Begin your weekend by joining me for a long chat with Molly Jong-Fast about *all this*.

You might think that one silver lining of the Iran war and the oil market disruption would be greater investment in renewable energy. Turns out you might be wrong. ICYMI @crampell.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4lsgyPC

NEW: Trump has waged a multipronged attack on democracy, turning the DOJ into a weapon that targets voting rights. But have the courtroom battles kept democracy defenders too busy to launch their own legal counter offensives? Jim Saksa dives into the numbers👇 https://bit.ly/40uONfI

WSJ: Gen. Caine, Chair - Joint Chiefs, warned Trump striking Iran could prompt it to close the Strait of Hormuz with mines, drones & missiles. Trump acknowledged the risk but assumed Tehran would capitulate and the military could handle it if it didn’t. TIMLI: #Krasnov was told, and ignored it.

If true, team #krasnov are now far and away the most inept, naked fools ever to be leading a war. Every #WarGame of any type with #Iran STARTS with them closing/restricting shipping in strait. It is their stated strategy. Core doctrine. It is what all of their assets are built around. WTAF.

The fight for democracy is the fight of our generation. I started Democracy Docket in 2020 to help you navigate and understand it. Sign up now. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

The Trump Administration was apparently surprised by, and unprepared for, Iran’s capability to inflict economic pain on the U.S. and its allies, @johncassidysays.bsky.social writes. ttps://www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin...

"If you’re president of the United States and you start a war, you should have enough of a sense of decency and dignity to treat it as a serious matter. To make this obvious point isn’t to be woke or even antiwar. It’s to be adult and civilized."

Polling finds U.S. is its own biggest fan

Americans are dying so that Kushner can make money

Inside the Department of War are two wolves: "We've shut down the Colleges of War because book learnings are woke, gay, and irrelevant to war fighting." "How come no one told us the Strait is important, there are different kinds of Kurds, Iran is big, and air power historically doesn't win wars?"

F. Folks unpacking the #EpsteinFiles found a trove of @FBI recordings incl: Erika Kirk telling an underage girl, and her younger sister how to get more money "working" for #Epstein. You can also hear the FBI wire-tap team in the background. We live among monsters. www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

“So damaged is the department’s reputation for truth telling at this point, one judge noted despairingly, that ‘the court is left with little confidence’ that government lawyers ‘can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”’ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/o...

Pete Hegseth is openly calling on Trump-friendly oligarchs to take over the media while unshackling the military from the "rules of engagement" he hates so much. What he really wants is a world in which horrors like the school bombing don't ever fully come to light. newrepublic.com/article/2077...

In the months since a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez five times, she has watched the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “I was there in their shoes, and I have a voice,” she said. “Something that they don’t have.” newyorkermag.visitlink.me/d-q77m

No amount of spin from Trump and his lackeys can cover up the fact that Americans shelled out an extra $1.5 BILLION for gas this past week because of his disastrous war with Iran.

It's kind of "It is a huge, complete, very strong victory, we plebes just can't see it in its full majesty."

We are now in a world where John Bolton is right about everything.

Defense secretary openly states that a pro-Trump billionaire taking over a news network (following regulatory help from the administration) will result in coverage more favorable for the administration.

Trump = “The Man of Lawlessness “ 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2

ICE detained a 9-year-old with severe autism and his mom for more than 80 days. The boy depends on daily therapy, but at Dilley, those supports vanished. Unable to understand why they couldn’t go home, he would cry through the night and hit himself, his mother told me. My latest for @nbcnews.com

It’s just a video game to them so they burn through real world supply like it’s replenished after earning enough game stats.

I hope the first thing this task force does is inform Pete Hegseth about what happens in the war colleges he's never attended - or apparently, even visited - because all this stuff isn't it. He has no idea what he's talking about here, but that's no surprise.

I feel like there’s an important word being ignored here.

Those little girls didn't stand a chance!

Too much to keep track of, but don't sleep on AG Bondi's new proposed rule that would let DOJ lawyers avoid key ethics checks that prohibit lying to court. Ratcheting up the assault on courts & the reality-based world at the same time. Mine in today's NYT. (Gift Link)

Gavin Newsom wants to hand Donald Trump his gasoline price problem

Iran may not be our Iraq war, so much as Russia's Ukraine war

What Trump should have called the Iran war is Operation Just 'Cause lnk.thebulwark.com/4cJDkA5

Hegseth: “Today will be yet again the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran and Tehran. The number of sorties, the number of bomber pulses, the highest yet, ramping up and only up.”

Hegseth: “War is hell. War is chaos. And as we saw yesterday with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker, um, bad things can happen.”

Reporter: "Can you please provide some guidance about the strike on the girls' school?" Hegseth: "We're not going to let reporting lead us or force our hand into indicating what happened in a particular situation because the truth matters…The command investigation will take as long as necessary.”

Q: “Does an investigation mean the United States did carry out that strike?” Hegseth: “An investigation is an investigation. It doesn't mean anything other than that.”

Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent. Her lawyer believes that her case should be studied as a “playbook” for D.H.S. violence. “She’s one of the few people who has survived the bullets and can speak out,” he said. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/j0manC

So will the disruption of global oil markets at least push us towards finally investing in green energy? Yeah, probably not. The latest edition of Receipts from @crampell.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4lsgyPC

Hegseth, attacking press, declares victory is near amid ongoing Iran conflict

This morning Pete Hegseth said "The sooner David Ellison takes over CNN, the better." Ellison may be able to buy CBS News and CNN. Jeff Bezos can buy the Washington Post. But Democracy Docket is not for sale. Support pro-democracy independent media by signing up now. bit.ly/4qr0jTS

"The people responsible for planning a war were so out of their depth that they just cold-called Lloyd’s and were like, Uh, hey bro. Could you tell us how to do this? Like, just let us look at your books, okay? OMG." It gets worse:

This week, we’ve got a wild one. It’s a story that involves a fake 15-year-old, some age-inappropriately steamy text messages, and one of the right’s most hateful figures. You can only read it here. The latest edition of False Flag from @willsommer.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/4sj5eYD

Omg they’re going w “high oil prices are good, actually.” God bless ‘em.

"This seems to have been the modal view of the American political, financial, and media establishments: When Trump took over, 'smart' money was on him being something like ‘a good president who writes mean tweets.'"

Iran war is the largest oil supply disruption in history, report finds

Here is what the Democracy Docket team is tracking today: Active Voting Rights Cases: 167 Active Redistricting Cases: 50 Active Anti-Voting Cases: 91 Active Pro-Voting Cases: 73 Active DOJ Lawsuits: 32 Support their work by subscribing today. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

They either didn't know Iran would shut down the Strait of Hormuz or they knew and didn't have a plan. Either way - just totally clear they don't give a damn about what this war means for hardworking Americans.

Markwayne Mullin might want you to forget some of the stuff he's said, but he isn't recanting them, either. ICYMI, @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social with @jaredpoland.bsky.social in the latest edition of Huddled Masses: lnk.thebulwark.com/40qzg0o

The Trump Administration is waging war on universities by suspending their funds. N.I.H. grants to universities are down by more than 90 per cent in the current fiscal year; so far in 2026, the National Cancer Institute hasn’t made a single grant. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/oxA7Ey

NEW EPISODE: I sit down with Tim Miller of The Bulwark. We discussed defending democracy against Trump's authoritarian project. Tim pulls no punches on what he's witnessed from inside the Republican Party — and why so many elites are choosing to stay silent www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHcA...

"We have seen industrial-scale government corruption unlike anything in our nation’s history. And here’s the thing: The public has basically accepted it. So why would any future administration act differently?"

Sen. Slotkin: “There's press reports that the Russians are helping target US ships and aircraft…If Russia is helping kill U.S. forces, we have crossed a Rubicon…We have to take decisive action on that, and instead, we're giving them breaks on oil.”

What do Fulton and Maricopa County have in common? They’re both facing FBI probes based on conspiracies that could open a Pandora's box of litigation challenging the results of the 2020 election What’s worse? These investigations could empower the GOP to challenge the 2026 midterm results.