AWAY FOR A WHILE

 I just got back from a road trip with my son , so there was very little computer activity and it was awesome . Try it sometime . Unplug and be a human . I know it's rare these days , but it's worth it.

I'll start my incessant blathering with some positivity .

Trump’s Iran War Is Heading Toward ‘Strategic Defeat’ – NYT Analysis

August 2, 2026 Articles, Features

According to a New York Times analysis, US President Donald Trump's war on Iran is heading toward a strategic defeat. (Design: PC)

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By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

A New York Times analysis argues that six months of war have left the United States strategically weaker, with Iran retaining leverage over the Strait of Hormuz while America’s allies increasingly question Washington’s credibility and global leadership.

Key Takeaways

• The New York Times says the US has failed to achieve its principal objectives despite months of war.
• Analysts interviewed by the newspaper argue Iran has preserved its most important strategic leverage through the Strait of Hormuz.
• European and Middle Eastern allies are increasingly questioning US reliability as a security guarantor.
• The report concludes the conflict risks becoming another prolonged American war without a clear path to victory.

A New York Times analysis published on Friday argues that President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is increasingly ending in what Western analysts describe as a strategic defeat for the United States, with Washington failing to secure its political objectives despite months of military operations.

Citing former diplomats, security analysts and regional experts, the newspaper contends that the conflict has exposed the limits of American military power while eroding US credibility among allies and strengthening Tehran’s negotiating position.

Rather than forcing Iran into submission, the report argues, the war has left Washington confronting a more resilient adversary that continues to wield considerable influence over the Strait of Hormuz and remains capable of threatening US military assets across the region.

Military Campaign Falls Short

According to the New York Times, the United States has been unable to translate military superiority into strategic success.

Although American and Israeli strikes have degraded elements of Iran’s military capabilities, the newspaper notes that Tehran’s political leadership remains intact, while its nuclear and ballistic missile programs have been weakened but not eliminated.

At the same time, Iran continues to launch missile and drone attacks capable of threatening American bases and regional energy infrastructure, while maintaining effective leverage over one of the world’s most strategically important waterways.

The report argues that Washington now finds itself in a familiar position experienced in previous conflicts, possessing overwhelming military strength but lacking a clear political path toward victory.

Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based Chatham House think tank, described the outcome as “a strategic loss and an embarrassment,” telling the newspaper that the conflict has undermined confidence among countries that depend on the United States for their security.

Hormuz Emerges as Tehran’s Main Lever

The analysis identifies the Strait of Hormuz as Iran’s greatest strategic advantage.

Despite months of fighting, shipping through the waterway remains severely disrupted, while Tehran continues to use its missile and drone capabilities to pressure American interests and allied energy infrastructure.

The newspaper reports that negotiations between Iran and Oman over future arrangements governing the Strait have become one of the conflict’s most significant diplomatic tracks.

Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group, told the newspaper that Tehran now views Hormuz as its principal source of leverage in future negotiations with Washington, seeking guarantees against renewed military action before considering broader diplomatic agreements.

According to analysts cited by the report, any arrangement granting Iran lasting influence over navigation through the Strait would represent a major strategic setback for the United States.

Allies Losing Faith in Washington

Beyond developments on the battlefield, the New York Times argues that the conflict is reshaping how America’s partners view US leadership.

European governments, the newspaper says, increasingly question Washington’s consistency after a series of abrupt policy shifts under the Trump administration, while Gulf states are pursuing broader diplomatic relationships with Iran, China, Russia and Europe to reduce their dependence on the United States.

Vaez argues that Washington’s changing positions have produced what he describes as a “crisis of credibility,” leaving allies uncertain whether American military commitments or diplomatic agreements can be relied upon.

Niblett similarly told the newspaper that many governments now increasingly see the United States as a source of global instability rather than strategic order.

Growing Friction with Israel

The report also points to increasing tensions between Washington and Tel Aviv.

According to French security analyst François Heisbourg, senior US officials have become frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after expectations of a swift military campaign failed to materialize.

The prolonged conflict, the analysis argues, has weakened both governments while exposing disagreements over strategy and the costs of continuing the war.

A New ‘Forever War’?

The New York Times concludes that neither Washington nor Tehran currently appears capable of securing a decisive outcome.

While Trump continues to insist that sustained military pressure will eventually compel Iran to negotiate on American terms, Iranian officials increasingly doubt that any future agreement with Washington would be honored, citing previous US withdrawals from negotiated agreements and repeated military escalation during diplomatic efforts.

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation told the newspaper that Iranian leaders have grown deeply pessimistic about diplomacy with the current US administration, believing Washington’s shifting positions make any long-term agreement difficult to sustain.

The analysis ultimately argues that the conflict is settling into a cycle of intermittent truces and renewed escalation, raising the prospect of another prolonged American war without a clear exit strategy.

For the New York Times, the broader consequence extends beyond the battlefield itself: rather than reshaping Iran, the conflict is increasingly reshaping perceptions of American power, leaving allies questioning Washington’s reliability while its adversaries conclude that the United States has entered a costly war without a credible path to victory.

SHOULDA BEEN THERE

 

What can I say about this show other than you shoulda been there? Knife Manual were fucking great , Isolated Earthlings as well, Neurospazm killed it , The Fakies were amazing, getting the entire crowd to sing along with "Country Roads", I am so happy Ten Days Late are back and better than ever, and it was my first time seeing Dr.Know, which was basically Brandon Cruz on vocals, back with a Jak's Team supergroup starring Dustin, Mark Mor, and Willy . Fuck yes. It was excellent to see the old faces and meet some new ones too . I doubt I'll hit tonight's show, as that's enough for me for now . And good day to you.

GOOD TIMES AND GOOD PEOPLE

 I went to the first Jak's Team Reunion show last night , and it was an excellent time .

The sound was great , and the bands were awesome as well .

There was a lot of love (and alcohol) in the room , but to be fair , not everyone was drinking.

Everyone was there for the camaraderie and loud music . Fully Crazed and Hung Up killed it like they always do . See you at The Phoenix tonight !

LOOKING FOR A BETTER LIFE

 All over the world people flee war , hunger , and displacement in the desperate search for a better life , often caused by the rich imperialist powers .

The unleashing of the ice killers on migrants will not improve the lives of working class amerikkkans , no matter what the popular rhetoric is . So now the "legal" u.s. citizens can have all the fruit picking jobs, cleaning offices after midnight for less than minimum wage, and working in slaughterhouses? Nonsense.

Stop terrorizing migrants! Abolish ICE!

WW editorial

By Editor posted on July 14, 2026

Aurora, Colorado, June 9, 2026.

There has been no letup in the racist terror campaign by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) against migrants and communities of color. The latest outrage making major headlines is the July 7 murder in Houston of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant and father of three who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years. 

Salgado Araujo was not even who the ICE thugs were looking for, but an ICE agent fired multiple shots into his car. Araujo died at the hospital several hours after the shooting. He could be heard screaming, “They are killing me,” while ICE allowed him to bleed out in the street without any medical care. Araujo, a construction business owner, was on his way to a job site with three employees when ICE agents in unmarked vehicles stopped him over an alleged traffic violation.

Now, typically, the ICE terrorists are blaming the victim, saying Araujo “weaponized” his vehicle against them. All three passengers in the car, along with members of Araujo’s family, have independently disputed this absurd claim, for which no evidence has been produced.

Not only is the Houston community holding daily protests calling for justice for Araujo, but the Mexican government is demanding that his murder be brought before the United Nations.

This is not a case of the ICE agents being  “just a few bad apples.” The killing of Araujo was entirely consistent with the real mission of the fascist ICE — which is the mission of the whole capitalist state apparatus, one of repressing the working class and oppressed people. 

The late chairperson of Workers World Party, Sam Marcy, explained the class character of the state: “Whatever its form, its essence is determined by which class is dominant economically and consequently also dominant politically. In contemporary society, this means the rule of the imperialist bourgeoisie over the proletariat and the oppressed nationalities.” (“A Marxist Defense of the LA Rebellion,” 1993)

ICE is showing its true nature, not only by its murder of Araujo but in its aggressive roundups of over 2,000 people per day — a number that could likely increase. An example is the detention of two Detroit high school students in Buffalo, New York. Twin 18-year-old sisters Alexka and Angely Jerez-Medina were in Buffalo for a summer job until they were detained by ICE on June 24 and held at a detention center in El Paso, Texas. 

Activists in Buffalo have protested the detention and at least nine Michigan elected officials have demanded the students’ release, as have their pastor and teachers at Western International High School.

The ICE terror campaign has made immigrants afraid to go to work or school or attend religious services.

ICE — like the cops, the prisons, the courts and the whole capitalist state apparatus — can’t be reformed. Nor is the solution to replace ICE with some “kinder, gentler,” maybe a little less xenophobic version of itself. ICE must go!

Workers World joins with the thousands of protesters in Houston and all over the country in saying: “Abolish ICE!”

GARBAGE RESEARCH

 I just finished attempting to read Simon Sebag Montefiore's book called "Young Stalin".

I got through two thirds of it and put it down .

As a novel , it might have been entertaining , but as a work of scholarly research, it's trash.

When you have access to old russian archives , there is no need to speculate with "probablies" and "maybes" . Plus , this creep was far too obsessed with the sex lives of old Bolsheviks . There was speculation on every second page , with "she probably did this" or "he probably did that". I couldn't stand it any longer. It will be out of my house soon. This just shows, you can't trust the reviewers and critics .

LEARNING FROM OTHER VIEWPOINTS

 It's easy to just read something and smugly pick at and whine about how everything is full of shit. It's much more challenging to learn from opposing points of view , and even to trying to understand ideas you might completely disagree with. Learning is a positive thing no matter how it comes about.

An Appreciation for Bob Avakian's Article, FASCIST CRUELTY AND ATTACK ON EMPATHY VS. THE NEW COMMUNIST VIEW OF EMPATHY 

by Coco Das

July 13, 2026

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Bob Avakian's article FASCIST CRUELTY AND ATTACK ON EMPATHY VS. THE NEW COMMUNIST VIEW OF EMPATHY is a much needed scientific explanation of empathy and its role—where society goes without empathy and what its limitations are for getting humanity beyond this system of monstrous atrocity. As with all of Bob Avakian's (BA's) works, the title and the subheadings provide an important guide to understanding the article as a whole and his scientific approach to identifying and breaking down the key contradictions. The following is my attempt to engage with this article more deeply and record some of my thinking after reading it.

BA begins with the grotesque glorification of cruelty and violence by the Trump/MAGA movement, taken to weird and absurdist levels with the cage-fighting spectacle on the White House lawn. This is emblematic of all the terror the Trump regime has unleashed against immigrants and others here and around the world—in Venezuela and Iran (also in Cuba, where the power grid has totally collapsed because of U.S. sanctions and blockades.) Cuts to USAid has already caused over 500,000 preventable deaths, and the list of cruelties goes on and on. 

As BA points out, this cruelty—“and ritualized exhibitions of cruelty”—is an essential component of the fascist program and society they are trying to bring into being. Millions of decent people who feel, show, and at times act on their empathy for those under attack is a big problem for these fascists—with (mainly untapped and unrealized) potential to reach crisis levels that threaten the fascist hold on power. BA walks through how these fascists think the very idea of empathizing with oppressed people will “lead to the destruction of everything that this country must be about and everything that makes it ‘god’s chosen nation,’ which must rightly dominate the world.” Thus, they are compelled to attack the very concept of empathy. This view lines up well with the capitalist mode of production. BA ends this section with a discussion of the writer Ayn Rand’s ideological attack on altruism. Incidentally, when I was in high school in the 1980s, all of my male classmates were passing around copies of Ayn Rand’s books Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Read more   

BA contrasts that with the new communist view of empathy, an ability of human beings to identify with others’ suffering and pain, a positive social and moral value—which nevertheless cannot be “separated, or posed in opposition to, fundamental social relations.” BA’s example of the slave owner and the slave is illustrative: you cannot identify and sympathize equally with the slave and the slave owner without obscuring the relation of exploitation and oppression and the antagonistic interests of each side. The interest of the slave owner is to profit from the exploitation and maintain the system of exploitation, and the interest of the slave is to be free of their bondage. That doesn’t mean we should not try to scientifically understand the outlook of the slave owner—as part of understanding reality and struggling effectively to end the system of slavery. This sentence is extremely important: “Only when the historic objective of the communist revolution has been achieved—the abolition and uprooting of all relations of exploitation and oppression, everywhere—can empathy be applied with regard to people generally.”

Empathy is one value that helps us to care, to viscerally hate what is happening to people, and as BA has often put it, “you have to hate this,” meaning, you have to hate the horrors being brought down on the masses of people by this system. But empathy alone is not enough, especially when there is an actual way to understand the problem—the system of capitalism-imperialism—and the solution—a revolution based on the science of the new communism. 

The last section, “Emancipation, Not Revenge” reminds us of the fundamental goal and purpose of the new communist revolution. A refusal to equally identify with the exploiter and exploited does not mean that the “ends justify the means” or the tables are turned and “the last shall be first.” These ideas are motivated by revenge. Revenge will not lead to a society that is free of exploitation and oppression but would in fact lay the basis for the restoration of capitalism. Only a thorough and consistently scientific approach, which understands the need to seize state power and fights for that to be the basis on which a dictatorship of the proletariat would transition society and the world to communism, can get us to the kind of society where humanity can soar, to “—the emancipation of humanity as a whole from thousands of years of vicious exploitation and literally murderous oppression—emancipation from, and moving historically beyond, the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.”

Since I read this article, I’ve been thinking about the ideological attack on empathy as another aspect of the shared epistemology between the fascists and the woke identity hustlers. Although the woke view of empathy has different expressions, lacks state power, and does not celebrate and glorify cruelty against the oppressed, there are overlaps or perhaps a way they mirror each other. In woke culture, empathy gets attacked as “performative” or “appropriation.” There is a total disbelief that people from one group, usually the “privileged” group, can identify and sympathize with people from another group, especially a group they define as more oppressed. This calls into suspicion anyone who dares to put such empathy on display. In the woke worldview, such expressions of empathy cannot be real. They can only be a cover for self-interest, a desire to profit off the pain of others.

See:

Bob Avakian Opposing “Woke” Distractions and Obstructions

As BA has often critiqued, the rules of woke identity politics are arbitrary and constantly mutating—so who gets called out for a violation of their rules, i.e. “staying in their lane,” is often dictated by a woke mob and can seemingly come out of nowhere. An attack on the novel American Dirt, and the novelist Jeanine Cummins, is a good example of this phenomenon. American Dirt is about a middle-class Mexican woman who becomes the target of a drug cartel and is forced to flee with other migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. It was released to fanfare and positive reviews. But one rant by Myriam Gurba went viral, and soon an internet mob, largely made of other writers of Latinx descent, accused Cummins of capitalizing on migrant trauma under the guise of social justice literature. 

Along with the woke rules on empathy, a reactionary cancel/teardown culture revels in revenge and schadenfreude—a delight in the humiliation of others—led by an antiscientific epistemology where truth doesn’t matter: an epistemology that the woke and fascists have in common. Never aimed at the system, or even the fascist regime, woke culture identifies certain individuals as the embodiments of privilege who are neither permitted to express empathy nor receive any empathy if they are canceled. This reaches dangerously absurd levels with oppression Olympics stacking oppressions and pitting different oppressed groups against one another. 

The battleground of woke attacks on empathy is often the arts—where their derision of empathy is having terrible effects. But this is a problem all over, including in every struggle for justice, dictating who should or shouldn’t be out in the streets and dampening a sense of responsibility to unite and act together for a better world. The woke attack on empathy goes hand in hand with excuses to avoid the reality of other people’s suffering. There are other ways, especially in the “wellness community,” that empathy is not exactly derided but is used as an excuse. “I feel things too deeply, therefore don’t ask me to look at the pain and suffering of others!”

Together, the fascist and woke attacks on empathy are a lethal combination. One works on hardening the MAGA base, preparing them to be vigilantes and shock troops for the fascist regime, while the other divides and pacifies the decent people, who should be filling the streets to stop this fascism and lifting their heads to revolution to put an end to this whole horrific system. 

These are just some initial thoughts sparked by BA’s piece. I think engaging with this article is an important way to deepen our understanding of the dialectical relationship between the superstructure, especially in the realm of ideas, and the underlying mode of production—and how to wage the fierce ideological struggle necessary to bring forward a revolutionary people. 

THESE DISPLAYS ARE MUCH MORE THAN SYMBOLIC

 The next story shows how important it is for people to step up and do what's right . Of course it's gonna take more than kicking one filthy fuckface out of power , but this type of display is extremely important . This takes courage .

Air Force major demands Trump be impeached, is arrested

By Michael Kramer posted on July 17, 2026

Air Force Major Jason Watson at U.S. Capitol, July 1, 2026, before he was arrested by Capitol Police.

U.S. Air Force Major Jason Watson has been arrested by Capitol Police and is under investigation by the military after holding a press conference on July 1 on the U.S. Capitol steps denouncing the Trump administration and calling for the impeachment, conviction and removal from office of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

The press conference was attended by U.S. Rep. Al Green, an 11-term Democrat from Texas who is an African American. Green will be leaving Congress at the end of 2026 as his congressional district was recently eliminated when the Texas state Legislature gerrymandered the congressional districts, a move that reduces the likely number of Democratic and also non-white representatives, a racist maneuver.

Major Watson is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and has been on active duty for over 17 years. For full impact and symbolism, he wore his Class A blue uniform with all his awards and decorations at the press conference. He was most recently stationed at the NATO Joint Force Training Center in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Watson attacked the Trump administration for both its foreign and domestic policies. In addition to illegal wars, he described the prison-like immigrant detention centers, the suing of media organizations and colleges, the role of mega-donors, the trading of pardons for donations, the weaponizing of the Department of Justice and the attempt to reverse birthright citizenship.

After the press conference, he walked away from the gathering and stood alone on the steps of the Capitol holding a sign that read “Impeach-Convict-Remove.” Watson was then arrested for demonstrating without a member of Congress present. He was held overnight at the D.C. Central Cell Block. 

After a court appearance where charges were dropped, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations took Watson into custody. He is currently at a Level I confinement facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, located in Southwest Washington, D.C., and he is under a gag order.

That the Air Force is preventing Watson from speaking is reason enough to reproduce some of his July 1 statement here: “When the President of the United States orders military action against foreign countries … as was done with Venezuela, Cuba and Iran — that is an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause. … 

“When the President of the United States directs the Department of Homeland Security to deny hundreds of people due process before illegally detaining them and sending them to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses, that is a violation of our Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights. Most people sent to CECOT [a high-security prison in El Salvador, where the U.S.sends migrants] never committed any violent crimes in their lives but are being defamed as violent criminals as a pretext for the torture they suffer in El Salvador, paid for with U.S. taxpayer dollars. 

Watson stressed, “For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted and removed.”

Major Watson’s statement shows that he believes in the Constitution, the oath of office, democracy and more. His full statement, which can be found at freespeechforpeople.org, says so. He has put his pension at risk, as well as facing possible incarceration while he now navigates the intricacies of the military criminal justice system.

Many people, including this writer, agree that we cannot let Watson disappear into the system and will support his right to speak out — in or out of uniform.

Kramer is a member of Veterans For Peace Chapter 021 (Northern New Jersey) and served in the Israeli military (1972-75).