August 19, 2026
Tom Engelhardt
Tom Engelhardt
Hey, Donald Trump couldn’t have
made it clearer that he wanted to go to war with Iran, could he?
.................RATIONAL THINKING.................. مرا جهل در کامِ دیو میبَرَد.............از آن دوستی میکنم با خِرَد
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Report: US Considers Reducing Persian Gulf Military Presence After Iran War
August 18, 2026
Dave DeCamp
Dave DeCamp
Many US bases in the Gulf Arab
states were evacuated due to their vulnerability to Iranian attacks
President Trump
and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on May
15, 2026 (US Air Force photo)
Personal bankruptcy filings are soaring in 2026, signaling growing economic distress
August 19, 2026
Jay L. Zagorsky
The number of Americans who file for bankruptcy is growing. More than 500,000 people took this step in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2022. And the numbers have kept on climbing, with a 12% jump in June 2026 from a year earlier as many consumers struggled to pay their bills.
Jay L. Zagorsky
The number of Americans who file for bankruptcy is growing. More than 500,000 people took this step in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2022. And the numbers have kept on climbing, with a 12% jump in June 2026 from a year earlier as many consumers struggled to pay their bills.
ماهها
ماههای قمریا
ز محرم چو گذشتی برسد ماه صفر
دو ربیع و دو جمادی ز پی یکدیگر
رجب است از پی شعبان، رمضان و شوّال
پس به ذیالحجه و ذیالقعده بکن نیک نظر
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Trump labels Strait of Hormuz ‘US territory’ as Iran says Israel is biggest obstacle to negotiations
August 18, 2026
Elis Gjevori
Elis Gjevori
Tehran says the waterway will
remain closed until Washington lifts its blockade and fulfils an interim
agreement
On 15 August
2026, Iran rejected the US president’s threat to declare the Strait of Hormuz
part of US territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded 'will
remain Iranian'. (AFP)
Monday, August 17, 2026
Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the Shit’ Out of Oman as Strait of Hormuz Traffic Again Grinds to a Halt
August 17, 2026
Brad Reed
Brad Reed
Trump’s warning
to Oman over its negotiations with Iran comes as the closure of the Strait of
Hormuz is once again putting upward pressure on petroleum prices.
Imperialism in a Full World: Neomercantilism and the Return of the Zero-Sum Game
August 17, 2026
Alberto Garzón
In September 2010, a Chinese fishing vessel was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed Senkaku Islands. China’s unofficial response was to halt rare-earth exports to Japan—a country whose entire electronics industry depended on them. The dispute was brief: Japan released the captain, and China never formally acknowledged the embargo. But that episode became a geopolitical watershed, exposing the enormous dependence of the developed world on a single country’s monopoly over the minerals that are indispensable for the energy and digital transitions. Interdependence, once praised as a virtue of globalization, had become a weapon and a vulnerability.1
Alberto Garzón
In September 2010, a Chinese fishing vessel was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed Senkaku Islands. China’s unofficial response was to halt rare-earth exports to Japan—a country whose entire electronics industry depended on them. The dispute was brief: Japan released the captain, and China never formally acknowledged the embargo. But that episode became a geopolitical watershed, exposing the enormous dependence of the developed world on a single country’s monopoly over the minerals that are indispensable for the energy and digital transitions. Interdependence, once praised as a virtue of globalization, had become a weapon and a vulnerability.1
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Trump reinvents the Portuguese Empire with Plan to make Hormuz US Territory
August 16, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in a speech on Saturday that he wants to make the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States.
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in a speech on Saturday that he wants to make the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States.
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Netanyahu’s réprise of the ‘Iraq WMD deceit’ – re-launched to promote war on Iran
August 15, 2026
Trump’s pivot to economic
pressure as the key to Iranian capitulation is not a credible strategy.
Friday, August 14, 2026
Iran war live: US eyes ‘indefinite’ naval blockade, vows to isolate Tehran
August 14, 2026
Yashraj Sharma and Caolán Magee
Yashraj Sharma and Caolán Magee
- US Vice President JD Vance has outlined Washington’s key objectives in the Iran conflict as keeping energy prices stable for Americans, preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and securing a stronger US position.
- US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says that the US can sustain its blockade against Iran “indefinitely”.
- Iran’s military disputes US assertions that maritime traffic is flowing normally through the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining that no vessel passes without its authorisation.
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the United States will apply economic measures against Iran that have “never been seen” before in efforts to isolate Tehran.
Sen. Van Hollen: Iran war is illegal and we cannot fund another dime
Martin Di Caro
In an interview with RS, the
senator discusses Israeli influence in the US, whether Libya was a mistake, and
more
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Iran’s next front isn’t the Middle East — it’s America’s backyard
August 13, 2026
Jose Lev Alvarez
When Israeli officials revealed in November 2025 that Mexican security services had disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Jerusalem’s ambassador in Mexico City, naive Washington bureaucrats predictably responded with surprise. Mexico’s regime mendaciously denied the operation. Yet, Israeli intelligence identified its architect as Hasan Izadi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force operative embedded within the Iranian Embassy in Caracas. Diplomatic whitewashing cannot erase the chilling warning: Tehran is actively preparing murder in the Americas.
Jose Lev Alvarez
When Israeli officials revealed in November 2025 that Mexican security services had disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Jerusalem’s ambassador in Mexico City, naive Washington bureaucrats predictably responded with surprise. Mexico’s regime mendaciously denied the operation. Yet, Israeli intelligence identified its architect as Hasan Izadi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force operative embedded within the Iranian Embassy in Caracas. Diplomatic whitewashing cannot erase the chilling warning: Tehran is actively preparing murder in the Americas.
Tehran says 'Hormuz is ours' after Trump claims ownership of strait
August 13, 2026
The president went on social
media and said that the waterway is under 'full US control'
‘Lies and Fabrications’: Khatam al-Anbiya Rejects US Claims on Hormuz
August 13, 2026
Lieutenant
Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central
Headquarters. (Photo: Video grab)
Iran’s Khatam
al-Anbiya Central Headquarters says Hormuz remains closed and under Tehran’s
control, rejecting US claims of normalized maritime traffic.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
America’s Fatal Attraction to War
August 12, 2026
Emma Ashford
Emma Ashford
The Perverse
Incentives for Presidents to Use Military Force
تاریخ
کسانی که به تاریخ علاقهمندند
و وقایع تاریخی را مطالعه میکنند، هر یک از دید خاصی به آن رویدادها مینگرند.
ولی آنچه که بیش از همه جلب توجه میکند جنگها و لشگرکشیهاست که در هر دورهٔ
تاریخی بیوقفه ادامه دارند. نه تنها داستان جنگها و لشگرکشیها، بلکه مرور ابداعات
و اختراعات جنگی و سلاحهائی که ضایعاتِ انسانیِ و نظامیِ نیروی خودی را کمتر، و
در عوض خسارات جنگی دشمن را چند برابر میکنند. گرچه جوامع بشری همواره و در طول تاریخ
با اختراعات و اکتشافات و نوآوریهای خود رو به پیشرفت بودهاند، بلکه همواره در
نقطهای از این کرهٔ خاکی درگیری نظامی بین دولتها و ملتها رقم خورده است. ولی
روند جوامع همیشه به سمت بهتر و راحتتر زیستن بوده است، و بسیاری از جنگها نیز
به منظور تحت اختیار گرفتن و یا غلبه کردن بر آن نوآوریهای نظامی بودهاند.
دانشمندان همیشه با کاوش و تجسّسِ خود کشف کردهاند که چگونه میتوان از آنچه که
در دسترس بشر قرار دارد، چون عوامل جوّی و رودها و اقیانوسها، و سایر ثروتهای
طبیعت مانند کشتزارها و معادن، و انرژی
خورشیدی، و هر آنچه که در این کرهٔ خاکی یافت میشود، به منظور راحت زیستن استفاده
بهتر و شایانی کرد.ا
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
US War on Iran Is Devastating for Women Who Want Life and Freedom
August 11, 2026
Iranian feminists asked for international help — but the U.S.-Israeli war has killed women, left many jobless and given the government a pretext to violate their rights.
Iranian feminists asked for international help — but the U.S.-Israeli war has killed women, left many jobless and given the government a pretext to violate their rights.
An
Iranian woman walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on a wall of Tehran
University in downtown Tehran on April 25, 2026
Iran Has Changed the Question
Vijay Prashad
For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound traffic. The proposal remains unsettled, but it represents something larger than a maritime agreement: Iran is attempting to move the diplomatic agenda away from the narrow question of its nuclear compliance and towards the wider architecture of Gulf security.
For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound traffic. The proposal remains unsettled, but it represents something larger than a maritime agreement: Iran is attempting to move the diplomatic agenda away from the narrow question of its nuclear compliance and towards the wider architecture of Gulf security.
Monday, August 10, 2026
What the Iran-Oman Hormuz deal means (it’s not good)
Optimism about
reaching a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis is premature. No deal between
Iran and Oman has been formally announced, but what we know is not promising.
Indeed, allowing the Strait of Hormuz littoral states alone to conduct the
negotiations is a fundamental challenge to freedom of the seas, a foundation of
U.S. foreign policy. The specifics may be even worse. Under one leaked version of the deal, neither
US nor Israeli ships would be allowed to transit the strait, an automatic
non-starter for Washington.
Marco ‘McCarthy’ Rubio: Wrong on Cuba & ‘Terrorism’
August 10, 2026
Ann Wright
Downtown
Minneapolis ICE-out demonstration on Jan. 23 following ICE agent Jonathan Ross’
fatal shooting of civilian Renée Good. (Lorie Shaull /Flickr/ Wikimedia
Commons/ CC BY 4.0)
Ann Wright
Those who challenge
and protest U.S. policies are not foreign-paid terrorists; Rubio and other
Trump appointees are using “McCarthy” tactics to stop dissent, says Ann Wright.
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