Story by Alex Galbraith
Donald Trump’s calls for “peace” between Iran and Israel lasted for a long weekend.
The president seemingly bought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s explanation for his country’s “preemptive” strike on nuclear sites and population centers, crowing on Truth Social on Monday that the attack was a result of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life,” he said. “Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again!”
The president closed his message with a frightening warning.
“Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” he wrote.
The rant seemed to be prompted by criticism from Tucker Carlson. The former Fox News host has been loudly pressuring MAGA conservatives to wash their hands of the Israel-Iran conflict. During a stop by the podcast of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Carlson worried that Trump would bring about the “end of the American empire.”
“I’m really afraid that my country’s gonna be further weakened by this,” he said.
Trump made fun of Carlson’s ouster from Fox News in response, saying “let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.”
“Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” he added on social media.
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By Gary Church
The fundamental idea of democracy is not that hard to understand. It has been so morphed and convoluted that now most Americans actually do not understand the fundamental idea. Those whose life goal is to become as rich as possible have always been the enemies of democracy since a foundational feature of democracy is to limit individual wealth. And propagandizing out of existence this foundational feature has been a foundational goal of the rich…. which they have largely accomplished.
In order to keep this propaganda coup valid there is a need to maintain a state of constant invented crisis. And this has now reached the point where it is endangering civilization.
One way to understand democracy is to imagine a group of people thriving in a harsh environment. This is the first object lesson: A group will thrive but not an individual. Setting aside the fact an individual cannot reproduce, even in their lifetime they will sooner than later die due to even a minor illness or injury without others to help them. These others-that-help are the collective, the “Demos” in democracy.
The second object lesson: The individual may own property and have authority but never all property and all authority. An individual attempting to, for example, take all the food when there is very little, will be overpowered by the collective. An individual threatening violence if another does not, for example, obey an inappropriate order, will be overpowered by the collective. This is the power to rule, the “Kratos” in democracy.
The third object lesson: The members of a collective are all equal in regard to their freedom to choose and their obligation to obey rules that prevent their choices from harming others. The individual always has this “right choice” or right to, for example, self-defense. The individual is also always required to refrain and decline to harm others who do not pose a threat to their safety or the safety of the collective.
Wealth concentrates upward to fewer and fewer until inevitably a very few own everything and everyone. Though imperfect and difficult, the best way to stay free is a “Limitarian Democracy” that actively regulates the wealth and power of oligarchs. The central fact of democracy is this; the only reason anyone owns anything is because the rest of us let them. The central question is this; how much wealth a democracy can allow the individual to keep without self-destructing.
Ice on the Moon 