Why the Ceasefire is Doomed

Source: The Chris Hedges Report
by Chris Hedges

“It is highly unlikely, unfortunately, that the ceasefire agreement brokered by Pakistan will endure. This is due to two principal impediments. First, Israel is adamantly opposed to a cessation of the bombing of Iran’s infrastructure. This bombing campaign is part of the Israeli effort to turn Iran into a failed state. Israel has the ability to sabotage the agreement. Indeed, Israel is already doing so by refusing to halt its attacks on Lebanon. Secondly, the minimal demands being made by Iran remain unacceptable to the U.S. and Israel. The demands will only be achieved by creating more pressure, which Iran can generate by continuing to block oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and targeting vital infrastructure in the region.” (04/08/26)

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-the-ceasefire-is-doomed

Thomas L. Knapp

US DOJ indicts Army veteran for leaking information to journalist

Source: United Press International

“Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Army veteran with top secret clearance on accusations of sharing classified national defense information with a journalist, who is accusing the Trump administration of retaliating against a whistleblower. Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, N.C., was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday, a day after she was arrested by the FBI, the Justice Department said in a statement. … Williams is a named source in Seth Harp’s The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, an investigative nonfiction book about a string of unsolved murders at the special operations base that was published in August. In a book excerpt published by Politico, Williams alleges sexual harassment and discrimination within Delta Force at the North Carolina base.” (04/09/26)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/09/veteran-charged-journalist/9181775719093/

Thomas L. Knapp

Posting Past Armageddon

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Buried in his book about being a wheeler-dealer, Mr. Trump notoriously advances a notion eerily similar to Nixon’s Madman strategy. Trump likes to keep those with whom he is negotiating ‘guessing.’ He says this often. We cannot be shocked, then, if we’re all kept guessing about his Iran strategy. His litany of flip-flops from early March to the present day has been breathtaking, even for Trump.” (04/08/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/08/posting-past-armageddon/

Thomas L. Knapp

Ignorance and Ignominy

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“So the world’s greatest military power went to war with a poor, medievalist theocracy. It was an incredibly uneven match. … Yet Iran won. The Iranian regime has emerged far stronger than it was before, controlling the Strait of Hormuz and having demonstrated its ability to inflict damage on both its neighbors and the world economy. The U.S. has emerged far weaker, having demonstrated the limitations of its military technology, its strategic ineptitude and, when push comes to shove, its cowardice. We’ve also destroyed our moral credibility …” (04/08/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ignorance-and-ignominy

Thomas L. Knapp

Scientists say world’s oldest octopus fossil isn’t an octopus after all

Source: SFGate

“A 300-million-year-old tentacled sea creature has lost its crown as the world’s oldest octopus, after scientists found evidence that it’s not an octopus at all. Newly published research concludes that fossilized remains listed by Guinness World Records as the earliest known octopus belong instead to a relative of a nautilus, a cephalopod with both tentacles and a shell. University of Reading zoologist Thomas Clements, the lead researcher behind the new findings, said the fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis, has long been the subject of scientific debate. ‘It’s a very difficult fossil to interpret,’ he said. ‘To look at it, it kind of just looks like a white mush. If you look at it and you are a cephalopod researcher and you’re interested in everything octopus, it does superficially look a lot like a deep-water octopus.'” (04/09/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/scientists-say-the-world-s-oldest-octopus-fossil-22197059.php

Steve Trinward