Robert Reiner

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...

Trump and Netanyahu’s War Could Trigger a New Economic Crisis The Iran war could lead to rising food and fuel prices, supply chain shocks, and currency crises. And it's happening just as the shadow banking system looks set to implode...

Trump and Netanyahu’s War Could Trigger a New Economic Crisis
open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...

How Trump is Paying for His War AND Giving a Huge Tax Cut to the Rich By cutting Medicaid, food stamps, and other assistance people need

How Trump is Paying for His War AND Giving a Huge Tax Cut to the Rich
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

The Covid-19 inquiry is sounding a clear warning. If it’s not heeded, yet more lives will be lost | Ben Connah It’s not a question of if, but when, another pandemic hits Britain. We owe it to all those who suffered to make sure mistakes are not repeated, says Ben Connah, secretary of the UK Covid-19 inquiry

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Globalisation is under threat from Iran war – and Britain is uniquely vulnerable Economic ripples from US-Israel attacks will soon become waves, engulfing everything from energy prices to food

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Grim analysis of the British economic vulnerability and exposure to global shocks. Contrary to right wing pundits it argues cogently that we can only flourish again if there is a polar shift in distribution, switching resources to the poor away from the wealthy

Churchill, wisely chastened by his own military experience, was totally unlike the bone spur afflicted draft dodger invoking his name. Rhetorically and strategically he was complex, nuanced and always literate.

The Moral Basis of Civilization Trump is actively destroying it

The Moral Basis of Civilization
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...
Bullying by force or finance unravels civilisation, morally and practically. So too does lying.

What would Winston Churchill make of war with Iran? Donald Trump has said Keir Starmer is ‘no Churchill’, but his dismissal is based on a simplified version of history.

theconversation.com/what-would-w...
Historical corrective to Trump’s jibe about Starmer’s weakness compared to Churchill. Unlike Trump, Winston was an experienced warrior. He had complex and nuanced views on war and peace, famously always preferring jaw to jaw to war’s unpredictable hellscape.

Left populism is here to stay A new front has opened in British politics. What does Labour need to do?

Left populism is here to stay
open.substack.com/pub/saturday...
What Marr calls left populism is vaguely defined with reference to a middle ground assumed to be correct. So-called left populists like Corbyn or Polanski rearticulate the post WWII consensus that served us well till neoliberal blitz.

We paid an ex-Tory MP to lobby for our fake Chinese firm - and authorities did nothing Investigation finds no rules were broken. It just goes to show how few rules there are.

We paid an ex-Tory MP to lobby for our fake Chinese firm - and authorities did nothing
open.substack.com/pub/democrac...

Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers An Intercept analysis finds that every single Board of Peace member state has been rebuked for human rights violations.

theintercept.com/2026/03/02/t...
‘Peaceful’ human rights abusers. Unlike those Trump feels like attacking

The Lead Untangles: Is the Greens' drugs policy reckless or responsible? As Zack Polanski pledges to legalise and regulate drugs, Sarah Sinclair dives into the detail of this controversial policy – what does the evidence say?

The Lead Untangles: Is the Greens' drugs policy reckless or responsible?
open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...
Well informed article lays out research evidence that the ‘war on drugs’ has failed and other non criminalised forms of regulation succeed better in health and social justice outcomes.

World War III? Trump's and Netanyahu's illegal war turns global

World War III?
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

What we learned at PMQs: Keir Starmer is getting Brits out of the Middle East Kemi Badenoch displayed a total disregard for the evacuations – but Starmer is haunted by the threat of soaring energy bills

magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/03/04/w...
Well deserved praise for Starmer response to US/Israel attacks on Iran and the fallout from that. Also for replies to Badenoch at PMQs

Rachel Reeves claims UK economy can beat forecasts again – is she right? Our writers discuss The chancellor insists Labour has ‘the right economic plan’ for a world that has become ‘yet more uncertain’

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Constructive criticism of the Spring Budget. Hope it is taken seriously.

Head of Police Federation of England and Wales arrested on suspicion of corruption Mukund Krishna arrested by City of London police along with two other national board members

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Marx's Method is the Message From Abstract Philosophy to the Material Reality of Class Struggle

Marx's Method is the Message
open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...
Great exposition of the essence and importance of Marx’s perspective in a lucid brief post. We can make our own history albeit under conditions rigged against us

The Stupidest, Saddest, Sleaziest of Spectacles What happened to my wonderful old department is typical of what Trump is doing to our government

The Stupidest, Saddest, Sleaziest of Spectacles
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Trump's British bullies with a byline The so-called patriotic newspapers are gleefully doing the US president's bidding.

Trump's British bullies with a byline
open.substack.com/pub/brokenbo...
Evisceration of fake patriots of right wing press twisting the history of WWII to portray Starmer as appeaser. Based on speculation about what Starmer might have done in 30s. No need to speculate about Mail support of fascism!