Welcome to The Now

 Honestly, once the conversation shifted from developing nations using it to celebrities endorsing it in a Super Bowl commercial, I began to get really skeptical:

 

 

 

 

 

  One of many, to be sure.

  For the map itself (as well as a breakdown) go here . 

  Is it because the damage is pretty much irreversible? Is it because some people want to move on/away from the Epstein story? Is it because the sight of skeleton-shaped children collapsing and dying from mal-nutrition in real time was too unique of an image/story to ignore or justify?  "One day, everyone will have always been against this."

 There are Christians too; but don't expect the mainstream media to mention them.

 

  The White House wants interest rates lowered, as soon and as low as possible . Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, doesn't look like he's going to budge . Enter the Federal Reserve's renovation project for their headquarters, which by accounts is self-funded . Word is that President Trump is trying to use the renovation ( the argument being it's gone overbudget ) as an excuse to kick Powell out before he retires from the position. The Fed has historically tried to stay away from the politics of the moment, but Trump has never met an institution that he didn't want to make bend to his will, and the idea of having the country's central banking system at his beck and call is too tempting of a prospect to pass up. 

  CNN : The Big Beautiful Act will cause more food deserts (and job loss) across America. Yahoo! News : Vogue embraces using AI models. NBC News : Lifestyle/health changes may help with Alzheimer's.  Reuters : The US had reached a trade agreement with the European Union, but France's PM thinks it's capitulation.  Associated Press : Bubba Wallace is the first Black driver to win a major race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

MintPress News : The United Kingdom's ban on Palestine Action is not stopping supporters, and the government is trying to adapt. Antiwar.com : The Israeli blockade of food and medicine is causing a high number of malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza. Prism Reports : The Israeli occupation of Gaza also includes a digital element which attempts to erase real-time testimony. Common Dreams : The second unarmed Freedom Flotilla has be captured by the Israeli Navy before they could deliver supplies to Gaza.  

 

 

 

 

 Let Hakim count the ways:

 

 

 

 

 Apparently, the criticism over shooting and bombing has led Israel to use a different tactic to force Palestinians out of Gaza: From CBS News : The head of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said on Tuesday that 21 children had died across the Palestinian territory in the past three days "due to malnutrition and starvation." "These deaths were recorded at hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa in Gaza City, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis ... over the past 72 hours," Mohammed Abu Salmiya told reporters. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Monday evening that "the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing" in Gaza, and that there were growing reports of children and adults exhibiting symptoms of malnutrition. Abu Salmiya told reporters that new cases of malnutrition and starvation were arriving at Gaza's remaining functioning hospitals "every moment," adding: "We are he...

 

 

 Danny Haiphong, Richard Wolf and Sean Foo discuss:

 When you're indebted to the West and decide to not  play ball, you get a quick lesson on how much power you really have...

 If you said, "With an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant fervor at a level that seems to want to distract from the Epstein story," you are very, very close:

 First something on the lighter side; Sammy Obeid uses humor and Wikipedia to reveal interesting things about Epstein, Trump and Israel: Next, something a little more somber: Chris Hedges on Epstein's connections, with some help from Julie K. Brown, author of "Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story."  Following up, Jamarl Thomas and political cartoonist Ted Rall discuss the "weird" birthday letter in question: Finally, Due Dissidence covers the "bizarre" and "creepy" exchange:

 

 

 Rachel Blevins reviews:

 It won't go away quietly ; case in point .  So what does the President do? One of the few things Trump is known for : U.S. President Donald on Friday made good on his pledge to sue The Wall Street Journal over its reporting that he wrote a “bawdy” letter for a leather-bound album that Ghislaine Maxwell prepared for the 50th birthday of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender who allegedly killed himself in jail while facing federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence “for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors,” collected dozens of letters for the book, according to the Journal. [SNIP] The president’s history with Epstein has received heightened scrutiny in recent days, amid demand for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its full files on the late sex offender. The two men were publicly associated with each other in the 1990s, up until a reported falling out over a business deal in 2004...

 Some videos about the new Superman movie:

 

 

 

 

 

 

When your political affiliation/tendencies lean more toward aggression, you feel better at attacking than defending.  Being an underdog is the perfect position, because you can claim that the Powers That Be are aligned with your enemies, and conspiring to "keep the truth from coming to light" and protecting the "scum of the Earth." But when you or the people you support are in the Halls of Power and calling the shots, but nothing's changed, you're twisted into a pretzel, even more so when you are sycophantly-tethered to your DaddyKing. Case In Point: MAGA reconciling the Epstein story...  

 

 

 

You can be hesitant of someone for being part of the duopoly and still believe that their policies would be beneficial. I realize that there were those who made a similar argument for Harris vs Trump, but as Keaton said, the defining issue for many on the left in that contest was Gaza, and the two candidates did not differ much. The big question, as with any politician running for executive office is, " Will they govern based on the way they campaign? " The problem is we have to elect them to find out. Now while the accelerationist viewpoint may come across as more palatable in our political landscape, I propose that instead of choosing between two options, the left should embrace both. Call it a variation of, "Hope for the Best & Plan for the Worst;" where (when electorally appropriate) candidates are endorsed/supported while at the same time building a movement that will make the system that compromised otherwise decent candidates obsolete. 

 

  Scheerpost : FAIR has revealed that CNN doesn't seem to interview too many protestors in their stories about anti-ICE protests.  Black Agenda Report : The "Black Misleadership Class" has been dispatched to water down any possibility that Zohran Mamdani might bring socialist energy to the New York Mayor's Office, so Mamdani may want to consider other less establishment options.  Prism Reports : The Trump Administration is empowering the "Surveillance State" to the detriment of, well, everyone else. 

 

 

 

The White House is ending TPS for Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti . They have their stated reasons, but it's evident ( especially with Haiti ) that the White House is being less than honest with their assessment of the situation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have said this in other spaces and I will say it here: I do not want to hear anything about "PizzaGate" or pedo-conspiracies from the American Right anymore. They had their shot through Trump, and he decided to punt. If they don't drop Trump after this, they are cultists, plain and simple. And I also don't want to hear from the "Me Too" liberals/Democrats either. They had their shot until Tara Reid popped up about Joe Biden, and all of a sudden "believe all women" added an asterisk (* = "unless they accuse a politician or celebrity I like"). Just more proof that Democrats and Republicans agree more than people think, and what they agree on does not align with non-rich Americans. 

 

  Enter Josh Elliot : State Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, a liberal who recently predicted that Gov. Ned Lamont would not go unchallenged for the Democratic nomination if he runs in 2026, filed papers Tuesday creating a gubernatorial campaign committee. Unclear was whether Elliott was committed to an all-or-nothing run for governor or a campaign to test Democrats’ appetite for an alternative to Lamont, whose centrist politics on fiscal issues are a source of tension with some on the left. Elliott, who has called for a more progressive tax structure, said by text he will make a formal campaign announcement Monday in Hamden. Elliott, who declined further comment, ran for secretary of the state in 2022, staying in the campaign through the nominating convention, then opted to quit and seek reelection to the House. “I don’t think it’s an all-or-nothing,” said Rep. Anne Hughes, D-Easton, a progressive ally of Elliott. But she also cautioned against a comparison to 2022, saying, “I think t...

 

 

Tell me again that Ukraine is winning : BlackRock, a U.S. investment firm, suspended work on a multibillion-dollar Ukraine recovery fund following U.S. President Donald Trump's election victory, prompting France to work on a replacement, Bloomberg reported on July 5. The plan nearly secured the initial support of institutions backed by the governments of Germany, Italy, and Poland, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Kyiv has sought to secure investment in Ukraine's reconstruction as Russia's war continues to destroy infrastructure across the country. BlackRock halted its search for institutional investors in January, causing the planned funding that sought to secure $500 million from governments, development grants, and investment banks, and another $2 billion from private investors, to fall through. The investment firm halted talks with institutional investors in January due to a lack of interest amid perceived uncertainty in Ukraine. The fund was set to be un...

 A hastily built prison for immigrants near Indigenous American territory experiencing flooding? Who would have imagined?

 

 

 Declare Your Independence:

 " In whose interests do you exercise power ?" " To whom are you accountable ?" " How can we get rid of you ?" Three powerful questions, previously posed in a comic about some of my personally favorite characters. Derived from five questions that a noted British politician believed needed to be answered if a nation-state were to have true democracy. Questions that can help people in real life address the problems of powerful people and institutions. In Whose Interests Do You Exercise Power ? For elected officials, power should be exercised on behalf of the voters they represent. For CEOs and owners, they have many stakeholders. Usually there's a board of directors, but there's also the employees and customers, which keep the company alive by various, similar and different means. Generally-speaking, human beings are in power because they've been empowered by the masses, and it's expected that those in power use it to aid, protect and imp...

 Richard Medhurst has an explanation:

 

 

 It's possible that no one anticipated the voracity of ICE agents, but this has to be frustrating for Connecticut's residents:   On a recent Tuesday afternoon in a Hartford courtroom, a small crowd of about 20 people waited to be called before the judge. Some fidgeted nervously. None of them had a lawyer of their own. U.S. Immigration Judge Ted Doolittle called them forward, one by one, to the table facing him. An interpreter sat to his right, and an attorney from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was on a video monitor. Those waiting their turn listened closely to the interpreter. “I am looking for a lawyer, but most either don’t answer or say that they are busy,” one woman told Doolittle. “I’ve looked for them, contacted a few, some didn’t answer and some didn’t want to take my case because they were working on other cases.”  The lack of an affordable and available lawyer was the common thread that bound this group together. Immigration courts fall under the fed...

 

  Almost like they are acting out against a target who can't really strike back : Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that Israeli attacks killed 103 Palestinians and wounded 219 over the previous 24-hour period as US-backed Israeli strikes ramped up across the Strip over the past day. The Health Ministry’s numbers account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. Israeli attacks on Thursday included more killings of Palestinians seeking aid. According to Al Jazeera, at least three people were killed while waiting near a distribution site run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. More here (with links to other related stories) 

 This is what someone who isn't in control act/sounds like: Remember: for Western nations, "ceasefire" just means, "give us a chance to regroup and reload for our next attack."

 Margaret Kimberley talks with the Executive Director of Friends of the Congo about the recent development .