"At a press conference on Monday evening, President Trump said his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was one of a handful of top advisers who convinced him to launch major combat operations in Iran. The disclosure raises additional questions about the role of Kushner, who is being paid tens of millions of dollars annually by Middle Eastern governments that were reportedly lobbying Trump to attack Iran."
~ Judd Legum
"Everything I was taught, everything I came to believe has more or less been turned upside down. Politicalization of intelligence, the notion that there is no national interest today. It's now been conflated and completely subordinated to Donald Trump's personal whims, fancies, his financial interests, the amount of self-dealing. He's deployed his son-in-law and his best friend."
~ Aaron David Miller
#Trump #Iran #war #JaredKushner
/2
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/why-donald-trump-went-to-war
'Everything I was taught, everything I came to believe, has more or less been turned upside down'
"Trump started a war just because he thought he could — without asking Congress for authorization or building any public consent.
It’s one of the most irresponsible decisions made by a U.S. president in modern history."
~ Dan Pfeiffer
https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/no-democrat-should-give-trump-a-blank
"Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century."
~ Charles Walldorf
"So far, polls have found that most Americans oppose the Iran attacks. Support ranges from 27 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll to 50 percent in a Fox News poll. The wide variation suggests that public opinion is still taking shape as more Americans learn details of the attacks and the aftermath."
~ Lily Boyce and Ruth Igielnik
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/polls-wars-us-support.html
"Public opinion will quickly whiplash Trump. The first $100 tank of gas will be a shock. The second may be a financial crisis for many Americans. And the third will have Americans demanding that Trump stop the war now—something easier said than done, and something that Trump failed to consider when he gave the order to start the war."
~ Robert B. Hubbell
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/trump-steps-into-a-minefield-with
"Oil commodities have fallen and the stock market has risen, as Wall Street believes that Trump’s Iran 'excursion' is short lived. But the problem is, Trump's word means nothing."
~ Emily Singer
"Oil went up dramatically over the weekend. I believe it briefly got up to over $110 a barrel and then it fell yesterday when Trump made these statements that the war is pretty much over we’re gonna be wrapping it up, and in anticipation of G7 nations releasing oil reserves. Now today it’s continuing that and it’s fallen significantly below $80, so investors think that Trump is going full taco here…."
~ Josh Marshall
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/the-backchannel/unpacking-trumps-rhetorical-flip-flops-on-iran
"The conflict has sent the price of gasoline surging, and it reached $3.48 a gallon on Monday, nearly a 17 percent increase since the war began on Feb. 28. World leaders are preparing for far-reaching repercussions, and in private some Republicans lawmakers are growing resigned to the harsh political realities that confront the party in power when prices rise sharply."
~ Tyler Pager
#Trump #Iran #war #oil #gas
/10
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/us/politics/trump-iran-gas-prices-gop-agenda.html
“Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor — it was, quite honestly, a disaster — is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states,” Trump boasted minutes into his nearly-two-hour address, framing his party’s message heading into the midterms.=
Two weeks later, his war with Iran threatens to undermine that pitch."
~ Hannah Knowles
#Trump #Iran #war #oil #gas
/11
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/10/iran-war-gas-prices-gop-anxiety/
"These Muslim forces believe 'jihad,' or armed struggle, is the highest form of religious devotion, one that offers a guaranteed path to salvation and atonement, which the IRGC reinforces through steady indoctrination. The IRGC will likely use Hegseth’s rhetoric and video game posts as recruitment tools:"
~ Sabrina Haake
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Islam #HolyWar #jihad #ChristianNationalism
/12
https://sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/hegseths-immaturity-will-be-useful
"Look how the Great Satan is slaughtering our children &laughing about it.
Hegseth’s videos will be useful to Iran as the IRGC exploits nationalistic and religious sentiments among terrorists. Iran will use Hegseth’s hubris against us, and the danger will not be limited to war zones. As we learned on 9-11, jihadist groups are the main perpetrators of suicide attacks worldwide, & Hegseth is goading them into action."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Islam #HolyWar #jihad #ChristianNationalism
/13
"Megyn Kelly on Graham: 'This guy is a homicidal maniac with a bloodlust that is insatiable. He should not be allowed 20 feet of the President’s orbit.'"
~ Ron Filipkowski
#Trump #LindseyGraham #Iran #war #Islam #HolyWar #jihad #ChristianNationalism
/14
https://www.meidasplus.com/p/today-in-politics-bulletin-325-31026
"In an 1100-word piece weighing the energy shock Trump’s illegal war on Iran has caused in terms of White House worries (and so implicitly, politics), Politico grants anonymity to someone describing what is happening to the oil market as 'little gyrations.' …
There are far more products that are being choked off in Hormuz: fertilizer (and food products coming into the Gulf), aluminum, helium, sulphur."
~ Marcy Wheeler
"Various kinds of petroleum products, like jet fuel and diesel, are being affected more quickly than others, and both of those create immediate downstream problems in the transportation industry. Then there are the other impacts of Iran lobbing cheap drones at its Arab neighbors, on flights connecting through airports still being targeted, on tourism, on data centers."
"Plus, for a variety of reasons, the US is less exposed to this crisis than much of the rest of the world, so measuring it in terms of the impact on November’s midterms in the US won’t really measure its full effect.
The longer this crisis goes on, the longer it’ll take to recover from it."
"We are now getting reporting that Witkoff and Kushner told the President on the day before Trump launched his war that Iran was not serious about negotiating over their nuclear program, and it was time to launch the war."
~ Simon Rosenberg
#Trump #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Iran #war
/19
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/inflation-is-still-running-way-too
"Trump went to war with Iran because Jared Kushner is a fool. Donald Trump’s top two negotiators have no clue what they’re doing."
~ Edith Olmsted
#Trump #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Iran #war
/20
https://newrepublic.com/post/207554/donald-trump-iran-war-iran-jared-kushner-steve-witkoff
"It should not surprise you that the same team which invited a reporter into a Signal chat about war plans a few months ago have been blindsided by the Iranian regime’s resilience.
After less than two weeks, regime change is off the table and even the Israeli military understands that the Islamic Republic isn’t going away anytime soon."
~ Jonathan V. Last
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/21
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/dire-straits-the-iran-war-is-run
"Iran has so far achieved its two most important strategic objectives. The regime has passed its first continuity test, transferring power from one supreme leader to the next. And it has closed the strait, setting in motion a cascade of economic consequences which will sap America’s political will to continue fighting."
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/22
"Meanwhile, the American military is now telling the New York Times that, far from collapsing, the Iranian regime is adapting to the Israeli–American onslaught and finding our weaknesses."
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/23
"A majority of likely American voters believe that Donald Trump launched the war on Iran at least in part to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that had engulfed his presidency, according to a new survey.
The survey found that a solid 52-40 majority of voters agreed with the statement, with the other 8% saying they were unsure as to his motivations."
~ Ryan Grim
"Waging war with no fixed purpose means victory can be declared at any point. Donald Trump’s motives for launching Operation Epic Fury against Iran were incoherent at the start. They are no clearer now that he has declared it 'very complete, pretty much'. …
Flashing red lights on the financial dashboard were surely the prompt for Trump’s pledge to bring his military adventure to a swift conclusion."
~ Rafael Behr
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/11/donald-trump-war-iran-ego-trip-economic-damage
"A tacit deal has come into view. Forget freedom. Iranians can still be repressed as long as shipping through the strait of Hormuz is unmolested.
The biggest non-combatant beneficiary from Operation Epic Fury has been Vladimir Putin. His country’s ailing economy gets revenue relief from higher energy prices."
"To lubricate global supply, Washington has waived sanctions on India buying Russian oil. A sustained barrage of Iranian missiles targeting US allies in the Gulf depletes stocks of defensive systems that Ukraine also needs. …
Making Trump feel great is the undoing of American greatness. In arrogating power to himself, the president undermines the foundations of his country’s strength in the world and damages its allies."
"Trump might want to quit, but the Iranians are setting things up so he will have to ask for their permission.
When TACO isn't allowed to TACO, you have a forever war.:
~ John Stoehr
https://www.editorialboard.com/trump-can-quit-when-iran-says-so/
"Trump has always operated as if someone will give him the money to get out of bankruptcy, but this time, there’s no bank big enough to make a difference. He has created a situation where there is no simple way out and no long-term way to stay in."
~ Timothy Burke
https://timothyburke.substack.com/p/the-news-when-the-moneys-gone
"Iran is not Gaza. The theater of this new war could expand to consume the whole world. We are on the brink of nuclear calamity and economic collapse. …
Our celluloid heroes strut on, winning phantom war after war, dumb and over-muscled. Fueling our insatiable bloodlust with their gratuitous violence and their shit for brains.:
~ Arundhati Roy
"He is cornered, failing, and lashing out.
Because he is incapable of calculating anything clearly, as we discussed up front, he will do what he does best and scream and moan. His problems will be everybody else’s problems. He is capable of anything, because he is an incapable president."
~ D. Earl Stephens
"A deadly Iranian drone attack in Kuwait that killed six U.S. service members early in the war with Iran caused significantly more casualties than the government initially disclosed.
Multiple sources told CBS News that dozens of U.S. personnel were injured in the strike. The injuries include traumatic brain injuries, shrapnel wounds, severe burns, and at least one amputation."
~ Aaron Parnas
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/major-mid-day-update-fbi-warns-of
Good afternoon.
Rule one, don't pick a mission name that can be so easily, and so devastatingly, corrupted.
and when you say "everyone else", it is very literally "everyone else *in the world*" 😭
Gingrich is not the only one saying this:
"Iran is winning the war, suggested former House speaker Newt Gingrich, because without a plan, the regime has the president over a barrel. “If they can’t keep it open, this war will in fact be an American defeat before very long, because the entire world, including the American people, will react to the price of oil if the strait stays closed,” he said."
William Lindsey 
Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder
RainbowFrog
Brian Gordon
kali
forestclaws
Jim Sullivan
su_liam
Kim Possible 
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺
Yora
Gondor
Olson