Another Oil War, Another Perfect Reason to Stop Burning It

It’s a dirty business that’s ruining the planet and jeopardizing our futures in countless ways, of which this despicable war in Iran is just the latest and highest profile.

Explosions erupt following strikes at Tehran Oil Refinery in Tehran on March 7, 2026.
(Photo by Atta Kenare/ AFP via Getty Images)


Kyle Schmidlin
Mar 31, 2026

Common Dreams

On February 28, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started a war with Iran. Since then, violence has spread throughout the Middle East. On the first day of bombing, the US bombed an elementary school, killing more than 100 children. Iran struck back, hitting Israel and US bases in the region. Israel expanded into Syria and Lebanon, bombing apartment buildings in Beirut. A few weeks ago Israel bombed oil depots in Tehran, engulfing the sky in flames and raining toxic oil on a population bigger than New York City.

But all Americans can think of, naturally, is the price of gas.



As Another Oil-Fueled War Erupts, Study Reveals Planet Heating at Unprecedented Rate



As G7 Weighs Measures to Confront Growing Energy Crisis, Officials Urged to Tackle ‘Fossil Fuel Profiteering’

Oil is both a major driver of this war and, for now at least, the primary way Americans are feeling its effects. The war drives home the grim reality that we are hostage to this toxic ooze that burns dirty, poisons wildlife, causes cancer, and accelerates climate change. The necessity to wean ourselves off of it, as quickly and completely as possible, has never been more apparent.

An Oil Crisis of Trump’s Own Making

Even Trump is subservient to the whims and demands of the oil economy. Since he started the war, he’s tried desperately to control the chaotic effect his bombing campaign has had on global oil markets. Trump may not be bright, but he understands one very basic political reality: He can cover up the Epstein files, get away with all manner of fraud and graft, and even commit war crimes—but he cannot let the price of gas get too high.

Oil makes all our lives dirtier and less safe. Fighting wars so we can dig it up until it’s all gone—or until we are—is as stupid, reckless, and self-destructive a thing as any animal has ever done.

From a strategic perspective, then, the focal point of the war quickly became the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passageway out of the Persian Gulf that pinches down between southern Iran and the Omani Musandam Peninsula. The strait is an essential shipping lane for 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as a third of the global fertilizer trade. With essentially uncontested control of the strait, Iran has closed it to “enemy-linked” ships. Iran insists that non-hostile ships pay a toll in Chinese yuan, which is an attempt to undermine the supremacy of the petrodollar.

The crisis at the Strait of Hormuz is entirely of Trump’s own making, and has triggered an erratic series of threats, pleas, lies, and bargaining from him as he tries to keep his stupid war from grinding the global economy to a halt. Trump has even threatened to deploy the US Navy to escort ships through the strait. One has to wonder how sailors feel about being offered up as bodyguards for Qatari tankers, thrown into a situation where they would be wide open for Iranian drone and missile attacks.

Trump the Oil Imperialist

Trump sees this war almost entirely through the lens of oil. As part of alleged ceasefire negotiations, Trump claimed Iran “gave us a present… worth a tremendous amount of money… it was oil-and-gas related.” That turned out to be Iran allowing 10 oil ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also implied that those high gas prices causing so many people pain at the pump are actually good for the country. Because the US is a net exporter of oil, Trump said, “When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money”—perhaps forgetting that most Americans do not own oil companies.

Compare Trump’s constant talk of oil with the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003-06, calling Iraq a war for oil was considered a conspiracy theory. Dissidents and war critics were driven out of polite conversations for even bringing it up. Insinuating that the troops would ever be deployed for such an ignoble purpose was treated as beyond the pale, if not treasonous, by Fox News and the Bush White House.

This time, there’s next to no pretense of nobility in Trump’s war. While lots of motivations, with varying degrees of believability and logic, have been given—ranging from halting Iran’s nuclear capabilities to ushering in Armageddon—the Trump administration is perfectly open about the centrality of oil to their war mission. In a way, it’s almost refreshing to hear a politician speak so forwardly about their imperialist intent, even if it does lay bare the villainy of the US empire.

In addition to the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is focused on Kharg Island, a small island in the Persian Gulf that handles up to 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is among the most bloodthirsty war hawks on the planet, encouraged Trump to seize Kharg Island (and compared such an operation to Iwo Jima, in which 7,000 Marines died—no skin off Lindsey Graham’s back). Trump himself then said, while discussing his military options, “My favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran.”

Trump has long openly fantasized about using the military to conquer oil fields. In 2013, before his political career really started, he tweeted, “I still can’t believe we left Iraq without the oil,” and he repeated this urge to plunder Iraq’s oil during the 2016 election. To Trump, this is just how the world works: If your guns and bombs make bigger holes and explosions, you get to just take whatever you want, anywhere in the world. There is no right, no wrong, no law.

This also tracks with how Trump has handled the oil industry in Venezuela. Last year, Trump started claiming that Venezuela had stolen, or “unilaterally seized and sold American oil.” This claim was a reference to Venezuela nationalizing their oil industry and evicting American oil companies. Then, in January, the US military abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an astonishing breach of international norms. With Maduro gone, Trump began shadily directing Venezuelan oil revenue into an offshore Qatari account.

The Need to Wean Ourselves off of Oil

Such oil imperialism long predates Trump. Just ask other offenders of the US oil monopoly, like Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein. Oil is the locus of US foreign policy. The US military itself is the single largest institutional polluter and user of fossil fuels. It’s a dirty business that’s ruining the planet and jeopardizing our futures in countless ways, of which this despicable war in Iran is just the latest and highest profile.

The simple answer to all this madness is to wean ourselves off of oil. It won’t be easy, and we’ll probably never be fully rid of it, but we aren’t even trying. There are a million ways we could start cutting back, a million investments we could make toward a future that is as oil free as possible. But Trump is doing everything he can to keep us addicted to it, including starting an unpopular and illegal war.

Trump has always been particularly pro-fossil fuel. He loves the nonsensical phrase “beautiful clean coal.” He calls green energy a “scam” and has repeatedly made the utterly deranged claim that windmills cause cancer. His administration displays a psychotic obsession with destroying green energy initiatives, most recently paying a French energy company $1 billion to cancel a wind farm and instead invest in oil and gas.

Oil makes all our lives dirtier and less safe. Fighting wars so we can dig it up until it’s all gone—or until we are—is as stupid, reckless, and self-destructive a thing as any animal has ever done. With a little bit of will and some leadership, we could control our greed and addiction. If we were able to do that, we might not find ourselves charging into the Middle East on such a regular basis, burning through American lives and treasure, killing countless men and women and children, and making the rest of the world hate us.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Kyle Schmidlin
Kyle Schmidlin is a freelance writer who also runs the Third Rail News blog.
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As G7 Weighs Measures to Confront Growing Energy Crisis, Officials Urged to Tackle ‘Fossil Fuel Profiteering’

“It is obscene that companies like TotalEnergies are making enormous profits from war, while ordinary people’s lives are being shattered and the world faces a spiraling economic crisis,” said one campaigner.


Gas prices are displayed at a Mobil gas station on March 30, 2026 in Pasadena, California.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As energy and finance officials from across the European Union prepared to review energy supply levels amid the US-Israeli war on Iran on Tuesday, campaigners from a leading climate action group renewed their call for officials to go further than just releasing oil reserves in order to keep costs down.

Oil giants that have benefited from the growing global energy crisis set off by the US-Israeli attacks and Iran’s retaliatory closing of the Strait of Hormuz should be held to account for their “fossil fuel profiteering,” said 350.org.

After a virtual meeting of energy ministers from the G7 countries on Monday, 350.org called on officials to tax the windfall profits of companies like France’s TotalEnergies, which is estimated to have made $1 billion in profits in just the last month since Iran closed the strait in retaliation for the US and Israeli attacks.

Total has reportedly “monopolized” about 70 crude oil shipments from the UAE and Oman in the last month, as Murban crude prices surged from $70 to $170 per barrel.

As Common Dreams reported Monday, 350.org released an analysis showing that spiking oil and gas prices resulting from the US-Israeli war have cost consumers and businesses more than $100 billion in the past month.

“It is obscene that companies like TotalEnergies are making enormous profits from war, while ordinary people’s lives are being shattered and the world faces a spiraling economic crisis,” said Fanny Petitbon, France team lead for 350.org. “At a time of such profound human suffering, no company should be allowed to exploit chaos and conflict for financial gain. The G7’s deafening silence on these windfall profits speaks volumes, signaling a failure to hold corporate greed accountable while the rest of the world pays the price.”

Revenues from taxing windfall profits could “be used to support vulnerable households, accelerate the transition to renewable energy, and fund recovery efforts in regions affected by conflict,” said Petitbon.

“The principle is clear: extraordinary profits made in times of crisis should be redirected for the public good, not concentrated in the hands of a few,” she said.

The ministers from the G7 countries—which include the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy—met virtually to discuss how the war in Iran is affecting energy and commodity markets and inflation. They called on countries “to refrain from imposing unjustified export restrictions” on oil and gas, but did not announce any specific steps they plan to take.

“We stand ready to take all necessary measures in close coordination with our partners, including to preserve the stability and security of the energy market,” the ministers said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of coordinated international action to mitigate spill overs and safeguard macroeconomic stability.”

Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency coordinated the release of 400 million barrels of oil to mitigate the supply shortfall caused by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, from which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.

But gas prices across Europe have continued to rise by 70% nonetheless. In the US, the average price of gas rose to $4 per gallon on Tuesday for the first time since August 2022.

Brent crude oil, which cost about $70 per barrel before the war, has gone up to $119 per barrel, and analysts are projecting prices as high as $200 as the conflict continues.

Monday’s virtual summit was held ahead of an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers, who were told by EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in a letter Monday that they were “encouraged to make timely preparations in anticipation of a potentially ⁠prolonged disruption” of energy imports.

Jørgensen emphasized in a video posted on social media Monday that the growing energy crisis underscores how a transition away from oil and gas toward renewable sources is crucial for economies as well as the planet.



“We will need immediate targeted measures to combat this crisis, but all of these measures need to be in line with our long-term strategy, which is more renewables as fast as possible,” said Jørgensen.

With Nearly 50 Boats Attacked, US Strikes Highlight ‘Pattern of Unlawful Use of Lethal Force’: Human Rights Watch

“When unlawful force is repeated over time, it risks becoming normalized.”


A fisherman moves his fishing boat in a harbor in the Gulf of Paria, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea, on November 4, 2025, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

The Trump administration’s most recent attack on a boat in the Caribbean, which killed four people last week, “highlights a sustained pattern of unlawful use of lethal force outside any context of armed conflict, amounting to extrajudicial executions,” Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

The US military announced last Wednesday that it had conducted its 47th attack on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has presented little evidence for its claim that the targeted boats have been engaged in trafficking drugs to the United States. At least 163 people have been killed in these attacks since September 2025, all of them without trial.

Human Rights Watch is part of a chorus of international organizations and observers that have condemned the boat bombing campaign as acts of murder in flagrant violation of international law.

“These strikes aren’t one-off incidents, they’re part of a pattern of using military force where the law does not permit it, over and over again,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that these strikes have faded from public attention does not make these violations any less grave or unlawful.”

The organization noted that there is no ongoing military conflict in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific that would make those traveling by boat legitimate targets.

And while the US government has provided scant evidence that those it has killed were trafficking drugs, Human Rights Watch said that even if evidence of drug trafficking existed, suspected criminals are still not lawful targets of lethal force unless they pose an imminent threat to the lives of others.

The boat strikes have continued in the background as President Donald Trump has launched attacks against Venezuela and Iran, both of which international organizations have described as acts of aggression that violate the laws of war.

Trump has also enacted a crippling economic blockade of Cuba with the explicit goal of toppling its government so the US can “take” the island, and has previously threatened to use economic leverage or the US military to forcibly annex Greenland.

“When unlawful force is repeated over time, it risks becoming normalized,” Yager said. “That’s dangerous because it opens the door to using lethal force whenever and wherever a government wishes and without constraints.”

Leaked Cable Details Rubio’s Push for Pro-US Propaganda That Includes Psyops and Social Media

The State Department initiative aims to thwart efforts to weaken US alliances, something President Donald Trump has done repeatedly on his own social media posts.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures as he speaks to the press following a G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting with Partner Countries before his departure at the Bourget airport in Le Bourget, outside Paris, on March 27, 2026.
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


A leaked diplomatic cable signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs American embassies and consulates worldwide to engage in a coordinated campaign to counter foreign propaganda, which the missive defines in part as messaging that seeks to “shift blame to the United States.”

The Guardian, which obtained a copy of the cable, reported on Monday that US State Department employees have been asked to “work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation” on social media.

The cable points to the Community Notes feature on Elon Musk’s X platform, which allows other X users to provide context or correct false claims on other users’ posts, as a particularly useful feature for the US to push back against narratives promoted by foreign governments.

The initiative’s main goals are “countering hostile messaging, expanding access to information, exposing adversary behavior, elevating local voices who support American interests, and promoting what it calls ‘telling America’s story,’” The Guardian reported.

In explaining the need to the initiative, the State Department cable cited foreign influence campaigns that “seek to shift blame to the United States, sow division among allies, promote alternative worldviews antithetical to America’s interests, and even undermine American economic interests and political freedoms.”

The cable did not address social media posts by US President Donald Trump, who has repeated sowed divisions among US allies. On Tuesday, for example, the president once again lashed out at European nations for not helping carry out his unconstitutional war with Iran, telling them to “start learning how to fight for yourself” because “the USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”

The president’s posts have also undermined the country’s political freedoms, including multiple instances where he has described US journalists as the “enemy of the people,” while pushing for American TV networks to lose their broadcasting licenses if they continue airing negative stories about him and his administration.

The plan to combat foreign influence operations comes as the US has struggled to fight a propaganda battle against Iran, and Trump last month even floated “charges of treason” for journalists who report what he described as “fake news” about the conflict.

Trump Attack on Trans Athletes Continues as DOJ Sues Minnesota Education Department

“It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many actual problems to address,” said the state attorney general.



Children hold placards supporting trans student-athletes during a demonstration in Columbus, Ohio on June 25, 2021.
(Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 30, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


The US Department of Justice on Monday continued President Donald Trump’s crusade against transgender youth competing in sports in line with their identity by suing the Minnesota Department of Education and the state’s high school league.

“The United States files this action to stop Minnesota’s unapologetic sex discrimination against female student athletes,” says the complaint, filed in a federal court in the state by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

“The state of Minnesota, through its Department of Education, and the Minnesota State High School League require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and share intimate spaces, such as multiperson locker rooms and bathrooms, with boys,” the complaint continues. “This unfair, intentionally discriminatory practice violates the very core of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.”

The Associated Press noted that “the administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San José State in California and the University of Pennsylvania.”

Tim Leighton, a spokesperson for the league, told the AP that it does not comment on threatened or pending lawsuits. According to The New York Times, Emily Buss, a spokesperson for the state department, said Minnesota’s leadership was reviewing the complaint while remaining “committed to ensuring every child—regardless of background, ZIP code, or ability—has access to a world-class education.”

While Trump and his allies have aimed to stop all trans women and girls from competing as they identify—including at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles—the fight with Minnesota specifically traces back to the president’s February 2025 executive order, after which the administration began investigating the state.

The Minnesota Department of Education gets over $3 billion in federal funding. Democratic state Attorney General Keith Ellison sued to stop the administration from pulling that money last April. In September, the US departments of Education and Health and Human Services concluded that the state agency and league violated Title IX, and the case was referred to the DOJ in January.

In a Monday statement, Ellison said that the DOJ’s lawsuit “is just a sad attempt to get attention over something that’s already been in litigation for months.”

“Donald Trump is currently facing an unpopular war that he launched, rising gas prices, massive health insurance price hikes, and a partial government shutdown caused in part by his ICE agents killing two Minnesotans in broad daylight,” Ellison said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many actual problems to address.”

The DOJ filing about trans student-athletes came less than a week after Ellison and other Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration over its refusal to cooperate with state investigators probing the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents earlier this year, as well as the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was wounded but survived.

US Supreme Court rules against ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ minors

8-1 MAJORITY


By AFP
March 31, 2026


The US Supreme Court ruled against a ban on 'conversion therapy' for LGBTQ youth, siding with a Christian therapist who said the law violated her free speech rights - Copyright AFP Alex WROBLEWSKI

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a Colorado state law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ minors, siding with a Christian therapist who challenged it on the grounds of free speech.

At issue is the constitutionality of a 2019 Colorado law that prohibits licensed practitioners from conducting “conversion therapy” on patients under 18.

Proponents of the treatment claim to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people.

The therapy has been discredited by major medical organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, and is banned in more than 20 US states and much of Europe.

Research has shown that it is ineffective and even harmful, leading to depression and suicidal thoughts.

But in a 8-1 decision, the court ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who invoked her Christian faith and challenged the law, arguing that it violated her First Amendment right of free speech.

“Colorado’s law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech based on viewpoint,” wrote conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in the decision on behalf of the majority of the Court.

“As applied to Ms. Chiles, Colorado’s law regulates the content of her speech and goes further to prescribe what views she may and may not express, discriminating on the basis of viewpoint,” he argued.

The First Amendment, Gorsuch wrote, is a “shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

As a result, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts to review their decisions in light of this ruling.



– ‘Can of worms’ –



Only the liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed dissent, accusing her colleagues of opening “a dangerous can of worms” by undermining states’ ability to regulate medical practices that “risks grave harm to Americans’ health and wellbeing.”

“The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of scalpel,” she wrote.

Chiles’ lawyer, James Campbell, of the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, hailed the ruling in a statement as “a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children.”

After taking office for his second term in January, President Donald Trump said the US government would only recognize two genders — male and female — and signed an executive order restricting gender transition medical procedures for people under the age of 19.

In June, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a Tennessee state law banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for minors.

Conversion therapies are banned, at least partially, in many countries, with the support of health organizations such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Great Britain.

The UN has called for a global ban, describing them as discriminatory, humiliating and a violation of individuals’ bodily integrity.

‘Kids Will Suffer’: Supreme Court Axes Colorado’s Ban on Harmful LGBTQ+ ‘Conversion Therapy’

Young people are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide if they have been subject to conversion therapy, which LGBTQ+ rights advocates say is “proven to cause lasting psychological harm.”


Demonstrators with the Human Rights Campaign stand outside the United States Supreme Court on Capitol Hill on October 7, 2025, in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy,” drawing warnings from LGBTQ+ groups that the ruling could expose children in dozens of states to the harmful practice.

Colorado’s law forbade licensed physicians and mental healthcare providers from attempting to “convert” or change a minor’s sexuality, a practice that the American Psychological Association has found to be both ineffective and dangerous, raising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide in LGBTQ+ youth.

The law defined “conversion therapy” as any treatment that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

It allowed exemptions for pastors and religious organizations. It also allowed health professionals to engage in wide-ranging discussions with children about their sexual and gender identities, so long as they did not try to change the child’s orientation.



Nevertheless, on Tuesday, the high court sided 8-1 with Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor who said she wished to offer talk therapy to children who want to reduce same-sex attraction and argued that the ban on this practice was in violation of her First Amendment rights.

Chiles was backed by the Trump administration, as well as the far-right Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nationalist legal group with a long history of seeking to outlaw same-sex conduct.

Most famously, the group argued in support of state laws criminalizing homosexuality in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case, and it has since gone on to back many other cases attacking birth control access, same-sex marriage, and transgender equality.

In the majority opinion, the conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that Colorado’s law “censors speech based on viewpoint” and therefore must be subject to strict scrutiny—the highest form of judicial review, which the court determined it did not pass.

The lone dissenting justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, argued that Chiles’ treatment was not mere speech, but that it was acting in her capacity “as a licensed healthcare professional,” which formed the crux of Colorado’s defense of the ban.

She argued that the ruling “opens a dangerous can of worms” and “threatens to impair states’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.”

“Because the majority plays with fire in this case, I fear that the people of this country will get burned,” Jackson said.

Two liberals, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined the conservatives in striking the law down. However, they argued in a concurring opinion that a full ban on therapy aimed at changing minors’ sexuality might be more lawful than the one Colorado passed, which included carveouts for specific circumstances.

Kagan also argued that allowing Colorado to outlaw conversion therapy could backfire and give red states the legal framework to also ban counselors from providing affirmative care to LGBTQ+ minors.



LGBTQ+ rights organizations have roundly condemned the court’s decision, which is expected to weaken bans on conversion therapy in the 23 states and the District of Columbia that currently have them.

“Today’s reckless decision means more American kids will suffer,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign. “The Court has weaponized free speech in order to prioritize anti-LGBTQ+ bias over the safety, health, and well-being of children.”

A 2024 mental health survey by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, found that 13% of LGBTQ+ young people have been either threatened with or subject to conversion therapy—including about 1 in 6 transgender or nonbinary youth.

Previously, the group published peer-reviewed research in the American Journal of Public Health, showing that young people subject to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as their peers.

“These efforts, no matter what proponents call them, no matter what any court says, are still proven to cause lasting psychological harm,” said Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black. “That’s why protections have been enacted in more than 20 states, and are supported by every major medical and mental health association in the country.”

Carl Charles, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal who joined more than a dozen survivors of the practice in a friend of the court brief in support of Colorado’s law, said, “I know firsthand the long-lasting harms of conversion therapy, having been subjected to it when I was 15 years old.”

“This practice did not change my sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Charles, a transgender man. “Instead, it destroyed important relationships and created shame and fear that took time and effort to undo. For many survivors, it is a reverberating life-long harm.”

“LGBTQ+ youth do not need to be changed,” Charles said. “Rather, like all youth, they need to be supported and celebrated for the unique and important people they are becoming.”



Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has said he will seek to pass new legislation that complies with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“Conversion therapy doesn’t work, can seriously harm youth, and Coloradans should beware before turning over their hard-earned money to a scam,” Polis said. “I am evaluating the US Supreme Court ruling and working to figure out how to better protect LGBTQ youth and free speech in Colorado.”

In other states whose bans could be undermined by the ruling, efforts have already begun to ensure that providers who cause harm to children still face accountability.

In California, which has a similar ban on conversion therapy to Colorado’s, state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-11) introduced a bill proposing a longer statute of limitations and making it easier for LGBTQ+ individuals to bring malpractice claims against medical professionals who subject them to conversion therapy.

Weiner noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling “explicitly states that malpractice claims for conversion therapy are different than bans,” since they require a plaintiff to demonstrate injury caused by their treatment.

“You can’t ‘convert’ someone who’s LGBTQ—full stop—and people who think you can are peddling quackery,” Weiner said. “California will always have the community’s back.”


The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trevor Project, which serves LGBTQ+ youth, can be reached at 1-866-488-7386, by texting “START” to 678-678, or through chat at TheTrevorProject.org. Both offer 24/7, free, and confidential support.

Trump Lashes Out After Judge Blocks Construction of His White House Ballroom

“Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!” wrote US District Judge Richard Leon.

Brad Reed
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

President Donald Trump was left fuming after a federal judge blocked construction of his planned White House ballroom.

In a ruling delivered Tuesday, US District Judge Richard Leon granted a preliminary injunction requested by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, which had sued to stop the ballroom from being built.



Trump Cronies Forced to Delay Ballroom Vote After 98% of Public Comments Oppose ‘Corrupt’ Scheme


While handing down the injunction, Leon reminded Trump that “the president of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations,” then emphasized “he is not, however, the owner” of the building.

The judge—appointed by former President George W. Bush—found that Trump’s ballroom was the first time that a proposed major addition to the White House went forward without any kind of congressional approval, and he recommended that the president seek input from the legislative branch before moving forward with the project.

“Unless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!” Leon wrote in his conclusion. “But here is the good news. It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project.”

The judge granted a two-week delay for his order to go into effect, but he warned any above-ground construction of the ballroom done in that time will be “at risk of being taken down depending on the outcome of this case.”

In a Truth Social post delivered after the ruling, the president angrily lashed out at National Trust for Historic Preservation, which he described as “a Radical Left Group of Lunatics.”

The president also claimed that his ballroom and the renovated John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—which Trump shut down less than two months after illegally slapping his own name on the side of the building—“will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World.”

Trump last year tore down the entire East Wing of the White House in preparation for the ballroom’s construction, which was set to begin this week.

The cost of the ballroom is estimated at $400 million, and Trump is financing it by soliciting donations from some of America’s wealthiest corporations—including several with government contracts and interests in deregulation—such as Apple, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Palantir.

The president held an exclusive White House dinner for some of the largest donors to the ballroom in October, in a move that many critics decried as a “cash-for-access” event.

Staircase to Nowhere: MAGA’s Crowning Achievement


The former East Wing
Photo by Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Image

Abby Zimet
Mar 31, 2026
FURTHER

COMMON DREAMS


In a perhaps unprecedented dark time for America and the world, let us take solace in our indomitable Dear Stable Genius, who remains unwaveringly focused on taking care of shiny business: Gold social security cards like Elvis, a $400 million, lopsided shed/ballroom with gaudy columns but no main entrance, and of course gold toilets - which all keeps him so busy he hardly has time to threaten Iran with war crimes. What a time to be alive, barely.

In actual good news, No Kings Day 3.0 drew between 8 and 12 million people, thus hovering tantalizingly close to the 3.5% of a nation’s populace historically required to overthrow an authoritarian regime. So good work, patriots. The over 3,000 protests, aka per Mike Johnson “Hate America rallies,” ranged from Alaska’s Utqiaġvik, the country’s northernmost city (7 people) to Ele’ele, Kaua’i, the westernmost, from over 100,000 in New York City to nine stalwarts on Maine’s Monhegan Island. Thousands of Trump’s neighbors in Palm Beach turned out, ending with a twilight march to Mar-A-Lago, or as close as they could get.

Their signs were brutal: “Elect A Rapist, Expect To Get Fucked. How Many Deaths For the Epstein War? Worst President Since Trump. Criminals Belong Behind Bars, Free Balls for Members of Congress Who Lost Them, Trump Rapes Kids, Impeach Pedolf Shitler, Putin’s Bitch, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. According to The Borowitz Report, Trump, furious about the large protests, argued they’d be much smaller if you subtract all Elon Musk’s kids there because they hate him: ”People are saying their number (was) much higher than 400, thousands, maybe millions. You take away Elon’s kids and almost no one was there.“

There were also “half-dozens to dozens of Americans” at One King co unter-protests, reports The Fucking News, who put the number at “many-ish...Organizers say there were barely any organizers,” with attendees ranging from “a tiny number of young people to a die-hard faction of dying people.” In Palm Beach, one man carried a heavy sign that read, “Deport the white liberals”; masked to protect himself “against the vindictive left,” he said he left soon after he was “attacked” by a woman who denied touching him; her comrades said the guy just dropped his sign “because he was too weak to carry it.”

Their small numbers did face competition from “the incredible shrinking CPAC,” also meeting that day in Grapevine, Texas with a turnout of “barely thousands.” Once a MAGA “center of political gravity,” this year’s event drew neither Trumps nor presidential candidates. One possible ick factor: MC was (still) CPAC chair Matt Schlapp, who in 2024 settled a pricey sexual misconduct lawsuit from a guy working on Hershel Walker’s (LOL) Senate campaign, who charged Schlapp groped him. The event did boast Todd Chrisley, a reality TV star doing 12 years in prison for massive fraud till Trump pardoned him. Here’s his welcome.

There was also a big contingent of South Korean “stop the steal” activists and supporters of former president Yoon Suk Yeol, impeached last year and now serving life in prison for insurrection. Still, the whole thing was a bit of a slog. Organizers tried to jazz up session subjects - a panel titled “Fraud” became “Ilhan Omar ‘Family’ Values”; Mercedes Schlapp beseeched factions not to “divide from within,” which is how you divide; and when Schlapp asked them, the clueless CPAC “crowdette” mistakenly, hilariously cheered the prospect of impeachment proceedings by what could be a newly-Democratic-controlled House. SAD!



- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Poor deplorable MAGA. Maybe they’re disheartened by Trump’s well-deserved plunging approval rating, now at barely 33%. Maybe it’s because their regime is such a half-assed shitshow and their people are such self-serving, hypocritical dickwads. As in: Amidst a government shutdown that’s seen TSA agents (starting salary $34,454) compelled to work without pay as Congress takes a two-week recess (pay over $170,000) on the taxpayers’ dime, TMZ urged readers to send in photos of vacationing pols, and here comes Lindsey Graham at Disney World, “The Most Magical Place On Earth,” gaily twirling a Little Mermaid bubble wand yet. America and Megyn Kelly: WTF.

Or maybe it’s because Commander-In-Chief Private Bonespurs started another forever quagmire without legal or political justification, and it turns out wars in the Middle East are hard and complex and above his pay grade - like health care! - to solve, and now with no good options he’s spewing up only staggering incoherence for strategy, like hailing “great progress” in imaginary “serious discussions” while pivoting to rabidly threatening to “conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran” by “obliterating” their civilian infrastructure, electricity, energy and drinking water, which is a war crime. But talks are going “unbelievably well.”

Serious discussions with Iran

Image from Australia's The Shovel

Anyway, his true passion is turning every crass, stupid thing he or Elvis can think of fake gold like the Oval bordello and even Social Security cards, and slathering his repulsive name on structures, coins, currency, and building trashy, illegal monuments to himself like an obscene, unapproved, un-permitted, $400 million ballroom twice the size of the White House, because, “They’ve always wanted a ballroom,” except now it’s suddenly, “essentially a shed for what goes under it,” a massive military complex, presumably a bunker where, as merciful history would have it, he’ll finally free us of him, “and we’re doing it very well.”

He’s so ballroom-enraptured that on Air Force One he just pulled out a swath of drawings to show reporters, explaining, “I thought I’d do this now because it’s easier. I’m so busy...fighting wars and other things.” Quick mindless pivot to “hand-carved, beautiful, Corinthian columns” - “Corinthian wut” - he’s also reportedly re-imagining for the White House facade, a change deemed “at odds with universally held historic preservation standards.” Same, experts say of “barely scrutinized” ballroom plans, “riddled with design flaws” - disproportionate, pillars block windows, grand staircase to nowhere. WH lackey on “the best builder in the world”: “The American people can rest well knowing this project is in his hands.” We feel better already.

Trump's "plan" for his oversized shed/ballroomImages from New York Times

And then there’s his new gold toilet, mounted on a 10-foot throne near the Lincoln Memorial. The new masterwork of Secret Handshake (Best Friends Forever), it celebrates the renovation of the White House Lincoln Bedroom bathroom, all in gold, and “what this President has actually accomplished.” The toilet’s plaque reads, “In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict, and economic turmoil, President Trump focused on what truly mattered: remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom....This, his crowning achievement, is a bold reminder that (he) isn’t just a businessman, he’s taking care of business. It stands as a tribute to an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold.”

A Throne Fit For a King.Photo from Secret Handshake

‘This Is a Hiring Recession’: Economists Raise Red Flags at Latest Gloomy Data in Trump Economy

“Hiring was ice cold in February,” said one economist.


Job seekers attend a career fair in Harlem hosted by Assemblymember Jordan Wright on December 10, 2025, in New York City.
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

New data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Tuesday continued to show weakness in the American jobs market.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows that the number of new hires in February decreased to 4.8 million, which was roughly 400,000 fewer hires than were recorded in February 2025.

The report also shows that the US hiring rate in February fell to just 3.1%, which is the lowest rate since April 2020, when the economy was shut down due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The good news in the report is that the number of quits and layoffs remained relatively steady, meaning that people who already have jobs are retaining them at a healthy clip.

But Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted that these bad hiring numbers came before President Donald Trump launched an illegal war with Iran, which has since destabilized global energy markets and raised prices for oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel.

“This is a hiring recession,” Long wrote in a social media post. “And Americans are feeling it. There were notable hiring pullbacks in February in hospitality and construction. Bottom line: The job market was already frozen before the war in Iran began. It’s worrying that a ‘no hire, no fire’ situation could turn into a ‘no hire, start to fire’ job market quickly if there isn’t a resolution soon.”

Long’s analysis was echoed by Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at hiring site Indeed, who wrote in a research note flagged by Axios that hiring in the US “was stuck in neutral going into this [Iran] conflict,” and “getting it into gear just got harder” thanks to the war.

Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, noted that hiring rates in the US hit 3.1% or lower the last two times the country was in a severe recession.

“3.1% is not only comparable to the Covid low point—it’s also comparable to late 2009 and early 2010, when the unemployment rate was around 10%,” Berger explained. “Hiring was ice cold in February.”

Scott Lincicome, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who has been a harsh critic of Trump’s tariffs, found that the February JOLTS report wiped out an unexpected January increase in manufacturing job openings that the president’s allies attributed to his trade policies.

“Alas, the perils of cherry-picking,” Lincicome commented.

The new data on hiring in the US job market comes weeks after a BLS report estimated that the economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. On the whole, the American economy has posted a net loss of jobs since Trump announced his “liberation day” global tariffs in April 2025.

New Trump Rule Would Let Private Equity, Crypto ‘Endanger Retirement Savings of Millions’

“This isn’t about advancing the interests of retirement savers, it is about opening a new profit center for crypto and Wall Street,” said one critic.


A press conference by US President Donald Trump plays on television as traders clap on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on February 20, 2026 in New York City.
(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)


Jake Johnson
Mar 31, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

US President Donald Trump’s Labor Department on Monday unveiled a proposal that would welcome private equity and cryptocurrency investments into Americans’ 401(k) plans, the culmination of an aggressive Wall Street lobbying push that could leave the retirement savings of millions vulnerable to the wild swings of so-called “alternative assets.”

The proposed rule, now subject to a public comment period, was issued at the direction of a Trump executive order from last year that was characterized at the time as “the holy grail for private equity.”

In addition to giving employers a green light to include private equity and crypto investments in 401(k) plans offered to workers, the new rule would establish a “safe harbor” allowing retirement account administrators to avoid legal action from employees who believe their funds were steered into excessively risky products.

“The legal immunity created by this safe harbor will incentivize financial advisers to pitch these toxic products, which will become ticking time bombs in tens of millions of retirement accounts, which will no doubt result in significant losses,” warned Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy at the advocacy group Better Markets. “There are good reasons why 401(k) plans have been considered closed to private markets and cryptocurrencies, and those reasons have not changed. The only thing that has changed is the administration’s support for these industries and regulators’ willingness to do their bidding.”

“This is no reason to endanger the retirement savings of millions of Americans,” Schiffrin added.

Oscar Valdés Viera, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, similarly warned that “opening 401(k)s to these products risks turning workers’ retirement savings into a Ponzi-like scheme that throws a lifeline to an industry scrambling for fresh cash.”

“This isn’t about advancing the interests of retirement savers, it is about opening a new profit center for crypto and Wall Street,” said Viera. “Retirement savers should not be bailing out these high-risk industries and subsidizing the Wall Street and crypto billionaire class.”

“Private equity firms should not get a free pass to loot workers’ 401(k) retirement savings.”

Americans currently hold over $10 trillion combined in 401(k) plans, a huge trove of wealth that the private equity industry has been working for years to access. The Labor Department indicated that its proposed rule would apply to over 720,000 retirement plans covering roughly 118 million workers.

The American Prospect reported Tuesday that the managers of private equity firms are “already pressuring companies, third-party administrators, and the consultants who advise them to list their offerings” among workers’ retirement plan options.

“One staffer at an institutional investor who is not authorized to speak to the media told the Prospect about their primary worry: that private equity will stick their most overvalued companies into continuation funds exclusively for 401(k) plan holders, or ‘retail investors,’ as they are known,” the outlet continued. “Private credit firms are retailoring their funds for 401(k) plans as well, and some of the biggest have already struck deals with asset managers like Voya and Vanguard. ‘I’d be shocked if the industry doesn’t attempt to dump their garbage onto retail,’ the staffer said.”

One recent analysis by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) found that private equity funds for retail investors “dramatically underperformed publicly listed stock indexes” in 2025 while charging much higher fees.

Jim Baker, PESP’s executive director, said Monday that “private equity firms should not get a free pass to loot workers’ 401(k) retirement savings.”

“The bar for including private equity in 401(k)s should be extremely high,” said Baker. “Private equity funds have lagged public markets while charging much higher fees, and public pension funds are pulling back from the asset class. Instead, this rule risks shifting more financial risk onto workers who rely on their retirement savings for long-term security.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also ripped the Labor Department rule, saying in a statement that “Americans facing an uncertain future in Trump’s economy will now have more reasons to question the security of their retirement savings—all so that Trump’s Wall Street buddies have another pile of cash to play with.”

“Anyone who cares about the financial security of working people,” said Warren, “should oppose this proposed rule.”