#g7

[rejectingrepublicans]

[beclight]

[deadpresidents]

"Those who believe that bombing from the outside can save a country despite itself and against itself have always been wrong. It is absolutely essential that all strikes carried out on both sides, against energy, administrative and cultural infrastructure, and especially against civilians, must stop. Nothing justifies them and they are absolutely intolerable.

We do not want Iran to acquire nuclear weapons or the develop its ballistic capabilities, but I believe the greatest mistake today would be to seek regime change in Iran by military means -- because that would bring chaos. No one can say what comes next...We never support actions of regional destabilization. Collectively didn't we see the consequences this had in the region and elsewhere? Does anyone think that what was done in Iraq in 2003 was a good idea? Does anyone think that what was done in Libya in the previous decade was a good idea? No! I'm also thinking of our friends in the region, in Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere. We must help them reduce everything that, indeed, threatens their security, but they need anything but chaos."

-- French President Emmanuel Macron, on the Israel-Iran War and potential calls for regime change via military action in Iran by Israel and the United States, while speaking to reporters at the G7 Summit, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025.

[ireton]

biden - G7 - 2024

[churasha]

Ordered a custom keychain with the Scottish fold g7 kitty! Colours got a little bit messed up, but it's barely noticeable 😎

[soldan56]

Spieghino per i non autoctoni: Borgo Egnazia non esiste. Non è un paese, non è comune, non è una frazione, non è nemmeno una contrada e soprattutto non è un “borgo”. È un resort a 5 stelle costruito letteralmente sul nulla nel 2007. Prima semplicemente non c’era. È una roba posticcia, la più plastica rappresentazione delle politiche turistiche regionali che hanno indotto allo stupro di centinaia di masserie storiche convertite in sale ricevimento, trasformato i centri storici in catene di B&B diffusi, venduto i trulli agli olandesi e fatto diventare l’intera Puglia un mega villaggio turistico per ricchissimi pensionati americani. Un mondo finto, il resort dove c'è il G7 e una scenografia, un imitazione di un borgo antico ma solo nei dettagli, nei materiali Luogo inventato, senza storia né memoria Cittadella inaccessibile dei ricchi che piace al turista idiota che non distingue il vero dal falso. Tutta l'Italia sta diventando un posto per camerieri ,pizzaioli suonatori di mandolino e zoccole d' alto bordo , sembra un hotel di las vegas o un villaggio, altrettanto falso, di Sharm el sheik.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jay Kuo at The Status Kuo:

It’s not even been two months since 47 took office, and already there is talk of the dreaded R word. In a matter of weeks, the U.S. has gone from having the most robust economy in the G7—with low unemployment, tamed inflation, falling interest rates and steady growth in wages and GDP—to being on the brink of a big economic downturn. Yes, a recession now looms. How has this happened so fast? Let’s helicopter over the hellscape that Trump and his administration have created in such a short period of time and assess where the biggest trouble spots are. Any of these would be cause for alarm and would be top of the news on Fox had they occurred under President Biden. But with Trump, the response has all been rather muted. For now, anyway. Should conditions worsen, not even the best right wing spin doctors will be able to explain away the problems, blame them all on the prior administration, or somehow convince most voters that everything is still peachy.

Trump’s own big mouth

Even though we should be used to his words by now, and even though they’re full of lies, contradictions, non-sequiturs, ad hominem attacks and grammatical errors, Trump’s words apparently still matter. And they can roil markets. Trump’s statements indeed directly caused the stock market to tank on Monday. That’s because he gave interviews over the weekend during which he hinted that he was expecting a recession. [...]

Not just his words but his deeds

“Pay attention to what he does, not what he says.” We’ve heard apologists for Trump tell us that for years. The problem is, what he does these days is as bad as what he says. In some cases, it’s even worse. Take tariffs. Trump said a lot of things and gave a lot of reasons for why we need to hike tariffs not only on our competitor China but also on our closest allies and neighbors, Canada and Mexico. But tariffs have hard deadlines, and last week Trump allowed the tariffs to go into effect, only to yank most but not all of them back for yet another month, and then announce a new 50 percent tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum imports just this morning in retaliation for Canada imposing electricity duties on U.S. users. Trump may delight in being a chaos agent on trade, and he may believe this somehow gives him an advantage in negotiations later. But there are real costs to these reckless actions.

[...]

Terrorizing workers

Add to this the turmoil in the labor force. We’re all familiar with how Trump and Elon Musk have ordered mass firing of federal workers. This is part of a shock downsizing that is not only designed to paralyze the federal government and its functions but also to demoralize those who remain and force them out. Productivity has fallen, no surprise there, and many who remain are looking at options to escape the nightmare before their time in the barrel comes. But federal workers aren’t the only ones being driven from their jobs. ICE is targeting migrants across the country who normally labor in our fields, processing plants, construction and healthcare services. [...]

As outbreaks spread, RFK Jr. fiddles

Measles is making a resurgence, due in part to low vaccination rates and rampant misinformation about vaccines. There are now hundreds of cases in 12 states with two reported deaths from the disease.

[...]

A perfect storm

Our economy is resilient, and it can handle a great deal of pressure. But downturns often occur as a result of a confluence of negative factors, and weaknesses in even one sector can have knock-on effects in others. Here, we are seeing weakness and loss of trust and confidence across many sectors, with a predictable feedback effect. Higher prices shake consumer confidence, which rattles markets and causes hesitancy in business decision-making. And that begins the downward cycle anew. To use Trump’s own words, “Of course you hesitate.”

Jay Kuo has a solid analysis on the Trumpcession (aka recession) could be a fatal blow to the US’s economy.

Biden left him a good economy, only for him to squander it.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Marc Murphy :: Drawn 6 years go today. It was rejected and called unfair and alarmist.

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 16, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jun 17, 2025

At a news conference today, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph H. Thompson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump just two weeks ago, said that Minnesota suspect Vance Boelter went to the homes of two more politicians than the two he eventually shot along with their spouses. One was on vacation with her family, and at another home, a police officer apparently scared him off.

Thompson said Boelter had “voluminous” writings that showed he had been planning the attacks for “quite some time.” “But,” Thompson added, “I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him. Obviously, his primary motive was to go out and murder people. They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”

Zoe Sottile of CNN reported that Boelter is facing federal charges of two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two counts of firearms offenses. He is facing state charges of first-degree murder, second degree murder, and attempted murder.

MAGA loyalists have continued to radicalize in the wake of the shootings, spreading disinformation that blamed the violence on Democrats or joking about the event. Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune debunked the disinformation spread by MAGA loyalists, noting that Boelter was not close to Walz, who simply okayed his reappointment to a bipartisan board that then-governor Mark Dayton had put him on in 2016. According to his roommate, Boelter was a “strong supporter” of Trump.

Emily Anderson Stern and Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune called out Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for his behavior in the aftermath of the shootings. Lee joked about the killings and falsely blamed the violence on his political opponents, tying the shooting to Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded: “This was an incredible woman, her husband, her two kids—yesterday on Father’s Day, there was no Father’s Day for them. They lost both their parents…. This is not a laughing matter, and certainly what we’re seeing is an increase in violence, and this evil man who did this—this is not a joke.”

Of Lee’s behavior, influencer George Takei wrote: “Utah voters: Are these really your values? Mike Lee is the best you can do?” After Lee pinned one of his disturbing tweets to the top of his social media timeline, Tim Miller of The Bulwark wrote: “This is less of a political matter than a sign of deep mental illness.”

As of this afternoon, Trump had not called Walz, calling him “a terrible governor” and “a grossly incompetent person.”

Trump drew criticism of his own incompetence today at the meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada. The G7 is a forum of democracies with advanced economies that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. During today’s meetings, Trump seemed to think the United Kingdom and the European Union were the same thing.

Trump also parroted Russian talking points, telling reporters: “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”

In fact, the members of the G7 kicked Russia out of the forum after Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. And former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau didn’t take office until 2015.

On Friday, journalist Dean Blundell reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure.

After today’s meetings, at which it appears the U.S. was delaying a joint statement in which G7 members called for an end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump posted on social media: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” although it was Trump who pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the “Iran nuclear deal” that limited Iran’s nuclear program. He continued: “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

More than 9 million people live in Tehran, with more than 16 million in the metropolitan area.

Then Trump’s team announced the situation in the Middle East required the president to leave the G7 a day early.

Twelve minutes after his post about evacuating Tehran, Trump reposted a Newsmax story saying that Trump “deserves an A+ for his job performance so far,” and less than an hour later, he posted an attack on right-wing personality Tucker Carlson and then posted: “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including that fact that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Just before midnight, he posted an attack on California governor Gavin Newsom.

It’s unclear what Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 indicates for events in the Middle East and U.S. involvement in them. As Brian O’Neill of The Contrarian noted, Trump had said he hoped to negotiate a deal with Iran, and indeed, talks were scheduled for Sunday in Oman when Israel launched its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Friday. O’Neill notes that when Israel struck Iran last Friday without U.S. coordination, the Trump administration was left “scrambling to respond.”

Being sidelined in foreign affairs at the same time as the American people turned out in huge numbers to protest his administration and as his military parade fizzled shows Trump has less power than he tries to project.

How decisions are being made in the administration is unclear. Notably, after Trump wrote last Thursday that “changes are coming” in deportation orders because it made no sense to deport workers who had been here for a long time and were vital to farms, hotels, and restaurants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reversed that decision.

Carol D. Leonnig, Natalie Allison, Marianne LeVine, and Lauren Kaori Gurley of the Washington Post reported that after Trump’s post and comments to reporters, a DHS official told agents to pause raids on agriculture, including meatpacking plants, as well as restaurants and hotels. But on Sunday, DHS leadership suggested a reversal was coming because, as the journalists write, “the White House did not support” the new policy. In a call this morning, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told agents to continue immigration raids at the businesses Trump had said he was going to protect.

This shift makes it seem as if White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a white nationalist who insists that the U.S. must deport a million immigrants this year, is determining White House policies, just as he did on the Signal chat about the military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen when his statement that Trump wanted a strike appeared to shut down any further debate of the question.

If Trump is leaving the work of the presidency to others, his family is certainly using the prestige of the presidency to make money. In what it says is in honor of the tenth anniversary of Trump’s trip down the Trump Tower escalator into presidential politics, the Trump Organization has launched a mobile phone service. As Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone explains, the plan is essentially another licensing deal, with the disclaimer specifying that the service simply uses the Trump name after contracting with another provider.

The announcement claims that new made-in-America gold phones will be available in September, but as David Pierce of The Verge notes, the photoshopped image of the phone and the wonky specs on it, as well as the impossible promise to make them in America within three months, mean the phone “looks both bad and impossible.” The phone, too, is simply branded with the Trump name; the family business will not design or manufacture it.

The family was evidently in a hurry to get this venture up and running. Kelcee Griffis of Bloomberg reported that the Trump Organization only applied for the trademarks for it last Thursday.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[skull-pun]

It took the brutal deaths of millions of people for Macron to speak the truth that decent humans around the world already knew:

Palestine is a state and it's people have rights.

The cynic in me does wonder how differently things would have played out if we didn't have instant access to the atrocities being committed by Israel through social media, because this shit did not start on October 7th.

Those fuckers have been openly committing atrocities against the Palestinians for decades, we just didn't see it because our governments didn't want us to.

Now we see it everyday...

Well done to everyone who made this possible, because even though it may seem small, this is actually a big win as it now puts pressure on other G7 members to recognise Palestine as a state which will then make it much harder for those countries to justify selling arms to Israel.

Death by a thousand cuts.

[littlest-photography]

Lighting is real blue in here

[fightthefirenow]

Trump sticks up for his buddy Vlad at the G-7 summit. He says the poor fellow was 'very insulted' when he was booted from the group over a decade ago.

[resisteye]

🇮🇹🇺🇸 Why is Biden saluting Italy's PM Giorgia Meloni?

[espumagria]

yeah... Lancasters... AGAIN

[srseo]

᭥ㅤ♡̷̸⁩ ﹏ ﹙コラル﹚ :ㅤnә⃨w pα꯭ck!ㅤ𓂅̸ㅤ⓵᪶ㅤ﹌﹋

➣ㅤ᭝ㅤdα꯭rknә⃨ss ❜ㅤ🌲ꞈㅤ﹫ido⃨l ico꯭nsㅤ،،何かㅤ⏲⃨

▒̸᪶⃛▒ㅤᯭㅤ❥᪶ㅤlikә⃨ㅤ↻̤ㅤrә⃨blogㅤ🍃ㅤ© α⃨yuzu on eα.

ㅤ ㅤ︿︿︿ㅤㅤ︿︿︿ㅤㅤㅤ︿︿︿ㅤㅤ︿︿︿

[zee-man-chatter]

The bankers aren't giving up or listening to the Russians. This doesn't bode well at all as Russia is a peer competitor to the US, have people forgotten that or the horrors of war?

[blank-between-parentheses]

The problem with sensors only for a t1d... This is my second example and while the difference isn't as extreme, it is still a big problem.

It's early morning. My sensor woke me up with some beeping to tell me I'm 67. As I'm getting up, I notice I feel WAY weaker than I should for 67, so I do a bloodtest.

38. Oh. Well.

Some people don't wake up from numbers like these. These are the numbers where people have seizures. These are the numbers where people wake up so confused they can't even figure out how to eat. (Let me tell you how hard it was to type this and proofread...) A sensor should never have let me get this low. A sensor being off by this much matters when you're low.

T1d SHOULD NOT be on a sensor alone. Calibrate that shit.

Edit: Imagine treating this like a 67. XD But also, thank bob it beeped at me.