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"People shouldn’t be so hard on Trump about all this. You’d probably start a war with Iran too if someone was threatening to leak your child molestation video."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

After Iraq There’s No Excuse For Buying The War Lies About Iran

There is absolutely no excuse for buying into the war propaganda about Iran after what we all saw with Iraq.

“OMG nuclear weapons!” Shut up, idiot. If you’re a grown adult with internet access still swallowing this load of bull spunk in the year 2025 you’re either stupid or evil.

President Donald Trump is now saying he has no intention of seeking or facilitating a ceasefire with Iran, telling reporters that he’s after a “complete give-up” from Iran instead.

“I’m not too much in a mood to negotiate,” Trump said.

Asked by the press if he’s worried about US troops being targeted by Iran in the coming days, the president said “We’ll come down so hard if they do anything to our people. We’ll come down so hard. The gloves are off. I think they know not to touch our troops.”

This is a stupid, crazy lie. Iran has explicitly said it will strike US bases in the region if the US attacks Iranian territory. If you punch someone, you expect to be punched back.

If Trump orders US forces to bomb Iran, it will be because he wants to start a war and knowingly chose to do so.

US President Trump's full words on Iran:

“I want a real end - a complete surrender of the nuclear program.” pic.twitter.com/CiJASdhe7z

— The Saviour (@stairwayto3dom) June 17, 2025

One of the dumbest narratives we’re currently being fed about Iran is the claim that Israel is precision-striking high-level targets in Iran while Iran is just bombing civilians all over the place in Israel.

A casual glance at the death tolls shows this is clearly false. As of this writing the current official death count sits at 24 Israelis killed by Iran and 224 Iranians killed by Israel — most of whom are reportedly civilians. On Friday they bombed a residential building and killed 60 people, including 20 kids.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz thumped his chest on Twitter about an IDF strike on an Iranian television station on Monday, saying “The Iranian regime’s propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of residents in the area.”

I wonder how the western press who are currently deceiving the public to promote Israel’s information interests feel about this new rule that it’s okay to bomb media outlets if someone decides they’re propaganda?

Max Blumenthal : Who is to Blame: Trump or Netanyahu?

Trump demands Tehran’s ‘unconditional surrender’

Israel’s war on Iran appeared to be approaching a pivotal moment on Tuesday night after five days of bombing and retaliatory Iranian missile strikes, as Donald Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Tehran and weighed his military options.

Trump convened a meeting of his national security team in the White House situation room after a day of febrile rhetoric in which the president gave sharply conflicting signals over whether US forces would participate directly in Israel’s bombing campaign over Iran. He told journalists in the morning that he expected the Iranian nuclear programme to be “wiped out” long before US intervention would be necessary. Later he took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to suggest that the US had Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in its bomb-sights, and could make an imminent decision to take offensive action.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said. “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.” In a post a few minutes later, Trump bluntly demanded “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”.

It was not just Trump’s all-caps threats that triggered speculation that the US might join offensive operations. They were accompanied by the sudden forward deployment of US military aircraft to Europe and the Middle East, amid a general consensus that Iran’s deeply buried uranium enrichment facilities could prove impregnable without huge bunker-busting bombs that only the US air force possesses. ...

The vice president, JD Vance, also took to social media to discuss Trump’s options.“He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” Vance wrote, before adding that “people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy”. The US president predicted Israel would not let up in its bombing campaign and suggested a decisive moment in that campaign was imminent, though he made clear he expected Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities without US help.

Trump Demands Iran's UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER?

‘Not our war’: bipartisan US lawmakers back resolution to block involvement in Iran

As Donald Trump publicly threatens to join Israel in attacking Iran, an unlikely coalition of lawmakers has moved to prevent the president from involving US forces in the conflict without Congress’s approval. On Tuesday, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, whose libertarian-tinged politics have often put him at odds with Trump, joined with several progressive Democrats to introduce in the House of Representatives a war powers resolution that would require a vote by Congress before Trump could attack Iran. Democrat Tim Kaine has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

This is not our war.

But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution.

I’m introducing a bipartisan War Powers Resolution tomorrow to prohibit our involvement.

I invite all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 16, 2025

“This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution,” Massie wrote on X in announcing the resolution. Democrats Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied “signing on” to the tweet, while Massie’s office later announced that several others, including chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Greg Casar, would also sponsor the resolution.

The resolutions’ introductions came hours after Trump left a G7 summit in Canada early to return to Washington DC and demand Iran’s “unconditional surrender” following days of Israeli airstrikes that have targeted its top military leaders and nuclear facilities. ...

Such resolutions are privileged, meaning they must come up for a vote, though House Republican leaders have lately taken unorthodox steps to undermine efforts targeting issues like tariffs. In an interview, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored the resolution with Massie, warned that if they do that, “they really will be then angering their Republican base,” pointing to Trump and the vice-president’s anti-war pronouncements. “This is an opportunity for the Democrats to become the anti-war party again,” Khanna added. “Our leadership should be vocal on this, and calling Trump out on this, upholding his promise to be anti war.”

Not Just Progressives: Over Half of Trump Voters Oppose US War on Iran

While it is widely known that American progressives overwhelmingly oppose the war on Iran at which President Donald Trump is increasingly hinting, new polling published Tuesday revealed that a thin majority of respondents who voted for the Republican president are also against U.S. involvement in the widening Israel-Iran war.

According to the Economist/YouGov survey of 1,512 U.S. adults conducted between June 13-16, 60% of all respondents oppose U.S. involvement in the war, while just 16% supported military action and 24% were unsure. Among those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris for president last year, 71% opposed war on Iran.

So did 53% of Trump voters. In fact, a majority of respondents across all gender, race, age, and income categories opposed military action against Iran.

The survey also found that more Republican-identified respondents supported U.S. negotiations with Iran than did Democrats, 61% to 58%. Fifty-six percent of all those surveyed back talks, while 18% oppose negotiations.

Reflecting disenchantment among people who voted for Trump because they believed his claim to be a "peace president," Trump's favorite pollster, Rich Baris, director of Big Data Poll—who calls neoconservative Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) "war whores"—warned of dire electoral consequences should the U.S. go to war.

Kiss the Republican majority goodbye...

For the next decade.

If he pulls the trigger, it's all over for MAGA.

— Rich Baris The People's Pundit (@Peoples_Pundit) June 17, 2025

...

A poll commissioned by Demand Progress and conducted by the Bullfinch Group recently found that 53% of registered voters—including 58% of Democrats, 47% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans—want Trump to "obtain congressional authorization before striking targets in other countries."

Legislation that would compel Trump to get congressional approval to attack Iran under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 was introduced Tuesday by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and co-sponsored by at least 14 mostly progressive Democrats, while Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have introduced similar measures in the Senate.

Trump foreign policy disaster with Iran

Israeli strike damages hospital in west Iran as mutual attacks kill dozens

An Israeli strike in western Iran on Monday heavily damaged a hospital, as the conflict between the two regional rivals escalated.

At least 224 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Iran, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, while Iranian strikes in Israel have killed at least 24.

The state-backed Fars news agency released a video of a hospital in Kermanshah city showing shattered glass, collapsed ceilings, and extensive damage in patient rooms.

"Following the Zionist criminal regime's attack on a nearby workshop in Kermanshah city, Farabi Hospital also suffered serious damage," the Tasnim news agency reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on Iranians on Monday to "unite" and "stand together" against this "criminal aggression".

Israeli Tanks OPEN FIRE On Gaza Aid Site

Mosab Abu Toha: As Attention Shifts to Iran, Israel Ramps Up Killings & Annexation in Gaza

Witnesses describe ‘horror’ after Israeli forces fire at Palestinians waiting for aid trucks

Witnesses have described scenes like “a horror movie” in Gaza after Israeli forces fired towards a crowd waiting for trucks loaded with flour near Khan Younis, on one of the bloodiest days for weeks in the devastated territory.

At least 51 Palestinians were reported to have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the southern city. People at the scene and doctors described seeing injured and dead with wounds typical of those caused by artillery or tank fire. Unverified video shared on social media showed about a dozen mangled bodies lying in a street.

Multiple other incidents of violence involving crowds of desperate Palestinians trying to get food were reported on Tuesday. Eight Palestinians were reported to have died in a separate shooting near an aid distribution site in the city of Rafah, and several more injured or killed in a third incident between Rafah and Khan Younis.

The Israeli military acknowledged firing in the area of the crowd in Khan Younis and said it was looking into the incident. ...

Dr Mohammed Saqer, the head of the nursing department at the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, said 51 dead and 250 injured people – including 20 in a critical condition – were brought into the hospital. ... “Most of the injuries are in the upper body – limbs, chest, heart, and head. Many victims arrived as dismembered body parts, with amputations and other severe injuries. Based on our inquiries with eyewitnesses and those accompanying the injured, the attack appears to have been carried out using artillery shells, followed by live gunfire from soldiers.”

Collective West support for Ukraine melts away

Ukraine left in lurch as Trump rushes out of G7 without meeting Zelenskyy

Ukrainian diplomats have been left frustrated – and in some cases embittered – at Donald Trump’s refusal to make Ukraine a priority after Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew 5,000 miles to the G7 conference in Canada only for the US president to return home the night before the two leaders were due to meet. Trump said he needed to focus on the Israel-Iran conflict.

In a further blow for Kyiv the US vetoed a joint statement on Ukraine from the summit, on the grounds that the wording was too anti-Russian and could compromise negotiations with Vladimir Putin. Instead, some of the language around the war will be included in Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s “chair’s statement”.

Some Ukrainian officials said they were not sure now if it will be worth Zelenskyy attending the Nato summit in The Hague next week since there was no guarantee that Trump would attend. One said: “It is an permanent hazard that Ukraine is a victim of events and Trump’s short attention span. Vladimir Putin knows that, which may be why there was such a large attack in Ukraine last night. There had been all sorts of promises for this summit – including new US arms deliveries being offered.” Ukraine was proposing to buy US weapons including new air defences, so getting round the Trump complaint that Ukraine is a drain on the US budget.

With the US chair at the G7 summit removed, Zelenskyy instead sat down with the other members of the group at a special session dedicated to Ukraine, but the central purpose of the session – to try to enlist Trump’s support to put pressure on Putin to agree a ceasefire – had been nullified by the US president’s abrupt departure announced to fellow G7 leaders in the afternoon. Zelenskyy was also due to have a one to one meeting with Trump.

The sense of upset, impossible for Ukraine to express in public due to the need to retain Trump’s support, was intensified by the fact that Zelenskyy was being relayed news of Russia’s massive attack across Ukraine as he flew by plane to the meeting in Canada.

Russian Air Attack Damages Boeing Building in Ukraine

Russia appears to have launched air strikes that deliberately inflicted heavy damage on a Boeing building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Financial Times (FT) reported

FT cited three Ukrainian officials, two Boeing employees, and the American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) in Ukraine President Andy Hunder as confirming that the building was struck, with Ukraine’s state emergency service publishing photos of the aftermath.

However, the company spokesperson said no employees were harmed, while there had been “no operational disruption” despite the strikes, company Deputy General Director Andriy Koryagin said. ...

American company Boeing produces the ground-launched small-diameter bomb that Ukraine uses. In July 2024, it signed a collaboration with Ukrainian arms manufacturer Antonov for defense-related programs, including training, logistics, and engineering support.

Dead woman gives birth in Georgia

A brain-dead Georgia woman who was kept on life support to continue her pregnancy had her baby late last week, according to the woman’s mother. The Georgia woman, Adriana Smith, gave birth prematurely via emergency cesarean section on 13 June, Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told the local news station 11Alive, which first reported Smith’s story. The baby, named Chance, is in the neonatal intensive care unit and weighs 1lb 13oz, 11Alive reported late on Monday night. ...

Smith went to a hospital in February with what she thought was an intense headache, Newkirk told 11Alive earlier this year. The hospital discharged Smith after providing her with medication, but she was rushed back to the hospital the following day after she woke up gasping for air. Diagnosed with blood clots in her brain, Smith was declared brain dead within hours.

Smith’s case sparked nationwide outrage after her family said doctors informed them that Georgia’s six-week abortion ban required Smith be kept on life support to preserve her pregnancy. Georgia’s ban contains provisions that strengthen the concept of “fetal personhood”, a legal doctrine that holds that embryos and fetuses should be entitled to full legal rights and protections. Reproductive justice advocates have long warned that this doctrine can lead the rights of the fetus to be prioritized above those of the person carrying it.

“We didn’t have a choice or a say about it,” Newkirk said before Chance’s birth. “We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us – not the state.”

Trump orders Ice raids on farms and hotels after pausing them days earlier

Donald Trump has abandoned his brief immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) reprieve for farm and hotel workers, ordering the agency’s raids in those sectors to resume after hardliners crushed a pause that lasted just four days. The whiplash reversal, first reported by the Washington Post, exposes the dysfunction gripping the president’s deportation agenda, where competing advisers battle over policy while Trump lurches between contradictory positions. ...

The flip-flop also follows Trump’s erratic pattern on major policies – from threatening then retreating on mass global tariffs to wavering on federal spending cuts – as different factions fight for his ear. Trump first blinked last Thursday, posting on Truth Social that his “very aggressive” raids were hurting farmers and hotels. The next day, Ice officials reportedly told staff in an internal email to largely lay off raids and arrests in the agricultural, hotel and restaurant industries.

But now, according to the Post, immigration hawks led by the deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, crushed the pause – after the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, had secured the temporary reprieve amid industry pressure. By Sunday, Trump had publicly reversed course entirely, ordering agents via a Truth Social post to deliver what he called the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History” – focusing particularly on America’s largest cities, almost all being run by Democrats.

People detained in LA Ice raids held in deplorable conditions, say lawmakers

California lawmakers who toured a detention facility where people arrested in sweeping immigration raids at workplaces across the Los Angeles area are being held, have reported deteriorating conditions, including a lack of access to clean clothes and towels.

A group of US representatives of southern California districts arrived in Adelanto on Tuesday, a city in the high desert east of Los Angeles, to tour the facility and find constituents who had been detained in the raids over the past week.

People held in detention told congress members that “they did not have a change of clothes for 10 days, nor a change of underwear and they had the same towel that they had to use over and over again”, said Judy Chu, a congressperson who represents the San Gabriel Valley east of LA. The bathrooms inside didn’t look clean, she said – and detainees reported they decided to clean the showers themselves so that they could maintain sanitary conditions.

At a press conference held outside the Adelanto facility, lawmakers were joined by the families of people arrested in the workplace raids. Chu said that those in detention have had difficulties calling their family members and lawyers.

Nasa data reveals dramatic rise in intensity of weather events

New data from Nasa has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of weather events such as droughts and floods over the past five years. The study shows that such extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, with last year’s figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average.

The steepness of the rise was not foreseen. The researchers say they are amazed and alarmed by the latest figures from the watchful eye of Nasa’s Grace satellite, which tracks environmental changes in the planet. They say climate change is the most likely cause of the apparent trend, even though the intensity of extremes appears to have soared even faster than global temperatures.

A Met Office expert said increases in extremes have long been predicted but are now being seen in reality. He warned that people were unprepared for such weather events, which would be outside previous experience.

The data is not yet peer-reviewed, and researchers said they would need another 10 or more years to confirm to conclusively call it a trend. The data has been co-produced by Dr Bailing Li, from the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center – affiliated with the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, who told the Guardian: “We can’t prove causation yet – we would need a much longer dataset. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what’s happening here, but other events suggest that (global) warming is the driving factor. We are seeing more and more extreme events round the world, so this is certainly alarming.”

World’s largest banks pledged $869bn to fossil fuel firms in 2024

The world’s largest banks boosted the amount of financing given to fossil fuel companies last year, committing $869bn to those involved in coal, oil and gas despite the worsening climate crisis and the banks’ own, fraying, environmental commitments, a new report has found. The report, compiled by a coalition of eight green groups, shows that while the amount loaned by big banks to fossil fuel firms had been declining in 2021, last year saw an abrupt reversal. Two-thirds of the world’s largest 65 banks increased their fossil fuel financing by $162bn from 2023 to 2024.

Scientists have been clear that no new fossil fuel project can proceed if disastrous climate impacts are to be avoided, with last year the hottest ever recorded amid a slew of disasters driven by global heating.

However, many banks have recently watered down or ditched their own commitments to help reduce planet-heating emissions, amid a changing political dynamic that has seen the US again being led by Donald Trump, who has famously called climate science “a giant hoax” and “bullshit”. In February, the US treasury withdrew from a global banking network that aims to increase green finance and reduce climate risk.

Four of the five largest fossil fuel financiers last year were American companies, with JPMorgan Chase lending the most at $53.5bn. Bank of America was second, followed by Citigroup. The Japanese bank Mizuho Financial was fourth, with Wells Fargo in fifth. The largest absolute increases in fossil fuel lending last year came from the top American institutions as well as Barclays, the British bank.

In the decade since the world’s political leaders committed, in the landmark Paris climate agreement, to restrain dangerous global heating, the biggest banks have continued to pour lending towards drilling projects, pipelines and other fossil fuel activity. In total, banks have financed fossil fuels by $7.9tn since the Paris deal.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Everyone Will Lose a Trump War of Choice With Iran

Trumpets of Victory Are Sounding, but It's Alluring Melody Will Deceive Israelis

Laith Marouf on Iran’s Escalatory Path and Its Expectations of a Long War

US notified Turkey before Israel began attacking Iran

English Outsider - The 'West' Is A Farce

Day One of Citizen’s Summit

Insects are dying: here are 25 easy and effective ways you can help protect them

‘HIV-ending’ drug could be made for just $25 per patient a year, say researchers

Ex-senator Bob Menendez arrives at prison to begin serving 11-year sentence

MAGA REVOLTS As Lindsey Graham Floats TROOPS IN IRAN

Tucker Carlson EXPOSES Ted Cruz Iran IGNORANCE

“We Are ALL Paying To Kill Children In Gaza!” – Dr. Faroze Sidhwa

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Nolen - You've Been Goofing

Jimmy Nolen - The Way You Do

Jimmy Nolen - Movin' On Down The Line

Jimmy Nolen - After Hours

Jimmy Nolen - It Hurts Me Too

Jimmy Nolen - How Fine Can You Be

Jimmy Nolen - Slow Freight Train Back Home

Jimmy Nolen - I Can't Stand You No More

Jimmy Nolen - Wipe Your Tears

Jimmy Nolen - Strollin' with Nolen