Photo by Diogo Lemos
We are living in a world that increasingly feels unmoored from anything solid as the old system collapses in one area after another. These 3 stories may help us understand the forces shaping what happens now:
Our first story concerns Trump’s plan to hijack the mid-term elections by (1) deploying his ICE goons to intimidate voters at polling places and (2) ordering the Post Office to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots using technical regulations and legal back-and-forth. Trump aims to create enough confusion and delay to prevent a clear outcome and allow Trump’s election-denial supporters to prevent the seating of a new Congress in January–similar to when his supporters stormed Congress on January 6, 2021.
Whether Trump can get away with throwing the midterms into chaos and crisis is uncertain, but if he succeeds, he will have taken a major step toward sweeping away existing constitutional law and democratic rights.
The ruling capitalist class in the U.S. may be approaching a use-it-or-lose-it moment where it must make a choice–to either discard Trump like a used condom–or back him to the hilt. We may soon learn what the real balance of power is in our ruling class and the real feeling is among the masses.
Our ruling class might decide to unplug the Trump balloon–and let it deflate and collapse into wreckage. OR–it may see this moment as an opportunity to push further attacks on the workers and oppressed.
Our ruling class is scared, it appears to me, that a big financial crisis cannot be avoided–and that our society is headed into a period of social and political instability. If this happens, there may be a need for “muscle on the street”. Trump has been working on this. His masked ICE gangs can shoot you if you “misbehave” or if your skin is the wrong color.
The Democratic Party has allowed its leashed “No Kings Movement” to organize nationwide mass actions on October 17. Everyone who can, should go–to support these actions–and observe the political trends–and engage in discussion–and learn.
But we should also understand that the Democratic Party is unlikely to save us from Trump. The Democratic Party is controlled by many of the same big donors as Trump and the Republican Party. They are all part of the Epstein class. Never underestimate the Democratic Party’s capacity for treachery disguised as incompetence.
For example–the Democratic Party failed, over a period of four years, to effectively prosecute Trump for his January 6 coup attempt, instead throwing the small fry, like the face-painted shaman, in jail. And the Democratic Party sabotaged its own chances in the 2024 election by first running an incoherent zombie and (when that became too obvious) an inexperienced candidate out-of-touch with popular anger over inflation, broken promises and genocide.
What about the “Democratic Socialists of America”? The DSA, unfortunately, will likely keep its mouth shut
The DSA is largest left-leaning organization in the U.S., with 120 thousand members, that won the New York City election for Mayor.
The DSA should be working hard to spread the alarm and mobilize for mass actions to oppose Trump’s coming hijack attempt. But the DSA is unlikely to do this. Why? In my humble opinion, the DSA’s priority is to prove to our ruling class that it is a “reasonable”, “reliable” and “responsible” political party. In other words, the DSA can call itself “socialist”–and even mouth off a bit–but it knows the limits of its leash.
Trump’s Iran war is a strategic blunder that marks the end of Pax America. Just as all experts predicted, this war has turned into something between a disaster and a catastrophe. Iran has seized control of the Strait of Hormuz and the invincible US military machine has nearly run out missiles and proven unable to even feed its own sailors. US military bases around the gulf have all been destroyed and are unlikely to be fully rebuilt. Iran has also established “escalation dominance” and positioned itself to block the expansion of the U.S. colony (known as “Israel”) into Lebanon.
Many believe that Israel’s leader, Netanyahu, used Epstein kompromat to blackmail Trump into starting this war. A simpler explanation is that Trump was drunk with power and aligned with a section of our ruling class inclined toward reckless adventures.
In the background are two key facts:
(1) Digital technology has become cheap, and nations like Iran can now build cheap drones faster than major powers can shoot them down.
(3) US imperialism now has imperialist rivals, like Russia and China, that seek to limit its power.
The Iranian government, like that of Israel, is a fascist theocracy with the blood of hundreds of thousands on its hands. But it is good that Trump, and US imperialism, are facing defeat. Maybe, once this war is over, the Iranian people can rise up and settle accounts with their fascist leaders the same way they settled accounts with the US puppet, Pahlavi in 1979.
Unfortunately, Trump’s refusal to end this war risks plunging the world economy into a terrible financial crisis.
Ed Sheeran recently cried onstage. The billionaires who owned the big stadiums had forbid Sheeran from playing with musicians such as Macklemore, who had shouted “Free Palestine” (which indicates that Palestinians are people–and have a right to a homeland and to choose their own leaders) and this makes those who are standing on Palestinian necks feel uncomfortable and persecuted. Sheeran was helpless. After all–if a billionaire gives us a command–we have no choice except to obey.
Sheeran’s supporting acts, and even his backing band, refused to continue the tour–and dropped out in solidarity with Macklemore and with Palestine. An Irish radio station refused to play Sheeran’s music. Sheeran however, feels that taking sides in the middle of a genocide might upset people. So Sheeran continued his tour alone–but was sad that so many have lost respect for him.
In contrast with Sheeran’s liberal tears–the world has witnessed 80 years of Palestinian courage as hundreds of thousands have been murdered and millions chased from one spot in the dirt to another.
A generational divide has emerged in the US and Europe in relation to the American colony in Palestine. Most of those under 35 sympathize with Palestinians and recognize them as humans with rights. Nothing is going to stop the truth from coming out about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where hundreds of journalists and medical workers have been targeted for assassination and, according to Ralph Nader, a consensus has developed around an estimate of 680,000 deaths counting starvation, disease and related reasons [1].
Recently, for example, a documentary, Haza, has been released, featuring interviews with Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers–who discussed how hundreds of civilians might be casually murdered in the pursuit of a single member of Hamas. The filmmakers have been threatened.
The creation of the state of Israel was a colonial project always destined to lead to tragedy for everyone. In the wake of the horrific genocide by
German fascism, the slogan “Never Again” became popular. But this slogan could always be understood in two entirely different ways: as “Never Again for Jews” or “Never Again for Anyone”.
By focusing on the first interpretation–and refusing to think about the second–supporters of the State of Israel have dug themselves into a hole. Nothing that the German fascists did to Jews justifies doing the same things to Palestinians today. Crimes of this magnitude cannot remain hidden forever. Just as the liberation of the death camps in 1945 revealed the truth of Nazi atrocities to the world–the scale of the genocide in Gaza will eventually be uncovered. Israel will eventually have to open up the gates and let the world see what it did in Gaza.
There is no way out except abandoning the system of Apartheid and giving Palestinians–in Gaza, in the West Bank–and in the diaspora–the same rights as everyone else between the river and the sea.
Note [1] https://nader.org/2026/06/19/fatalities-from-israels-vast-gaza-genocide-deliberately-undercounted/
