EP 23 Can Iran Win The American Israeli War? (Audio Feed)

Epic Fury or Epic Fail? More like "Operation Incel Meltdown". Or "Operation Pay Dough File Rage" (sound it out).

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Speaker: 0:01

Mm-hmm. We're live. oh, wait for it. There we go. Ha ha, yeah. There it is. All right, welcome back. Man, look at that. That smooth, huh? All right. And in fact, it's interesting that the opening music is from ELAS-EAM, since actually it may be appropriate to bring back ELAS-EAM at this point, given everything that's going on in our world. which maybe turned out to be uh potentially a false flag. uh But let's maybe we should do a little recap, a little intro. I'm Odysseas, I'm here with my uncle, uh Dr. AJ Layon, comrade uncle. um And we are here today to talk to you about a whole mess of bullshit. The... um The kind of state of affairs that we're in right now is that America has, and America and Israel, of course, as we had discussed last time, have launched uh an attack on Iran uh and Lebanon, although Israel is the one doing Lebanon while America is also attacking Iran. um There's been this exchange of blows so far. uh Israel. um has done their normal hay in the shit and now uh the sort of conflict is spreading to the wider region. I think last time we talked on, well anyway, uh some of this stuff had already kind of gone down. ah And since then, of course, uh it's less than a week later, we have gotten a whole other mess of bullshit uh happening. Well, I mean, think we can start, we probably should start somewhere at the beginning, work toward the end that we know about and then we'll stop, I think. But the beginning, I think is important because it's, is, one of the questions is, why, what is our problem with Iran? I mean, right, I mean, what is our problem with Iran? Now, when we spoke last week or earlier this week, I can't remember, but it wasn't long ago, we went through the data on, the UN Charter and illegal wars of aggression and talked a little bit about that. It is as clear as can be that what is being perpetrated on Iran is an illegal war of aggression. So no matter what one feels, whether one likes or doesn't like Iran, whether you like or don't like a religious government, it really is just irrelevant. I there are, I mean, It's irrelevant unless we say we're going to just live in the law of the jungle and forget about League of Nations, forget about United Nations, forget about basically, you know, a hundred and some years of international law. But I think we don't want to do that. I think we do that. We will soon rue the fact that we ever went down that road. So first of all, the attack by Israel and the United States on Iran was and remains an illegal war of aggression. Because the United Nations charter was ratified in 1945 by the United States Senate, that treaty is now the law of the land. Therefore, our military, who follow orders from Trump and Hegseth and the flag officers, are actually following illegal orders and they have every right to not follow them because by the UN Charter, you cannot threaten or use force without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. And we do not have that. This is an illegal war of aggression. So first things first, no matter what else there is, this is wrong, number one. And we talked about that a bit last night. It's just pretty clear that uh Trump and the Israelis, I should say that the United States and the Israelis, because this is beyond just Trump, although Trump is the leader, miscalculated, misconceived what the response of Iran would be and the readiness of Iran. They have used old drones and old missiles to basically force the Israelis, the United States to consume their supply of interceptor missiles for the anti-missile systems, the so-called Iron Dome. and the THAAD system. And it appears that they're now using newer type missiles to attack Israel with some significant success. The last, the podcast I heard with, it's a guy named Danny Davis, who's an ex, Colonel Danny Davis, he's an ex armored commander. um tank commander. ah And he's got a very interesting podcast, has interesting, the guy he had on was guy named Ted Postel from MIT. Postel was, Professor Postel was talking about ah sort of the success rate of these anti-missile interceptors and how it's really fairly low. And he provided some data as to why that was the case and so forth. And one can see that Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem are all getting hit pretty hard. So I think that they are now using more advanced missiles. um And in fact, one of the missiles is what can only be considered a MIRVed missile, a multiple independent reentry vehicle uh missile. It may not be quite right terminology because I don't think it's quite reentry as if it was an intercontinental ballistic missile. But basically, when the missile's some several miles high, it opens and then there are release of not one war warhead but something like eighty to a hundred warheads smaller but there and somebody has termed this cluster munition which is a little bit different this is not quite the same thing i don't think but but clearly unstoppable is what these things are and the results are fairly clear to see in multiple verified validated video feeds that are being seen. uh So this was the United States and Israel clearly erred, clearly erred. First of all, it's an illegal war of aggression. I don't want to keep saying that because it matters. But secondly, we were not prepared and we underestimated, as we seem to always do, ah least in my lifetime, we underestimated the people who we consider our enemy. This is frankly racism at its height. We did it. Vietnam, we did it during the Korean War. We have just done it over and over and over again. And we're doing it again. We've done it again. And so we have, I think, paid and the Israelis are paying significantly for this. Iranians stated quite clearly that if they were attacked, this is before the war started, that whomever attacked them, they would respond to. And if neighboring countries allowed their territory to be used for attacks. They would respond negatively toward those neighboring countries. And they in fact did that. At the very opening, they attacked multiple Gulf countries. um And they, but what they attacked were the bases of the United States in those countries, primarily. And so they have taken out the, and one of the reasons why I believe that the missiles that they launch are so successful is because they've taken out the um sophisticated radar that gives advanced warning when the missiles are on their way in. again, they have played this tactically and I think strategically quite well. And I should say, obviously, we never said this. mean, remember for the people who are listening, this podcast started as a medical podcast. years and years ago when COVID first started, and we kind of branched out. So I don't have any claims to special military knowledge, but I believe that both their tactics and their strategic vision of the Iranians is quite clear and quite good, having stated that I'm not a military guy. What's concerning, I think, in the last 24, 36 hours are a couple of things. I mean, first of all, this whole war, of course, is concerning because once again, it's an illegal war of aggression. One doesn't quite know where it's going to go, but some of the attacks that have been perpetrated in the last 24, 36 hours are incredibly disturbing. And it's disturbing because, you know, the Iranians, again, they were quite clear. If you do this, we will do the following. If you do that, we will do the following. And they have been as good as they were. They stated, if you attack Israel and United States, our oil production facilities, we will shut down all oil production coming out of the Gulf. Everything. Everything. Saudi Arabia, name it. Well, their oil facilities were attacked today. And so I, know, the Straits of Hormuz are, is um essentially closed. ah I think it will be completely closed except for friendly ships that is to say those going to China um for example And so that's that's 20 % of the world's oil goes through there And if they shut down everything else coming out of the Gulf this is going to cause a massive problem For the world the world economy. This is again very poorly thought through by Israel United States very poorly thought through Equally is frightening to my mind maybe even more frightening No, more frightening. The initial Israeli and American attacks were on schools, schools and hospitals. And of course the opening move was the destruction of 180, I believe it is, lives of little kids, seven to 12 year old girls in a girls school. But schools and hospitals have been attacked consistently. Some 12 hospitals, and I've forgotten now how many schools, but a good number. And then today, today, ah the water uh desalination system that fed some 30 towns slash villages in Iran was attacked by Israel and or the United States. Which is, know, to have no oil leaving is a big deal for the world economy. To have no water, fresh water is a huge deal. And what one might expect, and the Iranians have not explicitly stated this, but they have stated that there will be a response. is that they will attack the desalination machinery for the state of Israel. And, you know, when there's no longer water available for people, this is going to become massively ugly. And what concerns me now, I mean, it's concerned me since the beginning, it's concerned me because this is, you know, as we stated, I feel like I'm jumping all over the place, but as we stated earlier in the week when we... There's a bunch of things that are being ignored. While these wars in the Ukraine with Russia, in Congo, in Sudan, in Gaza, now in Iran, while these wars are going on, we are utterly ignoring the climate emergency and it remains a climate emergency. I don't know at what point our ignoral, the word is the proper use of that term, will finally bite us in the butt, but it's going to do it. And that's a huge issue. But the second issue is that my concern is, know, the initial um rationale, if you will, for why the United States and Israel needed to attack Iran was bullshit, of course, but it was because they them having nuclear weapons. It's got nothing to do with nuclear weapons. They don't have nuclear weapons, but the Israelis do. And my dramatic fear is that the Israelis will use them because they are losing. um So I am terribly concerned at the way this is going. There seem to be no quote grownups unquote anywhere. Antonio Guterres, who is the head of the United Nations, secretary general, as far as I can see, he's been utterly silent. He's done nothing. No emergency calls, no of the... General Assembly or the Security Council. The European Union is a bunch of hacks who are doing nothing but supporting Israel and the United States. Utterly inconceivable why they would be doing this. Just to say nothing wrong. uh China is saying the right words. I don't know precisely what they can do. I don't think they want to jump in the middle of this with soldiers and tanks and ships, but... China is saying some of the right words as is, excuse me, the Russian Federation. Russia's got its hands full. If no adult takes control of this in the near future, my real concern is that this gets worse and goes nuclear accidentally on purpose, I don't know, but this is really worrisome. And once that... That line is breached. I don't know what happens. um I just don't know what happens. So this has become incredibly concerning. uh And again, I mean, I want to emphasize, like, it really doesn't make any difference whether you like or don't like the Iranian uh nation. uh It is a constitutional, religious, Islamic republic. It is as democratic, at least as democratic as the United States of America. Now, people may not want to hear that. And our democracy is frankly pretty anemic and pretty poor, but it's at least as good as what we've got. And, you know, we may not agree with a bunch of things, but that's just not relevant. You just can't go around. We hope, one hopes we would have learned this decades and decades ago, trying to change governments. And in case, and for those people who have a short memory. We destroyed Iranian democracy in 1953 uh when their democratically elected prime minister was overthrown by the United States CIA and the British Secret Service, I believe it was MI6. I mean, you can't, we can't do this stuff, but we are doing it. And it is an unmitigated disaster. And the consequences, the potential consequences are just horrific. I think the last thing, and then I'll shut up for a minute, is one of the things that we keep seeing, like over and over. And Professor Chalmers Johnson from UC San Diego, one of my professors years ago, who's unfortunately now dead, wrote about the concept of blowback, that what our countries, what imperial countries do to people's outside of the country eventually comes back to haunt us here within the country. And we've seen that in a number of different ways with the... degradation of our freedom of speech with the militarized police and so forth. But what's being done by the Israelis in the United States against Iran and elsewhere, what happened in Gaza, is going to come back and it already has to some extent come back to hurt us. All we have to do is think about the behavior of uh immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, and the way they've killed a handful of people over the last uh months. um what's her name, Gnome, has been removed, but that's irrelevant. mean, the entity still exists, and they're as corrupt as they've ever been, and violence as they've ever been. So I think there's nothing but a bunch of extremely bad um signs on the road that things are gonna get even worse as we move forward. um And I just don't know where kind of relief is going to come from. again, unless it's perhaps China. I don't know. don't know. mean, I kind of understand. I feel least sort of uh mixed feelings about... um about the whole China thing. It's like I kind of get not wanting to step, and everybody really, I get not wanting to step into a direct confrontation with the United States. um is, you know, it's like, you know, much like the USSR, like I said last time, much like the USSR at the beginning of... of World War II, it's like, man, if you're not ready, you're not ready. And what can you say? But at the same time, it's like, yeah, it's like Boa said, action has to be pushed. mean, really, it's the UN, right? Who else could it be? mean, of course, we're all about not we, but they are all about disregarding international whatever. But still. law. Yeah, we could we clearly think it's unimportant as do the Israelis Would rather it be, I think an important connection that you made is definitely the one to climate change because I think in a lot of ways this is truly the plan. I don't mean directly war with Iran, although truly, again, with the whole bringing the oil into the situation. um Yeah, kind of, it's like, yeah, they are pretty closely related. But nonetheless, it is, um it's like one of these things. It's like, that is kind of what the idea is. That's what, what are your choices, frankly, when you as a society or as a country, nation, I guess, are. um are faced with climate change, with a catastrophic situation or catastrophe of any sort. You can respond to it through socialism, redistribution of wealth, resources in ways that don't directly produce profits. Or you can respond to it through genocide. If you have a bunch of refugees, to break that down more specifically, if you have a bunch of refugees, You know, what are you gonna do with them? You gonna let them in? Are you gonna uh bring them and have them contribute? Are you gonna help them uh rebuild their lives somewhere here, there, whatever? Are you gonna address the issues that are creating the refugees? Or are you gonna round them up? ah And you know. exterminate them or whatever. And I mean, I think that the ruling class made it abundantly clear, um actually during COVID, not that they haven't done so in the past. But but I mean, you know, the American response to COVID was a great example of exactly what they want to do with us, which is just let people die at best, at best let people die. You know what saying? It's like, it's not and then pretend it didn't happen, or it's not happening, or it's not as bad as it seems, or, or it's just or Iran's got nukes and so, but what is the fact? The fact is, what are we actually after? You alluded to that, said, I mean, we're after their oil, right? They had the audacity to nationalize their oil and to kick out their puppet ruler, their American-backed Shah. um you know, and that is unacceptable. Same thing with Venezuela. They nationalized their oil, and we want that oil now. Because we, not we, but you know, because the US sees its grasp slipping, right? So yeah, I mean, that's what do you think? That's kind of my... think, I mean, it's true. And of course, the worst part of all of this is what oil, I mean, there will always be need for some oil. I we will never ever, I expect, never ever not need some oil, but not to the extent that we use it today in this world. mean, but what we really, really need to do is decarbonize the, um our electrical grid, decarbonize our power sources. even, mean, and the only way you can say no, no, we don't need to, is if you are, if you wish to believe the roughly one to 2 % of climate scientists who say, no, the 98%, 99 % are wrong, we're right, it's really not human, it's just a blip, won't be a problem. But most reasonable, people who know science, know climate science. Now I do not pretend to be a climate scientist, just like I don't pretend to be a military guy, but I do know science, I do know research. And you know, I think this is real, this is real. And so we do have to begin to address it. you know, to the limited extent that it was addressed under Biden, it was at least addressed, now that's gone. It's not being addressed at all. We're pumping into the atmosphere tons and tons and tons, gigatons of carbon dioxide that is not going to be able to be removed. This could be a real problem. we, you know, actually we don't want their oil. We don't even need their oil. What we need to do is burn less oil, rapid transit, ah know, electrical grids that run from solar winds, tide. I mean, the technology exists. You don't need any technological advances. All we need to do is have the money and the will to do it and it's done. In fact, one of the things that's, although there's one of the things that China has done is it is uh putting up uh wind and solar at rates that are like unheard of. And one of the really, I think rather wonderful things that People's Republic of China has done is they've provided to the Republic of Cuba. um solar panels and the systems to connect it because the United States is blocking all oil. uh into that country, which has caused them no end of damage. um So maybe if they can survive this, it may be that they'll be just fine, in fact, better than just fine, because they'll have the solar wind and so forth. what we are doing obviously puts the Iranians at severe risk, the Palestinians at severe risk. Congolese, Sudanese at severe risk. But it puts all of us at risk, all of us, because this climate emergency will not go away. And if you add on top of that, the damage it'll be done with even a limited nuclear exchange. Exchange, mean, what exchange? You the only people who have the weaponry are the Israelis, United States right now, not this war. um This is going to cause horrific damage. not talk about collapse of markets, mean, collapse of everything, everything. And then the people who live their lives, at least in our country, United States, complaining about immigrants. What are these foreigners doing here? Well, I mean, where are people gonna go? You've ruined their countries. mean, the Middle East, Afghanistan, we have destabilized it just like we did Latin America. in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. uh So of course people travel to where they feel they can be safe, whatever that takes, that's what they'll do. And the same thing is gonna happen. What we are doing is ensuring that there is chaos and mass migration. And then of course the people who run ICE ah will insist on arresting these people who are now coming looking for a safe place for themselves and their children. but we're setting up the conditions so that they will have to leave their countries. So it is, this is just an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately, uh yes, we have a small voice on this podcast, but it's going to take much, much more to get people's attention so that they really, really focus on these issues. Again, Trump, Again, I don't want to personalize it because just like I don't want to personalize Netanyahu, the Israeli state is a genocidal racist state full stop. The United States has been a genocidal country, a racist country for a long time. We've tried to make some improvements. know that we've done such a great job. But we know we are. We've got a trillion, I believe it's a trillion and a half dollars for our military is what Trump wanted. We need to cut that by about, I don't know, three quarters, many more, and use those monies to rebuild our cities, housing, education, transport, electrical grid, health system, you need it. mean, that's what we need. That's what's needed in our country. Our our people span the world, right? I because we are socialists and we don't... National borders are just fake. But we do live in the United States. And, you know, I feel tied to this place because, I mean, here's where I spent my life. I want this place to be better. But with what we're doing and the way we're spending the monies that we have, we can't take care of our own people. Hence the homelessness, hence 600,000 people going bankrupt every year in the United States because of medical costs. they can't afford. Hence, know, people who are functionally illiterate, some 50-some percent, something I think that might be off by that number a little bit, it's some 50-some of the United States, people of the United States read it on a fourth or fifth grade level, something like that. It's pretty bad. You know, and on and on and on on and on. All of these things need to be addressed. But instead of addressing those, We talk about trans people who we don't like and gays that we don't like and brown people who we don't like and Iranians who we don't like and my God, this is just craziness. culture war instead of class war. uh I mean, that's what we're seeing. I'm sure if Marx were alive today, he would call a spade a spade and say that uh this is class war. Despite the fact that it's between two nations, um it is fundamentally a war. uh Scrabble for resources. And I think that, like you said, it's ever intensifying. um And that's the real scary part of it. While in World War II or whatever, we could. Well, I suppose actually to the end of World War II, could have we could maybe not end the world, but but, you know, we had started to to develop that technology. Now we live in a world that is, you know, balanced on a knife's you know, we just, know, this this sort of failing empire just keeps kind of pushing and pushing because they know that they're losing their grasp. And on some level, I suspect, or at least some of them know, I think. there's a lot of delusional thinking at least overtly going on but clearly there's there's some sort of you know I mean what's clear is clear and whether or not everybody who's involved is clear-headed about it you know I'm saying and I think it's pretty, I mean, I think the people who are, it may not be Trump, but the people who really do run our government and country know that we are losing and we are losing control. You bring up the one interesting point that I haven't thought about in a little while, but I have, know, which is, is this indeed a class war? Is this indeed class war? You know, at the beginning of World War I, before World War I started, The second, I think, was the second international, right? The second international said, we will not fight against one another. We will not do that. Working people's organizations, we will not. And then the war came and people fell apart and the French were fighting the Germans and so forth. The working class was, the working class was basically wiped out in World War I. It was basically wiped out on the fields of World War I. I don't think we've ever come to a come to grips with that, how to deal with that. And it's part of it's the issue of nationalism. I for example, I do think, you know, there is the Israelis have this concept of greater Israel that basically where they control Middle East, North Africa, and they are the power and they can do what they want. But you know, yes, but where is the Israeli working class? Where is the Israeli working class? And why are they not? Standing up and saying excuse me. This is not for us. We don't want this what we want is Something that's so that working people from whatever country they live in can have decent lives We don't need to be the the the power but they don't but that's not happening In fact the polls that come out of Israel last one I've seen it's been a little while eighty seven percent of people say ethnically cleanse The whole of Gaza and forty seven percent say kill everybody and the numbers for Iran again I've only heard of one study, I've not actually seen the study, I've only heard of it. It's basically similar. They're just fine with going to war with Iran and trying to destroy them. But this is Israeli working class, these are working class people. Not everybody, course, but this is Israeli working class. Where are they? There's a very small communist party, there's a very small group that says, this is wrong, but it's infinitesimally small. So where are those people? And that is... No, no, I mean, it's just, it's not like I have an answer for this. You know, we have spoken, you and I, on this very podcast about forgiveness, about being able to bring people around, even who are present today are enemies, know, political enemies. I I don't want to work, you my goal is not to be killing people, eliminating them. No, my goal is to, as much as possible, convince, talk to, argue with, bring people around. But there has to be some willingness to see that there's an issue. And I don't see that the working class of, for example, just for example Israel, is in a position to sort of say, hey, what are we doing here? What are we doing? That doesn't seem to be the case at all. Let's look at what happened in Germany, right? You have ah a pressure between, ah there's a pressure for change, a dramatic pressure for change, and uh capitalism is in crisis. um So, again, we have the option of redistributing wealth and power on an egalitarian basis. That's what the communists were after. Your two major forces are the communists and the or more broadly the left and the Nazis. um And the sort of Nazis pitch um to the capitalist class ah in Germany was, look, they want to take your stuff, we don't. Never mind that they wound up sort of subjugating the capitalist class shortly after taking over. regardless, the question that was put uh to the big owners of industry was you can go with us or you can go with them. And I think that's fundamentally what we see in Israel. I don't mean that there's just some overt Netanyahu goes to the business class and says, hey, whatever. But they, like everywhere else, are a society in crisis they are that you know because climate change threatens everyone and because you know we are in this stage of capitalism where the contradictions have heightened to such a point pretty much everywhere that that it's it's putting this tremendous pressure on on the the kind of on on society on the the um you know, to provide some sort of change. And I think that, you know, both of those things, both the sort of annihilationist, you know, the promise of fascism, we give you stuff, or the promise of communism, we give you stuff. And I don't mean to say that those are equal, because where that stuff comes from is the difference, right? Fascism preserves the power of the, and the resources of the ruling class, but just liquidating a portion of the lower class. mean those are your two options right? You can either take it from this pile, know the massive pile, or you can leave that pile alone and just pick on these guys. know when when people you know because that's like kind of the appeal of for example Trump's anti-immigrant stuff. uh is and not just Trump, I'm sorry, I shouldn't even say that, but like all the anti-immigrant stuff is like you are barely hanging on and these guys are taking your stuff. They're coming here to take your jobs. They're coming here to, never mind that the jobs are shipped overseas. Never mind that that's not actually, you know, what's happening. uh But there's an issue and somebody comes in offering to address it. And the ruling class can either say, hey, we can, you know give them some of what we have or we can tell them that these guys over there they're the ones taking from us and that's I think that's what we see I think that's what we see in Israel too is there's a pressure ah because of you know a variety of reasons you don't even actually have to have that much pressure in order for that sort of that calculus to work it's just it's sort of by its nature an unequal system. And so when you have some sort of somebody promising to make life better for you, whether it be by getting rid of all the Palestinians and we'll have a Riviera or whatever, um or by kicking out all of the immigrants or whatever, it's just those are the, that's a. not a rational response, I don't want to say it's a rational response to the pressures of capitalism, but it is a response and it's the preferred, mean, you know, that's why they say, you know, what's that line? Fascism is capitalism's response to crisis. Well, I mean, think that's kind of what we see. I think that's kind like, why wouldn't the working class just, yeah, sorry, go ahead. No, I mean, you raised several interesting points. I I think, you know, first of all, the issue in Germany, I think, is a little more complicated than fascist versus communist. mean, first of all, there were multiple right-wing parties, the Nazis that were actually a minority party for a good while, the Communist Party and the Social Democrats. I think, if I'm not mistaken, the communists themselves had some 30 percent of the... seats in the Reichstag. I think I'm right about that. were pretty big and the social democrats had a big chunk. I may be slightly off on the numbers, but they weren't willing to work together. But they were not willing to work together. no, that's actually, I mean, okay, I think that that's post-World War II justification that's introduced by these kind of revisionist figures in Germany. um My, like, my read on it, okay, so mean, again, minds can differ, but. No, there was a, you're right, there was a whole host of them, that's just correct. But before that, but before that, before that, there was this movement, and I don't think this is post-World War II revisionist, I mean, to my reading. I we could find the books and have a whole discussion. But the social democrats and the communists wouldn't, couldn't, didn't work together as a result. And as a result, the right one, you're right, as soon as Hitler took power, he basically, he kept the profits flowing to a big industry, that's true. But ultimately, you know, he destroyed everything, them as well. But it's, but it's at least, it strikes me. And maybe it's just that I, from this distance in history, I don't see it as clearly. I can see what happens in the United States or even perhaps in Israel in the United States like where's the working class where where was the working class there because the working class now is Multi-hued in terms of ethnicity ah You know lots of women but in the past it was men white men and and as long as they were better than Black and brown men or women white brown black it was okay things were okay. And you know, I think in, my understanding of the state of Israel, both from my reading and from having been there multiple times, talked with people who I have considered my friends and family until, of course, um you know, Jewish supremacy is a real thing. And, you know, yes, you could be working class, but if you were... Israeli Jewish working class, you were better than any Palestinian working class guy. And that was the way you kind of kept the working class separated, just like we did in this country. And in fact, are such, there are significant similarities. In fact, some of the same stuff happened in Germany, although it was with the Jewish population that was considered othered. So, the issue is, But the is, you know, the failure of the second international, the working men's association to not go to war with one another, that haunts us to this day. The reverberations of that failure, I think, haunts us to this day. And I'm not sure we've actually come to grips with it. And again, I mean, there are people way smarter than I am who've given much greater thought to this. Actually, we might want to consider having Boa come on and talk with us about this. or, know, but we have, this is our problem and I'm not sure we can move forward until we have somehow figure that problem out and determine how we work through it. I'm just not sure. And so here we are on day, what is this, eight or nine of this war, Saturday through Saturdays, is that right? Saturdays on your mind, there's a Friday, Saturday, day eight. of this work coming on day nine. And it seems to be spinning out of control. um Where is the Israeli working class that says no? Where is the American working class that says no? Like the Italians, we will not continue to make weaponry that gets sent to Israel. Where are they? They're silent. It's not there. Italian, some of the Italian dock workers have simply refused to load ships with weapons that were going to Israel. Now, I mean, on the one hand, people are afraid. People are afraid. You know, the unions are at an all-time, they're weak. They're at an all-time low in terms of numbers, and they're weak. People are afraid. How are they going to pay their rent if they go on strike? I mean, there's a million reasons why this wouldn't work. But the only thing, you know, there's only two things that we can do that will slow this war. mongering juggernaut down. One is violence, which, you know, the state's got more violence than what hurt us. Violence is not the answer for this. least not, violence is not the answer. The only other thing is a national general strike to basically shut the system down and say to the people in D.C. and in all the state capitals, we will not take part in this. We will not kill our brothers and sisters, no matter what country they're from. If we have disagreements, we'll figure them out. And in fact, And in fact, as the Omani foreign minister said before Israel United States attacked, I think it was last Saturday, they had an agreement. If this was really about a nuclear uh program, a nuclear weaponry, they had an agreement. It would have been fine. This was solvable. But no, Israel United States wanted to go to war, thinking they could destroy Iran, which they really cannot do. um Kind of shocking. It seems so, so fucking crazy. yeah, this is, you know, this could be, we need to shake these guys up a little bit. And I think general strike is the only way that that happens. And that would be a challenge in this country, given the lack of organization amongst all of us who are, you know, workers, those of us, if you're not, if you're, you work for a paycheck, you're a worker, full stop. um It's a problem. It's a real problem. And I'm afraid we may not have the time we need to organize. The bottom falls out one way or another, either nuclear war or the climate finally comes and just destroys us. Yeah, I don't know. mean, hopefully this is one of those situations where the crisis will push the change. That's my fervent hope is that we kind of. the rising tide of pressure. The pressure builds to the point um that it forces change before ah catastrophe, because that is definitely, certainly where we're headed. uh One thing I should mention, or brought to mind, I was talking to somebody and they asked me, um just like a normal guy, he's like, what can we do? What could my union do? Because I had been talking about labor. And so that kind of prompted me they do some cool stuff and they are trying to kind of push this this union organizing because I mean what I had initially started at the point of was just bitching that you know why the hell aren't, where is, what is up with the silence of American unions why, okay you know some of them have been captured by the arms industry um but there's you know there's a good chunk of them that's not you know maybe at very least they would object on moral grounds never mind the fact that everything else but so I kind of wound up looking it up before I said yeah that's just our American unions have completely failed well that's actually not entirely true there's this thing they can get you you unions are kind of signing on I don't know if they're pushing for a strike or not I don't know what precisely but organization of a general strike would, I mean, that would take serious organization. There would have to be serious money to take care of the people who are on strike and including lawyers, including the number of people who would end up getting arrested. I mean, that kind of organization, if that organization is happening, ah it's certainly a very well-kept secret. I don't think it's happening, but that is what we've got to do. for it. Yeah, I that's, that's, that's, mean, that is the only answer. We are not going to vote our way out of this. I don't even know if there will be voting in the midterms. I mean, I one hopes it will happen, but, uh, there's enough concern with what Trump has and his people are doing. It may not, or it may be completely fraught given the way they're trying to eliminate the, uh billion people to vote, some people to vote, is. um And the truth of the matter is that, you know, while there is the Green Party and there are some other parties, there is a duopoly and it's very hard to elect people who are not in the duopoly. And the Democratic Party is led by two of the most lackluster thoughtless human beings I think it's ever been possible to imagine Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. I these guys are utterly useless human beings. I I'm not trying to characterize them as anything other than bad leaders. They may be good men and good mom, dad. No, no, I mean, I'm approaching with humanity. I'm saying as leaders of the opposition, they are utterly useless. I don't think, well that's the thing, they're not oppositions. They're not leading an opposition. They're leading a fucking cheerleading squad. It's like, yeah, you saw what he said. That was not an opposition, that's for sure. came out and said that one of his main jobs was to make sure that the left in the United States supported Israel. I if that's a main job, then my friend, you're in the wrong job. That's not what your main job is. And Hakeem Jeffries is just as bad, frankly, just as bad. So, you know, we... was more talking about the Iran thing. I don't know if you caught their statements. Basically, Republican, the mainstream Democrat position on Iran is, well, he should have asked us for admission, but if he had asked us, we would have said yes. They're giving it to him. They're giving it to him. Right, right. Because we, mean, that party is a warmongering, for the most part, party just like the Republicans. And once again, I mean, you know, there is no, there is no politician who doesn't lie. There is no country that's not flawed. There is no governmental system that doesn't have its issues that need to be dealt with, whether it's Iran or Cuba or United States or anyone else. But to go to war with a country, utterly false pretenses, which is what this war was perpetrated on, an illegal war of aggression. And it's really quite clear that what is wanted by the United States is to eliminate a country that has stood firmly in support of the Palestinian people. And they have. And the resistance has Balah, Hamas, and so forth. And the Houthis. should mention what happened with Lebanon just because us poor Lebanese are so frequently left out of the picture. Of course, yeah. I mean, Hezbollah, again, Hezbollah in the eyes of many in the United States is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah, of course, did not exist, did not exist until the Israelis invaded Lebanon and vowed they would never leave Lebanon. And then they mistreated the people in the south of Lebanon. And so the people of the south of Lebanon said, well, we don't like this very much. Hezbollah came into existence and they pushed in 2006, they pushed the Israelis out of the country completely. And they have been the only force that has kept Israel from returning. And in fact, the Lebanese government, is corrupt, sold, bought, uh had pulled its soldiers who are inadequately armed to take on Israel anyway, but pulled their soldiers out of Southern Lebanon. The Israelis said several days ago that they're going to come in and take basically the south of Lebanon Hezbollah who had been silent for a good while as they reorganized Said um, no. No, I don't think so I don't think so at all and what they have done and it's to my mind it's you know, they they Saw that with the war that was being waged on Iran if Iran lost they were they Hezbollah would be destroyed. So they said, then we're all in, we're all in. And they have been giving the Israeli military in Lebanon a serious, serious run for their money. um As is normally the case when you invade another people's country and try and take their homes and destroy their homes and kill their family members. kind of, they, they, they, tend to fight against that and that's what Hezbollah has done and they are exceptionally good and they're exceptionally well armed and they're exceptionally good fighters. these are our Lebanese brothers and sisters. I don't know how many sisters are involved, but I think there are. But they are giving the Israelis heck, as they say, and as they should. and they will, I believe, drive them out of Lebanon. And they may do even more than that. The Radwan Brigade, which is their special forces, as I understood it from my reading yesterday and late yesterday and early today, had actually entered northern Israel and um caused some difficulties for the Israelis there. So we'll see. Oh, the northern Israelis, the Israelis in the north of Israel, that they need to move back. I forget how far they told them to move back, but that there was going to be trouble there. I don't know if this was done sort of like, well, this is what you guys do to us, so we're going to do it to you. See how much you like this. but they did just do it. don't know if you saw, they were like, they said all of Lebanon, all of Lebanon, all Lebanese need to leave the south of Lebanon. Imagine if somebody came into American was like, you got to leave the south of America. You you got to leave the southern part, Texas, Alabama, all those. You got to just go north. It's all right. Just, you know, you're going to save yourselves. Go north and and you otherwise you're going to die. You know, you know, we can't guarantee your safety because we're we're just going to get you know, we're gonna get those guys. then, not only did they do that, which is insane, unethical, you're invading another country, all those things, all those things that are true and right, but then where did they, know, of course they also bombed southern Lebanon, but they bombed the middle of Lebanon, they bombed Beirut, where everybody would go to. It's like, was this deliberate perverse, you know. in the Israeli hand is their air power. And that is, if I'm following carefully what is happening with Iran, that is being degraded. I don't know if it'll be degraded enough, but it's being degraded. And when they try and put their planes in Cyprus, it appears... that the Iranians are targeting those bases where the Israelis put their planes there as well. Maybe. That's, I mean, that's what... It's not clear, because they, I don't know, I was trying to figure that out because somebody had asked me about, oh my God, they attacked Greece. I was like, what? Greece? Oh, wait, no. I was like, no, mean, Cyprus isn't part of Greece, but anyway, setting that aside, different country. There's a, guess, in the sphere of, you know, all right, understandable. They do also speak Greek, but, part of them. important to point out is that uh some Turkish armaments manufacturers just made a major sale, I've forgotten the amount, a major sale of weaponry to the Israelis. So no matter what Erdogan says about supporting Palestine, which has been nothing but bluster, they are still doing significant trade with the Israelis, both in oil and armaments, it appears. Oh yeah, he's so full of it. All I meant to say is, and I could be wrong about this, I'll have to double check it, but I heard or saw or read or whatever that they didn't take, the IRGC didn't take responsibility for the attack on. Cyprus. uh They said somebody else did it. If I was going to render a conspiracy uh theory um just based on the way that Israel has been acting, uh which in all fairness has been kind of pretty consistent with whatever, know, some of the things that uh seem like conspiracy theories in fact turn out not to be put it that way, um I could see Israel uh And the Iranians have been, I they say what they mean and they mean what they say. when, they've as far as I can tell, I mean, obviously it could be wrong. There's things I don't, certainly don't know, but when they do something, they say, yeah, we did this. um And if they make a mistake, they've been actually pretty good about saying, we can make a mistake, we make a mistake. mean, it's, it's, they're impressive, you know, as, was Hamas impressive in that regard. They did what they said, and when they made a mistake, they would say we made a So anyway, guess where does this leave us? You know, now we're into this, it leaves us basically where we started. I think we're in huge, huge, huge trouble. um And I don't know how we quite get out of this. um I don't know how we quite get out of it. But one of the ways I'm quite convinced is it's not through the destruction of Iran. Whatever happens with Iran, whatever the people of Iran want is what they should be able to sort out themselves. Not what we want, not what Israel wants. I if we haven't, we should have learned that if we've learned nothing else since the war. goes without saying, or should go without saying, maybe it shouldn't go without saying. Let me say what might, maybe could go without saying, but regardless of what you think of any country, what do you think of the state of human rights, or the way women are treated, or the way immigrants are treated, whatever, know, whether you think um that Alabama doesn't treat, um poor people, ah or whatever. I'm saying ah any country, the answer to those problems, to the problems that you perceive, whether they're real or not, ah is not to bomb them. That does not help. You don't... Probably not. And frankly, the whole issue of women's rights in Iran, mean, you know, the the something like half or slightly more than half of university students are women. The number of STEM graduates that are women are off the charts compared to what it is in this country. That's for sure. It's pretty breathtaking. Again, every country's got issues. Every country's got problems they got to fix. Iran's not a different one than that. mean, that's all good. That's fine. um And to be sort of critical of flaws, I think is legit when you're trying to help someone be better, but not when you're trying to blow them to smithereens. that's what the United States is really doing. And it's got nothing to do with women's rights. It's got nothing to do with human rights. It's got nothing to with anything. It's got to do with pure power and the fact that Iran, once again, Iran has stood up. And they claim, I'm sorry, the claim sounds like I'm being judgmental in a way that I shouldn't be. It's just that don't know this. But the Iranians state that one of the reasons that they are not stand up for the Palestinians, but for anyone who is oppressed is because of the Shia uh sect of Islam. That that is part of the duty of a Shia. And, you know, they've stood up, they've supported Cuba, not an Islamic country. They support the Palestinians. mean, they, and on and on on on on. So, you know, it is, they certainly do not deserve what we in Israel are doing to them. That is for sure. And I think anything we can do to make that stop, we should. oh I think that what Trump is going to do is get a bunch of our young men and women killed. to say nothing of destroying our economy and potentially if things go further south as it were, the world economy. And this may even explode into nuclear war. So on that unhappy note, should cue our closing music. That sounds good. You guys, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, my uncle, for being here with me. I love you, man. uh And we will see you all next time. Oh. People who listen to this have thoughts on what's to be done. They should send it to them, right? Either at our Gmail address, is that what you're saying? Comrade Uncle Pod. ComradeUnclePod at gmail.com. Please do. I mean, I am not only receptive, I'm eager to hear. I'm curious. I would love to know. I would love to have, or even just any thoughts or comments, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Where's the best place to get a cheeseburger where you live? I don't know. Whatever. Yeah, she's British matter. She's British matter. All right. you, uh let's do it. Let's see if this works. Bye, I love you, Uncle Joe. Bye. Fingers crossed, huh? Yeah. Now this should play, this should let this thing play through. you Alright, we'll see you guys next time. Love you, Uncle Joe. Bye.