Thom 🍉

Clinical social worker, non-sectarian leftist. I live for movies, ice cream, and collective liberation.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🔴 An estimated 100 to 200 Stanford students walked out of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement address Sunday, chanting “Free, free Palestine,” as boos and cries of “shame on you” were directed at Pichai from parts of the crowd. The protest targeted Google’s Project Nimbus cloud contract with the Israeli government, which includes services for the Defense Ministry and other state agencies as the country commits genocide in Gaza and ethnically cleanses Lebanon.

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

Section 219 (was 224) of the NDAA contains a dangerous provision to integrate our military tech with Israel’s.

@RepRoKhanna & I submitted an amendment to strike 219. I included the Rules Committee roster here; 7 of 13 members must agree in order for our amendment to get a vote.

[Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah]

The “peace-loving” “Israeli” “opposition”:

[James🔻 @GoodVibePolitik]

Amid all of the news of a “ceasefire”, the Israelis continue their horrific U.S.-backed invasion in Lebanon. This morning they have once again bombed the Dahye neighborhood of the Lebanese capital city of Beirut, killing at least 3. This would not happen without U.S. approval.

[انوس @anoosify]

Watching the world lose its mind over the Knicks and the World Cup while Palestine is being destroyed and genocided in real time honestly infuriates me.

And before anyone says “sports bring people together,” I know. That's exactly the point. We clearly know how to care. We clearly know how to show up. We clearly know how to unite when we want to. So why is it easier for millions of people to memorize stats, argue over games, and spend hours watching a match than it is to speak up when human beings are being genocided in plain sight?

This feels like the Hunger Games, wallah. The privileged get to sit comfortably, drink a coke, eat a hotdog, cheer, celebrate, and move on, while other people in Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, Yemen, Congo, Iran and more are searching for food, living in tents that flood, and fighting for their peoples liberation.

[Abubaker Abed @AbubakerAbedW]

Hi @ZohranKMamdani,

The main reason why you obviously won the elections as mayor of New York is your Palestine stance. As days passed, your actions and postures have become increasingly worrying and contradictory to what you have pledged to fulfil.

While we know you need to deal with the full-blown Zionist Hochul in some administrative manners but not cheering on a football team with her in a stadium. This is betrayal to the 100s of 1000s who voted you. It’s deplorable and disgusting to see.

The mayorship is not a relative matter for me, but my point is your alliance with Zionists while claiming to uphold the rights of Palestinians speaks of sheer hypocrisy and insatiable desire for political greed. Nothing suggests otherwise.

You have promoted the World Cup which any sane and humane person wouldn’t do, knowing the profits will be funnelled to mass-murder people in Gaza & Lebanon. You have failed to acknowledge the complicit roles of each of the three hosts against the backdrop of the swoon over the @FIFAWorldCup. People’s lives must definitely matter more for you, particularly because you have a political power and connections to war-ridden regions.

Don’t cosy up to the Zionist billionaire influentials. You will be remembered for what you are doing. And clearly, you are going backward.

As for @Muslim, your posts in recent times have been utterly embarrassing & detrimental to the name you hold. From promoting AOC photos with Muslims to now this, you’re reversing the role of a Muslim page. This is condemnable and unacceptable in any terms. No justification whatsoever.

Secular Islam, Zionist Islam, whatever are all not the genuine Islam. There are the Quran and Sunnah which you must primarily prioritise. Inarguably, these above-mentioned posts wouldn’t fall under any of the categories of our Islam.

The more we are softening and amending our Islam for the sake of these inhumane, fiendish, and ungrateful ghouls, the more our compass is lost and our humiliation inflates. We have to be as frank and honest as Islam tells us to.

And please remember the words of our prophet, “Let not fear of the people stop one of you from speaking the truth when he sees it or witnesses it, for it does not bring his appointed time closer, nor does he push his livelihood further away by speaking the truth or reminding others of a great matter.”

For Muslims in the US, you should intervene whenever you see wrongdoings. You should shame & remind them when they act like this. Our pride as Muslims can be restored step by step, one by one. And if we ignore or undermine one’s efforts, there’ll be reckoning in the hereafter. We must all prepare for that.

Gaza has taught us a lesson at the expense of its entire existence. There’s no going back from that. The conjured up belief is we need to stand up and unite for our Islam in every sense of the whole universe.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🟡🔵 Slowly at first, and now all at once, Michigan has become the central battleground in the country’s war over the U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as the public’s ability to debate it freely.

Campuses nationwide erupted in 2024 over U.S. complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide, with authorities rolling up encampments, disciplining students, and in some cases pursuing criminal charges.

Michigan moved especially aggressively. After an Ann Arbor prosecutor declined to bring felony charges against protest organizers, state Attorney General Dana Nessel intervened. Now, after those cases ended in acquittals and dismissals, the federal government has stepped in, unveiling a sweeping felony indictment against eight pro-Palestinian advocates.

The political backlash has been just as striking. Protesters mobilized against University of Michigan Regents who backed the crackdown. Jordan Acker, one of its fiercest advocates, was replaced by Lebanese American Amir Makled, who ran against the repression. Eli Savit, the prosecutor who refused to charge protesters, won the Democratic nomination for attorney general.

In Michigan’s Senate race, despite millions spent by AIPAC and allied groups, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed has emerged as the Democratic frontrunner over Mallory McMorrow who has shied away from strongly criticizing Israel’s conduct and AIPAC-endorsed Haley Stevens, with the campaign centering on U.S. support for Israel.

Across the board, Michigan voters are demanding a change in the relationship with Israel. State and federal leaders, meanwhile, are pulling every lever available to resist that democratic shift. Tom Perkins and Ryan Grim write about how “The Issue of Israel Is Ending Democracy In Michigan” for Drop Site. Link in reply.

🎥Video El-Sayed with @headintheoffice.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🇮🇱 Israeli ministers clashed in a cabinet meeting Monday over how to escalate against both Iran and Hezbollah, according to i24 News.

➤ Foreign Minister Sa’ar warned Hezbollah was trying to draw Israel into a war of attrition. Minister Elkin said Israel had managed to strike Iran without visibly undermining ongoing US-Iran negotiations.

➤ Minister Orit Strock argued that territorial pressure remained the most effective lever against Hezbollah. “They understand when you take their territory,” he said.

➤ The meeting grew more contentious when National Security Minister Ben Gvir proposed detaining Hezbollah members’ wives and youth in dedicated prisons. “That’s what hurts them the most,” he said.

➤ Former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter called for harder strikes on Iran “in the next round.” Minister Wasserlauf demanded more munitions funding, calling out Finance Minister Smotrich: “Smotrich needs to open the purse strings and wake up.” Defense Minister Katz backed urgent expansion of IDF ammunition stockpiles.

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

Israel's cruelest & clearest genocidal act in Gaza was the deliberate bombing & burning of Gaza's fertility clinics & IVF centres

Over 5,000 embryos, unborn babies, murdered in a single strike!

How can anyone argue "it's not a genocide" when the evidence is beyond any doubt? Why would Israel systematically destroy Gaza's IVF clinics one by one?

[Maha Hussaini @MahaGaza]

I laugh quietly every time I open Google to check the time difference between Gaza and a city on the other side of the world, so I can make it to a meeting on time.

The irony is hard to explain unless you are a "so-far" genocide survivor who is still alive by chance and still trying to maintain some sense of normalcy.

You wake up in the morning and begin negotiating with life before the day has even started. You somehow find a way to get to the office with the suffocating fuel and cash crisis. You skip asking the office boy to make coffee because you want to carefully make it the way that might help you survive another long day. You put on your headphones and play calming music, trying to drown out the constant buzz of drones overhead and the intermittent artillery shelling near the "Yellow Line"

Then you sit down at your desk and open your laptop to check the time difference between Gaza and another city thousands of miles away. Of course, you're not planning a holiday, there is just a deadline to meet, a submission to file about the very genocide you are living through.

For a moment, you are juggling calendars, time zones, and meeting invitations like any other professional anywhere else in the world. Then a drone reminds you where you are. An explosion reminds you what you are documenting. A power cut reminds you how fragile the next hour is. And still, the meeting must start on time!

So yes, I laugh every time I type that search into Google, because in less than 30 minutes, I have already overcome more obstacles than most calendar invitations were ever designed to account for.

Anyways, good morning world!

[Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah]

This child died for the sins of Christian Zionist fanatic @kschnurbein's Nazi forebears. How many more Palestinian children have to be slaughtered for Germany to be fully purified and "atoned"?

[jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill]

Iran has announced the end of its current wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel. Trump again claims negotiations are proceeding. Iran has maintained it is open to a deal and says it is Trump who has prevented it for the past 3 weeks.

The current focus for Iran centers on two primary issues: Ending the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and unfreezing Iranian assets as a condition for any deal.

The Iranian military suggested today that regarding Lebanon, the red line is not just halting Israeli attacks on Beirut, but ending the attacks on the south entirely. The Iranian military said today, "if the aggressions and evils continue, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and crushing measures will be on the way."

Iran has also said that as a condition for any MOU with Trump/US, a substantial amount of its assets must be repatriated. Trump keeps insisting that he will not do this.

If there is progress on these issues, Iran has said it is open to resuming the negotiations on an MOU. The ball remains in Trump's court and Iran still believes it holds significant leverage. Trump keeps deluding himself into believing Iran will capitulate. The reality has been clear for weeks: A deal will only happen if Trump makes concessions on Iran's core demands. Without a doubt, Trump's people are trying to find a way to hide these potential concessions and explore secret tracks to meet Iran's conditions while preserving his fictitious "victory" narrative.

[Krystal Ball @krystalball]

Iran's ability to check Israel's rogue barbarism is precisely the reason why the Israelis are so committed to its destruction.

[Thom 🍉 @Conifersuffrage]

@DisturbedJim83 @ZackPolanski Apt username, Jim

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Good. Let's talk about Marwan Barghouti.

Imprisoned for 25 years.
An inter-Parliamentary Union report found he was not given a fair trial.

Nelson Mandela: “What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me."

Free Marwan.

https://t.co/EoTcJkttRd

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

The House voted today on a new measure to fuse elements of the Israeli and US militaries, particularly on the cyberweapons front. Section 224, as its known, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strip it from the bill. Watch as a stream of Republicans and Democrats stand up in support of the enhanced cooperation. Only Rep. Sarah Jacobs (D-Calif.) joined Khanna, and the measure failed in a voice vote. Watch:

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met Wednesday evening, at Altman’s request, to discuss the senator’s proposal to transfer a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America to the public. This meeting comes as the AI lobby has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into primary elections across the country.

As both men left the meeting, Drop Site’s @JulianAndreone asked Altman whether it is ethical to pay legalized bribes to politicians whose intended purpose is to represent working-class constituents.

Andreone then asked Sanders how it is possible to discuss in good faith with a person who is bribing lawmakers on their side of each relevant issue.

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

the uk has revoked my visa as well. all at the behest of israel. the west is betraying "liberal values" for a genocidal fascist foreign government. soon we will all become israel.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

It is not Lebanon that is emerging as the weak link in the memorandum, but rather Israel.

Once again, Israel refuses to be bound by any regional ceasefire and wants to include clauses that allows it to turn the ceasefire into a Swiss cheese. Just as it has in Gaza and in Lebanon before, it wants to render the ceasefire void of any meaning.

So far, the Iranians are standing firm. Not just because it needs to defend its standing amongst the Axis and not appear as having betrayed them.

But also because the entire agreement won't be worth the paper it's written on if Trump even before the agreement comes into effect starts to cave to Israeli pressure.

No US Iran agreement will be useful if the United States cannot rein in Israel.

This will be a test for Trump.

America First or Israel First?

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

The words "Gaza" and "genocide" appear precisely zero times in the DNC autopsy.

Turning a blind eye to crimes against humanity was a grave injustice, and a terrible election strategy.