Notes from the Editors – Summer 2025
(In this issue, we feature the following selected notes from Gary Olson’s Substack and invite readers to subscribe to get full access to all the posts and updates.) [https://glolson.substack.com/]
NATO plan to purchase US weapons is crumbling
On July 14, President Trump, seated next to NATO’s chief Mark Rutte, announced that the EU would pay for US weapons to be shipped to support Project Ukraine. The proposal was news to some EU leaders who had not previously been briefed on the plan. The proposal then morphed into a NATO purchase and again, not all NATO members were consulted. Macron quickly opted out on the grounds that France wanted to boost its own arms industry. Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic all refused to write checks for the weapons, citing “budget constraints” as the reason. That leaves Germany, UK, the Netherlands and the four Nordic countries. Financial scandals and a struggling economy in Britain, staunch opposition among younger Germans, the need to debate the plan in various parliaments (which could take months) and the absence of any concrete purchase plan all point toward the eventual collapse of Trump’s ill-conceived and vague initiative. Finally, leaving aside the question of whether the US even has enough of these weapons in the Pentagon’s pantry is the fact that increased defense spending in various European countries will come at the expense of social programs and even hyping the phony “Russian threat” will make this a tough sale. Note: NATO was founded on April 4, 1949, to resist socialist and national liberation struggles across the globe and serve as a tool of US and European imperialism, the 1 percent of the 1 percent. Hopefully, ordinary citizens in Europe will begin taking the first steps toward its dissolution.
Epstein and GOP Contortions on Ukraine
House Republicans Voted Not to Release the Epstein files. Clearly, they (and Trump) want the matter to go away.
It’s unlikely because too many powerful people are involved but let’s hope the dam breaks on Epstein’s Black Book, and we find out the truth about what’s been correctly described as a “giant child rapist ring.” The Epstein imbroglio exemplifies everything wrong in this country.
Maintaining victim privacy is given as the reason for not disclosing the files but that only guarantees that elite connections will never be disclosed. So, what began as a possible exposure of the Deep State now seems to be insulating it. Was Epstein acting as an operative of Israeli intelligence as alleged by Tucker Carlson? Perhaps Trump’s latest betrayal of his base will keep this matter in the public eye and shake something loose.
Trump has called the entire matter a “hoax and a scam” started by Democrats and called his “PAST” supporters who believe it, “stupid people.” Chris Hedges has listed the names of all those we know were involved in one way or another, but much remains hidden. (See Chris Hedges “Trump, Epstein and the Deep State”, page 39.)
On Ukraine, Trump is providing Ukraine with new Patriot systems and missiles that can penetrate deep into Russia, including Moscow. He said that Europe will purchase the weapons from the US which will generate “billions” for defense contractors, perhaps trying to assuage the anger within his MAGA base for this slap in the face. Trump also threatened new tariffs on Russia in 50 days if Putin did not agree to a peace deal. My sense is that Trump’s frustration, boasting, temper tantrums, bluffing and empty threats will not change the outcome of the war in the slightest as Russia’s summer offensive grinds forward, capturing several villages per day. This is a war of attrition and with its vastly superior numbers, Russia is going to prevail. Secondary sanctions? These are penalties other countries — like China and India — would supposedly pay if they continue trading with Russia. They will respond, “Take a hike, Don.” Further, these sanctions would devastate the global economy and come back to haunt the US economy. Trump has no leverage and will have even less in 50 days. At this point I doubt whether the Kremlin even pays much attention to Trump’s outbursts.
Some Republicans are turning themselves into human pretzels as they attempt to remain true to Trump. Here are just a few examples.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden from Wisconsin said in March, “We must stop these endless wars.” Yesterday: “I trust the peacemaker in chief. I trust him. He has my absolute, unequivocal, support.”
Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, argued for withdrawal of all military support for Ukraine. Yesterday: ‘Donald is the only guy who can stop this.”
Rep. Warran Davidson from Ohio staunchly opposed funding for Ukraine: Yesterday: ‘The president really gets it right. This is not our war.”
Vice-President J.D. Vance was a fierce opponent of US involvement and at the Quincy Institute (February 2022) said “I gotta be honest with you. I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or another.” Now we see him sitting silently next to Trump as the president promises more aid.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia is an exception. She has consistently said that Trump is betraying his promise to end US involvement in foreign wars.
Note: In truth, what Trump announced is really only a symbolic move, a mouse fart, that will accomplish nothing on the ground. His words were uttered on behalf of conning MAGAS. Why? Because he can’t tell them that “endless wars” are required for the US to rule the world.
The only thing that might possibly help Ukraine is the infusion of large numbers of highly trained reserves, but Ukraine simply doesn’t have them. As Scott Ritter says, “Ukraine is a hospice patient waiting to die.”
Dr. Victoria Rose, a senior plastic surgeon from Britain, has finished a three week stint volunteering at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. She treats 10 patients per day on average, 60 percent of them under the age of 15. Unlike two previous visits where shrapnel and burns were prominent, this time “children are coming in with knees missing and feet missing and hands missing.” Israel has barred all foreign journalists from Gaza and as a result, Dr. Rose has been sending regular videos on Instagram and said, “I thought people needed to see what I was seeing.” (NYT, July 11, 2025)
Meanwhile, in the illegally occupied West Bank, Sayfallah Masallet, a 23-year-old dual US-Palestinian citizen was beaten to death by settlers while visiting relatives. A second man, 23-year-old Mohammed Shahabi was fatally shot to death by settlers.
On “Invincible” Israel as a Sanctuary State for Jews
The Israelis were able to get in a sucker punch on Iran but after 12 days were being pounded by Iranian missiles and were forced to cry “Uncle Sam” for help. Had the war gone on another 12 days, it would have been lights out for Tel Aviv and Israel would have been flattened. One of the repercussions is the “Invincible Israel” myth is over. Another, and closely related one, is that it may no longer be possible for Jews to view Israel as their “Sanctuary State.”
From 1948 onward, the colonial settler entity billed itself as a “safe haven” for Jews. This is difficult to maintain if the Mediterranean Sea becomes the “refuge route” used by Israeli yacht owners leaving Haifa for Cyprus and individuals who are able to do so, fly off to New Jersey.
According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of individuals leaving Israel was already significantly higher in 2024 than previous years and there’s every reason to expect a sharp increase after the 12-day War. They’re leaving because they no longer believe the Jewish state can protect them. (A record number have sought citizenship in Germany.) Further, this is a class issue as security is a privilege allotted to well-off people. According to Henley and Partners, some 350 millionaires are expected to leave Israel in 2025. This is accompanied by a “soft drain” of professionals, including academics, seeking better opportunities abroad. Even the New York Times concluded a recent piece (7/11/2025) with the words “Israel is less safe than ever.” As political analyst Don Hanks asks, “What happens to the idea of statehood when Jews no longer feel safe?
Finally, retired US Foreign Service Office Christopher Datta writing in the mainstream journal American Diplomacy offers the following data: There are 2,089,000 Palestinians in Israel, 7,427,000 Jews, and 564,000 non-Arab Christian and others. With the annexation of the West Bank, the Arab population grows to almost 5 million. If one includes Gaza, the Arab population almost equals the Jewish one. Further, the annual growth rate of Muslims is 2.0% and the Jewish rate is 1.8%.
Datta has had recent conversations with West Bank settlers in which they told him that Palestinians in Israel should all be pushed into Jordan “or else kill them.” The settlers offered effusive praise for Baruch Goldstein who, in 1994, attacked the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron, killing 25, including children. The settlers said that Goldstein was their “hero”, and they wanted to erect a shrine to him.
Given the demographics, history of violence and hatred, and total absence of “enlightened leadership” in both Israel and US, Datta predicts “one of the greatest catastrophes in human history.” In Datta’s view, Netanyahu’s policies have condemned the Jewish state to “eventual collapse…a trajectory that it cannot survive in the long run.”
Datta errs in only blaming Netanyahu; he’s blind to the origins of Israel as a colonial settler state and his primary concern is what his dismal projected future for Israel portends for US policy in West Asia.
In a piece titled “Growing Up Class-Conscious,” Howard Zinn (1922–2010) recounts being a 17-year-old and attending a large, non-violent demonstration in Times Square. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, hundreds of police charged into the crowd and began smashing people with their clubs. Zinn was knocked unconscious, and when he awoke a half an hour later, he realized that the “state and its police were not neutral referees in a society of contending ideas. They were on the side of the rich and powerful.”
He recounts, “I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country — not just the existence of poverty amidst great wealth, not just the treatment of black people, but something rotten at the root. The situation required not just a new president, or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society — cooperation, peaceful and egalitarian.”
Zinn continues by stating, “Perhaps I am exaggerating the importance of that one moment, but I think not. I have to believe that our lives can be turned in a different direction, our minds adopt a different way of thinking, by some significant, though small, event. That belief can be frightening or exhilarating, depending on whether you just contemplate it or do something about it.”
Are there events going on today that can accelerate class-consciousness via a vicarious blow to the head? Experiences or a succession of experiences that impart an incontrovertible moral clarity that makes it impossible ever again to see the world in the same way.