Many Americans, particularly conservatives, insist they can’t tolerate an Iran where crowds chant “Death to America!” and label the US “the Great Satan.” Rarely, however, do they pause to consider why Iranians feel compelled to express such sentiments.
Barely a day or two into the US–Israeli war against Iran, the deaths of half a dozen American servicemen were announced under mysterious circumstances. Administration officials immediately called for revenge—offering, retroactively, the very justification for war that had never been convincingly provided to the American public beforehand.
As they always do, Democrats bent over so far to give credence to the Republican argument—this time, in favor of starting a war against Iran—that they wound up tacitly agreeing with them. Perhaps they never notice that Republicans never give credence to the other side, no matter what.
Under international law, war is legal only in cases of self-defense or an imminent threat of attack, such as an enemy army massed on your border. As Bush did before Iraq, the Trump Administration cobbled together a ludicrous string of theoretical what-ifs to argue that someday, perhaps, under some scenarios, Iran might threaten the U.S.
Last year, the U.S. bombed Iran and claimed to have “obliterated” its nuclear program. The CIA assessed that Iran was a decade away from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now Trump claims that Iran was just two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon and ICBMs. Either Trump lied, or Iran possesses the most remarkable scientific and construction capabilities on Earth.
Current poverty (living below half the median income in a given year) is associated with approximately 183,000 deaths among Americans aged 15+ per year (about 6.5% of total deaths in that age group). Cumulative/long-term poverty (persistent over 10 years) is associated with around 295,000 deaths in the same year (about 10.5% of deaths), making it the fourth-leading contributor to mortality, behind heart disease, cancer, and smoking. This places poverty ahead of factors like obesity, diabetes, drug overdoses, suicides, firearms, accidents, stroke, and homicide.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sports neo-Nazi tattoos yet holds a top job in the cabinet. ICE officers routinely murder, rape, and assault people they kidnap, with impunity. Prisoners who commit the same crimes must be wondering whether they can get jobs working for the government.
The Washington Post reports that Trump’s allies are encouraging him to declare a national state of emergency using alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election. The pretext would be used to nationalize the midterm elections this fall—which are constitutionally supposed to be run by the states—with ICE guarding and potentially blocking polling stations. It’s essentially a putsch attempt, or soft coup.
Protests against ICE prompted Republicans to revive their hoary 1960s-era complaints—utterly unsourced and demonstrably false—that protesters are “outside agitators” paid to march around and get beaten up by the police.
If you were around in 2002–2003, you remember that the George W. Bush Administration bent over backwards to get public support for their wars, even making up lies about weapons of mass destruction. Weirdly, Trump makes no effort whatsoever to convince or explain to the public why we should attack Venezuela or Iran or wherever.
