Portside

Reader Comments: One Tyrant Down, More to Follow?; Iran Negotiations Led by Real Estate Magnates; No Longer Separation of Church and State, President Now Leading Global Theological Luminary; 7 Democrats Vote to Kill Bill Blocking Arms Sales to Israel

You cannot negotiate with a regime you are trying to destroy. Trump’s oscillation between threatening to blast Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and describing “very good and productive conversations” is the logical endpoint of an incoherent strategy.

Party leaders have been doing everything in their power to avoid confronting the US-Israeli war in any meaningful way. Trump’s war is deeply unpopular. He is losing it badly. Its continuation would be a catastrophe. Democrats must go all in.

Reader Comments: Everything on Hold for Two Weeks-Time to Protest, Call on Congress: No More War With Iran: After 8 million in the Streets — What Comes Next?; Abuse and Exploitation in the Restaurant Industry; May Day Rally and March New York City;

Iran has basically proposed a detailed plan for its victory and Trump has accepted it as the basis of negotiations. And in the end, the people who will really suffer are those Iranians who want a different, better future.

This contradicts everything the president has said about the war. Recent reporting from the Financial Times reveals it was President Trump, not the Iranian government, who was begging for a ceasefire.

The law of war prohibits “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population.” It is difficult to read Trump’s egregious threats of destruction as anything but intending to spread terror.

Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero transition will help prevent future shocks

As dissent over the Iran war spreads to the political center, demonstrators face crackdowns while opposition lawmakers are still nowhere to be seen.

President Trump used an Easter lunch to talk about how we can’t take care of kids or sick people—we can only take care of the U.S. military. His message for his base - Listen here.