Doug

15 days ago

World's Crisis Radio July 25th 2026

18 days ago

WORLD CRISIS RADIO PODCAST JULY 25 2026- AUDIO AT https://t.co/NelZn7k8As SPREADING WAR TO RED SEA AND AFRICA, TEHRAN MADMEN ACTIVATE THEIR HOUTHI TERRORIST SATELLITES WHO STRIKE TWO SAUDI TANKERS; IRAN’S RED SEA CROSSFIRE AT BAB AL MANDEB STRAIT: HOUTHIS AND EL SHABAB TERRORISTS OF SOMALIA THREATEN 10% OF ALL WORLD TRADE; THIS DOUBLE CHALLENGE TO FREE NAVIGATION IS INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY AND A DIRECT ASSAULT ON WORLD CIVILIZATION; WILL THE ELEVEN EUROPEAN NATIONS INCLUDING UK, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY WHO FOUGHT HOUTHI PIRACY A FEW YEARS AGO DEFEND FREEDOM OF THE SEAS NOW? AND WHICH NARROW SEAS ARE NEXT FOR IRGC MANIACS? MALACCA? GIBRALTAR? DOVER? IN MID-MAY, CENTCOM COMMANDER ADMIRAL COOPER REVEALED THAT THE ARMED AYATOLLAHS OF THE IRGC HAD ATTACKED US TROOPS AND DIPLOMATS OVER 350 TIMES, KILLING 4 AND WOUNDING ABOUT 200; THIS STORY SHOWS THERE WAS INDEED A REAL IMMEDIATE THREAT FROM IRAN, BUT WAS LARGELY SUPPRESSED; HOW LONG WILL APPEASERS AND DEFEATISTS CENSOR US MEDIA? THE MOST LOYAL ALLY: IN A STROKE OF PURE MILITARY GENIUS BY ZELENSKI, UKRAINE ATTACKS RUSSIAN FREIGHTERS ON CASPIAN SEA BRINGING WEAPONS TO IRAN FROM PUTIN INTENDED TO KILL AMERICANS; IN RESPONSE, IRGC THUGS THREATEN BALLISTIC MISSILE ATTACK ON KYIV! DEMANDING TOTAL CONTROL OF HORMUZ INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY, IRAN REJECTS LATEST US PEACE BID; TRUMP MOOTS “MASSIVE ATTACK” ON IRANIAN REGIME, BUT FEAR OF THE UMPTEENTH TACO COPOUT BY THE MAGA BOSS GROWS AFTER FRIDAY “CABINET MEETING” AND DEGRADED CLOWNING AT CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER; WILL US BUILDUP IN MIDDLE EAST WITH B-1 BOMBERS, AIRBORNE REFUELING PLANES, MEDICS IN LANDSTUHL BE FOR NOTHING? NEW ATTENTION TO PRO-TRUMP VOTER SUPPRESSION IN 2024 ELECTION: BRENNAN CENTER FOUND NOT 90 BUT 227 INSTANCES OF BOMB THREATS/DEATH THREATS TO POLLING PLACES AROUND ELECTION DAY 2024, WITH MANY FROM RUSSIA, AND MANY TARGETING DEMOCRATIC STRONGHOLDS! SUMMER READING -- FROM AGAINST OLIGARCHY: “THE VENETIAN CONSPIRACY” (1981) SEE BELOW FOR LINK TRUMP HOLDS CABINET MEETING ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON “President Trump told Axios on Thursday that he's seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran — including strikes that would be bigger than the ones carried out during Operation Epic Fury.” (Axios, July 23, 2026) But unfortunately, Trump has a well-known practice of deploying a smokescreen of bloodcurdling threats as a cover for yet another humiliating retreat, largely to tranquilize stock markets and oil markets. Will that be the case again now? The night between Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25, saw no meaningful combat sorties against the IRGC after thirteen continuous nights of air raids. So we are left guessing. It is however certain that Trump’s “cabinet meeting” on Friday afternoon contributed nothing in terms of decisive resolve to end the war by winning it. As he writes in his memoirs, Gen. MacArthur’s father warned him, “Doug, councils of war breed timidity and defeatism.” Taco cuisine is toxic, and Trump’s cabinet is full of toadies, misfits, flunkies, and lackeys who cannot exercise military judgment. Trump would be well advised to butt out of military operations and to defer to the CENTCOM theater commander, Admiral Brad Cooper. It is estimated that the Bab el Mandeb strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea handles about 10% of all world maritime merchant trade, including oil tankers, container ships, bulk carriers, etc. During the previous Red Sea crisis of 2023-2024, the Houthis were able to strike and damage 178 ships, sinking four and killing nine sailors. The United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 2722, voted up with Russia and China abstaining, to condemn these wanton actions and demand a restoration of freedom of navigation. The United States sent warships as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, and Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Israel joined in. A significant group of European Union nations sent or supported warships in the Red Sea under the aegis of Operation Aspides (shield) of EUNAVFOR. This EU effort was comprised of Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, and Sweden. It is fervently to be hoped that these nations will once again shoulder the burden of fighting for civilization, especially since UN Security Council Resolution 2722 clearly legalizes such an action above and beyond the inherent right of self-defense anchored in the United Nations Charter. The EU needs to understand that the conflict with Iran is not a war separate from or competing with, but rather an integral and organic part of the clash between the free world and the CRINKS alliance of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The United States signed an armistice with the Houthis on May 6, 2025 and has not undertaken military operations against the Houthis since then, so far as is known. The United States has done nothing to goad the Houthis into war up to the present time, so EU states have no reason to remain aloof. URGENT US MEASURES As a quick reminder, here is the array of policy initiatives, which a responsible American government could be expected to adopt against Iran and its congeries of terrorist satellites: · The United States should help form an Iranian government in exile, located in Washington DC, under the supervision of the Iranian Crown Prince and heir to the late Shah. The United States should then grant a full de jure diplomatic recognition to this government. United States recognized Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela in this way on January 23, 2019, and he was eventually recognized by sixty-eight countries. Doing the same thing for Iran would be a tremendous encouragement to the democratic and secular opposition, and provide a focus for an effective resistance against the prevailing IRGC Islamofascism. United States should also provide a generous budget for press, broadcasting, online, and other propaganda, education, and organizing activities. During the Cold War, the only sovereign territory under the control of the governments of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia was that of their embassies in Washington DC. Establishing free territory for Iranians in an embassy in the US capital could inspire an effective opposition by opening a political front against the ayatollahs. · The Persian democratic and secular opposition inside Iran should receive weapons, communication equipment, intelligence, supplies, and the other requirements of effective resistance. Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, and online platforms should be mobilized. · The oppressed Kurdish minority in Iran and in northern Iraq has already offered to provide the United States with the indispensable boots on the ground needed to deal with the IRGC. The Kurds are an experienced, pro-Western, and formidable military force capable of transforming the entire situation on the ground, and deserve comprehensive and seamless American support. If the Kurds prove able to stand up to the IRGC, their example could easily inspire, Azeris, Arabs, Balochs (i.e. Baluchistan), and Turkmen to assert their own rights of national self-determination against the current minority rule. A strong Kurdish state would be the best guarantee against a comeback by the mullahs. If Turkey objects, they should be shown that such an independent Kurdish homeland would tend to relieve Kurdish pressure in Anatolia, rather than increasing it. · Using the experience of the 1987-1988 Tanker War, the United States should organize convoys of oil tankers and merchant ships, complete with escort vessels, antiaircraft capability, and offensive air cover to provide safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. If the IRGC imagines that it can assert permanent control over Hormuz, this is a delusion which we must break before their faces. If maritime insurance becomes a problem, United States must set up a facility to provide it fast at reasonable prices, as Trump seemed to suggest early in the conflict. · Maintain and strengthen all US economic sanctions on Iranian trade, banking, etc. Take rigorous measures to punish the “virtual barrel” naked speculators seeking to induce higher prices for oil. Special scrutiny for the deregulated London oil market is urgently indicated. If the price of gasoline in the United States becomes a serious impediment, then pass the House bill offered by Congressman Brad Sherman of California which would restore the US federal ban on exporting oil or petroleum products, which was successfully in force from 1975 to 2015. The much repeated cliché that oil is an international market is a clear mystification, since this can only be the case if the United States government acquiesces, which it should no longer do. · Iranian proposals to extort cash payments from oil tankers and other merchant ships passing through Hormuz are extremely unpopular. Already in March, the UN General Assembly approved Resolution 2817 condemning Iranian aggression against the Arab Gulf states with the support of 135 countries-one of the largest majorities in the UNGA in recent years-and passed it on to the Security Council, where it was approved with Russia and China isolated and embarrassed in their abstentions, adding up to a notable defeat for the CRINKs bloc, much of whose support derives from their ability to manipulate the Third World or developing sector group in the world body. More recently, a UN resolution for freedom of navigation with no tolls supported by the United States has been backed by a robust majority total of 112 cosponsors in the General Assembly. There is a concrete possibility of forcing a vote in the Security Council on United Nations economic sanctions against Iran to punish that outlaw state for attempting to extort money from merchant ships in innocent passage through Hormuz. The CRINKs won’t like it. · The United States should back efforts to help the legitimate government of Lebanon to disarm and disperse the Hezbollah terrorist organization, including the creation of a peacekeeping force, possibly with French participation, to assist in quelling this Iranian tentacle in the Levant. The same approach should be taken in disarming and liquidating Hamas as the indispensable prelude to a two state solution for the Palestinians. Coordinated action is also essential against the various Iranian puppet terrorist militias like Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria. SUPPRESSED BY CORRUPT CORPORATE AND PUBLIC MEDIA: CENTCOM COMMANDER ADMIRAL COOPER TESTIFIED TO SENATE ARMED SERVICES ON MAY 14 THAT IRAN'S TERRORIST PROXIES HAD ATTACKED US TROOPS AND DIPLOMATS OVER 350 TIMES KILLING 4 AND WOUNDING ALMOST 200 IN THE 30 MONTHS BEFORE CURRENT HOSTILITIES STARTED FEB. 28; THIS REFUTES THE APPEASERS' CLAIM THAT IRAN POSED NO IMMEDIATE THREAT “Iran-aligned ‘terror groups’ attacked US troops and diplomats over 350 times in the 30 months prior to the war, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief told Senators [May 14], adding that proxies have now been cut off from Iranian weapon supplies and support.’ “In just the last 30 months prior to the commencement of Operation Epic Fury, Iranian-supported terror groups have attacked US troops and diplomats more than 350 times, the equivalent of an attack more than every third day, killing four US service members and wounding nearly 200 more,” Admiral Brad Cooper said as he testified before the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He added that the attacks are “the equivalent of an attack more than every third day, killing four US service members and wounding nearly 200 more.” "US Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and I am the 16th CENTCOM commander to deal with the Iranian problem set. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United States a core tenet of its rule…." “Today, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are all cut off from Iran's weapons supply and support,” Cooper said. Since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran in late February, Iran-aligned militias have repeatedly targeted US interests in the region, including in Iraq where Washington has attempted to dismantle the groups. (https://t.co/26ovqaQf0O, May 14, 2026) IRAN’S RED SEA CROSSFIRE: HOUTHIS AND SHABAB THREATEN 10% OF ALL WORLD TRADE “A report by a United Nations Panel of Experts published in 2025 revealed increased cooperation between Al-Shabaab [in Somalia] and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Despite historical ideological differences — Al-Shabaab being Sunni and the Houthis Shia — the two have reportedly formed a practical alliance rooted in mutual strategic interests. Al-Shabaab is said to have sought drone training and technology from the Houthis, aiming to deploy drones for targeted suicide attacks. In exchange, the Houthis have found a market for illicit arms sales to the Somali group, including ammunition and other military equipment. The militant group is also linked to a resurgence in piracy off Somalia’s coast, where it collaborates with local pirate networks to hijack commercial vessels for ransom. These operations are believed to have generated millions of dollars in funding for Al-Shabaab. The UN report further confirmed that the first wave of Al-Shabaab fighters trained in Yemen returned to Somalia between June and September 2024. While the exact scope of their training is unclear, sources suggest preparations are underway for the group to operationalize drone-based attacks.” (“Al-Shabaab Reshuffles Military Wing Known as Jabha as Terror Group Explores Drone Usage for Attacks,” Horn Observer, July 26 2025) UKRAINE ANNOUNCES IMMINENT DEPLOYMENT OF LASERS FOR SHORT-RANGE ANTI-DRONE DEFENSE SYSTEM AS THE WEAPONS REVOLUTION GOES ON “Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrii Lebedenko says Kyiv expects to field a laser system capable of destroying aerial targets more effectively than machine guns within the next two to three months. The new directed-energy weapon is designed to intercept drones and other airborne threats with far greater precision, speed, and efficiency than conventional gun-based systems. If deployed successfully, the system could significantly strengthen Ukraine’s short-range air defense network, reducing ammunition costs and giving frontline units a powerful new tool against increasingly frequent drone attacks” (@NSTRIKE1231) Antimissile defense using directed energy weapons based on new physical principles is unquestionably the wave of the future. The current phase of rapid drone expansion is likely to be supplanted within a very few years by lasers and radio frequency weapons generating electromagnetic pulses to shoot down scores of swarming drones at a time. ADVICE TO DEMOCRATS Democrats who are currently outdoing themselves in rhetorical exploits against the Iran conflict need to look beyond the November election to what the impact may be on the struggle for the presidency in 2028. Even more, they should consider the impact of their remarks on the CRINKs bloc of enemy aggressor states. Since Democrats are arguing for cut and run from Iran based on the constitutionally dubious War Powers Act, have they calculated the encouraging effect on Putin, Xi, and Kim of a US collapse or rout in the Gulf along the lines of Kabul in 2021? Have they even considered the impact on the Gulf Arab states, or on vital allies like Jordan? What would happen to the United States position in Latin America or Asia? They should also consider the consequences of a chaotic retreat from the Gulf for the situation in Ukraine, which they generally claim to care about. We can only hope that the current phase of aggravated peacenik rhetoric is meant to meet the needs of primary season demagogy, and will end when the primaries end in August, making way for something more responsible when the campaign for the general starts in September. The Democratic Party remains subject to sabotage by chaos agents from the outside. In 2024, the outside wrecking came from billionaire donors eager to avoid paying their fair share who were demanding the ouster of Biden to stop his plan for a 25% alternative minimum tax on the super-rich. This time, the danger comes from petty bourgeois sectarian ultra-lefts masquerading as socialists who care little for fighting Trump, but focus their attacks on other Democrats while demonizing the Israelis and sanewashing Middle East terrorists. In a useful contribution, Simon Rosenberg of Hopium points out that the approval of ultra-lefts Francesca Hong in Wisconsin, Platner in Maine, and el-Sayed in Michigan has remained below the average partisan lean at a time when the congressional generic ballot is running at +7 for Democrats, and most Democrats in battleground states are doing better than that. Rosenberg shows that in the Wisconsin governor’s race, DSA choice Hong’s 40% backing puts her behind the 44% of MAGA pick Tom Tiffany, while the more moderate Mandela Barnes with 44% bests Tiffany with 40%, all in Marquette polling. Mamdani has thoroughly discredited himself through his choice of the no police/no jails anarchist Avila Chevalier for Congress in Spanish Harlem because of her role as founder of Columbia University Apartheid Divest with its mission statement pledging to eradicate Western civilization, certainly not a top issue for working people in that district, where she also managed to offend Hispanics by defeating Rep. Espaillat. While MAGA reactionaries rejoice and having such a foil and Trump raves about communism, Chevalier’s loony left extremism has drawn condemnation from Carville, Bill Maher, and now Van Jones. The Democratic Party needs a politically capable party secretary capable of shutting down ultra-left infiltrators from hostile external organizations like DSA before things reach this point. The answer might include an incompatibility rule, banning members of DSA from DNC support. DEMOCRATS LEAD BY 11% IN CONGRESSIONAL GENERIC BALLOT, TRUMP APPROVAL SINKS TO 30%! CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM ON ANDY BURNHAM, THE NEW BRITISH PRIME MINISTER FROM THE LABOUR PARTY: STRONG DEFENSE THROUGH RE-INDUSTRIALIZATION, NATIONALIZATIONS, END HOMELESSNESS (ROUGH SLEEPING), ROLL BACK THATCHERISM, TEN-YEAR PLAN Monday’s short initial speech by Andy Burnham, the new British Labour Party Prime Minister, is grounds for a measure of very cautious optimism about the direction of Great Britain in the months ahead. Burnham replaces Kier Starmer at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence. Starmer has promised the biggest shakeup in British politics in forty years, meaning specifically rolling back the reactionary heritage of Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism, meaning the UK’s extreme 1979-1990 austerity conducted through privatizations of the state sector, wholesale deindustrialization, growing military weakness, rising oligarchical power, unemployment, despair, and spectacular union busting. The general impoverishment of British society that started with Thatcher is especially acute in northern England, in the industrialized places like Manchester (where Burnham has been mayor), Leeds (Yorkshire), and Liverpool, having also gotten worse under Brexit. As a first step in reversing Thatcherite immiseration, Burnham proposes to end homelessness, known in the UK as rough sleeping, at once. Gavin Newsom please take note. Thatcher put Great Britain on the wrong track, says Burnham, and he wants to reverse course, re-nationalizing some of the industries which Thatcher privatized. It is probably no coincidence that the outgoing Starmer government nationalized British Steel just last week to prevent this vital industrial asset from being asset stripped, broken down, and sold off by predatory financiers. Although he has to tread carefully because of the large Malthusian faction in the Labour Party, Burnham has also hinted about expanding oil production in the valuable North Sea oil fields controlled by the UK. DEFENSE HAWK JOHN HEALEY AS FINANCE MINISTER The biggest single headline of today is the appointment of John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK equivalent of Finance Minister or Secretary of the Treasury, but with more power. A few months ago, when he was defense minister in the Starmer cabinet, Healey had been instrumental in starting the fall of Starmer by resigning in a dispute over increased defense spending, which Starmer had been too weak to impose on the then-Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who had failed to increase defense outlays to the level required by the present strategic emergency imposed by Putin, with live-fire exercises by Russian warships arounf the British Isles. Reeves is now out of the government, and Healey is back with a promotion. If we put together some short public statements Burnham has made so far, the following picture emerges: Burnham today said that his policy of reindustrialization will be carried out through “public procurement,” which has to include a revival of key purchases and investments to restore the atrophied British defense industrial base. Economic revival through defense spending (as delivered by FDR with his Lend Lease Program of 1941) is now being carried out in Germany in response to the Russian threat, with auto plants being converted to manufacture drones and missile interceptors. Canada also seems to be using defense spending for anti-recession purposes. Burnham’s promise of a ten-year plan, evidently a form of industrial policy or government dirigism, seems to go in this direction. If done correctly, this kind of emphasis could go far in neutralizing the threat posed by Trump and by Trump’s British clone Nigel Farage, the demagogic leader of the menacing Reform Party. Among the very first world leaders contacted by Burnham with telephone calls placed from the Prime Minister’s residence at Number Ten today were Ukrainian President Zelenski and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. Burnham appears to realize that the 2016 Brexit secession from Europe (spearheaded by Farage) has been a colossal disaster for Britain, so he is signaling intent to pursue a productive rapprochement. This may be included in his repeated calls for unity. TO FINANCE GOVERNMENT, TAX CITY OF LONDON FINANCE In the coming days, Burnham and Healey will outline how they propose to pay for their proposed reforms, in particular the expansion of the defense budget. The obvious path is to focus on taxing the City of London, that British banking, finance, and insurance complex which handles a colossal river of money every day, but has not been paying its fair share since the neoliberal days of Thatcher. The vibe from Downing Street is coherent with the American moderate leftism of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal. The Labour Party is a social democratic party that had to fight off an ultra-left infiltration by Trotskyite entrists of the Militant group in the early 1980s. Labour saved itself by expelling top infiltrators. From 2015 to 2020, Labour was afflicted by ultra-left party boss Jeremy Corbyn, who failed to stop Brexit and presided over an orgy of anti-semitism in the Labour Party. Corbyn was replaced by Starmer, who rebuilt the party and won an anti-Tory victory two years ago. Despite Burnham’s somewhat understated delivery today, it appears that Britain might well be headed for Taxing the City of London while restoring national defense. After all, back in the late 1940s it was British Labour Party Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, more than his American counterpart Dean Acheson of the Truman administration, who provided indispensable support for the North Atlantic Pact, the founding instrument of NATO. SUMMER READING -- FROM AGAINST OLIGARCHY: “THE VENETIAN CONSPIRACY” (1981) If you are concerned about oligarchy, the place to start is with a thorough understanding of Venice, the classic oligarchical Republic and tentacle of the Byzantine Empire, which spread oligarchy and opposed progress over at least a thousand years, and which continues to exercise a poisonous cultural influence today. This essay attempts to provide an overview of the Venetian methods strategy. It also assembles voices of opponents of Venice from a series of highly authoritative figures, including some of the leading Italian patriots; in this group we find Dante (who dies mysteriously after a diplomatic mission to Venice), Petrarch, Boccaccio, Pope Pius II (the Renaissance Christian humanist Aeneas Silvio Piccolomini of Siena), Cosimo dei Medici, Machiavelli, Francesco Sforza of Milan, Giuseppe Cuoco of Naples, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and our own James Fennimore Cooper, plus the French Emperor Napoleon, who brought Venice to an end with the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Text at: https://t.co/vorO4SJrTU

about 12 hours ago

@HonestApeNYC @SundaeDivine She looks like a 1970s airline stewardess

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Just a run of the mill Gen Xer. Dad to 5 amazing kids and Secretary of Food to the Dog Emperor of the North.

about 14 hours ago

Vance reported to demand Ukraine stop hitting Kazakh oil owned by Chevron, used by Russia.

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UKRAINIAN SQUAD🇺🇦

@ukrainiansquad

5 days ago

Pray for these brave soldiers who still fighting on the front lines 🙏 Glory to Heroes! 🇺🇦

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Adaminkw

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Friedrich List

@simulator8

Peace, freedom, tolerance, equality, justice, safety net. American System of political economy/social democracy. Modernity is non-negotiable! #NewDeal #Plato

🇨🇦Cathy💙💛

@MoralityPLS

Stop fascist CPC. No MAGA pls. antiracism, Liberal, love CDN multiculturalism, BLM, antiNRA @[email protected] https://t.co/Xml1QkIEK5

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13 days ago

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12 days ago

https://t.co/UI1n1onm1Y

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11 days ago

Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy booed off stage by right-wing students as tide turns on GOP - The Mirror US https://t.co/GMqdnb8vyT

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11 days ago

@JamesTate121 An Airbnb Superhost !

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23 days ago

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM ON ANDY BURNHAM, THE NEW BRITISH PRIME MINISTER FROM THE LABOUR PARTY: ON FIRST DAY IN OFFICE, HE CALLS FOR STRONG DEFENSE THROUGH RE-INDUSTRIALIZATION, NATIONALIZATIONS, ENDING HOMELESSNESS (ROUGH SLEEPING), ROLLING BACK THATCHERISM, AND A TEN-YEAR PLAN Today’s short initial speech by Andy Burnham, the new British Labour Party Prime Minister, is grounds for cautious optimism about the direction of Great Britain in the months ahead. Burnham replaces Kier Starmer at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence. Burnham is promising the biggest shakeup in British politics in forty years, meaning specifically rolling back the destructive heritage of Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism, including the UK’s extreme 1979-1990 austerity conducted through privatizations of the earlier extensive state sector, wholesale deindustrialization, growing military weakness, rising oligarchical power, unemployment, despair, and spectacular union busting. The general impoverishment of British society that started with Thatcher is especially acute in northern England in the de-industrialized cities like Manchester (where Burnham has been mayor), Leeds (Yorkshire), and Liverpool. A candidate for immediate nationalization is the debt-ridden and dangerous Thames Water, a privatized public utility which has been used as a cash cow by its predatory owners. Thames Water must take responsibility for pollution seeping into the London water supply. Only public ownership can fix this incredible situation. As a first step in reversing Thatcherite immiseration, Burnham proposes to end homelessness, known in the UK as rough sleeping, at once. Gavin Newsom please take note. Thatcher put Great Britain on the wrong track, says Burnham, and he wants to reverse course, re-nationalizing some of the industries which Thatcher privatized. It is probably no coincidence that the outgoing Starmer government nationalized British Steel just last week to prevent this vital industrial asset from being asset stripped, broken up, and sold off by predatory financiers. Although he has to tread carefully because of the large Malthusian faction in the Labour Party, Burnham has also hinted about expanding oil production in the valuable North Sea oil fields controlled by the UK. DEFENSE HAWK JOHN HEALEY AS FINANCE MINISTER The biggest single headline of today is the appointment of John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK equivalent of Finance Minister or Secretary of the Treasury, but with more power. A few months ago, when he was defense minister in the Starmer cabinet, Healey had been instrumental in starting the fall of Starmer by resigning in a dispute over increased defense spending, which Starmer had been too weak to impose on the then-Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who refused to increase defense outlays to the level required by the present strategic threat posed by Putin, with Russian warships infesting waters around the Britis Isles. Reeves is now out of the government, and Healey is back with a promotion. If we put together short public statements Burnham has made so far, the following picture emerges: Burnham today said that his policy of re-industrialization will be carried out through “public procurement,” which has to include a revival of key purchases and investments to restore the atrophied British defense industrial base, generating tens of thousands of jobs. Economic revival through defense spending (as delivered by FDR with his Lend Lease Program of 1941, which finally ended US unemployment) is now being carried out in Germany in response to the Russian threat, with auto plants being converted to manufacture drones and missile interceptors. Burnham’s promise of a ten-year plan, evidently a form of industrial policy or government dirigism, seems to go in this direction as well. If done correctly, this kind of emphasis could go far in neutralizing the threat posed by Trump and by Trump’s British clone Nigel Farage, the leader of the menacing Reform Party. Among the world leaders contacted by Burnham with telephone calls placed from the Prime Minister’s residence at Number Ten today were Ukrainian President Zelenski and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. Burnham pledged continuing support to Kyiv. Burnham also appears to realize that the 2016 Brexit secession from Europe (spearheaded by Farage) has been a colossal failure for Britain, so he is signaling intent to pursue a productive rapprochement. This seems to be included in his repeated calls for unity. TO FINANCE GOVERNMENT, TAX CITY OF LONDON FINANCE In the coming days, Burnham and Healey will outline how they propose to pay for their proposed reforms, in particular the expansion of the defense budget. The obvious path is to focus on taxing the City of London, the British banking, finance, and insurance complex which handles a colossal river of money every day, but has not been paying its fair share since the days of Thatcher. This will mean dumping the neoliberal economic theory favored by the oligarchs. The vibe from Downing Street is coherent with the American moderate leftism of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal. The Labour Party is a social democratic mass party based on labor unions that had to fight off an ultra-left infiltration by Trotskyite entrists of the Militant group in the early 1980s. Labour saved itself by expelling the top infiltrators.

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25 days ago

Germany raises terror threat to 'high', warns attacks could happen at any time – Firstpost https://t.co/mGzTMAvSYo

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25 days ago

Traders are increasingly betting against SpaceX just weeks after IPO https://t.co/Xd9sdBY6MK

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23 days ago

God help us! https://t.co/71C50xnY7j

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20 days ago

NYC attacker yelled 'Allahu Akbar' as he randomly stabbed two men near Central Park, according to victim, witnesses: commish https://t.co/tKSr1CUQiQ

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19 days ago

Anti-missile defense using directed energy weapons based on new physical principles is the wave of the near future.

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15 days ago

Iran has been attacking US personnel for years...

19 days ago

SUPPRESSED BY CORRUPT CORPORATE AND PUBLIC MEDA: CENTCOM COMMANDER ADMIRAL COOPER TESTIFIED TO SENATE ARMED SERVICES ON MAY 14 THAT IRAN'S TERRORIST PROXIES HAD ATTACKED US TROOPS AND DIPLOMATS OVER 350 TIMES, KILLING 4 AND WOUNDING ALMOST 200, IN THE 30 MONTHS BEFORE CURRENT HOSTILITIES STARTED FEB. 28; THIS REFUTES APPEASERS' CLAIM THAT IRAN POSED NO IMMEDIATE THREAT Admiral Brad Cooper: Iran-aligned “terror groups” attacked US troops and diplomats over 350 times in the 30 months prior to the war, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief said [May 14], adding that proxies have now been cut off from Iranian weapon supplies and support. “In just the last 30 months prior to the commencement of Epic Fury, Iranian-supported terror groups have attacked US troops and diplomats more than 350 times, the equivalent of an attack more than every third day, killing four US service members and wounding nearly 200 more,” Admiral Brad Cooper said as he testified before the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He added that the attacks are “the equivalent of an attack more than every third day, killing four US service members and wounding nearly 200 more.” "US Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and I am the 16th CENTCOM commander to deal with the Iranian problem set. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United States a core tenet of its rule." Since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran in late February, Iran-aligned militias have repeatedly targeted US interests in the region, including in Iraq where Washington has attempted to dismantle the groups.

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18 days ago

Iran's Hormuz toll proposal violates global trade norms | AP News https://t.co/UXVENtbeIt

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