"The Trump administration’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. Prior to her testimony, she submitted a written copy of her opening statement. It included the following passage about Iran:
'As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated.'"
~ Judd Legum
"In other words, after the Trump administration’s bombing campaign last June, Iran had no ability to enrich uranium. Since then, the Iranian regime has made no efforts to restore its ability to enrich uranium. Without the ability to enrich uranium, Iran cannot produce a nuclear weapon. Gabbard’s testimony was consistent with the views of outside experts."
"Curiously, when Gabbard appeared in person, she read most of her opening statement, but skipped over the section above on Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities."
"Pete Hegseth criticized European allies and parts of the U.S. media, calling them ungrateful in response to President Trump’s actions. He argued they should be thanking Trump for taking a strong stance against what he described as a terrorist regime. Hegseth emphasized that these actions were aimed at preventing the development of a nuclear weapon and stopping a threat to global security."
~ Aaron Parnas
#Trump #Iran #war #Hegseth #lies #NuclearWeapons
/4
https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/major-update-impeachment-push-against
Good morning everyone.
"The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict."
~ Noah Robertson, Jeff Stein and Riley Beggin
#Trump #Iran #war #Pentagon #taxpayers
/5
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/18/iran-cost-budget-pentagon/
"Speaking to Sky News last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked if there was some point at which the Iran war could grow so costly that he would tell President Trump it had become unaffordable.
'Absolutely not,' Bessent replied.
Whatever it costs, the American taxpayer will pony up."
~ Paul Waldman
"Trump’s war on Iran escalated on Wednesday. In general, the US has avoided striking oil and gas-producing facilities in Iran in the hopes that a post-war Iran will continue to produce oil and gas for the world market. Iran, in turn, has refrained (generally) from striking oil and gas infrastructure of other nations in the Middle East (other than shipping)."
~ Robert B. Hubbell
#Trump #Iran #war #Israel #oil #gas
/7
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/gas-spikes-to-384-as-hegseth-asks
"That all changed on Wednesday when Israel (with US blessing) attacked Iran’s South Pars natural gas field — the world’s largest — prompting Iran to retaliate by striking Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export complex, causing extensive damage. ... Of course, the attacks immediately increased the market prices for oil and natural gas."
"With oil briefly topping at over $119 per barrel, Israel attacking Iranian oil facilities, and Iran retaliating against LNG facilities in Qatar, while the Strait of Hormuz remains bottled up except for select Iranian-approved shipments, President Trump is on social media offering his hot takes like an online troll — and with about as much credibility."
~ David Kurtz
#Trump #Iran #war #Israel #oil #gas
/9
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/its-my-war-and-ill-cry-if-i-want
"After disparaging Israel’s earlier attack on oil tanks in Tehran, Trump took to social media last evening to distance himself from the latest Israeli attack, on the South Pars Gas Field in Iran. ...
There’s reporting that Trump is full of shit when he claims the United States knew nothing about the impending Israeli attack."
"Israel says [the] US helped coordinate gasfield attack, despite Trump's claim he knew nothing about it. We’ve just heard from Pete Hegseth. He reiterated the claim from Donald Trump that the US president knew nothing about the attack on Iran’s South Pars gasfield.
However, Reuters is reporting that Israel says its attack on the gas facilities was coordinated with the United States."
~ The Guardian
"International benchmark Brent crude futures with May delivery rose 6.3% to $114.13 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced 0.5% to $96.88.
Gas prices were also sharply higher."
~ Lee Ying Shan and Sam Meredith
#Trump #Iran #war #Israel #oil #gas
/13
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/oil-jumps-iran-strikes-qatar-lng-facility-supply-worries.html
"There is no thought process into what any of this means long-term. It's not coordinated regime change. It's obliteration or just 'bomb them until they're less of a threat.' The Washington Post asked about the plan, a US official responded: 'Whatever.' ... Reality is not a constraint."
~ Jason Sattler
#Trump #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism #megalomania
/15
https://thecause.substack.com/p/our-confusion-about-whats-going-on
"The job of the inner sanctum is not really to advise on sensible policy, even on the eve of war. It is to repeat the leader’s lies, screen out objective and expert feedback that might conflict with the leader’s will, and create and enforce a version of reality that benefits him."
~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat
#Trump #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism #megalomania
/16
https://lucid.substack.com/p/engineered-ignorance-hubris-and-the
"Decimating government of institutional knowledge, allowing sycophants and cronies outsized power to determine the destinies of hundreds of millions, and privileging the geopolitical and economic interests of fellow autocrats over the wellbeing and safety of Americans are now creating a version of the 'autocratic backfire' that has cost other illiberal leaders their popularity and legitimacy and contributed to their falls from power."
"Instead of receiving intelligence briefings, President Trump is watching Fox. And what he heard last night was his most influential aide, Stephen Miller, telling Laura Ingraham that 'President Trump has calculated through every permutation and every degree of strategy,' and that we are en route to 'an overwhelming victory."”
~ William Kristol
#Trump #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism #megalomania
/18
"I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but President Donald Trump, the guy who catapulted America into a war of choice with Iran, doesn't seem like he’s doing well in the think-y/speak-y cognitive department.
In just the past few days, the leader of our new mission-less war has: boasted of a conversation with a former president that doesn’t seem to have happened;" (continued)
~ Rex Huppke
#Trump #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism #megalomania #CognitiveDecline
/19
(continued from /19)
"forgotten the gender of two world leaders, including one he helped put in place; and forgotten the “drill, baby, drill” line he has used endlessly, instead slurring out a bizarre three-word motto used by a New York City energy company in the 1950s."
#Trump #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism #megalomania #CognitiveDecline
/20
Trump administration officials are making a desperate push to secure every available barrel of oil amid a worsening energy crisis — even if it means lifting sanctions on the very country that they’re fighting against.
I think we're more likely to see the end of reserve currency as a concept before everybody adopting the RMB, but we'll see...
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