The US War Machine Is Run By Deranged Armageddon Cultists
Caitlin Johnstone, Mar 06, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-war-machine-is-run-by-deranged?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=189993154&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave one of his signature “I don’t have a small penis” tirades at the Pentagon on Wednesday, ranting and raving about the big, powerful, masculine war machinery that’s currently raining death and destruction upon the people of Iran.
“We will fly all day, all night, day and night finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders, flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC,
Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over,” Hegseth bloviated, saying there will be “B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” the War Secretary spouted.
This would be the same Pete Hegseth who was mentioned in a recent article by Jonathan Larsen titled “U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for ‘Armageddon,’ Return of Jesus”, which reports that US military commanders are telling American soldiers that they are on a mission from God to fulfill a biblical prophecy and bring about the end of the world.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has enshrined evangelical Christianity at the uppermost levels of the U.S. military, airing monthly prayer meetings throughout the Pentagon,” Larsen reports, saying that “Last year, the Pentagon confirmed to me that Hegseth attends a weekly White House Bible study. It’s led by a preacher who says God commands America to support Israel.”
Larsen reports that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been inundated with complaints from every branch of the US military that troops are being told by their leaders that President Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” and similar statements.
Then you’ve got House Speaker Mike Johnson spouting religious war rhetoric, claiming Iranians have been led to evil by a “misguided religion”.
“The largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran and its proxies, have killed more Americans than any other terrorist regime on Earth,” said Johnson on Wednesday. “They are dedicated to it. They have been, and they say the quiet parts out loud. They wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, and they’d like to take us out as well. We’re the great Satan in their analogy and their misguided religion.”
So as if we didn’t have enough problems to deal with, it turns out the world is ruled by a nuclear-armed Armageddon cult.
The US empire is the most evil, destructive and dangerous power structure on this planet. It is operated by psychopaths and guided by demented religious zealotry. These freaks wouldn’t be believable as villains in a children’s cartoon show.
These are the people claiming to have the moral authority to decide who should be the leader of a sovereign nation on the other side of the planet. These are the powerful individuals whose choices are determining the path our species will take into the future.
They are everything they accuse Iran of being. They are dangerous religious fanatics. They cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. They are the tyrants. They are the monsters.
This is unsustainable. These guys gotta go. The US empire must fall. Humanity depends on it.
Golden Dome to Rio Rancho: Public Infrastructure, Private Weapons, Public Consequences

The build out continues without public hearings or environmental review
Elaine Cimino, Substack, Feb 26, 2026
What’s Happening Nationally
The U.S. Department of Defense is accelerating development of a next-generation missile defense architecture referred to as “Golden Dome.” It is framed in national defense strategy as a layered homeland shield designed to counter emerging threats, including hypersonic weapons.
Modern missile defense is not just about ground interceptors. It requires:
- Hypersonic propulsion systems
- Advanced thermal shielding
- Rapid manufacturing capacity
- Space-based tracking and sensor networks
- Scalable industrial production
This is not theoretical. Federal strategy and procurement planning show an expansion of missile tracking systems and accelerated contractor engagement across the defense sector.
When the Pentagon scales a program like this, the supply chain scales with it.
Missile production is not a single building. It is a network of chemical processing, propulsion casting, electronics assembly, static testing, and heavy logistics. When one node expands, infrastructure expands with it. This when the supply chain externalizes costs to communities.
What’s Happening Locally
Project Ranger is an “advanced manufacturing” project.
It is contractually defined as a:
“hypersonic systems test and manufacturing facility.”
3609_PPA_Castelion_LEDA_(10.17.…
At the same time, the City and County approved public funding specifically to expand Paseo del Volcán to benefit this Project.
3609_SandCo_Ranger_LEDA_City_IG…
The agreements also acknowledge that audit and inspection provisions are subject to Department of Defense and national security constraints.
3609_PPA_Castelion_LEDA_(10.17.…
Those are not abstract references. They place this facility squarely within the national defense ecosystem.
Public road expansion + hypersonics manufacturing + DoD-related oversight constraints is not a coincidence. It is infrastructure alignment.
Why That Matters
Defense corridors do not appear overnight. They form through a predictable sequence:
- A federal defense initiative accelerates.
- Contractors expand production capacity.
- Local governments subsidize access roads, land, and utilities.
- Environmental and cumulative impact questions lag behind infrastructure commitments.
That sequence is visible here.
When public funds expand a major corridor to serve a hypersonics manufacturing site, that is not simply “economic development.” It is regional integration into a national defense supply chain.
The Public Interest Questions.
We want transparency, scope, and full disclosure.
A hypersonic test and manufacturing facility
3609_PPA_Castelion_LEDA_(10.17.…
enabled by publicly funded road expansion
3609_SandCo_Ranger_LEDA_City_IG…
raises foreseeable impacts that must be openly evaluated:
- Industrial water demand
- Hazardous materials transport
- Air emissions and plume modeling
- Outbound waste streams
- Long-term infrastructure maintenance costs
- Cumulative regional build-out effects
If the project is positioned within a rapidly expanding missile defense program, then induced growth and scaling pressures are foreseeable.
Treating the road expansion as separate from the facility ignores the integrated purpose described in the agreements.
Bottom Line
The documents do not describe a small standalone factory.
They describe a hypersonics test and manufacturing facility….
Project Ranger is part of a larger defense build-out, whether local officials frame it that way or not. When national missile defense accelerates, local communities become supply-chain territory. Rio Rancho deserves a full accounting of what that means…………………………..
When national missile-defense acceleration intersects with local public subsidies, the burden does not fall on billionaires or defense contractors. It falls on residents:
- Water withdrawals and contamination risk
- Air emissions and particulate exposure
- Hazardous materials transport through residential corridors
- Fire risk in a drought-stressed landscape
- Increased infrastructure maintenance costs
- Rising insurance premiums
- Rising bond obligations
- Rising utility rates
- Decreased property value stability
This is the real “skyrocket” — the cost to households………………………………………………………….. https://elainecimino652909.substack.com/p/golden-dome-to-rio-rancho-public?r=281p2&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=split&triedRedirect=true
U.S. and Japan Ponder Nuclear Energy Project in Massive $550 Billion Deal

By Michael Kern – Oil Price 4th March 2026, https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-and-Japan-Ponder-Nuclear-Energy-Project-in-Massive-550-Billion-Deal.html
The United States and Japan have been considering the inclusion of a nuclear power project involving Westinghouse in the $550-billion package of investment that Japan has pledged in the U.S. under the bilateral trade deal, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters on Wednesday.
Last year, as part of the U.S.-Japan trade agreement, Japan pledged to buy $8 billion worth of American products per year. The Government of Japan has also agreed to invest $550 billion in the United States, the White House said.
At the time, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, hailed the deal as “historic” and said that the U.S. would use the $500-billion Japanese investment “to build our energy infrastructure, chip manufacturing, critical minerals mining, and shipbuilding to name a few.”
The plan for a nuclear power project, as well as a copper refining facility, is being discussed and could be talked into details later this month when Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on March 19, according to Reuters’ anonymous sources.
Westinghouse, which could be involved in the nuclear power project, was named as a company that has expressed interest to launch projects in the energy sector, according to a joint fact sheet for the Japan-U.S. Investment.
Who Bombed Girls’ School in Iran? Reporter Nilo Tabrizy on What We Know About Massacre of 175 People
Democracy Now, 5 Mar 2026
After a strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, killed at least 175 people, nearly all young schoolchildren, online reports spread disinformation about the attack, including claims that the Iranian government itself had bombed the school. Journalist Nilo Tabrizy describes how outside reporters have been able to verify the attack despite Iran’s internet blackout and says attempts are still being made to confirm whether the strike is attributable to the U.S. or to Israel.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
Preemptive War, Permanent Emergency: The Real Cost of Trump’s Iran Strike

Since January 2025, Trump has carried out more than 600 military strikes on foreign targets that include Iran, Yemen, Nigeria and Venezuela, while threatening forceful military takeovers of Greenland, Colombia and Mexico.
Preemptive force has become policy.
Call it what it is: war.
The Rutherford Institute, John & Nisha Whitehead, March 04, 2026
“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”—Jeremiah 6:13–14
“This is insane. Regime change will result in a bloody civil war… Resist this!”—Charlie Kirk (2025)
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.
In a complete about-face from his claims to being a peace president, Donald Trump has authorized yet another preemptive strike—this time against Iran—without a declaration of war from Congress, without meaningful public debate, and without constitutional clarity.
The gravity of that decision cannot be overstated.
While American troops were being ordered into harm’s way, Trump was hosting a $1 million-a-ticket fundraiser for himself at Mar-a-Lago, trotting out his signature dance moves between curtained war briefings.
That spectacle tells you everything you need to know.
That is how we arrived at Operation Epic Fury.
With its Orwellian proclamations of “peace through strength,” Operation Epic Fury is less strategy than spectacle—an egotistical, muscle-flexing distraction by the Trump administration and an overarching attempt to normalize the use of unilateral force by the executive branch without congressional input or authorization.
This was never about peace. It was always about power.
And the Constitution is clear about how this is supposed to work, even if the White House is not.
Article I, Section 8 grants Congress—not the president—the power to declare war. The president under Article II, Section 2 is designated as commander-in-chief with the power to command the military. He is not commander-of-everything.
Yet here we are.
The Trump administration is advancing a global policing doctrine that mirrors the domestic police state: strike first, ask questions later.
Since January 2025, Trump has carried out more than 600 military strikes on foreign targets that include Iran, Yemen, Nigeria and Venezuela, while threatening forceful military takeovers of Greenland, Colombia and Mexico.
Preemptive force has become policy.
Call it what it is: war.
Despite the word games over its war games—the administration insists its actions in Iran do not constitute a war—members of Trump’s Cabinet use the word “war” freely until congressional authorization is mentioned.
And when the administration is asked to explain themselves, the answer is not constitutional deference but open defiance.
Clearly, they have lost sight of who they answer to—and who funds their war chests: we the taxpayers.
Pete Hegseth—the self-righteous blowhard who brags about lethal weapons and has rebranded the Defense Department as the Department of War—dismissed public accountability outright, expressing in no uncertain terms that it’s none of our business: “Why in the world would we tell you, you, the enemy, anybody what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective. We fight to win. We fight to achieve the objectives the President of the United States has laid out and we will do so unapologetically.”
The Constitution is the “why.”
The American people have a right to debate war before it begins. We have a right to know how our tax dollars are spent. We have a right to insist our representatives authorize the use of force. We have a right to know why our sons and daughters are sent into harm’s way. We have a right to refuse to have our tax dollars used to kill other people’s daughters and sons.
……………As Cato Institute’s Katherine Thompson explains, “War…costs American blood and treasure. The Founders placed the power to initiate it in Congress precisely to ensure those costs are confronted and debated before the country walks into battle.”
War fuels defense contracts, reconstruction deals and intelligence budgets. It sustains a vast military-industrial apparatus whose profits depend on instability.
Nothing about Operation Epic Fury puts America first. It pushes us toward a fiscal cliff.
Within days, the costs were staggering: $300 million for three F-15E jets downed by “friendly” fire. $630 million to transport troops, ships and aircraft to the region in advance of the attacks. More than 50,000 troops deployed to the region. $13 million a day just for two aircraft carriers stationed nearby. $43.8 million for 1,250 Kamikaze drones. $2 million each for Tomahawk missiles. $12.8 million each for anti-ballistic missile interceptors.
Forbes estimates that Trump’s military strikes in Iran have already cost American taxpayers over $1 billion, “with a price tag that could approach $100 billion, depending on how long it can stretch on.” The total economic cost of the conflict “could trigger an economic loss for the U.S. of between $50 billion and $210 billion.”
And that is before accounting for the human cost.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. This unprovoked attack on Iran is turning the Middle East into a war zone, in turn laying the groundwork for Trump to act on the fantasies he has long entertained about cancelling the mid-term elections.
………………………………………………………………………….War is not peace. Preemptive war is not strength. And an imperial presidency—no matter how loudly it wraps itself in flags—is not constitutional government.
The Founders understood that the gravest threat to liberty would not come from foreign enemies alone, but from the concentration of power in the hands of one man who believed himself indispensable.
A president who can send bombs abroad without consent can silence opposition at home without hesitation.
A government that governs by the rule of emergency eventually ceases to govern by the rule of law.
And a nation that trades liberty for spectacle will wake up to find that it has neither.
…………………………………………………………………….As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the question is no longer whether America can police the globe. The question is whether our Republic can survive the weight of the Empire it has become.
We are at the point where we must choose: the spectacle of permanent war, or the survival of the American experiment in freedom.
We cannot have both. https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/preemptive_war_permanent_emergency_the_real_cost_of_trumps_iran_strike
Negotiation to Detonation

. A peaceful resolution would have prevented the long-term U.S. plan to consolidate and weaponize its control over Middle Eastern oil
By Michael Hudson, Monday, March 2, 2026, https://michael-hudson.com/2026/03/negotiation-to-detonation/
Last Friday the mediator of the U.S. and Iranian nuclear negotiations in Oman, that country’s foreign minister Badr Albusaidi, pulled the rug out from President Trump’s deceptive pretense threatening war with Iran. Why? Because it had refused his demands to give up what he claimed was its own atom bomb. The Omani foreign minister explained on CBS’s Face the Nation that the Iranian team had agreed not to accumulate enriched uranium and offered “full and comprehensive verification by the IAEA.” This new concession was a “breakthrough that has never been achieved any time before. And I think if we can capture that and build on it, I think a deal is within our reach” to achieve “agreement that Iran will never, ever have a nuclear material that will create a bomb. This is, I think, a big achievement.”
Pointing out that this breakthrough “has been missed a lot by the media,” he emphasized that by calling for “zero stockpiling” went far beyond what had been negotiated during President Obama’s administration, because “if you cannot stockpile material that is enriched then there is no way you can actually create a bomb.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who already had issued a fatwa against doing any such thing, and had repeated this position year after year – called Iran’s Shi’a leaders and military chief to discuss ratification of the agreement to cede control of its enriched uranium in order to prevent war.
But any such capitulation was precisely what neither the United States nor Israel could accept. A peaceful resolution would have prevented the long-term U.S. plan to consolidate and weaponize its control over Middle Eastern oil, its transportation and the investment of its oil export revenues, and to use Israel and al Qaeda/ISIS as its client armies to block independent oil-producing countries from acting in their own sovereign interests.
Israeli intelligence apparently alerted the U.S. military to suggest that the meeting at the Ayatollah’s compound offered a great chance to decapitate the leading decision makers all together. This followed the U.S. military handbook advice that killing a political leader whom the U.S. deems to be undemocratic will liberate popular dreams of regime change. That was the hope of bombing President Putin’s country residence last month, and it was in line with the U.S’s recent Starlink attempt to mobilize popular opposition for revolution in Iran.
The joint U.S.-Israeli attack makes it clear that there is nothing that Iran could have conceded that would have deterred the long-standing U.S. drive to control Middle Eastern oil, alongside using Israel and ISIS/Al Qaeda client armies to prevent sovereign nations in the region from emerging to take control of their oil reserves. That control remains an essential arm of U.S. foreign policy. It is the key to the U.S. ability to hurt other economies by denying them access to energy if they do not adhere to U.S. foreign policy. This insistence on blocking the world’s access to energy sources not under American control is why the U.S. has attacked Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Russia.
The attack on negotiators (the second time America has done this to Iran) is a perfidy that will go down in history. It was to prevent Iran’s intended move to peace, before its leaders could have disproven Trump’s false claim that Iran had refused to give up its desire to obtain its own atom bomb.
The markets last week were vastly underestimating the risk of closing the Oil Gulf. U.S. oil companies will make a killing. China and other oil importers will suffer. U.S. financial speculators also will make a killing, because their oil production is domestic. This fact may even have played a role in the U.S. decision to end the world’s access to Middle Eastern oil for what promises to be a lengthy period.
The trade and financial disruption in fact will be so worldwide that I think we can think of Saturday’s February 28 attack on Iran as the true trigger of World War III. For most of the world, the imminent financial crisis (to say nothing of the moral outrage) will define the next decade of international political and economic restructuring.
European, Asian and the Global South countries will be unable to obtain oil except at prices that make many industries unprofitable and many family budgets unaffordable. The rise in oil prices also will make it impossible for Global South countries to service their dollar debts falling due to Western bondholders, banks and the IMF.
Countries can save themselves from having to impose domestic austerity, currency depreciation and inflation only by recognizing that the U.S. attack (supported by Britain and Saudi Arabia, with ambiguous Turkish acquiescence) had ended the U.S. unipolar order – and with it the dollarized international financial system. If this is not recognized, acquiescence will continue until it becomes unsustainable in any case..
If this is the inaugural real battle of World War III, it is in many ways a final battle to decide what World War II was all about. Will international law crumble as a result of the unwillingness of enough countries to protect the rules of civilized law supporting the principles of national sovereignty free from foreign interference and coercion from the 1648 Peace of Westphalia to the UN Charter? And with regard to wars that inevitably are to be waged, will they spare civilians and non-belligerents, or will they be like Ukraine’s attack on its Russian speaking population in its eastern provinces, Israel’s genocide against ethnic Palestinians, Wahabi religious cleansing of non-Sunni Arab populations, or indeed the Iranian, Cuban and other populations under U.S.-sponsored attack.
Can the United Nations be saved without freeing itself and its member countries from U.S. control? An early litmus test of where alliances are sorting out will be which countries join the legal move to declare Donald Trump and his cabinet war criminals. Something more than the present ICC is needed, given the U.S. Government’s personal attacks on ICC judges that found Netanyahu guilty.
What is required is a Nurenberg-scale trial against the Western military policy that has been seeking to plunge the entire world into political and economic chaos if it does not submit to the U.S. unipolar ruler-based order. If other countries do not create an alternative to the US-European-Japanese-Wahabi offensive, they will suffer what U.S. Secretary of State Rubio called (in his recent Munich speech) a resurgence of the Western history of conquest to the basic principles of international law and equity.
An alternative requires restructuring the United Nations to end the U.S. ability to block majority resolutions. In view of the fact that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that it may be bankrupt by August and have to close its New York City headquarters, this is a propitious time to move it out of the United States itself. The U.S. has banned Francesca Albanese from entering the United States as a result of her report describing Israeli genocide in Gaza. There can be no rule of law as long as control over the U.N. and its agencies remains in U.S. hands and those of its European satellites.
TEPCO planning to send probe into Fukushima nuke reactor

By TOMOYUKI SUZUKI/ Staff Writer, March 4, 2026 ,
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16341286
Tokyo Electric Power Co. will soon launch a probe, the first of its kind, into the pressure vessel at one of the hobbled reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to scope out the current conditions.
The effort is part of TEPCO’s long-standing goal of retrieving melted nuclear fuel debris, left in the aftermath of the triple reactor meltdowns following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO officials said they are planning to insert a camera-equipped fiberscope into the plant’s No. 2 reactor to shoot footage and measure radiation levels during the first half of fiscal 2026 between April and September.
An estimated 880 tons of fuel debris remain inside the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
TEPCO plans to approach the contaminated debris, which remains in the pressure vessels, from the tops of the reactor buildings and pulverize the debris to reduce the volume and collect it by sucking it from the side or by other means.
TEPCO officials are hoping, during the planned probe, to monitor the interior of the pressure vessel visually and ascertain the radiation levels on a location-by-location basis to help work out concrete methods for retrieving the fuel debris.
The fiberscope to be used in the probe, which resembles an endoscope, will be inserted into the pressure vessel from the side through piping.
The officials said they will be probing not the core part of the vessel but the outer side of a shroud of stainless steel, which has been installed to surround nuclear fuel, to determine, among other things, if the shroud has been deformed and if there is any debris in sight.
They said they will conduct mock-up drills in the days and months to come. They added that they will take measures to block air from leaking from the pressure vessel’s interior so workers will not be exposed to radiation.
The probe was initially scheduled to begin in fiscal 2024, but the work has been delayed because the development of a dosimeter-equipped fiberscope and other processes have turned out to be more time-consuming than expected.
“When the distribution of dose levels is known, that could, depending on the circumstances, help give an estimate of the amount of residual fuel (which has yet to turn into debris),” said Akira Ono, president of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination & Decommissioning Engineering Co., which is overseeing the corresponding processes at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
TEPCO plans to start large-scale retrieval of the Fukushima No. 1 plant’s debris at its No. 3 reactor in fiscal 2037 or later.
The dose levels and circumstances of the areas surrounding the reactor buildings are not the same for the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.
TEPCO officials said they have set a target date of 2027 for studying the design of debris removal equipment and other specifics for those reactors.
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14 March – Protesters to rally at Faslane base in anti-nuclear demonstration

PROTESTERS are set to rally at the Faslane naval base to protest against
the UK’s nuclear arsenal. The rally, organised by the Scottish Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND), will be held at HMNB Clyde’s north gate on March
14. The Scottish CND told The National that “nuclear weapons are a threat
to Scotland and the whole world”, saying the presence of the UK’s nuclear
submarines in Scotland is putting “a target on our backs”.
The National 3rd March 2026,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25903195.protesters-rally-faslane-base-anti-nuclear-rally/
Coastal erosion risks to planned Sizewell C nuclear power station
Letter Nicholas Malins-Smith: : The comment by Sir David King, the former
chief scientific adviser, about how the eastern side of Britain is
“tilting into the sea”, particularly around Norfolk and Suffolk, is the
result of more than just aggressive coastal erosion caused by climate
change (“Residents lambast ‘nuts’ location of Sizewell C as coastal
erosion gains pace”, Report, February 24).
Britain is still experiencing
land mass movement where the north and western parts are slowly rising,
while the south and eastern parts are sinking. This phenomenon is a very
gradual geological process known as “glacial isostatic adjustment”
(GIA). During the last ice age, the weight of massive ice sheets pressed
down on Scotland and northern Britain, forcing the land to subside.
Meanwhile, the southern part of Britain acted as a counterweight and was
raised slightly. The melting of the ice sheets resulted in the land that
was pressed down to begin slowly rising, causing a “see-saw” effect
that lowers the south by an approximate equal amount.
The “tilting”
effect of GIA has been going on quite independently of more recent concerns
about sea-level rise caused by climate change, although the combination
exacerbates the likely impact on certain coastal areas.
The Suffolk
shoreline has long known about the effects of coastal erosion. Most of the
original town of Dunwich was lost to the sea in storms a very long time
ago. The little that is left of Dunwich is about 3.5 miles north of where
the Sizewell C nuclear power station will be built.
FT 4th March 2026, https://www.ft.com/content/bb9265e4-a235-4830-8c4b-49b6953cf753
You Deserve Better, Iran
The Here and Now, Mar 03, 2026
I’ve spent the last three days obsessively refreshing the New York Times app. Every few minutes there are updates: missiles raining down in Tehran, nearly 200 girls massacred by a bomb “accidentally” hitting their school in southern Iran, retaliatory attacks carried out by the country’s (few) allies, the death of the tyrannical Ayatollah Khamenei. But nowhere on the screen—no matter how far past the fold I read—is there coverage of the Ebrahimi family and what has become of them. Instead, I find locations that have been bombed and I enter them into Google Maps, plotting how far they are from my family’s apartment. I look at the red, inverted teardrop pinpointing their building, and I wonder if they will make it through this alive………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
My anger reaches back to the past, all the way to 1953 and the coup. So few Americans know that Iran wasn’t always an Islamic regime. The democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil so that his country could benefit from their primary natural resource. The US couldn’t have that. So the CIA orchestrated a coup, overthrowing Mossadegh, and reinstalling Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah, who was essentially a puppet of the West. The 1979 Iranian Revolution was a direct response to this, and that’s when the Islamic Republic of Iran was born. And it has suppressed and terrorized its people ever since.
……………………………………………………………… From the constant fear of internal crackdowns and external war, to the failing economy and assault on civil liberties, Iranians haven’t known peace in decades. But they continue to stand up and fight for their rights, they continue to educate themselves to contribute to their society and the world, and they continue to sacrifice their lives so that their children can know a better day.
…………………………………………………………… I’m no historian or political scientist, but even I know that regime change cannot come from external forces. It has to come from within. Khamenei may have been killed, but there is no organized opposition coming to step in and rule, there is no charismatic leader around which the people can coalesce, there is no one to save the day and liberate Iran. Instead, there is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military that protects the interests of the Islamic Regime, and it is still very much alive. No one knows how this war will play out, but the likeliest scenario is that the IRGC will retain control, and whoever they tap to lead Iran will be even worse than Khamenei.
………………….. I have a hard time believing that’s what this is. This is Epstein. This is midterm elections. This is a narcissist vying for a Nobel Prize. But most of all, to Trump and the others, this is a game. It even has a game’s name: Operation Epic Fury. They don’t give a fuck if their own people die, why would they care about some brown people halfway across the globe.
U.S. Military Leaders Tell Troops Trump Is Waging Iran War To Bring Forth Second Coming Of Jesus
Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
Troops allege they’re being brainwashed with eschatological propaganda of “Judeo-Christian” design.
blueapples, DDGeopolitics Substack, Mar 05, 2026
As the Trump administration continues to grapple with the fallout from the betrayal of its core campaign promise to abandon the cycle of endless wars in the Middle East that have marred U.S. history since the dawn of the new millennium, the American public isn’t the only target of the barrage of propaganda it has unleashed in a hapless attempt to save face. The administration has undertaken the same tactics with the hopes of brainwashing its military in order to build support for Trump’s war in Iran. Instead of political rhetoric, the propaganda aimed at U.S. troops is rooted in a darker Messianic message that underscores the ulterior motives driving the conflict.
According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (”MRFF”), a non-profit civil rights watchdog aimed at protecting the religious liberties of enlisted personnel, U.S. military commanders are accused of telling troops that Trump’s war in Iran is designed to be the apocalyptic catalyst that brings forth the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. According to the MRFF, it has received over 100 complaints from troops across 40 different units spanning 30 different military sites making this accusation. One complaint from a non-commissioned officer filed with the MRFF distilled the nature of these allegations by detailing how their combat-unit commander claimed that Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” The complaint goes on to read that “He [the commander] urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan,’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
When confronted with the volume of complaints filed with the MRFF by U.S. military personnel, a White House official denied the accusation that commanders were invoking any end times prophecies to cultivate support for Operation Epic Fury. Instead, the White House official responded by reiterating the objectives the Trump administration has put forward: destroying Iran’s ballistic missile program, its munitions industry, and its navy. Pentagon officials did not respond to requests for comment regarding the complaints filed with the MRFF.
………………………………….. The eschatological narrative U.S. commanders are accused of conditioning troops with in complaints made to the MRFF follows a troubling tone instilled by senior officials of the Department of Defense. No official has been more vocal with this rhetoric than Secretary of Defense Hegseth, who has long echoed the views of conservative theologian Douglas Wilson in advocating for the restoration of guiding principles rooted in Christianity over U.S. governance and society.
However, like most members of the Trump administration, Hegseth’s version of Christianity is perverted by the contradictory belief in “Judeo-Christianity.” This corruption of Hegseth’s “Christian” worldview is evidence from remarks he made in 2018, when speaking during the Arutz Sheva conference at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. During his speech, Hegseth categorized the decision of the first Trump administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a miracle. Hegseth then proclaimed that “there’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible,” going on to proclaim that “a step in that process, a step in every process, is the recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter.” Years later after being appointed Secretary of Defense in the second Trump Administration, Hegseth now appears to be manifesting that vision by leading the U.S. assault on Iran.
Christian leaders aligned with the Trump administration have also amplified the message that war with Iran is a sign of the coming Apocalypse in an effort to cultivate support for the conflict…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
While remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Mark Warner illustrate the Israel-driven interests behind entering into war with Iran, the speech made by Secretary Hegseth in 2018 reveals a deeper motive that goes far beyond the political realm, revealing the esoteric forces ultimately shaping it to do their bidding. The remarks made by Hegseth in 2018 center on the sacred tenet of the building of the Third Temple at the core of Jewish eschatology. Moreover, they highlight how the version of “Christian” nationalism shamelessly espoused by members of the Trump administration like him and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is nothing more than a vehicle to further instill Zionism as the driving force behind U.S. policymaking. The complaints filed with the MRFF reveal how deeply that influence has corrupted the Trump administration, erasing any doubt that its decision to wage war on Iran is not a religious mission anointed by any Christian concept of God. Instead, it is one being done at the behest of its masters in Israel, who, as its actions show, the Trump administration has come to revere more than Christ. https://ddgeopolitics.substack.com/p/us-military-leaders-tell-troops-trump?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1769298&post_id=189851466&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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Capenhust-based nuclear facility faces prosecution after uranium leak
A WIRRAL company that transports uranium overseas will be prosecuted for
health and safety offences following an incident involving a leak at its
facility. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has notified
Capenhurst-based Urenco ChemPlants Ltd that it faces prosecution
alongside contractor Babcock Critical Services Ltd after the incident in
2024. According to the ONR in February 2024 at the Tails
Management Facility on the Urenco UK Ltd. nuclear licensed
site in Capenhurst, a metal container holding almost 11
tonnes of uranium oxide powder fell from a forklift
truck, striking surrounding equipment within the facility.
Wirral Globe 4th March 2026, https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/25905939.capenhust-based-nuclear-facility-faces-prosecution-uranium-leak/
US Media Mostly Care for Iranians When They Can Be Used to Justify Bombing

by repeatedly bringing up Iranian state brutality, US corporate media effectively distract from the brutality of the strikes on Iran
the fact that the government “oppresses women”—forever a favorite talking point of the same media outlets that advocated for bombing Afghan women to save them from the Taliban.
the media’s tendency to humanize Iranians only when they can be portrayed as victims of their own government.
Belén Fernández, March 2, 2026, https://fair.org/home/us-media-mostly-care-for-iranians-when-they-can-be-used-to-justify-bombing/
The United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, propelling the entire region into a predictable cataclysm of unprecedented proportions.
This puts paid to the alleged “peacemaking” project of US President Donald Trump, who was supposed to be keeping the country out of international wars rather than actively seeking to expedite the end of the world.
The attacks put an abrupt end to the negotiations underway between the US and Iran—to the delight of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has always viewed as anathema anything remotely resembling diplomacy or the pursuit of peace.
‘Trigger Iran to retaliate’
Three days before the joint strikes, a Politico exclusive (2/25/26) reported that “senior advisers” to Trump “would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country.” As per the report, administration officials were “privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a US strike.”
So much for subsequent US/Israeli attempts to cast the assault as “preemptive” in nature. Indeed, there is nothing at all “preemptive” about forcing Iran to retaliate; this is instead what you would call a deliberate provocation.
Unfortunately for the “senior advisers,” Trump and Netanyahu ultimately opted to pull the trigger simultaneously, thus depriving the US administration of its fabricated casus belli.
‘A clear explanation of the strategy’
In the aftermath of the strikes, certain US corporate media outlets unleashed ostensible critiques of the war—having apparently spontaneously forgotten their own fundamental role in paving the warpath by devoting the past several decades to demonizing the Iranian government (or “regime,” as we are required to refer to imperial foes).
The New York Times editorial board (2/28/26), for example, immediately penned an intervention titled “Why Have You Started This War, Mr. President?”—the headline of which was later amended to “Trump’s Attack on Iran Is Reckless.”
This is the same New York Times, of course, that has been known to publish such masterpieces as “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran” (3/25/15), a 2015 call to arms by former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
Now, after calling out Trump’s “reckless” attack, the Times editorial board proceeds to undertake its own rationalization of war on Iran—provided it is overseen by “a responsible American president” who takes the time to offer “a clear explanation of the strategy, as well as the justification for attacking now, even though Iran does not appear close to having a nuclear weapon.”
Because Trump could give fuck all about being “responsible,” however, the US newspaper of record assumes the duty of laying out the litany of Iranian transgressions for its readers, such as the killing of “hundreds of US service members in the region”—decisive proof that “Iran’s government presents a distinct threat because it combines this murderous ideology with nuclear ambitions.”
Never mind the hundreds of thousands of regional deaths wrought in recent years by the (already nuclear-equipped) US military, including on account of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, which the Times and like-minded media did their best to shove down the throats of the American public.
‘Few recent parallels’
Following the weekend’s strikes on Iran, many US media were quick to mention the Iranian government’s response to protests that erupted in December against high inflation. The Washington Post (2/28/26), for instance, specified that the “strikes come in the wake of a violent crackdown by Iran’s security forces…on anti-government demonstrations.”
Citing reports of “more than 7,000 people dead,” the Post went on to lament that “the level of violence against protesters has few recent parallels, human rights groups say.”
Not mentioned in such reports is the key role devastating US sanctions on Iran—a form of lethal violence in themselves—played in fomenting the protests in the first place. Ditto for Israel’s own admitted interference; Mossad’s Farsi-language X account urged Iranians to “Go out together into the streets. The time has come.” The Jerusalem Post (12/29/25) reported that the intelligence agency continued: “We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”
“Foreign actors are arming the protesters in Iran with live firearms, which is the reason for the hundreds of regime personnel killed,” Tamir Morag of Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 remarked (Times of Israel, 1/16/26). “Everyone is free to guess who is behind it,” he winked.
But by repeatedly bringing up Iranian state brutality, US corporate media effectively distract from the brutality of the strikes on Iran, which happen to be perpetrated by two states that have zero “parallels” in terms of “levels of violence.” The ongoing US-backed Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip has officially killed more than 72,000 Palestinians since October 2023, though household surveys indicate the true toll could be substantially higher (Lancet, 2/18/26).
In its own antiwar-but-not-really dispatch, the Times editorial board also took care to reference how Iran “massacred” protesters, as well as the fact that the government “oppresses women”—forever a favorite talking point of the same media outlets that advocated for bombing Afghan women to save them from the Taliban.
Unuseful victims
It can be safely filed under the “can’t make this shit up” category that among the first casualties of the current war on Iran were the at least 175 people confirmed dead in a missile strike on a girls’ elementary school in the city of Minab.
While the establishment media initially treated this particular atrocity as a brief aside (Washington Post, 12/28/26; Wall Street Journal, 12/28/26)—leaving the job of actual reporting to independent outlets like Middle East Eye (2/28/26) and Drop Site News (2/28/26)—it eventually became unavoidable. As the corpses of young children are of no use to the imperial narrative when they are killed by the US and Israel rather than by Iran, however, the requisite moral condemnation has been in short supply.
Nor has much attention been paid to the hundreds of other casualties of the US/Israeli strikes, which is unsurprising given the media’s tendency to humanize Iranians only when they can be portrayed as victims of their own government. While the death toll made headlines in outlets like Al Jazeera (3/2/26) and Truthout (3/2/26), in major US media like the New York Times (3/2/26) and Washington Post (3/2/26), it was basically a footnote.
Three US troops killed in Iran’s retaliatory strikes, on the other hand, have received considerable airtime, with the Associated Press (3/1/26) noting that these were “the first American casualties in a major offensive that President Donald Trump said could likely lead to more losses in the coming weeks.”
And as the entire region rapidly goes up in flames, it seems those senior US advisers may have gotten their casus belli, after all.
Trump’s 3 day ‘quickie’ war turning into a 3 year catastrophe.
Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL, 5 Mar 26
President Trump bet his entire criminal attack on Iran as a quick 3 day operation which would force Iran’s capitulation. Kill its leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the 90 million Iranians would rise up against their government and make peace with new master America.
It has backfired spectacularly. The vast majority of Iranians have rallied around the Islamic government. When Trump demanded Iran surrender, the remaining government publicly told Trump, ‘Go to hell.’ Instead, they have launched thousands of missiles and drone explosives on US instillations thruout the region. American deaths and injuries are occurring. They are successfully bombing America’s criminal war partner Israel, the real mastermind of this self-destructive war. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz which will quickly destabilize the world economy over oil pricing. Iran’s attacks on US resources in the Gulf States will possibly destabilize the entire region.
Trump, realizing he’s both failed and trapped, is becoming increasingly more detached from reality. The US is already running low munitions to fight a long war, but Trump claims we have enough to fight multiple wars “forever”. But he quickly contradicted himself by claiming any shortages are due to negligence of his predecessor he only refers to as “Sleepy Joe”. This from a debilitated president falling asleep at public events. He’s cut off all trade with Spain because they refuse to help Trump wage his criminal war. Trump hints at boots on the ground in Iran, setting congressional critics’ hair on fire.
Why doesn’t Iran fold against the largest military in the world and its criminal war partner Israel? Simple. After trying to negotiate peace with these two brutal, vicious countries for decades, Iran realizes both represent an existential threat to their existence. Facing obliteration, proud Iran has decided to go down fighting, taking America and Israel with them.
Knowing it was coming, Iran has been preparing years for all out war. It has tens of thousands of missiles and drones scattered and well-hidden to prevent US, Israeli destruction. The US, Israeli hunters are now becoming the hunted. US embassies in the region, some already under attack, are telling their staffers they cannot help evacuate them.
Trump has nearly 3 years left in office. His failed 3 day quickie war to destroy Iran as an Israeli hegemonic rival may turn his last 3 years into an unrelenting personal catastrophe. Alas, it may also be a catastrophe for Israel, America, the Middle East, possibly the entire world.
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