Trump’s Hyperbolic Annihilationist Rhetoric Comes With A Moral Cost

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After threatening the death of “a whole civilization” on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump announced a two-week, “double-sided” ceasefire with Iran Tuesday evening, pending the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The annihilation of Iran, it seems, was averted by a last-minute deal brokered by Pakistan. In his announcement of the ceasefire, Trump said Pakistan “requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran.”

What’s going on? Did Trump really call off some devastating (possibly nuclear) strike because of a deal that only came through 90 minutes before the White House deadline? Maybe. Was the deal already in the bag before Trump made his hyperbolic threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight?” Possibly. And what about the 10-point proposal Trump said he received from Iran, which he called “a workable basis on which to negotiate?” The details of an Iranian proposal, which include things like reparations for Iran, Iranian control of the strait, and the lifting of all sanctions, have been public for days. Is that the proposal Trump was referring to on Tuesday evening, or is it something else? Who knows.

What does seem clear amid the fog of war, however, is that Trump’s maximalist, annihilationist rhetoric — talk of destroying Iranian “civilization,” “never to be brought back again,” taking out “the entire country,” bombing it “into the stone age,” targeting critical civilian infrastructure like power plants — has already gravely damaged the United States.

Why? Because America should only wage just wars, and waging a just war means being subject to certain restraints. Just war precludes immoral means — like the mass killing of civilians — to achieve victory. Even threatening such means, as Trump has done, damages the moral conscience of a people as much as it degrades the moral standing of a nation. Simply put, threatening to do something intrinsically immoral, even if you don’t actually do it, is wrong. (Read more from “Trump’s Hyperbolic Annihilationist Rhetoric Comes With A Moral Cost” HERE)

Israel First Has Severed MAGA

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In July of 2023, long before it became clear that Israel would become a defining topic of MAGA 2.0 and the Trump presidency, Tucker Carlson gave a speech at a Turning Point USA event when it was still uncontroversial for him to be there.

“What are the crimes that are punished?” Carlson asked the crowd. “Thought crimes. Thinking the ‘wrong’ thing. Having the ‘wrong’ beliefs. Saying unapproved words. And those words are always true.”

“How do you know what’s true? That’s a great question,” Carlson continued. “Who are the thought criminals and what are they saying?”

Tucker Carlson has certainly become the thought criminal he presciently described over two and a half years ago. And he’s perhaps committed the greatest sin of all in America: telling the truth when powerful people are not.

At the time of his speech, Oct. 7 hadn’t happened, Charlie Kirk was still alive and leading TPUSA, and Carlson had not yet campaigned alongside Donald Trump.

Fast forward to January 2025 and Trump — with the support of Carlson and a bipartisan coalition of other independent thinkers, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Marjorie Taylor Greene — arrived back at the White House with truly a once in a generation opportunity and the political capital to do the radically unthinkable in Washington: focus on America and the problems that ail us here. (Read more from “Israel First Has Severed MAGA” HERE)

Arming The Iranian People Against The Mullahs Is The Dumbest Idea Ever

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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that there are two or three weeks left in the war against Iran and that the regime is “really no longer a threat.” What exactly will be done during, and after, those remaining two to three weeks is unclear.

But, for now, the economically vital Strait of Hormuz remains shut, and over the past few weeks, the U.S. has transferred thousands of ground troops to the region. Given the administration’s shifting goalposts and unclear messaging over the last few weeks, escalation is still not outside the realm of possibility. And any further escalation of the conflict would probably mean boots on the ground.

But after decades of costly, ultimately futile wars in the same part of the globe, the prospect of another ground conflict in the region is deeply unpopular with most Americans. Such a move, if taken, would almost certainly tank President Donald Trump’s already wavering approval rating, sink Republican prospects for the midterms and even 2028, and mar his legacy with a long Middle East war he promised to avoid.

In light of that, our other options are to continue the air and naval war alone without a ground element, or, as some have suggested, to begin arming the Iranian people (or other groups like the Kurds and Azerbaijanis) so they can overthrow the regime themselves. Even if the U.S. stops its direct military actions against Iran in the coming weeks as Trump suggested, the administration could still arm and train Iranians to destabilize the regime from the inside.

Reagan admin veteran (as if he’d ever let you forget it) and neocon political commentator Mark Levin emphatically endorsed the latter option Tuesday. (Read more from “Arming The Iranian People Against The Mullahs Is The Dumbest Idea Ever” HERE)

How Jesus’ Final Words Affirm The Humanity Of The Unborn

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This week is Holy Week for Christians around the world, some of the most significant days on our calendar, moving from the celebration of Palm Sunday through the darkness of Good Friday to the joy of Easter morning. I was in church last Sunday as they were reading the passion narrative, the account of Christ’s final hours, when something caught my attention that I had not paid attention to before.

When Jesus cries out from the cross, some of the bystanders think he is calling for Elijah. I had read past this detail countless times. Elijah was a towering figure in Jewish history. But why would a crowd standing near a dying man hear the name Elijah specifically? Why that name and not something else?

He cried out in Aramaic, the everyday language of Galilee, the tongue His mother spoke to Him: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And in Aramaic, Eli (my God) sounds nearly identical to the first syllables of Eliyahu, which is Elijah. They share the same root. A dying man forcing sound through His chest in the noise of a crowd, and El-ee becomes El-ee-ya fast enough. The confusion only makes sense if you know which language was being spoken.

That small detail pulled me into something much larger.

Jesus was not crying out in wordless anguish. He was quoting a psalm. In first-century Jewish practice, quoting the first line of a psalm invoked the entire text, the way you might cite a chapter by its opening sentence. The Mishnah records that rabbis tested students by reciting a psalm’s opening line and watching them complete it from memory. Every learned person at the cross who heard those first words would have known immediately which psalm He was praying and would have begun running through the rest of it in their mind. (Read more from “How Jesus’ Final Words Affirm The Humanity Of The Unborn” HERE)

Trump Needs To Prepare Americans For What Comes Next In Iran

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It’s been nearly two weeks since the Trump administration launched a war against Iran, and President Trump is beginning to signal that he wants to wind it down. On Monday, he said “we’re way ahead of schedule,” and that the war would be over “very soon.” On Wednesday during a speech in Kentucky, Trump off-handedly declared “we’ve won,” and said it was all over “in the first hour.”

It’s understandable that Trump would be eyeing a quick end to the war, given spiking oil prices, growing public opposition to the war, and criticism from his MAGA base. But at this point it’s looking less and less like the president will simply be able to declare victory and walk away, however politically desirable that might be.

The main reason is that Iran, although badly wounded, is still fighting. This week it began targeting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply. Two oil tankers were struck by Iran in Iraqi waters on Wednesday, setting them ablaze and killing one crew member. Videos of the burning oil tankers, reportedly struck by armed Iranian boats, circulated widely on social media. In addition, four other vessels were hit by Iranian projectiles in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday.

Since March 1, more than 20 ships have been attacked by Iran in the Persian Gulf. And it’s not just oil tankers or Western-flagged vessels. All types of ships have been hit, and not only in the Strait of Hormuz but across the Gulf. Marine traffic through the strait has now come to a standstill, with tanker crews unwilling to risk Iranian attack boats and missiles.

The Trump administration is clearly aware of the problem. This week, Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve, the largest such release in its history. And earlier this month, he announced the United States Development Finance Corporation would offer political risk insurance and financial guarantees to maritime trade passing through the Gulf, adding that, “If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible.” (Read more from “Trump Needs To Prepare Americans For What Comes Next In Iran” HERE)

Trump Despises RINOs. So Why Is He Reportedly About To Endorse One Of The Swamp’s Biggest?

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If President Donald Trump is looking for a senator who embodies the spirit and action of “Republican in Name Only,” he couldn’t find no better man than milquetoast Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

The four-term RINO locked in a contentious GOP primary run-off battle against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton boasts a storied Senate career of genuflecting at the altar of the Swamp. Cornyn has been begging for Trump’s platinum endorsement more shamelessly than he’s prostituted himself for establishment cash.

And it’s looking like he might get the president’s seal of approval, if you can believe the Trump-hating Atlantic and other Pravda Press publications.

“President Trump’s political advisers expect him to endorse Senator John Cornyn in Texas’s May 26 Republican-primary runoff election following the incumbent’s better-than-expected finish against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the first round of voting [Tuesday] three people briefed on the deliberations told us,” The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker write. . .

But here’s the thing: Trump hates RINOs — and rightfully so. He’s said so many, many times. Just ask Indiana’s “pathetic” state Senate RINO’s who got a collective tummy ache over a midterm redistricting bill pushed by Trump that would have boosted GOP membership in a wafer-thin Republican majority House. Meanwhile, Democrats are redrawing blue state maps left and left to get a leg up in the midterms. (Read more from “Trump Despises RINOs. So Why Is He Reportedly About To Endorse One Of The Swamp’s Biggest?” HERE)

How Israel ‘Chain-Ganged’ The Trump Administration Into War Against Iran

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After several days of shifting and sometimes contradictory justifications from the Trump administration for why it launched a war against Iran over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday finally gave the real reason: Israel forced us into it.

“It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the U.S. or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond against the United States,” Rubio said. But later he added this: “We knew there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher numbers of those killed. And then we would all be answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”

Later in the day, Speaker Mike Johnson said pretty much the same thing, that, “This was a defensive measure … If Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then [Iran] would have immediately retaliated against U.S. personnel and assets.”

These remarks from Rubio and Johnson would seem to confirm recent reporting from the New York Times, which published a lengthy account Monday chronicling how President Trump decided to go to war. The article opens with this line: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel walked into the Oval Office on the morning of Feb. 11, determined to keep the American president on the path to war.” It goes on to explain that amid weeks of U.S.-Israeli planning for war, Trump administration officials had begun negotiating with Tehran over the future of its nuclear program, “and the Israeli leader wanted to make sure that the new diplomatic effort did not undermine the plans.”

Netanyahu, who has been candid about his decades-long desire to draw the United States into a war against Iran, was successful in this effort. The diplomatic talks with Iran faltered and Trump gave the go-ahead to launch strikes that immediately took out Tehran’s entire leadership, effectively bringing about a decapitation of the regime.

Why did it happen? Not necessarily because of our decisions, but because of Israel’s. According to the Times’ reporting, just hours before President Trump’s State of the Union address last Tuesday, Rubio and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, briefed congressional leaders from the so-called Gang of Eight about ongoing negotiations with Iran and the possibility of strikes if those talks failed. “In the briefing, Mr. Rubio argued that, no matter if Israel or the United States struck first, Iran would respond with a powerful barrage of weapons against U.S. bases and embassies. It was logical then, Mr. Rubio said, that the United States should act in concert with Israel, since America would be dragged in anyway. And Israel, Mr. Rubio said, was determined to act.” (Read more from “How Israel ‘Chain-Ganged’ The Trump Administration Into War Against Iran” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

The Rise in Transgender Killers Proves That We Have a Major Mental Health Crisis Unfolding

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In what is becoming a regular occurrence, someone trans-identifying is accused of committing a mass murder, this time during a high school hockey game, in suburban Rhode Island.

Robert Dorgan, who preferred to be called Roberta, killed his ex-wife and one of his own children and shot three more people before turning the gun on himself.

In 2020, Dorgan had told police that he was being kicked out of his home, by his father-in-law, after Dorgan had undergone “gender-reassignment surgery.”

His wife, Rhonda Dorgan, wrote “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as her grounds for divorce, but those words were crossed out and “irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage” was written instead.

Dorgan certainly seemed like he was going through a mental-health crisis.

In the days leading up to the slaughter, Dorgan posted on X, “keep bashing us. but do not wonder why we Go BERSERK.” (Read more from “The Rise in Transgender Killers Proves That We Have a Major Mental Health Crisis Unfolding” HERE)

Rooting Against Anti-American Olympians Is The Patriotic Thing To Do

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Getting the opportunity to represent one’s country in the Olympics is an incredible honor for any athlete. Sadly, some of this year’s American competitors don’t seem to fully appreciate that point.

Throughout the first week of the 2026 Winter Olympics, several U.S. athletes have happily taken the bait from left-wing “journalists” seeking to get these Americans to trash their nation — and President Trump — on the world stage. Many of the comments thus far have specifically been focused on ICE and its efforts to deport foreign nationals illegally residing in the United States.

Team USA skiers Hunter Hess and Chris Lillis kicked off the performative struggle session during a pre-Olympics press conference. The athletes effectively wagged their fingers at the ICE agents under relentless siege by violent leftist agitators and talked about how “hard” it is to watch federal law be enforced as they play games at an event surrounded by maximum security.

While Lillis displayed some level of decency by expressing his “love” for America, Hess took his criticisms a step further by claiming he has “mixed emotions” about representing his home country at the Olympics.

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t,” Hess said. “I think, for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.” (Read more from “Rooting Against Anti-American Olympians Is The Patriotic Thing To Do” HERE)

I Witnessed Epstein’s Post Mortem. His Death Must Be Reinvestigated

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Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death should be reinvestigated, a doctor present at the paedophile’s post mortem examination has said.

Dr Michael Baden is unconvinced by the finding of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office that the financier took his own life while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

“My opinion is that his death was most likely caused by strangulation pressure rather than hanging,” the pathologist, who was hired by Epstein’s estate, told The Telegraph.

He said: “Given all the information now available, further investigation into the cause and manner of death is warranted.”

Dr Baden did not carry out the post mortem but was present during the examination, acting as an observer on behalf of Epstein’s family. (Read more from “I Witnessed Epstein’s Post Mortem. His Death Must Be Reinvestigated” HERE)