All good things, we are told, must come to an end. All terrible things too. But, as made clear on today’s BradCast, it’s not always clear when the end has come or what may happen thereafter. [Audio to full show follows this summary.]
FIRST… Maine‘s progressive Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner finally succumbed to the inevitable and announced plans to drop out of the race in advance of Monday’s deadline to be replaced on the ballot this November. He blamed the corporate media and establishment Democrats for pushing him out of the race after a former girlfriend recently alleged he had raped her in 2021. The state Democratic Party now has until July 27 to name a replacement for the November ballot to challenge Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins. They have announced intentions to hold a quickie nominating convention and several candidates have already thrown their hat into the ring. What comes next? Unclear, but discussed.
NEXT… Is Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell alive or dead? Few seem to know. He has reportedly been hospitalized since an ambulance was called to his old Kentucky home almost four weeks ago where someone was said to have been unconscious and given CPR following cardiac arrest. A few Republicans claim he’s alive and they’ve had suspiciously lengthy phone conversations with him this week. Others suggest the claims of phone conversations are a ruse to make it passed the state’s August 3rd deadline for when a Special Election must be called by the state’s Democratic Governor to fill a vacant Senate seat. After the deadline, the seat otherwise remains vacant until next year, to be filled by whoever wins the November election in the Bluegrass State. (McConnell had already announced he would not be running again.) Republicans are said to be concerned they might lose a Special Election if one is held. What comes next? Unclear, but discussed.
THEN… Donald Trump‘s war on Iran is apparently back on (if it was ever off in the first place.) He is now describing his negotiating counterparts as “scum” and claiming the 60-day truce agreed upon in the “Memorandum of Understanding” he signed three weeks ago is “over”. That MOU, however, was just about as terrible a deal for the U.S. as possible. It’s a fantastic deal, however, for Iran which now seems dead set on taking permanent control of the Strait of Hormuz and charging fees to use it. As our guest explains again today, the agreement signed by Trump appears to allow exactly that.
We’re joined today by Roosevelt University political science professor and author DAVID FARIS to discuss all of the above. Before the holiday, he wrote about the Iran mess for The Nation, in a piece headlined “The Memo of Understanding That No One Understands”. It smartly breaks down the clown show in which “the US team got played by their more motivated, clever, and emboldened counterparts,” to produce a document whose “fundamental purpose is stage management and narrative-building rather than conflict resolution….the diplomatic equivalent of shoving clutter under the bed instead of cleaning the room.”
But, is that MOU even relevant anymore with fighting now flaring up again on both sides? It is, says Faris. Taking control of the Strait is almost as good as having a nuclear weapon, he explains, but without the cost.
“What [Iran] wanted was a robust deterrent that could discourage the Americans, in particular, and the Israelis from undertaking regime change operations,” he tells me. “What they discovered accidentally, through this war, is that they already have a nuclear weapon. And that weapon is called the Strait of Hormuz. They don’t have to build anything. They don’t have to trick any IEA inspectors.”
“That, to me, makes a settlement more plausible. Because the Iranians are not going to give up their theoretical right to pursue nuclear weapons. But I do think that they would be willing to sign a document that kicked the can down the road,” he argues. And that’s what an agreement with Trump would allow them to do, with the terms getting better and better for them the more desperate Trump gets to find his way out of the mess he created with some sort of face-saving exit. What comes next? Unclear, but discussed.
FINALLY… Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as global oil prices spike again with the renewal of hostilities in Iran, after the Trump Administration, over the holiday, proudly announced it had ended all clean, renewable energy subsidies for wind and solar, while continuing $35 billion in annual subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. U.S. taxpayers have been funding that dirty, deadly, costly, industry for more than 100 years now. What comes next? Totally clear. Just walk out your front door today and you will probably notice it immediately…
