DW—The Iranian leadership has undergone significant disruptions due to decapitation of several leadership layers, complicating communication and negotiation.
Despite this, the Iranian govt remains coherent in policy and military coordination, although the new Ayatollah’s visibility is limited due to security concerns following assassination attempts.

Chinese and U.S. Positions Regarding Strait of Hormuz and Middle East Conflict—

Chinese tankers have recently paid the new Iranian toll to pass through the Strait.
The only common interest between the U.S. and China regarding the Middle East conflict is avoiding a larger world war that might draw in Russia and China against U.S. allies.
Both sides want to keep the Strait open, but this is a universally shared interest, including Iran’s.
The White House statement is seen by Richard Wolff as somewhat symbolic and lacking substantive impact, given instability in U.S. leadership and unclear interlocutors on the Iranian side.

INDRAJIT—The old defensive paradigm of ‘America’ (which enabled it to be so offensive) was ‘America’. They spent hundreds of years invading and genociding Turtle Island and that has given them cover for a hundred years of genociding and invading the rest of the world. ‘America’ can hit anybody in the world, but nobody can hit them back. This is before even discussing nuclear weapons.

‘After’ World War II (it only ended for White people) ‘America’ began both consolidating and negating that advantage with military bases, many of them inherited from the British. They won a wide White Empire from the failed European colonizers, but this also gave them a lot to lose. As Rudyard Kipling said in 1899, referring to the US colonization of the Philippines and the White Man’s Burden they inherited.

DW—Postol shifts focus to Iran’s nuclear program, emphasizing the rationality and levelheadedness of Iranian leadership regarding nuclear weapons.
Iran has not built a nuclear weapon nor taken a final step toward weaponization, understanding the geopolitical implications of provoking neighboring states like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and possibly UAE, all of which might rapidly seek nuclear arms in response.
Iran’s nuclear enrichment capability is maintained as a security guarantee against existential threatsfrom Israel and the U.S., both of which have expressed genocidal intentions toward Iran in rhetoric.
Iran will not abandon uranium enrichment as it serves as a deterrent preventing unilateral attacks and as a strategic leverage point in diplomacy.
Historical U.S. interference, including the 1953 coup and backing of repressive regimes, has contributed to Iranian distrust and hardened stances.

CH—Our suicidal march began long before Donald Trump and his bizarre court of buffoons, sycophants, grifters and Christian fascists took power. It began when the ruling class, especially under the Reagan and Clinton administrations, set out to harvest the country and empire for personal profit.

There is a word for these people. Traitors.

These traitors, ensconced in the leadership of the two ruling parties, stripped us of assets and power slowly. They used subterfuge, lies and legalized bribery. They pretended to honor electoral politics, checks and balances, a free press and the rule of law while subverting all of these democratic pillars. That old system, however flawed, was hollowed out. It was turned over to the amoral and the idiotic — look at the Supreme Court or Congress — those willing to do the bidding of the billionaire class.