The Guardian: Trump's decision on Iran is not as black and white as it seems

The US decision on Iran is often seen in Manichean terms of whether Trump pulls out of the agreement or not. This is partly because Trump, unlike his predecessor, does not believe his political base warms to nuance. A president who communicates in 280 characters does not trade in shades of grey. [...]

He says it is possible for the EU to pass legislation stating that any US sanctions on European entities trading with Iran are null and void. The EU did much the same in protest at the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act passed by the US Congress in 1996. The EU passed a blocking statute, arguing as a matter of principle that it was wrong for the US to impose sanctions that had an extra-territorial effect.

But this is largely uncharted territory. It would broaden an EU-US foreign policy dispute into a transatlantic economic confrontation. Only EU banks with no interests in the US are likely to take the risk that the bloc can protect them from massive fines imposed by the US Treasury. The residual anti-Iran sanctions currently in force have already put a chill on nervous EU companies from trading with Iran. [...]

Europe’s chances of acting as an honest broker between Trump and Iran also depend on moderates holding sway in Tehran. Nephew said: “[The Iranian president, Hassan] Rouhani is already starting to take an awful lot of heat for the technocrat who failed, technically.

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Scene On Radio SeeingWhite: That’s Not Us, So We’re Clean

When it comes to America’s racial sins, past and present, a lot of us see people in one region of the country as guiltier than the rest. Host John Biewen spoke with some white Southern friends about that tendency. Part Six of our ongoing series, Seeing White. With recurring guest, Chenjerai Kumanyika.

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The Huffington Post: What Karl Marx Got Right -- And One Big Thing He Got Wrong

The postwar boom, rather than being a permanent refutation of Marx, was more like a fortunate historical blip — when the stars were aligned to regulate capitalism in a broad public interest. But one bad decade, the 1970s, was sufficient to restore both capitalists and the ideology of raw, free-market capitalism to their usual power — despite the verdict of history that raw capitalism keeps generating needless economic catastrophe. [...]

The postwar boom seemed to prove Keynes right. But one of Keynes’ lesser-known colleagues, the Polish-born economist Michal Kalecki, who located himself somewhere between Keynes and Marx, offered the following rebuttal: Even if it were possible as a matter of economics to harness a basically capitalist system to serve the broad mass of people, as a matter of politics the capitalist class would never let policymakers do it. [...]

This is not to say that Marx was entirely correct, however. He got one big thing wrong. Touchingly, he imagined that as capitalism became more and more destructive, the workers of the world would unite.

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The Guardian: Poland's Holocaust law triggers tide of abuse against Auschwitz museum

The brother of the museum’s director published an emotional message on Facebook in March decrying the “50 days of incessant hatred” directed at his brother, Piotr Cywiński. “For 12 long years he’s worked in one of the most terrible places in the world, in an office with a view of gallows and a crematorium,” he wrote. “Dozens of articles on dodgy websites, hundreds of Twitter accounts, thousands of similar tweets, profanities, memes, threats, slanders, denunciations. It’s enough to make you sick.” [...]

The museum has become increasingly assertive in its rebuttals, regularly intervening in discussions on Twitter and publishing a long list of false claims that have been made about the museum, ranging from the issue of Polish flags to the accusation that former Polish prisoners were not invited to a ceremony in January to commemorate the camp’s liberation. [...]

In March, the home of an Italian Auschwitz guide in the nearby city of Krakow was vandalised, with “Poland for the Poles” and graffiti equating the Star of David with a Nazi swastika scrawled on his door, and “Auswitz for Poland guide!!” (sic) daubed on an adjoining wall. [...]

“The leadership are too scared of the government and the guides are too scared of losing their jobs to speak out against the provocations that have been going on here,” said the guide, who requested anonymity.

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Reuters: French leader Macron's power system: never explain, never apologize

A year after his election, things have not turned out that way, and a small but growing number of rank-and-file supporters has voiced frustration at a leadership style that is, by Macron's own admission, not always inclusive.   [...]

Many grass root supporters, who set up thousands of "En Marche" committees across France during Macron's campaign, gave up when they realized their ideas did not filter through to Paris, she said.

While there is no sign of Macron changing tack, his popularity ratings have slipped to their lowest point since he took office, with only 40 percent of the population having a favorable opinion of him, according to a recent poll. [...]

In just a year, Macron has made hiring and firing easier, slashed a wealth tax, launched an overhaul of the education system, unveiled plans to cut the number of lawmakers and confronted unions with a reform of the debt-laden railways.

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