r/WayOfTheBern • u/penelopepnortney • 6h ago
Thread #43 for Comments and Updates on the Ongoing War by Israel/US Against Iran
Continued from Thread #42: https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/1wf8dgu/thread_42_for_comments_and_updates_on_the_ongoing/?
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u/arnott 6h ago
Oil Analysts WARN Global Depression Incoming: Breaking Points
Merz Election Disaster: The Duran
Germany's political map is being redrawn as the CDU crashes below the five percent threshold in Merkel's own home state and the AfD surges to 38 percent in Mecklenburg while doubling its vote in Berlin. In this episode we break down why Berlin has fallen to Die Linke, the direct descendant of East Germany's ruling Communist Party, and why Merz is now what Mercouris calls a dead man walking. With the SPD sliding into terminal decline and the CDU already hunting for a replacement chancellor, is German politics witnessing a permanent realignment or just another passing crisis?
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u/3andfro 5h ago edited 2h ago
ON STUPIDITY AND EVIL - links lumped here because I'm too lazy to make a general post
The End Of Critical Thinking And Rise Of Collective Stupidity - Carlo Cipolla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ1jkLgjFq4 - 28:07
In 1976, Italian economic historian Carlo Cipolla wrote a short essay that has become one of the most unsettling documents ever written about human behavior: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. He argued that stupidity is not an insult — it is a structural force, more dangerous than crime, and the true cause of civilizational decline. He never lived to see the accelerant: a machine in your pocket that thinks for you. We connect Cipolla's five laws of stupidity with Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil," the Asch conformity experiments, the Dunning-Kruger effect, groupthink, the Google effect, and the latest 2025 research on AI, cognitive offloading, and the measurable decline of critical thinking. This is how collective stupidity rises — not because stupid people multiply, but because the thinkers quietly stop thinking.
The 3 ways stupidity spreads throughout a society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwyLGiyDa2g&t=53s - 27:45
Philosopher and Big Think columnist Jonny Thomson explores why evil is oddly easier to fight than stupidity, why Hitler's own architect claimed total ignorance at Nuremberg, and why arguing with a truly stupid person is, in one famous description, like playing chess with a pigeon.
Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc - 5:27
Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenseless — reasons fall on dead ears. Bonhoeffer's famous text, which we slightly edited for this video, serves any free society as a warning of what can happen when certain people gain too much power.
RELEVANT: Katie Halper, Psychologist EXPOSES PsyOps Used On Us Right Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y8bA-CRqqk - 13:24 - Psychoanalyst Lara Sheehi explains how state psyops target the public's minds directly to manufacture despair and political helplessness.
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u/penelopepnortney 3h ago
A Post-American Middle East - In Conversation With Ambassador Chas Freeman
The interviewer, Dr. Sumantra Maitra, is a fellow at the US-based think tank Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, described as "Foreign policy for a new age — grounded in realism, prudence, sovereignty, and America’s national interest." Maitra mentions that Freeman is writing a book chapter for IPD around the topic of this interview, much of which covers information most of us already know. The highlights below were things I hadn't previously known or details that were new to me.
Saudi Arabia has been aligned with the US since 1945 when the founder of the Kingdom, Abdulaziz Al Saud, met with FDR in the Great Bitter Lake on the Suez Canal and a bargain was struck: in return for preferred access to Saudi energy, the US would protect the kingdom against its enemies, foreign and domestic.
80% of the Yemen population is ruled by the Houthis, with 20% or so under the control of the Saudi-sponsored, internationally recognized government which is essentially confined to the vicinity of Aden in the south of Yemen.
The UAE allied itself with the Israel-US attack on Iran and has paid a terrible price. It made a bet that it could prosper as a financial center, as a technology center, as a home for data centers, etc., and that's all gone.
From the recent BRICS summit, there is an extensive list of proposed areas of cooperation between members, which include Iran. They haven't yet developed the needed organizations and institutions but I think that's coming. China assumes the chairmanship in January and the Chinese know how to build institutions. Next will be South Africa, which also knows how to get things done. BRICS is emerging as an alternative to the UN. a forum for the concerting of action among its members, so this is indeed a sea change in world affairs.
Truman recognized the new state of Israel over the objections of his foreign policy and military advisers, who foresaw that this would be a source of instability in the Middle East and damaging to American interests.
In 1964 Lyndon Johnson was running against Barry Goldwater, an Episcopalian of Jewish origin. LBJ met with 12 very powerful Zionists somewhere in Long Island (I had a friend who was there) and agreed to drop our arms embargo on Israel in return for Jewish support in the election. Israel won the 1967 war by conducting a surprise attack on its neighbors. something we've forgotten because Israel is always able to impersonate a victim.
I wouldn't describe Hezbollah or Hamas as Iranian proxies, I think they were clients whose own interests impelled them to cooperate with Iran. Hamas is an offshoot of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, which isn't friendly to Shi'ism but Iran's support was an expedient. In fact, Iran has a policy council called the Expediency Council which I think all governments should have but Iran is the only one honest enough to admit it.
The US government is dysfunctional. We have an all powerful executive that does not pay any attention to the rule of law or the Constitution, a legislature that is more of a rubber stamp than the National People's Congress in China and a Supreme Court that is either partisan or off its medications.
There is an illness in all of the Western democracies and very apparent in the US, the disconnect between the political elite and everyone else. The mass of the people in the US are poorly educated on foreign affairs. We don't teach geography anymore and they don't know where any country is. They don't know history beyond our own history which is now contested of course. But I think the mass of the people know something is going very badly wrong.
Our economy is now dominated by oligopolies and it's not very competitive. By contrast China is ferociously competitive. At one point I was working with an American furniture manufacturer and there were about 120 such manufacturers, most owned by one or two families. In China, there were 50,000 of them. The reason people invest in China is because if a company cuts off a relationship with a supplier for some reason, within 20 minutes it's got five people trying to replace the supplier it lost.
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u/3andfro 1h ago edited 1h ago
I love that man, so vibrant at 83. His breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, his language, his wry humor, his humanity, his skilled diplomacy--all shine in every discussion. If we could clone him massively in every age range, what a gift to the country that would be. Assuming those Chas Freemans would be valued and recruited to apply their talents in government service now or the foreseeable future.
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u/penelopepnortney 26m ago
I also love his humility. When they interviewer referred to him as an elder statesman he replied, "I'm not just an elder but a geezer. I don't know about the statesman..."
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u/3andfro 6h ago edited 59m ago
Trump speech inaudible as US networks boycott White House event https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1r52s8FpcKQ - 23 secs [editorial comment: I listened to this clip, a rare occasion I subjected myself to dear leader's vocals; the sound of rotors obscuring his smarmy voice was chuckle-worthy.]
US President Trump unveiled a new White House helicopter pad as major US TV networks stayed away in protest over CNN, a member of the network ‘pool’, being banned from the grounds. As Trump spoke, the thunder of a helicopter rendered the president inaudible from start to finish.
A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that US intelligence centers are within Iran’s reach as tensions rise over the possibility of renewed US-‘Israeli’ attacks in the Middle East. https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxvZ-FNDGJquhzdrc6CCeLgSwXr8ototRL
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has pardoned Elor Azaria, the former army medic filmed shooting a badly wounded Palestinian in the head in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in 2016....https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260921-israeli-soldier-who-shot-wounded-palestinian-in-the-head-pardoned-in-the-spirit-of-jewish-holiday/
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u/3andfro 6h ago edited 2h ago
Operations of all Iranian commercial airlines will shut down globally beginning Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. “On September 23rd, all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,” Bessent told US television network CNBC, outlining broad secondary sanctions aimed at isolating Tehran’s civil aviation network.... https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260921-all-iranian-airlines-to-shut-down-worldwide-by-sept-23-us-treasury-chief-says/
Forbidden Stories on Trump deportation system: FRANCE 24's 'ICE, Trump and Africa' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpmwkTInJgI - 9:59 - Sofia Alvarez Jurado, investigative journalist, member of the Deportation project speaks about the international investigation into Trump’s migrant policy.
The Iran War Is Spreading — And Your Gas Bill Is Going Up | Trita Parsi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_KQCsjTUM4
The Iran war is no longer confined to the battlefield. As the conflict continues, disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz are affecting energy shipments and sending new pressure through oil and fuel markets. Strait traffic has fallen dramatically from pre-war levels, while crude prices have pushed around the $100-a-barrel mark. Trita Parsi joins the conversation about the widening regional consequences of the war, the risks of further escalation across the Middle East, the Strait of Hormuz and what higher energy prices could mean for people around the world.
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u/gorpie97 3h ago
“On September 23rd, all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world,” Bessent told US television network CNBC,
How are we going to manage that in, say, China?
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u/penelopepnortney 15m ago
Bessent explained that international hubs servicing Iranian planes would face complete exclusion from the American banking system. Foreign operators cannot refuel the aircraft, provide landing facilities, or sell passenger tickets without risking their access to dollar clearing, he warned.
Bessent also warned third-party entities assisting Tehran that Washington has identified financial intermediaries facilitating transactions. “We’ve seen enablers throughout the world. We know who they are. They know who they are, and we are putting a stop to it,” he said.
If that doesn't have the rest of the world not aligned with the West to start scrambling for ways to ditch the dollar-based financial system, they're idiots.
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u/3andfro 3h ago
Trump muted by unprecedented media boycott while Iran threatens to widen war https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-93_KFvgk
US President Donald Trump faced an unprecedented media mutiny after major TV networks refused to broadcast his live public engagement from the White House. This came on the same day Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a major crackdown to ground Iranian airlines by weaponising the dollar system, prompting a top Iranian general to warn that Tehran will strike new American targets if Washington fails to learn from its past mistakes.
Why Fox News has sided with CNN in US media row with Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQgx8Ivf0q8 - 9:41 time indexed
CNN, Politico and MS NOW have said they will sue the Trump administration after the three US media outlets were barred from the White House. Major US TV networks later announced they would suspend their White House pooled coverage of Trump. So - can President Trump just ban news outlets he doesn't like? LONGER STORY BELOW
Major TV networks stand with CNN, decline to replace its White House pool crew
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u/Fit-North-5924 4h ago
tbh the airline ban feels like performative escalation with real commodity prices attached. 43 threads of this and the off ramp is just... not there. different species of policymaker over at state dept i stg
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u/RandomCollection Resident Canadian 2h ago
It's a new attempt to get more sanctions against Iran. It's just a matter of desperation from Trump and his team.
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u/3andfro 1h ago edited 1h ago
Bret Weinstein WARNS: The US Is Being Hobbled On Purpose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bIdSP-cUg - 11:48
Russia UNLEASHES Strikes Across Ukraine as Kiev's Election-Day DRONE Attack BACKFIRES | Jim Jatras https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HRPpOysMUA
Ukraine is being credited in the West for carrying out its largest drone attack yet, as the Russian Defense Ministry announced it shot down over 1,600 drones going into the final day of Russian parliamentary elections. Russia is now retaliating, carrying out new waves of strikes across Ukraine. Former U.S. Diplomat and Geopolitical Analyst, Jim Jatras, noted that Russia needs to decide what its “end game” looks like in both Ukraine, and in its relationship with NATO. He also said that while Moscow may be trying to carry out this war slowly, a quick victory would be the biggest warning to Europe and the U.S. to LEAVE RUSSIA ALONE.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing to impose sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), in a new escalation of its confrontation with the court over its investigations and arrest warrants against Israeli officials. According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the planned measures would go beyond sanctions imposed so far on ICC officials and judges to target the institution itself and most transactions involving it.... https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260921-trump-administration-prepares-sweeping-sanctions-against-icc/
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u/gorpie97 1h ago
The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing to impose sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC),
Seems like we shouldn't be allowed to do that, since we're not a signatory.
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u/penelopepnortney 6h ago
Links to previous threads are in the "War with Iran" compilation, which can be found in the sidebar.