Glenn Diesen, 3/7/26
"Jeffrey Sachs:
We Are Now in the Early Days of World War III"
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Saturday, March 7, 2026
"Pezeshkian’s Statement: What Does It Mean? Hypersonics Hammer Israel; Dubai Airport Blast"
Full screen recommended.
Mahmood OD, 3/7/26
"Pezeshkian’s Statement: What Does It Mean?
Hypersonics Hammer Israel; Dubai Airport Blast"
Comments here:
"Are You Prepared For The Worst Global Oil Crisis In More Than 50 Years?"
by Michael Snyder
"If you have not already done so, I would recommend filling up your vehicle, because it looks like the price of gasoline is going to go much higher. At the very beginning of this war with Iran, the price of oil didn’t rise too much because many investors were anticipating a quick victory over Iran. But now it has become exceedingly clear that there will be no quick victory, and the price of oil is spiking dramatically. Unless something really crazy happens, this is going to be an extended conflict, and that means that the flow of oil out of the Middle East will not return to normal for quite some time.
According to CNBC, the Iranians just hit another oil tanker with a missile…"Iran claimed to have struck an oil tanker with a missile, according to a state media report. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ordered a closure of the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week and threatened to attack tankers passing through it, according to state media. The British Navy on Thursday reported a large explosion at a tanker at anchor in Iraqi territorial waters. The ship’s master reported seeing a small vessel flee the scene. The crew is safe and no fires were reported."
The Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz is absolutely teeming with anti-ship missiles. Until something is done about that, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will continue to be paralyzed… “You’ve essentially had the Strait of Hormuz grind down to a halt,” explained Matt Smith, an analyst at Kpler, a data and analytics firm. He said the slowdown isn’t necessarily because Iran has formally closed the waterway, though Tehran has threatened to, but because shippers are weighing the risk of missile or drone strikes in the narrow corridor.
The result, Smith said, is a growing bottleneck of crude and refined products. And if the disruption stretches from days into weeks, Smith warned, the fallout could intensify quickly. “If this drags on for weeks, the ramifications are huge,” he said, pointing to early ripple effects already emerging in global energy markets.
Many are comparing the current state of affairs to the oil embargo of 1973. But the truth is that the supply disruption that we are experiencing now is far greater than anything that we experienced back then…
So how does this get fixed? Well, the truth is that it isn’t going to get fixed until the war ends. At this stage, the U.S. and Israel have achieved full aerial dominance and are bombing the living daylights out of Iran. But that won’t bring an end to the regime.
Regime leaders are now hiding deep underneath hospitals, schools and mosques, 125,000 heavily-armed members of the IRGC have full control of the major cities, and Iran has one of the largest armies in the world. Sending in a few thousand Kurds won’t do much against an army that boasts more than 600,000 men on active duty and more than 300,000 men among the reserves. In order to bring the regime in Iran to an end, it will require either a ground invasion or the use of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, the Trump administration is not even considering either of those two options.
The other way that this war could stop is if the U.S. and Israel simply decide to stop attacking and allow the current regime to remain in power. That would be considered a victory for Iran and a loss for the U.S. and Israel. Personally, I don’t think that President Trump will be eager to admit defeat any time soon. So for now, the war will continue, and the global oil crisis will escalate.
Interestingly, the Chinese are trying to convince the Iranians to allow vessels that are carrying oil and liquified natural gas to China to travel safely through the region…"China is in talks with Iran to allow crude oil and Qatari liquefied natural gas vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz as the US-Israeli war on Tehran intensifies, three diplomatic sources tell Reuters.
The war, which entered its sixth day on Thursday, has left the critical shipping passageway all but shut, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. China, which has friendly relations with Iran and relies heavily on Middle Eastern supplies, is unhappy about the Islamic Republic’s move to paralyze shipping through the Strait and is pressing Tehran to allow safe passage for the vessels, according to the sources."
China is very dependent on oil and liquified natural gas from the Middle East, and I have a feeling that the Iranians may make an exception for them. But the rest of us are going to experience significant pain. Since the war began, gasoline prices have already been jumping all over the country…"Retail gasoline prices in the U.S. have jumped nearly 27 cents since last week to $3.25 per gallon on average, according to the motorist group AAA. The last time gas prices made a similar jump was in March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, the group said."
It is obvious that this is just the beginning. Unless some sort of a miracle happens, the price of gasoline is only going to go higher, and the White House is desperately searching for solutions…"President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions."
Apparently things are so tense that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other top advisers “are getting screamed at”…"Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other advisers focused on energy policy, including a council led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, “are getting screamed at to find some good news” on bringing down prices, the same executive said. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of rising prices, this person said." I don’t know what Doug Burgum is supposed to do. He can’t stop this war. Now that missiles are flying back and forth, there is no turning back now.
Sensing an opportunity, Vladimir Putin is threatening to cut off the flow of natural gas to Europe…"A smirking Vladimir Putin has threatened to halt gas supplies to Europe and Britain amid a spike in energy prices triggered by the Iran crisis. Oil and gas prices have soared following the US and Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s strikes on Gulf Arab neighbours. The conflict has paralysed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and forced the shutdown of Qatar’s LNG production and Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery. The Russian president said oil prices were rising due to the ‘aggression against Iran’ and due to Western restrictions on Russian oil, while European gas prices were rising because customers were willing to buy gas volumes at higher prices due to events in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz."
During the weeks ahead, global energy prices are going to be such a huge story. All over the world, people are going to be blaming the United States and Israel for the price of gasoline. We were warned in advance that this sort of a scenario was coming, and now it is here. The longer this war drags on, the worse global economic conditions will become. Our entire way of life depends upon cheap energy, and now that entire paradigm has been put at risk."
"Jiang Xueqin: The Iran War: The Watershed Moment That Changed the Middle East Forever"
Dialogue Works, 3/7/26
"Jiang Xueqin: The Iran War:
The Watershed Moment That Changed the Middle East Forever"
Comments here:
"The Trump Administration is Lying About American Casualties in the Persian Gulf Region"
"The Trump Administration is Lying About
American Casualties in the Persian Gulf Region"
by Larry C. Johnson
"First let me explain the meaning of the X message and photo that appears above… the cancellation of the training exercise is a key indicator that the Pentagon is going to deploy the some, if not all, of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Persian Gulf. Final destination unknown. You may recall an article I wrote on February 18 when I reported that a CENTCOM exercise scripting conference, which was scheduled to begin on Sunday, 22 February 2026, had been abruptly cancelled. Six days later the war started.
The imminent deployment of the 82nd does not mean they are going into battle in the next couple of days. I expect it will be at least two weeks before they reach their base camp. However, this does mean that Trump and Hegseth were not just making an idle comment when they mentioned putting boots on the ground.
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to downplay US casualties after seven days of war in the Persian Gulf, clues are appearing on the internet that indicate the US has suffered more combat losses than reported. The first clue is this Xhitter (pronounced SHITTER) from Stars and Stripes.
K-Town refers to Kaiserslautern, a US Army base in Germany, which is located 13 miles east of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. So what? Well, on March 4, 2026 the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany—the largest US Department of Defense hospital outside the United States and the primary overseas trauma/evacuation hub for injured service members from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa—sent out a memo announcing the temporary suspension of its labor and delivery services “until further notice.” The memo did not explicitly define the “primary objective,” but LRMC’s core role is treating combat- and training-related injuries. It also is the main medical evacuation point for wounded troops from ongoing operations.
A knowledgeable friend who supervised DOD’s Wounded Warrior Program during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and worked with personnel at the LRMC, learned today that there is a flood of casualties arriving at the hospital. The numbers are so large that the hospital could no longer continue to spend resources on birthing babies. Then this picture popped up on Telegram a little bit ago:
It is not a stretch to conclude that Iran’s attacks on the US bases in the Persian Gulf produced more than a few casualties. DOD/DOW is working hard to keep this information from the public. Most Americans do not support the unprovoked war… This is likely to fuel more opposition."
Friday, March 6, 2026
"Iran Just Destroyed Ben Gurion Airport - Last Exit From Israel Closed"
Full screen recommended.
OPTM, 3/6/26
"Iran Just Destroyed Ben Gurion Airport -
Last Exit From Israel Closed"
Comments here:
"Mohammad Marandi: Iran Can Send Oil Prices To $250 Per Barrel; Iran Prepared To Fight Until The U.S. Midterms?"
Trends Journal, 3/6/26
"Mohammad Marandi: Iran Can Send Oil Prices To $250 Per Barrel;
Iran Prepared To Fight Until The U.S. Midterms?"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Comments here:
$250 a barrel? Then YOU will pay $20 a gallon, if you can find it...
What then?
o
Full screen recommended.
Money Hand, 3/6/26
"$90 Oil Breaks Markets - Qatar Just Warned:
Gulf Energy STOPS 'Within Weeks' as Iran Seals the Trap"
Comments here:
o
Click image for larger size.
"Alert! Fill Up Your Gas Tank! 82nd Airborne Deploy To Iran? Ground War! China WTF?!"
Full screen Recommended.
Prepper News, 3/6/26
"Alert! Fill Up Your Gas Tank!
82nd Airborne Deploy To Iran? Ground War! China WTF?!"
Comments here:
"Walmart And Other Big Retailers Report Price Increases On Everyday Items"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist,3/6/26
"Walmart And Other Big Retailers
Report Price Increases On Everyday Items"
"Walmart and other major retailers are reporting price increases on thousands of everyday items, and Americans are feeling it every time they walk into a store. From groceries to clothing to household essentials, the cost of living continues to climb while wages stay the same. In this video, we take a closer look at what's really going on behind these price hikes and why so many people are starting to question whether tariffs are truly to blame or if something deeper is happening.
Big corporations like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Costco have used tariffs as a reason to raise prices across the board. But when you look at the actual numbers, the increases don't always match up with the tariff rates being imposed. In many cases, prices have gone up 50% or more on products that aren't even directly affected by tariffs. And now that some of those tariffs are being legally challenged, these same companies are looking to get reimbursed by the government. That means consumers could end up paying for these tariffs twice: once at the register and once through their tax dollars.
Meanwhile, small businesses and family owned companies are absorbing the extra costs without passing them on to their customers. They're taking real losses because they understand that people are struggling. That's a very different approach from what we're seeing at the corporate level, where profit margins and executive compensation continue to grow even as everyday Americans are forced to cut back on the basics.
People are sharing their experiences online, showing grocery hauls that cost nearly $100 and barely cover a week's worth of meals. Ground beef at $30 a pack. Coffee that's doubled in price in six months. Cereal, milk, fresh produce, all of it climbing higher and higher. Families are being forced to choose between eating healthy and eating at all. That's not something that should be happening in a country with no real shortage of food or resources.
On top of all that, retailers are finding new ways to squeeze even more out of consumers. Dynamic pricing, app only discounts that trade your personal data for savings, and charity roundups at checkout that benefit billion dollar corporations more than the causes they claim to support. These practices are becoming more common and more aggressive, and they raise serious questions about where the line is between smart business and outright exploitation.
The bigger picture here is the declining value of the U.S. dollar itself. As the dollar weakens, everything costs more, and the people who are hurt the most are those living paycheck to paycheck. The wealthy protect themselves with assets and investments while working families watch their savings shrink in real time. This is a conversation that affects all of us regardless of political affiliation or background. If you've noticed these changes at your local stores, you're not alone. Share your thoughts in the comments and let us know what you're seeing out there."
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern: Weekly Wrap for 6-March"
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/6/26
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern:
Weekly Wrap for 6-March"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Supertramp, “The Logical Song”; "Take The Long Way Home"
Supertramp, “The Logical Song”
o
Full screen recommended.
Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though.
Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past."
"Does Anyone Know..."
"All sins, of course, deserve to be treated with mercy: we all do what we can, and life is too hard and too cruel for us to condemn anyone for failing in this area. Does anyone know what he himself would do if faced with the worst, and how much truth could he bear under such circumstances?"
- Andre Comte-Sponville
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Joe South, "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"
The Poet: David Whyte, "The Truelove"
"The Truelove: Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on
Reaching Beyond Our Limiting Beliefs About the Love We Deserve"
By Maria Popova
"Few things limit us more profoundly than our own beliefs about what we deserve, and few things liberate us more powerfully than daring to broaden our locus of possibility and self-permission for happiness. The stories we tell ourselves about what we are worthy or unworthy of - from the small luxuries of naps and watermelon to the grandest luxury of a passionate creative calling or a large and possible love - are the stories that shape our lives. Bruce Lee knew this when he admonished that “you will never get any more out of life than you expect,” James Baldwin knew it when he admonished that “you’ve got to tell the world how to treat you [because] if the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble,” and Viktor Frankl embodied this in his impassioned insistence on saying “yes” to life.
The more vulnerable-making the endeavor, the more reflexive the limitation and the more redemptive the liberation. That difficult, delicate, triumphal pivot from self-limitation to self-liberation in the most vulnerable-making of human undertakings - love - is what poet and philosopher David Whyte, who thinks deeply about these questions of courage and love, maps out in his stunning poem “The Truelove,” found in his book The Sea in You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love (public library) and read here:
"The Truelove"
by David Whyte
"There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them,
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love,
so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don’t want to any more,
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours."
“The Truelove” appears in the short, splendid course of poem-anchored contemplative practices David guides for neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris’s Waking Up meditation toolkit, in which he reads each poem, offers an intimate tour of the landscape of experience from which it arose, and reflects on the broader existential quickenings it invites.
Couple this generous gift of a poem with “Sometimes” - David’s perspectival poem about living into the questions of our becoming, also part of Waking Up - then revisit the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska on great love and James Baldwin (who believed that poets are “the only people who know the truth about us”) on love and the illusion of choice."
o
Freely download "Poems Of David Whyte" here:
"Shall We Play A Game?"
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
- "War Games"
"This is the "lesson" scene from the movie "War Games" where we learn that the only way to win in Nuclear War is not to play.
The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the 1983 science fiction thriller, "WarGames." In the film, all of the United States nuclear launch capabilities is given to a computer called “Joshua” or WOPR, which stands for War Operation Plan Response. It is programmed to consistently run military simulations to concoct the best plan of an attack if nuclear retaliation is needed. David Lightman (played by Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into Joshua and causes the computer to think that the Soviet Union has launched missiles at the United States.
The quote comes from the very end of the film. David forces Joshua to play tic-tac-toe against itself in the attempt to make it understand the concept of mutually assured destruction. As Joshua obtains the final launch code, it runs through all the possible scenarios in an attempt to find a winning plan. After cycling through all of them and not finding one where anyone survives, the machine delivers the quote."
○
"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump."
- David Ormsby-Gore
"None Of You Seem To Understand..."
“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet ‘for sale’, who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence – briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing – cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity.”
- Erich Fromm
"The Meaning of Life is Not Happiness"
"The Meaning of Life is Not Happiness"
by Todd Hayen
"I can’t tell you the number of times every day I hear from clients in my practice, “All I want is to be happy.” And they don’t know why they are not happy, they claim to be healthy, to have a good family, a good job that pays them lots of money, and a good marriage. Other than the usual ins and outs of life they really have nothing to complain about - but they are not happy. I then ask them if they think there is meaning in their life or purpose, invariably they say “No.” Sometimes they ask, “What is that? Isn’t the meaning and purpose in life to be happy?” No, it is not.
Happiness is only one of the many states of being we encounter in a whole and complete life, and if we become unhappy simply because we think we are not happy as often as we believe we should be, we have missed the point.
We have been on this “happiness” kick for quite some time, and once again I have to say I think it is part of the agenda - maybe originally an unconscious part of a movement in society to focus on acquiring “things.” But that has always been a central part of the formula in the agenda’s effort to control.
Again, maybe it was an organic result of our natural tendency to focus on the flesh—the physical attributes of living through the senses, and an innate desire to “instantly gratify” those senses at any opportunity offered. Check out Huxley’s "Brave New World" for a view of a dystopian culture in the future that focuses entirely on the satisfaction of primal urges through the senses. Huxley had it figured out almost 100 years ago.
There have been scads of books written on happiness. Most of them conclude that the pursuit of happiness through the acquisition of physical objects (consumerism) is a dead-end pursuit, and, like a shot of heroin, will send you on a high for a moment that quickly wears off. Most people have some idea of this and understand that obsessive consumerism is typically a road to oblivion.
But again, a lot of people have not figured this out yet (need I say “young people?”), considering our entire society is based on consumerism. Try getting away from it for even 10 minutes. If you don’t go out into the woods or barren desert with no cell phone, you won’t be able to. That is about the only way to detach yourself from the world that is trying to entice you to consume.
So, even if we could remove the curse of consumerism and instant gratification from our lives, wouldn’t our central pursuit still be the state of happiness? - continual happiness? Yes, typically it would be. Even deep spiritual interventions have the goal of happiness - if you are one with God, or Jesus, or Mohammed, you will be happy. Shouldn’t the word “happy” be replaced with “content” or even “peace?” It certainly should be, because that is what I believe most of the religious traditions mean by the word “happiness.” “Contentment” and “peace” have very different meanings to “happy.”
If we are fully enlightened, are we even allowed to be happy? Of course, we are. Being happy is one of the most precious gifts of being a living creature. Should we expect to be happy all of the time? No, of course not. That would be a curse. Should we expect to be content or at peace all of the time? Yes, I believe that is indeed possible and should be a goal we all strive to attain.
I spent a large part of my life studying the works of Ernest Holmes and "The Science of Mind". I studied Phineas Quimby, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Joel Goldsmith and others as well. The surface level of what I gleaned from this study was to “think positively” - to avoid focusing on darkness in the world and see only God’s love and beauty as reality.
What is found in the depth of these philosophies is quite a different matter. I will not go into this in this article as it would take a book to even begin to explain what I mean. Suffice it to say that the true message behind all of this is that the material world is a manifestation of our thought and consciousness - and is not the only reality.
However, my view is that as long as we are in the material form, living in a material creation, we have to encounter the manifestation of evil, darkness, and suffering - not ignore it. Part of our purpose and meaning in this world is to deal with everything we encounter, not turn away from any of it. Therefore, for a large portion of our lives, we may not be happy.
Dealing with darkness is not typically a happy endeavour, however, it doesn’t mean we cannot be at peace and be content when we are dealing with it. Darkness, suffering, and pain are but an “appearance” - an illusion - in the material realm. Through this illusion, we may even find meaning, and purpose, as we deal with the darker sides of life and existence.
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor offered a profound critique of the view that happiness is the ultimate meaning of life. In his seminal work, "Man’s Search for Meaning," Frankl argued that life’s true meaning is found not in the pursuit of happiness but in the pursuit of meaning. Having survived the horrors of concentration camps, Frankl observed that those who endured suffering and still found a reason to live, did so by finding a sense of purpose, not by chasing happiness. He developed the concept of “logotherapy,” a therapeutic approach that emphasizes the human desire to find meaning in life, even in the most challenging circumstances.
Frankl believed that humans are not driven primarily by the search for pleasure or happiness, but by the need to find meaning in their experiences. He argued that people can endure tremendous suffering if they have a sense of purpose to guide them.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how,” Frankl wrote, quoting Nietzsche. According to Frankl, meaning can be found in work, love, suffering, and even in facing death. Happiness, in his view, is not something to be pursued directly; rather, it ensues when individuals live in alignment with their values and pursue meaning.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer and dissident who chronicled the horrors of the Soviet Gulag, similarly questioned the notion that happiness is life’s primary objective. In his works, such as "The Gulag Archipelago" and "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Solzhenitsyn explored themes of suffering, totalitarian oppression, and the human capacity for endurance. Like Frankl, Solzhenitsyn saw meaning in suffering and responsibility rather than in the pursuit of happiness.
Solzhenitsyn argued that life is about more than personal joy or comfort. In his famous Harvard Commencement Address in 1978, he critiqued the West’s focus on materialism and individual happiness, warning that such pursuits could lead to moral and spiritual decay.
Solzhenitsyn believed that humanity’s purpose lay in the moral and spiritual development of the soul, not in the pursuit of happiness or worldly success. According to him, suffering could serve as a catalyst for this growth, offering individuals the opportunity to transcend their immediate desires and connect with deeper values such as truth, justice, and personal responsibility.
Solzhenitsyn’s view is particularly striking in his emphasis on responsibility. He believed that in the face of evil and injustice, individuals must take responsibility for their actions and decisions. A life well-lived, in his view, involves moral courage and a willingness to confront suffering and injustice rather than seeking comfort or happiness at all costs.
Wonder where I am going with this? I don’t think you have to wonder very long. I have heard again and again from those whom I love that I spend too much time “looking for bad things” that I am too interested in the wars, in suffering, in the deaths from the vaccines, in starving children. They claim that I need to give up on all of this and just enjoy what I have, the good life, the sunshine, the company of those whom I love - to be happy.
First of all, I cannot imagine turning my back on the world like that. Secondly, I am happy. In a strange way, my work which does focus on a lot of “bad” things brings me peace and contentment. My belief in God and in the beauty of physical existence - nature, art, music and love, to name a few of the things that God brings to this world through our consciousness, are always forefront of my mind.
The evil and ugliness are illusions nestled in those other realities. Yes, they limit our expressive creation, so they must be faced and dealt with. Every choice we make to see love in the world despite the hate we first face, is an act of Christ Consciousness - turning the hate that we see into the love we know sits behind it, is a truly meaningful pursuit. What could make a person happier?"
"The Great Enemy"
"The Great Enemy"
by Wendell Berry
"In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.
In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...
Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means."
Dan, I Allegedly, "High Alert - Fears of U.S. Banking Outages"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 3/6/26
"High Alert - Fears of U.S. Banking Outages"
"Banks are going on High Alert as global tensions rise and concerns grow about cyber attacks, infrastructure disruptions, and potential impacts on the banking system. In this video Dan from i Allegedly breaks down why banks are preparing for possible disruptions and what it could mean for everyday Americans. We also cover updates on jobs data, major business changes, the explosion of data center construction, and why companies like Comcast and Spectrum are losing millions of customers. Stay informed with real-world economic news and analysis that impacts your money, your job, and your future."
Comments here:
"US-Israel-Iran War, Day 7, 3/6/26"
Full screen recommended.
Danny Haiphong, 3/6/26
"Iran's Missile Barrage Smashes Tel Aviv,
US-Israeli Defenses Fail"
"Renowned journalist Sharmine Narwani of The Cradle joins the show to break down Iran's historic 21st wave of retaliation against US and Israel dubbed Operation True Promise 4, and what the strikes tell us about the state of the ongoing war."
Comments here:
o
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 3/6/26
"Larry Johnson: Cluster Warheads Rain Down -
Iran's Retaliation Update"
Comments here:
o
Col. Douglas Macgregor, 3/6/26
"What Happens Next In This War Will Shock You"
Comments here:
o
Full screen recommended.
, 3/6/26
"Missiles Over Tel Aviv:
Why Iran at 10% Is Most Dangerous"
"Iran just struck Tel Aviv with cluster munitions - at 10% of its opening launch capacity. Israeli air defenses held. B-2 bombers returned to Iranian airspace within hours. And Israeli commanders issued three words that should be generating more attention than they are: "surprises ahead." A military power degraded to 10% is not a defeated power. It is a cornered one. And cornered powers make decisions that fully operational powers never would.
In this analysis, we go beyond the breaking news timeline to examine what this exchange actually signals - and what the next 72 hours determine for the entire trajectory of this conflict. We break down the strategic logic of Iran's decision to strike Tel Aviv at degraded capacity: what the doctrine says about escalation as a survival mechanism, and why ninety percent degradation doesn't diminish the threat calculus - it intensifies it. We examine the counterstrike architecture: B-2 sorties returning to Iranian airspace, simultaneous strikes on dozens of launch sites, and Israeli commanders describing objectives that go far beyond tactical air superiority. Then we run the scenario tree that no press conference is addressing directly."
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"The Stupidest - and Potentially Most Dangerous - War Since 1945"
"The Stupidest - and Potentially Most Dangerous -
War Since 1945"
by David Stockman
"The sheer barking hypocrisy of the Donald’s, yes, unprovoked and senseless attack on Iran is surely one for the record books. After years of noisy campaigning against the Forever Wars and 12 months back in the Oval Office spent in hot pursuit of a Nobel Peace Prize, the Donald has not only started an utterly unnecessary new and very hot war, but did it essentially by gratuitously putting America’s vast War Machine out on a "loaner" to Bibi Netanyahu.
And, no, we did not don our tinfoil hat this AM. Little Marco Rubio removed all doubt when he said in absolutely explicit terms recently that American troops in the Middle East were in "imminent danger" because the Donald had given the old green-lit wink and nod to Bibi to kill the Ayatollah and decapitate Iran’s leadership. So Washington had to preemptively protect US forces caught in harms’ way by joining Bibi’s strike.
If that doesn’t constitute renting out the US War Machine to the genocidal madman who is allegedly America’s "ally", we don’t know what else to call it. After all, the Donald only needed to have told Bibi "f*ck, no!" and the current horror show in the Middle East would never have started. In any event, the fact remains: There is not a single plausible reason based on America’s Homeland Security for attacking Iran. So what we have is an utter betrayal of everything Trump has ever said about war & peace and the conduct of American policy abroad.
Once again, sadly, Bibi Netanyahu has bamboozled the man’s smallish brain, negligible knowledge of the region’s history and his gigantic ego into the goddamned dumbest foreign military intervention by Washington during the last half-century. And that includes a lot of stupid-ass competition.
Trump on the campaign trail: "We are finally putting America First. Our policy of war regime change and nation-building is being replaced by the pursuit of American interests… It is the job of our military to protect our security, not to be the policemen of the world."
Now, if this were just a standard case of the kind of political hypocrisy that is par for the course in Washington, Trump’s Iran attack might be dismissed as more of the same old, same old. You might even say the sheeples of America should not by surprised that the ravenous wolf they knowingly re-elected wasn’t a vegetarian after all.
Indeed, you might well conclude, as we have, that Donald Trump has now proven himself to be the most deceitful fraud in US political history. But even that wouldn’t be the whole story or even the most important part of it. Unfortunately, there are far more insidious forces at work in this horrific turn of events than just standard political hypocrisy and campaign lies. What we really have here is a vast war machine, a false neocon foreign policy narrative and an infrastructure of Empire so deeply embedded in the very warp and woof of America’s process of governance that the outcomes of elections have become essentially immaterial. Or as our friend Tom Woods astutely observed, elections don’t matter much because we always elect John McCain.
And it seems to be getting worse with time. In fact, here is the box score for the last 10 US military interventions and the number of them embraced by each of America’s four presidents during the 21st century to date. The Donald is winning hands down because he loves the glory and spotlight of sitting in the Situation Room making real time movies on the giant screens there, commanding the US bombers, missiles, drones and the whole armada of warfare. It is so damn obvious that it is no surprise that Bibi has gotten the Donald’s number and now literally has him on a leash:
George Bush the Younger: 5/10.
Joe Biden & auto-pen: 5/10.Barack Obama: 7/10.
Donald Trump: 10/10.
The map of Washington’s global empire depicted below is utterly and completely irrational in the world of 2026. But its very existence and all the machinery and interests behind it explain why even a "no more wars" loudmouth like Donald Trump ended up launching–at Bibi’s behest- the stupidest and potentially most dangerous war yet since 1945.
The Failure of US and Israeli Air Defense"
AN-FPS-132
"The Failure of US and Israeli Air Defense"
by Larry C. Johnson
"While the US and Israel are delivering some punishing blows in Iran, Iran continues to successfully attack US military and intelligence targets in the Persian Gulf countries and is pummeling Israel. Since February 28, 2026, amid escalating US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks (including drone and missile strikes on US diplomatic facilities and regional bases), the US State Department has ordered the closure or indefinite suspension of operations at several US embassies in the Persian Gulf and broader Middle East region. These include:
Saudi Arabia (U.S. Embassy in Riyadh): Closed after Iranian drone attacks targeted the compound on March 2–3, 2026. The embassy urged Americans to shelter in place and avoid the area.
Kuwait (U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City): Closed following an Iranian drone/missile attack on or near the facility (reported March 2–3, 2026). Operations halted “until further notice.”
Lebanon (U.S. Embassy in Beirut): Closed on March 3, 2026, due to ongoing regional tensions and threats (though Lebanon is not strictly Persian Gulf, it’s often grouped in Middle East alerts).
Operations at the US embassies in Doha, Dubai and Manama also have been dramatically scaled down. The videos posted during the last five days show Iranian missiles and drones hitting targets in the six Gulf countries virtually unopposed.
The real damage is being done to US military bases/installations in the region. The following US military bases/installations in the Persian Gulf (or directly associated with Gulf states) have been confirmed or reported as attacked/hit since February 28, based on US military statements, satellite imagery analyses (e.g., Planet Labs), media reports (NYT, CNN, Al Jazeera, Stars and Stripes), and official confirmations from host nations. Here is how the Western media sources are spinning these attacks:
Naval Support Activity Bahrain / U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Headquarters (Manama, Bahrain) — Targeted multiple times with missiles and drones. Damage included destruction of several structures, radomes (radar domes), satellite communications terminals, and warehouses. Bahrain confirmed attacks on the base, with explosions and smoke reported.
Al Udeid Air Base (near Doha, Qatar) — The largest US military facility in the Middle East. Hit by Iranian missiles (at least one confirmed impact, with others intercepted). Qatar reported interceptions of dozens of missiles/drones targeting the base, with minor damage in some cases. No major casualties reported from these strikes.
Ali Al Salem Air Base (Kuwait) — Struck by ballistic missiles and drones. Satellite imagery showed damage to buildings and structures. Kuwait confirmed interceptions and hits; part of multiple strikes across Kuwaiti sites hosting US troops.
Camp Arifjan (Kuwait) — Attacked with drones/missiles, resulting in US casualties (at least three service members killed and several wounded in one incident). Low-resolution imagery indicated damage.
Camp Buehring (Kuwait) — Reported hits/damage from projectiles, per satellite analysis and US reports.
Al Dhafra Air Base (Abu Dhabi, UAE) — Targeted with missiles/drones. Satellite imagery showed damage to buildings (at least three–four structures hit between February 28 and March 1). UAE defenses intercepted many incoming threats.
Prince Sultan Air Base (Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia) — Bombarded by Iranian ballistic missiles. Saudi defenses intercepted many, but reports confirmed attacks on the base (roughly 40 miles from Riyadh).
The damage that is being inflicted is far greater and more severe than the Pentagon is reporting. The most damaging result of the Iranian attacks has been the destruction of critical radar systems that are supposed to provide an early warning of Iranian missile launches. These include:
The AN/FPS-132 Block 5 Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) at or near Al Udeid Air Base (Qatar) — Valued at approximately $1.1 billion. This is the largest and most critical US-operated ballistic missile early-warning radar in the Middle East, with a detection range of up to 5,000 km for launches.
The AN/TPY-2 Radar (associated with THAAD system) at Al-Ruwais Industrial City (UAE) — Estimated value $500 million. This forward-based X-band radar provides precise tracking for terminal high-altitude missile defense. Iran claimed destruction, and open-source satellite imagery (Planet Labs) shows a direct hit.
Radome (radar dome) and satellite communications terminals at Naval Support Activity Bahrain / US Fifth Fleet HQ (Bahrain) — A verified Iranian drone strike hit a radome (protective cover for radar/satcom antennas) on February 28–March 1. Satellite imagery (NYT, Planet Labs) shows destruction of at least two large radomes/SATCOM terminals and related structures. These are sophisticated but not standalone “early-warning radars” like the AN/FPS-132; they support naval ops and C2 (command and control).
The Al Dhafra Air Base, a major U.S. Air Force hub in Abu Dhabi hosting the 380th Expeditionary Wing and advanced aircraft, was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones in late February–early March 2026 waves.
Satellite imagery and multiple analyses confirm that a key US radar system at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan was heavily damaged or destroyed during Iran’s retaliatory strikes in late February–early March 2026. The radar in question is an AN/TPY-2 (Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance and Control Model 2), a high-resolution X-band phased-array radar used with the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile battery. This radar is designed for detecting, tracking, and discriminating ballistic missiles (including in terminal phase) and is one of the most sophisticated US forward-deployed missile defense sensors.
Iran’s destruction of the AN/TPY-2 and the AN/FPS-132 radars has eliminated the early warning capability of the US military in the region. Prior to their destruction, Israel and the US would have a 15 to 30 minute warning when a missile was launched from Iran and could, in theory, take counter measures and prepare their air defense systems. Videos from Israel during the last two days show that 90% of Iranian missiles are hitting their targets without being intercepted.
The unknown variable is how many missiles does Iran still have in its inventory. The US is betting that Iran is running out of missiles. I believe that Iran’s stockpile is far larger and more robust. We’ll see how things develop as the war enters its second week."
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