Artificial Intelligence

On August 15, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Alaska was once a Russian colony that was purchased by the U.S. in 1867 and became a state in 1959.

The anti-imperialist YouTuber Brian Berletic expressed concern that the Trump administration might attempt to kidnap Putin. This did not seem so far-fetched in light of the Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran aimed at decapitating Iran’s political and military leadership. This occurred as they were supposed to engage in negotiations to normalize relations. Unlike Iran, Russia has nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them to the U.S. mainland, making any kidnap attempt unlikely, and Putin returned home safely.

Trump has refused to walk away from the Russo-Ukrainian war, and there were no breakthroughs in ending it. The war started with the 2014 U.S.-organized right-wing coup to overthrow the popularly elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych. Coup leaders, called the Euromaidan movement, were supported by a coalition of pro-U.S. imperialist liberals and Ukrainian fascists who provided the muscle power.

MAGA

On June 13, 2025, Israel attacked Iran. It is clear that the Trump regime knew it was coming and approved of it. Then, on June 22, the U.S. directly attacked the peaceful Iranian nuclear energy program with bunker-busting bombs. On June 25, the U.S. and the Zionist entity announced they were halting the bombing attacks for the time being, and Iran then halted its counterattacks against the Zionist entity, ending what is being called “the twelve-day war” for now. Next month, we will examine the consequences of the twelve-day war.

Last month, I noted that the tariff war shows we are entering a period similar to that between August 1914 and August 1945. The U.S.-Israeli twelve-day war against Iran confirms it. Significantly, Israel has threatened to launch such a war many times over the last 30 years, claiming it was concerned Iran was developing nuclear bombs. This is even though there is no indication Iran was interested in developing a nuclear bomb — Iran’s clergy-run regime has declared many times that nuclear weapons are sinful and forbidden by the Muslim religion and God.

Written and Unwritten Laws

On August 1, 2023, a Washington, D.C., grand jury, at the urging of special prosecutor Jack Smith, indicted Donald Trump on four felony counts. The counts center on Trump’s illegal attempts to remain in office after he’d clearly lost the 2020 presidential election in both the popular vote and, what legally counts, the electoral college. On August 15, a Georgia grand jury indicted Trump and 18 supporters on racketeering charges. The charges involve the alleged attempt by Trump and his supporters to steal Georgia’s electoral vote and, in effect, suppress the African American vote. More on this in coming posts as the situation unfolds.

As I explained last month, in the U.S., the transfer of power from one president to the next involves both written and unwritten laws. One unwritten law is that the defeated presidential candidate, either Democrat or Republican, concedes the election after The New York Times declares their opponent the winner in the electoral college. The defeated candidate then offers their support to the new president-elect. Trump defied this law. Instead of congratulating Joseph Biden, the electoral college winner — and the popular vote winner — Trump claimed he had won the election by a “landslide” and that the official vote tallies were false. Many of Trump’s Republican supporters, as well as some non-supporters who needed the votes of his base to win their reelection — claim that Trump’s latest federal indictment, as well as the latest indictment in the State of Georgia, is an attack against the right of free speech.

Now it’s true that the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech. U.S. residents and citizens have the right to lie, except to police officers, federal agents, or under oath. They do have the right to refuse to talk to police officers and federal agents under the Fifth Amendment, which protects persons from having to provide testimony against themselves. Police officers and federal agents, though, have the right to lie to suspects, though not the right to lie to jurors — which, of course, doesn’t mean they never do. This is one reason why defense attorneys are almost unanimous in advising people to never talk to a police officer or federal agent in the absence of an attorney.

Economic Prospects

Three factors shape the current global economic conjuncture.

The first is the sluggish but long rise in the capitalist global industrial cycle following the world economic crisis of 2007-09. This rise continued until February 2020.

The second factor is the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that shut down large parts of the global economy and world trade in 2020. This sent unemployment rates into double digits. The West’s capitalist governments increasingly treat COVID-19 as endemic rather than a pandemic. Shutdowns are over and even mask-wearing is becoming a thing of the past. But the virus continues. On-and-off shutdowns continue in the world’s leading manufacturing nation: China.

The third factor is the global economic and financial war launched by the U.S. world empire against Russia. This war was formally launched in response to the Russo-Ukrainian war, ongoing since the U.S.-supported right-wing Euromaidan coup in 2014. It entered a new stage with Moscow’s launching of a special military operation on Feb. 24, 2022. The war had already taken about 15,000 people’s lives before the military operation began. Fighting was limited in recent years, but in the weeks leading up to Feb. 24 Kiev stepped up shelling the Donbass. All indications are Washington encouraged its puppet Euromaidan government to launch an offensive to crush the ethnically Russian People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.

Ukraine War

In this post, I had hoped to concentrate on the COVID aftermath boom, inflation, the Federal Reserve System monetary policy, and the growing threat of a deep recession.

But events in Ukraine do not permit this. Even if the Russo-Ukrainian conflict doesn’t spiral into a world war, the U.S. world empire has launched an economic war that is already having a major impact on the development of the global economy.

The most extensive propaganda campaign against any nation occurring within recent memory is blaring out of every media outlet — printed, digital, radio, and TV. Some examples of the propaganda tricks employed include glaring headlines declaring as fact what a close reading of the article reveals as claims of the government or Pentagon.

Perfect Competition

In January of this year, the U.S. government and its media claimed an invasion of Ukraine by Russia was imminent. One version of the media reports raised fears that Ukraine is only the initial target — first crush Ukraine, then march all the way to the Atlantic. In rhetoric akin to that of the Cold War, when it was said the Soviet army was threatening to invade Western Europe, now Russian President Vladimir Putin is cast as the aggressor.

We know this isn’t true. The Russian economy, devastated by 30 years of capitalist counterrevolution and only partially recovered from capitalism’s restoration in the 1990s, is in no position to support aggressive military campaigns. Russia may have moved about 100,000 troops closer to the Ukrainian border. This would be a defensive move to prevent increased warfare from spilling over into Russia proper. If not for an invasion, what explains the Russian troop movements?

The real story: U.S. imperialism is moving to consolidate domination of Ukraine. Ukraine is rich in agricultural lands and fossil fuels. Adolf Hitler had his eyes on the country as a key to his vision for an Eastern European empire. Ukraine is an important acquisition for a U.S. world empire as well.

The United States established its current domination by orchestrating the 2014 EuroMadian coup, spearheaded by Ukrainian fascists. This overthrew the corrupt capitalist, but elected, government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (1950- ). But two areas in eastern Ukraine refused to accept the coup. They are now under control of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. Another region that escaped is Crimea. Ignoring this region’s real history, the U.S. media paints a completely false picture of what really happened there.