Elsewhere
Iran warns US naval blockade would amount to ‘expansion of war’ in region
Protestors Want Pine Gap Closed
Five More Palestine Activists Face ‘Terrorist’ Sentencing
He was shot at by ICE, then wrongfully accused. His nightmare had only just begun
A Little Night Music
Rev. Gary Davis - You Got To Move
Rev. Gary Davis - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning
Rev. Gary Davis - Samson And Delilah
Rev. Gary Davis - I Am The Light Of The World
Rev. Gary Davis - Slow Drag (Cincinnati Flow Rag)
Rev Gary Davis - Twelve Gates To The City
Rev. Gary Davis - Hesitation Blues
Reverend Gary Davis - Lost John
Rev. Gary Davis – Candy Man
Rev. Gary Davis – Two Step Candyman
Comments
About that la-de-da comment I made:
Here's Alex Krainer explaining the context:
Here one thinks of factory farms, when they put the big staples in the heads of the animals they're going to slaughter. None of the animals has a clue as to what's going to happen, all the way up to the moment when the staples go in. Yep, that's us.
"The US empire’s downfall comes at a time of late stage capitalism when more than 99 percent of the public are effectively disenfranchised while factions of reactionary billionaires vie for control." -- Conor Gallagher
The end of the podcast was very good
.
Bringing-up community investment in local farmers as a
means to avoid a collapsing banking system. Farmers need money
and people need food. Win-win. Getting chicken and eggs as investment
return makes a lot of sense if the banks implode.
Zionism is a social disease
evening cass...
interesting explanation of what promises to be the coming systemic failure. um, thanks!
have a good one!
And until it happens:
watch this --
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1416556543671519
"The US empire’s downfall comes at a time of late stage capitalism when more than 99 percent of the public are effectively disenfranchised while factions of reactionary billionaires vie for control." -- Conor Gallagher
excellent!
i love those lego vids.
So the article on the DNC chair eventually tells us
You invest in stock in order to get dividends or profits from increased share prices. You invest in Bonds to get intrest or profits from value increases. You invest in real estate to get rents or profits from increased real estate values.
And you invest in elections to get profits from what? Grift? Corruption? Bribes?
Asking for a friend.
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...
an excellent point. i would guess that the investment is meant to keep a bunch of incompetent consultant boobs in paychecks for performing their phoney baloney jobs. just a guess.
have a great evening!
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. Some recent news on Iran
from Pepe:
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 --
heh...
interesting that the u.s. wants negotiations when they have demonstrated repeatedly that they are incapable of honorably carrying out their responsibilities under any agreement that they assent to.
WH photo in Lawrence essay
...loaded with irony. Perfect with the two of them standing in front. The photo captures the psyop perfectly.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
evening soryang...
i don't know if lawrence chose that photo or if some editor at consortium news did, but regardless, lawrence does seem to have a finely tuned sense of irony.
have a great evening!
Lee doubles down on AI
South Korea's chip exports have increased massively. Lee wants to build out the Honam region, in
Southeastsouthwest SK. He's joining the US ballooning AI trend. At the same time, the KOSPI is gyrating wildly. Jensen Huang said "no worries" your stock market will come back. As I understand it, whatever kind of strategic partnership plans are in the offing, they require 900 billion in investments. It may be the kind of back and forth investment and buying that is regarded warily by some in the investment world.The Honam region is relatively underdeveloped compared to the rest of South Korea for political reasons. Repression of democratic and sovereignty impulses occurred from the liberation after WWII through the period of dictatorships. The famous massacre at Kwangju was in 1980. The area is politically disfavored by right wing administrations. People still whispered about the Kwangju massacre when I was there in late eighties, and many South Koreans believed the US was responsible in part. By promoting this economic, industrial and diplomatic effort, Lee is trying to make even greater ties to the US, more palatable to the left. This is his so called pragmatic foreign policy.
edit corrected my directional error, Honam is in the southwest region of South Korea, of course.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
heh...
this may not be the time to be investing in u.s. ai. as i understand it apple is profiting by avoiding investment in ai having hit a valuation of 5tn due to its reputation as a "safe" tech investment.
with the u.s. economy in decline, i suspect that the bloated, overpriced u.s. ai industry product may have a hard time attracting the sort of enormous investments that it is hoping for.
Right JS
This is something to be regarded warily. Selling the chips is one thing, buying into the data centers, and the US AI models is something else. The effort by South Korea to become a major arms exporter to NATO is regarded as a related potential buying into block politics risk. I think the Russians have already indicated some irritation with that.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Hey, joe!
I would rather get my news from Paul Revere than what is currently fed to us.
He would add today "The British Bankers are coming!", meaning the Rothschilds.
Great ebs, as is your way, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
yep, the mainstream news is pretty barren of useful information.
if the various economics wonks that i listen to are correct, another banking crisis is in the offing. i rather imagine that the banksters will not let such a crisis go to waste.
have a great evening!
Yeah,
we keep up with alt news regarding banks. I got rid of my IRA and my savings account 2 years ago. My bank is local. My banker is a client.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981