“Sen. Cory Booker [D-NJ], facing a re-election campaign in 2026, announced a new tax-cut bill, the Keep Your Pay Act, that would eliminate federal income taxes on the first $75,000 of income for most households and expand key tax credits for working families. Booker’s plan increases the standard deduction to $75,000 for married couples filing jointly, with proportional relief for single filers and heads of household, reducing federal income tax on the median American family by an estimated 85%. ‘New Jerseyans are working harder than ever, but they’re struggling to get by because they’re facing out of control costs and an economy that is stacked against them — so we need big ideas to start making the American Dream possible for everyone again,’ he wrote in a statement unveiling his bill. ‘No income tax on the first $75,000 families earn would be a game changer for working people.'” (03/09/26)
“Gen Z has shredded a long-held dynamic in the cannabis industry. For centuries, cannabis flower has been the king of marijuana. And since legalization, flower has always been the most popular product at legal pot shops in California. But that dominance is now all over, largely thanks to Gen Z. Cannabis vapes surpassed flower in June and are consistently the top-selling product category in California, according to state data. California shoppers spent over 10% more on cannabis vapes than flower last month, and more than 170% more on vapes compared to edibles, according to state data. This growth is being driven primarily by Gen Z, who have an overwhelming preference for the handheld vapes and are the first generation to prefer vape pens over any other type of cannabis product, according to data shared with SFGATE by cannabis analytics company Headset.” (03/09/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Watching Amazon Prime while the Iranians burn. / Stuffing our mouths with cheesysugarbacon / while the sky turns black over Tehran. / Laughing without smiling. / Laughing with full mouths and empty eyes / while their water mixes with oil and blood. / ‘Hoho this will hurt Trump in the midterms’ / the liberal chortles, masturbating furiously / while ruined parents pull ruined schoolbags / out of ruined schools. / Frolicking on lawns with hamburgers in both fists / doing patchouli tai chi / in clothes made by slaves / as black rain waters gardens / of severed limbs and blown-out eyeballs. / This is our culture. / This is our religion. / Praying to Pornhub while children scream, / telling ourselves it will all be worth it / when Iranian women can do OnlyFans / to pay for boob jobs and butt lifts / and go to Capitalist Heaven when they die….” (03/09/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The US soldiers who are getting killed in the war with Iran were not heroes. They did not die defending their country. They did not die fighting to protect Americans. They died advancing the geostrategic agendas of oligarchs and empire managers which benefit ordinary Americans in no way. It’s important not to valorize these people for two reasons. Firstly, it assists US military recruitment by falsely portraying these imperial stormtrooper careers as noble and heroic. Secondly, it falsely frames the war they died in as a righteous cause which is making the world a better place, rather than as a war of aggression against a nation that posed literally zero threat to their homeland. These are not harmless little white lies. They are extremely destructive propaganda narratives which facilitate acts of mass military slaughter on real human beings. Don’t assist the warmongers in circulating these lies.” (03/07/26)
“A very old type of information warfare – spreading false narratives to rattle an enemy’s population during a conflict – now has a new and vital adversary: fact-checkers. On March 3, for example, a video went viral showing Israel’s second-largest city, Tel Aviv, in flames from multiple strikes by Iranian missiles, four days after the first Israeli and American attacks on Iran. It attracted more than 14 million views. ‘The video is AI-generated, and features multiple errors consistent with AI clips,’ posted BBC Verify senior journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh. ‘It’s not real.’ After spotting many similar fake images, Mr. Sardarizadeh concluded: ‘This war might have already broken the record for the highest number of AI-generated videos and images that have gone viral during a conflict…. Welcome to our brave new world of AI misinformation.'” (03/06/26)
“Land acknowledgements have become de rigueur at commencement ceremonies, film and music award events, and other programs. Something like this: ‘We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the stolen and occupied territory of the Indigenous First Nation People who stewarded the land through many generations before White European colonialists seized it.’ Many take these acknowledgements quite seriously. Indeed, professors and employees have been disciplined for mocking them, because employers find mockery ‘offensive’ and ‘disruptive’ – unlike their reactions to ‘mostly peaceful’ Antifa, BLM and pro-Palestinian harassment and riots. When accepting her Grammy, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish used her onstage opportunity to criticize Trump’s immigration policies, saying ‘no one is illegal on stolen land’. Unless, of course, someone tried to enter her gated community and assert ownership over or enjoy a sandwich in her million-dollar mansion.” (03/07/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“The United States has once again launched a war in the Middle East based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction. Like the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US assault on Iran rests on allegations that international inspectors have already debunked. But beyond the false pretext lies an even more pressing question that few officials in Washington seem willing (or able) to answer: What is the US exit strategy from its war on Iran? President Trump has justified the attack by claiming that Iran refuses to renounce nuclear weapons. As he prepared to launch the war, Trump repeatedly claimed, ‘We haven’t heard those secret words: “We will never have a nuclear weapon”.’ Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, responded by reiterating Iran’s long-standing policy, stating plainly: ‘Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon.'” (03/07/26)
“An explosion rocked the US Embassy in Norway, damaging the consulate amid Iranian threats of terror retaliation as Operation Epic Fury rages on in the Middle East, according to police and reports. The blast erupted in Oslo around 1 a.m. local time Sunday, hitting the entrance to the embassy’s consular section and causing minor damage, police incident commander Michael Delmer said, NRK reported. ‘At around 1 a.m. we received several reports of an explosion,’ he said, noting there were no casualties. … Delmer stressed the investigation is still in its early stages and it was not clear who was behind the blast.” (03/07/26)
“Critics who call Operation Epic Fury folly or a distraction are missing the point: Iran is just one front in an ongoing, evolving global contest that includes Russia and China. It stretches to other fronts as well, though President Donald Trump has shut down the one in Venezuela and looks to have Cuba headed the same way. But Tehran is much more entangled with Moscow and Beijing, exchanging arms, technical know-how and intelligence. Even now, Russia is giving Iran high-quality intelligence to target missiles on US installations, experts conclude: Such precision is beyond the limited capabilities of the Islamic Republic’s handful of military-grade satellites. The cooperation runs both ways: Tehran has been sending Shahed drones to Moscow for attacks on Ukraine for four years now; it even built a factory in Russia to produce thousands of these cheap, deadly unmanned aerial vehicles.” (03/06/26)
“Heat waves that lead to sudden and damaging drought are spreading across the globe at an accelerating rate, highlighting how climate change-fueled extremes can build dangerously off each other, a new study found. Researchers from South Korea and Australia looked at compound extreme weather — a one-two punch of heat and drought — and found it increasing as the world warms. But what’s rising especially fast is the more damaging type when the heat comes first and that triggers the drought. In the 1980s, that kind of extreme covered only about 2.5% of Earth’s land each year. By 2023, the last year the researchers studied, it was up to 16.7%, with a 10-year average of 7.9%. The average has likely gone even higher with 2024’s record global heat and a 2025 that was nearly as warm, the study’s authors said.” (03/07/26)
