Welcome to The Now

 

 One being Jill Stein's response: So while the Democrats freakout , Joe Biden tries an alternate personality and Trump acts like Trump , remember that there are other people running for president. 

 

 

 

 

  Yellen (who's net worth is $20 million) doesn't seem to think that a 20% increase in food costs (since before the Pandemic) is a big deal . Naturally , Yellen is getting slammed for being so grossly out of touch .

Sad but true:  

Sometimes, Europe gets things right...like going after Big Tech :   European Union regulators on Monday said Apple is in breach of sweeping new tech rules because it does not allow customers of its App Store to be steered to alternatives. The European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, also said it had opened a new probe into Apple over new contractual terms with developers. The E.U. opened an investigation into Apple, Alphabet and Meta in March under a landmark new law known as the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, which aims to reel in the power of Big Tech firms. So-called anti-steering rules were one of the big areas of focus of the probe. Under the DMA, tech firms are not allowed to block businesses from telling their users about cheaper options for their products or about subscriptions outside of an app store. On Monday, regulators said in their preliminary findings that Apple was in breach of the DMA because its App Store rules “prevent app developers from freely steering cons...

The Australian journalist who exposed war crimes and was barely acknowledged by mainstream media until he was actually freed (do to no small part of the activists and independent journalists who refused to let his trial go unnoticed) on one hand; on the other a WSJ journalist who happens to be on trial in Russia . Makes you wonder. 

 Here's a question for those who challenge the accusations of apartheid: can anyone in the country potentially hold a position of leadership in the country, or are there legal/social barriers preventing that from happening? 

If you're looking to buy a car, you may want to wait a bit ... Car dealerships across North America have faced major disruptions this week. CDK Global, a company that provides software for thousands of auto dealers in the U.S. and Canada, was hit by back-to-back cyberattacks on Wednesday. That led to an outage that continued to impact many of their operations on Friday. For prospective car buyers, that may mean delays at dealerships or vehicle orders written up by hand, with no immediate end in sight. Here’s what you need to know. CDK Global is a major player in the auto sales industry. The company, based just outside of Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, provides software technology to dealers that helps with day-today operations — like facilitating vehicle sales, financing, insurance and repairs. CDK serves more than 15,000 retail locations across North America, according to the company. Whether all of these locations were impacted by this week’s cyberattacks was not immediate...

 Not so much a rally as is was a Sheepherder-Palooza:

 

 

 Richard Medhurst: Hard Lens Media: Glenn Greenwald: Status Coup: And here's CNN's explainer (which is seemingly written as if the outlet has barely covered the case/person and has to explain almost a decade's worth of events).  I will say Medhurst, Greenwald and others are definitely onto something about how political this all is/was, considering: The "time served" matches the sentence; The back-and-forth of applying US law/standards to international ones based arguments people brought up in defense of Assange; The legal arguments made in court; The unimagined impact of people protesting what's going on in Gaza (saying Biden needed a political "win" would be valid.

  Netanyahu says, "no" : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that he is open to a “partial” deal that would facilitate the return of some captives still held in Gaza, even if not all. He reiterated, however, that he would not agree to any deal that stipulated an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, despite previous claims by the United States that an Israeli proposal would be a pathway to ending the offensive. “The goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza,” he said in an interview with Israeli media outlet Channel 14 on Sunday. Tens of thousands of Israelis have consistently rallied against Netanyahu and his government, demanding early elections and a deal to return the captives. Last month, US President Joe Biden announced a proposal for a ceasefire, which would see a six-week pause in fighting as well as the release of some Israeli captives in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. These exchanges would then enable nego...

Maybe ... WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge related to his alleged role in one of the largest US government breaches of classified material, as part of a deal with the Justice Department that will allow him to avoid imprisonment in the United States, according to newly filed federal court documents. Under the terms of the new agreement, Justice Department prosecutors will seek a 62-month sentence – which is equal to the amount of time Assange has served in a high-security prison in London while he fought extradition to the US. The plea deal would credit that time served, allowing Assange to immediately return to Australia, his native country. The plea deal must still be approved by a federal judge. Assange had faced 18 counts from a 2019 indictment for his alleged role in the breach that carried a max of up to 175 years in prison, though he was unlikely to be sentenced to that time in full. Assange was being pursued by US authorities for pub...

 

 

The short answer is: capitalism. Sabby discusses:

 

 

Seems like everyone to the East has solved or perfected long-distance traveling : Interested in capping off your trip to Hong Kong with a long weekend in Beijing or Shanghai? A new high-speed sleeper train service is making that possibility easier than ever. Two new overnight routes connecting the city with Beijing and Shanghai entered into service on June 15. Both trains depart Hong Kong West Kowloon Station in the evening and arrive in Beijing at 6.53 a.m. and Shanghai at 6.45 a.m., making the journeys around 12.5 hours and 11 hours respectively. Return trips depart from Beijing and Shanghai at around 8 p.m. and arrive in Hong Kong at 8.47 a.m. and 7.29 a.m. These routes run four days a week, departing all three stations every evening from Friday to Monday. “It will be more comfortable and faster, reducing the travel time by about half, and will cover a wider range of destinations, including popular tourist attraction cities,” John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said in a press st...

 

 

Politically-speaking, Vice President Harris is either uninformed or misinformed at any given moment, which only amplifies her flaws as a politician. Sabby goes over how a two-year scandal has Harris spreading lies today:

 

Sounds like things are escalating:  

" Polio ?" Yes; polio : Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where poliovirus is still endemic – the other being neighbours Afghanistan. To counter the spread of the disease, Pakistan launched an eradication campaign in 1994. The country used to report 20,000 cases annually, according to government health officials. While the figure has come down significantly (five so far this year), the spread continues. Pakistan administers more than 300 million doses of oral vaccine annually with the help of at least 350,000 vaccinators, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme. Health workers, as well as accompanying security officials, are often harassed, ridiculed, taunted, threatened and targeted physically. At least 102 have been killed in the field, government officials say, including during campaigns carried out this year. In addition to these attacks and refusals of vaccination, health workers also face other issues, including low pay, salary delays, an...

So yes Sudan is in conflict , and that is taking it's toll on the country . 

 Here's a hint: they've been in the news a lot since last October.

 

 

 

 Breaking Points reviews: So have the person who lost to Donald Trump paired up with the person who barely beat Trump (and is either edging, tied or losing to him)?  As Jimmy Dore noted: Hillary Clinton's numbers only go down during her campaigns; they rarely (if ever) go up.

Might have had something to do with the high temperatures ? Massachusetts’ 911 system was restored Tuesday afternoon after a statewide outage impacted services across the state. Local police and fire departments first shared messages about the outage in posts on social media and in statements early Tuesday afternoon. With 911 systems down, departments urged people in need of emergency aid to contact them directly through administrative phone lines. In an update near 3:45 p.m., the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security confirmed the system was once again operational. “The public may now resume calling 911 for emergencies,” officials said.  Officials thanked members of the public for their patience and cooperation and said the State 911 Department would continue to investigate the cause of the disruption.  Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Boston officials shared their own messages about the outage and shared advice for people looking to get in contact with emergency cre...

 

The short answer is, "no."  Lee Camp has a slightly longer response:

 Rachel Blevins and Mark Sleboda talk about the Ukraine fundraiser disguised as a peace summit:  

 

Interesting :  A French court has ordered organisers of a defence trade show to suspend a ban on Israeli firms, the lawyer for the Franco-Israeli Chamber of Commerce told the AFP news agency. The Paris Commerce Tribunal said the decision by Coges Events to ban 74 Israeli exhibitors from Eurosatory was “discriminatory”, the lawyer, Patrick Klugman, said. Organisers of the Eurosatory trade show just outside Paris said last month that French authorities had banned Israeli firms with the French Defence Ministry attributing the decision to Israel’s military operations in Rafah.

 

 

Interesting developments : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his war cabinet, an Israeli official told CNN Monday, just over a week after opposition leader Benny Gantz withdrew from the body. Decision-making will now move back to the government’s main security cabinet, the Israeli official said, claiming Netanyahu “will hold smaller forums on sensitive matters.” The war cabinet, set up five days after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, had five members: Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, opposition leader Benny Gantz, and two “observers,” Ron Dermer and Gadi Eisenkot. But Gantz – seen as Netanyahu’s most formidable political opponent – announced his “complex and painful” decision to withdraw from the cabinet last week, citing Netanyahu’s failure to devise a strategy for the conflict in Gaza and the future governance of the Strip. “ Netanyahu prevents us from moving forward to a real victory [in Gaza] ,” Gantz said June 9. He accuse...

 

 

 

Remember that this is currently a "blue state" with a Democratic Governor: Gov. Ned Lamont delivered his expected veto Tuesday of a vaguely written bill that was intended to provide up to $3 million in state aid to striking workers without explicitly saying so. Lamont was also opposed to a more transparent effort to provide jobless benefits, but he made no mention in his veto message of the rejected bill’s intent and instead focused on its lack of statutory standards. Without standards, Lamont wrote, “there is a risk of inefficiency, mismanagement and lack of transparency in their intended allocation.” The veto prompted an immediate backlash from labor leaders, including Ed Hawthorne, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which had made jobless benefits for strikers its top legislative priority. “Gov. Lamont has failed to hear the voices of thousands of working people who urged him to stand with striking workers,” Hawthorne said. “The governor had a choice — stand with c...

 

 

 

 

Those who seek a degree from higher education may want to consider a college/university that won't hold your degree hostage :  More than two weeks have passed since the graduates’ commencement ceremony for 2024 at Harvard University, but Asmer Asrar Safi is still waiting to receive the degree for which he spent four years studying. “The situation remains as is, unfortunately,” he tells Al Jazeera from Boston, United States. Besides Safi, who is originally from Lahore, Pakistan, another 12 students find themselves in the same situation: they are all graduating students at one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world but will not be awarded their degrees for at least one year. Harvard Corporation, the university’s top governing body, barred these students from receiving their degrees during this year’s graduation ceremony on May 23 on account of their involvement in the three-week pro-Palestine encampment at the university last month. “I am waiting for my appeals...

 

 

 

 

 Via CNN : High school seniors Emma Ehrens and Grace Fischer will hear their names read out today as they are called to collect their diplomas and start the next chapter of their lives. But they are also steeling themselves to hear 20 other names of former classmates who never got to leave first grade, let alone plan for college and grow into adulthood. Today is the day that the 20 children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 would have graduated, perhaps cheered on by the six teachers and administrators also killed in the deadliest K-12 shooting in US history. “It’s just going to be heartbreaking,” Grace told CNN. “I can’t imagine that 20 kids are not graduating with us and that they’re not having the opportunity to walk across the stage.” Emma said she’s trying to prepare herself for a range of emotions – the joy at leaving school, nerves about what’s next and reflecting on what should have been. “Thinking about all the what ifs: what if they were sitting n...

 Richard Medhurst explains: 

 Lee Camp compares homelessness in the United States to Cuba: 

 "Centrist" or "Warmonger"? I guess it depends on your view of Netanyahu:

  Via CNN : A US Coast Guard Academy official says top leaders directed her to lie to sexual assault victims and Congress, making her an unwitting accomplice in a cover-up of decades of abuse. As a result, Shannon Norenberg says she’s resigning from her role as the academy’s head of sexual assault prevention and issuing a public apology to survivors, saying she is no longer willing to stay silent. “The Coast Guard lied to me,” she wrote in a public statement posted online Sunday. “I can no longer in good conscience be part of an organization that would betray me, betray victims of sexual assault, and betray the system I helped set up to hold perpetrators at the academy accountable.” Norenberg’s explosive allegations were made in advance of a congressional hearing this week at which the Coast Guard’s first female commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, is slated to testify about the agency’s sexual misconduct scandal.

 

 In light of recent European events , French President Emmanuel Macron has made a risky decision to call for a snap election . The Duran discusses:

 

 

 

 Second Thought explains:

 Here's a 2018 Military Times story about Capt. William Loren McGonagle of the USS Liberty. (you know, that vessel ). Bonus: Jimmy Dore interviewed a survivor: 

 Canadian rich guy Kevin O'Leary recently threatened American citizens (mostly students) who have been protesting at colleges with some Skull & Crossbones-like shenanigans that would prevent them from having any kind of quality of life.  Ian Weiss -brother of co-Due Dissidence host Keaton Weiss- wrote a very interesting article in response, and he also went on DD to talk about it:

Learn about the Russian who staved off WW3, why Jimmy Carter had a more negative impact on the Doomsday Clock than Richard Nixon, and more: 

 

 Tell me again about how apartheid is a thing of the past. 

 

 

 Bombs for jobs:

 Prof Francis Boyle and Rachel Blevins discuss:

We seemed so far away from "kids in cages" and "building walls:" Migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border could be denied the chance to claim asylum and quickly deported under new restrictions announced on Tuesday, part of a sweeping enforcement effort by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Biden administration will immediately begin denying access to asylum to those who cross illegally and deporting them to their home countries or to Mexico with exceptions for unaccompanied children, people who face serious medical or safety threats and victims of trafficking, a senior official said on a call with reporters. Biden, a Democrat, has toughened his approach to border security as immigration has emerged as a top issue for Americans in the run-up to Nov. 5 elections where he will face Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of the 2020 contest. The new asylum restrictions are not permanent, the U.S. official told reporters. They are activated when the daily aver...

 

 

 

 

 Usually American mainstream media (you know, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) will go out of their way to snipe at or outright attack China. But the lack of coverage  , even to just "debunk" the narrative, is just astonishing. In fact, in order to even know this happened, you had to go to either Chinese media , places like Yahoo! or well, good 'ol Lee Camp: 

 

 College protests, journalism, and much more discussed: