The Evening Blues - 8-5-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features lap steel wizard Freddie Roulette. Enjoy!
Freddie Roulette - End of the Blues
"Human society as a whole is a vast brainwashing machine whose semantic rules and sex roles create a social robot."
-- Robert Anton Wilson
News and Opinion
Today in dystopia, Israel is paying millions of dollars to manipulate what chatbots tell their users about the Zionist project. Drop Site News reports that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has been setting up hundreds of blog posts designed not for human eyes, but for the express purpose of being sucked up by web crawlers for AI training materials.
“And it is working,” writes Drop Site’s Nick Cleveland-Stout, saying that according to disinformation experts who’ve reviewed the data, “tens of millions of Americans who use chatbots are increasingly likely to receive answers manipulated by Parscale on behalf of the Israeli government.”
NEW from @DropSiteNews: Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.
Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial…
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 28, 2026
Drop Site found that Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Perplexity were the AI companies most vulnerable to Parscale’s manipulations, with his network frequently appearing in their training data. Cleveland-Stout provides examples of the ways this would affect the spread of pro-Israel propaganda among users, such as the following:
“When Drop Site asked Perplexity ‘Is it beneficial for the US to enhance military cooperation with Israel?’ the chatbot responded with a one-word answer: ‘Yes.’ The top source listed was Allyvia.org, a Parscale-created website dedicated to promoting the U.S.-Israel military relationship. Microsoft Copilot similarly cited Parscale’s websites.”
The Israeli government spreading hasbara using AI platforms is a very unsurprising development, but it’s still creepy as hell to see it playing out in real time.
Lawrence Wilkerson: Trump Sacrifices the Republic to Preserve the Empire
And the winner of the U.S. / Iran war is ...
Major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis
Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves. The windfall war profits have reignited calls for oil and gas supermajors such as Saudi Aramco and BP to pay for the environmental damage caused by “cashing in on human misery” and fund a rapid transition to renewable energy.
Guardian analysis found that the eight listed oil producers made almost $93bn (£69bn) in the three months to the end of June – the first full financial quarter after the US-Israeli war on Iran triggered a surge in global oil prices to highs above $126 a barrel.
The companies have used the biggest disruption of fossil fuel supplies in the market’s history to almost double their combined profits from just under $50bn in the same period last year, with campaigners warning that millions of households are left paying the price in higher bills and climate chaos. The data suggests the eight oil companies – Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil – made more than $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter.
While their market valuations were swelling by about $600bn to above $3tn, temperatures built towards a run of deadly heatwaves, all made more likely and more severe by burning fossil fuels. Carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms were directly linked to fatal spells of hot weather for the first time by scientific analysis published last September. It found the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were each enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible.
Iran Strikes Force Historic U.S. Military Retreat in Gulf
US and Qatar report progress on Iran ceasefire and reopening Hormuz strait
US and Qatari officials have said progress is being made in restoring a ceasefire in the US-Iran war and reopening the strait of Hormuz. The optimistic speculation on Tuesday brought oil prices down 2%, but the strait remained closed to shipping and a cargo vessel was reportedly struck by an unidentified projectile off Oman’s coast close to the strait. Britain’s maritime security agency, UKMTO, reported the strike on Monday night but did not name the vessel.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the US and Iran were negotiating and told CNBC television: “I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalised position in this conflict.” His remarks echo similarly upbeat comments on Monday from Donald Trump, who claimed that a breakthrough was imminent, though Tehran quickly denied it was involved in any direct talks with the US.
Qatari and Pakistani mediators said they were talking to both sides in an effort to close gaps, restore the ceasefire deal from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in mid-June and reopen the Hormuz strait, which was the portal for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said Qatar, Pakistan and Oman were mediating in close coordination and exchanging draft proposals between Washington and Tehran. He said the diplomatic contacts had reached “very progressive stages”.
A senior Pakistani security official told Reuters news agency: “A lot is happening in the background … We are talking to both sides. Our sole goal at this moment is to make both parties at least agree to start talking.”
However, neither Qatar nor Pakistan are directly involved in the focus of negotiations in recent days, which has been between Iran and Oman on a temporary transit scheme that would allow ships to enter and leave the Gulf. The MoU broke down in July when vessels tried to cross the strait along the Omani coast without seeking Iranian approval, and Iran attacked them.
Houthis HIT Saudi Ship As Trump SIDELINED From Iran Talks!
Iran’s president denies threatening to resign during talks over strait of Hormuz
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, has been forced to deny claims that he has repeatedly threatened to resign as he battles hardline factions opposed to reaching a settlement with the US over the strait of Hormuz. The US and Europe hope a deal is imminent to reopen the strait and they are putting pressure on Oman to accept a temporary agreement that officials in Muscat fear will leave Iran retaining near permanent dominance of the vital oil shipping channel. Ships would enter the strait in a route close to Iran, but leave on a route that passes through Iranian and Omani waters.
But far from being feted over an imminent diplomatic victory, Pezeshkian was instead forced to deny that he had repeatedly offered to resign, verbally and in writing, during a television interview marking his second anniversary in the job. Pezeshkian accused some of wishing to create a rift inside Iran and said: “If I want to resign, I will officially announce that I have resigned. I will not resign, I will stand.”
Pezeshkian on Sunday suggested that the memorandum of understanding, negotiated with the US in June and reviled by some hardliners, would serve as a cornerstone for Iranian foreign relations in the future, saying that Iran “must strive to compel the enemy to remain committed to what it has signed”.
On Monday, the conservative-dominated Assembly of Experts issued a statement describing hopes for an agreement or understanding with the US as “futile” and labelled what it termed “whispers of capitulation in the name of defending peace” an “unforgivable betrayal”. It added that trusting this arrogant government was nothing more than a mirage.
Khamenei himself had said in April he was opposed to talks with the US in principle, but in deference to Pezeshkian had allowed them to go ahead.
Jordan is convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the Arab and Islamic world over what it says is an “imminent” threat of an Israeli takeover of the most important Muslim site in Jerusalem, with the potential to “trigger a religious conflict”.
The meeting on Wednesday – and the Jordanian warning – follow an escalating pattern of government-backed incursions by Jewish religious extremists on the compound around al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, in violation of a status quo treaty overseen by Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy, by which only Muslims can pray at the site.
On 23 July, more than 2,000 Israelis from the religious right – mostly settlers led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir – stormed the area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. They prayed and performed rituals all around the compound in what Jordanian officials said was the worst violation in modern history.
Amman has also been alarmed at a recent recruitment drive for religious Jews for a special Temple Mount police unit, and is braced for more direct challenges to traditional Jordanian custodianship by extremist Israeli leaders in the major Jewish holidays in September. This year, those holidays will come amid an intense election campaign, in which the far-right coalition of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be fighting for survival.
“This is a constant threat, a dangerous threat that we’re trying to counter in every tool that we have possible,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told the Guardian. “We warn that tampering with the status quo … could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world.” Safadi, who will host Wednesday’s emergency meeting, bringing together his counterparts from Arab League countries, as well as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, said it was “something that the whole international community should be aware of. Jerusalem is a tinderbox."
CEASEFIRE FARCE: Why Gaza Ceasefire Talks Keep Breaking Down
Mass funeral held in Gaza for victims of 2023 Israeli strike
Mourners gathered in central Gaza on Tuesday for a mass funeral for 112 people, including 40 children, who were killed in 2023 in one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the Gaza war. Their bodies could not be recovered until now because of Israel’s continuing strikes, which have slowed, though not halted, since the ceasefire in October.
Hundreds of people gathered around more than 100 coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags and arranged in rows on the ground in Deir al-Balah. Mourners prayed for the victims before carrying the bodies through rubble-lined streets and past destroyed buildings for burial in a nearby cemetery.
The victims had been among more than 300 people killed on 22 November 2023, when Israeli warplanes demolished a residential block in Gaza City. The bodies of only about 40 people could be recovered by people at the scene, who dug through smouldering rubble with their bare hands and basic tools. Last weekend, Gaza’s civil defence dug through the levelled apartment block and recovered the remains of a further 112 victims, including women and children. It said 157 people were still missing after the attack.
The ceasefire that was established in October – which has not stopped Israeli bombing of Gaza – has allowed first responders to dig through the rubble where thousands of remains are still buried across the territory.
At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives as still buried under the rubble, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza health ministry’s records department, told the Associated Press. He added that the true number was probably thousands higher because some strikes had killed entire families, leaving no loved ones to report them missing.
Larry Johnson: Tehran & Washington Enter the Endgame—No More Bluffing
US water facilities targeted by ‘malicious cyber actors’ – who’s to blame?
Late last week, federal authorities issued a stern warning saying “malicious cyber actors” were targeting water and wastewater facilities in at least seven states across the US. Minnesota appeared to be the hardest hit with 30 of its water systems hit by cyber-attacks, leading to disruptions in the state’s water supply. The problems ranged from low-pressure water flow in people’s homes to some utilities announcing boil-water notices. But there have been no reports of drinking water contamination.
“These threat actors are targeting water entities of all sizes,” the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) said in a statement last Thursday. The agency highlighted the fact that critical infrastructure systems can be especially vulnerable to cyber-attacks in the digital age. Much of the problem stemmed from water facilities’ connection to the internet, which made it possible for hackers to infiltrate, change passwords and lock out operators. To mitigate continued disturbances, the agency advised utilities to take their systems offline and switch to manual mode.
The culprit of the coordinated attack is suspected to be Iran, according to officials across the government who have spoken anonymously to various news outlets. Tehran has reportedly stepped up its cyber-attacks on the US since the war began nearly six months ago, but so far has only had nominal success. While the FBI announced that it opened an investigation into the hack, it stopped short of putting the responsibility on Iran.
Donald Trump, however, has said the attack is Minnesota’s fault. “I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting last Friday at Camp David in Maryland, without providing evidence to support his claims. “I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota … Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.” Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, fired back in a post on X: “Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too. This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.”
Russia Again Massively Strikes Kiev No Russian Missile Shot Down; Zelensky Rages Blames West; Hormuz
But wait ... I thought that the U.S. tech industry was waaaayyy ahead of the pack. Why would U.S. companies need to install Chinese components in their AI industrial spy plants?
Trump administration reportedly drafting ban on Chinese datacenter components
The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a ban on US imports of new models of Chinese datacenter components, in the latest sign US authorities are scrambling to respond to the rapid development of AI technology in China. Four people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the US telecommunications industry, is developing a measure to bar imports of new Chinese optical transceivers, which allow data to travel over fiber-optic cables at the speed of light within datacenters. Officials hope to publish the measure this year, according to Reuters.
The FCC could still modify or shelve the restriction, Reuters reported. But the deliberations are the latest example that the Trump administration is increasingly focused on limiting Chinese technological incursions into cutting-edge US industries. The US has long been at the forefront of the AI industry, with companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google driving the development of models, and chipmakers such as Nvidia commanding the chip supply chain. But advancements in China’s artificial intelligence, chip manufacturing and robotics technologies have rattled markets, caused divisions among US tech moguls and left the Trump administration scrambling to respond.
Chinese companies are some of the biggest manufacturers of components necessary for datacenters, with the country’s optical transceiver industry controlling a majority of the global market for the technology. US tech companies have committed trillions of dollars to build out American AI infrastructure. Plans for that buildout are broadly falling behind schedule, however, while China attempts to catch up with its own massive development of datacenters.
Chinese datacenter components are of concern because they could allow Chinese firms to steal data, install malware or disrupt service in the US if they are embedded in US infrastructure, experts say.
US federal judge blocks New York’s ban on ICE officers wearing masks
A New York law banning US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from wearing face coverings and requiring that they wear visible identification has been put on hold by a federal judge. But a state law prohibiting cooperation between local police departments and ICE has been allowed to stand. The mask ruling comes after federal judges have blocked similar laws in California, Virginia and Pennsylvania that sought to ban federal immigration agents from covering their faces. They are still required to wear agency identification badges and badge numbers.
The US district judge Mae D’Agostino of the federal court in Albany, New York, wrote that while the state “appears to be well-intentioned in its pursuit of transparent policing”, her decision was made on constitutional arguments rather than “transparency or preferable policy decisions”. D’Agostino said that New York officials “may be correct that federal immigration officers wearing masks and not displaying viable identification creates certain dangerous situations that the face covering and identification acts remedy”.
She wrote that the Trump administration nonetheless has shown a likelihood that the measures go against the supremacy clause of the US constitution, which bars state governments from regulating federal law enforcement.
The preliminary ruling means local police officers are blocked from arresting ICE agents for covering their faces in public settings.
University of Maryland ‘teacher of the year’ detained by ICE in Texas
An instructor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who only just received a “teacher of the year” award has been arrested by federal immigration agents under the command of the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Berhanu Kibret, an instructor at the university’s pharmacy school, at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas, according to multiple news reports. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, confirmed Kibret’s arrest, citing an expired visa – but it stopped short of providing a location.
In a statement, the University of Maryland said Kibret was arrested while returning from a meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, where he received a “teacher of the year” award. “Dr Kibret has a valid work authorization, so it is our hope that any issues surrounding his status will be quickly resolved and that he will be permitted to continue his work at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy,” the institution added, according to CBS.
Kibret’s research focuses on how the brain’s cannabinoid system influences mental health, brain disease and the effects of addictive drugs, the university’s website says. He obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science as well as a PhD in Ethiopia – and he completed his postdoctoral fellowship at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Calling Kibret a “highly valued member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore community”, the school said it was “greatly troubled” by his arrest.
The university added: “He is an effective and beloved teacher, and a highly regarded colleague. His detention has generated not only great sympathy for his plight, but also a heightened sense of apprehension here on campus.”
Ex-Olympian weighing ‘all options’ after reflecting pool charges dropped
An attorney for the former Olympic canoeist who was charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has said that “all options are on table” for legal recourse after prosecutors recently abandoned the case abruptly.
David Hearn “has a number of potential remedies” after being prosecuted in connection with pool damage now attributed to faulty work by a contractor, attorney Steven Levin said in a statement. Levin added that those could include “civil suits, bar referrals for the prosecutors involved, request for sanctions, and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and expenses”, and requests for investigations by various government entities, including Congress.
Hearn, 67, was arrested on 19 June and faced one felony count of property destruction – a charge that could have resulted in a 10-year prison sentence and a $1,000 fine – which he denied. The charge came after the Trump administration spent $14m to change the reflecting pool’s color. A new pool liner almost immediately began to peel off, and the president blamed vandals. Four people were arrested, but only Hearn was charged with a felony.
On Friday, Trump’s justice department moved to dismiss the charge against Hearn, saying in a filing that the damage to the pool liner was “the result of flawed installation by the contractor” who worked on it. In a 20-page court filing in Washington DC superior court on Friday, prosecutors said they had received information about a “rush to complete the project” prior to events associated with the celebration of the US’s semiquincentennial on the Fourth of July.
Attorneys for Hearn have previously said the government “owes Mr Hearn an apology”. “The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” his attorneys, including Levin, said on social media. “Its dismissal … does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong.”
ABDUL WINS IN SHOCK NAIL BITER
LEAKED MEMO: GOP Fears Progressives MORE Than Moderates
Protesters are staging a “tree sit” in a tiny Arizona town to prevent the destruction of a grove of ancient cottonwood trees as federal contractors race to build a row of two 30ft walls along the border with Sonora, Mexico. The gathering ramped up last week in the town of Lochiel, in the remote San Rafael valley of south-east Arizona. On 27 July, contractors working for Fisher Sand and Gravel crushed three of the largest cottonwoods with excavators.
Now the group is defending a towering cottonwood. Estimated to be more than 200 years old, it is the last of the huge old trees right on the border that some locals call the “grandmothers”. The group has now grown to include several dozen people, with many camping on private land with permission of the owner. The protesters help to support and feed a single rotating person who stays in a platform high in the tree at all times.
The demonstration has been peaceful. One person was arrested by the local sheriff’s department on the day the trees were taken down but was released the same day without being charged.
The protest includes environmental activists who are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency spare the cottonwoods. Kate Scott, one of the leaders of the tree-sit and founder of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center, and Erick Meza, with the Sierra Club, have been spending many days in the area in recent months. “The tree itself has become a symbol,” Meza said, both of the ecological importance of the area and the beauty that remains, but also “how much violence and destruction has happened on the border”.
The once idyllic valley, where the movie Oklahoma was filmed, is a high-elevation prairie home to bears and porcupines, and the mountains on either side represent two of the most important binational wildlife corridors in the borderlands. At the beginning of the second Trump administration, the border here was demarcated by hip-high vehicle barriers and barbed wire which animals could easily pass. Now a double layer of wall is planned for all of it and construction began last year. Already, several miles of wall have gone up in the valley and contractors are blasting in the mountains and drilling wells to make cement for the barrier’s base.
Devastating LA wildfire sparked by utility company tower, long-awaited report finds
The deadly 2025 Eaton fire in the Los Angeles area was caused by equipment belonging to the utility company Southern California Edison, fire officials said in a report released on Tuesday. Los Angeles county fire officials found that the cause of the fire that killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 homes and businesses was a tower that was not in service, according to the report.
“After 18 months of thorough review of all evidence, alongside retained electrical and metallurgical experts, the investigation concluded that the cause of the wildfire conflagration was due to the electrical arcing events that took place on the out-of-service Southern California Edison (SCE) tower,” the agency said in a statement. It took firefighters nearly a month to extinguish the blaze, which scorched 22 sq miles (57 sq km).
The Los Angeles county arson fire investigation unit jointly conducted the investigation with California department of forestry and fire protection. It found electrical arcing on the utility’s out-of-service tower sparked the dry brush below and that the utility was responsible for maintaining and operating its electrical lines and equipment “in a manner that would minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by them.”
The blaze was sparked during extreme weather conditions that included high temperatures, low humidity and powerful winds. Two “electrical arcing events” occurred in quick succession, causing an unknown burning material to fall from the tower to the ground below, according to the report. Within 12 seconds, dry grass and brush was ignited and the fire swiftly developed “into a conflagration engulfing the areas of the San Gabriel Mountains, Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre and La Cañada Flintridge”, the report said. It took more than two weeks to fully contain the wildfire.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Promoting War to School Children
America Almost Out Of Long Range Strike Munitions
Did the US and Israel Just Commit Their First Act of Hybrid War Against Spain?
It’s The Math – How China Is Avoiding The AI Bubble
Trump vowed to 'bring free speech back.' Judges in 75 cases ruled that he has stifled it
Senate Report Reveals How Wall Street Banks ‘Protected Epstein’
A Little Night Music
Charles Musselwhite w/Freddie Roulette – I Got To Go
Freddie Roulette – Sleepwalk
Freddie Roulette – Lucille
Charles Musselwhite w/Freddie Roulette – Memphis, Tennessee
Freddie Roulette – Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven
Freddie Roulette – Take It Easy
Freddie Roulette – Song For My Father
Freddie Roulette – Little Wing
Charles Musselwhite w/Freddie Roulette – Done Somebody Wrong
Freddie Roulette – Sidewinder
Comments
Glad to see Abdul beat the Zion stooge
.
AIPAC is poison for candidates now.
Not hard to see why.
Thanks for the EB's joe.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
they certainly spent enough on their loss. el-sayed was outspent by the report i read 11-1.
i bet they double down in the november elections. i hope they go broke.
Good evening Joe, thanks for the EBs. Flying within several
hundreds of miles of White Sands may well be risky for decades. The linked article from RT speaks to a pat event, but mentions two things, annual NAVFEST drills and the fact that:
So, that said:
https://www.rt.com/news/643912-army-gps-jamming-plane-crash/
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...
sounds like a great place to avoid. it's too damned hot there anyway.
have a great evening!