AMERICAN BRAINWASH

BN—As the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, and a US ground invasion of Iran seems imminent, Iran has now responded by striking US-allied countries in the region. Will Trump continue this profoundly unpopular war that is upending the global economy? Will it spiral out of control? Brian Becker is joined by Professor Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies who teaches at the University of Tehran.

PAUL EDWARDS—In championship boxing matches the hype and excitement is all around the title bout, but as a preliminary promoters run what is called The Undercard. It consists of a couple of fights of rising tyros, striving journeyman or novices of promise, and matches are fiercely contested. They set the stage for the champions.

The aborted, useless farce in Iran perpetrated by The Empire at the urging of the criminal Nazi Bibi, in its ridiculously inept and futile conduct by America and Israel was the Undercard of the clash of true champions of which it is the certain precursor.

The degree of humiliation suffered by The Empire in this prelim bout is not yet clear, and completely concealed by lying Empire MSM, even by that element that hates Trump, because it is in a box of its own construction. It must express hatred of him but stridently defend the nation he directs. They must never, for a moment, suggest that the country itself has failed or fallen short.

Time, which is with Iran that had the guts to tell the buffoon to stick his demands where the sun don’t shine while holding to its own, will show the extent of this massive reversal and loss of status for the dissembling, posturing “indispensable nation”.

GARLAND NIXON—The conversation starts by distinguishing democracy as an outcome rather than a mere process. Nixon emphasizes that democracy must be evaluated by whether those in power truly represent and act on behalf of the masses, not just by who votes or how elections are conducted.

The speakers introduce key concepts such as class content of democracy, the illusion of universal participation, and the role of propaganda in misleading voters, resulting in elections that perpetuate the same ruling interests regardless of labels or procedures.

The significance of this discourse lies in challenging prevalent myths about democracy, especially in capitalist and imperialist societies, and exploring alternatives that prioritize the

ED CURTIN—Don’t be distracted and tranquilized by digital trivia and all the things you don’t need to know. Attention must be paid to the few essentials, as with the political ones above.

Beyond those, however, and far deeper in a place of epiphanies, are what the extraordinary Roberto Calasso, in Literature and the Gods, calls “absolute literature,” which is knowledge accessed only through literary composition “in search of an absolute, and that thus draws in no less than everything, and at the same time it is something absolutum, unbound, freed from any duty or common cause, from any social utility.” It is writing that one has to read, to enter, whose luminescence vibrates in the mind where a second reality opens up and sends shivers of recognition that ravishes one. It is what Nietzsche said was a place of truth, “a mobile army of metaphors” far beyond normal discourse or conceptual thinking. I mention it because it is essential to experience, a place where art opens the heart and mind to the sublime. Let this digression of mine seem jolting as we skip through what is not worth knowing and what is. Let it seem as enigmatic as it is meant to be. The wars are as much spiritual as physical, a truth certain artists have always known. We are always by the way on the way.

SIMPLICIUS—First, let us again point out just how cravenly hypocritical it is for Trump and his admin to repeatedly criticize Iran for being a “disjointed leadership” whose members are not negotiating the way he wants. He’s the one that turned them into a “disjointed leadership” by taking out the previous set even when it was fully understood by his own intel agencies that hardliners would inevitably replace them.

As he points out above, he’s considering what is assumed to be a final “last hurrah” blowout attack on Iran’s civilian infrastructure presumably to call it a day. Days of reports about his agencies “studying” how Iran would “react” to a declaration of victory by the US tells us that Trump wants to bare the US military machine’s pitted, yellowed fangs one last time before quickly exiting stage left.