5 years after its ignominious departure from Afghanistan, 4 years after baiting Russia into Ukraine, and 3 years after 'partnering' with Israel's '7-front war', the United States finds itself in a quagmire. Brought into focus by its inability to enforce its will against Iran, the empire's usual methods for maintaining the 'exorbitant privilege' of the US dollar on the world stage are no longer working. Its rusty and fault-prone aircraft carriers find they no longer have safe harbor in the...
The lack of any progress towards achieving its goals in Iran, and the pathetic attempts to paper over this fact by claiming that their goals have been achieved, is leaving the US regime badly exposed to the key factor that has sustained its position as the global hegemon: its reputation for always getting its way, be it in military or financial terms. As the weeks became months of indecision over "what to do to force Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz," it's increasingly clear that we have...
Yes, 'only' 5 times, even though it seems like most weeks since April has seen Trump flip from extreme aggression towards Iran back into a 'man of peace'. Last week he again threatened 'massive bombardment' only to revert to his tired claim that Iran and other Gulf countries 'called at the last minute and desperately want a deal'. Besides the fact that, the longer this goes on, the more the US will have to accept the new reality that its dreams of global hegemony are over, the burning...
Between the oil, gas, fertilizers, and other feedstocks not making it past a Strait of Hormuz now effectively closed for 5 months, along with the oil, gas, fertilizers and grain not making it out of both Russia and Ukraine's ports and into global markets, is a global economic crash headed our way? Does the West's leadership class understand how close this is? More to the point, do they care? Running Time: 01:37:09 Download: MP3 — 89 MB
Barely 3 weeks old, the 'Memorandum of Understanding' between the US and Iran appears to have come to an end. The US military is targeting Iranian military and civilian sites daily, while Iran is attacking US bases and other assets across the Middle East. That this is occurring at the same time that Russia's energy exports suffer significantly due to 'Ukrainian' drone waves means the immediate, short-term winner is... American energy companies. Trump wants this of course, and is mindful of...
Two high-profile deaths of politicians in three days - one in the US and one in the UK - has the internet guessing as to what happened to US Senator Lindsey Graham, along with former Tory and British Reform party member Ann Widdecombe. Graham dropped dead 'after returning from his 10th visit to Ukraine', and Widdecombe was brutally murdered in her home and the suspect(s) is at large. The latter was a rare voice of reason in British politics, but the former most certainly will not be missed...
On this episode we discuss Dr. Karen Mitchell's new book Human Predators and her research on harmful people across settings such as business, law, medicine, media, religion, and politics. She argues that predators outside prison are common, often act covertly through emotional and social abuse, and share similar traits and tactics regardless of labels like narcissist or psychopath. We also discuss her view that the DSM can blur distinctions between predators and traumatized victims,...
On the surface, the USA is thriving and a "light unto the world", as Trump recited in his speeches marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776. But is this 'national mythos' still valid? Was it ever? Does the US live up to its claims of uniqueness with respect to 'freedom' and 'democracy'? If not, what is this exceptional nation's 'chief feature'? Excess? By extreme contrast, the country the US arguably just lost a war against, Iran, is undergoing...
One week into the 'Peace Deal', the US and Iran are back to taking potshots at each other - both online and ballistically - over control of shipping through the strait of Hormuz. And, for all their recent criticism of Israel, US leaders this week gave Netanyahu something of a 'win' in Lebanon: a crooked deal between them and the official Lebanese leadership that sees the IDF withdraw from most of southern Lebanon, but permits it indefinite occupation of two 'security pockets', ostensibly to...
So Trump and Iran's president have at last come to terms, jointly signing a Memorandum of Understanding that 'solidifies', if that's not too strong a word, the de facto ceasefire between the US and Iran that stretches back some 16 weeks. It's the shakiest of peace deals, not least because key issues like charging shipping tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz have been 'kicked down the road' for two months, but most are surprised to see the US accept the first of the document's 14...
The seemingly endless 'negotiations' between the Trump White House and Tehran made a breakthrough last week, when, for the first time since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, Iranian leaders signalled that a preliminary 'peace deal' is indeed within reach... until Israel nixed it by launching airstrikes into downtown Beirut. In the meantime the World Cup is underway, and the US, as one of the host countries, understands that the importance of 'summer games' to the masses means...
Ukraine's drone waves continue hitting Russia, last week targeting St Petersburg right as its annual 'Russian Davos' forum opened, Azerbaijani grain ships in the Sea of Azov, and the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye. The Ukrainian puppet regime, egged on as ever by the Western Consortium that runs it, is feeling invincible, but its days are surely numbered. Meanwhile the American side of the 'US-rael partnership' is showing rare signs of unease over their pact, with anonymous Pentagon...
The US government continues dragging out terms of settlement with Iran, Israel continues invading, occupying and ethnically cleansing southern Lebanon and Gaza, and the Trump White House continues playing 'MAGA Greatest Hits' to its base. Their detachment from reality is becoming more palpable - and unsustainable, surely? - by the day... Running Time: 01:40:15 Download: MP3 — 138 MB
Another 'TACO Tuesday' came and went... by Thursday the US military was again 'locked and loaded' for another go at Iran... and by Saturday evening Trump was dangling another peace deal - 'for realz this time'. As American diplomacy erratically yo-yo's, in the real world, some oil tankers are once more sailing the Strait of Hormuz, but now on Iran's terms. War is a cynical business, a 'racket', as US General Smedley Butler said a century ago. Wars begin because they're profitable, and only...
Deferred due to the US-Israeli war against Iran, Trump finally visited China last week, where he received an apparently 'warm' welcome from Xi Jinping, along with a stern warning: do not mess with Taiwan, and let us work to avoid the 'Thucydides Trap', wherein a dominant power inevitably wars with a rising power. Whether Trump understood the finer points of Chinese diplomacy is unclear, but it's clear he intended to 'do big business deals' by bringing 'our finest' captains of industry in...
Caught in a trap by Iran, the gulf between what US president Trump wishes were true, and what is actually real, continues to grow. While the Strait of Hormuz remains impassable to the US Navy, its distant "blockade of Iran's blockade" is apparently taking effect, with billions of dollars' worth of oil shipments failing to leave Iran and thus reducing the country's cash flows. Iranian officials remain steadfast, however, denying dodgy Washington outlet Axios' repeated claims that a peace deal...
Typically, the American president has blurted out 'the plain truth' about what his government is doing around the world - from the Caribbean to the Arctic to the Black Sea and Indian Ocean: behaving like pirates. This week we review, taking into account Richard Medhurst's excellent dot-connecting in his documentary 'The Petrogas-Dollar: The Secret US Strategy Behind the Iran War', the string of US and Israeli government moves this year to effectively 'ring-fence' the global flow of oil and...
Three aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea for the first time since March 2003 suggests another 'shock and awe' campaign is being considered. The 'ceasefire' between the US and Iran is holding, but for how much longer? Trump talks up his 'blockade of their blockade', but it's clear what is suffering most from Iranian defiance - Trump's reputation and American 'prestige', which the Americans are itching to salvage. Meanwhile an armed nutcase attempted to barge his way into the annual White...
It's not easy to do, and it's tempting to just 'turn it off', but we're all unfortunately doomed to have to endure Trump's erratic statements on Iran and wider geopolitics for the duration of this crisis (which he himself caused). For now a tentative ceasefire is holding, and further talks are scheduled in Pakistan this week, but from one hour to the next no one can tell which way things will go: towards a 'deal', or back towards hot war? Trump, though manifestly not presidential material,...
If you were writing this for a Hollywood script, it would be rejected for being unrealistic. Trump's latest scheme to 'unblock the Strait of Hormuz' is almost certainly not going to work, but more importantly, what is the likelihood that hostilities will recommence between the US and Iran? Also, what really happened during that so-called 'rescue mission' south of Isfahan last week? And should we have sympathy for Trump? He seems to be at the mercy of forces he can neither placate nor...
A month into his "little excursion" in Iran, Trump's campaign of sustained airstrikes is yielding preposterous results: significant damage in Iran, but also in America's regional client-states, and also in key global supply chains. Every Monday he calms 'the markets' with assurances that the war is won and "very nearly over," and every Friday, when markets close, he threatens "TOTAL DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!" In the meantime, non-stop rumors of American troop movements suggest Trump is...
Trump's "short-term excursion" in Iran is going from bad to worse. And so are his incoherent positions on the situation and what to do about it. With gas prices jumping the world over, humanity is staring down the barrel of global food shortages and severe energy disruptions, while the US military is seriously considering direct military confrontation with Iranian forces to "free the Strait of Hormuz." In the midst of all this, rumors are flying about Netanyahu's whereabouts, and 'someone'...
Something's gotta give. Iran is being practically carpet-bombed, resulting in widespread civilian destruction. Despite near-total regional censorship, satellite imagery and some video footage is documenting mild-to-strong 'hits' on US bases and other assets across the whole region. Trump assures us Iran's military is 'destroyed', yet he acknowledges Iran's de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the high risks this presents for the regional and thus global economy. The heavy criticism...
One week into the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the mission has been extended from "4 days" to "4 weeks" to "4 months" to "as long as it takes." But what IS the mission? It was "regime change," but Iran is not "surrendering" despite its leadership being assassinated. In fact, surviving Iranian leadership is conveying that its counter-strikes will continue until ITS mission is accomplished. So, a war of attrition until one side blinks? In the meantime, damage to neighboring countries in the...
And so it begins. This time it isn't 'kayfabe' and 'negotiated strikes and counter-strikes'. The 'peace president', when announcing joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February, said it would just take a few days, and gloated that he 'took out the regime' by targeting top Iranian leadership, including Ayatollah Khamenei. But Iran's swift and massive response - bombing 11 countries housing US and Israeli military bases and installations, including a British base in Cyprus, EU...
