July 4: What I'm celebrating

"I'm celebrating the fact that centuries of torture, terror and degradation could not erase my people. That is what the 4th of July means to me."  

Farming without fertilizer next season?

Without fertilizer the farming across the US (and much of the world) in the next planting season will be in trouble.

Stories from memorial ceremony in Tehran

• Message from Tehran: I don’t think people realize what we’re witnessing right now. Perhaps those behind their phone screens who are not in Tehran may never understand, but the atmosphere here is crazy. People are coming to Tehran from all over the world; from Russia, Brazil, Norway, Germany, … to attend the farewell ceremony for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the martyred leader of Iran. Many from Tehran have made their homes available to visitors and many are on the streets with their own money giving people services such as free tea, food…. many are volunteering. Millions, and I truly say millions are coming in and out the Prayer hall to pay their respects to the martyred leader. The surrounding areas ourside the prayer hall were packed and filled with people this morning during the prayers, thankfully with no incidents. A family member of mine is among the volunteers inside the prayer hall helping who’s been sleeping there since Friday and has not left the area. Many people (that I personally know as well) who never attended a public march, decided to attend this one for the love of their leader. The magnitude of this event is beyond any words honestly. This is the Iranian nation that Trump thought would surrender…. like we say in Farsi: “Dream on, may it at least be a good dream.”

• She worked as a teacher in one of the poor neighborhoods before she was martyred [by the US-Israel bombing]. Her father is the head of the Iranian Parliament. Her husband is Seyyed Mostafa Khamenei, the son of the martyred Supreme Leader. She holds a higher degree. She could have worked as a professor at any prestigious university, but she decided to work under a pseudonym titled 'Khaneh Hosseini' or Mrs. Hosseini as a teacher without revealing her lineage, her husband, or her father!! Her close friend Majdeh Mohammadi visited her home and was shocked by a simple 'Sajjad' carpet, a number of woolen cushions, a kitchen at the entrance, and two small rooms in an area of approximately 80 meters! Her mother-in-law, her father... and everyone talks and spreads about the simplicity and humility of her life. No global brands or Chanel bags worth $4,000 or diamond-encrusted watches. No convoys and personal security wearing suits running behind and in front of her. And the daughter of the head of the Parliament and a member of the Assembly of Experts, one of the highest bodies of the system. And she is the owner of the master's degree but chose to be a hidden teacher in the southern neighborhoods of Tehran. She is the holy Lady Zahra Hadad Adel. 

• Fars News Agency: Tehran Metro Company: From 5:30 am yesterday until 7:00 am this morning, 7,141,212 trips were recorded on Tehran’s metro network heading to Tehran’s prayer hall. Tomorrow (Monday) will be the funeral procession walk. The procession route will happen in: Damavand Street, Imam Hussein Square, Enqelab Street, Enqelab Square, Azadi Street, Azadi Square, and along Shahid Lashgari Highway, in Tehran.

• Salman Khurshid, former foreign minister and the law minister in India, honoring the memory of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution: "Periodically somebody surfaces who dedicates best parts of their life to civilizational link between India and Iran; and Ayatollah Khamenei actually personified that relationship which goes back for centuries."
• Moments when the sons of Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei broke down in tears. 

Sunday song (with bonus)

Memorial in Iran draws 30 million

• Tasnim News: For Bidding Farewell to the Sun, Do Not Hide That Radiant Face of Yours. The summer heat in Tehran is unbearable, yet we feel cold, because that protective shade is no longer here. Our minds had become conditioned to always seeing a mountain on the horizon; solid and steadfast. We never imagined the mountain would not be there. His shadow was always taller than any man, for it was rooted in a sun that never sets. Today, this crowd pouring toward Tehran’s Mosalla has not come for a mere formal tribute; they have come to bid farewell to a piece of their own hearts. 
• Mehdi Rasooli (eulogist) at the Tehran prayer hall: “We have not come to bury our leader, we have come to avenge him. Oh, avengers of the martyred leader." Approximately 30 million people are expected to attend in total. Since they can’t fit all in one place, people come to pay their respects and leave while another stream of people flow in. This will continue till 6 AM tomorrow when the funeral prayers will start. 

• Tasnim News: The US dissuaded (bullied) several countries, through Rubio & US embassies, to not participate in the funeral ceremony of Iran’s leader. Thirteen countries caved in. 3 Eastern-EU, 5 African, 2 Persian Gulf, and 2 East Asian countries withdrew from participating in the funeral. This might explain why South Africa, Maldives, and perhaps Algeria didn’t attend. They feared it would worsen their relationship with the US. [How arrogant of the US to pull this ill-fated stunt thinking it could minimize the global support for Iran's leader and his family killed by US-Israel.] The red flags and wristbands is a symbol of the covenant with the martyred Imam, a sign of loyalty, and a cry for justice and retribution from the free people and justice-seekers of the world.

• Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): Ayatollah Khamenei never distanced himself from the struggle to liberate Palestine. The blood of the martyred leader strengthens the path to the liberation of Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
• Trump: "We gave them a week off for a funeral because we are nice."🥴

• Iran’s Parliament Speaker responds to Trump’s insult: Imagine having 40-something million of your own citizens on food stamps and call another nation hungry. Trump, a few days ago, had said: “Iran is supposed to use money to buy food for their people, because right now their people are very hungry, and they're buying it exclusively from us: corn, soybeans.” 

• New York City’s metros drive with the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nikita Bier & Elon Musk took away Iran’s flag on Twitter and replaced it with the old monarchy flag, but instead we got our flags in New York, lol. 

• The largest Presbyterian denomination in the US has voted overwhelmingly to recognize Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide and to divest from Palantir Technologies and General Electric Aerospace over their ties to Israel’s military and intelligence services. A measure approved Tuesday by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) also calls on church members to boycott Israeli products and to lobby Congress for an arms embargo against Israel. [The fall is accelerating.]

• Channel 12 Hebrew: Estimates in Israel suggest that the war on Gaza could resume within two months. 
• Israeli Channel 15: Netanyahu is awaiting Trump's approval to launch an operation targeting a Hezbollah site in the Ali Taher Heights in southern Lebanon.
• Please rent or buy the extraordinary new film Earth's Greatest Enemy this weekend to get it boosted through the algorithm! It reveals the terrible impacts the Pentagon war machine is having on our Mother Earth.

🍿 Prime Video

🍎 Apple TV

🍉 Watermelon+

🍿 Vimeo

Let’s dose the world with anti-imperialism—and make everyone learn what this country is really about.

• Iran has completely closed the US-Omani designated maritime corridor that was used to bypass Iran’s authority over the Strait of Hormoz. The constant USAF aerial presence did not stop Iran it seems.  

the funnies

Iranian memorial message: Rise Up!

• IRIB: Delegations from around 100 countries (that is half the countries in the world!) are gathering to pay respect and the delegations are walking in one by one to say goodbye. Most of all, we see solidarity. The formal theme is Rise Up! Among them are also representatives from Islamic societies and groups from European countries such as Spain, but European leaders themselves were not invited. We say a heartfelt farewell, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei.  Surveillance, repeated arrests, solitary confinement, torture, and exile failed to silence him. Instead, each hardship strengthened his resolve and deepened his connection with ordinary Iranians. 

• The 14-month old martyred granddaughter didn’t leave her grandpa, Imam Ali Khamenei, alone... Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani 🌹 

• Hadad Adel, father of the martyred wife of the current leader, warmly shook hands with everyone but didn't linger long with Prime Minister Araghchi (2nd to last on left). Many in Iran are upset with Araghchi's compromises with the US during negotiations. 

• According to reports, a passenger plane entered Sana’a Airport to transport a delegation of Yemenis, and possibly the political delegation of AnsarAllah, to Tehran to attend the funeral ceremony. Reportedly, two Saudi fighter jets intended to bomb the runway to prevent the plane from landing or taking off. The operation was stopped first after a Yemeni army air-defense missile was fired, and then after AnsarAllah officials threatened a missile attack on Riyadh. The plane eventually flew from Sana’a toward Iran.

• Today, 38 yrs ago, the US shot down an Iranian passenger plane killing all 290 people onboard. The USS Vincennes, in 1988, shot down the Iranian civilian airplane over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290, including 66 children & 16 women. The Navy warship's captain got a medal. Despite the significant loss of life, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush famously stated, "I will never apologize for the US."  Investigations into this action of terror were perceived as inadequate. This has contributed to horrible US-Iran relations and remains a sensitive topic in discussions about military engagement and civilian safety in conflict zones.  

• July 3 marks 1,000 days since the beginning of Israel’s siege and military campaign in Gaza. For 1,000 days, healthcare workers, teachers, humanitarian workers, faith leaders, and families have struggled to preserve life under unimaginable conditions. More than one million children remain under siege; at least 20,179 children have been killed, one child every hour for 1,000 days. More than 1,700 healthcare workers have lost their lives, and hundreds of healthcare professionals have been detained, including 18 physicians who remain imprisoned under reported conditions of torture.

• Japan is considering to buy oil from Iran. Three Japanese buyers are currently negotiating with Iran to purchase crude oil. If this materializes, it will be the first time since 2019.
• FIFA president (on left) at the USA verses Bosnia game with Howard Lutnick, Epstein’s neighbor and good friend. This man lied about going to the Island with his children. Lutnick is also Trump's Secretary of Commerce. If you ever wondered who’s pulling the strings.... You can better understand why FIFA treated the Iranian football team like shite. FIFA needs to throw the trash out!

• The Wall Street Journal claims the US offered Iran a proposal to release frozen funds in exchange for Iran fully opening the Strait of Hormoz without imposing any transit fees. Currently, Iran has rejected this proposal.
• Lithuania now follows Finland as it opens its borders to US and French nuclear weapons aimed at Russia. What would the US do if Russia deployed nuclear weapons in Canada and/or Mexico?
• Outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, protesters demanding the shutdown of the immigration jail have been met with tear gas and pepper spray. Inside, during the late-June 2026 heat wave, temperatures hit 102 degrees while at least one unit had no air conditioning. People held there have reported rotten food and medical neglect. The GEO Group, the private prison corporation that runs Delaney Hall, holds a $1 billion contract to provide 1,000 beds there over 15 years. That works out to about $180 per bed, per day — collected whether or not the air conditioning runs or the food is fit to eat. In the last five days of June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized more than 10,000 people across the country to fill cages like these. This is the USA today. What happened to justice and freedom?

• United National Antiwar Coalition: The US government’s pretense of friendship to Venezuela rings hollow, after years of US sanctions and military aggression have caused several tens of thousands of deaths. US assistance for reconstruction will be paltry compared to the massive heist it has perpetrated against the country through assets theft and sanctions. What Venezuela needs for post-earthquake reconstruction is the return of the billions of dollars the US government and its allies have stolen.

• Balkans political scientist Biljana Vankovska writes: These are difficult times for anyone who has consistently criticised NATO. From the era of “defending the Free World” against communism, through the age of “humanitarian intervention” and the “Global War on Terror,” to today’s supposedly existential struggle against almost the entire non-Western world, the Alliance has repeatedly reinvented the narratives that justify its existence. The language changes; the underlying logic does not. NATO remains indispensable, and every new enemy (whether discovered, exaggerated, or actively produced) becomes further proof of its necessity. For decades, critics coming from anti-militarist, anti-hegemonic or left perspectives had to work hard to deconstruct this mythology against the combined efforts of political elites, mainstream media, academic institutions, [many liberals] and security experts. The intellectual task itself was never particularly difficult. The contradictions, hypocrisies and devastating consequences of NATO’s interventions have remained visible long after the bombs stopped falling. What required courage was speaking against the prevailing consensus. 

 Demonstrators chant slogans and raise placards, during an anti-NATO protest in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, 27 June 2026, days ahead of the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Ankara on 7 to 8 July. Photo credit: Khalil Hamra

A dream comes true. Unite is the word.

At the moment when ordinary people of the world are struggling to free themselves from the shackles of greedy, corrupt and powerful people, it's important to visualize what future will look like when we succeed.