The Evening Blues - 11-14-25
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features L.A. Blues-rock band The Red Devils. Enjoy!
The Red Devils - Automatic
"We know there are no weapons of mass destruction. But there are weapons of misdirection. Millions without health insurance, poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor."
-- Joseph Lowery
News and Opinion
The Media Focus On Epstein’s Ties To Trump And Ignore His Ties To Israel
The way the press have been covering Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump while completely ignoring far more significant revelations of Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence is such a perfect example of how western media ignore anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the two-party worldview. If there’s not some kind of partisan angle to it that Democrats can use to attack Republicans or Republicans can use to attack Democrats, it tends to get conspicuously overlooked.
Which just so happens to align nicely with the objectives of the US empire.
The empire doesn’t want people looking too closely at the evil things the US and Israel have been doing together regardless of who is in office, so the western press tend to ignore these things wherever possible.
The empire doesn’t want people keeping track of what countries the US war machine is bombing from administration to administration, so the western press keep this information so silent that every few months I’ll see a viral tweet from some American going “Wait a second we’ve been bombing Somalia this whole time?” or “We’ve got troops in KENYA??”
What a weird world we live in: It's less taboo to cover Epstein's sex crimes than his relationship to Israeli intelligence. https://t.co/vjZA0dlhqd
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) November 13, 2025
The overwhelming majority of the empire’s abuses remain in place regardless of which political party happens to be in power or what the current US president’s campaign platform was. War. Genocide. Militarism. Imperialist extraction. Ecocidal capitalism. Soaring inequality. Poverty. Homelessness. Police militarization. The ever-expanding surveillance network. Censorship. Propaganda. Government lies and opacity. The crimes of the imperial intelligence alliance.
All of the worst things about our dystopian civilization here in the globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around the United States keep marching forward completely uninterrupted from presidency to presidency, while the mass media ignore them and keep the public fixated on irrelevant feuding between America’s two mainstream political factions.
This is because the mass media of the western world do not exist to report on the major news stories of our day. They exist to indoctrinate, distract, and manipulate. They are not news services, they are propaganda services.
Adding a few more details of Trump’s already well–documented Epstein ties to the information ecosystem will drum up a lot of interest and attention and monopolize political discourse for a day or two, but it won’t change anything. The American public developing a universal revulsion toward Israel and its involvement in their own country’s affairs, however, would have far-reaching consequences that could change the face of the world. Which is why the propaganda services of the empire are focusing on the former rather than the latter.
Craig Mokhiber: UN'S LAST CHANCE: The Plan to Stop the Gaza Genocide
Jeffrey Sachs:
Trump’s Ploy at the UN Is American Imperialism Masquerading as a Peace Process
The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine. The resolution does three things. It establishes US political control over Gaza. It separates Gaza from the rest of Palestine. And it allows the US, and therefore Israel, to determine the timeline for Israel’s supposed withdrawal from Gaza–which would mean: never.
This is imperialism masquerading as a peace process. In and of itself it’s no surprise. Israel runs US foreign policy in the Middle East. What is a surprise is that the US and Israel might just get away with this travesty unless the world speaks up with urgency and indignation.
The draft UNSC resolution would establish a US-UK-dominated Board of Peace, chaired by none other than Donald Trump himself, and endowed with sweeping powers over Gaza’s governance, borders, reconstruction, and security. This resolution would sideline the State of Palestine and condition any transfer of authority to the Palestinians on the indulgence of the Board of Peace.
This would be an overt return to the British Mandate of 100 years ago, with the only change being that the US would hold the mandate rather than Britain. If it weren’t so utterly tragic, it would be laughable. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Yes, the proposal is farce, yet Israel’s genocide is not. It is tragedy of the first order.
Incredibly, according to the draft resolution, the Board of Peace would be granted sovereign powers in Gaza. Palestinian sovereignty is left to the discretion of the Board, which alone would decide when Palestinians are “ready” to govern themselves – perhaps in another 100 years? Even military security is subordinated to the Board, and the envisioned forces would answer not to the UN Security Council or to the Palestinian people, but to the Board’s “strategic guidance.”
The US-Israel resolution is being put forward precisely because the rest of the world—other than Israel and the US—has woken up to two facts. First, Israel is committing genocide, a reality witnessed every day in Gaza and the West Bank, where innocent Palestinians are murdered to the satisfaction of the Israel Defense Forces and the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Second, Palestine is a state, albeit one whose sovereignty remains obstructed by the US, which uses its veto in the UNSC to block Palestine’s permanent UN membership. At the UN this past July and then again in September, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for Palestine’s statehood, a fact that put the Israel-US Zionist lobby into overdrive, resulting in the current draft resolution.
For Israel to accomplish its goal of Greater Israel, the US is pursuing a classic divide-and-conquer strategy, squeezing Arab and Islamic states with threats and inducements. When other countries resist the US-Israel demands, they are cut off from critical technologies, lose access to World Bank and IMF financing, and suffer Israeli bombing, even in countries with US military bases present. The US offers no real protection; rather, it orchestrates a protection racket, extracting concessions from countries wherever US leverage exists. This extortion will continue until the global community stands up to such tactics and insists upon genuine Palestinian sovereignty and US and Israeli adherence to international law.
Palestine remains the endless victim of US and Israeli maneuvers. The results are not just devastating for Palestine, which has suffered an outright genocide, but for the Arab world and beyond. Israel and the US are currently at war, overtly or covertly, across the Horn of Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia), the Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon, Syria), the Gulf region (Yemen), and Western Asia (Iraq, Iran).
If the UN Security Council is to provide true security in accordance with the UN Charter, it must not yield to US pressures and instead act decisively in line with international law. A resolution truly for peace should include four vital points. First, it should welcome the State of Palestine as a sovereign UN member state, with the US lifting its veto. Second, it should safeguard the territorial integrity of the State of Palestine and Israel, according to the 1967 borders. Third, it should establish a UNSC-mandated protection force drawn up from Muslim-majority states. Fourth, it should include the defunding and disarmament of all belligerent non-state entities, and it should ensure the mutual security of Israel and Palestine.
The two-state solution is about true peace—not about the politicide and genocide of Palestine, or the continued attacks by militants on Israel. It’s time for both Palestinians and Israelis to be safe, and for the US and Israel to give up the cruel delusion of permanently ruling over the Palestinian people.
Why Israel Has No Future in the Middle East | Nakba Survivor Dr. Ghada Karmi
Biden Administration Had Intelligence That Israel Was Using Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza
The US gathered intelligence last year of Israeli officials discussing their soldiers using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza by sending them into tunnels and buildings believed to be lined with explosives, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials.
The officials said that the intelligence was shared with the White House during the final weeks of the Biden administration. Despite the use of human shields being a clear war crime and violation of international law, Biden officials did nothing to curtail US military aid to Israel after receiving the intelligence.
The IDF’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, known as the “mosquito protocol,” was so widespread in Gaza that one Israeli military officer writing anonymously in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that the IDF operated a “sub-army of Palestinian slaves.”
While the IDF officially denies that it used human shields, there has been widespread reporting on it in Israeli media and testimony from Israeli soldiers and Palestinians about the practice.
‘Behind Every Barrel of Oil Is a Trace of Blood’: 25 Countries Helped Fuel Gaza Genocide
A total of 25 countries sent 323 shipments of oil to Israel while it was committing genocide in Gaza, according to a new analysis released by Oil Change International on Thursday.
The report, Behind the Barrel: An Update on the Origins of Israel’s Fuel Supply, was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. It concluded that the countries sent almost 21.2 million metric tons of both crude and refined oil to Israel between November 1, 2023 and October 1, 2025 while Israel was conducting a campaign of bombing and mass starvation against Gaza that killed over 69,000 people.
"Governments permitted fuel supplies to Israel even after it became clear Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, a finding now backed by a UN commission," Bronwen Tucker of Oil Change International said in a statement. "States have a moral and legal obligation to end these fuel flows immediately. The same fossil fuel system that drives the climate crisis also drives war, occupation, and genocide."
The countries that supplied the most crude oil were Azerbaijan through Turkey and Kazakhstan through Russia, accounting for around 70% of shipments. Russia supplied the most refined oil at nearly 1.5 million metric tons, followed by Greece at over 0.5 million metric tons and the US at over 0.4 million metric tons. However, the US was the only country that supplied Israel with JP-8, a specialized military jet fuel.
The US "sent nine shipments totaling 360,000 tonnes of JP-8, as well as two shipments of diesel, all from Valero’s Bill Greehey Refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas," the report found.
"A genocide needs media complicity, government complicity, weapons, funding, but it also needs oil to keep operating, and we need to stop that oil from flowing there," said Leandro Lanfredi, Rio de Janeiro director of the National Federation of Oil Workers Brasil, during a press briefing unveiling the report at COP30.
The report argued that the nations who sent oil to Israel acted in violation of their obligations under international law, with some continuing the shipments even after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said that Israel's actions were illegal in July 2024 and a United Nations commission determined that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza in September 2025.
“The obligation of states to comply with the ICJ interim order flow directly from Article I of the Genocide Convention, which requires states to undertake [actions] ‘to prevent and to punish genocide,'" Irene Pietropaoli, senior fellow in business and human rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, told Oil Change in an email. "The ICJ Order finding ‘a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the court to be plausible’ means that states are now aware of the risk of genocide being committed in Gaza. States must consider that their military or other assistance to Israel’s military operations in Gaza may put them at a risk of being complicit in genocide under the Genocide Convention.”
Mohammed Usrof, executive director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, said: “Behind the Barrel confirms what Palestinians and climate justice movements have long said: Fossil fuel supply chains are weapons of war. Governments and corporations that continue to trade oil, diesel, and jet fuel with Israel—even through intermediaries—are enabling genocide. States must impose a full energy embargo and close the legal loopholes that make complicity profitable."
At the panel announcing the report, speakers called out the hypocrisy of nations who try to present themselves as climate leaders while sending money to Israel and companies like Maersk who attend COPs while facilitating those shipments. For example, Brazil, which is hosting COP30, has not directly shipped oil to Israel since March 2024. However, it does send crude oil to a refinery in Sardinia that then exports to Israel.
"Behind every barrel of oil is a trace of blood and behind every shipment is a logistic of genocide, and we need to recognize how it all starts, and we need to recognize the complicity of the companies, the corporations, and the governments that continue acting, especially in spaces such as COP," Usrof said during the briefing.
At the same time, advocates noted that the same fossil fuel companies profit from both climate collapse and genocide.
"The fossil fuel industry lies at the core of today’s global crisis, driving climate collapse, militarization, and genocide. The same system that burns the planet also fuels Israel’s genocidal machine and upholds its colonial regime of illegal occupation and apartheid," said Ana Sánchez, general coordinator for the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, in a statement.
Sánchez continued: "From oil fields to shipping routes, fossil capitalism turns profit into power over life itself. At COP30, we remind the world that energy justice is inseparable from liberation: ending these fuel flows is not just a moral imperative but a necessary act of decolonization. People everywhere are rising to build a new global order that puts life above the privilege of business as usual.”
In particular, the panelists held up the example of workers in Italy who conducted general strikes in solidarity with Gaza.
Partly inspired by the Italian strikes, Lanfredi said his trade union had recently voted to oppose any oil reaching Israel from Brazil.
"We need a growing workers' movement worldwide... for an energy embargo in support of the Palestinian people. We don't want any single drop of oil to get to Israel," he said.
Usrof encouraged people living in all complicit countries to "realize that they have the power to resist at the docks, at each of the conduits of power, the conduits of oil and gas and energy in general."
Shady Khalil of Oil Change International concluded: "The call is clear: We are calling for countries to act on their legal and moral obligation to stop providing fossil fuel to Israel and stop contributing to this genocide and join their people."
“The Trillion Dollar War Machine”: William Hartung on DoD Funding, Israel, Tariffs & More
Israel Seeks 20-Year Military Aid Deal With the US
Israel is seeking a 20-year military aid deal with the US and is looking to increase the annual amount of military assistance it receives from Washington, Axios reported on Thursday.
A 20-year deal would double the usual term for US-Israel military aid agreements. The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), negotiated under the Obama administration, was the third 10-year military aid deal between the two countries.
The current MOU, under which the US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid each year, expires in 2028, and the Axios report said that Israeli officials hope to have a replacement deal in place over the next year. Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided significantly more military aid to Israel to support the genocidal campaign in Gaza and other Israeli military operations in the region.
Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization based in the West Bank, is not new to adversity. But since the group was sanctioned by the Trump administration in September, its world has shrunk.
Today, staff work without pay because their banks closed their accounts. US-based funders have pulled away. YouTube has pulled hundreds of the group’s videos documenting Israeli forces’ human rights abuses against Palestinians. Perhaps most upsetting, US-based groups that had long collaborated have gone quiet, fearful that communications with Al-Haq may draw the attention of an administration that has made clear they are a target.
“I feel a deep, deep pain in my heart,” said Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s director, of the silence from US-based organizations in the human rights and social justice sector. “Most of them – if not all – they stopped working with us or engaging with us formally and openly.”
Speaking to the Guardian, Jabarin called on US-based rights groups to take a more defiant stance against the Trump administration. “Standing on the side of human rights and justice doesn’t mean that you have to respect draconian orders or laws,” he said. “You have to fight back with all means.”
The Trump administration announced sanctions against Al-Haq over the group’s support for investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine by the international criminal court (ICC). The sanctions marked an early strike in a broader campaign against civil society, a campaign disproportionately focused on groups championing Palestinian rights that also threatens to sweep up climate, democracy and racial justice groups.
A tenured law professor sued the University of Kentucky on Thursday after he was banned from teaching and from the law school for comments he made about Israel, including characterizations of the state as a “colonization project” and calls for the world to wage war against it.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, Ramsi Woodcock, an antitrust law scholar, argued that the public university violated his first amendment and due process rights when it abruptly placed him under investigation in July, just days after he was promoted to full professor, over allegations that he violated university policy – including anti-discrimination rules that incorporate a widely disputed definition of antisemitism.
The lawsuit marks another chapter in the growing backlash against universities over their use of the so-called IHRA definition. Scores of faculty members at both private and public institutions have been placed under investigation – and in some cases fired or forced out – over criticisms of Israel characterized as antisemitic. The suit is the first to be filed by a professor against a university that explicitly challenges the constitutionality of the IHRA definition and the application of federal Title VI anti-discrimination protections to criticism of Israel.
Jay Blanton, a spokesperson for the University of Kentucky, said that Woodcock had not been suspended, but rather “reassigned” pending the outcome of the investigation. Woodcock has been banned from teaching, advising students, attending faculty meetings and accessing the law school’s building. According to the lawsuit, the only aspect of his job he is still able to carry out is “professional development”.
“Title VI does not and cannot constitutionally prohibit criticism of Israel,” the lawsuit argues. “To the extent that the IHRA definition prohibits calling for the dismantling of colonial state structures, prohibits legal scholars from debating the contours of the right of self-determination, prohibits allegations of race discrimination, and prohibits allegations of genocide, the IHRA definition is unconstitutional.”
In a social media post, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, just announced “Operation Southern Spear”, a new military mission apparently signaling that the war on drugs could soon be an actual war.
He offered no other details, as strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and a massing of forces in the region have prompted widespread speculation that US military strikes on Venezuela are imminent.
President Trump ordered action — and the Department of War is delivering.
Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR.
Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our…
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 13, 2025
Kiev's Darkest Day; Zelensky Begs More Missiles After Huge Russian Kiev Strike; Gives Up On Pokrovsk
Chicago daycare worker freed after judge rules ICE arrest unlawful
A Chicago daycare worker whose arrest by federal agents last week sparked widespread outrage has been released from custody. On Thursday, Diana Santillana Galeano’s attorney said she was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Clay county, Indiana, on Wednesday night. Her release followed a federal judge’s ruling earlier in the day that her arrest was “unlawful” as she had not had a preliminary bond hearing.
In his ruling on Wednesday, US district judge Jeremy Daniel wrote: “The government acknowledges that several courts, including this one, have found mandatory detention … unlawful.” He ordered the government to provide Galeano with a bond hearing by 18 November. Daniel further added that “the parties shall submit a status report on or before November 20, 2025, that addresses the petitioner’s release status, including when the petitioner received a bond hearing, the result of the bond hearing, and any findings made by the immigration judge.”
Following her release, Galeano said in a statement: “I am so grateful to everyone who has advocated on my behalf, and on behalf of the countless others who have experienced similar trauma over recent months in the Chicago area … I love our community and the children I teach, and I can’t wait to see them again.”
MAGA Base IN SHAMBLES as Trump DOUBLES DOWN On H-1B Visas
Under Trump, Inflation Is Costing Average US Family $700 More Per Month
Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee released a report Thursday detailing how much more the average American family in every US state is having to spend monthly to cover the rising costs of food, shelter, energy, and other necessities under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
The panel released its report on the same day the Trump administration was supposed to publish the October Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The closely watched CPI report was delayed by the shutdown, and the Trump White House said Wednesday that it's likely the figures will never be released.
Deploying the same methodology that Republicans used to track cost increases under former President Joe Biden, JEC Democrats found that the average US family is spending roughly $700 more per month on basic items since Trump took office in January, pledging to bring prices "way down."
"While President Trump claimed that he would bring down prices, the reality is that Americans have seen their costs soar even higher since he took office," said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the JEC's ranking member. "As families across the country spend more to pay their bills and put food on the table, Democrats and Republicans should be working together to lower costs. Instead, President Trump is pushing ahead with reckless tariffs that continue to fuel inflation and drive prices up even higher."
In some states—including Alaska, California, and Colorado—average families are spending over $1,000 more per month to maintain their living standards as costs continue to rise, in part due to Trump's erratic tariff regime.
The report's findings run directly counter to Trump's triumphant rhetoric on inflation and the US economy more broadly.
CNN's Daniel Dale noted earlier this week that Trump has been on a "lying spree about inflation," falsely claiming that "every price is down" and that "everybody knows that it's far less expensive under Trump than it was under Sleepy Joe Biden."
"None of that is true," Dale wrote. "Prices are up during this administration. Average prices were 1.7% higher in September than they were in January, according to the most recent figures from the federal Consumer Price Index, and 3% higher than they were in September 2024. There has been inflation every month of the term, and far more products have gotten costlier than cheaper."
"Inflation not only very much continues to exist but has been accelerating since the spring," Dale added. "As of September, the year-over-year inflation rate had increased for five consecutive months."
House SECURES Vote To RELEASE EPSTEIN FILES
Trump faces prospect of congressional vote on releasing Epstein files
Donald Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote on releasing the Jeffery Epstein files after attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed. The reported refusal of Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative from Colorado, and Nancy Mace, from South Carolina, to remove their names from a discharge petition to force a vote leaves Trump exposed on an issue that carries the possibility of turning segments of his Maga base against him.
Boebert reportedly stood firm on supporting the petition after being invited by Trump to the White House in an effort to persuade her to withdraw her signature, according to the New York Times. The outlet reported that the meeting happened hours after Democrats on the House of Representatives’ oversight committee released a trove of emails from the files that suggested that Trump may have known more about Epstein’s underage sex-trafficking activities than he previously acknowledged.
The disgraced late financier – who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial – wrote in one email that Trump, his former close friend, “knew about the girls”.
The New York Times reported that the White House sought to persuade Boebert to change her mind – enlisting Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and the FBI director, Kash Patel – before issuing “vague threats” when the tactic did not work. The paper, citing people “familiar with her thinking”, reported that the hardline approach had the counterproductive effect of persuading Boebert that there may be a conspiracy to conceal the contents of the files and caused her to dig in.
Trump was reported to have unsuccessfully tried to contact Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina, by phone. She subsequently wrote him a letter explaining her history of sexual abuse and rape, and explaining that she could not change her mind on the petition. She later wrote in a social media post that “the Epstein petition is deeply personal.”
US justice department joins lawsuit to block California’s new electoral map
The justice department on Thursday joined a lawsuit brought by California Republicans to block the state’s new congressional map, escalating a legal battle over a redistricting effort designed to give Democrats a better chance of retaking the House of Representatives next year.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, challenges the congressional map championed by Gavin Newsom, the state’s Democratic governor, in response to a Republican gerrymander in Texas, sought by Donald Trump. The justice department’s intervention in the case sets up a high-profile showdown between the Trump administration and Newsom, one of the president’s chief antagonists and a possible 2028 contender.
“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” said Pam Bondi, the US attorney general. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
Democrats have expressed confidence that the newly approved maps will withstand a legal challenge.
How Mamdani Won: Field Director Tascha Van Auken on Grassroots Organizing Behind Historic Victory
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
The New York City mayoral election may be remembered for the remarkable win of a young democratic socialist, but it was also marked by something that is likely to permeate future elections: the use of AI-generated campaign videos. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Zohran Mamdani in last week’s election, took particular interest in sharing deepfake videos of his opponent, including one that sparked accusations of racism, in what is a developing area of electioneering.
“I think what’s really broken through in this election cycle has been the use of generative AI to produce content that goes directly to voters,” said Alex Bores, a New York state representative who has been at the forefront of introducing laws to regulate the use of AI. “So whether that was the Cuomo campaign that used ChatGPT to generate its housing plan, or Cuomo and many others making AI-generated video ads for voters, that is, I think, felt very new in the 2025 cycle, or certainly, just much further than we’ve ever seen before.” ...
Cuomo, meanwhile, was accused of racism and Islamophobia after his campaign tweeted a video that showed a fictionalized version of Mamdani eating rice with his fingers and a Black man shoplifting. The advert also featured a Black man, wearing a purple shirt and tie and a fur coat and carrying a silver cane, appearing to endorse sex trafficking. The Cuomo campaign later deleted it and said it had been sent out by accident. ...
In New York state, campaigns are supposed to label AI ads as such, but some – including the ad Cuomo posted and deleted – did not. The New York board of elections is in charge of potentially pressing charges against campaigns, but Bores noted that campaigns might be willing to bite the bullet on any punishment, particularly if any punishment comes after a campaign has finished.
‘Time to Clear House’: Sunrise Movement Launches Major Primary Effort Against Corporate Dems
Amid growing outrage over corporate Democrats' failure to meaningfully stand up against President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, Sunrise Movement on Thursday launched what it called it "most ambitious" primary campaign to replace feckless incumbents with progressives.
"For far too long, Democratic leadership has failed to meet the moment; it’s time to clear house,” Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay said in a statement.
“I’m extremely excited about the crop of candidates running in 2026," Shiney-Ajay added. "This year, we have an unprecedented opportunity to elect a new generation of leaders who are challenging our broken political system and fighting for a livable and affordable country.”
Like many progressive groups, Sunrise Movement has expressed its growing frustration with most congressional Democrats' acquiescence to Trump and Republicans' growing authoritarianism. The youth-led, climate-focused organization was particularly incensed by Senate Democrats' recent capitulation in the government shutdown fight.
"Why the hell would Democrats cave with nothing for the working people? When millions are losing healthcare?" Sunrise asked last week. "If you cave now, you don’t deserve to lead, you deserve to be replaced."
To that end, Sunrise says its new campaign "will include a nationwide field, protest, and communications program targeting over a dozen congressional primaries."
"Sunrise organizers and volunteers will mobilize thousands of young people to knock on doors, make calls, and take direct action to elect progressive champions ready to challenge the Democratic Party’s complacency and reimagine what Democratic leadership can look like," the group continued.
"In the 2026 general election, Sunrise will lead one of the largest youth electoral efforts in the country, organizing students on campuses across the country to ensure young voters turn out to reject authoritarianism at the ballot box and are prepared to mobilize in defense of election results if Trump or his allies attempt to subvert democracy," Sunrise added.
The new Sunrise campaign comes as progressive groups such as Indivisible, MoveOn, and Our Revolution and some Democratic House lawmakers including progressives Ro Khanna (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) are urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to step down in the wake of the shutdown surrender.
Major US broadcasters sit out Cop30 climate talks
Thousands of media professionals are at the United Nations climate talks in Brazil. Almost none of them appear to be from the four major US broadcasters.
Nearly 4,000 members of the media registered to attend the global climate conference, known as Cop30, according to a preliminary list released by the United Nations climate body on Tuesday. But none of the “big four” US broadcasters – CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – appear to currently have teams present at the talks.
According to the list, no representatives from CBS, NBC or Fox signed up to attend the talks. Two US staffers from ABC signed up to attend, and though they are reporting on the summit, it is unclear if they are in Brazil.
The big four television outlets also appear not to be covering the climate negotiations in a significant way. In a review of TV coverage of Cop30 shared exclusively with the Guardian, the non-profit Media Matters found that weekday morning and evening national news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC had not covered Cop30 from 6 November through 11 November. Fox News aired two segments that totalled roughly five minutes of coverage, one of which promoted “anti-climate narratives”, Media Matters said.
Fears for elephant seals as bird flu kills half of population in South Atlantic
Bird flu has wiped out half of South Georgia’s breeding elephant seals, according to a study that warns of “serious implications” for the future of the species.
The remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean is home to the world’s largest southern elephant seal population. Researchers estimate 53,000 females died after bird flu hit in 2023.
The population has now plummeted by 47%, researchers found. “It was quite a stark number,” said the lead author, Connor Bamford from the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. “I didn’t anticipate it to be this high.”
In 2024, tourists on cruise ships said the explorer Ernest Shackleton’s grave had become inaccessible to visitors due to “dead seals blocking the way”. But Bamford said it was likely that many dead animals were never seen, having returned to the sea when they were sick to cool down.
It is possible that direct losses from bird flu have been exacerbated by females becoming physically stressed and abandoning their pups. “We were aware there was a high level of mortality – way above normal levels – but it wasn’t until we got this before-and-after comparison that we could see how extensive it was,” said Bamford. In the long term, he said, it would have a “dramatic impact on the population”.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
CENTCOM Says Its Forces Conducted 22 Operations Against ISIS in Syria Over the Past Month
Justice Department Office Which Justified Torture Now Argues For Killing
The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations
Trump’s Attempt to Abridge Free Speech
American “AI” Is “No Win” For Society
Epstein kept close eye on Trump even after friendship soured, newly released emails reveal
“Pastors Were PAID OFF To Slander Me & Tucker!” – Candace Owens
U.S. War in Latin America Feared as Hegseth Launches "Operation Southern Spear"
Charlie Kirk Tells Tucker To “Go Max” Against Israel!
Q & A: Foreign policy HUBRIS and MAGA division
INTEL Roundtable w/ Ray McGovern and Matt Hoh
A Little Night Music
The Red Devils - She's Dangerous
The Red Devils - Time To Cry
The Red Devils - Just Your Fool
The Red Devils - I've Been Wrong
The Red Devils - Louisiana Blues
The Red Devils - The Hook
The Red Devils - She's Dynamite
The Red Devils - Shake Your Hips / Who Do You Love
Lester Butler, Red Devils Live Moulin Blues Ospel 1998
Comments
Lack of "crisis management experience"
That's how this commentator refers to Prime Minister Takaichi's ideologically imposed incompetence to assume the role of a leader on the international stage. The Japanese PM is a far right extremist. I'm missing Ishiba big time.
Thanks for the EBs Joe!
語必忠信 行必正直