Semblance of Self

American Unionist & Multipolarist

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@ThrillaRilla369 Vault of erowid

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

People want to sell you on an “option.” We don’t need another insurance option. We need a GUARANTEE. That's what Medicare for All is.

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@detroitnews It would be stupid for him not to try… but the US is agreement incapable

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@freep As it should be

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@muhammadshehad2 She is absolutely doing it intentionally to avoid saying "Palestinian." Ain't no "keep in mind for next time" about it bro

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

If I’d been tweeting in 1968 it would’ve been all about Vietnam. In 1973 Chile, 74 Portugal 75 Vietnam again etc etc. People like me just hate Imperialism and its racist fascist godparents. It’s not hard to see why today we campaign for Palestine.

[Alexander Mercouris @AMercouris]

The US actually has an obvious way out of its disastrous war against Iran and the mess it finds itself in the Middle East and with the global economy:

(1) Send a proper negotiating team to meet the Iranians. Ditch Witkoff and Kushner.

(2) On nuclear enrichment take the deal on offer;

(i) a 5 year moratorium on uranium enrichment;

(ii) enrichment up to 3.6% thereafter;

(iii) dilution of the existing stockpile which however remains in Iran;

(iv) the return of the IAEA inspectors (surprisingly the Iranians apparently agreed to this before the war);

(v) no sunset clauses.

(3) Agree a full lifting of sanctions. This should be done immediately NOT in a phased way with the primary agent being the UN Security Council. By now the Iranians deeply mistrust any phased removal of sanctions and would probably not agree to it. Besides phasing the removal of the sanctions keeps the US tied in, when the whole objective should be to get out;

(4) Close the US Persian Gulf bases, which the war has exposed are useless and a stategic liability;

(5) negotiate a return to free transit through the Strait of Hormuz, returning to the situation which existed before 28th February. This may seem impossible but the pre war status quo actually suited the Iranians well and the US will have strong support from China and Russia if it pushes for it as part of a global agreement;

(6) negotiate security guarantees for both Iran and the Persian Gulf States, guaranteeing them against future attack, confirmed by a UN Security Council Resolution; and given by China and Russia as well the US.

(7) Agree to Russia and China acting as guarantors of Iran's commitments on enrichment (see (2) above). The Russians have already offered to do this multiple times and if asked the Chinese will agree also. Russia and China strongly oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons so they have every incentive to ensure Iranian compliance with their enrichment obligations.

The US has already dropped its demands for limits to Iran's ballistic missile programme, an end to Iranian support for Hezbollah, the Iraqi militias, and the Houthis and for sweeping internal changes in Iran, (see my video of yesterday).

There is no sense in harping on about Iran declaring that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. It has made that very declaration multiple times and is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This demand is otiose and silly.

In return insist that Iran drops its demand for reparations from the US. I don't believe the Iranians believe in this demand. They must know that the Americans will never agree to it, and wouldn't pay reparations anyway even if against all expectations they did agree to it. For the Iranians getting the sanctions lifted is the prize. The demand for reparations muddles the issue.

The US should also encourage the Iranians and the Gulf States to set up with each other some sort of regional security structure to safeguard peace and freedom of navigation in the Gulf. The Chinese and the Russians have suggested it and it serves the interests of all parties. However this is something the regional states must agree with each other. The US should not let itself get bogged down in negotiations on this issue.

The approach I have suggested not only extricates the US from an unwinnable war. It also provides for an agreement which satisfies the core interests of all parties. Objectively it is good for both Iran and the US.

The Iranians would see the end of the long economic siege they have endured since 1979, giving their economy a route to grow. They would also get some reassurance for their long term security, though there can never be a full guarantee of this in the Middle East.

The Americans would get strong guarantees that Iran will never become a nuclear power, something it doesn't appear to want to become anyway. They would also bring to an end their long debilitating entanglement in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, which is what ever since Obama announced a 'pivot to Asia' they have said they want.

None of this should be difficult to agree. An agreement that so obviously satisfies the core interests of all sides never is

What stands in the way is that in the US it would be presented as a defeat, even though objectively, in the long term, it should be seen as a deliverance. The 'hyperpower' cannot fail in a war, especially against a country like Iran, and even though 'victory' now looks unattainable, it must be sought anyway, regardless of cost.

Moreover in Israel such an agreement would be treated as a disaster, failing to achieve the obsessively desired objective of regime change in Tehran, so earnestly needed in order to achieve Israel's maximalist objectives, even though by now it ought to be obvious that this objective is unachievable.

So we will probably see the negotiations fail, if they take place at all, which to say the least, currently looks doubtful.

Instead of a perfectly attainable and mutually beneficial agreement we are therefore likely to see a long, pointless and extremely dangerous struggle, ending almost certainly in a US defeat, leading to a global economic catastrophe.

The lesson, which in Washington they never seem to learn, is that if you play for all or nothing, you risk ending up with nothing. That however is where we are heading at the moment

@MearsheimerJ
@TheGrayzoneNews
@LarrySonar21
@Glenn_Diesen
@ggreenwald
@Consortiumnews
@aaronjmate
@RnaudBertrand
@barnes_law
@RealPepeEscobar
@AXChristoforou

https://t.co/fk8WEAbvyG

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@MichelleMaxwell I found the inbred part of the internet

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

It’s time to eliminate the Pharmacy Benefit Manager industry.

PBMs don’t manufacture prescription drugs. They don’t dispense prescription drugs. They just extract profit from patients.

Let me explain.

[Alexander Mercouris @AMercouris]

The importance of this news is being underestimated. In my opinion it is epoch making.

China is apparently telling its refiners to ignore US sanctions and to conduct their business in disregard of them. In other words it is telling them that if the US comes for them because they are violating US sanctions, they have China's back.

If that expands to include other Chinese businesses, and sooner or later it surely will, the US sanctions era is over.

The US remains an enormous consumer market, but China holds the high cards. It is both the 'workshop of the world' and increasingly its high tech research institute and laboratory, and it is also rapidly becoming a major source of global investment capital. Trading with the US remains profitable and attractive, but not trading with China is not an option, even for the United States.

It goes beyond saying that if China opposes US sanctions they become unenforceable. It means that they become impossible, and the whole structure which has been created around them must end.

Fyodor Lukyanov, who is very well connected in Moscow, is saying the Chinese are undertaking a review to assess whether the US is, as the Russians say, 'agreement incapable'. If so then this decision points to the outcome.

@RnaudBertrand
@AXChristoforou
@TheGrayzoneNews
@RealPepeEscobar
@thecyrusjanssen

https://t.co/cxzpPKmbi2

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@ProudSocialist It’s a fakeout strategy. She’s their loyal servant, and they’ve directed her to say this to help sell the idea that trump is a madman à la the Nixon madman theory

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@mehdirhasan @GoodnightDonny Was there, in your opinion, a good thing about Joe Biden?

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@nxt888 American exceptionalism cannot simply be replaced by American nothingism. Without a positive identity, anyone would simply wither away. The American working class (of all races) must be proud of itself. Shame will not liberate us.

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@FOX2News How’s that Israel boot taste?

[Seyed Mohammad Marandi @s_m_marandi]

America is the Great Satan

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@SEIU SEIU should have continued to back Amir Makled, who beat the predator Jordan Acker, and has honorable and correct positions on the Middle East

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@nomodeath “I don’t think about you at all”

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@krystalball Eli Savit’s victory is one of the most noteworthy outcomes of the convention - a Jewish progressive candidate won.

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

@qing_yin19640 1

[Semblance of Self @semblanceofself]

I guess we’re now criticizing the Strokes’ for their Coachella display about Gaza and US brutality, because Lenin

[professional hog groomer @bidetmarxman]

@semblanceofself Why was it good?

Lenin reserved his sharpest critiques for opportunists within the social-democratic movement, which he referred to as demagogues.