Tony Gonzales always does the right thing... after every other possible option has been exhausted.

From one of the FBI witness interviews released this evening.

"We don't follow stupid rules of engagement."

Energy and insurance specialists have cast doubt on Donald Trump’s plans to insure tankers in the Gulf, complicating the US president’s efforts to curb the oil price surge triggered by his war in Iran.

"US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school. The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of US conflicts in the ​Middle East." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

First we murder their leaders, then we bomb their schools and hospitals, and finally we will steal all their oil and gas. The whole adventure will be a huge win-win for America, is what we hear on Newsmax.

I keep trying to persuade my German colleagues that it should be Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi for short) because under Noem, this is precisely what it morphed into.

Unprecedented criticism of Trump's war in Iran from the Vatican secretary of state. “This erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin,

Michael de Adder, The Contrarian

Scientists and other experts were preparing an assessment of the health of nature in the US when Trump returned to the White House. He canceled the report. The researchers went ahead and compiled it on their own. This week, they released a 868-p draft for public comment and scientific review.

Maj Gen William Neil McCasland, USAF ret'd, 68, was last seen around 11 a.m. local time on Friday near Quail Run Court NE in Albuquerque, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, which is leading the investigation to find him. He was once the Air Force's leading UFO researcher.

I watched this report several times. It's baffling to me why the Trump administration thinks it's "pro-Iran regime propaganda." Indeed, one of the weaknesses of US reporting on Iran so far has been the absence of first-hand reporting from within the country.

Rep Don Bacon's (R-NE) whole statement here is trenchant.

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

After being propped up and funded by America's Neocon Republicans for generations, the Iranian MeK is determined to serve the Americans and further its long-time objective of toppling the clerical IRGC regime. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

I will always remember Frau Noem as the Altheimatschutzstaatsministerin. The title suits her well.

Joachim Patinir, Charon crossing the Styx (Antwerp 1520) This painting by Patinir is also remarkable for its unusual composition within Patinir`s oeuvre. The artist has divided the space vertically into three zones, one on either side and the third occupied by the broad river in the centre.

The logical "Nuremberg" solution for Trump and his co-conspirators may be referral to the ICC in the Hague. But the US will need to restore its membership.

Costco: if we succeed in getting tariff refunds, we will pass them back to our members. Sets the standard for others. www.forbes.com/sites/antoni...

The headline says it all

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there. They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

Russian disinformation continues to flood Twitter/X.com

Putin launches major effort to reelect Orbán. Putin tasked Sergei Kiriyenko to run a Moldova-style election meddling operation in Hungary for Orbán, sending three GRU-linked political technologists with diplomatic or service passports to operate from the Russian Embassy in Budapest.

NYT: The law firms that fought Trump look a whole lot better than those that capitulated to him. And they have been winning in court. Those who folded demonstrated fecklessness and incompetence as practitioners of the law. Why would anyone engage them as lawyers?

It's clear at this point that Russia under Putin has carried out the most massive, influential and successful influence operations in history. American and European counterintelligence essentially slept through all of it.

The US lethal attack on a girls school in Minab, that killed about 180 mostly young girls, will forever been connected by the world with Pete Hegseth's pronouncement that "we won't be following any stupid rules of engagement." It's a war crime plain and simple.

Eliot Jacobson: Average Arctic sea-ice thickness is at a *record low* for the date, if we are looking at either the 1-year or 3-year running average.

Robert A. Pape: When a president says he will choose the next leader of Iran, the war stops being about missiles. It becomes a regime change war. History’s warning: regimes don't collapse from air power alone. Those wars last months or years — not weeks.

The Justice Department has posted online three FBI interviews related to sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Is Trump looking for a new slot for Kristi Noem

A Jan 6 defendant pardoned by President Trump for his role in the Capitol attack has been sentenced to life in prison for child molestation and related crimes. 33 pardoned Jan 6 defendants have faced criminal charges, 6 of them involving the sexual molestation of children.

Prof. Eliot Jacobson: Monthly Arctic sea-ice data was just posted by PIOMAS. Here is average Arctic ice thickness, through Feb. 28. Thickness is currently second lowest for the date, with only 2017 seeing lower average thickness than 2026.

Daniel Swain: All signs are increasingly pointing to a significant, if not strong to very strong, El Niño event. I'll have more to say in coming weeks & months, but for now I'll just say that this is increasingly likely to become a major regional-to-global climate driver in 2026-2027.

Gulf Arabs are preparing to pull investments out of the US after gauging damage that Trump's Iran War is doing to their economies. Pressure on the Gulf states’ budgets force them to consider options to ease the financial strain caused by the US-Israeli war against Iran. ft.trib.al/3Kk0Kcg

Rep Joaquín Castro (D-TX): “The utter corruption uncovered over the past few weeks is astounding. If Democrats take back the House majority next year, there will be much to review about her time in office. People have to be held accountable.”

Most presidential ads were targeted towards parties’ own supporters and that fundraising ads were the most common. On both Facebook and Instagram, no detectable effects of removing political ads on political knowledge, polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, political participation.

Note how at this extended press conference at which Hegseth displayed a map of Iran on which Minab was marked with an icon, not a single reporter asked about the US bombing of a girls' school in Minab that killed roughly 180, mostly school girls. Shameful. www.cbsnews.com/news/pete-he...

Trump signaling that an invasion of Cuba is next.

Showing its hand once more, the Trump administration votes with Russia and against all its allies on an IAEA resolution condemning attacks on nuclear plants. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Four AIPAC Dems made the difference. Without them, the measure would have passed.

Iran's response to the US-Israeli war is precisely what every major analyst anticipated it would be. Yet Hegseth seems thrown for a loss.

Very creepy and very American. More than a dozen children—most of whom were born to surrogate mothers—were found in an L.A. mansion. Ava Kofman reports on the mysterious couple behind this story. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This is what "no stupid rules of engagement" looks like in practice. A New York Times investigation indicates that it was a US strike on an Iranian school that killed 175 people, mostly children. Hegseth has yet to accept US responsibility for this grave war crime.

The loss of the huge Qatari’s LNG terminals from the global supply chain impacts Europe indirectly because it sends a shockwave through the entire LNG market, raising prices across the board, including in Europe.

European gas stocks are, once again, at record low levels.