AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

INDRAJIT—Now let me offer my own opinion, which is that I support Iran. I do not try to map Western views onto them, and I try to understand them on their own terms. I approach them with respect and try to learn from them, especially if I don’t immediately understand what they’re doing. The first point is that Iran obviously takes their faith seriously and I agree with Khamenei that nuclear weapons are bad, I think everybody does. This is both a Quranic imperative and a Kantian categorical imperative. I don’t know when everybody got so cynical, but Iran is showing in many ways that taking a moral stand is possible and I support this wholeheartedly.

PAUL EDWARDS—As the supercharged economy based on massive government spending on industry in WWII ended, worker prosperity ground to a halt.  Giant corporations made by federal largesse clawed back the benefits of labor that had built them.  Unions were broken, the people’s needs ignored, and Capitalism hoarded all for itself.

The losses were continuous over decades and the great mass of Americans very slowly realized that they were being relentlessly robbed of economic security by their government’s owners.

By 2015 they had reached a peak of frustration and anger at receiving ever less for their work in the world’s richest nation, and they’d had a belly full of bullshit and lies, as all the money went only to the super-rich, and regular people scrambled to get by.

BRIAN BERLETIC—The author delves deep into US history of stunning hypocrisy and dishonesty in its international dealings. The US has always intended to overthrow the Iranian political system since Iran overthrew the US-installed client regime ousted in the late 1970s; The US war on Iran last year merely set the stage for this much larger planned strike;
The only way this war can be prevented is if Iran and its allies can create sufficient deterrence against US aggression (raising the costs for the US enough);
Claims that the UK or EU are “impeding” US plans to strike Iran are likely deception tactics already used and bragged about following US war last year;
Claims the US is seeking “limited strikes” is either deception or a pre-built exit ramp if Iranian resilience is sufficient to prevent government-collapse;
The use of Israel as an “uncontrollable” variable allows the US to do everything from provoke war to using nuclear weapons and claim “Israel” did it rather than the US.

RADWAN MORTADA—No one knows what a person feels when they receive a call announcing the moment of their death. No one knows how life is weighed in seconds, then reduced to a choice: to die alone… or to die with those you love. What heart can bear a call that lets you choose the manner of your death and the pain of parting? What strength, what courage, what selflessness must one possess just to remain standing in such a moment?
Before Ahmad, another young man was driving with his wife beside him. He received the same call. He stopped the car. He helped his wife out. He moved her away. Then he drove on alone, toward the missile.

These are scenes that repeat themselves in the South [of Lebanon]. A phone call that separates life from death. Young men walking toward their deaths with steady steps.

ELINA XENOPHONTOS—In the current crisis of capitalism, Trump—much like historical figures such as Hitler in moments of systemic rupture—functions as a vehicle for aggressive domestic and foreign policy on behalf of the bourgeoisie. Trump is not an aberration but an intensification of imperialism. His agenda will persist under a Democratic administration, albeit in a more polished and discreet form.

Thus, once his job is done, he shall be discarded — placing the criminality of capitalism on individual actors such as Trump, which in turn allows the capitalist system itself to evade accountability. This personalisation of blame is central to the political spectacle that postpones revolutionary rupture.