Professor Marandi: White House has trapped itself in a ‘lose-lose’ situation

Inside the Board of Piss

Jared Kushner has a scheme to profit off world peace — and Gaza is the testing ground. 

There’s a web of private equity billionaires with ties to Israel and shadowy corporate armies who stand to profit off never-ending conflict. 

We investigated Trump’s Board of Peace. 

Ex-Settler Explains Why Israel Is Spiraling

It’s astonishing how comprehensive Israel’s program of indoctrination and control of its citizens is. Here’s the story from a guy who escaped this Truman World.

Daniel Klein was born and raised in Efrat, one of the largest religious Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank. His family helped build the settlement movement, and he grew up immersed in its schools, institutions, theology, politics, and culture before serving as an IDF tank commander. In this conversation, Daniel shares an insider's account of life inside the religious Zionist world, the psychology of belief, the realities of the settlement project, and how Zionism can present a different face to different people while maintaining a powerful hold over identity and belonging.

We discuss Efrat, the West Bank, violent settlers, the relationship between Judaism and Zionism, the dehumanization of Palestinians, military service, nationalism, religious identity, cognitive dissonance, moral injury, and the personal costs of dissent. Daniel explains why leaving Zionism can mean losing family, friends, community, status, and purpose. He describes the process by which ideological systems reproduce themselves, how Israelis are taught to understand Palestinians, and why so many people remain trapped inside narratives.

We also explore Daniel's awakening during COVID, what caused his worldview to unravel, why he believes Israeli society is entering a period of profound crisis, and what lessons his journey offers for all of us.  

Trump restarts attacks on Iran - bombs a wedding

• Reuters: Oil prices jumped more than 2% on ‌Monday, with Brent back above $90 a barrel, after US forces struck two ⁠Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak island in the Strait of Hormuz. 'The US-Zionist enemy, once again, based on its desperation in solving domestic problems and reducing its credibility among regional countries, seeks to revive its nefarious role and justify public opinion. In a provocative act, it attacked Larak Island, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of several of our soldiers and fellow citizens', Iranian officials stated.   

• Iran shot down the 50th US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormoz, early yesterday. The Iranian Army Ground Forces also used Arash-2 one-way attack drones to target Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE. IRGC targeted technical and repair infrastructure + fighter jet deployment sites at two US airbases: King Hussein and Muwaffaq al Salti AB in Jordan, using ballistic missiles. 

• IRIB: 35 Iranian civilians were injured in the US attack on a wedding ceremony in Kohstak, Sirik in southern Iran.  Number of martyrs from the wedding ceremony bombing by the US has reached 4. 
• IRNA: In the US attacks carried out on Iran, just hours ago: A fish powder factory in Qeshm, a fishing pier, and a port administration platform in Sirik were targeted. More than 5 explosions were heard near the village of Masen on Qeshm Island. 4 additional explosions were also heard from the Strait of Hormoz, on Qeshm Island.
• Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to Donald Trump, officials said Monday, after repeated clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His resignation marks the latest leadership shake-up amid the Trump administration’s ongoing war in Iran, and had been seen as increasingly imminent after months of friction with Hegseth and others aligned with the Pentagon chief. Hegseth and Driscoll clashed both professionally and personally over the firing of top generals, over Hegseth’s belief that Driscoll had not been appropriately deferential to the defense secretary and over other matters. Driscoll is a close friend and former Yale Law School classmate of V-P JD Vance. Hegseth has also forced out some of the Army’s top officers. They include Gen. James Mingus, the former vice chief of staff; Gen. Christopher Donahue, the former top Army general in Europe; Gen. David Hodne, the head of Army Transformation and Training Command.

• Responsible Statecraft: At a glance, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy looks like a new think tank dedicated to Israel/Palestine. The organization churns out think-tank style reports on questions such as “Does AIPAC Use Dark Money in Elections?” and “Is Israel Carrying out a Deliberate Campaign of Starvation in Gaza?” But the Hanover Institute is not a real think tank. None of the reports have bylines. A small disclaimer at the bottom of the webpage notes that the organization was created on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency by Piro, Inc, a firm co-founded by Daniel Rosenberg. The Hanover Institute’s reports — all of which are about Israel and Palestine — appear to be part of an Israeli effort to influence chatbots. 

• Several US military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the US homeland. The warnings - detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing US operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America - appear in the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB). They described the assessment to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because the document is classified. The Aug. 14 orders book directs some troops deployed in the Middle East to remain there through September and some others into 2027, said those familiar with the document. The prospect of extending those forces further compelled military leaders to voice their concern. The military's warning to Hegseth, which has not been previously reported, offers new insight into the administration's dilemma as Trump seeks to end the conflict on terms favorable to the US while Iran, cognizant of the war's unpopularity with most Americans and its mounting toll on the U.S. arsenal, refuses to capitulate.  

• Iran is preparing a more aggressive response to renewed US attacks, and could strike economic targets as well as military sites, University of Tehran professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi has told RT. Marandi described the renewed US strikes as a “grave miscalculation” on the part of Washington and stated that Tehran will not hold back after the deaths of its servicemen. He predicted that the Iranian response will be “different from what we’ve had before” and include strikes on both military and economic assets. “The response is going to be very painful,” Marandi said, noting that it will likely have a significant impact on the US economy “in the weeks ahead,” possibly affecting the US midterm elections.

• 55 Zionist organizations around the world have launched an initiative called 'Gaza GenoLIE' to counter what they describe as the 'Gaza genocide lie', claiming that the characterization has been systematically promoted by anti-Zionist and anti-semitic networks in the US, Europe and other parts of the world. The initiative includes organizations such as the Ireland Israel Alliance, Italy’s Solomon Observatory on Discrimination and the Sweden Israel Alliance, along with Stand With Us, the World Jewish Congress, CAMERA and the National Jewish Advocacy Center. The initiative describes the 'Gaza genocide' as one of the biggest lies of the 21st century and says its website aims to provide material explaining and refuting the narrative that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. 

• In a recent article for Al Jazeera by Dr. Dianne Woodward, a former lecturer in Biological Sciences in the UK, “Gaza shares the Mediterranean, coastal ecosystems and coastal aquifers with Israel”, and Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s sanitation infrastructure means that 100,000 cubic metres of raw, untreated sewage are flowing into the Mediterranean or seeping into the land every day, with the sewage in the sea flowing north into Israeli waters. As well as poisoning itself by sea and through aquifers, Israel is also facing toxic blowback through its efforts to erase evidence of its genocide through massive land clearance projects in the two-thirds of Gaza under its military control. This was first exposed a month ago by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, when 100 trucks a day were removing rubble from Gaza to undisclosed locations in Israel and the West Bank. 

• In the latest episode of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ a Ukrainian man tried to prevent his friend being kidnapped by Zelensky’s meat hunters. The man tried to stop the kidnapping by laying behind the police car. Instead of preventing the death sentence, the police car ran the man over. 

• A prominent pro-Trump social media influencer has been secretly working inside the Pentagon for months, a revelation that has renewed scrutiny of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's ties to friendly online personalities even as he has spent more than a year restricting access for the traditional press. Jennica Pounds, who posts under the name DataRepublican to nearly a million followers on X, was confirmed this week to be working as a special government employee at the Department of Defence. In addition Hegseth has reportedly hired conservative military veterans with large social media followings — Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel with more than 135,000 X followers, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel with 620,000 X followers—to work for the Pentagon . The reports raise questions about transparency and Hegseth's intentions in office. Starting in May 2025, Hegseth issued a memo requiring reporters to be escorted through hallways they had previously accessed freely, and later demanded journalists sign a pledge not to solicit or publish information the department had not explicitly authorized for release, even if it was unclassified. A federal judge later ruled that the credentialing policy's true purpose was to weed out disfavored journalists, though an appeals court has since allowed a related escort requirement to remain in place while the case continues.

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US could sanction China over its continued purchases from Iran, warning that “all options are on the table.” He also rejected claims that Washington is reluctant to target Beijing, calling that “a completely false narrative.” “This is going to be financial violence if we have to,” Bessent said, warning institutions involved in Iranian transactions: “We know who you are.”
• Trump Admin just accepted permit for an underwater AI data center off Eastport, Maine. $100 million project covering 27 acres in the Bay of Fundy near Kendall Head. Servers cooled by our ocean turning Western Passage into an industrial heat sink. Locals and the Passamaquoddy Tribe have been screaming about this for months. Thermal pollution risks cooking the water that sustains our lobsters, scallops, and clams. Data Center Developer is a Massachusetts luxury real estate guy who formed the company weeks before filing. 

• Korea Update: As a forward military base, logistics hub, intelligence platform, and missile platform within the US Indo-Pacific strategy, Japan is requesting ¥8.9 trillion ($55.66 billion USD) for its 2027 'defense' budget as Tokyo expands its long-range strike, hypersonic, drone, and AI capabilities. The stated priorities include new forms of warfare involving drones and artificial intelligence, the ability to sustain prolonged conflicts, strengthening the defense-industrial base, and improving conditions for Self-Defense Forces personnel. Japan is becoming militarily stronger, but not necessarily more autonomous. Instead, it is becoming increasingly integrated with the US military and geopolitical priorities through the expansion of its offensive military capabilities. Japan’s growing military power poses a threat to peace and stability in Northeast Asia. [You could call this Ukraine proxy war 2.0]

TPUSA is an Israeli front organization

In this episode of 51/49, James exposes Turning Point USA’s latest propaganda lie after a massive Israeli flag at an El Paso tour stop ignited backlash, revealing how spokesperson Andrew Kolvet was caught lying about the event decor before getting humiliated by online sleuths; and former staffer whistleblower claims of foreign donor control.  

What will it take for the world to realize we need a cleanse?

Robert Barnes: Washington Is Dismantling Its Own Empire One War at a Time

Attorney and political commentator (and former Trump lawyer) Robert Barnes joins former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to examine how the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the weaponization of the dollar and a succession of strategic miscalculations are reshaping the international order. 

From the growing alignment of Russia, China and Iran to mounting pressure on U.S. markets and domestic politics, they ask whether the system built to preserve American primacy has begun to work against itself. 

Barnes runs thru lots of history where the US worked with the mafia, drug lords, terrorists, Nazis and other similar gangster types in the Post WW2 era. 

Barnes also breaks down the current ramifications of increasing cost of fuels and the impacts on the economy. Farm clients of his are going out of business. Big box stores like Wal-Mart are facing serious layoffs due to the public not spending for the expensive luxury home items. 

He predicts the Dems will take back the House of Representatives in the Congress and in the Senate he predicts the Dems could take a slight advantage.

Having once represented Trump as his lawyer, Barnes also breaks down the current mental gymnastics that the Orange Man Bad is going thru each day.

Bruce

History lesson: WW2 Japan's invasions/occupations being rewritten

Jerry Grey is a retired British police supervisor who has been living in China for almost two decades. 

Here he exposes Wikipedia and other Western sources falsely denying Japan's invasions of Asian countries during WW2. 

CIA trip to Moscow, Zelensky casts blame for bombed weapons storage near homes

• The gap between America’s inability to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and its claim to own it is greater than the 7,000-mile distance between Washington and the Strait itself. Welcome to the post-American order in the Persian Gulf. 

• Strategic Culture Foundation: Before CIA head Ratcliffe’s departure, the US asked Ukraine to suspend drone and missile attacks on Moscow and cities in northern Russia from last Monday through Wednesday. Kiev was informed that a high-level American delegation was traveling through Russian territory. The US initiative portrays a position of weakness. A hegemonic power that perceives the erosion of its centrality has an interest in freezing open fronts in order to reorganize its lines. Strategic overextension is the classic ailment of mature empires. The decisive question is not whether the US is on its last legs, but rather whether it perceives that it can no longer sustain all fronts at once. Russian distrust of Western overtures is a well-established historical fact, and no negotiator from Moscow sits at the table without factoring in the possibility of deception. The other major issue, one of international calibration, is Israel which comes into play as a function of the Iranian question: Israeli security is the unspoken prerequisite for any American recalibration in the Middle East. The only thing that can be said with certainty is this: when the CIA director flies to Moscow in secret something significant is stirring beneath the surface of the conflicts. An inside source reported that another prominent figure was also present on the plane and in Moscow – namely, Vice President JD Vance. 

• Simplicius: It appears more and more likely that the CIA director’s true mission to Moscow was essentially an attempt to stop Russia from finishing off Ukraine. There are multiple possibilities for how this could have worked. One of them is that he carried with him an implied threat of European [NATO] escalation. By warning Russia not to escalate against Europe, he may have instead dropped the obvious hint that Russia itself would be forced into a European escalation if Russia does not back its foot off the gas on Ukrainian strikes.

• Greece and Israel are set to sign agreements next week in Tel Aviv launching the 'Achilles’ Shield', a multibillion-euro air defense project that Greek officials call a major step in modernizing the country’s defenses. The agreements will be signed on August 31 by Greece’s General Directorate for Defense Investments & Armaments and Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Once signed, the contracts will start a 35-month countdown to complete the project. The project is expected to cost a total of 3.1 billion euros. Twelve Greek companies are expected to take part, carrying out work valued at more than 700 million euros.

• RT: Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly humiliated and abused a former household worker, at one point calling him an “undeveloped Moroccan,” a new lawsuit claims. The controversy adds to a years-long trail of remarkably similar allegations, painting a picture of intolerable conditions at the residence. According to Ben-Hamo, he sometimes worked from around 7:30 AM until the early hours of the following morning, clocking 60 to 80 hours of overtime a month. He claims to have “suffered extreme abuse” from the prime minister’s wife and endured screaming and humiliation when cleaning or household chores were not performed exactly as she wanted.

• Russia's Volna Kupol Garant appears to be the electronic warfare system responsible for the declining effectiveness of Starlink - a development Ukrainian military officials have begun to openly admit, notes air defense historian Yuri Knutov in comments to Sputnik. Unlike conventional jamming, which focuses on terminals, the system targets the frequencies used by Starlink satellites, the backbone of Ukrainian command and control, the expert says. “The Starlink signal can be completely jammed - or distorted badly enough to make it unusable also for communications,” says Knutov.

• External governance in Kyiv under the auspices of the UN could pave the way for a diplomatic settlement. This was stated on August 29 in an interview with RIA Novosti by Mikhail Galuzin, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister. He reminded that President Vladimir Putin had previously proposed introducing temporary external administration in Ukraine under the auspices of the UN, the US, European countries, and Russian partners in order to hold elections for the Ukrainian top leadership. According to Putin, Russia could already be conducting negotiations to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
• Former Ukrainian Defence Minister and terrorist, Mikhail Fedorov, has accepted a role as defence innovation adviser to Italy’s Guido Crosetto (Minister of Defence of Italy). Fedorov says he will help Italy adopt modern warfare technologies, including drones, autonomous systems and air defense, while continuing his main work in Ukraine. 

• Sputnik: Russian Armed Forces struck the Fire Point enterprise in the Kiev region, which produced and stored substances for solid-fuel boosters and warheads of Flamingo missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.  Last night Kiev was hit with another massive attack, which resulted in the explosion (and secondary detonations) of a weapons depot with US Patriot missiles inside placed right next to a civilian area. 37 residents died. Surprisingly Zelensky acknowledged their error: "A terrible situation and terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to people. Another such crime, after what happened in Vyshneve, is absolutely unacceptable. I expect the details to be presented to the public promptly. The first strike was on an Defense Forces ammunition storage site that definitely shouldn’t have been there. Shells, mines, other ammunition, and drones detonated. The scale is significant. We have already spoken with the Prosecutor General, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Commander-in-Chief – they have everything necessary for the investigation. I want to separately thank everyone who is there on the ground and at other sites of Russian strikes, doing everything possible to help and save people."  

• Trump has announced the creation of a 'Space Academy', like the Army's West Point, or the Navy's Annapolis. “Given the rapid growth of the Space Force and the commerce space industry and the expansion of our ambitions to the moon and far beyond the moon, it’s clear we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers and civil operators.” At the announcement he stated that we are winning the recent wars "because we get so much information from space". The only question now is where the 'academy' will be located. The announcement of a new military academy came days after the Trump administration released a space policy increasing the number of rocket launches into space. The president has long touted what he calls the “golden age” of space travel, seeking to double the Space Force’s budget to stay ahead of China in the battle for satellite supremacy. When the Space Force was created in 2020, the top general in charge told the Congress that it would be a 'lean' organization. Lately though the Space Force is begging for big budget increases "because they are being asked to do so many new military operations".  “Our nation will conquer [space], indeed, this vast frontier that we have before us,” Trump said. “We will explore it, tame it and we will win it.”  

• MSN: The US has gained a controlling stake in nearly a quarter of Venezuela’s untapped oil reserves. It makes the US the majority owner of a giant new joint venture oil company that will hold 100-year contracts at the Venezuelan oil fields. The key Venezuelan partner in the deal is Alejandro Betancourt, who controls the second-largest private oil company in the country. Betancourt, 46, has also been the subject of investigations in multiple countries into alleged money laundering and faces a Swiss warrant for his arrest. Trump said the Venezuela deal “will substantially lower gas prices for all Americans,” although most experts say that any real increase in Venezuelan oil production is years away. Trump also claimed the deal would come at no cost to US taxpayers. It is unclear who would make the tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure investments needed before oil can be pumped from the largely dormant fields. Major oil companies have mostly seen such spending as too risky.
• A Native tribe’s way of life was threatened by Trump's Canada tariffs. The Blackfeet Nation (Montana) faces severe economic hardship as international trade tensions escalate. Native American business owners, including ranchers, transportation operators, and tourism industry, have experienced substantial revenue declines over the past two years due to existing tariff policies. With new trade disputes on the horizon, tribal communities fear further deterioration of their already vulnerable economic situation and limited employment opportunities.

• Safe Tech Int'l: For decades, Big Tech has exploited us and shredded the fabric of our society under the guise of progress. Its platforms have enabled genocide, fueled suicides, and laid waste to our collective mental health, and now, with artificial intelligence, it also wants to take our jobs. Politicians smarter than Trump are abruptly flip-flopping on the issue. Texas has 582 data centers that are either operating or planned to be built. Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, is touting the planned buildout of data centers, calling the state the “epicenter of AI development.” America is sick of Big Tech running roughshod over society. Polls show that 1/2 of Americans want tech executives to have less power, and that 3/4 say social media’s negative effect on children’s development is a serious problem. Data centers aren’t much different—other than they are physical and local manifestations of Big Tech’s excess.  

Navy mess: GI's wanting to quit & moral conflict from the wars

Current reasons for wanting out of US military: Violations of international law; civilian death tolls as result of US interventions; and extended deployments without a clear mission or strategy.

A New York Times headline reads: 'Hegseth's Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless'.

The shit is hitting the fan in DC even if the big wigs want to deny it.

This surging anti-military attitude within the services (similar to during the US war on Vietnam) is likely the reason Trump & Bessent have switched gears to their 'economic war on Iran'. 

Don't expect much from this latest twist in strategy.

The only 'winners' are the corporate war mongers who are raking in the taxpayers cash. 

In the meantime Trump is slashing funding for the pre-school Head Start program for poor kids. Trump wants to dump Medicare and Medicaid programs onto the states to cover - which they can't afford to do.

The Veterans Administration is being slowly but steadily privatized. The Post Office is being run into the ground in order to justify privatization.

National parks and forests are continually being sliced and diced. 

Next up we will likely see states and local governments complaining they don't have the funds to fix sewer and water systems. They will get privatized and our rates will skyrocket. 

The total breakdown of America is on the way. 

Speak out now or forever regret your choice to sit this revolution out.

Bruce 

Sunday song