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Another Oil War, Another Perfect Reason to Stop Burning It

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Original article by Kyle Schmidlin republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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

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.

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.

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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.

Original article by Kyle Schmidlin republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.

Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

Post author:dizzy
Post published:1 April 2026
Post category:Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Israel Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics Zionism
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Hegseth Broker Reportedly Tried to Make ‘Big Investment’ in Weapons Stocks Just Before Iran War

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a White House Cabinet meeting on March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

“In a functional democracy, he would offer his resignation tonight.”

A broker for Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly tried to make a “big investment” in a bundle of weapons stocks just weeks before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, an unpopular assault that Hegseth has aggressively championed.

Citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, The Financial Times reported on Monday that Hegseth’s “broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF… shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran.” The bombing began on February 28.

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A spokesperson for the Pentagon denied the story, calling it “entirely false and fabricated” and insisting that neither Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about such an investment. But the FT reported that the broker’s “inquiry on behalf of the high-profile potential client was flagged internally at BlackRock.”

The investment was not ultimately made because the fund—which includes behemoths such as RTX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman—was not available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy at the time.

The purchase would not have been immediately lucrative: Over the past month, the Defense Industrials Active ETF is down over 12%. But the reported allegation that Hegseth’s broker sought to make the largest investment in the weapons industry set off alarm bells, particularly amid growing concerns that Trump administration officials are using inside knowledge and manipulating markets to cash in on the war.

“You know, back when the [US government] gave a damn about anti-corruption, this is something we would’ve seen as a ‘no no,’” said Richard Nephew, a former anti-corruption coordinator at the US State Department.

Economist Justin Wolfers wrote of Hegseth that, “in a functional democracy, he would offer his resignation tonight.”

Instead, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell demanded that the FT issue an “immediate retraction,” dismissing the newspaper’s story as “yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public.”

Hegseth has emerged as the most prominent and belligerent cheerleader of the Iran war in the US, and—according to President Donald Trump—the Pentagon chief was the first of the president’s advisers to “speak up” in favor of the assault during the internal decision-making process.

Trump has also suggested Hegseth does not want the war to end, saying last week that the Pentagon chief was “quite disappointed” when the president claimed the conflict would be over shortly.

“I don’t want to say this, but I have to,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I said, Pete and General Razin’ Caine, this thing is going to be settled very soon, and they go, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough. — Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:1 April 2026
Post category:crap pretend Labour Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Israel Keir Starmer Labour Party Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics Zionism
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Majority of American Jews Oppose Trump-Netanyahu War on Iran: Polls

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Local groups and residents protest the US-Israeli war on Iran on March 1, 2026 in Albany, New York. (Photo by Lori Van Buren/Times Union via Getty Images)

“This data is a wake-up call for anyone claiming to speak for the American Jewish community while beating the drums of war,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street.

Two separate polls released Monday show that a majority of American Jews oppose the US-Israeli war on Iran as the assault drags on into its fifth week, with increasingly dire regional and global consequences.

The surveys were published by the liberal advocacy group J Street and the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), a research organization. Both polls of Jewish Americans showed majority opposition—60% and 55%, respectively—to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

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Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president, said in a statement that “this data is a wake-up call for anyone claiming to speak for the American Jewish community while beating the drums of war.”

“Most American Jews see this war for what it is: A reckless, unforced error by a president who has no clear, achievable goals or an exit strategy,” said Ben-Ami. “This poll proves that the ‘pro-Israel’ position is the pro-peace position—and that means stopping this war before more lives are lost.”

J Street’s poll shows that 77% of Jewish Americans don’t think US President Donald Trump “has a clear plan and mission for the war.” In JEI’s survey, 41% of those who expressed opposition to the Iran war said they were against US military action because “we should not go to war without clear provocation and clear objectives.”

Jim Gerstein, principal at GBAO Strategies—which conducted the poll on behalf of J Street—said that American Jews “have clearly formed views on the war in Iran.”

“A large majority opposes the war, and they do not think Trump has a plan and mission in Iran,” said Gerstein. “Jewish voters hold overwhelmingly negative views of both Trump and Netanyahu—Jewish opposition to the war and those leading it is unmistakable.”

The surveys mark the latest evidence of widespread US public opposition to the war on Iran. Nearly 60% of American voters overall believe that, one month in, the war has “gone too far,” according to a poll released last week, and around 70% oppose a ground invasion of Iran as Trump deploys thousands of troops to the Middle East.

The opposition to the war among Jewish Americans stands in stark contrast to the strong support among Jewish Israelis. The Israel Democracy Institute released a poll on Friday showing that 78% of Jewish Israelis support the assault on Iran.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Post author:dizzy
Post published:1 April 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Israel Keir Starmer Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics Zionism
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Israel Admits It ‘Photoshopped’ Image to Portray Assassinated Lebanese Journalist as Hezbollah Operative

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Journalists and activists gather at Martyrsâ Square to protest the targeting of journalists, calling for the protection of media workers and accountability for those responsible for attacks in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director called the killing part of “a disturbing pattern” of “Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence.”

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson has admitted that the military posted a “photoshopped” image of a Lebanese journalist killed in an airstrike in order to portray him as a Hezbollah operative.

On Saturday, three journalists—Ali Shuaib, a veteran correspondent for Al-Manar TV; Fatima Ftouni of the Al Mayadeen channel; and her brother, cameraman Mohammad Ftouni—were killed when four precision missiles hit their car on the Jezzine Road in Southern Lebanon. Several other reporters were injured in the attack.

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According to Al Jazeera, the vehicle was clearly marked “press.”

In the following hours, the IDF’s official social media account posted that it had “ELIMINATED” Shuaib in the attack.

“For years, Ali Hassan Shuaib operated as a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist under the guise of a journalist,” the post read. “Turns out the ‘press vest’ was just a cover for terror.”

🔴ELIMINATED: For years, Ali Hassan Shaib operated as a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist under the guise of a journalist.

Turns out the “press vest” was just a cover for terror. pic.twitter.com/24F7MJ3Yth
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 28, 2026

The post, which has more than 2.1 million views on X as of Monday, featured a split image showing Shuaib in a press outfit on one side and in a Hezbollah military uniform on the other.

But according to Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent, Trey Yingst, the network later asked the IDF about the photo’s source. They were told: “Unfortunately, there isn’t really a picture of it. It was photoshopped.”

On Monday, Israel issued another statement claiming that Mohammad Ftouni was “an additional terrorist in Hezbollah’s military wing, who also operated under the guise of a journalist.”

But when asked for evidence to confirm this by the Agence France-Presse, it provided none, with a spokesperson saying, “What we have is what we can state.”

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) regional director Sara Qudah called the killings part of “a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior [of] Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence.”

Israel accused Shuaib of “consistently working to expose the locations of IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon and along the border, and maintain[ing] continuous contact with other terrorists in the Radwan Force unit in particular, and within the terror organization in general.”

American journalist Ryan Grim, the co-founder of Drop Site News, said: “The Israeli statement itself says that his ‘crime’ was reporting on troop locations and communicating with sources in Hezbollah. That is called war reporting.”

After killing Ali Shuaib, the IDF accused him of being part of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces, releasing a photo of the Al Manar reporter in military garb.

“Unfortunately there isn’t really a picture of it, it was photoshopped,” the IDF told Fox News about the source of the photo. pic.twitter.com/JrHbZqNNB0
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 29, 2026

According to a report last month by CPJ, a record 129 journalists were killed in 2025, and Israel was responsible for two-thirds of the worldwide total.

The vast majority of those killed have been Palestinian journalists in Gaza—at least 261 of whom have been killed since October 7, 2023—according to a running tally by the International Federation of Journalists. At least 11 journalists have also been killed in Lebanon since 2023.

In addition to Shuaib and the Ftounis, two others have been killed since Israel’s latest onslaught in Lebanon after Hezbollah retaliated against US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Israeli attacks have also resulted in the deaths of photojournalist Hussain Hamood and journalist Mohammed Sherri this month.

🚨IMPORTANT: Multiple Israeli strikes on a civilian vehicle in southern Lebanon killed journalists Ali Shoeib, Fatima Ftouni, and photojournalist Mohammad Ftouni, along with two civilians who attempted to assist. According to an Al Araby TV correspondent, the car—clearly carrying… https://t.co/ys5EzOT3Cs pic.twitter.com/rxLukXsurH
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 28, 2026

An investigation last year by +972 and the Israeli outlet Local Call revealed that the IDF has an informal unit known as the “Legitimization Cell,” which seeks to find tenuous links between journalists and militant groups to justify assassinating them.

As one source explained, the cell’s members seek out reporters they believe are “smearing [Israel’s] name in front of the world” by reporting evidence of the country’s conduct.

While Al-Manar is the official news outlet for Hezbollah and Al Mayadeen is considered to be closely tied with the militia, Qudah noted that under international law, “journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.”

In less than a month, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 1,100 people, including at least 121 children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Many pieces of civilian infrastructure—including hospitals, schools, and residential buildings—have been attacked, and Israel has issued forced evacuation orders that have led more than 1 million people to be displaced from their homes.

On the same day that the three journalists were attacked, the World Health Organization reported that nine paramedics were killed across southern Lebanon in a series of attacks on healthcare infrastructure.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that by attacking civilian workers carrying out their professional duties, Israel has violated “the most basic rules of international law.”

He called it “a blatant crime that violates all norms and treaties under which journalists are granted international protection during armed conflicts.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF. — Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/ — Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

Post author:dizzy
Post published:1 April 2026
Post category:Benjamin Netanyahu crap pretend Labour Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Keir Starmer Labour Party Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics Zionism
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Iran seeks no ceasefire but complete end to war: Foreign minister

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gives a speech in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2025. [Ahmet Serdar Eser – Anadolu Agency]

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday that Iran is not seeking a ceasefire but a complete end to the war across the region, stressing that any resolution must include guarantees against future attacks and compensation for damages, Anadolu reports.

He said contacts with the US do not constitute negotiations, but are limited to the exchange of messages — directly or through regional intermediaries.

Araghchi told Al Jazeera he continues to receive messages from US envoy Steve Witkoff, as in the past, but stressed that it should not be interpreted as formal negotiations.

He said the messages are conveyed through the Foreign Ministry, with some communication between security bodies, adding that there are no talks with any specific entity inside Iran.

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Araghchi indicated that the exchange of messages is conducted within an official government framework under the supervision of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

He added that the messages include warnings and mutual perspectives, delivered through specific channels.

Addressing reports that Iran had responded to 15 US proposals, Araghchi said no response has been sent, and Tehran has not submitted any proposals or conditions to date.

He said no decision has been made on negotiations and emphasized that the Iranian people cannot be threatened, urging the US president to address Iran with respect.

On maritime security, Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz remains fully open and would only be restricted to parties engaged in hostilities against Iran, adding that measures have been taken to ensure safe passage for vessels of friendly countries.

READ: Trump says war against Iran will not last ‘much longer’: Report