The Evening Blues - 5-2-24
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Memphis r&b singer Rufus Thomas. Enjoy!
Rufus Thomas - Breakdown & Funky Chicken
"The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is being attacked, and every man will be glad of these conscience-soothing falsities."
-- Mark Twain
News and Opinion
CNN Compares Campus Protesters To Nazis In Stunning Propaganda Segment
In one of the most appalling propaganda segments I have ever seen in my life, CNN’s Dana Bash launched into a fire-and-brimstone sermon on Wednesday comparing anti-genocide university protesters to the brownshirts of Nazi Germany — doing so in defense of a fascistic police crackdown against those very same protesters.
After playing a clip of Zionist activist Eli Tsives theatrically claiming campus protesters at UCLA were blocking him from his classroom, Bash solemnly said, “Again, what you just saw is 2024 in Los Angeles. Hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe, and I do not say that lightly. The fear among Jews in this country is palpable right now.”
According to journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld — who happens to be Jewish — Tsives wasn’t even being denied access to his classroom, but was only being denied access to the protesters’ encampment which he’d conveniently decided he wanted to walk through in order to get there. Dana Bash makes no mention of this, framing this instead as a terrifying attack on Jews which could soon see them being loaded onto trains headed for extermination camps.
Today: Destruction, violence and hate overtake college campuses across the country with Jewish students feeling unsafe at their own schools. It is unacceptable, and harkening back to the 1930s in Europe. Our @InsidePolitics show open, here. pic.twitter.com/RiPX0HZbUv
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) May 1, 2024
Bash played a clip of New York City Mayor Eric Adams saying “There is a movement to radicalize young people, and I’m not going to wait until it’s done,” as though preventing the spread of radical political opinions is something a mayor is elected to do in the United States.
“They’re calling for a ceasefire,” says Bash. “Well, there was a ceasefire on October 6, the day before Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than a thousand people inside Israel and took hundreds more as hostages.”
This is a brazen propagandistic lie. Israeli forces had been routinely murdering Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in the weeks and months preceding the October 7 attack. On October 6 2023, The New Arab published an article titled “2023 is ‘deadliest year’ for Palestinian children say human rights groups,” citing the Defence of Children International — Palestine along with other sources.
“This hour, I’ll speak to an American Israeli family whose son is still held captive by Hamas since that horrifying day, that brought us to this moment,” said Bash, adding, “You don’t hear the pro-Palestinian protesters talking about that. We will.”
Ah yes, such brave, up-punching journalistic integrity for you to talk about the Israeli hostages, Dana. Not like we haven’t been hearing about them every single day from the imperial media for the last seven months while orders of magnitude more Palestinians are butchered by US-supplied war machinery.
200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the @UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security? pic.twitter.com/zjYNFWSK7r
— Teresa Watanabe (@TeresaWatanabe) May 1, 2024
“At UCLA, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups were attacking each other, hurling all kinds of objects, a wood pallet, fireworks, parking cones, even a scooter,” Bash says.
Another lie. The footage going around makes it abundantly clear the violence is being consistently instigated by Zionist counter-protesters, with videos of pro-Israel thugs launching fireworks and hurling bottles of chemicals into the encampment, ganging up on a protester on the ground and beating him with sticks, and tearing down parts of the encampment while screaming “Second Nakba!”
Later on in the same segment of Bash’s own show, CNN’s Stephanie Elam contradicts Bash’s both-sides lie by commenting on some of this footage, saying, “And you can see that in the video, it looked like people from this side were breaking down the encampment from the pro-Palestinian side last night, throwing objects in there. As well as it looks like some sort of maybe pepper spray or something coming from the other side over here.”
It should here be noted that Dana Bash gets her surname from her first husband Jeremy Bash, who went on to serve as the chief of staff for both the CIA and the Pentagon. The woman is pure swamp.
It should also be noted that CNN’s own staff recently leaked to The Guardian that they have been pressured to report on the Gaza onslaught with an extreme pro-Israel bias, attributing the pressure to the network’s new CEO Mark Thompson.
I for one think it’s great that the imperial media are becoming so transparently obvious about their propagandistic nature, and I hope they keep exposing mainstream westerners to the fact that the primary purpose of these outlets is to promote the information interests of the US and its allies.
Propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you, so hopefully they keep going mask-off like this for everyone to see.
Prof. John Mearsheimer : Genocide, Free Speech, and Academia
As Israel prepares assault on Rafah, US mouths meaningless humanitarian concerns
As the Israeli regime prepares to unleash a barbaric offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held two hours of talks yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken’s only objection to the military assault was that Israel had not yet provided a humanitarian plan. “We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed and no, we’ve not seen such a plan,” Blinken told reporters after the meeting. He claimed that there were other ways of dealing with Hamas that do not require a major military operation in Rafah.
What hypocrisy! US imperialism has politically backed, bankrolled and armed Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza that to date has claimed more than 34,500 lives, the majority of which were women and children. Biden has just signed legislation that provides a further $26 billion in aid to Israel, more than half being military weaponry.
It is patently obvious that any Israeli operation, whether “major” or not, into Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are jam packed will result in thousands, even tens of thousands, more civilian casualties. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Tuesday that a military assault on Rafah “would be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee.”
Blinken’s purely verbal expressions of humanitarian concern, like Washington’s involvement in protracted talks in Egypt over a ceasefire, are simply to obscure the fact that the US is the chief enabler of the Zionist regime’s monstrous crimes.
Following his discussion with Blinken, Netanyahu reiterated what he had stated on Tuesday that the Israeli offensive into Rafah would proceed, regardless of whether a deal was reached with Hamas over a prisoner exchange. The Prime Minister’s Office stated that Netanyahu had told Blinken a Rafah operation “was not contingent on anything” and that he rejected any truce proposals that would end the Gaza war.
Netanyahu Threatens REVENGE If Charged With War Crimes
Netanyahu Tells Blinken He Won’t Agree to Permanent Ceasefire To Free the Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting on Wednesday that he would not agree to a permanent ceasefire and end to Israeli operations in Gaza in exchange for a deal that would free Israeli hostages.
“He told Blinken that we are interested in reaching a deal and determined to topple Hamas,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
For months, Hamas has said it would free all remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for a permanent truce, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. But Netanyahu has maintained that any ceasefire would only be temporary.
Israel will invade Rafah because no one will stop them: Scott Ritter
"Workers Have Power": Thousands Rally in NYC for May Day, Call for Solidarity with Palestine
US House votes to pass antisemitism bill in response to campus protests
The US House of Representatives has voted to pass an antisemitism awareness bill, a controversial measure sponsored by a New York Republican amid controversy over pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in Manhattan and across the US, as Israel’s war with Hamas drags on.
The bill passed 320-91 with some bipartisan support.
Mike Lawler’s bill will “provide for the consideration of a definition of antisemitism set forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance for the enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws concerning education programs or activities, and for other purposes”.
Democrats opposed it as a messaging bill meant simply to boost Republicans on a hot-button issue and trap Democrats into taking politically awkward votes.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill, telling members: “Federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment by federally funded entities. [The bill] is therefore not needed to protect against antisemitic discrimination; instead, it would likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”
Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus
House passes GOP-led Antisemitism Awareness Act — which mandates the Department of Education to use contested IHRA definition of antisemitism — by bipartisan 320-91 vote.
70 Dems voted against.
Here’s why https://t.co/VEGNC0AbYm pic.twitter.com/d3qX8bU57T
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) May 1, 2024
Crackdowns intensify on pro-Palestine campus protests as hundreds arrested
Crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges spread on Wednesday after campus hotspots intensified overnight, leading to some violence and hundreds more arrests amid widespread controversy over universities calling in police and claims about “outside agitators” driving escalation. The number of arrests of student protesters had exceeded an estimated 1,300 by Wednesday afternoon since the start of the latest bout of protests two weeks ago, as more students were detained. This added to tallies by the Associated Press and Axios earlier on Wednesday, across more than 30 campuses, coast to coast and north to south.
The further unrest came as Columbia University in New York and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) erupted overnight, while arrests were made at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday, among other places.
In New York, hundreds of New York City police officers entered the grounds of Columbia University’s campus in uptown Manhattan shortly after 9pm on Tuesday night in what the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, described as a “precision” operation to break into an occupied campus building, Hamilton Hall, famous for a 1968 anti-Vietnam war occupation that was also controversially broken up by the police. ...
And on the west coast, violent clashes broke out on the UCLA campus when counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian protest encampment. Aerial footage showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters, some holding placards or umbrellas. At least one firework was thrown into the camp. ... Ananya Roy, a geography professor at UCLA, condemned the university over its lack of response to the counter-protesters. “It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she told the LA Times. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.”
Outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall at Columbia, a crowd of students, some bearing “Shame on Shafik” signs to criticize the university president, Minouche Shafik, who called in the police, gathered to hear members faculty express anger. “We are in the right side of history. Shame on our leaders, shame on our administrators, for allowing the police onto our campus. The US is part of this war [in Gaza], it’s our taxes, our bombs, our F-15s and Apache helicopters being used to kill Palestinians,” said Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian American historian and professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia.
Max Blumenthal : Palestinian Hostages in Israel
The Columbia Spectator, New York, Tuesday, April 30, 1968: https://t.co/4sNEDQ38Ks pic.twitter.com/2GO9MwUdx7
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 1, 2024
“People Could Have Died”: Police Raid UCLA Gaza Protest After Pro-Israel Mob Attacked Encampment
UCLA chancellor condemns ‘instigators’ who attacked pro-Palestinian camp on campus
The University of California in Los Angeles was reeling on Wednesday following a late-night violent attack by counter-demonstrators on a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, as the state’s governor condemned a slow response from law enforcement to some of the worst violence seen since students across the US intensified their protests in support of Gaza. As the Los Angeles mayor called the violence “abhorrent” and California’s governor said he was monitoring the situation, UCLA announced it was cancelling all classes on Wednesday “due to the distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad late last night”.
“The limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA last night was unacceptable – and it demands answers,” the office of the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said in a statement.
Gene Block, UCLA’s chancellor, has finally addressed the violence that rocked the campus last night, describing the counter-protesters as “instigators” who attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. “However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” he said. Some of the students who were injured at the encampment Tuesday night described their attackers as pro-Israel or Zionist counter-protesters. Video footage of the violence included some counter-protesters yelling pro-Israel comments as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to fight them off.
David N Myers, a UCLA professor of Jewish history who watched footage of the late-night violence, said some of the attackers appeared to be carrying Israeli flags and other pro-Israel symbols. Footage showed mostly male counter-demonstrators, many of them masked and some apparently older than the students. “I saw women as young as 18 and 19 punched in the face by 25- or 30-year-old men,” Aiden Doyle, a member of the student encampment, said at a student press conference Wednesday.
Students described being attacked for hours with projectiles, fireworks and chemical agents. A young woman in a hijab described being sprayed in the face with bear mace. A student who identified himself only as Yusef said at the press conference that he had been hit in the head twice during the attack on the encampment, and was left with stitches on his forehead and 14 staples in the back of his head. But, Yusef said, he felt comparatively lucky: “I had the ability to go to a hospital last night. Currently in Gaza, there are zero fully functioning hospitals.”
Saudis push for ‘plan B’ that excludes Israel from key deal with US
The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians. However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.
Under that option, the US and Saudi Arabia would sign agreements on a bilateral defence pact, US help in the building of a Saudi civil nuclear energy industry, and high-level sharing in the field of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. An offer would be made to Israel of normalisation of diplomatic relations with Riyadh in return for Israeli acceptance of the two-state solution to the 76-year Israeli-Arab conflict. But under Riyadh’s plan B proposal, completion of the US-Saudi deals would not be made dependent on agreement from the Netanyahu government.
“There should be room for a less-for-less model, so the relationship with the US need not be held hostage to the whims of Israeli politics or Benjamin Netanyahu,” said Firas Maksad, senior director for strategic outreach at the Middle East Institute.
The Biden administration would not land the historic regional settlement it has been seeking in the wreckage of the Gaza war, at least not immediately, but it would cement a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia that would keep encroaching Chinese and Russian influence at bay. It is far from clear whether the administration – let alone Congress – would accept such a less-for-less outcome.
Colombian president says government will sever Israel ties over Gaza ‘genocide’
Colombia’s president has announced that his government will sever diplomatic relations with Israel, in the latest escalation of a furious row between the countries over the war in Gaza. Addressing a May Day rally in Bogotá on Wednesday, Gustavo Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide”.
“Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal president,” Petro said, adding: “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, quickly rebuked the Colombia leader’s comments, saying: “History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians.”
Shortly after the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and sparked the current war in Gaza, Petro denounced what he called “neo-Nazi” efforts to destroy the Palestinian people, freedom and culture.
Forever wars w/ Aaron Maté
US Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady as inflation ticks up
The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is holding interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5%, their highest level in two decades, as inflation continues to dog the US economy.
Though some had hoped the Fed would soon cut interest rates, which are at their highest level since 2007, the annual rate of inflation has stubbornly remained above 3%. The Fed’s target rate is 2%.
“The committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%,” the Fed said in a statement that was largely unchanged from its statement after its previous meeting in March, when it also kept rates steady. “The committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”
While the inflation rate hit 3% last June, the lowest rate since early 2021, inflation has continued to fluctuate between 2% and 4% over the last several months. In January, inflation fell to 3.1%, down from 4.1% in December, making investors hopeful about potential interest rate cuts later in the year. But the rate rose in February and March, reaching 3.5% in March.
Glenn Greenwald EXPOSES Mike Johnson 180 On FISA
Arizona senate passes repeal of 1864 near-total abortion ban
Arizona lawmakers have repealed the state’s 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions. The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights.
In the state senate, Democrats picked up the support of two Republicans in favor of repealing the ban. The Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, is expected to ratify the repeal, which narrowly cleared the Arizona house last week after three Republicans joined with all the Democrats in the chamber. ...
The civil-war era statute, which predates Arizona’s statehood, bans nearly all abortions, including those sought by survivors of rape or incest. It also imposes prison terms for doctors and others who aid in abortions. The law had been blocked by the 1973 supreme court Roe v Wade decisions that granted the constitutional right to abortion.
“We are relieved that lawmakers have finally repealed this inhumane abortion ban – something extremist politicians refused to do for far too long,” said Victoria López, director of program and strategy for the ACLU of Arizona. “Unfortunately, cruel abortion bans like the law from 1864 have been at the center of political stunts for years, causing lasting harm to people who need abortions and their providers.” ...
The repeal would not take effect until June or July, 90 days after the legislative session. Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has vowed not to enforce the ban in the meantime. Providers, including Planned Parenthood, have been preparing resources to help patients seeking abortions to travel out of state during the time that the ban is in effect.
Clinton Advisor MELTS DOWN Over Young People Not Voting For Biden!
Big oil spent decades sowing doubt about fossil fuel dangers, experts testify
The fossil fuel industry spent decades sowing doubt about the dangers of burning oil and gas, experts and Democratic lawmakers testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The Senate budget committee held a hearing to review a report published on Tuesday with the House oversight and accountability committee that they said demonstrates the sector’s shift from explicit climate denial to a more sophisticated strategy of “deception, disinformation and doublespeak”.
“Big oil had to evolve from denial to duplicity,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat, who chairs the Senate committee.
The revelations, based on hundreds of newly subpoenaed documents, illustrate how oil companies worked to greenwash their image while fighting climate policy behind the scenes. “Time and again, the biggest oil and gas corporations say one thing for the purposes of public consumption but do something completely different to protect their profits,” Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, testified. “Company officials will admit the terrifying reality of their business model behind closed doors but say something entirely different, false and soothing to the public.”
The findings build on years of investigative reporting and scholarly research showing that the sector was for decades aware of the dangers of the climate crisis, yet hid that from the public. In the absence of decisive government action to curb planet-warming emissions, the impacts of the climate crisis have gotten worse, committee Democrats said. Several senators said the industry should have to pay damages for fueling the crisis.
Fewer wildfires, great biodiversity: what is the secret to the success of Mexico’s forests?
Dexter Melchor Matías works in the Zapotec Indigenous town of Ixtlán de Juárez, about 1,600ft (490 metres) above the wide Oaxaca valley in Mexico, where community forestry has become a way of life. Like him, about 10 million people across the country live in and make a living from forests, with half of that population identifying as Indigenous. As average temperatures soar around the world and wildfires rage across the Americas, in Mexico, where more than a quarter of the country suffers from drought, the number of wildfires has remained steady since 2012.
More than half of Mexico’s forests are in community and Indigenous hands, a situation unlike anywhere else in the world, which, according to experts, helps explain why the country has done better at controlling large fires. “There are more wildfires south of here because they have a lot of small private properties,” says Melchor Matías, a community forest manager. “They just don’t have the capacity to monitor their forests as we can.”
Worldwide, an estimated 36% of remaining intact forest landscapes are on Indigenous land. Studies show that not only do community-controlled forests absorb more C02 than those under government or private control, but deforestation rates are lower. They also suffer less during severe water shortages, greatly reducing wildfire risk.
Ixtlán’s long, narrow territory of 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) encompasses snowy mountain peaks and lush lowland jungles with cloud forests in between. Rather than clearcutting, vertical ribbons of pine and oak between six and eight hectares (15 and 20 acres) are logged in strips down mountainsides, enabling the forest to regenerate naturally. Logging operations are closely regulated by Ixtlán’s community forestry enterprise, which wrested forests away from a private concession in 1982. Ixtlán’s success had been happening all over Mexico since, after 1970, communities took advantage of state forestry reforms and subsidies to exert greater local control.
Of the more than 21,000 communities with forest ownership in Mexico, about 1,600 engage in sustainable logging, mostly in the southern part of the country. ... Investment in public works such as roads and schools and generating local income through profit-sharing round out the community forestry enterprises mandate. “These businesses engage with the market but are not market-driven,” says David Bray, professor emeritus of earth and environment at Florida International University. “They are successful because of favourable state policies, high and stable prices for wood products and their sophisticated levels of community governance.” ...
According to Bray, given the urgency of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, this kind of forestry management stands out as an example of the positive outcomes of Indigenous and local control over forests. “Community forests capture more carbon than strictly conserved protected areas, mostly by storing it in wood furniture and lumber for construction,” says Bray. “When Indigenous and local communities control their forests, humans and the land benefit.”
Rapidly rising levels of TFA ‘forever chemical’ alarm experts
Rapidly rising levels of TFA, a class of “forever chemical” thought to damage fertility and child development, are being found in drinking water, blood and rain, causing alarm among experts. TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid, is a type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), a group of human-made chemicals used widely in consumer products that do not break down for thousands of years. Many of the substances have been linked to negative effects on human health.
Studies from across the world are reporting sharp rises in TFA. A major source is F-gases, which were brought in to replace ozone-depleting CFCs in refrigeration, air conditioning, aerosol sprays and heat pumps. Pesticides, dyes and pharmaceuticals can also be sources. “Everywhere you look it’s increasing. There’s no study where the concentration of TFA hasn’t increased,” said David Behringer, an environmental consultant who has studied TFA in rain for the German government.
“If you’re drinking water, you’re drinking a lot of TFA, wherever you are in the world … China had a 17-fold increase of TFA in surface waters in a decade, the US had a sixfold increase in 23 years.” TFA in rainwater in Germany has been found to have increased fivefold in two decades.
“I’m worried about this because we’ve never seen in recent history a chemical that’s accumulating in so many media at such a high rate,” said Hans Peter Arp from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “It’s accumulating in our tap water, the food we’re eating, plants, trees, the sea, and all in the past few decades.”
He added: “We all have been experiencing rising TFA concentrations in our blood since the Montreal protocol [banned CFCs]. Future generations will have increasing concentrations in their blood until some kind of global action is taken. Accumulation [in the environment] is essentially irreversible and I’m afraid the impact on humans and the environment won’t be recognised by scientists until it is too late.”
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
Israel-US Gaza Plan Stares Us in the Face
NYT Not Much Concerned About Israel’s Mass Murder of Journalists
In Rafah I saw new graveyards fill with children. It is unimaginable that worse could be yet to come
Israeli settlers vandalize Gaza aid in latest attack on humanitarian convoy
Remember, All This Fascism Would Feel Way More Fascismy Under Trump
Police Thugs Smash Columbia Gaza Encampment
The Retard Parade of Western Politics Exemplified By Trump and Biden
Duane Eddy, pioneering rock’n’roll guitarist, dies at 86
UCLA Protesters ASSAULTED By Cops Who Did NOTHING About Pro-Israel Attacks; Biden Weighs In
Why I LEFT The Intercept: Ken Klippenstein
A Little Night Music
Rufus Thomas - The Memphis Train
Rufus Thomas - (Do The) Push and Pull (Part 1)
Rufus Thomas - Turn Your Damper Down
Rufus Thomas - The Funky Robot
Rufus Thomas - Itch and Scratch
Rufus Thomas - Tiger Man
Rufus Thomas - Fried Chicken
Blues Brothers Band & Rufus Thomas - Walking the dog
Rufus Thomas - Can Your Monkey Do The Dog
Rufus Thomas - Big Fine Hunk Of Woman
Comments
OUCH! Someone should send this image to General Dynamics Land
Systems which is the manufacturer of the Abrams tank.
evening humphrey...
it's good to see that the russians are taking this all in stride with a sense of humor.
I wonder how many Jewish students were beaten up
.
last night while security forces sat back and watched? I’m betting that the media nor congress will be concerned enough to find out. Plus I keep hearing that people not going to the colleges are being paid to go protest. I’m also betting that they won’t be upset with this either.
Jessica Seinfeld and Bill Ackman Fund Pro-Israel Counterprotests at Colleges
As Ben mentioned in the judge they brought big screen TVs to play sounds from the 10/7 attacks. The organizers and people who supported the attack are going to take their show to other campuses where I’m sure that cops there will also ignore the attacks. Weird how it’s only some Jews who need to be protected. I’m betting that they are the ones who call themselves Zionists.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
evening snoopy...
last night when i was reading the reports from the ucla zionist attack there were different numbers that i saw of injured people. i read that somewhere between 15 and 25 protesters were hospitalized overnight. perhaps later, when there is better reporting from student/local outlets we'll get better numbers about the injuries sustained.
i hope that mrs seinfeld gets sued and her fellow donors are tracked down and sued as well. that kaminsky guy is a real piece of work, i hope he is deported.
Just read on CD
after the Zionist thugs got done beating up the protesters then the riot cops came in with flash grenades and rubber bullets and beat up even more people. Lots of people went to hospital. I can’t wait for the lawsuits to start.
Yep I think there’s a good chance that people will sue her…
(bad words) and she lives to regret her actions. It looks like she got go fund me for change names to anonymous. They too should be sued.
"There is no evidence that Israel is committing genocide!"
How many times have we seen Israel government officials saying that it’s exactly what they want to do? Bibi said that he wants other countries to take Palestinians from Gaza which is one definition of genocide.
While Blinken was in Israel yesterday, Bibi let some food trucks into Gaza, but the military didn’t stop Israelis from attacking the trucks and dumping food out of them. Some Israelis brought their families to the event and then shouted that some kids will go to bed hungry tonight. Ghouls…or is that anti semetic? F that.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
I hope the 2nd tweet is snark
But I wouldn’t put it past Netanyahu to say that the ICC supports Hamas.
Her essay on this.
The judge’s show with Ben and John were excellent! Now gonna listen to Aaron.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
I am gonna get the griefs and tragedies
of the day pushed back for just a while.
Duane Eddy, RIP. His twang influenced my family, my life.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
evening otc...
i remember as a little kid getting my brother's guitar out and trying to figure out some of duane eddy's tunes. he was a motivating factor in disappointing my parents who wanted me to play violin and switching to guitar.
have a good one!
This is what happens when you have friends in the right places.
heh...
i guess europe enjoys a particular kind of genocide.
How many lies did you count?
And boy he must have gotten jabbed up with coherence drugs.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
One thing for sure it wasn't a "truth serum". NT
heh...
i just follow the old adage that, "if a politician's lips are moving he's lying."
I lost count
at 11.
His meds apparently do not juice him up to remember and understand the Constitution.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Chances are that scenes like this did not appear on the MSM
Nightly News.
The truth
I doubt the media showed Bibi telling the government that it must crack down on the protests and how it jumped into action to do just that. Good crimey! We had 5 years of Russia Russia Russia and Russia is paying republicans to do its bidding without any evidence shown. And yet here’s plain evidence of Israel paying our government to do what it says or else and most of the country yawns. The stupidity of Americans has gotten on my nerves and I’m almost out of nerves left to be gotten to!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
What was once a peaceful protest until the Gestapo arrived.
This is how shitlibs and Zionists describe the aftermath.
Won’t be long now…
till someone is killed by the Israeli trained cops. And I bet that many Americans won’t give a damn and will say that they deserved it.
None of the protests were violent until the cops were sent in to break them up and started beating them for no reason or the pro genocide supporters were sent in to harass them. And yet Biden and the asshole congress members are still blaming the peaceful protesters for the violence because some Jews get their feelings hurt. Funny how no one can provide proof that the protesters are being mean to Jews.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
South Korean government disoriented and reeling
Yoon's government is known as the "dictatorship of prosecutors." Yoon is incompetent both on domestic and foreign policy. He is pro-Japanese 친일파 which is something South Korean politicians need to avoid as a practical matter. Yoon's approval rating is still 24 percent and only 19 percent in Seoul. His party lost the April 10 general election big time. He has no genuine intention of addressing issues raised by Lee Jae-myung at his first meeting with the opposition party leader. Those concern mostly economic issues, the livelihood of the people, and the need to eliminate government corruption. How long will the Yoon administration last?
The ruling "new right" so called People's Power Party has no intention of negotiating with North Korea. Bolton and Pompeo wrecked the nuclear talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un at Hanoi. President Yoon and the "new right" embrace the anti-Communist ideological orientation and are implacably opposed to North Korea as a matter of domestic policy to label the South Korea opposition as traitors and state enemies. To make matters worse Yoon is pro-Japanese. South Koreans don't like the Japanese government. Why? Japan's brutal occupation and colonialization of Korea; their crimes against humanity in the 20th Century which they refuse to acknowledge, and their continuing falsification of the history of their crimes. The resentment is encouraged by the Japanese government, which treats South Korea as subordinate state, claims Korean territory, and dumps radioactive waste water into the sea.
Can Yoon steer diplomacy with Russia, China back on track?
Yoon had visited Bucha last summer, and discussed "Russian atrocities."
After a report that the Yoon administration was eager, like Japan, to associate with AUKUS in the so called "second pillar," it is apparent that efforts to mollify Chinese concerns about the direction of South Korean national security policy were just a smokescreen for fixing South Korea in complete alignment with US Indo-Pacific policy before Yoon and the conservatives along with him, the so called "new right," exit the stage which could be earlier than expected. The posturing of the ministers in the Yoon administration in this respect resembles the early pretense of President Marcos that he was following a balanced course between great power rivals in the SCS. The US objective is to "lock in" South Korea regarding Indo-Pacific policy (reminiscent of the oft heard US admonition to South Korea regarding sanctions enforcement against North Korea, "stay in lock step"). Forcing a purportedly sovereign state to adopt US policies toward China is a key issue in East Asia noted by ASEAN experts as well, placing the subject state in the position of a dupe not dissimilar in prospective outcome from the disastrous situation in Ukraine.
A recent CNA (Singapore) video history of the Korean conflict to date, portrayed the usual western self serving view. Kim Jong-tae, a credible South Korean observer, was one of the people interviewed. His remarks appeared heavily edited, and juxtaposed with more numerous comments by the current "new right" hardliner who serves as South Korea's Unification Minister, Kim Hung-ho. Kim is a former far right youtuber, who scrubbed all of his political commentary youtube videos when nominated for the office by Yoon, in a futile effort minimize the volatile political opposition to his appointment. (극우 유튜버 정체성' 발언에 발끈한 김영호). This is a actually a ministry that Yoon's new right administration had wanted to dismantle. Kim Hung-ho's remarks in the CNA video regarding the current Yoon administrations willingness to talk to North Korea is simply not true. During the campaign Yoon spoke of a "grand bargain" to be offered to North Korea. This is Mike Pompeo code for the Libyan solution in nuclear negotiations whereby one preemptively and completely disarms for US promised security that is nothing but a lie and suffers the now perfectly foreseeable results. In the youtube video of the hearing on his nomination in the National Assembly, an assembly member described Kim Yung-ho having said, "Xi Jinping should be removed from power" and "South Korea should withdraw from the NPT."
The North's provocative military moves were described in the video content while those of the South and the US were minimized or omitted altogether. The merits of the dispute over the Northern Limit Line were not addressed whatsoever. It was the Yoon administration that initiated the evisceration of the 9.19 Military Agreement with North Korea agreed to by President Moon and Kim Jong-un. That agreement established buffer zones north and south of the DMZ and NLL to reduce military operations and tension between the two states. The US opposed the restrictions. The DMZ was described as the 38th Parallel, a typical feature of superficial treatments. According to the oversimplified history presented, Korea "was divided" after liberation from Japan's occupation. The use of the passive tense is absurd. The correct characterization is "the US divided Korea." To emotionalize viewers, the human interest aspect was emphasized with current concern for the safety of South Korean inhabitants of Yeonpyeong island near the NLL at its northernmost extension (which had been shelled by the North during the Lee Myung-back administration) only several km off the North Korean coast in the West Sea. Also described was the plight of the few remaining aging South Korean relatives separated from their kin in the north for almost 75 years now by the division of the peninsula.
Ironically, everyone who thinks about it is aware, that Trump's threats to withdraw US forces from Korea or Japan for their "failure to pay for their defense," may hasten the day, they arm themselves with nuclear weapons. Technically speaking, it might be easier for Japan to do so. Trump's threat to withdraw from US far east bases is a far less subtle form of coercion than typically applied. Intuitively, a withdrawal of US forces from Japan or Korea is no more likely than a US peace agreement with North Korea. South Korea has spent more of it's GDP on defense (2.7 percent) than any other US ally, and Japan recently commenced a five year program to double its minimalist 1 percent defense commitment to 2 percent of GDP to create offensive and pre-emptive attack capabilities.
[Editorial] Yoon must halt procurement of SM-3 interceptor missiles https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/11389...
In other words most experts and the population at large are against it. Does it matter what they think?
Thanks for EBs Joe!
語必忠信 行必正直
There goes my last nerve
"Human rights are not an American value."
Hey you fcking chicken hawk…how many wars have you refused to serve in whilst sending poverty drafted people to risk their lives in? Are any of your children brave enough to go fight for your donors?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Hi snoopy
They don’t come any worse. I get your despair. I couldn't stomach hearing more than the first couple sentences.
Peace