Billionaires Tax Supporters Up in California By Nearly 2-to-1, Poll Shows

“The American people are sick and tired of massive income and wealth inequality,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders. “Billionaires need to start paying their fair share.”


Demonstrators protest against the Trump administration and billionaire class outside the New York Public Library in New York City, U.S., May 7, 2025.
(Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Voters in California are supporting a proposed wealth tax on billionaires in their state by a ratio of almost 2-to-1, according to a poll conducted by the Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research.

Politico, which commissioned the poll from the center at the University of California, Berkeley, reported on Tuesday that support for the billionaire tax is currently at 50% of California voters, while just 28% registered opposition.

However, University of California Berkeley political scientist Jack Citrin told Politico that the measure’s passage isn’t yet a slam dunk because voters remain vulnerable to counterarguments against the plan, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ total wealth.

“The yes side has the current lead and you have some strong supporters, so that’s the good news,” Citrin explained. “Most experts on the initiative process say that the yes side has an advantage to start with because no one’s been talking about it and it sounds like a good idea... but then once the campaign begins you whittle away at that.”

Among other things, the poll found voters were concerned about whether the wealth tax would really be a one-time measure, whether it would push wealthy individuals out of the state, and whether the middle class would be forced to pay more in taxes to make up for the potentially departed billionaires.

Citrin told Politico that supporters of the wealth tax will have to convince voters that billionaires’ threats to leave California if the measure passes are a bluff.

“If you’re the yes side you have to hammer away at: this isn’t true, they’re not going to leave, it’s just scare tactics,” Citrin said.


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who along with other progressives has championed the wealth tax, hailed the UC Berkeley poll as a sign that the political tide is turning against US oligarchs.

“A new poll shows voters overwhelmingly support California’s proposal to tax billionaire wealth to fund healthcare—by nearly a 2-to-1 margin,” Sanders wrote in a social media post. “The American people are sick and tired of massive income and wealth inequality. Billionaires need to start paying their fair share.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has gone on the record opposing the wealth tax and has said he will campaign for its defeat.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Citing ‘Unjust’ Death Sentence, Alabama Gov. Grants Clemency to Sonny Burton

“The state was set to execute Sonny for a crime he didn’t commit, but tens of thousands of people nationwide demanded justice—and our voices were heard,” said the ACLU.


Alabama death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton is seen in an undated photo provided by his attorneys.
(Photo by Federal Defender’s Office)

Brett Wilkins
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Amid nationwide public outcry, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey—a staunch supporter of capital punishment—on Tuesday spared a death row inmate who did not kill the man for whom he was sentenced to die and scheduled for execution on Thursday.

“I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as shown by the 25 executions I have presided over as governor,” Ivey said in a statement. “In order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, however, I also believe that a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately.”

“Doug Battle was brutally murdered by Derrick DeBruce while shopping in an auto parts store. But DeBruce was ultimately sentenced to life without parole,” the governor continued. “Charles Burton did not shoot the victim, did not direct the triggerman to shoot the victim, and had already left the store by the time the shooting occurred. Yet Mr. Burton was set to be executed while DeBruce was allowed to live out his life in prison.”

“I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances,” Ivey added. “I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not. To be clear, Mr. Burton will not be eligible for parole and will rightfully spend the remainder of his life behind bars for his role in the robbery that led to the murder of Doug Battle. He will now receive the same punishment as the triggerman.”

Burton—who is 75 years old and goes by the name Sonny—has been on Alabama’s death row since 1992, a year after Battle’s murder.

“I didn’t kill no one, true enough, but I made a mistake by being part of the crime,” Burton told CNN in an interview last week, anticipating his execution. “I made a mistake, and it seems like all my friends have forgave me. I hope that my friends will remember me and remember that I was a real friend, a good friend.”

While Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall condemned Ivey for sparing a “murderer,” both death penalty supporters and opponents welcomed the commutation.

“It’s absolutely not fair. You don’t execute someone who did not pull the trigger,” Priscilla Townsend, one of three jurors in Burton’s trial who asked Ivey for clemency, told the Associated Press, adding that she supports executing “the worst of the worst.”

Tori Battle, Doug Battle’s daughter, had also pleaded for clemency for Burton.

“No one from the state has ever sat with me to explain why Alabama believes it must execute a man who did not kill my father,” Battle wrote in an article published last December in the Montgomery Advertiser. “My love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason.”



Laura Burton, executive director of the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said in a statement Tuesday: “We are grateful that Gov. Ivey recognized that Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton should not be executed. The death penalty process is deeply flawed when someone who was not present for the killing faces execution, while the person who committed the murder does not. It is uplifting to see that more and more governors across the ideological spectrum are recognizing problems with death penalty cases.”

Last November, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Still—also a staunch death penalty advocate—granted clemency to Tremane Wood with just minutes to spare before his scheduled execution for a murder his late brother confessed to committing.

Last year, Ivey also commuted the death sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in prison without parole, citing serious doubts about his guilt.

There are still 155 people on Alabama’s death row, according to the state Department of Corrections. The state has executed five people since the beginning of 2025—one by lethal injection and four by nitrogen gas, a method rejected by veterinarians for euthanizing animals and condemned by United Nations human rights experts as possible torture.

Demetrius Minor, executive director of the death penalty abolition group Conservatives Concerned, said Tuesday that “we want to thank Gov. Ivey for granting clemency for Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton.”

“This brings tremendous relief to his family and so many across the country,” Minor added. “Conservatives know that government power can be abused and should not be used to execute someone who was not in the building when the murder was committed. Gov. Ivey acted on these conservative principles.”

‘Massive, Illegal, and Horrific Breach’: Ex-DOGE Staffer Allegedly Stole Social Security Data

“Americans deserve timely, honest answers about what happened, whose information may have been exposed, what will be done to protect them going forward,” said one campaigner.


People join in a “Hands Off!” protest against the Trump administration on April 5, 2025 in Riverside, California.
(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Critics of the Department of Government Efficiency are sounding the alarm after the Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Social Security Administration’s inspector general is investigating a whistleblower complaint accusing a former DOGE staffer of trying to share information from SSA databases with his private employer.

The Post didn’t name the former DOGE software engineer, the company, or the whistleblower. However, the reporters spoke with the whistleblower and other unnamed sources, and also reviewed the related complaint as well as a letter from the acting inspector general to top members of four congressional committees.

The ex-DOGE staffer allegedly told multiple colleagues that he possessed two key databases of sensitive information on over 500 million living and dead US citizens, “Numident” and the “Master Death File,” and once he removed personal details, he wanted to plug the remaining data into his company’s system.

The newspaper noted that “the complaint does not allege that the engineer was successful in uploading the data to the company’s system,” and “a lawyer who represents the former DOGE member told the Post he denied all alleged wrongdoing.”

The reporting adds to a long list of concerns and criticism provoked by DOGE, which President Donald Trump launched shortly after taking office. Billionaire Elon Musk was the de facto leader of the government-gutting initiative until he departed the administration last May.

Responding to the report on Musk’s social media platform X, Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.), a longtime defender of Social Security, declared that “we need a full congressional investigation and answers!”

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) announced that he is expanding his investigation of DOGE-related data leaks at the SSA over the allegations. He said in a statement that “the deeply disturbing whistleblower information obtained by the committee shows the Trump administration’s callous disregard for the safety and security of Americans’ most sensitive information.”

“Not only has an ex-DOGE bro been accused of running around with the social security information of every American on a flash drive, he also may have the ability to edit and manipulate data at the Social Security Administration at will,” Garcia continued. “This is dangerous and outrageous, and Oversight Committee Democrats will fight for transparency and accountability.”



Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, similarly said: “Allegations that a ‘DOGE bro’ may have removed highly sensitive Social Security data onto a thumb drive should set off alarm bells across the country. Social Security holds some of the most personal information Americans have, including Social Security numbers, birth and health records, and lifetime earnings histories. If these reports are accurate, it is a stunning, illegal data security breach.”

“Americans deserve timely, honest answers about what happened, whose information may have been exposed, what will be done to protect them going forward,” he argued. “Anyone involved must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Congress and the Social Security inspector general must move quickly to get the facts and ensure that all involved in this reported data breach are punished.”

Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert also demanded accountability. She said that “this massive, illegal, and horrific breach of Americans’ most sensitive data has confirmed the very fears we’ve been warning about for over a year—that the Trump administration allowing DOGE to infiltrate our government without oversight created fertile ground for abuse, and in this case of an exceptionally egregious kind.”

“These are the kinds of breaches that Public Citizen had previously sued the government to prevent,” she added. “Federal and state officials must ensure the misuse of this data ends immediately and that all private copies of Social Security data are destroyed. Prosecutors should open a criminal investigation immediately and, if the evidence supports it, prosecute this case aggressively.”

Death Toll of Paramedics Killed by Israel in Lebanon Climbs to 15

A medical charity leader said Israel is using its Gaza “playbook” during its assaults on Lebanon, including “collective punishment, forced displacement, and the deliberate terrorizing of civilian populations.”


A photographer stands next to an overturned ambulance at Nabi Sheet town after an Israeli military operation in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, on March 7, 2026.
(Photo by Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 15 paramedics and wounded another 30 in just over a week, according to a report from the Islamic Health Authority on Tuesday.

The report comes after a pair of strikes targeted emergency response teams in South Lebanon the previous day, killing two paramedics and wounding several others.




Investigation Details IDF’s ‘Execution-Style’ Massacre of Gaza Medics



‘10 Classrooms Full of Children’: US-Israeli War Kills Hundreds of Iranian, Lebanese Kids

It was the latest in what the Lebanese Public Health Ministry described as systemic attacks on ambulance and rescue teams that have been waged by Israel since it restarted its assault on Lebanon last week, which has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to urge their protection.

“The risk that more health workers will count among the casualties is high,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, following an attack on the southern Tyre district where three paramedics were killed last week. “This must be avoided at all costs, so paramedics, doctors, and nurses can be allowed to carry out their lifesaving work, which is especially needed in times of crisis.”

A report on Sunday from Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said that at least four hospitals in Lebanon had been damaged by Israeli strikes since March 2.




Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that as of Tuesday, at least 570 people have been killed and 1,444 have been wounded from Israeli airstrikes since March 2.

Meanwhile, more than 750,000 people have been displaced from their homes following orders from the Israeli military last week, according to the UN Children’s Fund.

Nassereddine said that shelling has forced the ministry to quickly evacuate patients and those injured in the latest onslaught to other hospitals. At least 40 hospitals in Lebanon were damaged in Israel’s previous assault on the country in 2023-24, according to health ministry data.

The US and Israel have waged an even larger assault on hospitals in Iran since February 28. Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said Sunday that 25 hospitals have been damaged, with nine totally out of service. He said 14 ambulances have also been destroyed.

Emphasizing that medical and humanitarian workers are protected under international law, the Lebanese Islamic Health Authority said that attacks on hospitals “constitute a blatant violation of all international conventions, foremost among them the Geneva Conventions.”

The group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a UK-based charity, has accused Israel of applying the same methods it used in Gaza as it has launched its latest military assault on Lebanon.

During Israel’s more than two-year-long genocide, it launched strikes that damaged every hospital in the strip. According to research from MAP, Israeli attacks killed about two to three medical workers per day on average.

“What we are witnessing in Lebanon is the unmistakable extension of the Israeli military playbook used in Gaza,” Steve Cutts, the CEO of MAP, said. He said this includes “collective punishment, forced displacement, and the deliberate terrorizing of civilian populations, including already traumatized Palestinian communities.”

HRW accuses Israel of using white phosphorus over Lebanese town

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Israel of unlawfully using white phosphorus munitions over residential areas of the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor on March 3. The New York-based group said it verified and geolocated images showing airburst munitions over homes, with civil defence workers responding to fires in houses and a car.


Issued on: 10/03/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24

A smoke cloud erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on March 9, 2026. © Ibrahim Amro, AFP

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Israel of "unlawfully" using white phosphorus over residential parts of a southern Lebanese town last week.

"The Israeli military unlawfully used artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over homes on March 3, 2026, in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor," the New York-based rights group said in a report.

HRW added that it "verified and geolocated seven images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over a residential part of the town and civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in that area".

In response, the Israeli military said it "is currently unaware and cannot confirm use of shells that contain white phosphorus in Lebanon as claimed."


The army said its policy was not to use shells containing white phosphorus "in densely populated areas, with certain exceptions."

White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used to create smokescreens and to illuminate battlefields.

But the munition can also be used as an incendiary weapon and can cause fires, horrific burns, respiratory damage, organ failure and death.

© France 24
01:43

Israel -- which kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire -- launched multiple waves of strikes across Lebanon since last week and sent ground troops into border areas after the Iran-backed group attacked it.

The Israeli army has since repeatedly called on people living south of the Litani River, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the Israeli border, to leave.

At least 394 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, Lebanese authorities said, registering more than half a million people as displaced.

"The Israeli military's unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians," Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW, was quoted as saying in the report.

"Israel should immediately halt this practice and states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and push Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas," he added.

Lebanese authorities and HRW have over the past years accused Israel of using controversial white phosphorus rounds, in attacks authorities say have harmed civilians and the environment.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency on Sunday said Israeli forces targeted the towns of Khiam and Tal Nahas, near the border with Israel, "with artillery and phosphorus shelling".

Last month, Lebanon accused Israel of spraying the herbicide glyphosate on the Lebanese side of their shared border, with President Joseph Aoun decrying it as a "crime against the environment".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Pope Leo Expresses Sorrow Over Death Of Maronite Priest In Israeli Bombing

Father Pierre El Raii was pastor of a Maronite parish in southern Lebanon. 

| Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need

March 10, 2026 
EWTN News
By Diego López Marina

Pope Leo XIV has expressed his sorrow over the death of a priest in southern Lebanon, a victim of an Israeli bombing on Monday, March 9.

“Pope Leo XIV expresses his profound sorrow for all the victims of the bombings in the Middle East these past few days, for the many innocent people, including numerous children, and for those who were helping them, such as Father Pierre El-Rahi, a Maronite priest killed this afternoon in Qlayaa,” reads a statement released by the Holy See Press Office.

The pope, the Vatican message added, “is following the events with concern and prays for a swift end to all hostilities.”

El Raii, a Maronite parish priest in southern Lebanon, was killed in a bombing while going to the aid of a parishioner wounded in a earlier attack, according to Father Toufic Bou Merhi, a Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, who spoke with Vatican media.


The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) confirmed the tragic news.

“Deeply disturbing reports indicate that a parish priest in southern Lebanon was killed in an Israeli attack. Father Pierre Al Rahi was ministering to his grieving parishioners in the village of Qlayaa when it was attacked,” the organization said in a statement.

The French Catholic organization L’Œuvre d’Orient (The Work of the Orient) strongly condemned the attack and warned of the growing risk to the civilian population.

“L’Œuvre d’Orient condemns in the strongest terms these acts of war, which aim to destabilize all of Lebanon and kill innocent civilians. The death of a priest who refused to abandon his parish is a further escalation of senseless violence,” it said.

The attack occurred around 2 p.m. local Beirut time, exactly one week after the start of the intensification of Israeli bombing in the south of the country.


“There was an initial attack that hit a house near his parish, wounding one of the parishioners. Father Pierre rushed to his aid with dozens of young people. It was then that another bombing occurred at the same house. The priest was wounded,” recounted Bou Merhi, parish priest of the Latin communities of Tiro and Deirmimas.

The priest was taken to a local hospital but died shortly afterward.

El Raii was 50 years old and considered a leading figure for the Christians in the area. According to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), armed militants had entered the Qlayaa-Marjayoun area, as well as the nearby villages of Rmeish, Debel, and Ain Ebel, endangering previously safe communities.
Grief and fear in Christian community

The priest’s death has deeply affected the local Catholic community, which was already living under increasing pressure from the conflict.

“They are weeping over the tragedy and, at the same time, are very afraid. Until now, people didn’t want to leave their homes in Christian villages, but in this situation, everything has changed,” Bou Merhi said.

The priest explained that for many, leaving their homes practically means “living on the street or trying to rent a house, but people can’t afford it.”
Humanitarian crisis: Thousands of displaced persons

The conflict has also caused a serious humanitarian crisis. Bou Merhi reported that the Franciscan convent in Tyre is currently sheltering some 200 displaced people, all of them Muslims.


“We are taking them in. Where else can those in need find refuge in this situation?” he asked.

He explained that in Beirut alone there are nearly 500,000 displaced people, while almost 300,000 have fled the south of the country and thousands more have left the Bekaa Valley.

“People know what they are leaving behind: their homes, their belongings, their history. But they don’t know where to go. Many are sleeping in their cars or on the streets. We were not prepared to take in almost a quarter of the population,” he said.

Despite the circumstances, the Franciscan friar affirmed that the Christian communities are striving to maintain hope. “We say, and we repeat, that the last thing that must not die within us is hope in the Lord, who always gives us the strength to continue,” he stated.

“As the pope has said, weapons do not bring peace; they bring massacres and hatred. All we ask is to live with a little dignity,” he concluded.

Walter Sánchez Silva and Victoria Cardiel contributed to this report.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

EWTN News

EWTN News is the rebranding of the Catholic News Agency (CNA), following the decision by EWTN — which was launched as a Catholic television network in 1981 by Mother Angelica, PCPA — that brings CNA and its affiliated ACI international outlets under a single, unified identity. Previous CNA articles may be found by clicking here.

Israel Decided the War, But Trump’s America Fights and Pays the Bill

More than two decades ago, the illegal war against Iraq was cooked in the dens of the Pentagon by Israel-first ideologues and sold to the American public through mass propaganda. The current war is, in some ways, even more brazen.


Shia Muslims shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and burn their posters and effigy following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in US Israel strikes, at Dargah Shahe Marda Karbala at Jor Bagh, on March 6, 2026 in New Delhi, India.
(Photo by Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Jamal Kanj
Mar 10, 2026

Common Dreams


American taxpayers are still hemorrhaging from the made-for-Israel war in Iraq, a war audaciously offered as one that would “pay for itself.” Instead, it was paid in Iraqi and American blood, ruins and financed by American debt. The promised democracy was a broken state, regional chaos, and the afterbirth of terror and resistance that continues to metastasize across the Arab world. Marketed as a short, decisive campaign, Iraq became a two-decade-long disaster with no exit in sight. Trillions were burned on lies manufactured by Israel-first Zionists in Washington, while generations of Americans—many not even born when the invasion began—were conscripted into inheriting the debt, the interest, and the moral stain.

The real balance sheet of that war is etched into nearly 5,000 American tombstones and the endless corridors of veterans’ hospitals. Before that blood-soaked bill is even paid, the very same architect, using the same lies, has succeeded again in dragging the U. S. into another made-for-Israel war, this time against Iran. Iraq was not an aberration; it was a rehearsal. Yet, Iran doesn’t appear to be the final act on the Israeli menu. In recent weeks, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett declared that Turkey is next. And it is the U.S., not Israel, that is expected to keep paying for wars, America neither needed nor chose.

The evidence of who set the clock of this war is unmistakable. The most revealing admission did not come from Tehran, Moscow, or Beijing, but from the U.S. State Department. In an unguarded moment, the U.S. Secretary of State admitted that the timing of this war was not an American choice. This became painfully clear when the State Department was caught unprepared to help evacuate tens of thousands of Americans from the war zone. As U.S. ambassadors hurried to evacuate their staff and families, desperate citizens were told their government could not assist and were advised to arrange their own departures, after airports had already closed.

This is not a minor detail. It’s a government that is willing to sacrifice the well-being and security of its citizens by joining a war decided by someone else. It goes to the heart of sovereignty and democratic accountability. A nation that chooses to go to war prepares its people, its diplomacy, and its logistics. A nation that is dragged into war improvises and hopes for the best.

Iran, for its part, is not the caricature often presented by the American Secretary of War and Donald Trump. It is a country prepared for drawn-out conflict and strategic patience. During the nearly eight-year Iran-Iraq War, Tehran fought a grinding, no-win war against a better-armed adversary. Against the expectations of Western military analysts, Iran endured. In a grim irony, it even committed the greatest of all sins: purchasing weapons from Israel, falling into Tel Aviv’s cynical strategy to weaken both Baghdad and Tehran simultaneously. Israel was willing to arm its supposed arch-enemy as part of its broader calculus of exhaustion and division.

That history matters today. Iran has demonstrated, repeatedly, a willingness to absorb punishment, and extend conflicts over time. At the end of the day, and by all means necessary, Iran is unlikely to surrender. In a protracted war of attrition to bleed the world economy, Tehran could move to close the Strait of Hormuz, an oil blood line for world economies. Iran may be economically battered, and it has been for decades under severe sanctions, but that very weakness reduces its restraint. A country with little left to lose is more inclined to impose pain on others, including Western and neighboring welfare oil economies dependent on uninterrupted energy exports. Meanwhile, regional instability in the Gulf and prolonged American entanglement create the perfect symbiosis for Israel: a state that flourishes in the shadows of regional chaos like a scavenger thriving on the scrap of a landfill.

President Trump has suggested escorting oil shipments in the Strait to keep the oil flowing. The macho bravado may play well on television or for the stock market, but history, old and recent, offers daunting realities. The same was attempted during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s but failed. More recently, the U.S., the EU, and Israel combined failed to force a much smaller and poorer country—Yemen—to open the Red Sea. After months of bombardment, siege and naval pressure, Washington was forced into negotiations, and even then, Yemeni forces continued to block vessels linked to Israel until Gaza ceasefire.

The comparison is useful. The shorelines area under the Houthi control of the Red Sea (green map in the link) in the north of Yemen, is a much wider maritime passage. The Strait of Hormuz, by contrast, is so narrow in a clear day each shore is visible from the other. To borrow a simple image, in the Houthi area the width of the Red Sea is an Amazon River and where Hormuz is a stream. The narrowness of the Hormuz Strait makes control easier for Iran and exposes the vulnerability of U.S. naval ships. Before promising to escort commercial shipping, a responsible administration should ask a basic question: if a small, impoverished Yemen could not be subdued by the world’s most powerful militaries, how exactly will American warships be safer under the reach of fire in the narrower Strait?

There is another question Washington refuses to entertain: How will Americans feel when they realize they are risking lives, ships, and economic stability largely to advance Israel’s sole strategic objectives? This is not an abstract question. It is a political and economic reckoning, purposefully delayed. Especially since Americans are still reeling from the cost of previous Israeli wars, and now, they are asked to take on a new national debt—$200 billion—to bankroll yet another war, especially made for Israel.

The made-for-Israel wars may have begun in Iraq but will not end with Iran. Israeli false flags are poised to provoke further escalations designed to entrap even states traditionally friendly to Tehran, such as Oman. For Israel, victory remains incomplete unless it drags Gulf Arab states into open confrontation with Iran, hardening divisions that may last generations. Iranian mistrust of the Gulf Arabs would likely endure even in the event of regime change. In this calculus, Israel “wins” not only on the battlefield, but by entrenching lasting hostility between Iran and the Arab world, ensuring a permanently fragmented region.

More than two decades ago, the illegal war against Iraq was cooked in the dens of the Pentagon by Israel-first ideologues and sold to the American public through the managed media, ruse and weapons of mass deception. The current war is, in some ways, even more brazen. It was exclusively designed in the war ministry offices of Tel Aviv, and Trump obliged.

This is not America’s war. The decision was made elsewhere, and timed elsewhere, fought on behalf of someone else to serve the strategic objectives of a foreign country. Washington has subordinated the American national interest to the tribal agenda of Israeli-firsters inside the Beltway. Simply put: Tel Aviv chooses the war, and Washington pays the bill.


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


Jamal Kanj
Jamal Kanj is the author of Children of Catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books. He writes frequently on Arab world issues for various national and international commentaries.
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Sanders Rips Trump-Netanyahu for ‘Unraveling International Law’ With War on Iran

As evidence of US war crimes mounts, critics around the world argue that “Trump and Hegseth should be sent straight to The Hague to face prosecution.”


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a town hall event on February 20, 2026 in Stanford, California.
(Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

s President Donald Trump on Tuesday made what one critic called “the most blasé admission of a war crime by a US president in history,” claiming the Navy sunk an Iranian ship and killed over 100 sailors because it was “more fun” than capturing both, Sen. Bernie Sanders tore into him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over their illegal war on Iran.

“The attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel are unraveling international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the legitimacy of the United Nations. This is extremely dangerous for the future of the planet and humanity,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement.

While both the Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives have refused to pass a war powers resolution to stop the assault, experts worldwide have argued the assault violates the US Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to declare war, and UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against another state unless it is a “necessary and proportionate” act of self-defense or is authorized by the Security Council.

“If the United States and Israel have the right to launch a unilateral attack against Iran, what is the moral or legal argument against China invading Taiwan, Russia attacking Poland, or North Korea launching missiles into South Korea? There is none,” warned Sanders, who has supported war powers resolutions on Iran, Venezuela, and the president’s boat bombing campaign. “In Trump’s world, any nation has the ‘right’ to go to war against any other nation for any reason.”

“After the horrors of World War II, the international community came together to establish international law—a system of rules designed to prevent aggressive wars and hold nations accountable for violating basic human rights,” said the senator, whose father lost relatives in the Holocaust. “Trump and Netanyahu are destroying that effort and are pushing the global community back into international anarchy—a world that produced 10 million dead in World War I and 50 million dead in World War II.”

Sanders argued that “we cannot go back to a world where might makes right—where any nation can invade, bomb, or destabilize another country for any reason they choose. That mentality leaves all of us, and future generations, increasingly unsafe.”

In addition to opposing Trump’s violence at home and abroad, the senator has railed against US complicity in Netanyahu’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, where the death toll continues to rise despite an October ceasefire deal. He even forced multiple unsuccessful Senate votes to cut off some US weapons to Israel over the bloodshed in the Palestinian territory.




Netanyahu not only bombed and starved the Palestinians of Gaza after the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, he also bombarded Lebanon, claiming to target Hezbollah. While a ceasefire agreement to protect the Lebanese people was reached in November 2024, Israel has returned to attacking the country since launching the assault on Iran last month.

More than 1,300 Iranians are now dead, including multiple political leaders as well as around 175 people, mostly children, killed in what increasingly appears to have been a US strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that Tuesday would “be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.”

Meanwhile, Jostein Hauge, an assistant professor at the UK’s University of Cambridge, noted on social media Tuesday that “the Minab school massacre in Iran—carried out by the US government—is one of the deadliest school massacres in modern history.”

He put the US president and Pentagon chief in a class with not only Netanyahu but also former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who are all wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

“Trump and Hegseth should be sent straight to The Hague to face prosecution for war crimes, alongside Netanyahu, Gallant, Putin, and al-Bashir,” Hauge said.

While the American public is already enduring some economic fallout of Trump’s war on Iran, at least seven US troops have paid with their lives. Eight more “remain listed as severely injured,” according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 140 US service members have been wounded over 10 days of sustained attacks.”

Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (NJ), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.)—with whom Sanders caucuses—have launched a renewed effort to force new votes on war powers resolutions if Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) refuses to hold committee hearings on Iran.

“Now is the time for Democrats to use all the leverage we have to try to stop this unnecessary war,” they said Monday in a joint statement to Semafor. The senators added that Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “must immediately come before Congress for a public hearing and explain why we’re in this war, how it will end, and why they are prioritizing billions of dollars on an open-ended war instead of lowering costs for American families.”

After Secret Briefing, Dem Senators Warn Trump ‘On a Path’ to Ground Invasion of Iran

“The American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform, and the potential for further escalation.”


US Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) speaks to reporters following a briefing by Trump administration officials to members of the Senate on the Iran War, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2026.
(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Mar 10, 2026
COMMON  DREAMS

Democratic US senators left a classified Tuesday briefing with senior defense and intelligence officials with serious concerns that President Donald Trump will order a ground invasion of Iran in what would be a perilous escalation of his illegal and unprovoked war of choice.

White House officials—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—and Pentagon brass have held a series of closed-door meetings with congressional lawmakers since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran late last month.



After Classified Iran Briefing, Dems More Convinced Trump Wants Ground Invasion and Forever War



‘This Is Madness’: More Talk of Boots on the Ground as Trump Says ‘Today Iran Will Be Hit Very Hard’

While Democratic lawmakers have said that the classified status of these briefings prevents them from disclosing key information about the administration’s war plans, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) emerged from Tuesday’s meeting with a warning to reporters that “we seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives” outlined during the briefing.

“I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war,” Blumenthal said. “My questions have been unanswered, and I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know.”

“The American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform, and the potential for further escalation,” he added.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said after attending the briefing, “Here we are well into the second week, and it is still the case that the Trump administration cannot explain the reasons that we entered this war, the goals we’re trying to accomplish, and the methods for doing that.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said that what she heard during the briefing “is not just concerning, it is disturbing.”

“I’m not sure what the endgame is or what their plans are,” Rosen said of the administration, adding that Trump has “not shown us any plans for what he wants to do for the day after, let’s put it that way. That’s as much as I can say.”

Democratic lawmakers voiced similar concerns over a possible ground war following a March 3 classified briefing.

Trump and senior administration officials have not ruled out a ground invasion of Iran.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Trump told the New York Post last week. “Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Sunday interview on Fox News that Trump has not ruled out either a ground invasion or a draft, although many experts say the latter option is highly unlikely.

Trump has also given mixed signals about the planned duration of the war, declaring Monday that the campaign is “very complete, pretty much” before stating that US forces “will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”

The president and his senior Cabinet officials have also waffled when attempting to explain the war’s objectives, alternately suggesting that the goal of the campaign is and is not regime change, and shifting the narrative from eliminating Iran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons program to destroying its ballistic missile arsenal.

Tuesday’s briefing came on a day that Hegseth said would be the “most intense day of strikes inside Iran” during the 10-day war.

This, after a wave of US and Israeli airstrikes across Iran left at least scores dead on Monday, including 40 people massacred while sheltering in apartment blocks in eastern Tehran.



Hundreds of civilians have been killed by US and Israeli bombing in Iran and Israeli strikes on Lebanon, where more than 700,000 people have been forcibly displaced amid relentless airstrikes.

In what’s being called “one of the deadliest school massacres in modern history,” around 175 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed on February 28 by what US intelligence said is a likely Tomahawk missile strike in Minab. Fragments from the missile marked with Pentagon contract information, the names of US weapons companies, and a “Made in USA” stamp provided the latest evidence that the attack was carried out by the US—although Trump has blamed the strike on Iran.

The Pentagon said that seven US troops have been killed and 140 others wounded by Iranian counterstrikes, which have also targeted Gulf monarchies allied with the United States, killing at least 15 people.

Noting that Trump—“who campaigned as the ‘peace president’—led the United States into war with Iran with no clear objectives and no authorization from Congress,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday demanding that administration leaders “appear before Congress and under oath in public hearings to provide answers” about the war.

The senators wrote that Trump’s “ever-shifting goals and explanations suggest there is no clear plan.”

“Further, this raises the risk of mission creep which, based on history, would likely lead to more US casualties and escalating costs for taxpayers,” the lawmakers added. “The American people—including our men and women in uniform—deserve clear answers about the war and accountability from your administration.”

The Senate and House of Representatives—both controlled by Republicans—have voted down proposed resolutions meant to prevent Trump from waging war without congressional authorization, as required by the War Powers Act.

A Quinnipiac University poll published Monday revealed that 74% of respondents—including 95% of Democrats, 75% of Independents, and 52% of Republicans—oppose a US ground invasion of Iran. A slim majority of respondents are against the overall war in Iran, which 55% of those surveyed said did not pose any “imminent threat” to the United States prior to the US-Israeli attack.



The survey also found that 62% of respondents “think the Trump administration has not provided a clear explanation of the reasons behind the United States’ military action against Iran.”

Judges lose it over ICE's brazen and 'unremorseful' defiance of court orders

Matthew Chapman
March 10, 2026 
RAW STORY

DHS agents operate as people take part in a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies outside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 30, 2026. REUTERS/Jill Connelly

Federal judges remain enraged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership are habitually blowing off court orders, Politico reported — and it's a huge focal point of the strain building between the federal bench and the Trump administration.

This follows months of reports that federal judges are losing decades of institutional trust that DOJ lawyers take for granted when arguing cases. According to this report, however, many judges still trust line prosecutors at DOJ — it's DOJ leadership that have no credibility with them.

"Judges in several states have recently taken pains to separate these attorneys from their bosses in Washington — and from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which they see as increasingly responsible, and unremorseful, for the rampant violations amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push," said the report. "The dynamic has crystallized amid a deluge of emergency lawsuits filed by ICE detainees, which have overwhelmed court dockets and frustrated judges — who have overwhelmingly rejected ICE’s detention practices as illegal."

"The flood has, in turn, put DOJ’s line attorneys in uncomfortable spots," said the report. "They’re being thrust into courtrooms without specifics, often asked to defend ICE’s detentions without details and sometimes without being able to reach their ICE counterparts to get information. They’ve missed deadlines and been scolded by judges for offering boilerplate arguments. Some DOJ attorneys have resigned or been fired, further straining understaffed offices."

Judges are increasingly speaking out about the situation.

“The judges of this District have been extraordinarily patient with the government attorneys, recognizing that they have been put in an impossible position,” wrote U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, adding the fault really lies with “the Administration sending 3000 ICE agents to Minnesota to detain people without making any provision for handling the hundreds of lawsuits that were sure to follow.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, a Joe Biden appointee, had a blunter message: “The main problem is on ICE’s side of the line. In response to the Court’s order as to going-forward compliance measures, nothing came back from ICE. Nothing about how it might improve its internal processes. Or its training. Or its supervision … No commitment to do anything at all. And no statement of ‘regret.’”

OOPS

'Unforgivable error': Markets spiral out of control over Trump official's now-deleted post

Cost traders $84 million in minutes

Daniel Hampton
March 10, 2026 

RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

A deleted tweet from one of President Donald Trump's Cabinet members just cost traders $84 million in minutes, according to a new report.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright's accidental post about Navy tanker escorts sent oil markets into a frenzy Tuesday before disappearing into the digital void, leaving Wall Street reeling from what one expert called "an unforgivable error," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The post claimed the U.S. Navy was escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Crude futures nosedived.

"Benchmark U.S. crude futures plunged by as much as 19% at one point. During a roughly 10-minute span when Wright’s post appeared, an exchange-traded fund linked to oil futures saw $84 million of its market capitalization evaporate," the report said.

The post vanished and Department of Energy officials later admitted, "A video clip was deleted from Secretary Wright’s official X account after it was determined to be incorrectly captioned by Department of Energy staff.

An agency spokesperson said the administration was reviewing other options to resume tanker traffic, “including the potential for our Navy to escort tankers.”

Benchmark crude settled down 12% at $83.45 a barrel Tuesday, marking the steepest one-day decline in four years. The intraday plunge to $76.73 represented a staggering 36% drop from Sunday's peak of $119.48 — the biggest two-day nosedive since the pandemic crash of April 2020.

Oil markets have become a rollercoaster of chaos, with traders whipsawed by Iranian conflict uncertainty and confusing signals from the Trump administration.

"Where's the line between fantasy and reality? It's hard to say," commodity specialist Robert Yawger observed.

Airlines tanked as well, with Delta, American, and United each dropping over 2%. Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser warned of “catastrophic consequences for oil markets” if energy disruptions continued.

“While we have faced disruptions in the past,” he said, “this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced.”

Red state moves to criminalize protests in and around churches

WHAT ABOUT SYNAGOGUES, MOSQUES, TEMPLES

Piper Hutchinson,

 Louisiana Illuminator
March 10, 2026 

The flags of the Louisiana state and United States of America. (Photo credit: rarrarorro / Shutterstock)

A Louisiana Senate committee advanced two bills Tuesday that seek to criminalize disruptive protests in and near churches, but free speech advocates believe they are unconstitutional.

A judiciary committee approved Senate Bill 35 by Sen. Bill Wheat, R-Ponchatoula, and Senate Bill 306 by Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Central, sending them to the full Senate. The bills are among several filed in the wake of a Jan. 18 protest at a Minneapolis church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer is a pastor.

Edmonds, a church pastor who is running for the 5th Congressional District seat, and Wheat acknowledged they did not know of any similar incidents in Louisiana.

“In no way are we trying to infringe upon somebody’s First Amendment protections rights that they have to protest or free speech,” Wheat told the committee. “But at the same time, I don’t think that right of free speech and the right to protest should usurp or override the right of someone to be able to worship freely.”

Both bills would impose criminal penalties on protesters who disrupt worship services, though Edmonds’ is more specific, as it lists exact ways the law would be violated.

They include:

using force, the threat of force, physical obstruction, intentional injury or attempt injury, to intimidate or interfere with religious worship
intentionally damaging or destroying property of a house of worship
denying lawful freedom of movement on church property or lawful use of church facilities
refusing to leave private property of the house of worship when requested by clergy when being disruptive
knowingly financing, funding, or materially supporting a person engaged in these activities

Edmonds’ bill is supported by the Louisiana Family Forum and the Louisiana Baptists Office of Public Policy.

“We think this is the one that’s most qualified to meet constitutional muster,” Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum said of Edmonds’ bill. “The right of free speech ends at the threshold of private property when it’s infringed upon, especially in a house of worship.”

Sarah Whittington, advocacy director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said she was concerned that the bills were overbroad. She also noted that the behaviors the lawmakers are seeking to criminalize are already addressed in existing law. Trespassing, damaging property and blocking exits and roadways are already illegal, Whittington said.

In the Louisiana House of Representatives, two proposals extend the existing crime of disturbing the peace to disruptive protest at churches.

Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, has a bill that goes further by exempting clergy and church-goers from being sued for physically removing someone trespassing at a house of worship.

The house bills have yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.