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Fast and furious disappearance of another (female) lackey
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Whoosh And They're Gone

Well that was fun. In last week's welcome bit of comic relief, we got the vapid rise and rapid fall - despite requisite blonde hair, faux smile and passing resemblance to Ivanka - of "manifestly unqualified" Barbie News Reader and fake Chinese lawyer Katie Zacharia after a brutal debut. So much for MAGA meritocracy. SAD! Zacharia set a new speed record - half a Mooch - in a job akin to Spinal Tap drummer. But the question remains: When will the incompetent male dolts get fired?

While by far not the most substantive Trump blunder, it was one of the most cringeworthy, exposing (again) the profound ineptitude of his shambolic rule just before voters go to the polls to render judgment on it. In less than a week, Zacharia managed to get plucked from right-wing obscurity, be "shoehorned" into a job far beyond her skillset, humiliate herself before millions, go on Fox and stammeringly fail to redeem herself, and get fired by a capricious, perennial loser who got famous fake-firing people on TV and now daily exposes his own clownish unfitness for his job. One astute observer: "I'm starting to think this Donald guy might not have any idea what he's doing."

Born Kate Sharon Black in 1984, Zacharia grew up in California in the "liberal cesspool” of Cambria; she was the conservative “black sheep” of her family "thanks to the great, late Rush Limbaugh, who raised me as a kid on the radio." Describing a clash with woke patrons of her "cardio kickboxing gym," she said the owner once asked her not to wear her "Trump 2024" hat but "I would never take my Trump hat off to appease the left." A Pizzagate, Qanon and Stop the Steal buff, she was a "huge fan of ICE and Border Patrol" who briefly worked for Kristi Noem and a commentator for right-wing TV before being spotted by Trump, maybe because she scheduled her gigs when she thought he'd be watching. Totally normal.

Officials looking to replace Karoline Leavitt had reportedly narrowed down the list of candidates "only to find that (they'd) said something negative about (Trump)," which of course wouldn't do for the fragile toddler. Thus did uber-obsequious, ringlet-bottle-blonde "lizard person" Zacharia take to the podium, blare "Good morning!!" in a sing-songy screech, and stumble through a smiley, halting, inflection-challenged briefing about Trump's "historic one-day war," "attendance at record highs as enthusiastic hardworking Americans are lining up and packing arenas," a "booming economy....and a, um, he, great relationship...with Venezuela...um, and...my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one..." Not.

After the one question on Ukraine, and the famous, “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” it was over. 14 minutes, or forever in bimbo time. It got worse. The oft-repeated claims of being a lawyer when she’d failed the bar - weirdly, thanks Hannity - and of working in China on “international transaction law” when she was basically a paid intern. The verdict: "A train wreck," "a joke hire," "talk about a public execution," "between the 3rd-grade level reading and the fake attorney in China thing, brutal." Anti-DEI,.scandal-plagued Rick Santorum's glowing review: She was "not even close to the worst." Trump's lazy excuse: "I told her, 'If I were you, I'd reconsider.'" Fox: She's "transitioning" out of the job she held for 14 minutes.

It was a made-for-the-Internet spectacle. The White House declared, "She’ll be remembered as one of the all-time greats." America proclaimed, "She's gonna be a punchline for a very long time." Democratic strategist Mike Nellis clarified, "She wasn't fired because she lied,” a Trump requisite, but because "she was a bad liar." Another requisite: Michael Steele mused no more "blonde white female pronouncing his noise in a way that makes him feel good.” Some selfishly mourned the loss: "Please let her last long enough to hold a second briefing - I need the joy." Some empathized with SNL writers stuck with Friday night rewrites. Some were shocked: "I can't believe her husband, I mean president, fired her."

Though no press secretary really matters because Trump daily lies, veers, makes things up, some speculated on the next one: Scott Jennings, Katie Miller, Melissa McCarthy doing Sean Spicer. The Borowitz Report announced it's George Santos, who was "thrilled...I will bring to this job my experience not only as a lawyer but as a doctor and astronaut.” Also, he was cutting short his reunion tour "with his fellow Beatles." Some noted Zacharia "was press secretary longer than she was a lawyer." Others asserted they'd had blueberries, bananas, takeout and lettuce in their fridge longer than she had her job. Also that the U.K's Liz Truss lasted longer, as did the head of lettuce that often competed with her.

Some mulled Zacharia's future: "Next: memoir and book tour," "Now she can go back to studying for the bar, or at least its cocktail menu," "She is leaving 'to spend more time with my children, who will teach me how to read.'" A guy met her years ago on a cruise ship: She was telling a friend she'd partied the night before and slept in. They told her she'd missed them crossing the equator that morning. She said, "Oh, what did it look like?" Some waxed lyrical: "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives." Some lamented inflation: "I remember when you could get a few months of work out of a press secretary. Now they're like those new batteries - they look like they'll last but whoosh and they're gone."

In honor of her historic reign, Wikipedia’s “List Of Humorous Units Of Measurement” was updated to include the “Zacharia,” a “fractional unit of a Scaramucci,” the previous record for Anthony Scaramucci's 11 days as press secretary in Trump's first term. The change prompted heated debate, pained mathematical equations, admiration: "Nobody thought anything could go faster than the speed of Mooch, but here we are." There were questions - Are Mooches a metric system? Would that be 45 centi-Mooches? - and answers: "They convert at a 5/11 ratio." Talk turned existential: "A Scaramucci was a measure of time. A Zacharia is more ethereal, a measure of being, a disconnect between one’s story and one's purpose...Beautiful really."

And there was anger Zacharia got fired but Trump's still here, that the media and GOP have let him "get away with LYING ABOUT EVERY GODDAMNED THING...from 2015 SPOUTING THAT OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE SHIT AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING LIE HE’S TOLD SINCE." And, in the last few months, that half of eight female officials have resigned or been fired, all replaced by men. That consistently inept, unhinged, corrupt, sick idiots like Hegseth, Patel, Lutnick, Goebbels, Vance etc lie, cheat, rave, royally screw up yet keep their jobs. What the fuck. Meanwhile Zacharia, still sketchy, posts altered photos from the Oval Office and declares the guy who threw her under the bus "kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic and hard-working...No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to." Damn, we hope not.

Helpful Press Secretary conversion table. Helpful Press Secretary conversion table.Image from Bluesky

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Morning Scene in Brandenburg
News

Clean Power Funding Surpasses Fossil Fuels, But Rich Nations Keep Bankrolling Dirty Energy: Report

For the first time on record, major international public financial institutions are providing more financing for clean energy around the world than for fossil fuels. But wealthy nations, including the United States, continue to pour billions into oil and gas, hampering the global energy transition, according to a new report.

On Wednesday, two environmental advocacy groups—Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth US—published an analysis of new data on public financing from Group of 20 (G20) nations and multilateral development banks for clean energy projects, such as wind and solar, and planet-warming fossil fuels, including oil, gas, and coal.

They found that from 2023-25, public financing for clean energy averaged at least $52.7 billion annually, compared with just $36.3 billion for fossil fuels. The report attributes the shift mostly to multilateral development banks, while G20 nations' own development and export financing continued to favor fossil fuels.

“This new dataset represents a tipping point. Clean energy financing overtaking fossil fuel financing for the first time is an important milestone," said Claire O'Manique, public finance researcher at Oil Change International. "But it doesn't mean we can sit back and count our wins.”

The level of clean energy financing, the group said, is still far below what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, a threshold beyond which the risks of devastating climate impacts increase.

That's largely thanks to four main culprits. Canada, Japan, the United States, and Italy accounted for around 75% of fossil fuel financing from G20 countries during this period.

Canada provided an annual average of $12.5 billion in fossil fuel financing—mostly for domestic projects. Japan averaged about $4.5 billion annually despite a G7 commitment to end public support for new international fossil fuel projects by 2022. Italy likewise averaged $3.8 billion annually, breaking a pledge to end international fossil fuel financing.

Over the same period, the US provided an annual average of about $3.6 billion in fossil fuel financing, mostly through its Export-Import Bank, compared with just $1.5 billion for clean energy.

The data from 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, is particularly striking. That year, the US provided nearly $8 billion in financing for fossil fuel projects compared with just $2.5 million for clean energy—roughly 3,200 times as much.

This included a loan of up to $4.7 billion for a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, despite allegations that soldiers guarding the project committed war crimes. British and Dutch backing has since been withdrawn from the project.

"Important progress is being made to move the world’s largest economies away from supporting fossil fuels and shift that financing toward renewable energy projects," said Kate DeAngelis, economic policy deputy director at Friends of the Earth US. "Unfortunately, laggards, including the United States and Japan, are continuing to prop up the fossil fuel industry instead of helping countries transition to sustainable economies.”

The report also found that less than 2% of the clean energy financing tracked reached low-income countries, despite their unmet energy needs. Meanwhile, nearly half of the funds went toward projects in the highest-income countries, according to World Bank classifications.

The five largest recipients of clean energy financing were all high- or middle-income countries: France, Poland, and Spain fall into the former category, while Brazil and India fall into the latter.

"A just transition will not happen at the scale required without governments actively steering it through redirecting and mobilizing public finance," O’Manique said. "Wealthy governments must move first and fastest to phase out fossil fuels at home and meet their climate finance obligations."

"We are running out of time," she said. "Without a fossil fuel phaseout and public finance being redirected to drive a just energy transition, we will continue to see escalating climate disasters that come at a huge human and economic cost, such as the deadly glacial flood disaster in Nepal.”

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Inflation Hits Highest Level in Months as Costs From Trump's Illegal War Eat Workers' Paychecks
News

Inflation Hits Highest Level in Months as Costs From Trump's Illegal War Eat Workers' Paychecks

Data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed inflation grew faster than expected in September, driven in large part by costs related to President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran.

The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed overall prices in September posted a yearly increase of 3.7%, marking the biggest rise in prices since May.

The main drivers of inflation in September were related to energy, which has surged in cost since Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year in retaliation for Trump's unlawful attack in February.

Energy prices increased by an annual rate of 20% in September, with the price of gasoline growing by an annual rate of 34% and the price of fuel oil growing by an annual rate of 74%.

University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers noted in a Wednesday social media post that average wages are not keeping up with the rate of inflation, meaning workers have seen their purchasing power decrease.

"Real wages are falling," Wolfers wrote, "and have been falling for months."

Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Joe Biden, said the September data showed that "working families are getting squeezed on both sides (wage, price) of the affordability crunch," as workers' inflation-adjusted earnings are now back to where they were at the start of Trump's second term.

Bernstein's observations were echoed by Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, who pointed out that "inflation has nearly wiped out all wage gains since January 2025."

"This is a very different picture from President Trump's first term when wages were up over 15%, well above about 8% inflation," Long added. "It helps explain the frustration many households feel right now with the economy."

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said that accelerating inflation was yet another sign of Republicans' governing failures.

"Trump and Republicans have no answer for rising inflation caused by soaring gas prices and the war in Iran," Kim wrote. "They're more focused on enriching Trump and his friends and family. This is why we're fighting to take back Congress so we can end the war and bring prices down for you and your family."

Alex Jacquez, senior vice president of policy, advocacy, and research at Groundwork Collaborative, said the CPI report shows why "Americans have lost faith in Trump’s economy."

"The president has repeatedly made promises he can’t keep," Jacquez said, "and despite the band-aid attempts from the White House, there is a gaping hole in our economy just weeks from the midterms. Between the president’s war in Iran and reckless tariffs, his economy is on life support."

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Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic US Senate candidate​ in Michigan
News

'My Name Is Abdul': El-Sayed Confronts Trump's Racist, Anti-Muslim Attacks Head-On in New Ad

In his latest campaign ad released late Monday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, struck a resilient and matter-of-fact tone that suggested the recent racist attacks on him, his Arabic name, and his Muslim faith are no secret—but he has no plans to try to hide his identity to appease Republicans and Democrats who have claimed he's an "extremist" or accused him of terrorist ties.

"My name is Abdul," said El-Sayed in the 30-second ad. "It means servant. I pray every day. I reflect on my role in this life, on this Earth—how we leave it better than we found it."

He continued by linking his own faith traditions to those of millions of Michiganders who also "pray"—many of whom, he suggested, "feel hopeless" in President Donald Trump's America, as they face rising costs and struggle to afford groceries, healthcare, childcare, and other essentials.

The ad, subtly connecting El-Sayed's Muslim faith to people of all belief systems across Michigan, comes as Trump and others ramp up Islamophobic attacks on the progressive former public health official, with two weeks to go until Election Day.

The president explicitly, baselessly slandered El-Sayed as "a jihadist" at one recent rally, mocking his name as he told the crowd that El-Sayed "is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood." The Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has also attempted to tie El-Sayed to the political movement that was founded in Egypt in 1928.

On Monday, as El-Sayed's ad was released, Trump took aim at the candidate's name once again, calling him by his middle name, Mohamed.

"He knows my name is Abdul," El-Sayed said of the president earlier this month. "He says it every day. But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better. It’s time for change."

The Republican claims regarding El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood made their way into an exchange the candidate had with a town hall attendee identified as "Tommy" in Caro, Michigan over the weekend, where Tommy demanded that El-Sayed "disavow" the group.

“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said, before challenging Tommy to explain why he was asking a Muslim candidate to do so.

Anti-Muslim attacks have come from both sides of the aisle since El-Sayed began his campaign, with Democratic strategists spending months fixating on his decision to campaign with popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and tying the candidate to Piker's earlier remarks about September 11 and Israel.

On Monday, former Michigan Democratic Party chair Lon Johnson accused El-Sayed of "extremism" and said his rhetoric threatens Jewish communities, calling on Democrats in the state to "leave the Senate race blank" to represent "a rejection of ideological absolutism." El-Sayed is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights and, like a majority of Americans, is deeply critical of US support for Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza and the West Bank.

In the ad released Monday, El-Sayed suggested that "faith" like his could bring positive change to Washington, DC, where political leaders have long claimed that big changes to systems in the US—such as its for-profit healthcare system, which El-Sayed strongly believes must be replaced by Medicare for All—would be impossible to make.

"Faith is a thing that there's just too little of in Washington," he said. "We don't have faith in our future. We don't have faith that we can actually fix things."

Mussab Ali, a former school board official in Jersey City, New Jersey, said the ad took "courage" to release.

"I think this might be the first time in American history you’ve seen a Muslim candidate demonstrate a part of their prayer in an ad like this," said Ali. "In response to attacks about his faith, Abdul doubles down on who he is."

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Student Activist Mahmoud Khalil Attends Rally After Being Freed From Detention
News

Mahmoud Khalil Asks Supreme Court to Weigh In On Fights Against 'Unlawful Attempts to Detain and Deport People'

Attorneys representing former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to hear a challenge to an appellate ruling that overturned a judge's determination that his 2025 detention by federal immigration officials was unconstitutional.

Khalil, a legal US permanent resident who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March 2025 and detained on claims that his activism was "adverse to the foreign policy interests of the United States."

US District Judge Michael Farbiarz, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, freed Khalil from ICE custody, arguing that his detention was unwarranted since he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community.

However, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Farbiarz's decision on the grounds that federal courts did not have jurisdiction to rule on immigration cases.

In making his appeal to the Supreme Court to hear his case, Khalil said the outcome would determine "whether I, and all immigrants in this country, can actually challenge this administration’s unlawful attempts to detain and deport people solely in retaliation for their First Amendment protected speech."

Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents Khalil, argued that the appeals court's decision was in error because federal courts should always have jurisdiction over cases involving core rights such as habeas corpus petitions.

"Our most fundamental constitutional principles have always prevented the president from sending people into detention on a whim or out of spite," said Azmy. "Access to the critical protections of habeas corpus is an essential check on the kind of arbitrary detention here, which the administration wants free rein to accomplish, by punishing Mr. Khalil for nothing other than constitutionally protected speech."

Alina Das, director of the New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic, which is also representing the former student, said the Trump administration's detention of Khalil violated his core constitutional rights, while also chilling the speech of both US citizens and noncitizens who "fear retaliation against themselves or their loved one."

"The Supreme Court must uphold the power of habeas courts to free people from retaliatory detention," said Das, "and prevent the weaponization of the immigration system to punish dissent."

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Maryam Ghanem is treated for burns
News

Israeli Strike Burns Gaza Mother Alive in Front of Toddler, 'Without Generating Any Headlines'

A Palestinian toddler watched, screaming in horror, as her mother was burned alive in an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home early Wednesday that left the wounded girl orphaned—and received almost no coverage in US corporate media.

Reem Asaad Awad was killed when an Israeli helicopter attacked her family's apartment in the Rimal neighborhood at approximately 3:48 am local time Wednesday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported.

Trapped inside the burning apartment was Awad's daughter, Maryam Ahmed Ghanem, whose age has been reported as between 2 and 4 years old. Prominent Palestinian author Mosab Abu Toha said family friends confirmed the child was born in February 2024.

Palestinian journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi witnessed and recorded the immediate aftermath of the strike.

"There are children are screaming alive inside," al-Jaafrawi is heard saying as he approached the building.

"I went up to the apartment. There were flames everywhere," al-Jaafrawi told Al Jazeera. "I went in despite the fire and smoke and heard a little girl screaming inside. I went in, found her, and rescued her immediately. I carried her and handed her to people so they could take her to hospital."

"I went back to rescue others and to document what happened, but I suffocated and lost consciousness because of the thick smoke," he added. "I saw a woman on fire inside the apartment."

Photos and video recordings show Ghanem being treated for injuries, including burns, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which is struggling to operate after much of the facility was destroyed or damaged by Israeli forces, who besieged and raided the complex multiple times since October 2023.

Abu Toha, who saw Ghanem in the hospital, said the child "kept repeating the same heartbreaking words: 'I want my mum. My body hurts. There was a lot of fire.'"

Ghanem—whose father, Ahmad Ghanem, was reportedly killed by Israeli forces early in their genocidal assault—has joined the ranks of the more than 56,000 Gaza children who have lost at least one of their parents in the war, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

"Reem and Ahmad had waited four years to conceive Maryam," Abu Toha wrote. "Four years of waiting and hoping to bring a child into this world. Ahmad never lived to see his daughter’s face. Reem lived long enough to watch her little girl grow for two-and-a-half years before she was burned alive in front of her. Now Maryam is an orphan, fighting to survive her horrific burns."

Ghanem's grandfather told Middle East Eye that the child and her mother "did nothing wrong."

"They were sleeping quietly at night," he said. "There was no one in the apartment except the two of them."

Israel said it is investigating the strike, which it claimed—without providing evidence—targeted a member of Hamas.

Dismissing a nominal yearlong ceasefire during which at least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,000 others wounded by Israeli attacks, the grandfather said that "honestly, there is no security."

"I fear for my family," he added. "All people are afraid, not just me. There is still assassination, war, hunger, poverty, and destruction... Nothing has changed."

The horrific footage of the strike's fiery aftermath evoked imagery from earlier in Israel's onslaught, including video of a 7-year-old girl trying to escape an inferno caused by bombing that killed dozens of Palestinians—among them her mother and siblings—and a teenager photographed burning alive after Israeli forces bombed a tent encampment.

Some observers noted the almost complete absence of US media reporting on the story, with the apparent exception of CBS News, which published video of the burning apartment in a Facebook Reel.

"This little girl watched her mother be burned alive in Gaza. If she was Israeli, this image would be front-page news. But Israel can kill Palestinians in the most horrific ways without generating any headlines," US historian, author, and political analyst Assal Rad said on social media.

"Video has been circulating all day; you can hear the little girl cry and see her engulfed in smoke," Rad said in a separate post. "I can’t find headlines in Western media *because* the story is horrific. They want you to forget."

The Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement calling on members of Congress "to condemn Israel for burning a Palestinian mother alive while her daughter watched in Gaza."

“The horrific video of a little girl surrounded by fire as her mother burns to death in their home exemplifies the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza," CAIR said. "We cannot comprehend how any political leader with a conscience could continue to fund the sheer cruelty of the Israeli government and the war criminals who carry out its orders."

"Members of Congress must condemn this atrocity and demand an immediate end to all US support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza," the group added.

The US has provided Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, as well as diplomatic cover, including repeated vetoes of a series of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions, throughout the three-year annihilation of Gaza, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, weighed in on the attack on Bluesky.

"I have reached the limits of my ability to put words to pure evil," he wrote. "Once again, Israel burned another family in Gaza alive. But the image of the... daughter in the family watching the rest of her family die in the flames will haunt me for the rest of my life."

"But," Parsi added, "will it haunt Israel?"

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