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Sunday, October 26th, 2025 04:06 am

Posted by Waging Nonviolence

By providing a “protective presence” in the West Bank, international activists hope to deter unprecedented settler attacks.

 

( Waging Nonviolence ) – On July 22, in the Palestinian village of Ibziq, bright lights pierced through the tent at 12:30 a.m., jolting Baltimore, Maryland-native Nikki Morse and a fellow activist awake. The activists, both from the United States, were confronted by a masked young man who declared in accented English: “Your time is almost up.” Behind him, three others waited on an ATV. His shirt read “Artzeinu” — Hebrew for “our land.”

This encounter with Israeli settlers in Ibziq provides a glimpse into the daily reality for Palestinians under constant attack in the occupied West Bank. Since Oct. 7, 2023, B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, says settler violence has reached “unprecedented levels,” with entire communities forcibly displaced, their homes demolished or confiscated, and Palestinians subjected to collective punishment, killings and torture.

Amid global attention on Gaza, where leading experts say Israel is committing genocide, attacks in the West Bank have intensified, especially since President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on far-right settler organizations in one of his first moves in office. This reversed one of few concrete actions Biden had taken to challenge Israeli impunity while in office. With only medical personnel allowed into Gaza, International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, volunteers have turned to the West Bank, where it is still possible to enter. Morse, an organizer for Jewish Voice for Peace, spent three weeks in the West Bank in July to provide a protective presence by documenting and hoping to deter settler attacks. 

“It was terrifying — the closest I’ve ever come to real danger in the West Bank,” Morse said.

The tent Morse slept in — with just a board for a door — exemplifies how Palestinians are forced to live, because they are rarely granted construction permits, despite residing on their land for decades.

Never again

Morse says intimidation was part of a coordinated campaign. That morning, Israeli soldiers had warned the Palestinian family: “You have to leave. The settlers are going to try something soon, and we won’t be able to stop them.” For Morse, it revealed “this almost tag team effort by the soldiers and the settlers to instill fear in the family.”

The confrontation with Israeli settlers evoked painful parallels for Morse. “What it felt like was what I’ve heard my great grandparents went through in Russia when they experienced pogroms,” they said. “This sense of vulnerability to armed gangs invading, attacking with absolutely no recourse to any kind of authority. In Russia, it was sanctioned by the state, and here in the West Bank, it is sanctioned by the state.”

“‘Never again’ must apply to everyone,” said Morse, who argues the lessons of the Holocaust and Jewish persecution demand resisting all forms of ethnic cleansing — including those justified in the name of Jewish safety. As an anti-Zionist, they oppose a Jewish-only state on Palestinian land and advocate instead for a democratic state with equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.

An observant Jew, Morse sees their activism as a religious obligation: “I believe that is what we are required to do, because that’s what I believe is my role in making the world a space that is suffused with what we understand to be the presence of God.”

Tangible effects

The risks of this type of activism are real. In September 2024, 26-year-old Turkish-American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a member of ISM, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper while attending a nonviolent protest in the West Bank. One year later, despite U.S. officials calling her killing “unprovoked and unjustified,” no one has been held accountable. Since Oct. 7, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least four other Palestinian-Americans in the West Bank with impunity.

Despite the dangers, ISM’s presence has at times resulted in real world impact for Palestinians. In the early 2000s, the community of Yanun in the northern West Bank agreed to return to their village only under the protection of international activists — and they remain there today. ISM volunteers also took part in breaking the sieges of Yasser Arafat’s compound and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during the Second Intifada, and have supported communities like Khan al-Ahmar in resisting forcible displacement.

More recently, activists acknowledge that clear wins are harder to identify. “Victories or tangible effects are really hard to assess these days, because we don’t know how attacks would play out without the presence of activists,” said Miriam, an ISM volunteer who asked to use only their first name for safety reasons. “What we do know is that communities have tried to return when accompanied by activists, and that we are supporting their struggle to remain on their ancestral land. Palestinians keep asking for our presence and that for us is a tangible effect and reason to continue doing what we do.”

The situation in Ibziq illustrates a wider campaign of systematic displacement as Israel accelerates settlement expansion. According to B’Tselem, at least 41 Palestinian communities in Area C, which is under direct Israeli military control, have been forcibly displaced since October 2023. This is the largest forced transfer since the start of Israel occupation of the West Bank in 1967. Another 40,000 Palestinians were displaced during an Israeli military operation in January and February 2025.  

Miriam witnessed entire villages fleeing. “While I was there, there was a community in the south of the Jordan Valley of 200 people that left altogether. There was another Bedouin community west of Ramallah of 330 people that left 10 days after an outpost was placed very close to their village.”

According to the U.N., at least 1,860 incidents of settler violence occurred in the West Bank from October 2023 through December 2024 — an average of four attacks daily. At least 964 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers during this period, while demolitions displaced nearly 2,900 Palestinians and settler actions displaced another 2,400.

Two months after Morse’s confrontation, the settlers’ strategy succeeded. ISM reports that the last family left Ibziq and the village is now deserted.

As Reuters has reported, Israel’s settlement project systematically fragments Palestinian land through new housing, military zones and restricted areas. According to Israeli human rights group Peace Now, settlement expansion has surged faster since 2023 than in the previous nine years combined.

The role of ‘protective presence’ 

“Protective presence is kind of what it sounds like,” explained Dottie Lux, an Oakland-based activist who has spent four months in the West Bank over the past year. “The internationals are asked to come to spend time with Palestinian families as witnesses — as a set of eyes to report back to their home countries what’s been going on, but also in hopes of being a deterrent for settler and state violence.”

The work varies day by day, shaped by the actions of the occupation rather than a set agenda. Volunteers might accompany shepherds to protect them from harassment, document home demolitions or stay overnight to guard against settler attacks. 

Lux recalled one incident where settlers tried to steal a family’s donkey. Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian owner, his daughter, and 13-year-old son, zip-tying them in front of their home. The internationals were left unrestrained to watch. After more than a day in custody, the family was released — but the donkey was never returned.

Miriam and Lux saw how heightened repression stunts Palestinian nonviolent organizing. “There’s not much organizing, unfortunately, because of how much nonviolent Palestinian resistance has also been destroyed in the West Bank — because of killings, because of torture in prison, because of collective punishment of villages,” Miriam said.

Even basic survival has become resistance. “Last year, for example, nonviolent resistance could look like refilling your water tank from a stream, and now that stream has been completely overrun with settlers preventing Palestinians from getting their water,” Lux observed.

“What Palestinians are doing now is staying on their land,” Miriam explained. “They are trying not to leave their houses, their land, their villages, and this is what we’re supporting now.” 

Displacement campaigns have accelerated in recent months, with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declaring the intent to “bury” Palestinian statehood through continued settlement expansion. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to provide billions in military aid while backing a two-state solution that Israeli policy openly undermines. 

Challenging US complicity

The activists stress the direct role of U.S. support in enabling the violence they witness. “All of the guns, all of the water tanks, all of the handcuffs and locks — they all say either property of the United States or made in America,” Lux said.


Photo of Jericho, West Bank by Snowscat on Unsplash

Upon returning from the West Bank, Morse reached out to mainstream Jewish institutions in Baltimore offering to share their experiences, but so far those invitations have been declined. Instead, they spoke at a gathering organized by Baltimore Families for Justice, where activists held a letter-writing campaign urging local members of Congress to reconsider their support for Israel.

Morse also organizes with the “Apartheid-Free Baltimore” campaign, pressuring businesses not to stock Israeli goods as part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as BDS. 

They have also noted the change in public perception around Israel and Palestine. Recent polling shows U.S. opinion moving sharply against Israel: a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza, with support among Democrats dropping to just 8 percent. Nearly half of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide, and more than 80 percent favor an immediate ceasefire.

At a Sept. 24 antiwar vigil in Baltimore, Morse recalled being confronted by a pro-Israel activist who dismissed them as uninformed: “You haven’t probably even been to Israel. You don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Morse’s reply was direct: “I have been to the West Bank. I was just there.”

Jaisal Noor is a Baltimore-based multimedia journalist and media trainer reporting on grassroots movements working to solve their communities’ most urgent challenges.

Via Waging Nonviolence

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sunday, October 26th, 2025 04:04 am

Posted by The Conversation

By Bhavini Gohel, University of Calgary

(The Conversation) – Wildfires are no longer rare disasters in Canada. They are now an annual reality, and 2025 has already been one of the worst on record, with 3,582 fires burning 6.2 million hectares as of July 30 — quadruple the 10-year average.

At a time when hospitals are already strained by staff shortages, long wait times and rising costs, wildfires add yet another layer of pressure.

Rural communities are usually the hardest hit by wildfires. These communities rely on small health facilities with limited staff and equipment.

When fires cut off access or force evacuations, these facilities struggle to provide even basic care. As a frontline health-care worker and system leader, I have seen first-hand how every part of health system — from hospital operations to workforce readiness and community partnerships — is being tested. Leading resilience initiatives has shown me how urgently we need system-wide co-ordination and investment to protect patients when disasters strike.

Frontline health-care workers face surging pressure during wildfires: treating burns, vehicle accidents during evacuation and smoke-related illnesses that damage lungs, worsen asthma, and increase risks of strokes, heart attacks and cardiac arrest. Seniors, children, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses are especially vulnerable.

Beyond physical harm, survivors often face lasting anxiety, depression and trauma. Wildfires are not just environmental events; they are public health crises that demand stronger, more resilient health systems.

Preparing for a predictable risk

During wildfires, poor air quality makes it difficult for both patients and staff to stay safe indoors. Fires can disrupt medical supply chains, damage buildings and force hospitals, clinics and operating rooms to close. Surgeries can be delayed, emergency care becomes harder to access, and patients often crowd into the few facilities still running, stretching resources even thinner.

Health-care workers face their own challenges: finding safe routes to work, arranging child or elder care during evacuations, and coping with the uncertainty of when, or if, they can return home.

Past wildfires in Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories have forced urgent evacuations of patients, the relocation of health-care workers and the rapid reorganization of care at enormous cost. Each of these events has added millions of dollars in costs and created more strain for a health system already struggling to keep up.

Wildfires are now a predictable part of Canada’s climate reality. Yet health systems remain under-prepared. While emergency management frameworks exist, they often fall short of addressing broader and long-term needs during wildfires and fail to build true resilience. The Climate-Resilient Acute Care Clinical Operations framework and wildfire framework highlight what is required, but these requirements must be scaled and integrated across the entire health system.

What resilience looks like

Building climate resilience in health care requires focusing on several key pillars.

Leadership and governance must come first. Yet many health leaders are not provided with the knowledge or training they need to understand how wildfires affect both health outcomes and health-care systems. Leaders must be equipped to make quick, informed decisions that safeguard patients and staff when disasters strike.

Financing is another critical piece. Resources must be directed to the areas most at risk during wildfire season and reviewed regularly to ensure funding keeps pace with reality. Without sustainable financing, health systems are left reacting instead of being prepared.

Health information systems also need to be strengthened. Power outages and connectivity failures can wipe out access to patient records and communication tools at the worst possible moment. Developing reliable backup systems and clear plans ensures that records, co-ordination and critical data are not compromised.

At the same time, the health-care workforce must be supported. Staff need training, such as simulation-based exercises that prepare them for wildfire events. Protecting the mental health of staff and encouraging personal resiliency plans are equally important, allowing workers to remain in the system when demands are highest. Workers can only serve patients effectively if they themselves are supported.

Workforce planning must also account for seasonal risks. Wildfire season falls in the summer, when health systems are already short-staffed due to vacations. Every winter, we prepare for respiratory virus surges, but we do not treat wildfires with the same seriousness. This must change.

Strengthening access to care

Protecting medical supply chains is another priority, as disruptions are common during wildfires. Identifying alternatives and ensuring backups to maintain critical supplies is key. Technology can help fill gaps: virtual care platforms can keep patients connected to doctors even when roads are closed, facilities are damaged or patients are displaced.

Equally important is ensuring that patients and communities know how to access care under stress. Preparedness should include clear communication, education kits, checklists, extra medication supplies and mental health resources. Collaboration with municipalities, under-served groups and high-risk communities is vital, since they often feel the effects of wildfires first and most severely.


Photo by Matt Howard on Unsplash

An investment that pays off

Strengthening health systems for wildfire resilience will require resources. But it’s anticipated that these investments will ultimately save money in the long run by reducing disruptions, preventing costly emergency transfers and minimizing long-term health impacts. Most importantly, they protect access to health care for patients with urgent or ongoing chronic conditions.

If we fail to prepare, wildfires will continue to exacerbate the cracks in our health system. Patient-centred, climate-resilient care is no longer optional; it is essential.The Conversation

Bhavini Gohel, Clinical Associate Professor, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sunday, October 26th, 2025 03:00 am

Posted by John Amato

In 1978 Larry Carlson released his incomparable record donning his name that was simply magnificent.

I grew up a progressive rock fan and always loved rollicking guitar solos. I had just started studying music in college and when I heard Carlton take off in "Point it Up" and "Rio Samba," I was hypnotized. They were as close to perfection as possible.

The entire record is wonderful.

Night Crawler was exceptional and Room 335 became a standard.

Wiki:

read more

Sunday, October 26th, 2025 02:05 am

Posted by Scott Lemieux

The threat has been made real:

The U.S. will impose an additional 10% tariff on Canada, President Trump said on Saturday, a punitive measure in response to an ad campaign that he said misrepresented comments by former President Ronald Reagan.

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

The ad campaign, released by the Canadian province of Ontario, uses audio from a 1987 radio address delivered by Reagan, in which he explains that despite putting tariffs on Japanese semiconductors that year, he was committed to free-trade policies. While tariffs can look patriotic, Reagan said, “over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer,” lead to “fierce trade wars” and result in lost jobs.

Trump had threatened to cut off trade talks with Canada on Thursday over the ad, claiming it misrepresents Reagan’s comments, and was being used to influence the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of a hearing on the administration’s tariffs next month. In response, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he would call off the campaign, effective Monday. But the ad still ran on Friday night during the first game of the World Series—a fact Trump noted in his Saturday post, saying that the ad “was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY.”

If I may be permitted to be so gauche as to invoke the law, Congress just simply did not authorize the president to impose tariffs in retaliation for ads he doesn’t like. If this counts as “national security” the term means nothing at all. If the Supreme Court of the United States was a court of law as the term was once understood, this would be a highly relevant fact.

Rule of Law Alert: Trump’s authority for country-specific tariffs comes from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which doesn’t mention tariffs—but does require a national emergency. An ad showing that Reagan opposed tariffs surely is not a national emergency. (It may be a personal one)

[image or embed]

— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) Oct 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM

The post Trump to impose tariffs as punitive measure against accurate commercial appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Sunday, October 26th, 2025 01:15 am

Posted by Erik Loomis

We continue our tour of colonization through film footage by looking at this 9 minute 1930s travel piece on Cebu, Philippines, which pretty much consists of lionizing Magellan (who died there) and talking about current industry such as hemp, all under a theme of “Learn about Your Colonies” for whoever actually watched this thing.

The post LGM Film Club, Part 510: A Voyage to Cebu appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Sunday, October 26th, 2025 12:35 am

Posted by Mike Glyer

(1) SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA OPENS SUBSTACK BRANCH. As John Clute explains in “SFE on Substack” at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the Encyclopedia will remain free, the Substack posts beyond the first five will be for subscribers. …Most of what … Continue reading
Saturday, October 25th, 2025 11:00 pm

Posted by Erik Loomis

I was very happy to see Big Thief at the MGM at Fenway in Boston this week. I had seen Adrienne Lenker twice before solo, once totally by herself at Big Ears in one of my favorite performances I’ve ever seen (she had the entire crowd of about 2,000 completely in rapture–you could hear a pin drop and I was thinking, this must be like see Dylan in 63) and once with her bandmate Buck Meek on a few songs at Newport Folk, where they did a bunch of the songs I think are on the new Big Thief album. The band rocked a bit more than I thought live. I actually really hate Meek’s singing, but his guitar work is very good. Their long time bass player left the band and they did the thing that bands do when someone leaves like this, which is hiring an actual great bassist to replace the not so great friend that was originally in the band. Given the, uh, limitations of what passes for the drums in this band, it doesn’t hurt musically to have a kick ass bassist. The songs were of course outstanding. Lenker writes constantly and there were some new cuts played, including an amazing song called “Beautiful World” that I hope they record soon and which led off the show, plus a bunch off the new album, plus some great cuts of Dragon New Warm Mountain and some older tracks too. They closed with “Spud Infinity,” which was of course awesome. Setlist is here. The crowd was interesting as well. Lots and lots of young people of course, but also a ton of older people. It’s the kind of show the whole family can attend with pleasure. I went with my wife and her niece (my niece? Never sure how those things work with in-laws), her friend’s roommate was going with her entire family and her boyfriend’s entire family. And this really sums up Big Thief’s appeal. It’s not easy listening in any way that term has meaning, but it is totally accessible, special, beautiful rock and roll that takes you into Lenker’s little worlds that are so lovingly drawn. Love this band, glad I saw them as a whole unit for the first time.

Dave Ball from Soft Cell died, at the age of 66. I’m not sure I actually remember that band. Sam Rivers, the bassist for Limp Bizkit, also died, only 48 years old. The main thing I know about that band is that it sucks and that Fred Durst is a douchebag. Can’t say I ever considered the bassist.

Big podcast/profile of Erykha Badu at the Times.

I find all almost musician biopics to be painful, with just a few exceptions. I mean, Walk the Line is a bad movie, though not outright terrible. So choosing the worst 15 seems quite a challenge, but these are pretty bad or they sounded pretty bad to begin with that I refused to watch them.

Miguel is pretty great, so glad to see a USA Today piece on him.

Bandcamp essay on Yusef Lateef.

I really gotta visit the John Coltrane house one of these times I’m in Philadelphia

A Beginners Guide to Soundwalks

American Aquarium has been around for 20 years, which is a lot longer than I would have guessed. I saw them open for an Old 97s/Drive By Truckers split bill once and really enjoyed them and I should check out more of their work.

This week’s playlist:

  1. Mdou Moctor, Ilana (The Creator)
  2. Kristi Stassinopoulou and Stathis Kalyviotis, NYN
  3. Natalia Clavier, Nectar
  4. Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, De Facto
  5. Patterson Hood, Heat Lightning Rumbling in the Distance
  6. Imarhan, Temet
  7. Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again
  8. Liew Niyomkarn, I Think of Another Time When You Heard It
  9. Lucinda Williams, self-titled
  10. Quantic & Alice Russell, Look Around the Corner
  11. Neil Young, Everyone Knows This is Nowhere
  12. Girlpool, Powerplant
  13. Palace Music, Viva Last Blues
  14. The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
  15. The Alan Lomax Collection, Southern Journey: Voices from the American South, Vol. 1
  16. Willie Nelson, Teatro
  17. Bill Callahan, Apocalypse
  18. Christopher Paul Stelling, Itinerant Arias
  19. Van Morrison, Saint Dominic’s Preview
  20. Wussy, self-titled (x2)
  21. Margaret Glaspy, The Golden Heart Protector
  22. Father John Misty, Chloe and the Next 20th Century
  23. Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
  24. John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat
  25. Neko Case, The Worse Things Get….
  26. Sarah Jarosz, World on the Ground
  27. George Jones & Melba Montgomery, Singing What’s In Our Hearts
  28. Sun Kil Moon, April
  29. Laura Gibson, Goners
  30. The Lowest Pair, Fern Girl and Ice Man
  31. Craig Finn, A Legacy of Rentals
  32. Midnight Oil, Blue Sky Mining
  33. Yo Yo Ma/Silk Road Ensemble, Silk Road Journeys
  34. Old 97s, Too Far to Care
  35. Gary Stewart, Out of Hand
  36. Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past is Still Alive
  37. The Beatles, Revolver
  38. Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
  39. Wednesday, Rat Saw God
  40. Wussy, Public Domain, Vol. 1
  41. Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy
  42. The Dillards, Back Porch Bluegrass
  43. Townes Van Zandt, Delta Momma Blues
  44. Wussy, Cincinnati Ohio
  45. Merle Haggard, Down Every Road, disc 1
  46. Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
  47. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Braver Newer World
  48. Ray Price, Burning Memories
  49. Tropical Fuck Storm, A Laughing Death in Meatspace
  50. Greg Brown, The Poet Game
  51. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
  52. James Brandon Lewis, Jesup Wagon
  53. S.G. Goodman, Planting by the Signs
  54. Shamir, Ratchet
  55. The Paranoid Style, The Interrogator

Album Reviews:

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Ghosteen

I’ve never really explored Nick Cave’s catalog to the extent I should. This 2019 album was on my list to hear since, well, 2019. So now’s the time. The problem for me comes quickly though–the morose, theatrical way Cave operates these days at least doesn’t do a lot for me. I recognize he’s an interesting artist and there’s a lot of pretty intense stuff going on underneath the vocals. But the style does absolutely nothing for me.

C+

Loose Cattle, Someone’s Monster

This is a pretty cool country album that reminds me of an updated version of the early 80s band Lone Justice. Special appearances from Lucinda Williams and Patterson Hood from Drive By Truckers. I like just about everything about this–the interplay between the two singers, the melodies, the fiddles, the cover of Lucinda’s “Crescent City” (which is not the song she appears on, which is in fact a countrified cover of Lady Gaga’s “Joanne”), the half-cover of REM’s “So. Central Rain” that is mixed into a chorus. It’s country-rock, but what is really reminds me of is the great early grassroots alt-country albums of people who just love the music and that love comes out in every note, which includes Lone Justice, but in my mind also the Flatlanders first album, the early Rusty & Doug Kershaw albums, Lucinda’s Happy Woman Blues, stuff like that. It’s just fun work, which is somewhat ironic because most of the lyrics are downers.

A-

Bodega, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life

I enjoyed Bodega’s Endless Scroll album, so I thought I’d explore another, their release from last year. This is just pretty decent rock and roll, maybe not quite at the same level of Endless Scroll for me, but good solid rock. As I think I said earlier when discussing this band, it’s kind of a lesser and slightly poppier Parquet Courts, which is enjoyable in that propulsive way, if in the end relatively minor. I like it well enough though.

B

Anytime Cowboy, Voice in the Clouds

I guess this is kind of pop and kind of post-punk in the sense that the songs are slightly catchy but are almost spoken rather than sung, which isn’t so uncommon these days. You know, it’s alright in what it is, but I can’t see why I would listen to this over 100 other bands who cover this or that part of similar territory. Again, it’s sort of a Parquet Courts thing (evidently that band is pretty influential) but less interesting. It’s short though, which is probably a good thing.

B-

Mdou Moctar, Tears of Injustice

Moctar decided to re-record his latest album Funeral for Justice acoustically. For a guy who is such a wizard on the electric guitar, the bridge between the Saharan blues band and American audiences because he transcends the former and brings rock and roll influences to it, going acoustic is at the very least an interesting experiment. The question with an album like this is what does it tell us about the artist and the songs that we didn’t already know. I’m not sure it does tell us that much except that Moctar is one hell of a guitarist on an acoustic guitar too and an underrated vocalist that might normally get somewhat downplayed given the pyrotechnics of his electric playing. But it’s a more than worthy experiment.

B+

Turnpike Troubadours, The Price of Admission

The Troubadours are always friendly and this is their new, equally friendly, album. And this is one of their better releases I think, definitely better than the one I reviewed a couple weeks ago. It’s great that Evan Felker is sober and functional and now singing about his drinking in that classic way of the now sober artist who doesn’t totally regret his past, but the past is the past and it can’t be the present. This is a big album with populist overtones, not the bullshit arena rock of Nashville douchebags, but a broad musical appeal that a lot of people would like if they heard it. Of course, Turnpike is hardly an underground band, but they are more like Drive By Truckers in their appeal than the superstars they should be. This album suggests why they really do deserve taking that step forward.

A-

Guided by Voices, Tremblers & Goggles By Rank

We all know that GBV albums aren’t really that different than one another. However, this 2022 release stretches the songs a bit more than normal. One’s even over 6 minutes and another surpasses 5. And it works pretty well too–the songs have life, they can jam more than they usually do, and you don’t get overwhelmed by the short bursts of noise and lyrics that the albums with 30 songs give you. I don’t mind those albums either, but this is a useful shift. If you like GBV, this is a must-hear.

B+

Adrian Younge/Ali Shaheed Muhammad/Ebo Taylor, Jazz is Dead 022

The latest from Younge and Muhammad, those legends who have dedicated the last many years to finding aging and underrated legends to record with. They’ve moved beyond traditional conceptions of jazz recently to more global music and that’s fine, it’s all good. Especially when they find Ebo Taylor, the critically important Ghanaian musician who did so much to push forward highlife and Afrobeat. This combo works, better than some of the others. Like most of the albums in this series, it’s quite short, under 30 minutes, for reasons I don’t quite get. Of course Taylor is 89 years old, so maybe that’s a big part of it, which would make sense. But it’s a pretty damn hopping 27 minutes here. This album really channels the heart of the great African music of the 70s, with Muhammad especially bringing in what a legendary DJ can add to move this music forward.

B+

As always, this is an open thread for all things art and music and not a goddamn thing about politics.

The post Music Notes appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Saturday, October 25th, 2025 10:08 pm

Posted by Red Painter

I know this will shock all of our readers, but tariffs are a bad thing for consumers and not good business.

A Florida grocery store run by a Trump supporting family of immigrants is learning that lesson the hard way: all the way to bankruptcy proceedings. The grocery store is called Wong Kai Imports and was opened by John Wong and his two brothers in 1983 after they immigrated from Hong Kong to live the American Dream.

Now their dream has turned into an American Nightmare with the return of Donald Trump into office. They may have to close their store - and they put the blame solely on Donald Trump's tariffs.

The store, Wong Kai, has immense support from the local community, becoming the "go to destination" for Asian ingredients and food products that are virtually impossible to find at other grocery and big box stores. Their offerings are heavily focused on things like authentic ramen noodles, sauces, candies, and specialty imports from across Asia.

But, tariffs are making it impossible for the store to remain profitable any longer. The owner, Wong, supported Trump in the 2024 election. In fact, one of the things that swayed him to support Trump was his promise about lowering grocery costs. But, as with all things Trump, that was a lie. Grocery costs are at an all time high and show no signs of slowing.

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Saturday, October 25th, 2025 10:08 pm

Posted by Susie Madrak

The Trump monarchy said yesterday that the Justice Department will monitor polling sites in California and New Jersey ahead of the Nov. 4 election, after requests by Republican Party officials in those states. It's a blunt instrument meant to suppress turnout for Prop 50, which would allow Gov. Newsom to balance the Texas redistricting for more red seats with California blue. Via the New York Times:

Although election monitoring by the Justice Department is not uncommon, it will likely heighten tensions as voters weigh in on some of the nation’s most closely watched races. President Trump has pushed the Justice Department to pursue parts of his agenda, including going after his political enemies, which has eroded its traditional independence. Mr. Trump also blamed his 2020 election loss on rigged voting, although there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, but Mr. Trump and other Republicans have since claimed it is rampant, particularly voting by mail, which is how most Californians vote. Democrats have called the argument a ruse for voter suppression.

“This administration has made no secret of its goal to undermine free and fair elections,” Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, said in a statement. “Deploying these federal forces appears to be an intimidation tactic meant for one thing: suppress the vote.”

Saturday, October 25th, 2025 10:07 pm

Posted by Heather

Trump's minister of propaganda threatens to arrest a sitting governor for daring to try to put a stop to the lawlessness we've seen from their ICE thugs running rampant across our cities.

Stephen Miller made an appearance on Will Cain's show on Fox this Friday, and here's the sewage he spewed with Cain prompting him along all the way on the threats:

CAIN: Okay, now to the state of Illinois, Stephen, and Governor JB Pritzker has talked about interfering with, arresting ICE agents in Illinois. Now, it appears the federal government has said, if that happens, JB Pritzker could be arrested.

Let's talk about your willingness and under what federal authority do you arrest a sitting governor? I understand the supremacy clause. I understand interference with a federal officer. Tell me how it works that he would make himself susceptible to being arrested?

MILLER: Well, the answer I'm about to give doesn't only apply to Governor Pritzker. It applies to any state official, any local official, anybody who's operating in an official capacity who conspires or engages in activity that unlawfully impedes federal law enforcement conducting their duties.

So if you engage in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws or to unlawfully order your own police officers or your own officials to try to interfere with ICE officers, or even to arrest ICE officers, you're engaged in criminal activity.

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Saturday, October 25th, 2025 08:46 pm

Posted by Scott Lemieux

Mr. Amy Chua, everybody:

The Free Press, newly representative of that strata now that its editor-in-chief also runs CBS News, provided a handy example on Thursday, with a piece by Yale Law School professor Jed Rubenfeld titled, “Trump’s Been Bombing Boats in the Caribbean. Is This Legal?” and subtitled, “I thought the answer was an obvious no. It turns out to be much more complicated.”

[…]

The Free Press’s readership is somewhat more honest in its allegiance, and they aren’t looking for reassuring quantum uncertainty so much as for the most nakedly cynical conceivable bullshit to fling, with a sneer, into the faces of Trump’s critics; “Jed Rubenfeld is a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School” would probably suffice for them. But the phenotype of this work is virtually identical to the Times‘: a hem here, a haw there, a theatrical brow-wrinkling, an utter abdication of critical reasoning, and at the end of it all, hands thrown up to declare the epistemological unknowability of, like, anything.

He then cites the core of Rubenfeld’s just-asking-questions apologia:

The question then becomes: Are these air strikes clear and obvious acts of murder under ordinary criminal law?

The answer is no. Not because Trump has designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, but because ordinary criminal law does not apply if a state of war exists. Instead, a whole other legal paradigm—the law of war—kicks in. Under the law of war, a sovereign can do many things that would be illegal under ordinary law. Including killing people.

But wait—surely we’re not at war in the Caribbean, are we?

For legal purposes, we might be. A notice sent this month by the administration to Congress (a copy of which is reportedly here) states that the president has determined that we are in “armed conflict” with “non-state” “paramilitary” drug cartels engaging in an “armed attack against the United States,” “caus[ing] the deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens each year.” And under long-standing Supreme Court case law, this determination may be conclusive.

Back to the OP:

In total here, Rubenfeld’s argument is as follows: The question of the legality of summarily slaughtering all aboard a non-military boat in the Caribbean Sea is complicated by the very guy who’d bear responsibility for that crime saying that it’s OK for him to do it. In other words, the FP commissioned an entire blog to say “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” Those old enough to remember the Bush presidency may get a flashback to the argument that the United States does not torture, and therefore whatever it does to the people it disappeared without trial into its global network of black sites is by definition not torture.

Again: The objective of this crap is not to mount a convincing affirmative argument for the lawfulness of Trump’s tropical murder campaign. That kind of definitive claim-making is professionally unbecoming for establishment journalists and pundits, and anyway it’s not actually possible to make one. It’s the classic “Gotta hear both sides” gambit: The legal status of any presidential action must necessarily reside at some unknowable point between those saying it’s a crime and those saying it’s not. (The fun is in pretending not to know this is a binary and not a spectrum, and thus that any argument for the issue’s uncertainty is, in effect, no different from a plain assertion that summarily killing people is not a crime.) Rather, the objective is to bait the public into switching off its moral faculties, by presenting its members with a bewildering swamp: impenetrable legal opinions, unverifiable summaries of classified memos, the eely slipperiness of the terms. Looks pretty murky to me. Are you sure you’re qualified to find the answer in there?

This is all correct, and I would add that under Rubenfeld’s “analysis” 1)every authorization to use mlitary force has been superfluous and 2)the Congressional power to declare war (that also underlines the more recent practice of delegating through authorization instead) is a nullity. Rubenfeld knows this, which is why he is careful not to outright endorse it, just throw up enough of a Reasonable People Disagree fog to justify the random murder of people without due process. Murders that are not in fact either authorized by Congress or within the inherent authority of the president. Needless to say, this the exact same playbook MAGA and their fellow-travellers are running on birthright citizenship, and I will bet you a Pepe’s clam pie that Ol’ Jed himself will be part of that parade too.

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