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During my most recent appearance on Judge Napolitano’s Judging Freedom on Wednesday I expressed the view that the ongoing ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was a scam designed to support Israeli interests in the region and to give both Tel Aviv and the White House breathing room to prepare for the next major assault on Iran. I based my judgment on several aspects of the story being circulated by the White House and the tame media. First of all, it is being suggested that the US acceptance of the proposal for a ceasefire put forward by Iran through mediators in Pakistan was arrived at without discussions with Israel. In other words, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no preview of it nor hand in it.
Trump and Republicans in Congress are – and have been – advancing a budget for the country that reduces assistance for ordinary citizens. This is glaringly obvious in Trump’s budget proposal for 2027, a budget that likely will be approved by Republicans in Congress. It is a budget that overwhelming favors military spending. It would not be so bad if citizens generally were in sound financial shape, but many are not. There has been an “affordability” problem across the country for most of Trump’s second term.
The sun rose today over the Strait of Hormuz not as a symbol of a new beginning, but as a spotlight on a global powder keg. For those of us here in Ohio—mothers, grandmothers, and advocates who have spent lifetimes fighting for the constitutional rights of our loved ones—the news from the Middle East isn't just a headline. It is a warning.
The Blockade: A New "Epstein War"?
We are watching a naval blockade unfold that feels dangerously familiar. The administration has labeled Iran’s transit fees "world extortion," using our Navy to intercept ships and block oil that has already been paid for by nations like China. They call it "Freedom of Navigation," but when the gates are locked and the warships are positioned, it looks less like freedom and more like a siege. We have to ask: At what cost? We have grandsons. We have adult children. We have a lineage that has survived Jim Crow, systemic barriers, and centuries of fighting just to exist with dignity. We cannot afford another "Epstein War"—a conflict built on backroom deals and elite interests where the "loss of life" is always borne by the families who have already given too much.
Perhaps nowhere other than American is there such a prurient fascination with women’s breasts. In the cultural landscape, they are stared out, celebrated, deified, legislated against, and commodified in a way no other female body part is.
Audio: PLASTICS!! with DIANNA COHEN / Reduce Reuse Recycle REFUSE
This Week’s “California Solartopia” welcomes the legendary Dianna Cohen, founder and Chief Vision Officer of the Plastic Pollution Coalition ( https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/ ) for a deep discussion of how to protect our Earth and our bodies from this ubiquitous stuff.
With co-host “Sunny” Wasserman, Dianna walks us through her powerful campaign to prevent and find alternatives for the petroleum-based products that permeate our planet.
Dianna’s passions for art and activism have vastly improved our collective health and ability to survive on this planet, and her powerful presentation skills make for a great Solartopian interview.
With co-hosts Kevin Kamps and Tatanka Bricca, our show is produced by Myla Reson and Engineered/edited by Gary Scott for KPFK and the Pacifica Network. With Dianna Cohen we are proudly joined by another uniquely impactful guest we will always welcome back.
Amidst Donald Trump’s wild Mideast War declarations, the tech billionaire push for nuclear reactor suicide has escalated with the shock relicensing of California’s two nuclear power plants at Diablo Canyon, now being pushed by the state’s “liberal” Governor Gavin Newsom, who has also joined Trump in their all-out attack against renewable energy.
Together Trump and Newsom are pushing decrepit, virtually uninsured, militarily indefensible nuclear power plants whose drastic deregulation may now rival the dangers posed by any bombs Iran could produce
They also make no economic or ecological sense.
Despite the latest tsunami of “Nuclear Renaissance” hype, atomic power plants are losing bigly to the worldwide surge in renewable energy. Solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal, and epic advances in battery storage continue to make the green alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear reactors—big and small—a far cheaper, safer, cleaner, more reliable, more job-producing alternative.
Four local groups — Baladna: Palestine Society of Columbus, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at The Ohio State University, People’s Defense Committee (PDC), and the Columbus New Labor Committee — held an afternoon rally and march in Columbus, Ohio, for Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran at the Goodale Park Gazebo.
The organizers stated that Israel launched a suicidal assault on Lebanon last Wednesday, killing at least 254 people and injuring 1,165 more. As of Saturday, Israel continues to target heavily populated areas as well as ambulances, medics, and hospitals — all clear war crimes.
Israel even bragged that it had hit, last Wednesday, more than 100 targets in South Lebanon, Beirut, and the Bekaa Valley simultaneously within 10 minutes. The Israeli Defense Forces indiscriminately bombed heavily populated areas throughout Lebanon without warning. These are war crimes committed with the help of our tax dollars.
Over 1.1 million Lebanese have fled their homes due to fighting in the south of the country and Israeli bombing of Beirut's suburbs.
The finest military modern thinker, Maj Gen. J.F.C. Fuller, stated that the true object of war is not victory but the peace that follows the conflict. By that standard, the Trump-Netanyahu war against Iran and Lebanon is an embarrassing political failure and an economic disaster.
Trump rushed into the Mideast where wiser angels dared not tread, propelled by the blandishments of his Israeli partner, Netanyahu. Trump claimed a great victory over Iranian-Saracens even modestly allowing his minions to compare him to Jesus.
Meanwhile, Trump and his cabinet still claimed they launched war against Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons. None have so far been found. This, says the White house on the hill, is because the tricky Iranians have been hiding the weapons. Iran admits to having some mid-range enriched uranium, created for civilian power uses, but denies having any nukes.
Trump claimed to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s enriched uranium last year using B-2 stealth bombers, yet this year he again claimed to be ‘obliterating’ Iran’s previously blown to smithereens nuclear arsenal.
