Welcome to The Now

  More often than not, the Powers That Be will censor, block or ban opinions that they cannot effectively argue against. Young people have learned things without the filter of mainstream media, and they are not happy. But instead of actually having a dialogue, the older generation has decided to dismiss (or vilify) people they claim are being "misinformed."

 Lee Camp explains:

  Here's a story about the "U.N.-marked vehicle": TEL AVIV, Israel — The United Nations said one of its workers was killed and another injured when their U.N.-marked vehicle was struck in Gaza's southern city of Rafah on Monday. It was on its way to assess the situation at the European Hospital there. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had received a report from the U.N. Department of Safety and Security that two of its workers were injured. It also said that in an initial investigation, the vehicle hit was traveling in what the military declared an active combat zone. The Israeli military also said that it didn't receive notice of the vehicle's route.

 

It's hard for people to accept claims that Palestinians and/or Hamas are vicious characters when you turn around and destroy food and medical supplies: Apparently there have been arrests since this video came out. Keep in mind that these are also supplies that could have been given to the Israeli hostages that Hamas still have. Oh and this is worth noting: The White House condemned the destruction of the aid, calling it “completely and utterly unacceptable behavior.” “It is a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these convoys coming from Jordan going to Gaza to deliver humanitarian assistance,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in a press briefing on Monday. “We are looking at the tools that we have to respond to this and we are also raising our concerns at the highest level of the Israeli government. One "tool" is "stop selling weapons that are being used to kill civilians" but hey, keep looking.

Funny considering he was all over TV not too long ago:   Arizona prosecutors have tried for weeks – and so far failed – to serve Rudy Giuliani with notice of his indictment related to an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. Giuliani is among a group of former President Donald Trump’s allies indicted last month in Arizona alongside the 11 individuals who acted as fake GOP electors from the state in the last presidential election. But the former New York City mayor and one-time attorney for Trump is the only defendant prosecutors have been unable to serve with a summons, according to Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for the Arizona attorney general’s office. The summons is a formal notice that Giuliani has been criminally charged and must appear before a judge on May 21. CNN has reached out to a spokesman for Giuliani for comment. FYI: Guiliani recently lost his radio show because he can't get past the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

 

and there's a lot to cover .

  Very encouraging news : The Slovenian government on Thursday initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the conflict in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob said. "The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop," Golob was quoted as saying on the government X platform. "I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table." Golob said he would like his country´s recognition to be "an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly" and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution. The announcement came as Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are reportedly considering recognising a Palestinian state on May 21, according to a report by Ireland's national

 

 

 

  Via Al-Jazeera : The growing protest efforts against Israel’s war on Gaza have now spawned a cyberspace movement that has erupted in the past few days, targeting celebrities who are seen as being insensitive towards, or even supportive of, the death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave. The campaign that took off after the Met Gala on May 6 has earned the names: Blockout 2024, celebrity block list and digitine. The idea is to  block famous celebrities on social media networks such as Instagram, X and TikTok. But what’s it all about, why are parallels to the French Revolution coming up, does blocking a celebrity hurt them, and is the campaign seeing any impact? [SNIP] The Blockout 2024 is an online movement where social media users are carrying out a digital boycott of famous celebrities ranging from Hollywood actors to social media influencers for their silence on Israel’s war on Gaza, or in some cases, their purported support for the war. Various TikTok, Instagram and X users

 It's not that old, but this three-parter explains why two of the planet's self-proclaimed "best" democracies seem to have little guilt or concern about the loss of innocent life under the guise of fighting a terrorist group:

  Via Reuters : Israeli protesters blocked aid trucks headed for Gaza on Monday, strewing food packages on the road in the latest in a series of incidents that have come as Israel has pledged to allow uninterrupted humanitarian supplies into the besieged enclave. Four protesters, including a minor, were arrested at the protest, at Tarqumiya checkpoint, west of Hebron in the Israeli occupied West Bank, according to a statement from lawyers representing the protesters. According to Jordan's foreign ministry, this isn't the first time . Sadly it probably won't be the last. 

 Will this happen? We'll see: I can only imagine how the Republicans would react to this rather cowardly move. Also, what's the odds that there will be glitches and technical issues the whole time? 

 

 

  Some things just aren't easy to explain : An armed man gave no warning as he walked toward the front of Jesus’ Dwelling Place Church in Pennsylvania on Sunday, raised a gun toward the pastor’s face and pulled the trigger. What happened next may have been divine intervention, Pastor Glenn Germany said. “I’m thankful to God that I’m still here, because he definitely pulled the trigger,” Germany told CNN affiliate WTAE. The gunman “attempted to shoot, but the firearm failed to discharge,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement. The incident in North Braddock was captured on the church’s livestreamed video. Immediately after the gunman pulled the trigger, a church member tackled the suspect to the ground. State police identified the suspect as 26-year-old Bernard Junior Polite. It’s not clear why the suspect tried to shoot the pastor. Germany said he had never seen the gunman before Sunday, WTAE reported. “All of a sudden, I just seen a gun pointing right at me,” the pastor to

 Rachel Blevins covers this question:

 

 Well...

 

 

 

 After nation-wide protests on college campuses we mostly met with heavy-handed police push-back, The Democrats are trying to regroup : President Joe Biden’s support for the Israeli military offensive in Gaza mixed with student anger over police crackdowns on anti-war campus protests is complicating the work of Democratic youth groups trying to engage classmates and other Generation Z voters ahead of this year’s election. “If I’m talking about electric vehicles and climate change, and then (a student) asks me, ‘What about all the emissions caused by the bombing of Gaza?’ I’m like, ‘Well, you know, can’t help you there,’” said Hasan Pyarali, the president of the College Democrats chapter at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and the national group’s Muslim caucus chair. “Same thing with abortion access. And as an organizer, going in with those set of facts is so difficult that a lot of the times I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’” he said. In his most pointed remarks to date, Biden o

 After realizing that sending boatloads of money and weapons to one of the world's most corrupt nations isn't helping to win a proxy war with Russia isn't panning out as planned, the West (US, NATO) are threatening direct action. That's not a good idea:

 There is a reason "The American Dream" seems more unachievable with each passing month year: How much does it cost to live the American Dream? More than most of us can afford, according to two recent studies. A household would have to spend more than $150,000 a year to live the dream in 29 of the 50 states, according to an analysis published in April by the personal finance site GOBankingRates. According to the report, the optimal American lifestyle would cost $137,842 a year in Ohio, $147,535 in Texas, $159,932 in Florida, $194,067 in New York and $245,723 in California. And how, exactly, does one quantify the American Dream? GOBankingRates defines the dream as getting married, raising two children and owning a home, a car and a pet. (You can almost imagine them tooling around in one of those little plastic cars from the Game of Life.) The site ran the numbers for every state, factoring in a mortgage, annual healthcare costs, utilities, education, groceries, pets and chil

 

 Quite a few, actually: 

 The lawyer who uncovered the conspiracy behind the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. was 86:

According to Mint Press News, it's complicated . 

CNN has a video where Dr. Gupta discusses the hows and frequency of this, but one can't help to ask about the timing...especially considering that RFK Jr. is running as an independent (and as the ending suggests, the nature of his competition). 

  Apparently , the United States government have realized that all of these bombs being sold to Israel is mysteriously being used on all Palestinians, and not just the "threat of Hamas:" The US last week paused a bomb shipment for Israel over concerns it was going ahead with a major ground operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a senior US administration official said. The shipment consisted of 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs, the official told the BBC. Israel has not "fully addressed" US concerns over humanitarian needs of civilians in Rafah, the official said. An Israeli military official appeared to play down the US move. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari told a news conference that the US had provided "unprecedented" security assistance since the beginning of the war, adding that disputes between the allies were resolved "behind closed doors in a matter-of-fact way". "We are responsible for the securi

Via Gizmodo : On Tuesday, TikTok fired back against the U.S. government over a law that could put an end to the social video platform. TikTok and its parent company Bytedance’s lawsuit against the federal government claims the legislation circumvents the First Amendment. The company says the law’s requirement for TikTok to be divested is “not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.” “There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” TikTok said in the petition filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act targeted TikTok, labeling it as a “foreign adversary controlled application.” TikTok has 270 days from when the act was signed by President Biden to either sell the app to an entity in the U.S. or face a shutdown.

  Not ideal, but still progress : Chad deployed dozens of security forces in the capital amid rising tensions on Monday as polls closed and vote counting began in the first presidential election in Africa's Sahel region since a wave of coups. Soldiers and riot police patrolled the streets alongside at least 30 armoured and other military vehicles in the opposition-friendly southern neighbourhoods of the capital N'Djamena, according to Reuters reporters. The streets, normally bustling in the final hours of voting, were quiet. At least one voter was killed in the Central African country's second-largest city Moundou, south N'Djamena, after unidentified gunmen opened fire at a polling station, Chadian media reported. Nomads, who make up around 7% of Chad's population, were meant to begin early voting on Sunday. But by Monday afternoon, they were still unable to vote due to logistical problems, leaving many frustrated, according to the Reuters reporters. "No one br

 While at the same time exposing the weaknesses of the Iron Dome:

 

  Update : Scheerpost also has a take on this .

 

 

 

 Due Dissidence covers:

 Hedges also acknowledges his supporters in his message/warning about the rich and wealthy controlling media : I cannot answer you all individually, but each message, each new subscription, means I can go on. I write and broadcast for you. I see myself in you. I refuse to dumb down anything to reach a wider audience. I do not try to be entertaining. I assume, like me, you love books and the world of ideas, the nuances and complexities that make up the human condition. I assume you care about the truth. I assume you seek to create a world that is just, a world where our primary concern is for the vulnerable and the oppressed, a world where exploitation, including of the planet and animals, is a sin. I assume you refuse to march to the cant of the crowd. I assume you are willing to sacrifice for what is right, even at the cost of your comfort and career. Bless you all.  

 Rachel Blevins and Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro discuss: Imagine if any criticism of the United States would be legally interpreted as anti-Christian or anti-Woman or anti-Black. Well...Jimmy Dore breaks this down some more, and it doesn't look like that comparison is that far off:

“White Christian nationalism has cut out of their Bibles all of the Scriptures that lead faith to justice,” Wallis writes in a passage that recounts his youthful episode with the scissors. “When is the last time you heard a white Christian nationalist MAGA pastor talk about justice from the pulpit — justice for the poor, for the immigrants, for those being discriminated against? The only words that relate to ‘justice’ are predictions of punishment for all those who oppose their political agenda.” -- Jim Wallis, describing how White supremacy has infected Christianity throughout American history , creating a group who follow a " Bible that's full of holes ." 

 

 

 If not, then watch:

 

 From Chris Hedges' Substack :  I was just informed by Max Alvarez, the Editor-in-Chief at The Real News, that they will no longer run my show. The reason for the cancellation, he said, is that my critiques of Biden, especially for the genocide in Gaza, jeopardizes his nonprofit status. My last show with Dennis Kucinich, who is running as an independent for Congress in Ohio, was removed from the site. I will resurrect the show on an independent platform, although it may take me a few weeks to get this set up. Very disappointing move by TRNN. Thankfully, place  Breakthrough News is around and (currently) has no trouble talking about the topics Hedges discusses; maybe his show can also find a home there.

 

 

 Can we please stop thinking of this guy as a genius, and more a rich guy who buys companies and tries to will them into prosperity?

 

 

 

 Consider this a palate cleanser:

 

 

 

  As stated in the video, expelling students (who were taught diversity and the history of civil disobedience by some of these same institutions) would sink enrollment and cripple higher ed as an industry. Mika's "solution" to those who are only opposing the status quo also validates people who believe that college only creates slightly intelligent worker bees for the capitalist grinder.  If a student is going to be expelled for protesting genocide, then what is the point of going to college?

 All you need is about $10,000: