Welcome to The Now

 

  Whether it's fear from the Democrats or outright racism from the Republicans , it's safe to say that Mamdani's win is resonating.  Furthermore, this is a test for the "Any Blue Will Do/Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd, who mostly use that mantra for when conservatives/ex-Republicans ran and/or won as Democrats. With the memory of kicking out David Hogg for the crime of trying to bring fresh blood into a corrupt, decrepit organization  as well as the submissive posturing to Zionism still fresh in voter's memories, can the Democrats really afford to kneecap Mamdani's chances for victory just so they can fret about not having the "fighters" they need to challenge a Trump-emboldened Republican Party?

 

 Hakim has something to say about this:

 Just as people breathe a sigh of relief that what looked like the beginning of WW3 ended up being something (for now) less than, something from the recent past has resurfaced : The Tariff War. On April 9, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on all "reciprocal" tariffs imposed by the US, excepting those on China. As Morgan Stanley notes, July 9 is the next deadline for tariff negotiations . Markets are waiting to learn how Trump will approach this next phase. There are three chief reasons tariffs could come roaring back into view for investors. Geopolitics has overshadowed the trade war recently. The Israel-Iran conflict in recent weeks has taken up a lot of investors' focus, but the risks from that event appear to be dwindling. The next shoe to drop with regard to volatility is likely to be the next chapter of the trade war. Tariffs' effect on inflation may be lagged. Economists caution that the data in recent months showing inflation cooling might not la...

 

Kshama Sawant reminds us that even the most "progressive" Democrat are only going to go so far to achieve actual substantive change for the working class:

 Following up on yesterday's "Quote of the Day":

 

 

 

For the people of Iran and all of the peoples and nations involved in the ongoing struggle against Western imperialism, we all have one decisive weapon that will inevitably serve our interests at some point – the psychopathology of white supremacy. This affliction, representing a non-material conceptual frame has had a material impact on the lives, societies, cultures of millions of since the first significant contacts between the peoples later to become “Europeans” or white, and the non-European world. This phenomenon is: A racialized narcissistic cognitive disorder that centers so-called white people’s and European civilization and renders the afflicted with an inability to perceive objective reality in the same way as others. This affliction is not reducible to the race of so-called whites but can affect all those who have come in counter with the ideological and cultural mechanisms of the Pan-European colonial project. This malady ensures that the disconnect with the objective worl...

 Covered by Due Dissidence:

  From Blumenthal's longer conversation .

 

 

 Or maybe call it the "Zionist Ceasefire Gambit." Either way, Tehran experienced attacks and Israel is claiming Iran is in violation as President Trump lashes out at both sides .  As Israel's treatment of Lebanon , Syria , and Yemen has shown us, treaties with the United States and their allies/proxies can only be violated by the other party, never them. And if they do violate it, there's always a valid reason. The New Atlas explains: Remember, the endgame is to take out Iran, Russia and China:

 This came out on 6/20/25, so it's both "not that fresh" yet "oddly prescient:"

First, I'll clarify my last post : It's the stage of a world war where the mainstream hasn't caught up to what's going on. We can't and shouldn't wait for the CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews blob to tell the people that we're "officially" at war; Congress hasn't formally declared since 1942 and I'm sure we've bombed/sent troops to countries since then. Now let's prolouge: There are two things people need to know and understand before moving forward with what's going on in the Middle East/West Asia and the United States' involvement. Brian Berletic has been telling us for a long time that President Trump is simply following a Brookings Institute  document that's been out since 2009 . It's basically the West's "Regime Change Blueprint." Here's his latest livestream about it:   Richard Medhurst has an excellent breakdown on the history of the Iran nuclear deal (notice how the things mentioned in the 2009 Brookings ...

 

 

 So many good topics, but if you watch anything in this livestream, it's the story of the Iran Nuclear Deal (particularly how it was broken, what the various parties have done since, and what everyone's claiming now). That segment starts at the 1:53:30 mark, and end around 2:11:40:

 

 

 Brian Berletic and Danny Haiphong talk about America's goals/involvement: Laith Marouf talks about what the war means for the future of the Middle East:

 

 

Keep in mind that the original version of this came out before Israel decided to involve Iran in Operation: Keep the Conflict Going So Netanyahu Doesn't Go To Court. 

 

 If you thought the attacks were one-time , think again: This isn't about Thunberg's age, condition or time being an environmental activist. It's about her taking a stand against innocents being starved, abused and murdered. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  And of course, there's President Trump's own rhetoric . If he was trying to "warn" Iran, that implies he new something was up. And even now, telling Iran to make a deal before things get worse indicates that he's quite aware that Israel will strike again (and it's curious that he doesn't seem to want to prevent any future strikes). Meanwhile, Marco Rubio is trying to downplay America's involvement while stocks take a hit .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  "We are facing an irresolvable paradox. The Greater Land of Israel, the Democratic State of Israel and the Jewish State of Israel cannot be reconciled. One of the sides of that Triangle has to be dropped. Either Israel will maintain its sovereignty between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, and then it won't be Jewish or it won't be democratic, because the demographics will be the deciding factor. Or the state of Israel will limit itself to the '67 borders and will preserve its Jewishness and it's democracy."  -- Tomer Persico, PhD (Tel Aviv University) from the 2016 Documentary " The Settlers "

 

 

Via Middle East Eye : Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman has accused Israeli forces, under the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of arming “crime families” in Gaza. The accusations add weight to the claim that Israel has used Palestinian gangs to disrupt the distribution of aid in the besieged enclave. "Israel has provided assault rifles and light weapons to crime families in Gaza, on Netanyahu's orders," Lieberman, the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Thursday.  "The weapons are being transferred to criminals and offenders and are being directed at Israel. "In my opinion, it did not pass cabinet approval. The head of the Shin Bet knows, I'm not sure the chief of staff knows. We're talking about the equivalent of Isis in Gaza," he added, referencing the Islamic State group.  He added that "no one can guarantee that these weapo...

Wonder if this will catch on : French dock workers in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, are blocking the shipment of military equipment bound for Israel, protesting the Israeli military's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, France 24 reported on 6 June. The action, led by members of the CGT trade union, halted the loading of 19 pallets of bullet links—metal components used to enable rapid machine gun fire—onto a cargo vessel on Thursday. Christophe Claret, a union representative, confirmed that the shipment was identified and set aside after workers were notified of its contents. "Once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them," Claret told AFP. The remaining cargo for the vessel was loaded as scheduled. The CGT issued a statement denouncing the delivery and declaring it would not be complicit in what it called "the ongoing genocide orchestrated by the Israeli government." Eurolinks, a Marseille-based defense supplier, manufactured the m...

 

  There was a time when the media liked Thunberg, but her activism started to rub people the wrong way . 

 Tell me what you think happened in this video: Well, look at how the media frames it: This is why the framing of what is happening in Gaza is important; talking about violent actions without consistently acknowledging the source of that action prevents people from getting a clear picture. For Gaza, it's rarely stated that the IDF is doing the shooting and bombing that is resulting in the deaths of children, medical staff and journalists (aka, non-combatants).  For the story of this Australian reporter, most people who won't read past the headline will think that she was not shot by the police.  This passive-aggressive method of reporting violence done by those in authority only reinforces the idea that the mainstream media is at best complicit and at worse fully aligned with the state.

 

  It's a story that needs to be told until it's as known as the Boston Tea Party.

 

 Not much that will help the non-rich: Here's one indication of how problematic the bill is: Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA member and proud Trump supporter, is now against the bill, after realizing what's in it (yes; that means that she didn't read it all before voting for it). 

  Depending on the scenario, the Knesset is the endgame of legislature and governance in Israel . Well, Israel's conflict/genocide with Gaza, has led to the Knesset becoming more of a player : The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party will support the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party’s efforts to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset over the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, according to multiple Hebrew media reports Wednesday. Speaking with the Haaretz daily following a faction meeting held to discuss whether or not to support the UTJ-led move, a Shas source said that the party will push to dissolve the Knesset, a move that would strip the coalition of its majority and trigger new elections. Amid threats to his coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who has been refusing to back down from his pledge that any law coming from hi...

It all began with a question: which absorbs iron better; cream of wheat or oatmeal ? Quaker Oats wasn't about to lose money on finding out the answer, so a plan was formed : In the late 1940s and again in the early 1950s, Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists conducting research fed breakfast food containing minute amounts of radioactive iron and calcium to a number of students at the Walter E. Fernald School, a Massachusetts institution for "mentally retarded" children.[1] The National Institutes of Health, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Quaker Oats Company funded the research, which was designed to determine how the body absorbed iron, calcium, and other minerals from dietary sources and to explore the effect of various compounds in cereal on mineral absorption. It took about 40 years for this to be revealed, and w hen it was , let's just say the tone could have been better: The state task force on human research concluded Monday that MIT nutrition...

 

 Seriously:

 

 According to Black Agenda Report's Margaret Kimberley, not exactly: The recent passing of former Congressman Charles B. Rangel at the age of 94 does not mark the end of a political era. The era which defined Black politics – that is to say, a politics which consciously and purposefully made demands on behalf of Black people – ended long ago. Rangel’s 44-year tenure spanned the founding of the Congressional Black Caucus, which became known as the “conscience of the congress,” until the Democratic Party’s takeover by corporate and neoliberal interests killed off any vestiges of Black and progressive politics. There's more about the Congressional Black Congress (CBC) and how the Democratic Leadership Conference (DLC) brought the CBC, Rangel and other Black Democrats to heel . 

  Via oilprice.com : Long reliant on gas to meet its energy needs, Singapore is now turning to regional interconnections, primarily via subsea cables, to link national grids and enable cross-border electricity trade. This shift aims to accelerate decarbonization and decouple domestic electricity prices from global gas market volatility. Research from Rystad Energy indicates that if all proposed interconnections to Singapore are realized, they could unlock up to 25 gigawatts (GW) of renewable and energy storage projects worth more than $40 billion in investment across the region, spanning hydropower, solar and offshore wind. Singapore is well-positioned to become a green power hub, serving as a central node for regional interconnections with cross-border neighboring nations. Importing electricity through the regional grid presents a cost-effective solution for the island-nation and could result in emissions reductions of up to 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO?e) pe...

 

 

Case in point : Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as White House press secretary under former President Joe Biden, has switched her party affiliation to independent, according to a publishing company’s description of her forthcoming book. Jean-Pierre, who has worked in Democratic politics for decades, is set to release a new book that will discuss Biden’s decision to bow out of the 2024 election and encourage voters to look beyond the two-party political system. The description of her book, titled Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” says she “didn’t come to her decision to be an Independent lightly.” The book, which will be released in October, will examine “the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision,” according to a book description from Legacy Lit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Of course there's book (that no one will read). UPDATE:

 Rachel Blevins discusses the "ceasefire" attempts as well as Ukraine's "devastating" attack inside Russia:

 

 " Spain is cancelling the purchase of anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Spain by a subsidiary of an Israeli company , the Defense Ministry said Tuesday, confirming Spanish media reports." "Mongolia's Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene has stepped down after losing parliamentary support following corruption claims that erupted into street protests last month, the country's parliament said on Tuesday." "Pakistani police on Tuesday said a 17-year-old TikTok star was shot dead by a man who had repeatedly contacted her online." " Dollar General set a quarterly sales record of $10.44 billion and it upgraded its annual profit and sales outlook as Americans tighten their budgets and spend more at dollar stores and off-price retailers amid economic uncertainty." " NBA games will not be airing on TNT starting next season when the league’s new television package kicks in — an 11-year media rights deal worth at ...

 

  "Trumps Always Chickens Out" is the phrase people on Wall Street are using to describe President Trump's handling of tariffs, and not surprisingly he took offense to that. For someone who has half the American politicians scared, about a fourth neutered and the rest bidding their time while the rest of the world looks on in confusion, you would think Trump would act less like a sore winner. You would think. Sadly, no amount of victories or accolades or attention is enough; all it takes is one slight (real or imagined) to invoke his inner victim.  

 Well...