“In the 1300s the Black Death swept through England and killed somewhere between a third and half of the entire population. Entire villages emptied. Labor shortages reshaped the economy. Massive waves of migration poured into London and the southeast bringing with them dozens of regional dialects.”)
The Lincoln Project accused Republicans of “ignoring Trump’s sharp mental decline the same way they’ve ignored his crimes.” Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told the Weeknight: “People have to be held accountable for the laws that we pass in the Congress and the subpoenas that we put in place.” Try this wording: “We the people will hold all government officials accountable to the laws of this country.” Be forceful. Then do it. Stop acting so noble and forgiving. Roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Lead by example!
Heather Cox Richardson writes: Trump’s deteriorating mental state has become impossible to overlook, but Republicans are making excuses for it. Cabinet members, who owe their positions to Trump and who likely recognize they will never rise to such power again in a merit-based system (4/14/26).
"The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman," CENTCOM said. "U.S. forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports." Ray Furlong reporting for Radio Free Europe.
RFE today reports: The US military said that no ships slipped through a Strait of Hormuz naval blockade the first 24 hour.
Data from ship tracking services listed at least four ships, two of which had recently called at Iranian ports. The blockade came into force at 3 p.m. UTC on April 13.
As this essay points out, moral collapse is not just for the religious. Many of us are too busy to stop and question why certain words are used in what our leaders tell us. Reason takes time. Without reason we become an emotionally charged mob, hating our neighbors, our families, and ourselves.
Good news for world Democracy!
Michael Corthell: “When Donald J. Trump warned that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight,’ the shock was not only in the threat itself. It was in the audience it seemed designed to reach.
… when Trump speaks in catastrophic terms, many followers do not hear a moral collapse. They hear leadership.”
More money to play WAR with, please.
I see Trump’s values firmly rooted in a 19th century gilded age society supported by a traditional imperialist foreign policy and archaic racial superiority theories.
APRIL 8: Ceasefire Announced, War Continues, Control Becomes the Objective:
2 — Weeks of ceasefire announced between the U.S. and Iran
$950M — Market bet placed on falling oil prices just before the ceasefire announcement
$1/barrel — Reported Iranian demand for oil transit through tStrait of Hormuz
Are today’s Israeli attacks on Lebanon covered by the ceasefire announced last evening?
Israel says no; Iran says yes. Trump seems intent on letting Israel take the blame for the resumption of hostilities. Time will tell who will be the real winner of this war: Iran? Israel? Clearly not the US.
A whole civilization (Persian Empire?) did not die tonight.
Heather Cox Richardson writes: “If he had destroyed Iran in our names, unhampered by the Republican Congress members who have vowed to defend the U.S. Constitution, it would also have been an epitaph for the United States of America.”
Dear President Trump: it’s not over till it’s over. You haven’t won yet, and you never will.
One election at a time: Rebuild the Democratic Majority
From the writings of Robert Reich in Substack: No civilized nation threatens to wipe out another civilization. No people, through their head of state, threatens to exterminate another people. No human being vested with official power by human beings threatens to wipe out another part of humanity.
RFE/RL spoke with Nate Swanson, former Iran director at the White House NSC:
Iran's infrastructure is highly decentralized. There are dozens of separate power, transportation and other networks. The idea of neutralizing every bridge or key node within a matter of hours seems implausible.
Smoke rises following an Iranian missile strike on southern Israel on March 29. On the opening day of the war, Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles in massive salvos aimed at overwhelming US and Israeli air defenses through sheer numbers. Most were intercepted. But since February 28, Tehran has launched fewer short and long-range missiles -- about several dozen per day on average. Yet its hit rate has increased, according to military analysts analyzing open-source data.
Iran is using tactical delay as a strategy in talks to end US and Israeli strikes that have decimated Tehran's military capabilities amid a continued buildup of US forces in the Middle East, retired US Army General Joseph L. Votel told RFE/RL in an interview on March 30.
Another Ten Year War?
While the Trojan War (see Homer) is the most famous “10 year” war in world history, the US is taking the first, yet familiar, steps into its third “20 year” war outside the western hemisphere: Vietnam, Somalia, and Afghanistan. As Reich says below, it all feels too familiar.
Trump’s words or Pete Hegseth’s? If Iran doesn’t open up the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, “all hell will reign down on them.” That was how he put it. All hell will rain down. Misspelled rain, but OK. And then finished it up with glory be to God. GOD in caps.
Perhaps, the US government should be spending its massive budget to stop a war, that would save lives, rather than continuing a war that by all reasonable accounts is a massive farce (theatrically speaking).
Our leader, who never seems to have had an original thought, apparently has been watching the movie, Gladiator (2000), and now repeatedly quotes the words from the opening scene where Maximus orders his Roman archers to launch arrows at charging Celts: "At my signal, unleash hell.”
Former TIME editor Richard Stengel: “He is repeating every foreign and domestic policy mistake the US has made over the last 5 decades, but he’s doing it with a gracelessness, cluelessness, and corruption that has no precedent.”
Why is this important? Because how a nation determines citizenship is critical to determining its character and its survival.
BREAKING: Donald Trump just lost a landmark court case that will stop him from defunding NPR and PBS. This is a huge win for American democracy. Let's go.
From the Robert Reich cartoon contest 3/29/26.
“No crowns for clowns.”
From a sign carried by a young girl shown on the local news in St. Paul, Minnesota.