Italy's Meloni goes for the jugular as Trump escalates feud

Sunday Dose of Democracy:

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Italian prime minister goes full attack as Trump escalates feud
Brian Tyler Cohen breaks down Trump's senseless and incredibly petty feud with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni...and how this too is not going well for him.

Take Action: Tell the Senate: Stop Trump's war with Iran!

Donald Trump has fully lost the culture
Alex Shepard, The New Republic: "Have you seen Donald Trump lately? You may have spotted him attempting to spin his 'not final' Iran deal as anything other than a total capitulation. Maybe you caught him falling asleep in the Oval Office. You may have seen him talking about how handsome the leaders of India and Egypt are. But lately, most Donald Trump sightings have been at sporting events.

The self-described 'sports president' has been everywhere lately—most notably at Game 3 of the Knicks-Spurs series in New York City, where he became the first president to attend an NBA Finals game, and at the slate of UFC fights staged on the White House Lawn. Come July 19, he will be in New Jersey, this time to hand the World Cup Trophy to a victorious U.S. captain Tim Ream. (Or, you know, some other nation’s captain.) Sports—especially combat sports and football—have always been important to Trump’s political project, never more so in this second term.

There’s just one problem: Trump has lost his fastball. Those ordinary people taking in a game? They hate him now, thanks to a destructive political agenda and the ongoing economic fallout from his global trade war and the war in Iran. Far from showcasing Trump at his peak, over the last week—and likely in the forthcoming World Cup final—we’ve seen a weakened leader who is not just losing his grip on power but on the culture, as well. It all goes to show that the idea that Trump is somehow the “sports president” is wrong at the core. Game 3 at the Garden showed it: No one can really have fun with him around. He looked genuinely bored at the game and was accused of falling asleep.

More broadly, the cultural influence that seemed to be bending in his direction in November 2024, when the “Trump dance” was inescapable at college football and U.S. Men’s National Team soccer games has been obliterated. He tried to be a part of the greatest moment in New York City sports history and nearly blew it for everyone—his mood-killing influence will be part of Knicks lore forever. His UFC party was a disaster. Next month, he will try—and fail—to ruin a World Cup that he has done everything to blemish but has not quite destroyed. When he bestows the trophy on the winner, he will be booed. But the booing will stop, and people will return to doing what they were doing before he slouched onto the scene—having themselves a pretty good time."

Take Action: Tell FIFA: Stop fueling the climate crisis!

Trump gets nightmare news as his top impeachment witness launches run for Senate
Alexander Vindman for Senate: Alexander Vindman made history as one of the star witnesses in the first impeachment case against Trump — and now he’s running for Senate so he can hold the wannabe dictator accountable from the halls of Congress. Vindman has vowed to take on "a Republican Party that’s failing to deliver accountability and underwriting chaos and corruption," but to win in Florida, he’s going to need some help. Can you chip in to help kick-start his run?

They knew exactly who she was: reflections on the recent Israeli assassination of Lebanon's most prominent environmental activist
Marwa Osman, Twitter: "They knew exactly who Mona Khalil was.

They knew the bright orange house in Mansouri, south Lebanon. They knew it was not a military site, not a command center, not a battlefield position. It was one of the most recognizable symbols of environmental conservation on Lebanon's southern coast; a sanctuary dedicated to protecting endangered sea turtles and preserving life.

Mona spent her years defending the most vulnerable creatures of the Mediterranean, teaching generations that every life matters, that nature is not a casualty to be discarded, and that humanity has a duty to protect what cannot protect itself.

Yet the same orange house that stood as a beacon of conservation became a target for Israel.

This was an assault on a woman whose life's work was devoted to safeguarding life itself. A woman known internationally for her environmental activism, whose name had become synonymous with the protection of Lebanon's coastline and its endangered sea turtles.

The murder of Mona Khalil sends a chilling message: even those whose only weapon is compassion, whose only mission is preservation, are not spared."

Take Action: Demand Congress refund working families the money they lost on Trump's tariffs!

A trillion dollars isn’t worth it if you have to be Elon Musk
Alex Skopic & Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs: "Elon Musk is, at least on paper, the world’s first trillionaire. He reached that milestone on June 12, after SpaceX debuted as a publicly-traded company on the U.S. stock market at an initial offering of $150 per share. At the time of writing, that price has risen to about $185, taking Musk’s estimated net worth to $1.4 trillion as the company becomes bigger than Amazon. Depending on how you evaluate the historical Malian emperor Mansa Musa, Musk may be the richest person to ever live. But another, morbidly fascinating aspect of this whole moment is that, despite possessing wealth that rivals the emperors of the ancient world, Musk’s existence is a bizarre and cursed one in many important ways.

His personal relationships with the people closest to him, by all appearances, are dysfunctional and abusive to varying degrees. He desperately wants to be adored by the public, but with every attempt, their approval slips further from his grasp. Instead of enjoying his money and leisure, he spends his waking hours obsessing over racist conspiracy theories and paranoid fantasies about the end of the world. And to add the final insult, he doesn’t even have a trillion dollars in any real sense; he just has to spend a lot of time and energy keeping up an elaborate fiction that he does. In a way, Musk’s fans are right: he’s a perfect example of capitalism at work, with its relentless drive for growth and acquisition at the expense of everything else. It’s just that those are terrible principles to base a human life on.

Really, Musk doesn’t even seem to be enjoying his massive wealth that much. Many people, if they got hold of even a few million dollars—let alone a trillion—would be napping on a beach somewhere people have never heard of Twitter. Instead, Musk seems to spend a huge chunk of his free time on the app, responding to the most racist posts he can find. In that way, his life is not very different from that of the stereotypical, unemployed loser who lives in a basement and does the same, surrounded by empty Cheeto packets and Monster Energy cans. When you scroll through his feed, the sheer amount of racial fearmongering is overwhelming.

From a certain angle, Musk can seem like a pitiable figure. He has been given the whole world, but has not managed to achieve the things that really make for a fulfilling life. Despite possessing more wealth than the greatest emperors and potentates, he will still “brood for years about slights” on social media. And yet his entire existence is a cautionary tale, a living moral fable.

Yes, our primary focus should be on how capitalism affects the lives of the global poor and the working class, because they are the vast majority of humanity. But Musk shows us that capitalism isn’t good for the rich, either. Like a black hole or a neutron star, the gravitational pull of all that money warps their lives into shapes they would never otherwise have taken. It turns them grotesque, sucks away their joy and humanity, and kills their ability to relate normally to others. Removing Musk’s outlandish wealth and power is not just necessary for the preservation of democracy. It’s a favor to him, and offers the only hope for his redemption."

Take Action: Investigate Kash Patel's flagrant misuse of taxpayer funds!

Pre-order Brian Tyler Cohen's new book today!
The Day After: Some exciting news from our friend, Brian Tyler Cohen. His new book, The Day After, is now available for pre-order! The book explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have failed to effectively wield it, and finally, what Democrats must do when they get power back. It's a blueprint for progressives who are not satisfied with the status quo. Please support independent media by pre-ordering here — and grab tickets to his book tour in NYC, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, or LA.