In the second part of Barry Stevens\' conversation with international law expert Michael Byers, the focus shifts to the \"tragedy of the commons\" unfolding above our heads. As thousands of satellites are launched by companies such as Elon Musk\'s SpaceX and millions of pieces of debris accumulate in orbit, the risk grows of a collisional cascade—known as the Kessler Syndrome—that could render parts of near-Earth space unusable for generations. Byers says that the rapid commercialization of space is linked to US military priorities and great power competition, as satellite networks sold as civilian infrastructure become essential tools of modern warfare and domination. The pace of expansion is outstripping the ability of international institutions to protect and govern the orbital environment. In the process, the spirit of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty is being steadily eroded. Space was envisioned as a realm of peaceful cooperation and a province of all humankind. This analysis shows how one of its last great global commons is being stolen and squandered.

Article 1 of the Outer Space Treaty, signed at the height of the Cold War in 1967, declares that space \"shall be the province of all [hu]mankind.\" That remarkable consensus, with its benefits to science and communication, has held for more than half a century— until now. In this conversation, host Barry Stevens talks with Michael Byers— Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at UBC and co-author of Who Owns Outer Space? — about how, behind breathless media coverage of rockets landing by themselves and astronauts circling the moon, Donald Trump\'s reframing of space as a \"warfighting domain\" and his Golden Dome fantasy are eroding fifty years of restraint and triggering an arms race. With Pentagon-backed companies like Musk\'s SpaceX, the commons of space is being crowded, enclosed, monetized, and militarized. But as Byers insists, \"it is not too late.\"

From the Cold War bomber gap to the Iraq WMD fraud to Golden Dome, America’s permanent war economy has spent 80 years converting real geopolitical conflicts into manufactured existential threats — and turning fear into profit.

The Iran war follows the same playbook: no confirmed nuclear weapon, no IAEA finding of a bomb program, no U.S. intelligence assessment authorizing one — but billions in new contracts, spiking defense stocks, and a president whose portfolio was moving through Palantir, Nvidia, and Broadcom while praising their “war-fighting capabilities.”

This isn’t about Iran’s human rights or a nuclear threat. It’s about contractors, client states, oil markets, and an imperial order that needs permanent danger to survive.

Jay says we must take up the recommendations of the 1934 Senate Nye Committee: take profit out of war.

What if the arms race isn\'t a problem to solve — it\'s the business model? Paul Jay, founder of theAnalysis.news and director of the upcoming documentary How to Stop a Nuclear War, breaks down the machinery behind Golden Dome, lunar data centers, AI militarization, and the trillion-dollar boondoggle playbook that\'s been running since the Cold War. Plus: why \"corruption\" misses the point, the Pentagon as America\'s largest socialist institution, and what a bipartisan Senate committee concluded in 1933 that nobody wants you to remember.

James Early argues the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro is less about prosecuting a decades-old case and more about creating a political and legal framework for intensified U.S. pressure against Cuba. He says the move fits within a long history of American efforts to destabilize the Cuban government through sanctions, economic isolation, and covert pressure dating back to the Eisenhower administration.

Gerald Horne joins Paul Jay to break down how the U.S. war on Iran has isolated Washington on the world stage, fractured the political right at home, and handed Tehran leverage it never had before. From anti-Trump summits in Barcelona to Jamie Dimon urging the elites to "finish the job," they examine whether the American establishment has any real exit strategy, or whether it's heading toward another Iraq War.

Next week, Paul Jay talks with historian Gerald Horne about what may be a genuine rupture in U.S. political life.

Unlike Iraq in 2003, the elite consensus has fractured. The right is divided, corporate America is nervous, mainstream media is using the words “war crimes,” and polls show most Americans want no part of this war. The Israeli genocide in Gaza already cracked a consensus that held for decades— has the Iran war shattered it? Can the progressive left seize the opening?

Leave your questions below— Paul may raise them with Gerald on air. Subscribe and join us next week on theAnalysis.news.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Daniel Ellsberg was the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing U.S. lies about the Vietnam War and helping trigger the crisis that brought down President Richard Nixon. He went on to spend the rest of his life as an antiwar activist, focused above all on the dangers of nuclear weapons. In this conversation, Barry Stevens speaks with his son, Michael Ellsberg, about Truth and Consequence, a collection of Daniel’s writings that blends personal memoir with decades of political and ethical reflection. Together they explore his evolution from nuclear war planner to whistleblower and activist, and his uncompromising view that the deliberate targeting of civilians—including through nuclear threats—is terrorism, a standard that casts a harsh light on todays' U.S. leadership and its contempt for international law.