Alistair Crooke update on MoA with Iran

https://www.youtube.com/live/LQz66eU-pgQ?si=WPFbO2MfWKQeAKcM

US-Iran meeting in Switzerland postponed

https://sonar21.com/us-and-iran-will-not-meet-in-switzerland-israel-derails-the-negotiation/

Alistair Crooke at The Cradle

https://youtu.be/1e00cv3DnI8?si=5yVx9JXUiIJamTEi

Text of the MoU with Nima and Larry Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/live/pDVwed9QDRk?si=hkvxeZELIza1f-4D

Richard Pape and Patrick Henningsen with Danny Haiphong

https://www.youtube.com/live/wMZpfLQx0zk?si=BspIia-6nGRJfet1

Pepe Escobar with Judge Napolitanoon the current state of MoU with Iran

https://www.youtube.com/live/hPaW0kHj7-0?si=c4pusxMvtXiahHU7

Alastair Crooke on the current pause in Iran war

https://www.youtube.com/live/eiEH9Lww67A?si=D4b0kOTFF76J_8tD More here https://strategic-culture.su/news/2026/06/15/post-iran-war-end-era-not-decline-but-as-trigger-abrupt-change/

Another peace deal?

Short take from Tita Parsi https://youtu.be/HjGp9vQnYnQ?si=5UsSUxYW6JpSCaKK https://sonar21.com/friday-catch-up-the-iranians-are-being-bamboozled-again/ https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-politics-iran-war-live-updates-iran-says-deal-with-us-wont-be-signed-sunday/live-coverage/8b0e8fdb068b9042e8a454c40787398a

Liability problems AI overviews

https://www.resultsense.com/insights/2026-06-11-google-ai-overview-liability-munich-ruling/

China supplying drones to Ukraine

https://youtu.be/vvZJfY3CaGU?si=8s1j7-fkad7HJ2F5

Robert Barnes on Trump’s state of mind

https://www.youtube.com/live/mdoNyGGEztI?si=6EKsBosPGaA21uCm

War is back, from Daniel Davis conversation with Alistair Crooke

https://www.youtube.com/live/pEHDc-UYi0U?si=laK0CYCsyknqsycw

Yves Smith on the current war on Iran

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/06/iran-war-us-launches-new-attacks-on-iran-using-bogus-pretext-with-iran-retaliating-swiftly-global-economy-destroying-long-conflict-looks-baked-in.html

Israel blocks aid to Gaza

https://www.youtube.com/live/UifdOag4SNY?si=h8C_4LKXLt6Yk2Fl

A long article on Yahya Sinwar

who changed middle east https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/yahya-sinwar-profile-hamas-gaza-war-israel (it may take a few arrempts to open the page). MENTIONED HERE https://www.youtube.com/live/LMoMQ3E0_JU?si=PrbQYyAEAEnJuMUt

Iran sends missiles to Israel with Mario Nawfal and Larry Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/live/C5_7c9mmWkI?si=7HlldXK-WpUJ1bPx

Economic attrition game?

According toThe Duran it may be another four months https://youtu.be/vq62yMGdAiQ?si=gBuK9ARx8H0Pz0ic

Two updates from Judge Napolitano

colonel Wilkerson says that it is likely that Iran has nukes https://www.youtube.com/live/QV5jW_KRyKA?si=djszyg2JiTSqMB-H Douglas Macgregor on the general situation with Iran https://www.youtube.com/live/vOjEQTXT9kQ?si=rwC-jd86TjOZphqh

Does Iran have a nuclear bomb?

https://www.youtube.com/live/yLSrunuWrns?si=03dsSztQmB_sTJUe

Long discussion from Mario Newfal with Malcom Vance and Aquilar

lot of intereting details from milirary experts https://www.youtube.com/live/DNBm2pmuXc4?si=9q0natIn4GJFOeWe

Hua Bin on indianization of the west

https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/when-argument-becomes-opium-amartya

A crucial escalation? Iran Abandons Talks & Threatens to Retaliate Against Israel

https://youtu.be/e03waQsmDkY?si=-gVRM665Zuai7keX

Yves Smith daily update suggests no peace in sight in the war on Iran

But i doubt whether Trump will go for a big attack. it may slow burn escalation https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/06/iran-war-iran-rejects-trump-claims-that-deal-is-near-as-us-counterproductively-toughens-terms-hotter-tit-for-tat-strikes-threaten-ceasefire-what-if-trump-continues-to-stall-when-hitting-energy-clif.html

US to merge with IDF?

From Colonel Karen Kwiatowski https://www.youtube.com/live/GzE2NkgQKa4?si=SuUBa-9qUujaiBqo From Robert Barnes https://www.youtube.com/live/LPdeT4kf0HU?si=ToK0ueSr8JpsCZ2V

Rapid change since the previous video

BREAKING: TRUMP NEW MILITARY OPERATION IN HORMUZ. But there is no confirmation of the initial news from other sorces so far. https://www.youtube.com/live/NdTYQxuGW_w?si=krdU2P9BCj4-FDni

Anthony Aguilar on possible developments in Hormuz

A strategic blunder https://www.youtube.com/live/-B78m8F_2SQ?si=HDccpsJY2hIEZhmP

Update by Alastair Crooke via Danny Haiphong:Iran Effect

https://www.youtube.com/live/f0VoPB6mncU?si=I1FUvIuNr49Zwemd

Scott Ritter:Why Bother to Negotiate With Trump?

https://www.youtube.com/live/7u8xEdmI_hQ?si=6uLYUls_ucNC6dK4

Pressures on Trump

from Robert Barnes https://www.youtube.com/live/1eAZc0q6MPs?si=OEM207rH8panV5bi

Daniel Davis with Alastair Crooke

https://www.youtube.com/live/jyVazLRejw8?si=3M2oOzTHD9pzbROl

Colonel Doug Macgregor overall picture

of the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine https://youtu.be/UVuGUf0paEw?si=Fn1h2PPKC29MgntA

Netanyahu Trump discussion

https://youtu.be/QyjCvosMrOU?si=_YGzHv1X-s7W9P9W

Two on the escalation of Ukraine Russia conflict

Mark Sleboda https://youtu.be/hWsb25VYodI?si=ExamwcBq59PIDfp7 Stanislav Krapivnik https://www.youtube.com/live/q5l_vCHU4xI?si=75cX_7I_lDYia20a

Larry Johnson discusses Israel explosion, Iran and Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/live/kIlLKqPzY8Y?si=Y9nUXeTkeIkKDXBq

Scott Ritter on the current state of war from Iran to Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/live/Y0W2vpjIQoM?si=5Q41b-mvph9zb8yn

Photographs of mathematicians

https://old.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/whos-that-mathematician-paul-r-halmos-collection-introduction-page-1

Michael Hudson on US designs on Iran

one problem seems to be that Iran still has US trained economists https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/05/michael-hudson-us-designs-on-iran-and-the-trump-xi-summit.html ond problem seems to be that Iran (like many other countries) still has US trained economists. see also https://sociology.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/faculty/fourcade/AJSII.pdf

Book review by JohnLancaster on money laundering books

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n09/john-lanchester/squillions

Civilization at the Crossroads with Alastair Crooke (Full Interview)

https://youtu.be/MGnJEb4sXwM?si=gLcSq3FjfhMX3MPE

Colonel Larry Wilkerson discusses what empires do

MacArthur, there is no substitute for victory. Go to hell, Doug. That's not what empires do. Empires simply hold the world at bay and fulfill their monetary, economic, and other interests, mercenary interests, and that's all you can expect. And you fuel the complex that keeps those wars going on because that's what you want to do. You want to be constantly at war, but you don't want anyone to defeat you in the traditional sense So, it's not really a metric you can use to judge the empire by winning or losing wars. It's no longer consequential in the scheme of things for Rome. But the empire has not achieved any of its stated goals. Well, it has achieved a few. It has gotten a barrier of conflict. That's what I'm calling it now. A barrier of conflict. What's that? From the Arctic Ocean all the way a barrier of conflict. Not barrier to conflict of conflict. Conflict all the way from north of Manask in the Arctic Ocean where we're doing things the American people and our media aren't reporting don't know anything about. We're all the way through the Baltic where we're still agitating around all the way through Ukraine. all the way down to Georgia where we're still trying to overthrow that government. Other governments in the Caucasus are now being impacted by that too, down to Iran, the biggest and latest chapter in this axis of crisis and disturbance. And all this is designed to put a wall up against further Chinese and Russian now infiltration into Eastern Western Europe and ultimately across the Atlantic and into the North American continent. That's what it's all about. From https://www.youtube.com/live/Ai48FpArr8Q?si=eToagy_XiXWWJb_n

Nima with Colonel Anthony Aguilar discusses Lebanon and other things

https://www.youtube.com/live/4m5yv6gKM4Q?si=JB0-sluLQtU4JqMS

Modi going to visit UAE

https://youtu.be/WXEipD96V14?si=NVVpfj6L9sMtVBgn

India again in this Janta Ka Report and timesaxis

https://youtu.be/D-yXi1geTiI?si=XXF-ROT4QfDKa8y6 https://youtu.be/7ZMrwGTMdm8?si=FiaqXmjE8hTSfL6Z mlfd today from Bhadrakumar https://www.indianpunchline.com/indias-quasi-alliance-with-israel-and-uae-wont-have-happy-ending/

Scott Ritter discusses the current situation in Iran and also discusses India at the end

https://www.youtube.com/live/euTjsj7OonU?si=POqldmnh-fF0S4zu I am not optimistic about India because I don't think India there India hasn't made a strategic decision yet. Remember India was in 1:01:301 hour, 1 minute, 30 secondsIsrael making common cause with the Israelis right before this war started. 1:01:351 hour, 1 minute, 35 secondsum that doesn't sit well and India is problematic when it comes to China and Pakistan. I mean Pakistan 1:01:431 hour, 1 minute, 43 secondsI think Pakistan is one of the great superstars of this crisis. The the leadership that Pakistan has shown the maturity that Pakistan has shown the 1:01:511 hour, 1 minute, 51 secondsability of Pakistan to um work with the United States, with China, with Russia, with Iran um and others to to create the 1:01:581 hour, 1 minute, 58 secondspotential for a diplomatic solution. If ever there was, you know, an entity that deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, if if this if this 1:02:081 hour, 2 minutes, 8 secondscan if if if this conflict can be brought to an end, I think the Pakistani leadership deserves collectively the 1:02:151 hour, 2 minutes, 15 secondsNobel Peace Prize for the role they played in making peace possible. Um because it's amazing what they've done. 1:02:211 hour, 2 minutes, 21 secondsUh superb diplomacy. Um but you know, India is problematic. I mean, India is a problem child. It's big. It's powerful. 1:02:301 hour, 2 minutes, 30 secondsUm but they don't know where they want to be in the world and as long as India is indecisive like that. Now maybe this 1:02:371 hour, 2 minutes, 37 secondsmeeting will you know be the beginning of India's you know transition to being serious about bricks 1:02:451 hour, 2 minutes, 45 secondsbut right now India is not serious about bricks not serious at all. and he is more serious about uh you know G20 1:02:521 hour, 2 minutes, 52 secondsviability and uh you know hoping against hope to get an invitation into the the G7 um which will never 1:03:001 hour, 3 minuteshappen. Um you know India's also continues to lobby for relevance at the security council and they feel they need the United States uh support to uh to 1:03:091 hour, 3 minutes, 9 secondsget that. So India is is is putting far too much weight on a relationship with the United States that's no longer 1:03:161 hour, 3 minutes, 16 secondsglobally relevant. Um I mean the bottom line is India's future must be with repairing relations with China and um https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euTjsj7OonU

Alastair Crooke update on Iran

https://www.youtube.com/live/IUeHkLFFpEI?si=FAISdYQNKu_VUQRL

An interesting discussion with Robert Barnes and Krapivnik

Trump is America's new Golden Calf https://youtu.be/eD3U_MtTkk4?si=SmzLqDwIxvBIt0lV

MoA:War On Iran: – Saudis Blame Israel – Neocon Grandee Concedes Defeat

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/05/war-on-iran-saudis-blame-israel-neocon-grandee-concedes-defeat.html

Professor Marsndindescribes the latest naval encounter near Oersian gulf

early in the video https://www.youtube.com/live/RDvZv4mZTlg?si=LWYOE3K1wcQSJNGX

Laith Marouf discusses Lebanon and the fraud between UAE and Saudi Arabia

From 24 minutes onwards, Laith Marouf describes the origin of UAE, Qatar and how the ruling families are branches of the Saudi Royal family which is leading to the current fauds https://www.youtube.com/live/gGc-ym4-gpQ?si=6Xh8hW8rUhv_lOKE A quick search does not agree with Marouf's assertion. From Quora: Key points and clarifications “Blood relation” in Gulf monarchies usually means close patrilineal descent or first/second-degree kinship. The major ruling houses (Al Saud, Al Thani, Al Nahyan, Al Khalifa, Al Maktoum) each descend from different tribal lineages; they are distinct dynasties rather than offshoots of a single immediate family. Intermarriage: political marriages between ruling families and elite clans are common. These create marital ties (in‑laws, cousins by marriage) but do not imply close direct blood descent between the sovereigns unless specifically documented. For example, members of UAE ruling families sometimes intermarry with other Gulf royals, producing bilateral kin connections at the extended-family level. Distant tribal ancestry: many Gulf dynasties share broad Arabian tribal origins going back centuries. Those shared roots explain cultural and historical affinity but do not constitute close genealogical kinship among current rulers. Practical implication: there is no simple close-blood relationship (father/son, brothers, first cousins) tying the current heads of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Bahrain together. They lead separate dynasties with occasional marital ties and distant tribal commonality. From https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-blood-relation-between-the-leaders-of-Qatar-Saudi-Arabia-Abu-Dhabi-U-A-E-and-Bahrain

Roy Unz on Trump’s state of mind

https://www.unz.com/runz/has-president-donald-trump-lost-his-mind/

Progress in SMO with Stanislav Krapivnik

https://youtu.be/o1mHo6f1a-k?si=3tuNJJkNns8FL578

Iran update from Danny Haiphong

https://www.youtube.com/live/A4r0aOVtmvY?si=z4JmnDT8-FiJ10cR

Two Russian commenters with US experience discuss current wars

https://youtu.be/4RVRTaPZSfg?si=WdHvoNLwo6zNqMyv

From C.Wright Mills

The Power Elite (1956) describes the relationships among the political, military, and economic elites, noting that they share a common world view; that power rests in the centralization of authority within the elites of American society.[61][page needed] The centralization of authority is made up of the following components: a "military metaphysic", in other words a military definition of reality; "class identity", recognizing themselves as separate from and superior to the rest of society; "interchangeability" (they move within and between the three institutional structures and hold interlocking positions of power therein); cooperation/socialization, in other words, socialization of prospective new members is done based on how well they "clone" themselves socially after already established elites. Mills's view on the power elite is that they represent their own interest, which include maintaining a "permanent war economy" to control the ebbs and flow of American Capitalism and the masking of "a manipulative social and political order through the mass media."[59][page needed] Additionally, this work can be described as "an exploration of rational-legal bureaucratic authority and its effects on the wielders and subjects of this power."[48] President Dwight D. Eisenhower referenced Mills and this book in his farewell address of 1961. He warned about the dangers of a "military-industrial complex" as he had slowed the push for increased military defense in his time as president for two terms. This idea of a "military-industrial complex" is a reference to Mills' writing in The Power Elite, showing what influence this book had on certain powerful figures.[62] From the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Wright_Mills Another by Frank Elwell https://web.archive.org/web/20220519122501/http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Mills/SocMills.htm

Are the elites the same everywhere? From a post in Dialogue works.

Lawrence Wilkerson after about 28 minutes: six years ago I guess now, maybe a little longer, a report well done participating in by some Iranians in Iran at the University of Iran. Um, and the report showed how much money oil sales generated for Iran on a fiscal year basis in US dollars. And then it showed how much the IRGC took out of that fabulous amount of money. They were taking about one quarter of the Iranian budget, most of it generated from oil sales,oil and gas. And the implication was strong when you just did simple things like analyze the number of people in the RGC leadership and the amount of money being and essentially taken away from the Iranian government which could have been used for social programs for food you know any any number of things that would have benefited the Iranian people was going to the RGC and then when you read further in the analysis it wasn't going to the rank and file of the RGC. was going to the leadership. So that is a problem within the chemistry if you will I suspect of Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ij0cWArw0&t=3292s

Patrick Henningsen with Danny Haiphong

https://www.youtube.com/live/jlIJefVCjAI?si=LQcuhuDDcG6cIPwJ They're using the US military as a kind of ad hoc kind of you know 18:1218 minutes, 12 secondsmodular mercenary force that's really kind of been commandeered by a foreign government if you think 18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsabout it. Um we're talking about the state of Israel.

Alastair Crooke comments on the current state of the Iran confrontation

https://www.youtube.com/live/o-P_gUeA5Zo?si=rwH9MpKFVYXYxWcr

The Duran: How Iran and Ukraine Exposed America's Limits w/ Garland Nixon

https://youtu.be/QIkzOy-jeqE?si=HSune9QWlaXofASg

Iran elected to a position to review NPT

https://youtu.be/SpNz7q_klA0?si=IyVGv_o0MFVwKNm3

Robert Inlakesh on the background for the current Iran conflict

https://youtu.be/Xs2DH0YW6sw?si=_wmQ9n-UlrFJKMki

Alastair Crooke on Iran’s strong position

https://youtu.be/OW3_a-oUrVQ?si=Oc0NEz3_z3_cpTPT

Radhika Desai talks to experts on Venezuela

https://youtu.be/cgvDpMxTfF0?si=JYZcgCj0Nk4L0tO0

Brian Berletic update

His theory is that US is in contril not Israel https://youtu.be/j8UVRmjJB5o?si=c6UBgAkHm_OtNEL5

Robert Barnes on Trump’s options with Daniel Davies

https://youtu.be/zia-lulyoxA?si=x1-eB_kMy21eVzuE

Alexander Mercouris: Israel scents victory….

https://youtu.be/MLOfpI_5b_o?si=dk50zwQTWbXktxr-

An update from The Forum and Friends

https://www.youtube.com/live/emVa4Af_Jus?si=JJPDx-ANGYgfwDya

Update from Janta Ka Reporter:Trump extends ceasefire indefinitely as Iran refuses to join peace talks

https://youtu.be/1g7-i_0MIjg?si=JuWR3Do_9BS33ocD

An update from Colonel Macgregor:No Peace - U.S. Prepares for 'Total War' Against Iran

https://youtu.be/1AZPNUaXJ-k?si=c_k6NNDgfrPtq4-O

Scott Ritter on the nuclear possibilities in Iran war

https://www.youtube.com/live/QRkC8xniXkQ?si=E0g4AzrE9QiKVT9a And others https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/04/war-on-iran-signs-point-to-escalation.html#comments Scott Ritter with Stanislav Krapivnik https://youtu.be/9DOT41hsMZM?si=ZJM1AgW8zO4I5rrk

Yves Smith updates on Trump’s mental state from yesterday

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/04/iran-war-mad-king-trump-strait-of-hormuz-closed.html

Iran update from Janta Ka Reporter

https://youtu.be/V7VYZz09ywE?si=f--73W7uZkp2YQEz

An update from Stanislav Krapivnik

https://youtu.be/gxOkbc2Gkt0?si=HXZBfDzBdEpPBjym

Colonel Larry Wilkerson on the grim possibilties

with Rachel Blevins https://youtu.be/AanatE0W6Mw?si=NnEA5fdVV_boJuA5

Update on Iran war from Janta Ka Reporter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_m34i3rDC8

NamitArora on Indian caste system

https://youtu.be/pvYqORZaxe4 My comment:It is good as far as it goes. There seem to be some issues that are neglected. One of these is the internal life of the groups involved. As an example I would point out a relatively recent concept; the so called American exceptionalism. This has been mentioned by various American politicians and seems to be prevalent among many Americans. I think that there are similar things in caste groups. One of these is mentioned by Johannes Bronkhorst in ‘How the Brahmins won’. Through a period of reflection when they lost power, the Brahmins focussed on their internal life and much of their literature during that period was focussed on their internal life. They developed attitudes which helped them with loss of power and attitudes which helped them cope and keep their feeling of superiority(?’). This led to them being exampled to others too, probably resulting in some sort of sanskritisation. Thesecond point neglected is the the development of internal discipline; for example in the oral transmission of vedas over centuries and the corresponding attitudes that resulted in the particular group. Even if they did not understand what was transmitted, the discipline and ritual of repetition with exact pronounciation must have had long term effects. The third is adoptibility which is mentioned system palatable to others. to some extent , adopting the local gods goddesses beliefs in to their own system and making their

The status of the US blockade of the Straits of Torbuz from Janta Ka Reprter

https://youtu.be/z16NNth4A4Y see also https://youtu.be/XazEaPWjuvM

Alastair Crooke at Judging Freedom

situation fluid but this is the general trend in the sites that i follw https://www.youtube.com/live/LJaEyk9eeV8?si=YbV-Zbifq2EQnsEz https://youtu.be/WJ5W8or1C1U?si=O2_jRjM-qtD74CiX

The American game according to Richard Medhurst

This may explain why Modi chose US-Israel side https://youtu.be/0nt1CgQsgpI discussion at MoA in the comments https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/04/war-on-iran-loser-tries-setting-terms-the-strange-idea-of-blockading-blockaders.html

US-Iran negotiations in the hands of two billionaire politicians

says Bhadrakumar https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-iran-negotiations-are-safe-in-the-hands-of-two-billionaire-politicians/ Russia too seems to have used a billionaire in some of gheir negotiating teams

Tucker Carlson with Alastair Crooke

Crppke comes after the first hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5aKtwQByXw

So so ceasefire, Professor Maranda with Glenn Diesen

https://youtu.be/4JLpmWX_Eu8

The key moment: Alastair Crooke with Glenn Diesen

https://youtu.be/1wMB1oSrqvo

Colonel Macgregor with ‘Times Now’

https://youtu.be/x8dY_6anDYY

Scott Ritter on saving the colonel and future possibilities

future possibilities after 27 minutes seems plausible. https://www.youtube.com/live/WLZquiY3rug?si=hM9lhs_vZrhdOJc9

Not a day without some dangerous nonsense

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/05/trump-iran-threats-politician-reactions

Yves Smith daily report on Iran war

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/04/iran-war-disaster-in-iran-as-multiple-aircraft-downed-pilot-missing-iran-pounds-israel-hard-after-trump-asks-for-48-hour-ceasefire-concerns-in-military-and-congress-over-purge-of-war-cautious-offi.html

Ramarao Kanneganti on the tendency of systems to preserve themselves

Ramarao Kanneganti Facebook post in Telugu. https://www.facebook.com/ramarao The translation from the comments: Any system, whether social, political, or economic, has a tendency to preserve itself. If it does not, it disappears. Over time, systems evolve rules that stabilize and protect them, sometimes deliberately, often gradually. These rules come from many places. History, culture, religion, habit, and circumstance. Some reflect real constraints. Traffic must be regulated. Contracts must be enforceable. Others arise in particular contexts and then persist long after those contexts have changed. But once rules are in place, they acquire authority. They stop appearing as choices and begin to feel like facts about the world. As Thomas Hobbes argued in Leviathan, the alternative to a system of rules is not freedom but disorder. Life becomes “nasty, brutish, and short”. Without a shared framework, social life becomes unstable. So we accept rules, even imperfect ones, because they allow coordination. You can see this in ordinary life. In the United States, the tax system is complex and often opaque, yet widely followed because it sustains the functioning of the state. In India, the government can be frustrating, but it enables coordination across a large and diverse society. In both cases, the system persists not because it is elegant, but because it works well enough. So far, this is about order. But rules also shape outcomes. Over time, they distribute advantage. Some groups benefit more than others. This is not always planned with major foresight. It often emerges gradually. But once patterns of advantage appear, those who benefit tend to reinforce them. Rules harden and begin to feel natural. Anatole France captured this clearly: the law, in its equality, forbids both rich and poor from sleeping under bridges. The rule is the same. The effect is not. There is formal equality, but not practical equality. At this point, we need a deeper explanation for why such arrangements endure. This is where Antonio Gramsci is useful. His idea of hegemony suggests that systems do not survive only because they are enforced. They survive because they are accepted. Over time, people come to see the system not as one arrangement among many, but as the natural order of things. What began as a set of rules becomes 'common sense'. This helps explain why inequity can persist for long periods. People do not simply endure it. They interpret it in ways that make it acceptable or at least understandable. Systems provide explanations, and those explanations matter. For example, why do people accept inequality? In the United States, for example, large differences in income and wealth are often explained through ideas of merit and effort. These explanations are not entirely false, but they do not capture the full picture either. Yet they persist because they provide a coherent way to understand outcomes within the system. All of this together made the system hegemonic. It did not rely only on enforcement. It was reproduced through everyday practice and shared understanding. This does not make it just. It explains why it endured. So systems persist through a combination of structure, culture, and belief. However, this persistence has limits. To understand those limits, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is helpful. In The Social Contract, he argues that a system is legitimate only if it reflects a shared will. Authority is not justified merely by maintaining order. It must be seen as representing a collective interest. Inequity, by itself, does not immediately invalidate a system. It can grow for a long time while the system continues to function. People adapt, justify, or work around it. But as inequity grows, its effects become more visible. The gap between the formal rules and their actual consequences becomes harder to ignore. Explanations that once seemed plausible begin to feel strained. At the same time, opportunities for movement within the system may narrow. When these conditions combine, people begin to question whether the system still reflects a shared interest. Laws and institutions may continue to operate, but they are no longer experienced as belonging to everyone. They appear to serve particular groups. In these changes, education plays a major role. Literature too. Revolutions usually are the result. This is how the social contract weakens. Not suddenly, but through a gradual loss of belief. To be clear, Inequity alone does not automatically lead to breakdown. Some unequal systems persist because they maintain legitimacy, adapt to pressure, or prevent coordination among those who are disadvantaged. Inequity becomes destabilizing when it is widely visible, when it cannot be convincingly justified, and when people feel that effort within the system does not lead to meaningful change. Under those conditions, acceptance gives way to skepticism, and skepticism to resistance. So: Systems create rules to stabilize themselves. Rules shape outcomes and distribute advantage. Over time, systems become embedded in culture and accepted as natural. Stability depends on material conditions, shared belief, and the ability to adapt. When inequity grows and legitimacy weakens, that stability becomes fragile. Where does this leave us in terms of political ideas? Liberalism focuses on fairness at the level of individuals. John Rawls’s veil of ignorance asks us to design a world without knowing where we will end up in it. Conservatism focuses on stability. Change should be gradual and tested. Stability itself is a hard-won achievement. Both are trying to manage the same tension. Fairness and stability. There is another perspective as well: The tension between openness and protection. Openness to markets, migration, and change on one side, and a desire to preserve stability, identity, and continuity on the other. But beneath both lies the deeper issue we have been tracing. A system can function with a considerable degree of imperfection. It can tolerate complexity, inefficiency, and some level of unfairness. What it cannot sustain indefinitely is a broad loss of belief in its legitimacy. Reducing inequity, then, is not only a moral concern. It is also a structural one. It helps maintain the sense that the system reflects a shared interest and that participation within it remains meaningful. Without that, institutions may continue to operate and rules may still be followed. But the underlying contract weakens, and the system gradually loses its coherence. What we are witnessing in the US, and broadly around the world is this phenomenon of loss of legitimacy. Conspiracy theories spread through social media accelerate the trend. The fundamental challenge is inequity and inequality

A different discussion from Graeber institute: Starvation ahead

https://www.youtube.com/live/8s0ss4nCR7g?si=A2ZFkRLDmHsN3OOY another https://youtu.be/F5ySyr-hQ3U?si=TGkhUGy34tRUxd-O

From Robert Kagan, husband of Victoria Newland

America is now a rogue superpower'https://archive.md/aZrz9 commentary by Simplicius https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sanctity-lost-even-neocon-pantheon

Karbala, Mohyal Brahmins*, and the Spirit Driving Iran’s Defiance

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10234041695812852&set=a.10202364730428515 see also Rahul Singh Gautam's comment: In contrast to its organic emergence in Arabia, Islam’s arrival in Persia in the 7th century CE was a cataclysmic event. The Arab conquests (633–651 CE) toppled the Sassanid Empire, one of the ancient world’s great powers, and introduced Islam to a civilization with millennia of philosophical, literary, and religious tradition. Unlike Arabia, where Islam built upon existing cultural frameworks, in Persia, it dismantled them. Zoroastrianism, the dominant religion of pre-Islamic Iran, had shaped Persian ethics through its triad of “good thoughts, good words, good deeds”. Its dualistic cosmology, emphasizing the struggle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Ahriman), provided a moral and metaphysical foundation for Persian society. The Achaemenid (550–330 BCE) and Sassanid (224–651 CE) empires, renowned for their administrative genius, architectural splendor, and religious tolerance, represented a civilizational high point. Yet, under Islamic rule, these legacies were marginalized, labeled as jahiliyyah, the age of ignorance, a term that dismissed pre-Islamic Persian achievements as barbaric. Iran’s disillusionment is rooted in a collective memory of what might have been. Unlike the Arab world, which sees Islam as the culmination of its historical trajectory, Iran has never stopped imagining an alternative path. The revival of Zoroastrianism, though practiced by fewer than 25,000 Iranians, symbolizes this longing for a pre-Islamic identity as a rejection of Islamic hegemony. No comparable civilizational rupture exists in the Arab world. Even Arab secularism operates within an Islamic cultural grammar. From Ba’athism to post–Arab Spring political experiments, Islam remains the unquestioned civilizational backdrop. For Arabs, Islam is not experienced as an imposition but as an origin story. For Iranians, it remains a foreign layer, internalized, institutionalized, yet never fully reconciled with a deeper sense of self. This is why Islam functions differently in Iran than anywhere else in the Muslim world. In Arab societies, Islam anchors identity. In Iran, it constrains it. What the Arab world regards as continuity, Iran experiences as displacement. And until that civilizational tension is resolved, Islam in Iran will remain not a source of belonging, but a reminder of what was lost

Craig Murray visits Venezuela

" The claims that Rodríguez wants this, still more that she engineered this, are nuts." https://orinocotribune.com/the-weight-on-delcy-rodriguez/ "I have now spent a total of six weeks in the country over two trips, talking to students, diplomats, union leaders, commune activists and people inside the government – and a great many barmen. What I have seen and heard convinces me of one thing above all: Delcy Rodríguez is not a traitor. She is a socialist doing the only thing possible to her in this impossible situation — buying time for the Bolivarian Revolution to survive."

Larry Johnson and colonel Macgregor on Iran

long interview with both by Mario Nawfal https://www.youtube.com/live/oNr0zoT_vDM?si=3nZvYfjil07-ITFg

Yves Smith daily round up on Iran

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/03/iran-war-trump-threatens-destruction-of-iran-electric-generation-and-oil-wells-even-as-wsj-reports-temporary-taco-on-trying-to-force-open-strait-of-hormuz.html

Larry Johnson discusses Boots on the Ground scenario

https://www.youtube.com/live/BSezLaNm8xY?si=gAEYlVBtYW8C-jm8

Larry Johnson update on Trump and Middle East

https://sonar21.com/a-baron-of-lies-turns-the-world-upside-down-and-loses/

Daily report from Yves Smith on Iran war

long war ahead https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/03/iran-war-more-signs-of-a-long-conflict-and-resulting-severe-economic-damage.html

Update from Alastair Crooke

https://www.unz.com/acrooke/irans-audacious-strategic-moves-declared-missile-dominance-over-the-occupied-territories-a-warning-of-nuclear-deterrence/ https://www.youtube.com/live/VzfqtjAIkJA?si=wFDqehMENTaZmQOa

Daily summary of Iran war from Yves Smith

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/03/iran-war-more-escalation-us-strikes-iran-steel-plants-israel-sends-third-missile-at-iran-nuclear-plant-yemen-joins-war.html

Alastair Crooke update

https://www.youtube.com/live/Cg_IFXiCNLM?si=fQpf-8rqXDpBDSrN https://www.youtube.com/live/hyDn1OPqvTk?si=KMaNuF-l92KYWDtO with Kevork Almassian of Syrianaanalysis

Tucker Carlson with Professor Jiang Xueqin

https://youtu.be/2K2nQsTTjQE