CARTOON: Trump Drops The...

As is always the case with Trump, it’s a non-stop race between deceit, deception and self-delusion.

Mark Taylor

Jun 25, 2025

Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
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“Trump Is Desperately Trying to Bomb and Shitpost His Way to Peace”

— RollingStone headline (6/24/25)

*****

“When the truth is ugly only a lie is beautiful.”

— (Ret.) Col. Douglas Macgregor

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (6/25/25)

A few days out from Donald Trump’s costly ‘Midnight Hammer” B-2 bombing of nuclear facilities in Iran with 14 massive 30,000-pound ‘bunker busting’ bombs, it’s clear it was yet another Trump nothingburger. What Trump biographer Michael Wolf dismissed as a “vanity bombing.”

Or operation ‘Midnight Scammer’, as journalist Max Blumenthal noted, who adds Israeli Mossad directly briefed and manipulated Trump with lies about Iran’s nuclear resources and intents.

Bombastic claims by Trump that the US raid “completely and totally obliterated" Iran’s nuclear resources are as empty and vacant as the three facilities bombed. In anticipation of just such a strike, the targeted sites had been evacuated days or even weeks before.

Iran’s ongoing missile campaign on Tel Aviv and port of Haifa has proven the vaunted US ‘Iron Dome’ defense to be as porous as grandma’s colander, draining Israel of costly defensive rockets and drones. Hopefully, Iran is not so naive to think Israel’s and Trump’s panicky call for a ceasefire has anything to do with peace and, instead, everything to do with restocking depleted defensive weapons.

“The Israelis are going to violate his ceasefire again and again,” Blumenthal notes.

As repeatedly proven in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, Israel and the US only honor ceasefires when it is to their advantage to rearm, regroup and lull their target into naive complacency. At best it is a PR stunt.

As C.L. Werleman warns, “There’s just no bargaining with thieves.”

The goal of Israel and the US is not peace. It is perpetual war and chaos in service to regime change in service to corporate domination and exploitation of oil resources and trade routes. It is about outflanking China and Russia. It has nothing to do with peace, humanity or basic decency, qualities unknown to both Israel and the US.

As is always the case with Trump, it’s a non-stop race between deceit, deception and self-delusion. Just as with the rest of Trump’s tacky career, his Middle East ‘policy’ is unraveling like a cheap Goodwill Store used mitten.

Hopefully, Iran and the rest of the world understands the true nature of the shaky, desperate Western regime.

Much larger than Iran

The other thing to be clear about is that ultimately Trump is not in charge. Bibi Netanyahu, Israeli intel agencies like Mossad and the Zionist donors and lobbyists are setting the agenda.

While I certainly have many disagreements with conservative commentator Candace Owens, her take on the Gaza genocide and true nature and role of Israeli donors on Trump and the government has been courageous. In her Tuesday podcast Owens explored just how much control Israel and the Zionists have over American military policy. What she talks about at the 20-minute mark has happened once before. If you don’t believe it, you are far, far beyond naive and lost in the desert of dumb.

While Trump is especially obtuse and arrogantly ignorant, he is not alone in presidential delusion when it comes to the Middle East.

As journalist Chris Hedges, an Arabic speaker with long experience reporting from the Middle East, notes:

“Those who lured us into this war know little about the instrument of war and even less about the cultures or peoples they seek to dominate. Blinded by hubris, believing their own hallucinations, they have learned none of the lessons of the last two decades of warfare in the Middle East. A war with Iran will be a self-defeating and costly quagmire, one more nail in the rotting edifice of the empire.”

Finally, do not forget, the obscenity of the ongoing US/Israel slaughter in Gaza. Recent research indicates the death toll is far, far greater than previous numbers have suggested. Six times greater, with two-thirds of the victims being women and children.

SEASON FINALE? Unhinged Truth About Trump’s Iran F-Bomb Tantrum!

The Daily Beast Podcast (6/24/25)

Joanna Coles and Michael Wolff are back with a newsflash pod after President Trump dropped an unprecedented F-bomb on the White House lawn. Wolff—the author of 'All or Nothing'—joins Coles to unpack the deeper meaning behind Trump's outburst about Israel and Iran: "They don't know what the f*** they're doing." Wolff reveals how the comment wasn't a gaffe but the latest act in Trump's attempt to script what he calls "the perfect war"— a PR-driven spectacle shaped entirely by headline management, emotional whim, and circular phone calls.

Coles and Wolff dissect how Trump has taken personal ownership of a war he likely doesn't intend to finish. With Trump's unkept performance — tie off, hair unruly, language raw — it's a revealing look at a president desperate to direct a global conflict like a reality show finale.

15-minute video

"‘I'm not happy with Israel...’ Welcome to the club, Donald. It's an amazing club. It's the biggest club you've ever seen. No one's ever seen anything like it before.”
— @michealgeoghegan1277 online comment

GRIM MATH: Israeli Military Reveals 377,000 Palestinians Missing

By Maximillan
Medium (6/10/25)

A recent report by Yaakov Garb of Ben-Gurion University presents an data-driven analysis of the new “aid distribution” compounds in Gaza. Through meticulous spatial mapping, the report argues these facilities are not the humanitarian breakthrough they are claimed to be, but rather instruments of military strategy that defy international law. While the legal violations are stark, a deeper look at the population figures cited within the report reveals a demographic horror story that has, until now, remained buried in the rubble: a population gap of nearly 400,000 people.

These two themes — the perversion of aid and the decimation of a population — are inextricably linked. They paint a picture not of a relief effort, but of a strategy that advances military objectives while creating a façade of humanitarianism to placate international observers3.

Part I: The Architecture of control, not compassion

IHL is not a set of polite suggestions; it is a body of binding obligations. As the occupying power, Israel has a duty under the 4th Geneva convention to ensure and facilitate the provision of food and medical supplies to the civilian population. The system described in the Garb report makes a mockery of this duty.

Instead of facilitating the work of experienced, neutral humanitarian agencies, Israel has crippled them in favor of a securitized alternative. This new model presents several grave violations:

A Rejection of Neutrality: Aid is being distributed from fortified compounds operated by private American security companies staffed with combat veterans, all under the protection of the Israeli army. This arrangement obliterates the core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence, which are essential for ensuring aid is not used as a tool of war.
The Endangerment of Civilians: The compounds are located within Israeli-declared “buffer zones” where civilian entry is formally barred and liable to attack. In a cruel paradox, Palestinians must risk their lives by entering a prohibited military zone to receive life-sustaining aid.
A Blueprint for Violence: The internal design of these compounds is a masterclass in military crowd control, not civilian care. The report identifies a “fatal funnel” layout — a single entry and exit path with no cover, designed to maximize surveillance and control for armed guards. This layout, devoid of shade, water, or toilets, is documented to induce panic and create the very chaos that can be used to justify a violent response. This is not a system designed to help; it is a system designed to control, and if necessary, to harm.

This entire setup is described as the “inverse of well accepted and tested principles of food distribution”. It is a legal and moral charade, using the specter of aid to advance tactical goals.

Part II: The unspoken number: Gaza’s Missing 377,000

As damning as the legal analysis is, the population data contained within the report’s maps points to a far greater catastrophe. Before the conflict, the population of the Gaza Strip was approximately 2.227 million. The Garb report includes maps displaying IDF estimates for the populations remaining in what are considered the three primary enclaves.

The numbers are as follows:

Gaza City: 1 million
Mawasi: 0.5 million
Central: 0.35 million

The total of these official estimates is 1.85 million people.

Simple arithmetic reveals a horrifying gap: 2.227 million minus 1.85 million leaves 377,000 people unaccounted for.

This number is more than six times the casualty figures commonly discussed in media reports. While some of these individuals may be displaced in the rubble-strewn landscapes outside the main enclaves, the sheer scale of this discrepancy, derived from the occupying power’s own population assessments, is staggering. It suggests a demographic catastrophe — whether from direct casualties, starvation, or disease — far exceeding what the world has been led to believe.

The aid compounds and the missing population are two sides of the same coin. The compounds are positioned and designed in a way that makes them inaccessible to the majority of the population, particularly the one million people in Gaza City who are cut off by the Netzarim corridor. The system is not designed to feed the 1.85 million who can be counted, let alone address the fate of the 377,000 who cannot.

The international community must look beyond the veneer of these aid compounds and confront the grim reality they represent. We must condemn a system that uses the promise of food to force a desperate population through militarized chokepoints. But more urgently, we must demand an answer to the most pressing question this data raises:

Where are the missing 377000 Palestinians?

Link to story

TRUTH’S OUT: US State Department Spokeswoman Declares Israel Is Greater Than America

“The pride of being able to be here and do work that facilitates making things better for people and in the greatest country on Earth…next to Israel.”
— Tammy Bruce, State Department spokeswoman

By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter (6/23/25)

5-minute video

Glenn Greenwald: State Dept. Official’s INSANE Israel-First Admission — 15-minute video

Report from the American Nazi state…

Masked ICE Gestapo Violently Beat Father Of 3 US Marines, Shove Into Unmarked Vehicle

[Editor’s Note: Democracy Now! reported Monday that Narciso Barranco’s shoulder was dislocated during the beating by ICE Gestapo agents and he was given no medical care, food or water in the first 24 hours of detention. — M. Taylor]

The Bulwark (6/23/25)

Tim Miller discusses disturbing footage of the brutal beating, pepper spraying and detainment of father of three Marines by masked men in U.S. Border Patrol vests while working his landscaping job in Santa Ana, CA.

11-minute video

ACCOUNTABILITY: Citizen Software Lets LA Residents Use Facial Recognition To Instantly Identify Cops

A free tool that allows anyone to upload a photo of an LAPD officer to get their name and badge number.

By Emanuel Maiber
404 Media (5/24/25)

A new site, FuckLAPD.com, is using public records and facial recognition technology to allow anyone to identify police officers in Los Angeles they have a picture of. The tool, made by artist Kyle McDonald, is designed to help people identify cops who may otherwise try to conceal their identity, such as covering their badge or serial number.

“We deserve to know who is shooting us in the face even when they have their badge covered up,” McDonald told me when I asked if the site was made in response to police violence during the LA protests against ICE that started earlier this month. “fucklapd.com is a response to the violence of the LAPD during the recent protests against the horrific ICE raids. And more broadly—the failure of the LAPD to accomplish anything useful with over $2B in funding each year.”

“Cops covering up the ir badges? ID them with their faces instead,” the site, which McDonald said went live this Saturday. The tool allows users to upload an image of a police officer’s face to search over 9,000 LAPD headshots obtained via public record requests. The site says image processing happens on the device, and no photos or data are transmitted or saved on the site. “Blurry, low-resolution photos will not match,” the site says.

“fucklapd.com uses data provided by the City of Los Angeles directly to the public,” McDonald told me in an email. “This data has been provided in response to either public records requests or public records lawsuits. That means all of this information belongs to the public and is a matter of public record. fucklapd.com is not scraping any data.”

In addition to potentially identifying officers by name and serial number, FuckLAPD.com also pulls up a police officer’s salary.

“Surprisingly it [the domain name] only costs $10 a year to exercise my first amendment right to say fucklapd.com,” McDonald said.

I tested the tools by grabbing an image of a white and bald police officer from an LAPD press conference addressing its use of force during the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. I uploaded the image to the site, and within a few seconds the site presented me with nine headshots of officers who could be possible matches, all of them bald white men. The first correctly identified the cop in the image I uploaded.

Community action

Clicking “view profile” under the result sent me to the Watch the Watchers site by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a community group based in the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles. “All of the information on this website comes from records that were deliberately made public by the City of Los Angeles in response to either public records requests or public records lawsuits,” the Watch the Watchers site says. “We plan to keep refreshing this data from new public records requests as well as to add other data.” Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is not associated with FuckLAPD.com and did not endorse the site.

McDonald told me that since the site launched, it had around 50,000 visitors, but “Because the analysis happens on-device I have no way of knowing what people are using it for, except for some people who have posted screenshots to Twitter or Instagram,” he said.

In 2018 McDonald made another tool called ICEspy which used hundreds of photos of ICE employees from LinkedIn and does much the same thing as FuckLAPD.com. “This app is designed to highlight and embarrass the organization committing atrocities against refugees and immigrants to the United States,” ICEspy’s website says. That tool originally used a Microsoft API, before Microsoft restricted access to it. McDonald said on X that he recently relaunched the tool to run locally on devices. 404 Media tested ICEspy using images of ICE employees on LinkedIn to verify if the tool worked and each result was incorrect; McDonald indicated on X he was looking for others to re-scrape LinkedIn and update the database.

Masked Gestapo goons

Over the last few months ICE officers have consistently worn masks, neck gaiters, sunglasses, and baseball caps to shield their identity while often refusing to provide their name or even confirm the agency they belong to. This includes while violently assaulting people, detaining U.S. citizens, and pointing weapons at bystanders, leaving little room for recourse or accountability against the individual agents or the agency.

ICE’s constant use of masks has created a climate where people cannot be sure that the heavily armed group of men coming towards them are really federal agents or not. In Philadelphia, a man pretended to be an ICE agent in order to rob an auto repair shop and zip tie an employee. In Brooklyn, a man posed as an immigration officer before attempting to rape a woman.

ICE claims that assaults against its officers have increased by 413 percent, and use this as the justification for covering their faces. But as Philip Bump showed in the Washington Post there are still plenty of questions about those numbers and their accuracy. ICE says its officers’ family members have been doxed too.

Neither the LAPD or ICE responded to a request for comment.

Joseph Cox contributed reporting.

Link to story

Campaign Against Deportation Flights Shows How To Target Companies Enabling & Profiting Off Trump — Winning high-stakes fights against powerful opponents like Avelo, an airline working with ICE, requires undermining their key pillars of support. … Link to story

America’s Long Addiction To War & Mayhem

Jays Jovial Journal

Online Comment to MOATS (6/24/25)

From 1776 to 1945 the USA fought on average just over one war every year of its existence – including the wars of slaughter & genocide against its own indigenous population.
From 1945 to the fall of Soviet Union in 1991, the USA fought on average 2.4 wars per year. Some big, some not so big, but only the few biggest are vaguely remembered.
From 1991 to the present day, the violence has increased dramatically to 3.7 wars per year. That’s a new war every 3 months. Unbelievable, but true to the data.
The USA is completely addicted to military intervention, war is branded into the DNA of every American’s identity, whilst telling themselves the lie that they are a “peace loving nation” -- Pax Americana. All America’s wars are considered just wars, fought for freedom, democracy & the rules based order, all total fiction. Countless millions around the world have been slaughtered by American military violence – shock & awe. Has the hegemon arrived?
This year ,2025, sees the first official Trillion Dollar US Military [budget], with extra trillions on the side for Golden Domes & Artificial Intel war machines powered by Total Information Awareness – every tech bros’ wet dream. Since Iraq the object of US military intervention is not to win a war but it is now to destroy the economic base of a country & cause chaos.
Knowing they cant win, Neocons are promoting the idea of nuclear war with China to destroy its economy with the ultimate chaos bomb. To preserve their inordinate privilege the rich elites of the US are prepared to risk destroying the world, rather than lose their privilege. Right now, US policy is to cause as much chaos around the world as possible.
This is the road to hell.

Data taken from the book “Dying by the Sword : The Militarization of US Foreign Policy” by Monica Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi, Oxford University Press, 2023. An account taken from all data sets, over the whole of American history.

THERE IS NO NEGOTIATING WITH PSYCHOPATHS: Israel Killed Iran's Top Negotiator

The Grayzone (6/22/25)

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate on Israel's brazen assassination of Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Shamkhani.

7-minute video