“Donald Trump’s attack on Iran will have many unintended and unforeseen consequences. One consequence even I wasn’t thinking about, but which is already clear after less than a week, is that Trump has made a strong new case for renewable energy. The usual argument for promoting solar and wind power is that relying on renewable energy avoids the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. This environmental damage includes, but isn’t limited to, climate change. In addition, air pollution imposes shockingly large direct and immediate costs by harming our health and reducing our life expectancy.” (03/06/26)
“In his recent comments justifying a preventive war against Iran, President Donald Trump declared, ‘In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.’ Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has invoked that attack numerous times. The 1983 Beirut barracks attack is one of the most cited and least understood pretexts for the new war with Iran. That bombing was one of President Ronald Reagan’s biggest foreign debacles.” (03/06/26)
“Despite endless obfuscation, sanitizing, and sanewashing from the mainstream media, the debate on if we’re living though a resurgence of fascism is now over. And, honestly, it’s been over for some time. We are. This does not mean that, as many have vaguely assumed, our new reality is a ‘post-liberal’ one. There are still plenty of liberals — more, arguably. The ideology that has utterly failed is conservatism; the center right has ceased to exist across the world, its institutions taken over by fascists, its voters pledging allegiance to a new flag. There are, increasingly, only two teams — a progressive liberal one, and a far-right one, with little in between and everyone else forced to pick a side.” (03/06/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Scott McConnell
“Has Trump’s Iran invasion wrecked MAGA? For the White House and its allies, the question is nonsensical: MAGA is whatever Trump says it is. … It’s reflected in the doctrine of Trump infallibility that permeates the White House. Many Trump supporters have long considered those notions ridiculous, while at the same time recognizing that Trump was exceptional in many ways. They would roll their eyes, chuckle and support him nonetheless. He was, they would say to themselves, actually quite good on very important issues, many of his appointments were first rate. Others have argued that for many low-attention voters, backing Trump has no relation to actual issues anyway; people root for him as a fun disruptive personality, as they might a professional wrestling favorite. These theories are about to be tested.” (03/06/26)
“The Senate on March 4 wisely rejected a new war powers resolution aimed at halting or restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military strikes against Iran. A House version also failed. Introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine [D-VA] the resolution in the upper chamber called for ending hostilities ‘unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force’ issued by Congress. The resolution, supported by nearly all Democrats, was defective for several reasons. First, the president can engage in military action with or without a declaration of war. He does not need permission from Congress.” [editor’s note: The opposite, of course, is the case — absent a declaration of war, a president has precisely zero “constitutional authority” to engage in one – TLK] (03/06/26)
“The government is too reliant on private software vendors for core mission work and AI will make this much worse. Forcing companies to work at gunpoint won’t fix things.” (03/06/26)
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“The military-industrial complex and the American police state have joined forces. War abroad and war at home are no longer separate enterprises. They have fused. This did not happen overnight. Every modern president has stretched the limits of war-making power. Some have shredded those limits altogether. Each time that boundary is breached, the Constitution recedes a little further. This is one of those moments.” (03/06/26)
“Don Quixote, hero of Miguel de Cervantes’[s] novel and the much more recent musical, is famed for tilting at windmills, believing them to be (in his senility) monsters with four arms intent on conquest and domination. Of course, his efforts availed nothing, except to demonstrate his concern for others. But no one was rescued from tyranny or destruction by his efforts against windmills. Today, we suggest a similar mental problem in many lovers of liberty: in many of those who try to defend freedom. We waste our effort, our resources tilting at windmills and not fighting true evil.” (03/06/26)
“If Democrats expect to flip a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, they’ll need all the stars to align. This almost never happens, because politics has a way of scrambling the constellations. But on Tuesday, the first star blinked on. I’m referring to state Rep. James Talarico’s victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary. Most political prognosticators agree that Talarico, an eloquent young Democrat who speaks openly about his Christian faith, is their best hope in a red state that Donald Trump won by 14 points.” (03/06/26)
