Robert Reiner

Command-Shift-War War as Cliché

Command-Shift-War
open.substack.com/pub/johnganz...
How cliched language pasteurises the stark physical horrors of war.

Don’t let Britain decline The Fourth Great Disruption is here

magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/03/11/d...
An exceptionally informative and thought provoking analysis of modern British history and the need for a 5th Great Disruption of political economy and culture. 2 striking omissions though: the massive return of inequality, and the threat of climate change

The US-Israeli strategy failed to defeat Iran quickly – now they are moving to plan B | Paul Rogers It’s called the Dahiya doctrine – and the IDF and US air force are using it to destroy domestic support in Iran, says emeritus professor of peace studies Paul Roger

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Cogent argument that US/Israel attack on Iran not only illegal cruel and costly on all sides but doomed to fail. How long before Plan B becomes Plan Z?

Shabana Mahmood approves police request to ban al-Quds march in London Home secretary says ban on Pro-Palestinian rally ‘necessary to prevent public disorder’ after Met police raised concerns

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Will the ban on marches ‘spreading hatred and division’ apply to those supporting USA and Israel, waging aggressive and illegal war?

The Biggest, Most Tragic Failure of All We are in an unnecessary war that the public doesn’t want, without a clear purpose or endgame. How to respond now?

The Biggest, Most Tragic Failure of All
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Elizabeth Warren: "I am a hard no on a supplemental. This is not a war the American people want us to engage in. This is not a war that makes us safer ... No. No more money. The only thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse."

We need a national plan to tackle the health inequity that is killing people | Letters Letters: Readers respond to Aditya Chakrabortty’s article about the decline in healthy life expectancy in the UK

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Can’t wait for the will o’ the wisp ‘growth’ to tackle health and other deadly inequalities. Head on redistribution via fairer taxation required, in face of the right wing media diverting attention on to fake problems and scapegoats to protect the wealthy

How the US far right bought into the myth of white South Africa’s persecution The long read: When Trump granted white South Africans refugee status, he was echoing a falsehood about Black people taking revenge for years of brutality. But no one flourishes in a repressive police...

www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...
Racial tyranny harms everyone. That’s the lesson of Apartheid and South Africa.

How much more evidence do we need? The ultra-rich and the governments supporting them will destroy everything for the sake of profit, power and pride. Nothing is precious to them - not human life, not the living world - except their own wealth and status. Our survival depends on resisting them.

Sudanese students say UK visa ban has dashed hopes of studying at top universities More than 200 applicants fear they will lose places after home secretary suspends study visas from four countries

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Cruel and counterproductive visa policies threaten us all. Cutting off nose to spite face, to appease racist Right

Farage's plan for local-elections triumph faces being derailed by tactical voting A leading poll analyst says it is on the rise again around Britain as voters seek to back 'anyone but Reform'

Farage's plan for local elections triumph faces being derailed by tactical voting inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Why Minsky still matters from Lars Syll Perhaps the foremost financial crisis theorist of our time, Hyman Minsky, had as his central idea that crises are endogenous (system-internal) phenomena where stability creates insta…

rwer.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/w...
Unravelling the terrifying high risks of financialisation. And how to reduce them.

Help prevent the misuse of counter-terror laws Liberty is calling for a clearer definition and tighter laws to prevent the misuse of counter-terror powers, now and in the future.

action.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/page/183475/...

The dark history of the Telegraph's new owner... Analysis in the British press focuses on Axel Springer's attitude to Brexit but a closer look suggests its worldview is just Right for the Telegraph's existing editorial approach.

The dark history of the Telegraph's new owner...
open.substack.com/pub/brokenbo...
Might the Torygraph swing even sharper Right?

Why They Hated Rosa Luxemburg Today is the birthday of the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. Routinely reduced to an inoffensive libertarian figure, the harder edges of her class-struggle politics are often ignored.

jacobin.com/2026/03/rosa...
Happy birthday Red or Bloody Rosa. A stirring exploration of her complex thought, life and legacy

The war on Iran is already upending the Middle East. Look to the Gulf states to see how | Nesrine Malik Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE are finding their carefully projected image of stability has been blown away, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump | Simon Tisdall As the Iran disaster escalates, the US president should be seen as an enemy whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdal...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Important hard hitting case for UK to declare independence from US regime misgoverned by MAGA mad and bad dictatorship, linked in axis of evil with Israel and tacit respect for Putin.

Tech oligarchs reshape humanity while billionaires of old seem quaint From Gates to Musk and Altman, today’s ultra-rich steer AI and tech, raising questions about who decides the future

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Argues debatably that tech oligarchs are especially dangerous and harmful billionaires. Either way justice and truth not possible unless their monopolisation of power and influence can be reversed

Words of the Founders And Their Relation to the US-Israel War With Iran

Words of the Founders
open.substack.com/pub/frdhfirs...
Great analysis of Trump tyranny and mysteries in context of Jefferson’s account of King George III. Concludes with Primo Levi on Auschwitz: here there is no why

Why Labour lost the minority vote in the Gorton and Denton byelection
Class expressed through ethnicity. The bogey of family voting is excuse for main stream parties.

Keynes and the cost of peace At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, was one brilliant, self-assured British economist right and all the assembled statesmen wrong?

www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2...
Lessons for today by Keynes on price of peace

Chinese and American fiscal exceptionalism. How the UK ended coal & Keynes on the "short run", in which we are "still alive”. Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Chinese and American fiscal exceptionalism. How the UK ended coal & Keynes on the "short run", in which we are "still alive”.
open.substack.com/pub/adamtooz...
Keynes quote is salutary for our time

America and Israel might be about to break up Donald Trump has unleashed forces he’s no longer interested in controlling

magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/03/03/t...
The war of Trump’s MAGAlomania. So much death and destruction for a fading ego

Courts have threatened to hold the Trump administration in contempt. It’s time to follow through | Austin Sarat The administration has been accused of failing to comply with hundreds of orders. The courts must not be paper tigers

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

edition.independent.co.uk/edition/uk.c...
Powerful laying bare of Trump’s fake history. Unsurprising for a non reader. But what excuse for British right wing media doubling down on it? And Trump is currently in cahoots who is deeply buried in the fake history of two thousand plus years ago

edition.independent.co.uk/edition/uk.c...
Interesting discussion of parallels with the combustion of WWI and WWII. Similarities for sure but in much more dangerous context of deadliest weaponry. Also at least two world leaders high on their own devastating supplies of WMDs

In a world of lies, we need the BBC more than ever. This week could be our last chance to save it | Polly Toynbee As the public consultation on the BBC nears its end, the right will be out in force to undermine it. But its supporters can do their bit – with this guidance, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
For all its faults the BBC must be protected from complete privatisation of our consciousness by profit hungry companies as in US

This is a life and death story for the UK – so why is it being brushed under the carpet? | Aditya Chakrabortty The news that healthy life expectancy is in decline in Britain exposes a serious truth about the state we’re in, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Hugely important article. Most of us are victims of serious but hidden violence robbing us of years of life. A social murder boom caused by austerity eclipses the homicide rate. Meanwhile the ultra rich who benefited from this keep it off the media they control.

The Biggest Pro-Trump Mega-Media Monopoly Ever (it’s already distorting war coverage) But this mega-media monopoly can be stopped. Here’s how.

The Biggest Pro-Trump Mega-Media Monopoly Ever (it’s already distorting war coverage)
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...