The Evening Blues - 8-28-24



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Stevie Wonder

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Motown r&b singer Stevie Wonder. Enjoy!

Little Stevie Wonder - Fingertips (Pts. I & II)

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

-- James Madison


News and Opinion

Worth a click and a full read:

"Democracies" Attack Journalism as They Attack Democracy Itself

The nations of the collective west love to brag and to praise themselves as being democracies. They say they abhor authoritarian, autocratic governments and constantly condemn anyone they don’t like as belonging to that club. In reality, the word democracy is used to fool the gullible into accepting actions and policies they ought to reject and also as a weapon meant to disguise evil intent. But the facade is cracking as the dictatorial tendency becomes harder to hide. ... The US is not alone regarding democratic fakery. In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s party lost an election to the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition . Under French law, he is bound to appoint a prime minister from that coalition but he has refused to do so, claiming that the coalition won only a plurality and not a majority. Macron is very brazenly violating the letter and the spirit of French law and making a mockery of any claims of having a political system that is in any way superior to others.

Now that same country which has ignored the will of its electorate has arrested a man whose crime is giving people all over the world unfettered access to information and for refusing to give governments a “back door” to his platform. Pavel Durov is the CEO of Telegram. Durov is Russian born and he first founded VKontakte, a platform very similar to Facebook. He was at odds with the Russian government over his commitment to encrypting communication and he left Russia to live in the United Arab Emirates. He was also granted French citizenship in 2021 as an “eminent foreigner ” that is to say, "a French-speaking foreigner who contributes through their eminent action to the influence of France and the prosperity of its international economic relations".

Neither billionaire wealth nor French citizenship helped Durov after he was arrested on August 24th in Paris after disembarking from his private jet. The charges against him allege that he allows criminal activity on Telegram, but that claim defies logic. Every social media platform is accessible to people who want to break the law but Telegram is unique, the platform of choice for people all over the world who want to share unfiltered information. Both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers report from the front using Telegram. Israeli soldiers boast of their war crimes on Telegram and Palestinians use it not to celebrate but to alert the world with images of broken bodies and blown-up buildings in Gaza. Ironically, it isn’t “authoritarian” Russia that arrested Durov, but France, which is supposedly among the “free” nations of the world. ...

One must ask the question, why now? The world has reached a point of very dangerous contradictions. Russia is winning the war in Ukraine but the west insists on prolonging the conflict with an ill-fated incursion into Russia, complete with war propaganda proclaiming victory while Ukrainian soldiers are the casualties. Not only do Israel’s war crimes continue, but it is seeking to instigate a wider regional war against Iran in particular. US incompetence during a lame-duck presidency only increases tensions while corporate media say little or nothing about the many crises facing the world. Even with their smaller audiences Ritter and Medhurst are a threat. Durov will be held a de facto hostage until he agrees to allow surveillance of Telegram users.

Of course, the west is only revealing its true nature. The nations that invaded most of the world and enslaved and colonized and stole resources were never superior. They were just the most powerful and their riches came from exploiting the rest of humanity. When we speak of the plight of Durov and Medhurst and Ritter we must also acknowledge that they fell prey to the worst predators in human history.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Are Ukraine and Israel Winning Propaganda Wars?

Gabbard Episode Shows the Surveillance State Strong and Stupid as Ever

The former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is apparently the latest Biden critic to be targeted for federal surveillance and harassment. Gabbard, an outspoken opponent of America’s forever wars, is reportedly being stalked by Transportation Security Administration’s air marshals, part of the agency’s Quiet Skies covert operation targeting suspected threats to aviation.

After TSA whistleblowers were quoted confirming the surveillance, Gabbard declared that placing her on the TSA Quiet Skies target list was “clearly an act of political retaliation. It’s no accident that I was placed on the Quiet Skies list the day after I did a prime-time interview warning the American people about… why Kamala Harris would be bad for our country if elected as President.” Gabbard lamented that, despite serving in the U.S. Army for 21 years, “now my government is surveilling me as a potential domestic terrorist.” She groused about “the stress of forever looking over my shoulder, wondering if and how I am being watched, what secret terror watch list I’m on, and having no transparency or due process.” As one Twitter wag quipped, “The only thing Tulsi Gabbard blew up was Kamala’s earlier presidential run. That’s why she's on a list.”

On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to TSA chief David Pekoske complaining that the Gabbard surveillance appeared to be “part of a broader pattern in which TSA has repurposed Quiet Skies to surveil individuals based on their political activities, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.” Paul requested that TSA speedily turn over “unredacted copies of all current guidelines, criteria, standard operating procedures, and related documents governing the selection of individuals for TSA-managed lists and programs, including the Quiet Skies program.” Paul himself had epic airport clashes with TSA officials in 2012, and the agency has been paying the price ever since.

In response to an inquiry by journalist Matt Taibbi on the Gabbard controversy, TSA issued a formal statement refusing to confirm or deny the targeting of Gabbard: “TSA’s Quiet Skies program uses a risk-based approach to identify passengers and apply enhanced security measures on some domestic and outbound international flights. To safeguard sensitive national security measures, TSA does not confirm or deny whether any individual has matched to a risk-based rule... Simply matching to a risk-based rule does not constitute derogatory information about an individual.”

In fact, a primary purpose of Quiet Skies is to entitle federal agents to stockpile derogatory information on their targets. ... The tracking operation is so blatant that it is reminiscent of the FBI’s tactics against Vietnam War protestors. FBI agents were encouraged to conduct frequent interviews with antiwar activists to “enhance the paranoia endemic in such circles” and “get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox,” according to an FBI memo from that era.

Phil Giraldi: Israel Will Bleed US Dry

Gaza polio vaccine rollout hindered by Israeli evacuation orders, says UN

The UN has said its ability to function in Gaza is being crippled by a flurry of Israeli evacuation orders, forcing Palestinians into ever smaller and more remote areas, days before a critical effort to contain a polio outbreak.

Aid workers warn that without a humanitarian pause, a vaccination drive due to begin this weekend could fail to reach enough children to stop the spread of the virus, which was detected there this month for the first time in 25 years. A baby has already been partly paralysed by the disease, and health experts have warned it could spread rapidly given the terrible sanitation and overcrowding in camps for Gaza’s exhausted, displaced population.

“One thing for sure is that it’s almost impossible to lead a polio vaccination campaign at scale in an active combat zone,” said Jonathan Crickx, a spokesperson in the region for the UN child welfare agency, Unicef.

Talks are under way between aid agencies and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the planned vaccination campaign. The IDF cooperated in the delivery of more than 25,000 vials of vaccine and refrigeration equipment through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Sunday, but their commanders have yet to agree to a pause in the bombing to allow the immunisation effort to go ahead safely and effectively.

Israeli forces have significantly stepped up their clearance of neighbourhoods, including camps for the displaced, in what they said ​​was the pursuit of “terror operatives”. According to the UN, the Israeli military issued a record 16 evacuation orders in August, forcing 12% of the territory’s population to move within a few days. The overwhelming majority of those affected have already had to flee multiple times since the start of the war nearly 11 months ago.

"Trying to Repeat the Nakba": Israel Launches Largest Military Raids in West Bank in Two Decades

'Gates Of HELL': Israel Launches West Bank ATTACK

Why Are Liberal Zionists Cheering as Harris Echoes Biden on Gaza?

Hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, the president of the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organization J Street took a victory lap in an effusive email to supporters. “Wow,” Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote. “What a week! As J Streeters leave the Democratic National Convention fired up and ready to go, it’s clear we’re having a greater impact than ever.” He added that “the vice president’s remarks on Israel-Palestine were perhaps the clearest articulation of J Street’s values from a presidential nominee.”

But what are those “values” and how do they apply to what’s happening in Gaza?

Discussing Gaza, Harris’ DNC acceptance speech began with the anodyne evocation of “working on a cease-fire” of Gaza’s pounding that America is funding: “President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done.”

Then came the “ironclad” pledge of eternal support for Israel, justified in this case by the October 7 Hamas raid: “And let me be clear. And let me be clear. I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself…”

Key to Harris’ brief discussion of Gaza in her acceptance speech was the customary refusal in American political discourse to attribute the slaughter to the U.S. or its Israeli partner. Instead, there was a reference to “what has happened”—evoking victims without victimizers—in this way: “What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.”

After pledging unconditional support for Israel’s military, Harris expressed sorrow—as if the horrors are being inflicted by a force of nature, not a military force that the U.S. government supplies with fundamental and essential support.

Style aside, what Harris articulated about Israel-Palestine in her speech was no different than what President Joe Biden has been saying and doing since last fall while enabling the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. The vehement enthusiasm from J Street, perhaps the USA’s leading liberal Zionist organization, is illuminating.

Harris carefully omitted any mention of the only way that the U.S. government could actually put an end to the suffering in Gaza that she called “heartbreaking”—an arms embargo to stop the huge shipments from the United States that provide the Israeli military with the weapons and ammunition it’s using to continue to massacre Palestinian people of all ages.

The Harris speech was consistent with the national party’s new platform—which “J Street helped shape,” Ben-Ami proudly wrote. But full affirmation of Biden’s policies toward the Gaza carnage should not have been any cause for celebration.

“As a Palestinian American who is an elected Democrat to the Colorado State House, it has been disheartening to witness Biden facilitate and abet Israel’s brutal war on Gaza with billions of dollars in U.S. weapons,” Iman Jodeh wrote during the convention. Harris “has said that an arms embargo—which human rights organizations have been calling for—is off the table, but that she supports a cease-fire.” However, “to truly reach a cease-fire and prevent a regional conflict, the U.S. must halt the arms shipments that fuel the conflict.”

The British medical journal The Lancet estimates that well over 100,000 residents of Gaza will die because of the Israeli bombardment and siege since October 7, as hunger and disease are endemic, and housing and infrastructure have been systematically destroyed. Polio is appearing in the devastated population of more than 2 million. Israel’s assault on the enclave, populated substantially by refugees from the 1948 creation of the Israeli state, remains unchecked—and is literally made possible by the continuous arms pipeline from the United States.

For J Street’s leadership, the current U.S. policy hits the spot. “Could not be prouder of VP Harris for her remarks on Israel/Palestine—and of Democrats’ reaction,” Ben-Ami tweeted after the convention adjourned. “This is what it means in 2024 to be pro-Israel, pro-peace, and pro-democracy.

At the convention, the parents of a hostage held by Hamas since October 7 spoke. But no Palestinian American was allowed to say anything. In effect, the convention’s podium was a place of apartheid, mirroring the reality of Israel’s apartheid system. (In his email, Ben-Ami wistfully noted the missed opportunity: “Hosting the first ever Palestinian speaker at a national convention would have been a powerful way to underscore the shared goal of an immediate cease-fire and hostage deal, and the compassion the party feels for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”)

J Street is determined to help ensure that liberal Zionism does not question the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to Jewish nationalist control in Palestine, as discussed in articles I co-wrote that were published 10 years ago and last spring. The organization is eager to define the limits of acceptable criticism of Israeli government policies from the Democratic Party establishment—setting aside human rights considerations as secondary to the mantra of Israel’s “right to exist.” (Whether apartheid South Africa had a “right to exist” is not a topic open for discussion.)

J Street represents untenable liberal American Zionism that clings to the fantasy of a democratic and humane “Jewish state.” Washington office-holders pledge continued weapons resupply for that fantasy Jewish state—with no connection to the actual Israel that is now engaged in remorseless genocide.

‘Unfathomable’ Israeli Crimes Backed By the ‘American War Machine’, w/ Egyptian Activist Rahma Zein

UKRAINE'S Latest Incursion Into RUSSIA Could Backfire: Ret Lt Col Davis

Blasting US 'Recklessness,' Mexico Pauses Embassy Relations Over Judicial Reform Meddling

Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador put the embassies of the United States and Canada on time out Tuesday after their top diplomats and other influential figures weighed in against controversial proposed reforms to Mexico's judicial system.

"The relationship with Ken Salazar is good, but it's on pause. We're going to give ourselves our time," López Obrador—who is widely known as AMLO—said during his morning press conference, referring to the U.S. ambassador. The president said the "pause" also applies to Canada, whose ambassador, Graeme Clark, voiced alarm over the proposed reforms.

"They have to learn to respect Mexico's sovereignty, because we are not going to give them advice there, nor to say that it is okay and what is wrong," he added. "We want them to be respectful, there is a reciprocal relationship in terms of sovereignty."

López Obrador's move came after Salazar asserted last week that "popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico's democracy."

"We understand the importance of Mexico's fight against judicial corruption. But direct political election of judges, in my view, would not address judicial corruption nor would it strengthen the judicial branch of government," the ambassador continued. "It would also weaken the efforts to make North American economic integration a reality and would create turbulence as the debate over direct election will continue over the next several years."

"I believe faith and trust in the rule of law are one of the many shared values which unite our nations, while for the private sector, they lay the groundwork for building confidence and inspiring investment in a stable and predictable environment," Salazar added.

Clark subsequently said that Canadian "investors are concerned; they want stability, they want a judicial system that works if there are problems."

López Obrador accused the ambassadors of "recklessness" during his Tuesday press conference, adding that "there are things that only concern our country."

It's not just the ambassadors. On Tuesday, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member James Risch (R-Idaho), and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a joint statement that they "are deeply concerned that the proposed judicial reforms in Mexico would undermine the independence and transparency of the country's judiciary, jeopardizing critical economic and security interests shared by our two nations."

"We are also alarmed that several other constitutional reforms currently under discussion may contradict commitments made in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which is scheduled for review in 2026," the senators added.

The Global Enterprise Council, the Mexico City-based lobbyist for 63 multinational corporations operating in Mexico—including Walmart, American Express, AT&T, General Motors, Microsoft, and ExxonMobil—is also opposing the proposed judicial reforms, as are other organizations including the New York City Bar Association and the Washington Post editorial board.

López Obrador's "Plan C" proposes a sweeping overhaul of Mexico's corruption-ridden judiciary. The plan's most controversial reform would make judges at all levels of the judiciary—who are currently appointed—elected officials. All current sitting judges would be up for election in 2025 and 2027.

The president argues these reforms are necessary to combat corruption and impunity in Mexico's judicial system. He has accused Mexican Supreme Court justices of being "supporters of the oligarchy, not of democracy" and says they oppose Plan C because "they do not want a government of the people."

Plan C—which came after an earlier proposal was blocked by the Supreme Court—has sparked nationwide protests by opponents, who say López Obrador is trying to weaken the judiciary and the National Electoral Institute and entrench his ruling Morena party as former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a close ally of the president, prepares to replace him on October 1 after winning June's election in a landslide.

Tensions between Mexico and the United States have been mounting for months over Mexican perceptions of U.S. meddling, including dubiously timed corporate media reports of alleged links between López Obrador and drug cartels.

Last week, López Obrador said that Salazar's statement "expressing a position on this strictly domestic matter of the Mexican state represents unacceptable interference, contravenes the sovereignty of the United Mexican States, and does not reflect the degree of mutual respect that characterizes the relations between our governments."

"This is an overtly interventionist attitude; I hope it does not happen again," he added.

In separate remarks last week, López Obrador also accused the U.S. of funding organizations working to undermine the Mexican government under the guise of human rights.

For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development—whose decadeslong history of meddling in Latin America runs the gamut from kidnapping and torturing unhoused Uruguayans to death for instructional purposes to an attempt at toppling Cuba's revolutionary government by infiltrating the island's hip-hop scene—has financially supported Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, a frequent critic of the López Obrador administration.

During his Tuesday press conference, López Obrador reminded Mexicans of centuries of U.S. aggression and meddling in Mexico's internal affairs.

"For many years… the United States has applied an interventionist policy throughout America, ever since it established the Monroe Doctrine," he said.

López Obrador recounted how Mexico lost half its territory as a result of the 1846-48 U.S. invasion—carried out on false pretexts decried by a young congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln—and endured seven months of U.S. occupation of Veracruz in 1914.

The president stressed that having trade agreements with the U.S. does not mean that Washington has the right to meddle in Mexican affairs.

"The treaty is not for us to cede our sovereignty, the treaty is about trade, about forging good economic and commercial ties that suit both nations," he said Tuesday. "But that doesn't mean Mexico must become an appendix, a colony, or a protectorate."

France ERUPTS As Macron REFUSES Election Results

Zuckerberg CONFESSES Biden Facebook Censorship

Mark Zuckerberg says White House ‘pressured’ Facebook to censor Covid-19 content

The Meta boss, Mark Zuckerberg, has said he regrets bowing to what he claims was pressure from the US government to censor posts about Covid on Facebook and Instagram during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg said senior White House officials in Joe Biden’s administration “repeatedly pressured” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to “censor certain Covid-19 content” during the pandemic.

“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humour and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” he said in a letter to Jim Jordan, the head of the US House of Representatives judiciary committee. “I believe the government pressure was wrong.” ...

Zuckerberg also said that Facebook “temporarily demoted” a story about the contents of a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the president’s son, after a warning from the FBI that Russia was preparing a disinformation campaign against the Bidens.

Zuckerberg wrote that it has since become clear that the story was not disinformation, and “in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story”.



the horse race



Trump appoints RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard to transition team

Donald Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats who have endorsed his bid for a second presidency, to the transition team that could shape his future administration.

The pair will serve as honorary co-chairs of a body that will help him choose policies and personnel if he wins November’s presidential election, the New York Times reported.

Kennedy’s appointment came after he suspended his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate last week and threw his weight behind an erstwhile opponent who, just four months ago, branded him a “radical-left lunatic”.

He had already flagged up his new role in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and prominent Trump supporter, posted on X.

Gabbard, a former member of Congress for Hawaii, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and left the party shortly thereafter.

Special counsel files new indictment against Trump over 2020 election

The justice department filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The maneuver does not substantially change the criminal case against him but protects it in the wake of a July US supreme court decision ruling saying that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.

“Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment,” lawyers for Jack Smith, the special counsel handling the case, said in a filing that accompanied what is known as a superseding indictment.

“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v United States.”

The document retains the same four criminal charges against Trump that were originally filed last summer. But portions of the new indictment are rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.

For example, the new document removes mention of Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official who aided Trump’s attempt to try to overturn the election. Clark was the only government official who was listed as an unnamed co-conspirator in the original indictment. The supreme court wrote in its July ruling that Trump was “absolutely immune from prosecution” over his discussion with justice department officials, hence Clark’s removal from the new indictment.



the evening greens


Scientists tied to chemical industry plan to derail PFAS rule on drinking water

Scientists with financial ties to industry and histories of producing controversial research to derail chemical regulations are mobilizing to attack strict new federal drinking water limits for toxic PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, documents reviewed by the Guardian reveal.

In July, Michael Dourson, a contentious toxicologist who receives some funding from chemical makers, sent an email to scientists, consultants and lawyers detailing a plan to develop and publish peer-reviewed science for chemical companies to wield as evidence against PFAS limits. It went out just after industry groups mounted a legal challenge to the restrictions.

But current and former Environmental Protection Agency staff who reviewed the documents allege the scientists are engineering an ethically questionable plan designed to generate uncertainty about the “robust” science underpinning the PFAS limits. The plans were “not a valid approach to science”, said Maria Doa, a former EPA risk assessment manager now with the Environmental Defense Fund non-profit. Rather, she said, they were a legal strategy out of the industry playbook for undoing regulations.

“They’re trying to undermine the EPA’s science, make it sound like there’s uncertainty where there isn’t and make it sound like there’s disagreement within the scientific community where there’s not,” Doa added. The EPA amassed hundreds of animal and epidemiological studies before issuing its new rules in April.

In July, the American Chemistry Council, Chemours, the American Water Works Association and others filed suits against the EPA over the new regulations. Billions of dollars in industry profits on PFAS are at stake, as is water quality for the estimated 200 million people with PFAS-contaminated water. Meanwhile, a ruling against the limits would discourage regulatory action on other toxic chemicals beyond PFAS in water, said Betsy Southerland, a retired EPA water division manager. “This is pivotal,” she said. “If a court strikes this down … then the EPA will say the bar is too high to ever regulate using the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Maybe worth a peek:

‘These ideas are incredibly popular’: what is degrowth and can it save the planet?

In the run-up to the UK general election, the Labour party’s central offer to the public was a “laser-like” focus on economic growth. Its leader, Keir Starmer, promised to “take the brakes off Britain” and repeatedly said “ensuring economic growth will be fundamental”. In the weeks since the party was elected, it has regularly been grilled about whether the required growth is possible, or how it could be achieved. But to the dismay of ecological economists and climate experts, there has been almost no debate about what sort of growth it should be, who it would benefit – or even whether the aim of perpetual growth on a planet with finite resources is either possible or desirable in the midst of an escalating climate crisis.

“It is bad economics and it is also anti-scientific,” says Jason Hickel, the author of Less Is More. “People need to understand that ‘growth’ is not the same as social progress.” Hickel is one of the leading lights in a growing post-growth or degrowth movement. Its proponents argue that economic success cannot be measured through the crude metric of gross domestic product (GDP) and that there needs to be a managed reduction in growth in carbon-intensive countries and industries.

“Growth simply means an increase in aggregate production, as measured in market prices,” says Hickel. “So, according to GDP growth, producing £1m worth of teargas is considered exactly the same as producing £1m worth of affordable housing or healthcare.” Hickel says that what matters in terms of social progress is not aggregate production but the production of specific goods and services that are necessary for improving people’s lives and achieving ecological goals – and a reduction in overall growth in high-emitting sectors and countries.

“Every time a politician says they want more economic growth, we need to ask: growth of what and for whose benefit?”

Heat-related deaths have increased by 117% in the US since 1999

As record-breaking heatwaves continue across parts of the US, a new report shows that heat-related deaths in the country rose by 117% between 1999 and 2023.

The report, released on Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), found that from 1999 to 2023, there have been more than 21,500 heat-related deaths recorded in the US.

The researchers used data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also found that 1,069 deaths were heat-related in 1999, compared with 2,325 in 2023 – representing a 117% increase. The lowest number of heat-related deaths in the study period was 311 in 2004, the researchers said, whereas the highest was 2,325 in 2023.

Before 2016, the researchers said that the number of heat-related deaths showed “year-to-year variability”, with spikes in 2006 and 2011. But after 2016, the number of heat-related deaths steadily increased annually.

“As temperatures continue to rise because of climate change, the recent increasing trend is likely to continue,” the researchers wrote. “Local authorities in high-risk areas should consider investing in the expansion of access to hydration centers and public cooling centers or other buildings with air conditioning.”


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The Slide Into Authoritarianism

Fog of War and Narrative, Israel and Hezbollah Attacks Edition

The Uncommitted Movement is uncommitted to resistance, committed to the establishment!

Ukraine's Air Defense Success Numbers Are Likely Fake

Three Amigos No More? US and Canada Warn of Dire Economic Consequences if Mexico Persists With Judicial Reforms

Breaking News Alerts Keep Public Posted on Trivia and Trump

Local Fears Grow After Major PFAS Spill at Former Navy Base in Maine

Love Music, Hate Racism

‘His spirit is everywhere’: the fascinating story of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady studio

Protestors EXPOSE Dems' Genocidal Complicity

LEAKED Audio Reveals Global REPRESSION Campaign

Kursk Changed the War - Dmitry Polyanskiy (Russian Rep to UN), Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen


A Little Night Music

Little Stevie Wonder - Come Back Baby

Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground

Stevie Wonder - Uptight

Stevie Wonder - Contract On Love

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)

Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out

Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Stevie Wonder - Living For The City

Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin'


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Comments

QMS's picture

.
.
for as long as I've wandered this planet
(we are of the same age and geo origin)

just wondering, in this age of forced conformity
how long can this site survive?

one of my faves (I'm not a romantic) love is key

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8 users have voted.

question everything

joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

hopefully we can fly under the radar for a long time to come.

thanks for the tune, have a great evening!

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9 users have voted.
QMS's picture

.
.
used to work tugs with 12,000 horse engines
the sound and vibration was nothing compared to
the monsters paving out front tonight
even the quad EMD's on the freights were quieter
guess the ocean absorbed some of it?
the earth is unforgiving, rails spread it out ..

thank the electrons for loud music!
may mellow the aural crazies Wink

up
9 users have voted.

question everything

joe shikspack's picture

@QMS

perhaps there's less to stop/alter the propagation of a wave in land or air than in the ocean?

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6 users have voted.
QMS's picture

@joe shikspack
bury me in the water

up
5 users have voted.

question everything

snoopydawg's picture

.

cruelty and atrocities that keep getting worse. I find it strange that the UN wants to vaccinate kids for polio when they will die anyway from lack of food and water or will be blown to bits by an American bomb. Does anyone else see how utterly stupid this is?

I’m not surprised to learn that J
JFP and If not now when all the uncommitted movement have been co-opted by dems. But do the little people know the truth? I can’t understand why anyone would vote for a candidate that is killing your family and friends, but we’ll see.

9 don’t restocmember if I posted Cook's link to the Vrba story. It’s got some good quotes from Zionists…we can still say that here right?

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/28/hiding-an-ugly-truth-about-israel/

Great article from Kimberly. Thanks.

I still can’t believe that only 2 countries are trying to stop the genocide. Will world leaders sit on their asses while the hilltop terrorists ethic cleanse the West Bank too?

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9 users have voted.

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

QMS's picture

@snoopydawg
.
.
start bombing Texas and Arizona world leaders may wake up?
Doubtful, but not out of the question.

up
5 users have voted.

question everything

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

I still can’t believe that only 2 countries are trying to stop the genocide.

well, that's two governments. there are countries full of people, who given the opportunity would put an end to this disgusting action in which the people who run their governments (including, sadly, our own) are revealing themselves to be genocidal monsters.

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

some little kid playing harp on Ed Sullivan, and then he grew up to do this masterpiece:

Amazing.

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

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 --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

yep, wonder has created so really memorable, classic tunes over the years. i remember liking superstition from the moment i first heard it.

thanks for the beato breakdown of the tune!

have a great evening!

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7 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Ukrainian citizens will have to choose between being drafted into the army or working and paying all their taxes, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal has said. The government needs to rely more on its own resources to cover its military expenses, he explained.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

Haditha

On the morning of November 19, 2005, a squad of Marines was travelling in four Humvees down a road in the town of Haditha, Iraq, when their convoy hit an I.E.D. The blast killed one Marine, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, and injured two others. What followed would spark one of the largest war-crime investigations in the history of the United States.

During the next several hours, Marines killed twenty-four Iraqi men, women, and children. Near the site of the explosion, they shot five men who had been driving to a college in Baghdad. They entered three nearby homes and killed nearly everyone inside. The youngest victim was a three-year-old girl. The oldest was a seventy-six-year-old man. The Marines would later claim that they were fighting insurgents that day, but the dead were all civilians...
In an oral-history interview for the Marine Corps, in 2014, General Michael Hagee, who was the commandant of the Marine Corps at the time of the Haditha killings, bragged about keeping the Haditha photos secret.

“The press never got them, unlike Abu Ghraib,” Hagee said.

The interviewer, Fred Allison, a Marine Corps historian, interjected, “The pictures. They got the pictures. That was what was so bad about Abu Ghraib.”

“Yes,” Hagee replied. “And I learned from that.” He said, “Those

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joe shikspack's picture

@gjohnsit

yep, the military recognized the need to hide the receipts to maintain enough plausible deniability to keep them out of jail. seems the cia figured that out, too, when they destroyed the evidence of torture. it worked really well as one of the evidence destroyers got promoted to head the agency.

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Man, wondrous music, extremely interesting news you brought us tonight.
Thanks so much for all you do my dear friend!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@on the cusp

thanks for reading/listening!

have a great evening!

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