The grim choice facing the Trump administration: Economic or naval collapse?

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/09/business/oil-iran-strait-navy-economy

The Trump administration is currently trapped between the specter of a global economic recession and a naval catastrophe.

As the conflict with Iran intensifies, the world’s energy arteries are constricting to a point of “nonlinearity,” where every day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed doesn’t just double the economic pain — it multiplies it exponentially.

The only immediate solution to this spiraling crisis, according to oil executives, market analysts and diplomats, is a US Navy escort operation – something Trump promised last week would be available to protect shipping assets in short order.

For Trump, the crisis is not merely a matter of geopolitics, but of domestic political survival. With midterm elections approaching in November, the surge in petrol prices represents a “politically damaging” threat that no amount of diplomatic rhetoric can mask.

Trump aides said urging him to articulate war exit plan; White House denies report

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-aides-said-urging-him-to-articulate-war-exit-plan-white-house-denies-report/

Some of US President Donald Trump’s advisers are privately urging him to publicly articulate an exit plan from the Iran war, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The aides want him to make the case that the military has largely achieved its objectives for the war, WSJ says.

The Journal report is forcefully denied by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

WSJ says some of Trump’s aides have warned him that a drawn-out war will eat into his support, even if Republicans largely support the strikes against Iran for now.

The concerned advisers have fielded calls from Republicans who have expressed concern about what the war will mean for the upcoming midterm elections, the Journal says.

Accordingly, the aides determined that they needed a more aggressive public messaging plan to sell the war amid rising gas prices, WSJ says.

Total IDIOTS Are Leading America’s War In Iran

Warmonger' Trump faces polling crash amid MAGA revolt

Pete Hegseth whines over press coverage of troop casualties

‘It does really matter’: Joe pushes back on WH dismissing reports Russia is sharing intel with Iran

Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/06/russia-iran-intelligence-us-targets/

 Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.

Since the war began Saturday, Russia has passed Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft, said the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

The Pentagon is quickly burning through its supply of precision arms and air defense interceptors, people familiar with the matter have told The Post, underscoring concerns raised by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as President Donald Trump deliberated whether to approve the operation. The administration has sought to downplay Caine’s assessment.

US right-wing schism over antisemitism puts ‘Christ is king’ at center of culture war

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-right-wing-schism-over-antisemitism-puts-christ-is-king-at-center-of-culture-war/

On its own, the phrase “Christ is king” sums up a core tenet of the Christian faith, that Jesus is the divine ruler of the universe. Catholics and many Protestants celebrate a Christ the King Sunday each year.

But the ancient proclamation can morph into something political, controversial or even sinister, depending on who says it and how it’s said.

In recent years, “Christ is king” and similar phrases have been chanted at political rallies, posted on social media and proclaimed in speeches by voices on the right.

At times, the phrase is used to support the notion of America as a Christian nation or as one that owes its allegiance specifically to the Christian God. Some current Cabinet officials and recent members of Congress have used the phrase in speeches and on social media.

But other times, political activists have paired “Christ is king” with anti-Zionist statements or negative Jewish stereotypes.

Idolatry is only Jealousy

 Shemos Rabbah (30:21) When Israel disregarded Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, He forgave them, for in idolatry there is only jealousy, as it says, They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations did they provoke Him  and it also says, Thus they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox. When Israel, however, sinned in Shittim with immorality, twenty-four thousand of them fell What benefit does Israel have from worshipping idols, that neither see, hear, nor speak, as it says, They that make them shall be like unto them? But for immorality, which is a tangible sin, they were punished. For idolatry, therefore, were they forgiven,

Intermediaries and Golden Calf

 Or HaChaim (Shemos 32:01) "who shall walk before us, etc.". They reasoned as follows: Seeing that G'd Himself who has taken us out of Egypt is invisible and dwells in the Celestial Regions, they were afraid that if they would encounter some evil force in the desert without some visible symbol which reassured them that G'd did indeed watch over them they might lose faith. They wished to construct some symbol of a celestial force which would remind them of G'd in Heaven. The people who initiated the golden calf did not deny for a single moment either the primacy of G'd or the fact that He had made heaven and earth. They merely wanted a go-between them and G'd  They may well have thought that the prohibition in the second commandment to having an intermediary between man and G'd was valid only while there was a Moses who was the ideal go-between. This is why they emphasised "for this man Moses, etc." Possibly, they became victims of a serious sin when they described Moses as the Power which had taken them out of Egypt,. They meant to say that even when they came out of Egypt G'd had employed a go-between and that this proved that there was nothing inherently wrong in having a go-between themselves and G'd. The fact that they referred to the go-between as, a deity, may be understood in the same sense as when G'd had told Moses in Exodus 7,1: "here I have made you in G'd's stead for Pharaoh. Obviously, the people committed a grave error as I have explained on Exodus 20,4. 

Fox News uses old clip of Trump after he wore hat while saluting slain US soldiers

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/fox-news-trump-hat-salute-military

The president had stirred outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-brand white hat during the ritual homecoming at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday for six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait.

The president was photographed on Sunday wearing the same hat as he golfed in Florida. The white hat, with gold USA letters on the front and the embroidered numbers 45 and 47 on the side, in honor of Trump’s terms as the 45th and 47th president, is sold online at the Trump Store.

Trump and Fox News producers are well aware that behavior considered undignified by presidents at ceremonies for US war dead can be politically toxic. In 2021, when Joe Biden was caught on camera checking his watch at the end of a dignified transfer ceremony for troops killed in Afghanistan, the moment went viral online, was shown repeatedly on Fox News – including with an angry commentary from then Fox host Pete Hegseth – and ended up in a 2024 Trump campaign ad.

A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian: “Fox News Media programs inadvertently aired file footage from a previous dignified transfer while discussing yesterday’s ceremony at Dover Air Force Base. The archival footage was mistakenly used during the video sourcing process. We regret the error and apologize for the incorrect footage.”

'Israel's global image is in the worst state it has been since its inception'

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/02/26/israels-global-image-is-in-the-worst-state-it-has-been-since-its-inception/

As part of the "The 11th Million" project announced by Israel Hayom in October 2025 – a Zionist call for one million Jews from the diaspora to make Aliyah over the coming decade – Mazzig, who now lives in London, highlighted the unprecedented impact of the Hamas attack on October 7 and the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war on diaspora Jews – an impact unlike anything seen before in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Jews are being attacked in New York, in LA, in DC, and in London. The entire world has just become so hostile. This assault was not just on Israel; it was an assault on the entire Jewish people. And Jews around the world are paying the price for it," he said.

"I'm afraid that the Israeli government and the official bodies don't realize how bad it is. They think that they can do some small things or cater to a specific audience, and maybe that would change, but even with the conservative party that used to be so pro-Israel, and understanding why we have a right for self-determination, even there, you see voices that are becoming more hostile."

Iran names Khamenei’s shadowy, hardline son Mojtaba as new supreme leader

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-names-khameneis-shadowy-hardline-son-mojtaba-as-new-supreme-leader/

Iran’s ruling clerics on Sunday appointed their slain leader’s son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, after the US called him unacceptable and Israel vowed to kill whomever the Islamic Republic appointed.

His appointment signaled that hardliners in the Iranian regime were holding on to power despite the US-Israeli bombing campaign. The appointment could also face opposition from Iranians who have shown they are ready to stage mass protests to press their demands for greater freedoms despite bloody crackdowns by the authorities.

How the Rapture Explains the Rupture Over Israel on the Right

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/03/08/gop-maga-israel-evangelicals-theology-premillennialism-00818312

It’s no secret that Israel is losing ground in American public opinion on both the left and the right, even as many American Jews feel newly besieged by rising antisemitism. On much of the left, activists and intellectuals increasingly interpret Israel and Zionism through anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks, casting the conflict in the moral language of oppressor and oppressed.

But the story here is larger than Israel. The Christian right that coalesced in the Cold War was not simply a political movement with religious voters. It was an interpretive system — a way of turning geopolitics into spiritual meaning. As that system thins out, what replaces it may be something colder: a politics of grievance in which religious identity persists, but the theology that once disciplined it does not.

For conservatives who care about Israel, and for Christians who care about the moral integrity of their public witness, the implication is uncomfortable: The old alliance was sustained by doctrine, not just by party. Once doctrine recedes, the guardrails it provided — however imperfect — recede with it.