Iran is no Vietnam, but Trump is mimicking Lyndon Johnson’s failed approach

Source: The Hill
by Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet

“President Trump and his national security team are heading back to the future in Vietnam. No, we do not mean April 29, 1975, when the U.S. chaotically evacuated Saigon. Nor are we referring to the quagmire the Vietnam war had become by then. Rather, we refer to Operation Rolling Thunder, which began in March 1965 and ended just after Halloween in 1968. The U.S. military’s limited aerial campaign was intended to coerce the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. Instead, over time, it began planting the seeds that resulted in Hanoi’s victory over South Vietnam ten years later. Today, Team Trump is attempting to wield a similar failed strategy in Iran.” (09/03/26)

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/6066434-avoiding-vietnam-mistake-iran-conflict/

Brazil: Regime considers reciprocal measures after EU halts imports of Brazilian goods

Source: Seattle Times

“Brazil’s government and exporters of meat, poultry, eggs, honey and other animal products were scrambling Thursday after a European Union deadline passed, triggering a suspension of imports over concerns about the use of antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs in livestock. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s agriculture ministry said Thursday that it would consider reciprocal measures if a satisfactory solution is not reached. … The EU announced the suspension Tuesday, to become effective two days later. Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, shipped about 108,000 tons of beef worth about $1 billion to the EU in 2025, according to government figures. The bloc announced in May that Brazil would be removed from its list of countries authorized to export certain animal products to the bloc, arguing that Brazil had failed to provide sufficient guarantees that its livestock production meet EU standards against antibiotic growth promoters and other restricted drugs.” (09/03/26)

https://archive.is/XqD8L

Spain: Sánchez struggles to answer lawmakers about Ceuta border crisis

Source: SFGate

“A day after tens of thousands of Spaniards protested the government’s handling of the Ceuta border crisis, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez struggled to field lawmakers’ questions about the matter, including what role Morocco played in the deadly mass crossing in July. Five weeks after the incident, it remains unclear how 72,000 people were able to stream across the border shared by the Spanish exclave in North Africa and Morocco in the first place. While rejecting suggestions that Moroccan authorities helped orchestrate the incident, Sánchez said Moroccan police ‘allowed the border to be crossed’. Sánchez said his government would release key reports about the border breach, but did not say when they would be made public or what they would entail. He also elevated the official death toll from the event to 141 people, up significantly from the most-recent estimate of a total 96 in Spain and Morocco, provided by authorities in Ceuta and Morocco’s National Human Rights Council.” (09/03/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/spanish-prime-minister-rejects-suggestions-that-22415676.php

Half the Answer, episode 101

Source: Liberal Currents

“Donald Trump’s unprovoked trade war with Canada and his chaotic attacks on Iran have him hemorrhaging support in states he won in 2024. Why doesn’t he seem to care? What is he thinking? We can’t read minds, but we can talk to Greg Sargent from the New Republic about Trump’s statements, posts, and actions over the last month or so.” (09/03/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/very-normal-sir-trumps-canadian-and-iranian-quagmires-half-the-answer-101-with-greg-sargent/

Israel Faces Toxic Blowback From Its Genocide in Gaza

Source: Antiwar.com
by Andy Worthington

“Dr. [Dianne] Woodward noted that, earlier this month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of the Board of Peace established under Donald Trump to, ostensibly, oversee a new Palestinian-led administration in Gaza, ‘agreed to set up a working group on sanitation and public health affecting both Israel and Gaza’, although its ‘membership and detailed operating structure’ have not been made public. … Dr. Woodward also noted how, ironically, while trying to erase evidence of its genocide, Israel was importing from Gaza, ‘into undisclosed locations inside Israel and the West Bank’, some of ‘the estimated 60 million tonnes of rubble from Gaza’, without seeming to be aware that, in doing so, it is ‘potentially transferring the pollutants in that rubble directly to disposal or storage sites’ that will also affect the public health of Israelis.” (09/03/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/worthington/2026/09/02/israel-faces-toxic-blowback-from-its-genocide-in-gaza/

Government Welfare Makes Things Worse: Benjamin Franklin’s Forgotten Warning

Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin

“‘Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.’ That was James Madison, explaining that the modern federal welfare state is not authorized by the Constitution. Despite that, politicians today still insist that these programs aren’t just authorized, they’re also absolutely necessary to help people. But they ignore the fatal trap that Benjamin Franklin uncovered over 250 years ago: his long-forgotten warning that government welfare makes things worse.” (09/02/26)

https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/09/02/government-welfare-makes-things-worse-benjamin-franklins-forgotten-warning/

Judge blocks Trump’s latest attempt to repeal 14th Amendment by executive order

Source: Politico

“A federal judge has blocked one of President Donald Trump’s latest attempts to limit birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday barring enforcement of provisions in an executive order Trump signed last month seeking to deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to foreign parents who came in a ‘commercial transaction’ to gain citizenship or whose parents are ‘alien enemies.’ Boardman said Trump’s new order defies the Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the key provisions of a more sweeping directive he issued on his first day in office that sought to end birthright citizenship for children born to foreigners not in the U.S. legally [sic] or in the country on limited-duration visas.” (09/02/26)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/02/birthright-citizenship-order-ruling