In Memoriam?

One of our contributing pundits has the following quick take on our prediction (which you can read in The Gray Area HERE) that bulldozers will completely raze the (Trump-)Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts beginning July 5.

Trump Center Replaces Kennedy Center? – As a former member of the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, I can tell you that the destruction of this center, which has held the greatest performers in the world, is a tragedy that will not be reversed. I do hope he is stopped. – Kate McLeod

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We welcome civilly stated comments from across the political spectrum on news/aggregate/analysis and commentary published in The Hustings at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we may post your comments in the proper (right or left) column. --Editors

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FRIDAY 3/20/26

Iran War … meanwhile

With Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sitting to his right in the golden White House, a reporter asked why President Trump did not give advanced notice to Japan and other allies of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. “We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?” Takaichi, seen here just before suppressed cringe, has declined Trump’s request for Japanese Self-Defense Force ships to escort commercial vessels in the Middle East. [From White House video]

•Six months ago the US Navy under the Trump administration decommissioned its six Avenger-class minesweepers off the coast of Bahrain in what The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last calls an “oopsie” by our “low-IQ president” (subscription required). Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett offers a counterpoint in today’s right column.

More Marines to Middle East – The Pentagon is sending three warships and thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East, US officials told The Wall Street Journal, with 2,200 to 2,500 or so Marines from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group headed to Central Command. An earlier deployment of Marines to the region has sparked speculation the Pentagon is preparing to invade Karg Island, where Iran stores up to 30 million barrels of oil for export. 

Defiance … “Safety must be taken away” from Iran’s enemies and their armed forces, the country’s new leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement. He vowed to pursue Iran’s enemies even in tourist spots, the WSJ reports.

LNG facilities … Qatar says Iran’s strikes on its liquid natural gas facilities reduced export capacity by 17%, and it will take three to five years to repair.

Cover from Netanyahu … “Israel acted alone on the Asaluyeh gas compound,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday. President Trump asked Israel to hold off from future attacks on Iran’s oil infrastructure, he said. 

Meanwhile, Israel is trying to help the US reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, Netanyahu said.

Pushback … Netanyahu also has pushed back on criticism that Israel has led the US into the war on Iran. 

“Does anyone really think President Trump can be told what to do?” Netanyahu said. “C’mon.”

•••

Democracy Falling – The United States fell from “liberal democracy” to “electoral democracy+” for 2025 in V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report 2026, “Unraveling the Democratic Era?” The report says “autocratization now affects well-established democracies, leading to a significant decline in their overall quality.” 

Sweden’s V-Dem also ranks the United Kingdom with the US in declining to electoral democracy+, joining Brazil, Canada, Gambia and Israel in the category. Countries remaining in the Liberal Democracy category include Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland.

But the total number of liberal democratic countries has fallen. 

“Liberal democracies – now the least common regime type in the world – decline in numbers from the peak of 45 in 2009 to 31 in 2025. In the same period, the number of electoral democracies increases from 46 to 56.”

Autocracies are on the upswing, unfortunately, “from a minimum of 82 in 2004 to 92 now.”

V-Dem counts among electoral autocracies, Bosnia Herzegovina, Mexico, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Russia, Iraq and Iran. Closed autocracies include Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Cuba, Haiti, Hong Kong, Myanmar, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. 

•••

March 20 AAA National Average Unleaded Regular: $3.912 per gallon, +2.8 cents over Thursday and up 93 cents over February 27. Diesel: $5.159 per gallon, +6 cents over Thursday and up $1.942 over February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 3/20/26

JVL’s Minesweeper Panic Misses Trump’s Smart Iran Strategy

Commentary by Rich Corbett

Jonathan Last’s Triad column in The Bulwark slams the Trump administration for decommissioning four Avenger-class minesweepers from Bahrain in 2025, calling it incompetent amid reports of Iran laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. But this ignores battlefield realities, the planned transition to modern systems and my preferred America-First approach: Decisively disarm Iran, then let dependent nations secure their own oil lifeline.

Recent reports confirm limited mining — fewer than 10 to about a dozen mines deployed so far, not a mass closure. US forces have already sunk 16 Iranian minelayers and other vessels, crippling Iran's ability to sustain large-scale mining. With Iran's navy gutted and no air cover, full mining remains a desperate last resort as the regime weakens.

The decommissioning of the four Avenger-class ships (USS Devastator, Dextrous, Gladiator, Sentry) after 30+ years of service was planned. They were retired in 2025 and departed Bahrain in January 2026. They’ve been replaced by Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships (USS Canberra, Santa Barbara, Tulsa) equipped with advanced Mine Countermeasures Mission Packages — unmanned surface vehicles, towed sonars, helicopter-borne systems, and standoff neutralization tools far beyond the old Avengers' capabilities. The Navy designed this shift to remove sailors from minefields and enable legacy ship retirement.

Trump’s strategy focuses on offensive degradation: neutralizing Iran’s air force, sinking its navy, destroying ballistic missiles and hammering drone production. This heavy US-led work eliminates Iran’s capacity for sustained threats like mining. Once achieved, America can step back — no endless war or forward deployment.

The US imports just 2% to 3% of its oil via Hormuz. The real stakeholders are Asia: China, India, Japan, South Korea, plus Gulf producers like Saudi Arabia (largest exporter share), Iraq, the United Arab Emirates. These nations have relied on US naval protection for decades. Post-degradation, let China (with its large mine-warfare fleet), India, Japan, Europe, and Gulf states handle demining, patrols, and escorts — or face higher energy costs. The UK and France will bring proven MCM expertise; China has incentives to act.

This isn’t “dumb” — it’s realistic leadership: Strike hard to break the threat, declare success on regime offensive power, then exit. Iran’s limited mining “last gasp” shows the plan working. The LCS transition and burden-sharing ensure we’re not stuck forever.

The Strait will reopen. Iran emerges weaker. Dependent countries gain skin in the game. That’s sustainable strategy, not incompetence.

Contributing Pundit Corbett writes and edits My Desultory Blog.

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FRIDAY 3/20/26

Horton Hears a Call to March 28 Rally

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

My cousin — I’ll call him Charlie — is one smart guy. He graduated from Harvard, started and runs a business that uses big data to help health providers and centers with medical care, plays a mean piano. He’s certainly no Trumpie. But I think he — and his mother and aunt — have lost their way when it comes to confronting the reality of contemporary politics.

They consider protesting a waste of time and believe the next election likely will start to solve what ails this country. They seem, despite mounting, daily evidence, to be oblivious to what I see as a clear and present danger to that very election and to our democracy itself.

We all had a spirited conversation at a recent weekend birthday party for Charlie’s younger daughter. I was urging them all to participate March 28 in the third No Kings protests, which will likely be held in a few thousand locations spread over all 50 states. Unfortunately, I don’t think I made a lot of headway.

Let me try again with you (I’ll forward the column to them, too).

These are dangerous times. Full stop. Period. In my view, they are they are the worst in my 76 years, which spans the fight for Civil Rights, efforts to end the Vietnam War, and Watergate.

A friend in Arizona wrote to me yesterday in horror to tell me that “30 to 50 ICE agents,” armed with assault rifles, had surrounded a car blocks from her house in broad daylight to arrest someone. This on the same day that ICE and police in South Burlington, Vermont, engaged in a full-day standoff before arresting three adults and two children in a house there. And it came two days after a federal judge ordered the release of a 14-year-old girl he said was detained under “questionable circumstances” in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and quickly deported out of state.

Minneapolis is not over. It continues nationally.

These times also are the worst in my lifetime because the unending and mounting violations of law and due process are actively sanctioned and encouraged by the president of the United States, the yes men and women around him, and nearly all in his governing party.

The No Kings rallies will take place as massive, armed conflict spreads violently across the globe; as Donald Trump’s government moves aggressively to buy land to build gargantuan detention centers to incarcerate immigrants; as his oligarch buddies siphon billions from our Treasury; as decades worth of advances in Civil Rights are eviscerated; and as hard-working Americans struggle mightily to eat, buy gas, and pay their rent, utilities and medical bills.

It is time for us all to speak out. Standing up to autocracy and for our Constitution can be hard and exhausting work. It can be frustrating if we succumb to the sense there’s nothing we can do. It can be intimidating. And it can be easy to leave to others.

Yet serious scholarly research suggests each of us does matter. Scholars such as Harvard University’s Erica Chenoweth have found that only once 3.5% of a country’s population sustains non-violent resistance over time is a tipping point reached where the odds of toppling an undemocratic regime is more likely to succeed than not. In the United States, a start in that direction would mean drawing nearly 12 million people to city halls, town parks, village greens, intersections and other gathering points on March 28. Collectively, we can and must raise our voices to demand adherence to the rule of law; insist on accountability for those killing our fellow citizens, condemn those grifting taxpayer dollars, fight for affordable rents, medical care and utilities.

Granted. Turning out 12 million is daunting. It would be millions more than have participated in prior massive No Kings protests. But it is doable. To get there, more of you who object to what’s happening in this country but haven’t turned out need to do so wherever you choose on March 28. It’s simple math.

For inspiration, remember Dr. Seuss’ well-known children’s book, Horton Hears a Who. It tells the story of a lovable elephant named Horton, who is as kind as he is large. He becomes obsessed by a speck of dirt on a dandelion because he hears the collective voices of a microscopic village living on it – Whoville. The trouble is none of the other jungle creatures believes him. They set out both to destroy the speck of dirt and punish Horton.

At long last, after enormous trials and tribulations, the mayor of Whoville and Horton, working together, get every last resident of the microscopic village to yell, scream and bang drums. The mean jungle animals, who have tied up Horton and are prepared to destroy Whoville, hear them and relent. Whoville is spared. Horton, too.

Let’s consider every hamlet and village across the United States to be Whoville on March 28. To protect our neighbors, ourselves and our Constitution, we need to raise our collective voices, reaffirm the founding principles and practices of American democracy, ensure fair elections.

If the citizenry standing together could save Whoville, I’ll bet they can save our country, too.

Originally published in Lanson’s Substack From the Grassroots.

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MONDAY 3/16/26

…meanwhile…

Citing solid economic expansion but low job gains and 'somewhat' elevated inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee left the Federal Reserve's interest rates unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%. Chairman Jerome Powell (above) voted with 10 FOMC members to leave the rates unchanged, while President Trump's latest appointee, Stephen Miran, preferred lowering the target rate by a quarter-point. [From Federal Reserve video]

THURSDAY 3/19/26

UPDATE: The Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in funding for the war in Iran, The New York Times reports, citing an administration official and a military official. The request was sent to the White House, the military official told the newspaper, which would review it before formally submitting it to Congress. If passed, the requested amount would equal about 24% of the military budget for the entire fiscal year.

This War Goes to 11 – The US-Israeli war on Iran is different from previous US operations in the Middle East, War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference Thursday morning. Iran, he said, cannot be trusted to abandon its nuclear arms program on its own, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We will finish this,” Hegseth promised. 

“Our objectives given directly from our America-first president remain exactly what they were on Day One,” he said, without offering any more insight than what the rest of the country understood on Day One.

We can infer from Hegseth’s comments that the war, now in its third week, will not end after three or four weeks as President Trump indicated on Day One unless Iran stops fighting back. On Wednesday, Israel struck the “crown jewel” of Iran’s energy industry (which means it’s not just for Iran but to be sold to much of the rest of the world) which, inconveniently is shared with US ally Qatar. The South Pars gas field is “by far the largest in the world,” says the WSJ.

Iran retaliated, the WSJ continues, with two attacks on a major gas hub in Qatar, across the Gulf. Iran also fired at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with debris landing nearby. 

Meanwhile, Hegseth said the US has sunk more than 120 Iranian warships and struck more than 7,000 targets across Iran. A-10 attack planes and Apache attack helicopters are striking targets on Iran’s south flank, he said. 

Iran’s military has warned that targeting its infrastructure (still the WSJ) is a “major mistake.” Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired long-range missiles south into Israel.

•••

Dinosaurs’ Revenge – Brent crude oil surged overnight to $113 per barrel, from about $103 per barrel, APR’s Marketplace reports.

March 19 AAA National Average Unleaded Regular: $3.884 per gallon, +6 cents over Wednesday and +90.2 cents over February 27. Diesel: $5.099 per gallon, up 3.1 cents over Wednesday and up $1.342 over February 27. –TL

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Venezuela for 51st? – Step aside, Greenland and Canada. After Venezuela’s 3-2 win over the United States team Tuesday in the World Baseball Classic at Loan Depot Park in Miami, this popped up on Truth Social, according to The Guardian: “STATEHOOD!!! President DJT.”

President Trump’s sentiment apparently was buoyed over Venezuela’s enthusiasm for baseball, the nation’s most popular sport according to the Miami Herald and the administration’s quick, clean attack in which the US Military extracted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Lest you think Trump’s Tuesday post was too subtle or vague, let’s go back to his post Monday following Venezuela’s 4-2 win over Italy in a semifinal game: “Good things are happening in Venezuela lately! I wonder what the magic is all about? STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?”

•••

Counterterrorism Chief Quits Over Iran – National Counterterrorism Center Director Joseph Kent stepped down over the Trump administration’s war on Iran Tuesday with a tweet that shook Washington and MAGA World.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent posted on X-Twitter. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

Kent has been a Trump true-believer whose split from the president on the US-Israeli war on Iran is yet another example of the schism led by the likes of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-GA), former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and other America First absolutists.

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran,” Kent’s tweet continued. “This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.”

In his formal resignation letter, Kent, a Gold Star husband, wrote about his “beloved wife,” Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, who was killed in January 2019 by a suicide bomber in Syria, The New York Times reports. Shannon Kent, who was 35, had been assigned as a Navy linguist to a unit that supports the National Security Agency and military special operations forces. 

Trump’s nomination … The president nominated Kent, “a 2020 election conspiracy theorist with links to the Proud Boys and white supremacists” according to The Atlantic Daily, to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center in February 2025.

Kent served as an aide to National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard until the Senate confirmed him to the counterterrorism job last July by 52-44 vote along party lines. 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) called Kent “patently unqualified” in voting against him, according to the Washington State Standard.

“It is sober, serious work that requires a level head and a commitment to putting the mission before politics,” Murray said, adding she was “deeply concerned” Republicans would put the Counterterrorism Center “under the thumb of a conspiracy theorist who espouses white supremacist views.”

Trump’s reaction … “I always thought he was weak on security,” the president said in reaction to Kent’s very public resignation (per Newsweek). “It’s a good thing that he’s out.” Trump said he does not want people who do not think Iran is a threat.

“They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people. Iran was a tremendous threat.” 

•••

CORRECTION: We miscalculated the price increase for a gallon of automotive diesel fuel since before the US-Israeli war on Iran, as calculated by the AAA, in Wednesday’s front page. Diesel was up $1.311 per gallon from February 27 to March 18.

AAA National Average Unleaded Regular: $3.824 per gallon, +3.4 cents over Tuesday and +84.2 cents over February 27. Diesel:$5.068 per gallon, up 2.4 cents over Tuesday and up $1.811 over February 27. –TL

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TUESDAY 3/17/26

IDF Assassinates Iran’s Military Leaders – Israeli Defense Forces assassinated Iran’s head of the National Security Council in a Tehran safe house, Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed Tuesday, according to Haaretz. 

“I have just been updated by the IDF chief that (Ali) Larijani and the head of the Basij were killed overnight and have joined Khamenei, the architect of the destruction program, and all the eliminated ‘Axis of Evil’ in the depths of hell,” Katz said. 

Also killed by the IDF were Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij, and his deputy, Rassem Qureshi, in Tehran. 

Apparently trying to dispute Katz’s statements, Iran’s official media said a statement from Larijani soon would be released.

Trump’s test … Meanwhile, President Trump has demanded seven countries provide warships to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Germany, the UK and pretty much the rest of Western Europe have refused, NPR’s Frank Ordoñez reports Tuesday on Morning Edition. Euro leaders say the war on Iran is not their war.

That did not sit well with the president.

“Because my attitude is, we don’t need anybody,” he told reporters at the White House Monday. “We’re the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don’t need them. But it’s interesting. I’m almost doing it not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react.”

Prelude to pull the US out of NATO?

•••

AAA National Average Unleaded Regular: $3.79 per gallon. Diesel: $5.044 per gallon. Up 80.8 cents and $1.787 respectively, since February 27.

•••

I’ll Take Cuba – Why not? Cuba has been a thorn in the sides of American presidents since the late-Eisenhower administration, while Iran goes back only to President Carter (though Ike also is credited for the CIA-assisted overthrow of Iran’s last democratically elected leader, Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and installation of the Shah of Iran in 1953). 

Now President Trump, seeing an opening for another takeover, indicated in his Oval Office press scrum Monday that after the invasion of Venezuela and while the Iranian war rages on, it may be time for the Western Hemisphere communist holdout of the Soviet era. 

“I think Cuba sees the end,” Trump said. “All my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be the honor of – having the honor of taking Cuba.”

A US “blockade” of oil tankers from Venezuela is hampering Cuba’s efforts to grapple with the island nation’s energy crisis, rare violent protests and pressure from the Trump administration, NBC News reports. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga told NBC’s George Solis Monday his country is negotiating with the US to allow the Cuban diaspora, especially in Miami – just 229 miles north of Havana -- to invest in Cuba’s private sector and own businesses in their homeland.  –TL

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MONDAY 3/16/26

Trump Strongarms NATO on Straits – President Trump said in an eight-minute interview with the Financial Times Sunday that NATO – and China -- must help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure their own energy security. 

“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the newspaper. Europe and China depend heavily on the Strait for oil, he said, not the US.

But Iran’s choking of the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through, has sent global oil prices skyrocketing. They hovered in the $103-106 per barrel range Monday. 

The president called on China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom to join a “team effort” to reopen the Strait and suggested a planned late March summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be called off or delayed.

“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response” to Trump’s comments to the FT, “I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

FCC threat … This came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who last year managed to get Jimmy Kimmel Live! suspended briefly, threatened on Saturday to revoke broadcasters’ licenses because of what he called “liberal bias” in their coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran. 

And this in turn followed War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s objections to reports that the Trump administration was not prepared for Iran playing the card it can easily play, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. With the result that global oil prices skyrocket.

"CNN is Lying to Undermine Operation Epic Fury's Crushing Success," reads a headline from the White House official website.

Hegseth says he believes “liberal” media want the US – the Trump administration – to fail in the war.

“Broadcasters must operate in the public interest,” Carr said last weekend, according to The New York Times. Carr’s warning comes after Trump Truth Socialed his objections to a Wall Street Journal headline that Iran hit US Air Force refueling planes at the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia. 

The Wall Street Journal’s headline: “Five Air Force Refueling Planes Hit in Iranian Strike on Saudi Arabia.”

The story says an official told the newspaper the airplanes were damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired. No one was killed in the attack.

Gas and diesel … AAA reports Monday the national average for unleaded regular is $3.718 per gallon, up 73.6-cents since the Friday before the US and Israel launched the war on Iran, while diesel fuel is $4.988 per gallon, up $1.231.

Notable quote … In his acceptance speech as writer and co-director of the Academy Award winner for documentary feature Sunday night, David Borenstein said, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. What we saw when working with the footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of major cities. When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/16/26

Another Nobel Slips Away

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Donald Trump, his acolytes and those who find great pride in carrying his water, no matter how fetid it may be, have claimed that Donald Trump should be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people say so. Many, many very smart people. Really.

The facts that he attacked Venezuela and has started a war with Iran will probably have but a minor pause on some of this enthusiasm, and likely lead to a rationalization that he did these things in the name of peace (although the Venezuelan adventure was, he admitted, for oil, and as for Iran, it mainly seems to be something that he thought needed to be done that Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden didn’t do (“for 47 years. . . .”)).

It should be mentioned that one of the people who put Trump’s name up for the Peace Prize is none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s “excursion” partner. Pals will be pals.

For the past 35 years there has been another set of Nobel Prizes presented, the Ig Nobel Prizes.

For those 35 years the presentations for work that make people laugh and think, undertakings that “celebrate the unusual, honor and imaginative, and spur interest in science” have been presented at Harvard, MIT or Boston University to recipients from around the world.

The “36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony” will not be held in one of those US venues — all of which, by the way, have had funding frozen by the Trump administration allegedly because they are too “woke” — but in Zurich.

The reason is as simple as it is sad.

March Abrahams, founder of the prizes and editor of the publication Annals of Improbable Research, that supports the prizes, puts it like this: “During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country. We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year.”

Think of this: “unsafe for our guests to visit the country.”

“Land of the free,” eh?

Not only are the winners of the Ig Nobels somewhat, umm, unusual — last year’s winners included a doctor who recorded and analyzed the growth of one of his fingernails for 35 years and a group of physicists who “discovered a truth about the physics of pasta sauce” — but they are handed their prizes by winners of the Other Nobel Prizes. So there is a concern that these scientists of all endeavors might be stuck in a detention center where they can watch their fingernails grow.

Abrahams: “We are merely ensuring that the winners can travel and meet. Despite the current strange winds, science and scientists and the public’s love of science are very much alive and kicking in the USA.”

Unfortunately, the love of science doesn’t seem to be an emotion shared by members of the Trump administration, who seem more smitten with magical thinking.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, where he writes primarily for the right column.

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MONDAY 3/16/26

Keep the Civil Discussion Going

The Hustings and The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café held our first Talking With, Not At… political forum Wednesday in Annville, Pennsylvania. It was a success, with more than 30 local residents and Lebanon Valley College students participating in a civil discussion of the Trump economy, and inevitably, of the US-Israeli war with Iran. 

As philosophical divisions imperil free speech across the nation’s political spectrum, left to right, and social media echo chambers supersede objective, fact-based news reporting, Talking With, Not At … seeks to assemble college students and local communities in a forum where they discuss their political differences with civility, curiosity and open minds.

Stay tuned for the next Talking With, Not At … 

As always, we welcome civil comments from across the political spectrum on news/aggregate/analysis and commentary published in The Hustings at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we may post your comments in the proper (right or left) column. --Editors

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THURSDAY 3/12/26

War in Iran Rages On

In his first official statement Thursday, third leader of the Iranian Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei urged national unity and said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. [PHOTO: Official Iranian agency MNA]

FRIDAY 3/13/26

Cuba, Meanwhile – Venezuela was first. Now Iran. Is President Trump looking at Cuba as its next attempted conquest whenever the war in Iran is over? 

As usual, it comes down to The Art of the Deal, though Trump’s only pre-MAGA cabinet member, Secretary of State Marco Rubio clearly would be leading the art of this potential deal with the home of his ancestors.

In a video press conference on national television Friday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said his government is holding talks with Trump administration officials and he is open to signing an economic deal with the US if the two can reach agreement, USA Today reports Friday.

“These conversations have been aimed at seeking solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences that exist between our two nations,” Díaz-Canel said.

•••

Wounded Successor – Defense/War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday morning that Iran’s new ayatollah, Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, is likely wounded from the US-Israeli attack that killed his father, the previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Speaking at a joint press conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Hegseth said the US and Israel have hit more than 15,000 enemy targets since the war in Iran began, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

“The United States is decimating the radical Iranian regime’s military, in a way the world has never seen before,” Hegseth said. 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has confirmed that the crash of a US refueling plane in Western Iraq in which four crew members were killed was not the result of enemy nor friendly fire. 

“Our service members make an incredible sacrifice to go forward and do the things that the nation asks,” Hegseth said. 

Also from the WSJ:

•NATO intercepted a missile in Turkish airspace Friday, the third time this month.

•The US is “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran” militarily and economically, President Trump says.

•French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed and others injured in Erbil, Iraq, during counterterrorism training.

•••

Fuel Up – A barrel of Brent Crude was $99 Friday morning, Marketplace reports, up $1 over Thursday. The AAA says the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.63, up 3.2 cents over Thursday and up 64.8 cents per gallon over the price two weeks ago, the day before the US and Israel launched war on Iran. National average for diesel is $4.892, up 3.4 cents over Thursday and up $56.2 cents over February 27. --TL

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THURSDAY 3/12/26

Lawmakers v. Putin – “Numerous” Capitol Hill lawmakers, including some Republicans are “outraged” about the Trump administration’s easing of sanctions on Russian oil sold to India, CQ Roll Call reports. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced March 6 a 30-day waiver of sanctions so India can buy Russian oil. 

The Trump administration imposed the sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneff, last October after Moscow made no progress on agreeing to a peace deal with Ukraine. 

“We may unsanction other Russian oil,” Bessent said on the Fox Business show Kudlow March 6, as Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz cut off oil from the Middle East to India. 

“Russia is one of the significant threats, and they’re part of the axis of aggression that we’re trying to build up a defense against,” said Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS). 

Posting on X-Twitter, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) wrote; “Reducing sanctions on Putin’s Russia when we just learned the Russians are giving targeted intelligence to Iran is clearly the WRONG strategy. The Russians are helping Iran to kill our service members. We want more sanctions on Russia, not less.”

•••

Iran’s Attacks – Iran hit two oil tankers near the Iraq coast and forced the country to close operations at all its oil terminals Thursday, Newsweek reports. On one of the two oil tankers, one crew member was killed, 38 more were rescued and a search was continuing for the missing. The other was struck near a major port in the United Arab Emirates as a drone targeted a major oil field in Saudi Arabia, according to the report.

The cost … Oil prices jumped to $98 per barrel Thursday, Marketplace reports and stock futures slid, The Wall Street Journalreports, as the International Energy Agency slashed its forecast for the global oil supply to grow downward, to 1.1 million barrels a day from a previous forecast of 2.4 million barrels a day. 

“The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” the IEA said in a statement Thursday, the WSJ reports.

Tomahawks … Following President Trump’s claims that Iran may have struck the girls’ school in Minab with its own Tomahawk missiles (which it does not possess) the US announced it has launched an investigation into bombing of the school, which was located between Iranian military installations. At least 165 students and staff were killed, which would place it among the deadliest US military incidents involving civilians, in decades, NPR’s Morning Edition reported. 

•••

Fuel Up – The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.598, the AAA reports Thursday, up 61.6 cents over the February 27 price, the day before the US and Israel began their air attack on Iran. Average price for diesel fuel was $4.86 per gallon.

•••

We’ve Not Won Enough – President Trump says “we’ve won” the war on Iran “but we haven’t won enough,” however that is measured, and we need to stick with the war until the job is complete. His remarks came during a visit to Verst Logistics in Hebron, in Kentucky’s 4th District, home to rogue Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. 

Massie opposes the war in Iran and has been voting with Democrats lately on issues related to Trump. 

Not surprising then is that Trump’s visit was as much about supporting Massie’s primary challenger, farmer and ex-Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, mostly by personally attacking Massie. He called the congressman a “loser,” “disloyal,” “a disaster as a human being” and “Rand Paul Jr.,” referring to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who also increasingly votes against Trump policies. 

Massie “votes ‘no’ on everything,” Trump said (per the Louisville Courier Journal).

Conversely, Trump said of challenger Gallrein; “He’s like central casting.” Maybe another Pete Hegseth, then?

Massie told Cincinnati-area 55KRC-FM radio he was “glad” for Trump’s visit to his district and asked whether the president would address rising gas prices and the effect of tariffs on logistics facilities like Verst. 

•••

Another Section, More Tariffs – After the US Supreme Court struck down most of the president’s tariffs in its ruling on Learning Resources Inc. vs. Trump the White House invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to raise global tariffs from 10% to 15%. But that part of the Trade Act allows emergency tariffs for up to 150 days. On Wednesday, the Office of the United States Trade Representative issued its answer for that time limit: Section 301 of the Trade Act, which accounts for unfair trade from countries that “produce too much,” according to APR’s Marketplace. The office has issued a Federal Register notice that requires a public hearing on the tariffs to be held May 5. 

Targeted countries are China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 3/12/26

After This, What?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“When President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he’s not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves.” —Karoline Leavitt, press secretary, March 10.

“The U.S. Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets.” —Chris Wright, Energy Secretary, March 10, on X—since deleted.

One of the things the American people — including those who are supportive of Donald Trump — will begin to understand “big time,” to borrow a phrase from Dick Cheney, is that words and claims really have no meaning. Well, there is the meaning they think exists.

Let’s take the Leavitt quote.

It is fairly well understood there is no end game for the war in Iran.

That is, the US military bombs the stuffing out of the place and then …?

As Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth put it on March 2: “The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused: Destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure and they will never have nuclear weapons.”

OK. Disarm them. Then what?

Maybe there was something in the video Donald Trump posted on his social media site announcing the launch of Operation Epic Fury on February 28: “The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs, or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans. And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It's a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Yes, obliterate the thing that he said was obliterated last summer during Operation Midnight Fury. 

How any of this is going to “ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world” is fanciful because terrorists tend to do DIY things like building IEDs, which they probably will be able to do wherever they can buy fertilizer and electronics.

Let’s go to Wright’s claim.

Didn’t happen. 

Hegseth said on March 10, referring to Trump’s social post on the subject: “If Iran does anything to stop the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America 20 times harder than they have been hit thus far.” He goes on to say death, fire and fury will rain upon them. You've seen the Truth and read it.

“But he takes very seriously the condition of the straits. We have capabilities that no other nation on earth has, and we're certainly working with our energy partners across the administration to control for that. That's part of that scoping of this.”

Well, that may be the “scoping,” but while pre-war there were 20 million of barrels of oil floating through the strait, now it is 1 million.

Perhaps Hegseth needs to go to his local Mobil station to find out how things are going in that regard.

But Wright probably wanted to make people think things are going much better than they are.

Or maybe he wanted his boss to think so.

Again: Yes, the US is bombing the you-know-what out of the Iranian military assets, but while we have “capabilities that no other nation on earth has,” a mine or a drone that takes out an oil tanker is enough to take that one million down to zero million.

And as 20% of the world’s petroleum goes through the strait, and as gasoline prices in the US have gone up about 20% since the start of the war, the Energy Secretary surely wants to make it seem that things aren’t what they seem.

Which brings us to Leavitt’s observation: “When President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender” then, regardless of whether the Iranian regime has surrendered, they have surrendered because Trump says they have.

Sure, their official military infrastructure may be nothing more than rubble, but again, how does this prevent a whole bunch of people who have nothing to lose because their families and friends have been killed from committing acts of terrorism across the world? 

Never mind. If the Trump administration says things are A-OK, then all is good.

As Donald Trump told members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars back in 2018: "Just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening.”

What he and his minions say is happening is.

Isn’t it?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, where he writes primarily for the right column.

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THURSDAY 3/12/26

Left & Right Invited

CITIZEN PUNDITS – Whether you’re moderate right or moderate left, pro-MAGA or pro-Mamdani or anywhere in-between and you are interested in healthy, open-minded and civil political discussion, you are invited to first in our new Debate & Donuts Series, Talking With, Not At: “Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, this Wednesday, March 11.

EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public as audience members or participants in the debate. --Editors

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MONDAY 3/9/26

Feb CPI Steady at 2.4%

The month-over-month inflation rate for February was 0.3%, the Labor Department reports, for an annual Consumer Price Index of 2.4%, unchanged from January’s number. Largest factor was for shelter, up 0.2%, with food up 0.4% and energy up 0.6%. All this came as the US and Israel launched an air attack on Iran on the last day of February. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

•Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s ‘Ukraine v. Iran II’ in the right column is a response to our analysis, ‘Ukraine v. Iran’ in The Gray Area. 

WEDNESDAY 3/11/26

Mines in the Strait – The New York Times Tuesday evening quotes a US Central Command social media post that says it struck 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near oil routes in the Strait of Hormuz. A video with the CentCom post showed munitions hitting nine vessels, most of them while moored, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon reports 140 American service members have been wounded, eight of them severely (NYT again). There have been eight American military personnel killed.

•••

Backup Oil – Yes, the price of oil will come down someday. Maybe soon, if as President Trump says, the war is just about over. Maybe much later. In any case, the International Energy Agency is taking no chances and has proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history, The Wall Street Journal reports in an exclusive. The IEA released 182 million barrels during the COVID pandemic in 2022, so whatever the number, it will be higher than that. 

If this IEA scheme works, it should tamp down oil price spikes from a choked off Strait of Hormuz. 

IEA member countries were expected to decide Wednesday on whether to release the reserves, the WSJ reports.

About that timing … If the IEA puts its money on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s take on the war’s expected timeline, it will want to release those reserves tout de suite. Trump and Bibi are not on the same page, according to another Wall Street Journal report.

Whereas Trump told a reporter Monday the military campaign was “very complete, pretty much,” Netanyahu says, “Our aspiration is to enable the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny, it is up to them. There is no doubt that through the actions taken so far, we are breaking their bones and we are still active.” –TL

________________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/10/26

Unrelenting – Tuesday marks the start of the “most intense day” of American strikes against Iran since the war began February 28, War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference, (per The New York Times). “The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.”

“We will not relent” until Iran is defeated, Hegseth said (per The Wall Street Journal).

Needs definition … What constitutes Iran’s “defeat” is hard to pin down. As is whether this is “war.”

Phone calls … to CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang: “I think the war is very complete, pretty much.”

These remarks came as Wall Street was in freefall as oil hit nearly $120 a barrel. After Jiang reported the call, oil fell to approximately $92 per barrel and stocks rallied out of the red.

In a call to CNN’s Dana Bash, Trump said Cuba may be next.

“Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too.”

Trump’s comment seems to hint that the US is ready to move on from Iran to the next thing.

Then came this … The war against Iran is actually a “little excursion” that could be wrapped up “soon,” President Trump said Monday evening in his first press conference since the US and Israel began air strikes on Iran February 28, at his golf resort in Doral, Florida, where House Republicans were holding a retreat, CQ Roll Call reports.

When pressed on the war’s end, Trump said that would come “where they’re not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon.” (per NPR’s All Things Considered).

Which is it? Jiang asked Trump at the presser. Is the war nearly over or not?

“Both,” Trump replied (per Mediaite). 

•••

Tomahawk Strikes School – The War/Defense Department is continuing its investigation of a Tomahawk missile strike on a girls’ school in Southern Iran in which 168 children and 14 teachers were killed, according to an official Iranian statement. 

“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was Iran,” President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. 

But a CNN investigation of the strike “appears to contradict Trump’s claim” it was done by Iran. Military experts say neither Israel nor Iran use Tomahawks, Isobel Yeong reports on Erin Burnett Out Front. The deadly attack on the school occurred simultaneously with a US Tomahawk strike on a Revolutionary Guard base adjacent to the school.

•••

Tuesday’s Fuel Prices – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas is $3.539, AAA says. While that’s up 33.2 cents over a week earlier, it’s a 55.7-cent hike over the AAA average for February 27, the day before US-Israeli air strikes on Iran. Diesel fuel averages $5.055 per gallon, AAA says. –TL

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MONDAY 3/9/26

Same as the Old Ayatollah – Iran has named the late Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to be its new supreme leader, according to The New York Times, citing clerics’ statements in the country’s state media. Unlike his father, who was killed in the initial US-Israeli air attacks on Tehran a week ago Saturday Khamenei the younger’s tenure is not expected to last 37 years. 

In fact, 37 days might be a stretch for 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei. He is not the regime change the US and Israel wanted. 

Israel said Monday it was attacking Beirut and Tehran as Iran attacks Israel. US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities have been so intense that oil has been falling on Tehran like drops of rain, according to The Times of Israel. 

Pricey rain … Oil prices topped $100 per barrel Sunday, per The Guardian, for the first time since 2022. National average in the US for a gallon of unleaded regular was up 66 cents over a week ago, according to the AAA.

Expensive gas is a small price to pay for “safety and peace,” President Trump said over the weekend, as he tried to reassure America the high prices will last “for weeks … not months,” The Independent (UK) reports. 

But for how long? … Michael Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, says his country is counting on minorities in Iran to rise up, take over and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

Speaking to Margaret Brennan on CBS News Face the Nation, Leiter said Iran’s inability to keep its counterattacks inside its own borders is a sign its leaders are flailing.

“The fact that they are lashing out irrationally to any of their neighbors and firing these ballistic missiles into all of their neighbors, some 12 countries, into Europe for crying out loud, is indicative of the fact they’re having huge problems,” Leiter told Brennan. “We’re having success in these attacks on their command centers.”

But according to scoopage from The Wall Street Journal, neighbors in the region and even parts of Europe, for crying out loud, is exactly what Iran has been aiming at. Tehran’s leaders decided after last year’s 12-day war with Israel and the US they needed to change their strategy to a high-risk, aggressive plan to escalate conflicts across the region and allow its military to keep the battle going even if top commanders were killed. 

In an address to Israel over the weekend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps laid down its arms they would be spared US-Israeli wrath, but if not, they would have blood on their hands. 

Back on Face the Nation Leiter indicated the war on Iran would last only until its enriched uranium for making a nuclear bomb was seized.

Won’t that require boots on the ground? Brennan asked.

No, Leiter maintained, because the enriched uranium will instead be seized by Iran’s suppressed minorities, who he identified as Kurds, Balochs and Azeris. 

Brennan noted here that President Trump does not want to include the Kurds and make the situation more complex than it is already.

“Well, this isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan,” Leiter said. “Because in this case 80% of the people oppose the regime. They just need to express themselves. That’s what we’re explaining here. This is not a repeat of forever wars. … They’re beginning to move forward. It’s just going to take a little time.”

The 80%’s previous uprising resulted in thousands killed by Iran’s military.

The upshot … Unless Trump somehow manages to declare victory and leave Israel to finish this alone, the chances of US involvement ending in four or five weeks seem to be about as good as Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s tenure as supreme leader lasting 37 years. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/9/26

Ukraine vs. Iran II

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

On February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. Russian president Vladmir Putin wanted to seize land from a sovereign state. So his troops rolled west and the bombs started falling from the sky on Ukraine.

There have been unrelenting attacks on Ukraine for four years.

Early on in the conflict you could see signs in the US reading “Slava Ukraini!” and blue and yellow flags in front yards. Lapel pins sprouted on members of Congress from both sides of the aisle.

For a while.

It must be admitted that the US has half-assed its support to Ukraine. Biden was reticent to provide what he must have thought to be “too much backing” lest Putin became annoyed and retaliated against the US in a big way.

Trump, the man who claimed he would end the war when he got back into office, has been wildly less supportive of Ukraine since he’s been in office.

Every time there seems to be a negotiation about merely a possible ceasefire Moscow appears to think it over — then sends in the attack drones in massive numbers.

What does Trump do in response?

Nothing.

In the infamous Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and JD Vance there were lines like this: Vance: "I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict."

That was February 28, 2025. More than a year later, that “kind of diplomacy” has done nothing but gotten a lot more Ukrainian causalities.

Trump: "You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards."

Zelenskyy: "I'm not playing cards. I'm very serious, Mr. President. I'm very serious."

Trump: "You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III."

Zelenskyy: "What are you speaking about?"

Trump: "You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that's backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have."

Vance: "Have you said thank you once?"

And on it went. The president of a country that is fighting for its very existence being tag teamed.

It was humiliating — for all Americans who thought our leaders were better than that.

The war continues.

According to a February 23, 2026 report from the Council on Foreign Relations: “Since Trump assumed office in January 2025, there has been no legislation or other authorizations of significant new aid to Ukraine. However, a substantial amount of the aid appropriated under the Biden administration is still in the pipeline, and deliveries of aid packages have continued, although on two occasions the Trump administration temporarily paused some deliveries. As of December 31, 2025, the US had disbursed 58 percent of the $188 billion in spending related to the conflict (US spending is first appropriated, then obligated, then disbursed). Nonetheless, the lack of new aid commitments means that US aid deliveries are running out.”

And of that $188 billion it isn’t all cash or munitions going straight to Ukraine. Far from it.

Again the CFR: “A large share of the money in the aid bills has been spent in the United States, paying for US factories and workers to produce weapons that are either shipped to Ukraine or used to replenish stocks of US weapons the Pentagon has sent to Ukraine during the war. A 2023 analysis by the American Enterprise Institute found that Ukraine aid spending was funding defense manufacturing in more than seventy US cities.”

Yes, paying for US manufacturing jobs.

There can be little in the way of argument that the regime that US and Israeli bombs took out in Iran will be missed.

But here we have a situation where for no apparent reason — and this war has been going on for days so we ought to know by now — the US decided to go to full-bore war.

It is surprising that Pete Hegseth doesn’t eat an uncooked tomahawk steak during his press briefings, ripping the meat from the bone with his teeth between talking about “laser focused” and “we set the tempo.” You can tell his animal spirits are high when he talks about munitions.

But going back to Russia, its Foreign Ministry posted on Telegram (apparently, they haven’t downloaded the Truth Social app) on Saturday the 28th that the US-Israeli strikes on Iran are "a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state.”

Perhaps they missed the irony that one of the initial member states of the UN is … Ukraine.

NBC News reports: “Russia is providing intelligence to Iran on the location of US forces in the Middle East, a boost for Tehran as it launches missile and drone attacks on American bases and other targets in the region, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.

“The intelligence assistance from Russia could help Iran locate American warships, radar or other communication systems, but there is no indication Moscow is helping direct Iranian missile or drone strikes, the sources said.”

Could there be a more-naïve clause than “but there is no indication Moscow is helping direct Iranian missile or drone strikes”?

Let’s see: providing intelligence about location but not helping direct things to locations? What would be the point otherwise?

Yes, the US does provide Ukraine with intelligence — but under the Trump administration it is handling it like a card that it will put back in the deck whenever. And the information provided is about energy installations, not military assets and personnel.

So the Russians can be highly critical of the US, the Russians can directly involve themselves in fighting against American forces, and the Trump Administration does what?

The Ukrainian people are fighting for their lives. They are fighting for the continued existence of their free country.

And what does the US do? It goes to war against Iran, seemingly with no plans for how things will go not only after the country’s leadership has been killed but after much of the country has been pummeled by bombs.

The lack of substantive support for Ukraine and the bombing of Iran, apparently for no reason beyond “because we can,” is further evidence of the unseriousness of the Trump Administration.

Just four days before the bombing of Iran commenced, Donald Trump said in his State of the Union of Iran: “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’ My preference, my preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.”

Prior to that he noted: “As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must. That's why in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer.”

So the US “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” and Iran’s now non-extent government “want to make a deal” and a few days later we went to war with Iran.

He talked during his address to Congress also about gas prices and the stock market. The former is skyrocketing and the latter in the three financial indices are falling.

“Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along, we're just always losing. But now we're winning too much. And I say, no, no, no, you're going to win again. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever.”

Winning at what price? Winning for whom?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, writing primarily for the right column.

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MONDAY 3/9/26

TACO War Timeline

More comments on the US-Israeli war on Iran in left and right columns, from contributing pundits to The Hustings. To add your voice, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean left or right in the subject line.

TACO Exit -- To exit this "effort" without a claimable win would be the ultimate TACO. Could Donald J. Trump claim killing Ayatollah Khamenei was enough, and excuse the ensuing days/weeks of fighting with blather? Maaaaybe, but I think he'll want more.

Or, Hegseth can join Noem. –Hugh Hansen

•••

CITIZEN PUNDITS -- You are invited to our first in the Debate & Donuts Series, Talking With, Not At: “Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, next Wednesday, March 11. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public as audience members or participants in the debate. --Editors

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FRIDAY 3/6/26

US Loses 92K Jobs

The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February largely attributed to lower employment in health care ‘reflecting strike activity,’ according to the Labor Department, though even accounting for that, the number was worse than economists expected. Health care job growth has been propping up employment gains in recent months. The economy continues to lose information sector and federal government jobs. The unemployment rate inched up 0.1 points to 4.4%. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

FRIDAY 3/6/26

Israel Hits Beirut – After mass evacuations in Lebanon’s capital, Israel has launched its heaviest air strike on Beirut since its 2024 war with Iranian-backed militias, The New York Times reports early Friday. Israel also is hitting Tehran while air defenses battled incoming missiles from Iran.

Choose the leader we want … After admitting most of his administration’s favored candidates for replacing the late Ayatollah Khamenei were killed in the initial US-Israeli air attacks last Saturday, President Trump encouraged the Iranian people to choose their new leaders. Then on Thursday, Trump told Reuters in an exclusive phone interview: “We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future.”

Fuel prices … Gas and diesel prices have been steadily rising since the US-Israeli war on Iran began nearly a week ago. The AAA reports the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular was $3.32, up from $2.982 February 27. Diesel – used in trucks that deliver much of the goods we buy, as Trump reminded us during his 2024 campaign -- averaged $4.33 a gallon, up from $3.757.

“If they rise, they rise,” Trump said. The president says he has no intention of tapping the national strategic reserves, currently 57% full, according to APR’s Marketplace, which reports most economists agree with Trump that the increases are temporary – so long as the war is short-lived.

•••

Gonzales Out – Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) was headed for Texas’ May 26 runoffs after “The AKA Guy” Brandon Harris edged him out in Tuesday’s GOP primary, 43% to 42%. That changed late Thursday when Gonzalez announced he is dropping his re-election bid, leaving the Republican nomination for Texas’ 23rd District to YouTuber and gun manufacturer Harris, Punchbowl News reports. 

Herrera will face Democratic candidate Kathy Padilla Stout for Texas’ 23rd District seat, which includes Uvalde. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 3/6/26

War Goes to ‘15’

More comments on the US-Israeli war on Iran in right and left columns, from contributing pundits to The Hustings. To add your voice, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean right or left in the subject line.

Eight-Week Timeline is Achievable -- The US and Israeli military are performing magnificently – “about a 15” on a scale of 10, according to President Trump. Secretary of War Hegseth’s eight-week timeline seems achievable, given the decisive strikes that have crippled Iran’s nuclear sites and proxy networks. This preemptive action wasn’t about regime change or bowing to Benjamin Netanyahu, but about preventing future threats from a regime bent on nuclear armament and exporting terror. As a result of Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian people themselves – along with those living under constant threat across the Middle East – will be far safer. A short campaign to restore deterrence, without endless entanglement, safeguards America ... and it was long overdue. –Rich Corbett

•••

CITIZEN PUNDITS -- You are invited to our first in the Debate & Donuts Series, Talking With, Not At: “Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, next Wednesday, March 11. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public as audience members or participants in the debate. --Editors

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FRIDAY 3/6/26