CARTOON: July 4th Lies Of Patriot Porn
If there is anything to celebrate and tap into this July 4th it is the spirit of revolution against today’s twisted tyrants. Remember, respect and exercise the principles of our Bill of Rights.
Cartoon and flag photo by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
More Uncle Sam cartoons to use.
“I’m 22. I’m the sole provider for me, my two little brothers and my disabled mom who can’t work. We already had our snap benefits taken and i feel its absence literally everyday…I’ve done nothing but sob and sob and sob. My little brothers NEED those lunches…we are gonna lose our health care…we are literally all 4 going to die…I’m so so so scared and lost…I just don’t know what to do anymore….I’ve really had some of my darkest thoughts ever in the last bit…I don’t even know why I’m writing this. Well if ya read it thanks for listening, (heart emoji)”
—Online comment, Breaking Points (7/3/25)
By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy (7/4/25)
Trying to find any reason for a scrap of national admiration this July 4th is as likely as lighting a sparkler under water. Take a moment to reread the online comment above and consider the life this young 22 year-old is dealing with and their likely future. Then let that expand outward to the 60 percent of the country who can’t meet monthly expenses. Or how 66.5% of household bankruptcies are due to medical debt to a medical system that is the most expensive in the western world and has the worst outcomes.
With passage of Trump’s ‘Big Brutal Bill’ the scale and scope of suffering across the nation will spiral.
And what remains the leading cause of death for American children? Firearms.
Will anything be done to rein in the supply of firearms in society? Of course not, if anything gun laws will be eased.
Celebrating America, the “greatest nation in the world”? Oh, please, go stick your dumb head underwater and light a damn sparkler, you sap.
And of course this year we have our — and it is OUR — obscene genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, where we supply the majority of the weapons, financing and sole source of diplomatic cover for the insane, genocidal and vicious fascist state of Israel.
Day by day, Trump — and before him, Biden — shreds the Constitution and the Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of speech and protest to coddle sensitive Zionist feelings … and the vomiting flow of Zionist lobby campaign cash.
Speaking out against our sponsorship of genocide is labeled antisemitic — a slur now so elastic it has grown virtually meaningless — resulting in ethical student protesters being arrested, kicked out of university and in some cases deported and others fired from jobs and careers destroyed.
Wanna brag about our ‘freedoms’ this July 4th? Oh, go use yer flag to diaper up Donald.
The Nazi State of America
Earlier in the week, Trump and his Nazi handmaiden Stephen Miller announced the opening of the “big beautiful” “Alligator Alcatrez” concentration camp, smack-dab in the middle of the Florida Everglades, in the midst of a notorious hurricane zone. The facility will hold 2,000 with plans to expand to 5,000, with a second concentration camp in the state already announced.
In the meantime, Alligator Alcatrez is already flooding.
Miller — a complete psychopath with all the personality and utility of a used Kleenex — has called upon other GOP governors to set up similar concentration camps in their states in order to rival the concentration camp network of Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile the Nazi Gestapo ICE budget is to be increased “13-fold, on top of billions for other infrastructure and thousands of new officers across federal law enforcement.” What we are facing is a nationwide domestic fascist army and if you think they will only be limited to supposed drug gang members or those with dark skin, no doubt you are planning to light some sparklers at the bottom of the backyard pool tonight.
Sweet Land of Liberty, right?
Ya, right.
We’ve always fallen short, but Trump and the American right, their billionaire and Zionist owners and the Deep State traitors are taking things down a deep hole with a dark vision of a very different land and the evidence is on display in the news items below.
On Memorial Day I wrote of how, with every Palestinian child killed or orphaned and now immigrant family torn apart, Donald Trump and his little Miller clones desecrate the memory and sacrifice of the American soldiers who fought, suffered and died fighting German fascists in WW II.
“Though Adolf Hitler did not survive the war,” I noted. “He and his Nazi movement have -- through the Trump putsch -- now conquered America.”
Now, we must defeat him.
If there is anything to celebrate and tap into this July 4th it is the spirit of revolution against today’s homegrown twisted tyrants. Remember, respect and exercise the principles of our Bill of Rights. Take some time to listen to the interview at the very end of the post for some much-needed inspiration and vision of how we might save ourselves.
Resist
Persist
Don’t be complicit!
Trump’s ‘Big Brutal Bill’ Passes Congress
"People will suffer, people will die, and it will be the hands of Republicans who vote yes. The top 1% are salivating over getting an extra $300,000 a year because of this dangerous bill. Billionaires win."
— Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), 'People Will Suffer, People Will Die': GOP Nears Final Passage of Largest Medicaid Cuts in US History
Israeli Military Dropped US-Made 500lb Bomb On Gaza Cafe
The port area where al-Baqa cafe was located was not covered by any of the evacuation orders issued by the IDF to warn of impending military operations.
Ordnance experts identified the fragments as parts of an MK-82 general purpose bomb. Photograph: Enas Tantesh/The Guardian
By Jason Burke
The Guardian (7/2/25)
The Israeli military used a 500lb (230kg) bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.
Experts in international law said the use of such a munition despite the known presence of many unprotected civilians, including children, women and elderly people, was almost certainly unlawful and may constitute a war crime.
Fragments of the weapon from the ruins of al-Baqa cafe photographed by the Guardian have been identified by ordnance experts as parts of an MK-82 general purpose 230kg bomb, a US-made staple of many bombing campaigns in recent decades.
The large crater left by the explosion was further evidence of the use of a large and powerful bomb such as the MK-82, two ordnance experts said.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said the attack on the cafe was under review and that “prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance”. [Editor Note: As with all such Israeli massacre “reviews”, nothing will come of it. They never do. US/Israeli War crimes are intentional. It’s who we are. — M. Taylor]
Medical and other officials said between 24 and 36 Palestinians were killed in the attack on the cafe and dozens more were injured. The dead included a well-known film-maker and an artist, a 35-year-old housewife and a four-year-old child. Among the injured were a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. …
WAR CRIME: US/Israel Murders Gaza Hospital Director & Members Of His Family
Al Jazeera (7/2/25)
An Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza killed the director of the Indonesian Hospital, Marwan al-Sultan, along with members of his family. Al-Sultan had repeatedly called for the international community to help keep medical workers safe.
Israel targeting doctors and medical workers
Mehdi Hasan RELEASES Censored BBC Gaza Documentary
Breaking Points (7/2/25)
18-minute video
Nearly 600 Palestinians Murdered By US/Israel At “Aid” Centers
Al Jazeera (7/2/25)
The number of Palestinians killed while seeking food in Gaza is now more than 600 in just five weeks. They're dying at US and Israeli-backed distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The UN calls them "death traps". Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout reports from Gaza City, Palestine. Antony Loewenstein is a journalist and the author of “The Palestine Laboratory”, a book on Israel's arms and surveillance industry. He told Al Jazeera that he is worried that other countries will see the US and Israel’s militarised aid operations, via the GHF, as a model.
11-minute video
'It's a Killing Field': Israeli Soldiers Admit To Deliberately Murdering Desperate Unarmed Aid Seekers — Israeli troops have admitted to deliberately shooting and killing unarmed Palestinians waiting for aid in the Gaza Strip, following direct orders from their superiors. According to soldiers and officers who spoke to Haaretz, commanders instructed them to open fire on people seeking food at aid distribution points despite knowing they posed no threat. One soldier described the distribution centres as a "killing field". "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day," the soldier told Haaretz. "They're treated like a hostile force, no crowd-control measures, no tear gas. Just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars." … Link to story
COMPLICITY: UN Expert Exposes Companies Profiting Off Arming & Aiding Israel’s Genocide/Occupation In Palestine
“By helping to militarize and incentivize illegal Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, the corporate sector has contributed to the creation of the conditions for Palestinian ethnic cleansing.”
By Sharon Zang
Truthout (7/1/25)
UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese has released a report naming dozens of companies that bear complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid in Palestine, aiming to show how companies have built Israel’s occupation into a sprawling, profitable industry.
In her report released Monday, Albanese names over 60 companies, including numerous U.S.-based companies, for their role in advancing Israel’s military campaign, settlement building, and mass forced displacement.
These companies are either directly providing goods used to demolish Palestinian homes and kill Palestinian people, like Caterpillar Inc., or Lockheed Martin; or supporting Israel through other means, like holding real estate sales or investing in companies who provide direct support, like Keller Williams Realty LLC or BlackRock, respectively.
Big Tech is especially involved, with Albanese calling out some of the largest tech companies in the U.S. for providing logistical support for Israel, like Amazon and Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
The report follows a call for input for complicity with Israel within the private sector from Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. Albanese writes that she received hundreds of submissions, and has built a database of 1,000 corporate entities who are “implicated in human rights violations and international crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory,” she writes.
These submissions build upon a previously established database of business enterprises linked to Israeli settlements gathered by the UN human rights office, which was last updated in June 2023, prior to the Gaza genocide. Activist and advocacy groups have previously compiled lists of companies as potential targets for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or for protests and blockades.
Bloody business
“The corporate sector has materially contributed to [Israel’s settler-colonialism] by providing Israel with the weapons and machinery required to destroy homes, schools, hospitals, places of leisure and worship, livelihoods and productive assets, such as olive groves and orchards, to segregate and control communities and to restrict access to natural resources,” Albanese writes.
“By helping to militarize and incentivize illegal Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, the corporate sector has contributed to the creation of the conditions for Palestinian ethnic cleansing,” the report goes on.
Albanese directly names just a few dozen of these companies in her report, representing some of the companies most entrenched in Israel’s genocide and apartheid industry.
They include numerous U.S.-based corporations and institutions, as well as international companies like shipping giant Maersk and heavy equipment manufacturer HD Hyundai.
“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, the present report shows why the genocide carried out by Israel continues: because it is lucrative for many,” Albanese writes. “Business continues as usual, but nothing about this system, in which businesses are integral, is neutral.”
Below is a list of the U.S. companies mentioned by Albanese in the report, representing a non-exhaustive list of U.S. firms with involvement in Israel’s atrocities.
Weapons Manufacturers: Lockheed Martin, at least 1,650 other companies, for the F-35
Higher Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tech companies: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Palantir
Industrial Equipment: Caterpillar Inc.
Real Estate: Airbnb, Booking.com, Keller Williams Realty LLC
Fossil Fuels: BP, Chevron
Finance: BlackRock, Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO), Vanguard
Faith-based charities: Christian Friends of Israeli Communities
Chris Hedges: Profiting Off Genocide — War is a business. So is genocide. The latest report submitted by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, lists 48 corporations and institutions, including Palantir Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Massachusetts Institue of Technology (MIT), along with banks and financial firms such as Blackrock, insurers, real estate firms and charities, which in violation of international law are making billions from the occupation and the genocide of Palestinians. The report, which includes a database of over 1,000 corporate entities that collaborate with Israel, demands these firms and institutions sever ties with Israel or be held accountable for complicity in war crimes. It describes “Israel’s “forever-occupation” as “the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech – providing significant supply and demand, little oversight, and zero accountability – while investors and private and public institutions profit freely.” …Link to story
Here’s How To Support The BDS Movement
I love the BDS [Boycott, Divest, Sanction] campaign and the effect it’s having on Israel’s economy.
Here's an excellent list of products from Israel: https://boycott.thewitness.news/browse/1
Here's a way to help others not in your bubble to boycott Israel: https://www.cjpme.org/stickies_2024_en
And here's where you can support Palestine by buying a keffiyeh:
https://www.hirbawi.ps/
— Diana van Eyk from Diana’s Substack
Kilmar Abrego Garcia Describes Being Tortured At CECOT
Abrego Garcia’s filing emphasizes the horrors that immigrants deported to CECOT have faced, the broader abuses that are prevalent in immigrant detention and the appalling civil rights violations that have occurred as the Trump administration has sought to ramp up mass deportations.
By Li Zhou
HuffPost (7/2/25)
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to a supermax prison in El Salvador because of an “administrative error,” have filed a court complaint detailing brutal instances of torture he allegedly endured at the facility.
The July 2 filing was submitted as part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration over Abrego Garcia’s deportation. It details how he was beaten, kicked and subjected to psychological abuse on a daily basis as an inmate at CECOT, a prison known for its inhumane conditions.
“The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary of public affairs, in a statement responding to the filing.
The beatings allegedly began as soon as Abrego Garcia boarded a bus from an airport in El Salvador to the prison. He was “repeatedly struck by officers when he attempted to raise his head” while in the vehicle, and upon arrival at the facility, he was “kicked in the legs with boots” and again struck on the head and arms to make him change his clothing more quickly.
Guards continued to strike him with wooden batons as they marched him to his cell. “By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body,” the filing reads.
The violence was a routine aspect of life in the prison. Inmates in Abrego Garcia’s cell “were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” according to the filing. “During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself.”
Abrego Garcia also notes that inmates whom he believed were gang members would violently attack each other in the evening with little interference from guards.
“Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards on personnel,” the filing reads.
Within his first two weeks at CECOT, Abrego Garcia says he dropped 31 pounds as his physical condition deteriorated dramatically. …
Profile Of Cowardice…
Dozens of immigrants are detained by ICE agents inside the Federal Plaza courthouse in New York City on June 26, 2025, following their legal proceedings. Photo: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images.
Gestapo ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy. No Respect
Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.
By Natasha Lennard
The Intercept (7/1/25)
There’s nothing subtle about the Gestapo-style tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Armed gangs of officers, often masked and anonymous, are openly engaged in a white nationalist mission to kidnap many thousands of people — stalking court houses, farms, construction sites, and retail stores, and ripping apart the fabric of communities nationwide.
The Trump administration wants America paying attention to this sickening spectacle of mass deportations: broadcasting ICE raids featuring television personality Dr. Phil; meme-posting chained men sent to a gulag in El Salvador; and sharing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s various “ICE Barbie” photo ops.
Being a well-armed officer carrying out state violence is, however, not even in the top 10 most dangerous professions; roofers, loggers, and garbage collectors all have higher rates of fatal injury than regular police officers. Working as an ICE officer is even less dangerous than being an ordinary cop.
What the Trump administration doesn’t want, however, is for anyone to hold ICE agents accountable. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.
The latest cause of outrage is ICEBlock, an app that lets users share local ICE sightings. On Monday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons condemned the app and called CNN “reckless and irresponsible” for broadcasting a brief interview with its developer.
“Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers’ backs is sickening,” said Lyons. “My officers and agents are already facing a 500% increase in assaults, and going on live television to announce an app that lets anyone zero in on their locations is like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone.”
CNN did not, of course, advertise the app. The network interviewed its developer, Joshua Aaron, because it is newsworthy that 20,000 users, many based in Los Angeles, are looking for ways to share information and keep people safe. Public ICE sightings are just that: public. ICEBlock is just one example of a larger story of autonomous, community efforts nationwide to share such information, be it in large Signal threads or social media alerts. Sharing this information is protected speech and a public service.
The Trump administration has shown its readiness to take extreme measures against efforts to share information about ICE’s troops. In early May, federal agents stormed a home in Irvine, California, in a massive, military-style raid based on suspicions that the residents’ son may have been involved with the placement of posters around Los Angeles that shared information about ICE officers.
ICE watch groups and rapid-response networks have proliferated as a necessary response to Trump’s supercharged deportation agenda. Such efforts are not new but sit in the honorable tradition of the sanctuary movement of the 1980s to protect and shelter refugees, as well as local Copwatch networks, which have existed for over three decades as community efforts against law enforcement violence and impunity. …
Map Of U.S. Immigration Concentration Camp Facilities
The map is divided into 8 categories showing:
An overview of the current landscape of immigration prisons and jails, including the number of facilities, the location of Section 287(g) agreements and ICE field offices;
A search engine that enables you to compare and contrast detention in your Congressional district, such as identifying which detention facilities are located near you
The growth of immigration detention over time
The number of people currently in ICE detention, organized by state, and the estimated bed capacity
The companies and government entities that contract with ICE, as well as the visualization of immigration bond statistics
A layout of the immigration court system
Legal and financial resources, such as bond funds, available for those suffering inside detention
A compilation of Freedom for Immigrants’ programs, reports and resources, including monitoring reports, our network of visitation groups and other important data.
CRUELTY IS THE POINT: The Florida GOP Shamelessly Sell 'Alligator Alcatraz' Merch
Brutal migrant detention center in the Everglades is now a tacky marketing opportunity for the MAGA set.
By Ron Dicker
HuffPost (7/2/25)
A migrant detention center surrounded by alligators that could potentially eat escapees is being exploited to raise money for the MAGA set.
The Florida Republican party is selling merch of the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades despite ethical concerns.
The $30 T-shirts with a logo featuring an alligator and python on an entry walk, plus hats ($27) and beverage sleeves ($15), reportedly had brisk sales in its first few days online.
“We’ve sold thousands of shirts, thousands of hats, and thousands of koozies since then,” Florida GOP chair Evan Power told WPTV on Tuesday.
Amid criticism from human rights advocates about the center, Power said he had no moral reservations about the souvenirs: “It fires up our voters because they’re just tired of the Biden Administration prioritizing illegals over residents of Florida and residents of the United States of America.”
President Donald Trump’s making light of the reptile security force perhaps emboldened merchandisers further.
There’s even “Alligator Alcatraz” baby wear circulating online.
Trump acknowledged the concept was that the alligators would attack inmates if they make a break for it.
“This is not a nice business,” he said, joking that immigrants would have to learn how to run away from the predators. He later quipped that alligators didn’t have to be paid much either.
The path out of our fascist hellscape
A REAL SOCIALIST? Kshama Sawant Asks If Zohran Will Empower Or Betray The Working Class
“And so for defeating the right wing, we will need a break from the Democratic party. And that might sound like a contradiction in terms, but that's precisely what we need because it is the Democratic Party that has given you Donald Trump. The Democratic Party are the best builders of Trumpism. And in order to destroy Trumpism, you need to destroy the Democratic party. And that comes first with breaking your ties with the Democratic party.”
[Editor Note: Will NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mandani truly stand up and FIGHT the Dems/Rethugs/Zionists/Billionaires fascists? While his identification as a socialist and his campaign positions are inspiring, his record of the politicians he praises is mixed. This is no time for waffling and dodging. As Kshama Sawant explains the socialist platform and makes clear: You either stand with the working class, or you are an enemy of the working class. When it comes to economic justice and fairness, there is no middle ground and Democrats are not your friends. — M. Taylor ]
The Chris Hedges Report (7/2/25)
While Zohran Mamdani's victory warrants celebration, groundbreaking socialist campaigns of the past have fallen short on their promises to working people. Will Mamdani's movement suffer the same fate?
60-minute video
To Learn More & Support Kshama Sawant’s Congressional Campaign
ALERT!
Substacker Mike Hampton has a powerful July 4th post regarding the UK suppression of the activist group Palestine Action, which has resulted in a powerful documentary on the group having to be pulled from circulation:
"The UK’s House of Lords will approve the suppression of Palestine Action on the Fourth of July (which is appropriate considering its Big Brother’s fake Independence Day)."
That's right, another corporate "democracy" criminalizes free speech on the day its former vassal state celebrates declaring independence from it. Irony on top of hypocrisy spiced with cynicism! The daily diet of the UK and USA and all hypocritically fragile western undemocratic totalitarian regimes.
Such censure and actions to suppress dissent and debate do not display strength and resolve by a government. Instead, it reveals how disconnected they are from the people they supposedly represent and how fragile they know their position really is. Donald Trump projects his weakness hourly.
Mike has two brief trailers for the documentary that you can -- for now -- view. Check his 'Same Shit, Different Government (SSDG)' post at: https://www.mikehampton.co.uk/p/killed-on-the-4th-of-july-palestine-action
Thanks again Mark, lots of useful resources there, unfortunately there's not much to celebrate this fourth of July. (One set of white colonialist settlers rebelling against another set of white colonialist settlers?)
Here is a link for an app for ethical shopping (BDS✊🏼)
https://www.boycat.io/