Welcome to The Now

 “ Very rarely do you have a film student come in to meet with somebody, to talk to them about what it is that they want to do — and not only talk to them but follow up in really rigorous ways. With Rashad, or with any student, it’s not about talent .” via CT Mirror .   “ This year we’ve seen such a skyrocketing of numbers that indicates how much people are willing to put their lives at risk in order to call attention to these conditions that are ultimately life-threatening for people. People are not willing to give up so easily or to have their spirits broken . ” via Prism Reports .  “ All cocaine produced in a year could fit on just over 1% of a single container ship. Imagine that scattered worldwide across innumerable boats, planes, vehicles, and people. ‘Bombing boats’ to stop drugs isn’t just cruel and illegal—it’s futile. ” via Common Dreams . “ I can’t even speak due to everything we saw. I lost my cousin, I was injured and he was martyred, not from the first ...

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.  

 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...

  Black Agenda Report : Trump is only able to do the things he's doing because of previous presidents. Prism Reports : Apparently helping the homeless is a crime in Miami.  Common Dreams : ICE doesn't want something minor like warrants to impede their mission to rout immigrants.  Market Watch : Welcome to the economy of the 1970's.

 In the battle against those who criticize and confront the actions of the Israeli government and military, seemingly opposing groups end up aligning. From Common Dreams : A Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on Friday afternoon read 'Welcome to Dearborn, America's Jihad Capital.' And on Saturday, The New York Times published a piece by long-time columnist Thomas Friedman titled "Understanding the Middle East Through the Animal Kingdom." Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the largest Muslim population in the US, has increased its police presence, fearing hate attacks after the Wall Street Journal branded it America's 'jihad capital.' The Islamaphobic article was written by Steven Stalinsky, who is a commentator on' terrorism' and has served as executive director of the pro-Israel Middle East Media Research Institute based in Washington, DC. The mayor of Dearborn, Abdullah H. Hammoud, said Saturday that the city's police officers were ...

  What climate crisis ? Hundreds of thousands of fish washed up dead along Texas beaches over the weekend as a "perfect storm" of weather, water, and temperature conditions depleted the oxygen they needed to survive. While die-offs like these are naturally occurring, the climate crisis can make them ever more likely. "As we see increased water temperatures, certainly this could lead to more of these events occurring," Katie St. Clair, who manages the sea life facility at Texas A&M University at Galveston, told The New York Times Sunday, "especially in our shallow, near-shore or inshore environments." Thousands of dead fish began washing up on local beaches in Texas' Brazoria County Friday, Quintana Beach County Park wrote on Facebook. The park wrote that the fish were mostly Gulf menhaden. The carcasses continued to wash in on Saturday. Park supervisor Patty Brinkmeyer told CNN that the dead fish numbered in the "hundreds of thousands...

When Vice President Kamala Harris isn't laughing awkwardly/inappropriately at comments or questions being directed at her, she's offering nothing-burgers and swatting away helpful advice : Under pressure to respond forcefully to the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday said the White House is not currently discussing the idea of using federal property to ensure access to abortion services for those living in states that have banned or are moving to ban the procedure. Asked specifically about the proposal during an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Harris initially dodged the question, saying the Biden administration is looking to " do everything we can to empower women to not only seek but to receive the care where it is available ." When Bash followed up, Harris said the idea is " not right now what we are discussing ." " We are 130-odd days away from an election, which is going to include S...

 Instead of criticizing Israeli police for attacking the funeral of a slain Palestinian journalist , one of America's strongest lobbying groups has decided to go after candidates who criticize acts of "atrocities" happening in Gaza.

Sometimes to get the full story, you have to put narratives that are from different places and times together. For example: Common Dreams has a day-old story where GOP Senator Mitch McConnell talks about a federal ban on abortion ("If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies—not only at the state level but at the federal level—certainly could legislate in that area...If this were the final decision, that was the point that it should be resolved one way or another in the legislative process...So yeah, it's possible.") Last June (2021) PBS took a tally of Democratic Senators to see who would be for "reforming" the filibuster , a non-Constitutional mechanism that if changed correctly, could pave the way for codifying Roe v Wade.  Only 24 Senators said they were willing , and even among those support is subjective.  So last year less than half of the Democratic Senators were willing to change self-imposed rules to better reflect the will of t...

 Because the focus is on Russia and Ukraine, you probably won't see much coverage regarding Israel and Palestine : Israeli forces on Friday launched a raid on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, injuring more than 150 Palestinians as they gathered to worship on the second week of Ramadan. Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, the director of the Al-Aqsa Mosque—one of Islam's holiest sites—told Middle East Eye that "what happened today is an attack on all peaceful worshipers." "This was a barbaric premeditated attack on worshipers," he added. Israeli police fired tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets as a small group of Palestinians hurled rocks, reportedly injuring three Israeli officers. "The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it treated 152 people, many of them wounded by rubber-coated bullets or stun grenades, or beaten with batons," the Associated Press reported. "The [Islamic endowment that administer...

 Now that COVID-19 is no longer politically expedient (Thanks Russia-Ukraine conflict!), America can refocus all that money they once allocated to "help" people : Republican and Democratic congressional negotiators on Monday are reportedly set to announce a $10 billion coronavirus funding package that contains no money to fight the pandemic globally, prompting outrage from public health experts who say the decision will prolong the Covid-19 crisis. "Failing to fund the global fight against Covid-19 is a choice to extend the pandemic, to accept preventable suffering and insecurity for all, and to live with the knowledge that, deep in the time of the world's greatest need, the United States gave up," tweeted Peter Maybarduk, Access to Medicines director at Public Citizen. Lawmakers were initially considering a package that included $1 billion in funds for the global pandemic response, money that would go toward worldwide vaccination initiatives and other key progr...

 So there's not one but two stories about how Representative Cori Bush (and then Senator Bernie Sanders ) are reviving Medicare for All legislatively.  While the usual response to this would be, "Why now, instead of when Force The Vote would have put the issue in the national spotlight?" I can't help but notice that C-SPAN doesn't seem to have any videos or clips of the hearing at all. According to them, there are only five clips/videos of note involving Cori Bush for March 2022 (3/2, 3/8, 3/11 and two on 3/18). The hearing was presumably on 3/29/22.  It's almost like they're fighting for something a majority of Americans want at a time when people are barely paying attention, with the knowledge that the leaders of their own party have dismissed implementing even the smallest of significant changes. 

 Even a 15-year-old knows the answer to that one. 

(via Jimmy Dore): What part did Obama/Biden presidency play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict , and what other key US-related factors are in play?  (via Common Dreams): What part did George W. Bush play in Ukraine? (via WSWS): The entertainment world is becoming increasingly anti-Russian .  (via Alan MacLeod on Twitter): watch how the media's inner racist comes out when a European country faces war . (via Jimmy Dore): Speaking of which, even supposed alternative news media can't help but fall into the honeytrap of misinformation and ignoring historical content .

 " One of the worst companies in not getting back to customer inquiries or complaints is the Bank of America. Sources tell us the Bank has algorithms that measure how long they can keep customers waiting so as to have fewer workers needed to answer the calls ." - Ralph Nader , describing how Bank of America gets away with corporate crimes 

 You would think that someone who has " liberal stances on health care, education, organized labor " and other such issues would think that giving a child tax credit with no strings would be a slam dunk for Rep James Clyburn. You would think : In an interview with the Washington Post, Clyburn (D-S.C.) said that during negotiations over Democrats' stalled Build Back Better package, " Manchin made it very clear that he had a problem... not with the child tax credit per se, but he wanted to see it means tested ." " I'm not opposed to that ," Clyburn said. " Who would oppose that? So, I would like to see him come forward with a bill for the child tax credit that's means tested. I think it would pass ." In fact, many—including dozens of Clyburn's fellow House Democrats—have voiced opposition to Manchin's demand for a lower income cut-off for the program, which lawmakers and the Biden White House are aiming to revive in some form. I...

 That's what Democrats will have to say to their constituents if they don't hold the line . I can't imagine saying something along the lines of, "Well, we tried y'all" winning many votes.  They didn't Force the Vote. They couldn't get a Minimum Wage increase. The stimulus checks were less then promised. Kids are still in cages. Countries are still being bombed. People of color are still being brutalized by police. Journalists are still being punished for simply showing the world the dark underbelly of our governments. Medical bills, gasoline, rent and mortgages are high and rising. The Pandemic still reigns. Climate Change has not been successfully addressed. Those were just some of the expectations that didn't get addressed to satisfaction. The Left has all but abandoned the Democratic Party (there are still some holdouts) and if they don't pull out a substantial, legacy-level, New Deal-like win with these two bills, they may begin to lose som...

There was a time during the GW Bush Administration where it became obvious that the President's foreign policy was falling apart: no weapons of mass destruction, no connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, no real justification for the men and women who lost their lives and/or their livelihood.  Domestic policies (trying to convince people to invest their Social Security in the Stock Market, Hurricane Katrina response) wasn't fairing any better. Facing what would later be know as a blue wave (before the media claimed what happened in 2018 one) the GOP decided to implement the "Shut Up and Clap Louder" strategy. It was basically, "Ignore reality, claim that the policy (or policies) help(s) to make the country better, and praise the President at every opportunity." Flash forward to now, where President Biden is bleeding at the polls , and the Democrats are seemingly employing the same strategy. Instead of acknowledging the broken campaign promise...

  "Build Back Better" my big butt : On Thursday, Judge William H. Alsup of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco threw out a June 2020 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule changing the Clean Water Act Section 401 certification process to allow federal agencies to approve large projects—including fossil fuel pipelines, hydroelectric dams, industrial plants, wetland developments, and municipal facilities—against the wishes of states and Native American tribes. In July 2020, 20 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over the rule change. That September, Indigenous tribes and green groups also filed suit against the administration, claiming the new rule would jeopardize tribal and state efforts to protect their water quality. "We feel vindicated by this win today," Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) attorney Sangye Ince-Johannsen said in a statement following the ruling. "The ...

 Answer: Yes .