PE—The weakening of Constitutional restraint on a President’s war powers is in line with elimination of the separation of powers of the three branches of government, and advances the vesting of all authority in an imperial, dictatorial mode of governance.

Americans exist under a Capitalist oligarchy ruled by a tiny cabal of billionaires with no love of, or loyalty to, their country, whose only allegiance and commitment is to monetary gain who, owning the media, train a deeply ignorant, credulous people to perform.

Their political hirelings run a system that deepens their control of society by engaging it in a form of psychic theater in which the hopes, griefs and hatreds of the masses are teased and torched to white heat to provoke violent emotion in an hysterical, vulgar electoral pageant that is irrelevant, and utterly without result.  The powerful Quo Warranto of a gone age is unavailable to us now.

MM—JH—My guest today is Dr. Jason Hickel – professor at the Institute for Environmental Science & Technology (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and author of The Divide and Less Is More. This is our second conversation on the podcast, and it comes at a moment of escalating geopolitical violence – in Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, and beyond. In this episode, we get into how these conflicts are symptoms of capitalist imperialism: Western states asserting dominance over sovereign-seeking states to protect their own growth. We dive into ecosocialism as an alternative to capitalism, and what economic democracy actually looks like in practice. We cover China’s rise – how its economy actually works, why the West has turned against it, and what it means for the Global South – and we end with a discussion of how to build the mass movements capable of bringing a better future to life.

The narrow postwar political framework, however, within which these individuals would subsequently be obliged to operate was established early on. In 1947, Shirer, perhaps the most talented of the crowd, was forced out at CBS, without Murrow’s coming to his assistance, for criticizing the Truman Doctrine (that the US, as leader of the “free world,” must lead a worldwide crusade against communism) and the network’s kowtowing to corporate sponsors. Shirer was named in Red Channels, the anti-communist tract published in 1950, and blacklisted for all intents and purposes.

Cronkite was not of that stature. He apparently found no great difficulty in accepting the limits set by the American establishment during the Cold War. He was known to be critical, as was Murrow, of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the anti-communist witch-hunting, but he made a career for himself nonetheless.

RB—In contrast to the efficiency, effectiveness and societal legitimacy of the Party-state, the Oligarchy-state provides ever decreasing levels of efficiency and effectiveness while enjoying little or no societal legitimacy. To make matter worse, the US oligarchy has managed to utterly neuter the enforcement of anti-monopoly legislation; resulting in a colossal level of corporate concentration that has been freed from effective regulation. The Party-state recognized the need for highly competitive markets, but backed up with state planning that does not pick favourites, to drive the productive forces. As the US becomes more and more monopolized, with “free markets” only a pipe dream within the addled minds of mainstream economists, the Party-state enforces a somewhat brutal level of competition; as seen within the Chinese domestic vehicle market. Truly productive markets, those made free of monopolists, oligopolists and price-fixers by the a state practising a non-clientelist industrial policy will be the most efficient while driving the productive forces forward.

JM—Cracking a facility protected by 300+ meters of granite would require a massive strategic-scale megaton detonation releasing clouds of radioactive dust from the destroyed mountain over the entirety of West Asia and also nuclear-armed Pakistan and India . And since there are a lot of bases under mountains, that would mean a lot of bombs and environmental disaster of epic proportions.

Because of the extreme political and environmental consequences of using multiple megaton bombs, and no doubt to prevent a revolt in its own military, U.S. planning now heavily favors the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

GD—This video features Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi discussing the current state of the conflict involving Iran, the United States, and regional actors.

Key takeaways include:

Shift in Iranian Strategy: Marandi explains that Iran is transitioning from a policy of “strategic patience” to a more assertive, offensive posture, notably following the appointment of Major General Mohsen Rezaei to lead the Supreme National Security Council.
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The Regional Conflict: The discussion highlights that the war has expanded significantly beyond Iran versus the US coalition, now involving active resistance from Yemen and Iraq. Marandi notes that Saudi Arabia and the US have underestimated the capabilities and resolve of these regional actors.
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US and Western Decline: The conversation argues that the United States and its allies are facing economic challenges and weapons shortages. Marandi posits that US “soft power” has been severely damaged by its actions in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen, while Iran’s regional and global status has been enhanced despite economic hardships.