In his April 1st press conference, President Trump wasn’t fooling. He said: “it’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal—we have to take care of one thing. Military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, all you have to, you have to let states take care of them.”
President Trump is not alone in this sentiment. Similar intentions have been expressed by European leaders like German Chancellor Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and probably also French President Macron, who is always speaking out of both sides of his mouth, so it’s hard to interpret what he actually intends.
We remember similar rhetoric from President Joe Biden after Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine began. He told us that he knew Americans would be happy to pay more for gasoline at the pump, because we were making Russia suffer. Now we hear the same thing from President Trump vis-à-vis Iran.
And so the people that these leaders are allegedly protecting from “evil foreign adversaries” find themselves struggling from year to year just to get by. Costs of housing are out of control. The cost of energy is out of control. In the state of New Jersey, 69,000 people just gave up on even trying to pay their health insurance premiums and have lost their health coverage.
German auto manufacturers and supply companies have lost tens of thousands of jobs. According to AP, European Union Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Wednesday that the Iran war was costing Europe around €500 million (approx. $585 million) each day and would affect prices for years to come. “This is not a short-term, small increase in prices. This is a crisis that is probably as serious as the 1973 and the 2022 crises combined.”
In the United States, the price of beef has risen by 16%, and the cattle herd is the smallest it’s been in 75 years.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz will not merely affect energy supply and cost for years to come, but also fertilizer, which means farmers and food production. If the war ended tomorrow, it would take years to restore supply lines of basic necessities. If the war rages on, who knows?
Just as the Artemis II crew observed from space, all of us on this planet are sitting in the same boat. Only a handful of Epstein-class billionaire perverts feel that they are benefited in any way from the state of perpetual war and dictatorial measures to silence the opposition.
We, the citizens of the world, must join forces to put the Epstein class out of business. We must return to a world of reason and dialogue where human dignity and sovereignty are respected and promoted.
This Friday’s International Peace Coalition meeting is the organizing center of the resistance to insanity. This needs to be a record participation event, and everyone reading this should not only be there Friday at 11:00 a.m. (US Eastern) but should share the invitation far and wide.
Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass a War Powers Resolution for the fifth time in a vote of 46 to 51. Posturing Senate Democrats like Chuck Schumer have pledged to bring the resolution to the floor every week until the Iran war ends. We don’t want them to bring it to the floor every week as a publicity stunt. We want them to vote to cut the funding for this war, which could happen in 24 hours. Members of the U.S. House and Senate need to hear from you that we don’t appreciate their posturing on the question of President Trump’s dubious mental health. They have the power of the purse to end the war now. Call and write Congress and join the meeting on Friday.
