"The reporting from journalist Neri Zilber on March 9 is instructive: they’re now on phase three, systematically working down a target list — air defenses, missile systems, the Iranian Navy, and now essentially all regime infrastructure. Whether there’s a fourth phase, and whether anyone has actually thought through what regime change looks like on the other side — that’s an open question. Netanyahu’s silence on that question is all the answer we need."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Iran #war
/2

"Putin, meanwhile, is watching the Hormuz chokehold deliver the oil price shock that relieves the central strain on his war machine, while American support for Ukraine quietly dries up, and Putin will soon be cashing oil checks from the US again.

Both men got what they needed by feeding one man’s need for a headline that gave him the love his parents never could."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Putin #Iran #war
/3

"Netanyahu for years now has sold Israelis the same rubbish. Every crisis can be solved by bombing and strafing. Now that immoral 'strategy' is being manifested again, in Lebanon. ...

What makes this even more indefensible is how entwined this northern brinkmanship is with Netanyahu’s personal political survival."

~ Mark Mansour

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Iran #Lebanon #war
/4

mmansour.substack.com/p/benjam…

Benjamin Netanyahu Is Marching Lebanon And The Entire Middle East Toward The Abyss

all for his own self-preservation

^{Mark Mansour (America’s Fractured Politics)}

"By 2024 and 2025, he was already under immense domestic pressure over his corruption trial, his extremist coalition partners, and his handling of the Gaza war. Commentators and analysts have increasingly argued that he has incentives to keep the region in perpetual crisis, framing himself as the indispensable wartime leader and delaying the electoral reckoning that would likely end his career."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Iran #Lebanon #war
/5

"A wider conflict with Lebanon, in this reading, is not an unfortunate byproduct of security policy; it is a feature of a political strategy that makes war the backdrop for his own continued rule."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Iran #Lebanon #war
/6

"I was talking to a few friends yesterday. We were talking about how every president, you know, for 46 years, ever since the Islamic Revolution, Democrats and Republicans have not really liked the Velayat-e faqih, the Islamic leaders, but none of them were dumb enough to actually be dog walked by Netanyahu and white Christian nationalists and attack Iran."

~ Wajahat Ali

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Iran #war
/7

thelefthook.substack.com/p/how…

How The United States Loses the Iran War and Our National Security...with Trita Parsi

Donald Trump and the warmonger class have no exit strategy from this disastrous war and severely underestimated Iran's resolve. The longer this chaos lasts, the more America loses.

^{THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali (The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali)}

"Some of the winners are obvious: Russia and oil producers everywhere except in the Persian Gulf. The losers may come as a surprise: American consumers are being hit hard even though the US produces more oil and natural gas than it consumes, while China, despite its dependence on imported hydrocarbons, is relatively insulated from this shock."

~ Paul Krugman

#Trump #Netanyahu #Bibi #Putin #Iran #Israel #Russia #war
/8

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/cos…

Costs and Benefits from the New Energy Crisis

There are many losers, but also some winners

^{Paul Krugman}

Robert Reich asks who’s getting the most out of Trump’s war. His list (it doesn't include the American people, by the way):

Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War”

Top military contractors

Larry Ellison’s Oracle

Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies

Big Oil

Jared Kushner

Vladimir Putin

#Trump #Putin #Hegseth #JaredKushner #ElonMusk #LarryEllison #PeterThiel #Iran #Israel #Russia #war #oil #gas
/9

robertreich.substack.com/p/sun…

Sunday thought: Who’s Winning from Trump’s War? Follow the Money

Trump, his biggest backers, and Vladimir Putin

^{Robert Reich}

"Kushner recently met in Florida with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a longtime financial emissary for Vladimir Putin. Dmitriev is not simply a diplomat; he is effectively Putin’s bag man."

~ Julie Roginsky

#Trump #Putin #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #JoshGruenbaum #AffinityPartners #Iran #Russia #war
/10

saltypolitics.substack.com/p/h…

How Jared Is Selling Us Out to the Richest Autocrat

Why is Congress not investigating Kushner's massive conflicts of interest?

^{Julie Roginsky (Salty Politics with Julie Roginsky)}

"The meeting also included Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, another billionaire with vested personal financial interests, whose son runs the Trump family’s shady and opaque crypto fund, World Liberty Financial. The third notable figure at the meeting was Trump administration official Josh Gruenbaum.

The Florida meeting was ostensibly a discussion about ending the war in Ukraine."

#Trump #Putin #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #JoshGruenbaum #AffinityPartners #Iran #Russia #war
/11

"Kushner holds no official diplomatic title that would normally authorize such talks but titles are beside the point in the Trump era. What matters is proximity to power, and Kushner has that in abundance.

What he also has is a private equity firm called Affinity Partners, which is funded by billions of dollars in foreign governments."

#Trump #Putin #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #JoshGruenbaum #AffinityPartners #Iran #Russia #war
/12

"The war with Iran is threatening to raise global food prices as shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz stall fertilizer exports critical for agriculture."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #oil #gas #fertilizer #agriculture #food
/13

aaronparnas.substack.com/p/new…

NEWS: Trump Administration Threatens Media Licenses Over "Negative" Iran War Coverage as Marines Deploy and Allies Do Not Answer Trump's Demands

Good evening everyone.

^{Aaron Parnas (The Parnas Perspective)}

"With nearly one-third of key fertilizer ingredients and a large share of global urea and ammonia exports tied to the region, attacks on ships and halted transit are driving up fertilizer, oil, and diesel prices—raising costs for farmers and potentially leading to higher grocery prices and lower crop yields worldwide."

#Trump #Iran #war #StraitofHormuz #oil #gas #fertilizer #agriculture #food
/14

"We are just two weeks and a day into the Iran war—a war that has no discernible purpose; a war undertaken at the behest of a genocidal war criminal who as I type this is either dead, infirm, or in hiding like a coward; a war that seems intended to distract from the Epstein Files and forestall the release of proof of our president’s singular depravity;

~ Greg Olear

#Trump #Netanyahu #Epstein #Iran #war
/15

gregolear.substack.com/p/sunda…

Sunday Pages: "It's Up To You"

A musical collage by Steinski and Mass Media

^{Greg Olear (PREVAIL by Greg Olear)}

"a war that will likely bankrupt the country; a war that will cause a global recession and worldwide suffering; a war that most Americans do not support; a war that began with U.S. planes killing scores of girls at a school; a war in which we have ceded the moral high ground to the fucking Ayatollah. ...

In this New World Order, the United States is no longer #1."

#Trump #Netanyahu #Epstein #Iran #war
/16

"Last year, I warned about the possibility that Israel might drag the United States into a regional conflict. What’s happening now is worse than I could have ever imagined. …

The fears I expressed 20 months ago now seem almost quaint, in the face of what Trump and Netanyahu have unleashed."

~ Annelle Sheline

#Trump #Netanyahu # Bibi #Iran #Israel #war
/17