IDIOTIZED PUBLICS

KIM PETERSEN—Indeed, an Israeli official said that Netanyahu wants “the Libya model” in Iran, which would require a complete tearing down of Iran’s nuclear program.

What was the outcome of the Libya model? Libya was disarmed, and the US and its Nato followers destroyed Africa’s wealthiest country, turning it into a dysfunctional state. That is likeliest the result that Israel wants for Iran.

Is the world to be based on inequality among its nations? If not, then a progressivist principle holds that each nation has an inalienable right to self-defense.

GARLAND NIXON—The US empire’s collapse is being accelerated by a lethal combination of moral, military, and economic blunders. When you’re driving on ice, stay off the brakes!

DM—Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in a wealthy family under the country’s racist apartheid laws. Musk’s family history reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi politics. We speak with Chris McGreal, reporter for The Guardian, to understand how Musk’s upbringing shaped his worldview, as well as that of his South African-raised colleague Peter Thiel, a right-wing billionaire who co-founded PayPal alongside Musk. “Musk lived what can only be described as a neocolonial life,” said McGreal. “If you were a white South African in that period and you had any money at all, you lived with servants at your beck and call.”

MICHAEL ROBERTS—Keynes was wrong. It does matter. Keynesianism advocates digging holes and filling them up to create jobs. Military Keynesianism advocates digging graves and filling them with bodies to create jobs. If it does not matter how jobs are created then why not dramatically increase tobacco production and promote the addiction to create jobs? Currently, most people would oppose this as being directly harmful to people’s health. Making weapons (conventional and unconventional) is also directly harmful. And there are plenty of other socially useful products and services that could deliver jobs and wages for workers (like schools and homes).

EDITOR—John Rachel offers a biting satire of the pile of huge lies that buttress US legitimacy as an exemplary republic before American and international publics. The reality is that Uncle Sam is an old con man.