Useful Idiots

After over 6 months claiming that Iran was an existential threat to the US, consistently being “only two weeks away” from nuclear capabilities, JD Vance had to suddenly admit the US was lying about its war-of-choice on Iran.

“If you look at the Iranian ability to disrupt the normal lives of Americans,” Vance says meekly during a press conference, “I think it’s quite limited. It’s not zero, but it’s quite limited.”

So how did the “terror regime” that would surely destroy the West if not stopped suddenly become a “quite limited” actor? Simple: the global economic broke down and JD’s looking for an escape hatch out of this disastrous war.

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This week, a big development for the proxy war in Ukraine: CIA Chief John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow, and depending on which corporate outlet you read, the reason for the trip is confusing.

The Wall Street Journal says Ratcliffe went to issue a warning to the Russians, (‘Don’t you dare attack NATO.’) But the New York Times reported that Racliffe was merely sharing some friendly advice that the war isn’t going well for Russia and they should end it before it widens further. Either way, the CIA in Moscow, nearly five years into the war, surely means something is about to happen.

To help sort out the confusion, we are joined by Richard Sakwa, author and Professor Emeritus at the University of Kent, who specializes in Russian and European Politics. He explains that, while Russia has dominated the war so far, time is actually not on their side.

Useful Idiots: This war has been going on for a long time, and the longer it drags on, the bigger the risk that it widens beyond Russia and Ukraine.

Richard Sakwa: That’s precisely the argument of the hardliners, the hawks in Russia, who basically say that time is not on Russia’s side in the sense that the West is in a vanguard of crossing all of Russia’s red lines.

Putin himself also added to the warnings that Ukraine and the West are opening a Pandora’s box. It wasn’t quite clear yet what is in that box.

In response, [UK Prime Minister] Burnham himself then said, ‘Well, you started the fire.’ Now that shows an extraordinary intellectual and conceptual myopia that the West has been locked into since the beginning of this conflict. They simply cannot understand the underlying logic of this conflict, as if Putin woke up one fine morning in February and attacked Ukraine in his mad zeal to re-establish the Soviet Empire if not the Russian Empire

So it’s just an entrenched a position. And of course, this raises, as you suggest, that if Russia does not respond, then it is a sign of weakness.

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“Government run health care? Bad idea!” yells Darline Graham, sister of the late Lindsey, during her primary victory speech as she runs to keep her brother’s Senate seat in South Carolina. She gives her pitch to voters, what some may call an alternative to Medicare for All:

“I have a different background. My parents worked long, hard hours. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work. My mother passed away when I was 11, and my father just over a year later!”

Are you…happy your parents died young? And that’s what you want to give to the people of South Carolina?

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Watch this week’s Monday Mourning here:

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On this week’s show we find out that when you launch an unprovoked regime-change war against a big country like Iran, it turns out that not only is it a bad idea militarily, but it might also tank your economy.

The US debt just hit a record-setting $40 trillion, rising $3.6 trillion in the last twelve months alone. That high mark being more than double what it was in 2016. Check out the graph:

With a ballooning military budget for Pete Hegseth’s flailing Department of War and a strangled oil market from Iran’s continued control over the Strait of Hormuz, the US and global economies have been sent reeling.

Our guest, Middle East analyst Sharmine Narwani, explains why Iran’s surprise military strength has shocked both US commanders and economists, and gives her prediction that comes out quite bleak for the future of American interests on a global scale:

“Major financial institutions around the world are talking about the US potentially losing its position, and the dollar losing its position as a global reserve currency. When that happens, the house of cards falls apart.

You cannot finance wars. Nobody wants the dollar. Nobody’s stocking it.

You can’t hold other countries to anything if they’re trading in other currencies. If it doesn’t go through New York, you don’t have eyes on things anymore. You lose control.”

Subscribe for the full interview here, an extra 40-minute discussion with Sharmine Narwani.

And check out Ground News, an awesome tool we found that helps us sift through the news and compare headlines to expose media bias. For an example, watch our comparison of two stories about US sanctions in today’s episode. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world.

Corporate AIPAC Democrats are panicking across CNN as the progressive wave sweeps primaries across the country. The latest in Florida brought a surprise upset victory for Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon, toppling Russiagate star Alexander Vindman whose pro-Israel donors gave him a 16 to 1 spending advantage over Nixon that proved inadequate on Primary Day.

So what does former Dem Congressman Bakari Sellers of CNN have to say about it?

Vote Blue except for you.