Source: New York Post
by Kirsten Fleming
“The post-Olympics news cycle was a dizzying display of handwringing over the supposed victimhood of empowered, badass American female athletes. If we were to believe much of our media and feminist commentators, these women had been disrespected by President Trump, who cracked a joke, and by the men of Team USA hockey, who laughed. It led to an online geyser of anger and indignation on the women’s behalf. During their match against South Korea in Australia last week, the Iranian women’s soccer team took part in a quiet protest by not singing along to their national anthem — less than 48 hours after the US began striking Tehran. Off the phony controversy, we heard the refrain that women athletes are treated like gum on the bottom of a shoe.” (03/10/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/10/opinion/iranian-soccer-team-shows-feminists-what-oppression-looks-like/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Iran cannot participate in the FIFA World Cup after the United States killed its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says the country’s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali. ‘Considering that this corrupt regime [the US] has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup,’ the minister told state television on Wednesday. The US will co-host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico, but all of Iran’s group-stage fixtures are allocated to American cities, including Los Angeles and Seattle.” (03/11/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/3/11/iran-cannot-participate-in-the-fifa-world-cup-sports-minister-says
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A fourth MP of the current Canadian parliament has defected to join the Liberals, bringing Prime Minister Mark Carney closer to a majority in the House of Commons. Lori Idlout, a member of the left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), is joining the governing party. In a statement issued by the Liberals, she said she had undergone ‘much personal reflection and encouragement from my community, family, and supporters’. Interim NDP leader Don Davies said he was ‘very disappointed,’ adding: ‘We believe that when someone rejects the decision of their electors and wants to join another party, they should put that decision to their voters.’ The Liberals said they were ‘deeply excited to welcome’ Idlout. Idlout was first elected as an MP from the Canadian territory of Nunavut in 2021. In its statement, the Liberal Party said she is ‘well known as a tireless champion for Nunavut.'” (03/11/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0e5jwz0703o
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Israel, Iran, and Antisemitism | Robert Wright & Peter Beinart.” (03/10/26)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/69346
Source: The Intercept
by Séamus Malekafzali
“Elected officials desperately want to cast our war with Iran as an ‘intervention’ or ‘operation.’ Don’t let them get away with it.” (03/10/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/10/iran-trump-forever-war/
Source: Racket News
by Jillian Butler
“Analysts from Washington think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have appeared dozens of times in the New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, and Bloomberg as subject matter experts on the Iran War — and counting. While they are usually presented as neutral policy experts, their funding structures and advocacy histories are rarely disclosed. As the United States moves deeper into conflict, the public conversation is increasingly shaped by experts whose institutions are funded by donors with clear interests. The question is not whether these institutions produce substantive research. Many do. The question is whether readers are given sufficient context to understand the financial and political ecosystems in which that research is produced.” (03/10/26)
https://www.racket.news/p/whos-that-source-iran-edition
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“A federal jury on Monday awarded $667,000 in damages to a group of Muslim men incarcerated in Missouri who were pepper-sprayed by state correctional officers while praying. The lawsuit in eastern Missouri’s U.S. District Court alleged that the men had been allowed to pray together many times in their prison housing unit after the chapel was locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic. The money will be distributed among eight men who were handcuffed, pepper-sprayed and placed in solitary confinement after praying in the housing area at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre on Feb. 28, 2021. Those who were placed in solitary confinement at the 2,684-bed facility were left without access to soap or running water to wash off the pepper spray, and some resorted to washing their faces with toilet water, according to the lawsuit.” (03/10/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/jury-awards-667k-muslims-pepper-sprayed-prison-guards
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“The Dumb State of Iran Discourse. Scoping Out Trump’s Wartime Deadlines (with Kirk Bado).” (03/10/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/the-dumb-state-of-iran-discourse
Source: Liberal Currents
by Christopher M Cruz
“A genuinely liberal education is about freedom, and not in some utilitarian or sophomoric sense of freedom as a rejection of form or boundaries. The indispensability of a liberal education is the freedom from being tied to the zeitgeist of one’s age or situation to love what is true, good, and beautiful, and to be initiated into the world while cultivating a love for it. Such a vision of education advances an inward concern as opposed to the more technical processes typically promoted in teacher education.” (03/10/16)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/upholding-liberal-education/
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman
“Every administration in my lifetime has promised to reduce American involvement overseas and in the Middle East in particular. And every single one of them has instead expanded and deepened our involvement in the region. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, so I think that fact demands a structural explanation.” (03/10/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/why-we-will-never-stop-bombing-the
