It Is All About Oil!

By lifting sanctions on Russian oil amid the Iran war, the U.S. is "essentially" gifting Russia "$140 million a day!"

Ultimatum!... Now What?

What happens when you throw down the glove and nothing happens? Then what do you do?

Trump makes SAVE America Act ultimatum

By Thérèse Boudreaux

The Center Square

Mar 9, 2026

Pressure from the Trump administration is mounting on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to revive old filibuster rules and ensure the passage of Republicans’ elections reform bill.

In multiple social media posts, President Donald Trump promoted “using the Filibuster, or Talking Filibuster, in order to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, an 88% issue with ALL VOTERS,” adding that the bill “supersedes everything else.” 

Trump also vowed to “not sign other Bills until this is passed,” with the exception of the last fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security.

But you know what… Trump may have shot himself in the foot! He may not have thought it through. In many cases, by not signing a bill it becomes law after 10 days (Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution).

And now the House is putting in its two cents.

House Republicans Give GOP Senators Ultimatum Over SAVE America Act

Newsweek

By Mandy Taheri

Mar 14, 2026

GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna issued an on-air ultimatum to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, saying on Fox News’ Saturday in America the House would block Senate legislation unless the chamber debated and voted on The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

The Florida Republican had made a similar ultimatum on X on Friday, as had Representative Brandon Gill, a Texas Republican, who noted that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding should be exempt.

“I’ll be voting ‘no’ on all Senate bills - other than DHS funding - until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act,” he wrote on X on Friday.

Okay, what are the Republican options? What happens if the Democrats in the Senate dig their heels in? Does the government come to a grinding halt? Let’s look at Trump first.

If he doesn't sign any bills, what happens to them? Well, it depends.

If he does nothing, under certain circumstances the bill becomes law after ten days, as described in the Constitution. But… you always know that politicians leave wiggle room.

A pocket veto: If Congress adjourns before the 10-day window ends, then the bill dies automatically and Congress cannot override it.

His third option is to simply veto it outright.

Then the Senate also has what is called the nuclear option; the repeal of the filibuster. But that has some serious side effects for the Senate.

So will they repeal the filibuster rule? If they do, it will do exactly what its nickname implies. Right now it means that most major bills need bipartisan support to pass. If repealed, a party could cram through bills like voting laws, immigration reforms, healthcare changes, and environmental legislation.

But when Congress changes parties, all that legislation could be undone.

MS Now wrote,

“The SAVE Act is Jim Crow 2.0,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an online statement responding to Trump’s ultimatum. “It would disenfranchise tens of millions of people. If Trump is saying he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: There will be total gridlock in the Senate.”

The New York Democrat concluded, “Senate Democrats will not help pass the SAVE Act under any circumstances.”

So what happens when their ultimatum fails?

A New Level Of Hatred.

The Republicans have just gone to a new level... a new level of persecution. I believe it rises to the level of a pogrom. The courts have ordered the seizure of records from a peer support group in Texas.

PFLAG must turn over records in Texas probe tied to transgender youth care ban, court rules

The Texas Supreme Court said the state only needs a reasonable belief that the group may have relevant information, not proof, and allowed PFLAG to redact identifying details about families before producing documents.

Texas Public Media

Lucio Vasquez, Texas Newsroom

March 13, 2026

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Texas Attorney General’s Office can require LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG to turn over documents related to an investigation into medical care for transgender minors.

The court overturned a previous district court decision that had largely blocked the AG’s office from seeking certain records.

The dispute stems from a civil investigative demand issued in 2024 by Texas AG Ken Paxton. His office is investigating whether medical providers may have violated state law by misleading insurers about treatments provided to transgender minors.

This echoes Europe in the 1930s, when the Germans seized the records of the Institute for Sexual Science run by Magnus Hirschfeld. It was also the era when people were smuggling Jews and LGBTQ+ individuals out of Eastern Europe while the Nazis hunted them down. And now families are fleeing Texas! Think about what they are asking: suddenly everyone becomes a suspect. A mother asking for help for her child becomes a suspect.

Fox 7 reported,

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office argued those statements created a "reasonable belief" that PFLAG possessed information about medical providers attempting to circumvent the state ban through deceptive billing. PFLAG sued to block the state’s subsequent civil investigative demand in February 2024, alleging it was an overreach that threatened member privacy.

Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote that the courts should not interfere with the investigative discretion authorized by lawmakers.

"Whether or how vigorously the Attorney General’s office should pursue investigations of this nature are political questions entrusted by the Legislature to the Attorney General, not to the courts," Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote. "Courts are well suited to resolve discovery fights. Courts are not well suited to second-guess the wisdom of investigatory decisions made by an elected executive officer entrusted by the law with broad discretion."

They are making the Inquisition look mild compared to the damage this will do to our community. This will decimate us. I used to be on the board of a peer support group called the Connecticut Outreach Society, and I regularly received emails asking for trans-friendly doctors. If we were in Texas under this ruling, those emails could be subpoenaed. Think about that: in Texas, peer support groups have effectively been branded as criminal enterprises.

Texas Public Media went on to write...

The court said PFLAG must turn over several categories of documents, including:

• Communications about “contingency plans” or alternative care options
• Referrals or lists of health care providers for transgender youth in Texas
• Communications involving certain health care providers referenced in the investigation
• Records tied to the executive director’s comments in the lawsuit affidavit about families seeking ways to maintain care in Texas

I look back at the time when I was helping run COS and remember all those frightened voices on the other end of those emails. They weren't criminals; they were human beings reaching out for help. Now the state of Texas has effectively criminalized that help. Compassion is being treated as evidence in a witch hunt.

This isn't just a “Texas problem” or a “trans problem.” When a court rules that a politician’s “political discretion” outweighs the privacy of law-abiding families and advocacy groups, every American’s right to associate and speak freely is in jeopardy. If they can do this to PFLAG today, they can do it to any group they deem a political enemy tomorrow. Any peer-support group is now fair game for their political crusades—even groups for battered spouses could be vulnerable to these inquisitors.

Can you imagine authorities seizing records from a women’s peer-support group for miscarriages because they suspect someone might have had an abortion? Where does this madness stop?

Texas has already tried to obtain the medical records of trans children from other states and was rebuffed by those states’ courts. So now they are digging into the records of support groups. Does that mean people like me should be combing through our emails for any out-of-state messages from people asking for help?

This is a witch hunt that sends shivers down my spine. Are we going to see mass arrests of parents of trans children?

In their zeal to erase us, trans people will die. But clearly, that is exactly what they want. We are such a small population that we are especially vulnerable to government tyranny and persecution.

The Great Divide: Rush or Where We Live!

[Editorial]

What changed? How did we go from a nation that had civil discourse to one antagonistic and at odds with each other? How did we become so polarized?

When did politics go from talking to violence?

My thoughts changed with talk radio. Some guy named Rush Limbaugh.

Before he started, the radios in the shop played music all day. You walked around cubicalville; you just heard music or the occasional news radio show. Then Rush came.

WTIC AM changed from all news to all talk to conservative talk with Rush and a local Rush wannabe. We were split right down the middle, half listening to Rush. Then a small minority started listening to PBS and NPR.

But so did politics. Reagan began the political split. Echo chambers started to form, directed at liberals, at Democrats, and then at immigrants.

Talk radio was all right-wing pundits spouting their dislike of anything "liberal." They disliked the educated elite, the Harvard-educated. The talk shows catered to the anger of the working class—at the unions, at the liberal colleges, at trans people, at gays, at immigrants. The shows were what stirred the pot.

Then came politicians who used that anger, like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, to rally their base.

Then Trump used that anger the first time to get elected. He was stymied by Congress, so he went away and reformulated the anger. In his speeches, you can hear the vitriol; he plays to their hidden racism, letting it out of the box with his "anti-woke" messaging targeting hate. He plays to their xenophobia, claiming things like "the Haitians are eating pets!"

He changed the discussion from big government vs. small government, from regulations vs. deregulations, to hate and anti-Christian sentiment. Trump used minorities to stir up his base.

The Republican message changed; to anti-immigrant, to anti-trans, to anti-minority. Along with that came hate, executive orders, draconian laws, and enforcement.

The question remains… how do we end this? Or, more importantly, where is this leading us?

[/Editorial]

A Clown Car!

[Editorial]

This war is being fought by amateurs!

I was never in the military, but I’ve had to organize big projects at work, so I know all the planning a job needs before you actually start. Will the roads handle the extra loads? Are the wires high enough for the trucks to pass under? I see none of that with Gulf War III!

Hegseth fired all the “woke” generals (i.e., those with years of experience) and replaced them with “yes men.” Did any of them say, “You know, I think we should get our tankers in the air instead of leaving them sitting ducks on the runway like at Henderson Field”? Nope… some of the air-refueling tankers went up in smoke while sitting on the runways, or were damaged and put out of service.

A $1 billion air defense radar, the AN/FPS-132 early warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base, was destroyed or badly damaged. It sure looks like they didn’t protect it from missile attack!

Just before the war started, did anyone think, maybe there might be mines and we shouldn’t decommission minesweepers? Nope.

Did they ask: do we have enough missiles? Do we have enough stockpiles to fight a two-front war?

Trump said the war would be over in weeks, but then added, “Oh, by the way… California might get hit in the meantime!”

Did they learn anything from the war in Ukraine? About drones? About putting drones in trucks or ships?

Nope. Instead, it looks like a bunch of kids put this all together!

Ooo… ooo… “I want to use my B‑1 and B‑2 bombers! Can I use my submarines, Petey? Can I, can I, pretty please?”

They all sounded so gleeful announcing the strikes—but not one word about the damage. That only comes up when others report it, like in the British papers: The Guardian, The Independent, and BBC.

No, this war is not over. This war is just beginning! This war was planned by clowns!

[/Editorial]

The First Amendment. What's That?

This is what authoritarian governments do... like Putin's, like Orbán's. Control the media, control the messaging, control the propaganda!

Trump administration threatens news outlets over critical coverage of Iran

FCC chair says news outlets that share ‘distortions’ about US war with Iran could lose their licences.

Al Jazeera

By Brian Osgood

14 Mar 2026

The administration of President Donald Trump has warned that news outlets could have their broadcasting licences revoked over critical reporting on the war against Iran, accusing the media of “distortions”.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said in a social media post on Saturday that broadcasters must “operate in the public interest”, or else lose their licences.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote.

The warning was the latest apparent threat from Carr, who has repeatedly attracted scrutiny for statements that appear to pressure broadcasters to conform with Trump priorities.

Despots need to control the messaging!

Carr’s latest statement prompted swift condemnation from politicians and free-speech advocates, who likened his remarks to censorship.

“This is a clear directive to provide positive war coverage or else licenses may not be renewed,” Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii wrote.

“This is worse than the comedian stuff, and by a lot. The stakes here are much higher. He’s not talking about late night shows, he’s talking about how a war is covered.”

Why what is Trump hiding? His ineptitude?

USA Today wrote,

Carr recently urged broadcast companies to air “patriotic, pro-America content” as part of programming aligned with the country's 250th anniversary.

MSN...

Trump calls 'lowlife' media 'sick and demented' over Iran war coverage

KCBD writes that,

The Trump administration denounced CNN on Thursday for airing a portion of the new Iranian supreme leader’s public statement, the second time in three days that he’s targeted the network for reporting on how the regime is responding to the American attacks.

The attack illustrated the care news outlets must take in reporting during wartime, and the responsibilities of American journalists to report the perspective of countries its government views as enemies. It also exposed inconsistencies. The message of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during his first public statement since he succeeded his father, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, was widely available elsewhere.

The White House said on social media that “fake news CNN just aired four straight minutes of uninterrupted Iranian state TV, run by the same psychotic and murderous regime that prided itself on brutally slaughtering Americans for 47 years.”

Question: How can it be fake news when they are showing him speaking? Is Trump saying it is AI like the stuff he puts out? He must think that because he does everyone is doing it?

What does he want? Coverage like it was during the Stalin era in Russia?