Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 3/3/2026

Cloudy | Bell Valley | Lunar Eclipse | Seen Sam? | Sword Work | Dennis Nord | Steelhead Count | Whale Festival | Hospital Restoration | Blue Pelican | Boonville Hairstylist | Essay Contest | Boatyard Hairstylist | March/Spring | Local Events | Spring Fever | The Window | Leonard Cirino | KBN-8830 | Yesterday's Catch | Condor Egg | On Stage | This or That | Recruit Barron | Peach | Long Weekend | Regime Change | America Last | In Iran | Damn Dems | Cannot Explain | Good News | Lead Stories | New Hatreds | Fake Diplomacy | Jew Bastards | Ayatollah So | Human Carnage | Great Wave

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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cloudy & drizzly 50F on the coast this Tuesday morning. Cloudy today, a shower tomorrow morning then clear skies for the rest of the week after that. No rain in sight currently.

CLOUD COVER near the coast Tuesday will be persistent as a weak short wave pushes in, bringing rain late Tuesday through early Thursday. High pressure just off the coast will dominate the flow, bringing northerlies near Gale force by Wednesday afternoon. (NWS)

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EARLY this morning, Earth slid between the Sun and the Moon, and for 58 minutes, our planet's shadow swallowed the full Worm Moon whole. The result was a Blood Moon, one of the most striking sights the sky can offer.

In North America this was a predawn event. The partial phase began around 3:49 a.m. CST, with totality from 5:04 to 6:02 a.m. CST. Western observers got the best view, with the red Moon hanging high in a dark sky. East Coast viewers watched totality race against sunrise as the Moon set in full eclipse. A genuinely rare sight.

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FEATHER ALERT ISSUED FOR MISSING AT-RISK MAN IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

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UKIAH MAN HELD TO ANSWER IN SWORD ATTACK OVER PIT BULL

Adam Smith said Blue, the dog, belonged to him

by Elise Cox

A 23-year-old Ukiah man has been ordered to stand trial after authorities say he stabbed a man while trying to reclaim a dog he believed was his.

Adam Smith is charged with attempted murder and other felonies stemming from a Dec. 31 confrontation that left a 33-year-old man hospitalized, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing Feb. 26 in Mendocino County Superior Court.

Detectives testified that Smith and a friend, Pete Gonzales, arranged to meet Scott Wells at 995 South State Street in Ukiah. The meeting had been set up by Gonzales, who knew Wells. The three men walked together to a trash enclosure behind the building.

According to Ukiah Police Detective Saul Perez, Smith later said he brought a sword for self-defense. “Mr. Smith believed that having the weapons present would deter a smart man from an altercation with them,” Perez said.

Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Jay Vanoven testified Gonzales had invited Wells to smoke methamphetamine.

“At some point Mr. Smith advised that he was armed with the sword and Mr. Gonzalez was armed with the blue machete,” Smith was holding the sword “up tight towards his chest with the blade pointed outwards” when he lunged and stabbed Wells in the chest, Perez said.

Vanoven testified Wells told investigators he grabbed the sword, wounding his hands, and struggled with Smith. During the struggle, Gonzales hit Wells in the back of the head with a machete.

Perez testified Smith said Gonzales then grabbed the pit bull, Blue, and the two men left the scene.

Police later located Smith at his home on East Gobbi Street. Perez described Smith as cooperative and said he agreed to return with him to the police station, where he gave a statement and was booked into jail.

“He informed me that he wanted to help law enforcement solve the incident that occurred the day prior,” Perez said.

Vanoven also testified that investigators determined the dog Blue had been given to Wells by its previous owner, a woman Smith identified as his fiance.

After hearing the testimony, Judge Victoria Shanahan said there was sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

(mendolocal.news)

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DENNIS NORD (1953-2026)

Dennis was a recent transplant to the Anderson Valley, even though he had been visiting his in-laws here since 1993. He loved moving out of the big city to this beautiful rural area. He enjoyed being able to find local wood to turn into beautiful bowls. He was thrilled when he won a blue ribbon for one of his bowls at the Mendocino County Fair. That was not anything he could have dreamed of in Los Angeles!

Dennis was a lifelong Dodger fan — much to the consternation of his new friends and neighbors. He tried not to wear his Dodger shirts around town, but sometimes he just couldn't help it! He loved playing poker and had recently set up a few games in the valley.

Dennis is survived by his wife, two sons, two granddaughters, grandson, two sisters, brother and an extended family that adored him. He spent his last vacation in Hawaii in November with his extended family.

Dennis was a huge supporter of the Anderson Valley Elder Home. If you want to make a donation in his name send it to: AVEH, PO Box 455, Boonville, CA 95415.

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BILL SIRVATKA:

Best return day so far in 2026!!! Wow…. River is still high and ugly… Lake Mendocino looks like a sewer pond right now. All the water they’re releasing in the Russian is very very dirty, but apparently the Steelhead don’t know that. Nice to see these numbers still coming in. March. These numbers are from this morning Monday.

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NOYO CENTER WHALE FEST

Noyo Center for Marine Science is kicking off the Gray Whale Migration Challenge today. The goal is to raise twelve thousand dollars in honor of the twelve thousand mile journey gray whales make each year from Baja to the Arctic.

Join us Tuesday, March third from five to seven PM at the Field Station in Noyo Harbor for the first Gray Whale Science Social, featuring Diane Alps speaking about gray whales in Baja. Attend on Zoom or come in person for a happy hour and community viewing.

And on Friday, March sixth from five to seven PM, stop by Cobalt Gallery for First Friday and see Noyo High School senior Elena Amaya’s capstone exhibit, We Are All Individuals, inspired by her experiences with whales through Noyo Center’s Kindred Coasts program.

Lots of great events coming this month. For more information: https://www.noyocenter.org/whale-festival-2026

Dobie Dolphin, Noyo Center Volunteer

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FROM HEALING TO HOSTING: The Dingmans Step Into History—Restoring Fort Bragg’s Original Hospital to Shine Once More

by Frank Hartzell

Fort Bragg’s Gray Whale Inn Begins a New Chapter

One of Fort Bragg’s iconic historic buildings has found new owners and a fresh future. The Gray Whale Inn, a proud legacy of the Union Lumber Company and a gift to the community, is working toward being able to welcome guests once again.…

https://mendocinocoast.news/the-coast-hospital-story-110-years-of-community-care-and-the-people-who-made-it-possible-step-into-the-story-that-began-in-1887-second-in-the-ongoing-serial-uncovering-the-coasts-medical/

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BLUE PELICAN GALLERY

98% moon rising over the Blue Pelican Sunday afternoon! Fabric artist Laura Lee Fitz has brought in some scrumptious jackets for you to enjoy and prints on fabric with handmade stencils. She will tell you all about her quilting process on First Friday from 4-6. Suzi will show you her progress on a watercolor of the view from the Pelican roost! Open 12-4 except Tue-Weds!

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BOONVILLE HAIRSTYLIST

I'm Aurelia - A local hair artist, I would love to craft your next personalized haircut and style.

My studio is located in the heart of Boonville, behind the Live Oak building.

Appointment available, book online here: www.jolieterre.me

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ONE MONTH LEFT IN LOCAL ESSAY CONTEST ON NAME OF FORT BRAGG

The Noyo Bida Truth Project, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit registered in the state of California is sponsoring their Fourth Annual Essay Contest and is opening it to every resident of Fort Bragg over the age of 18 years rather than to only high school students as in years past.

The intent of the contest is to get get local people thinking about and researching their City name and its history. Submissions will be graded on criteria of creativity, research, and genre skills and not on the specific argument they choose to pursue.

Each of the two distinct contest offers a $1,000 First Prize and $500 Second Prize. Folks may submit to either contest

First Contest: Yes, the name Noyo Bida (The Fishing Place in Northern Pomo) should be returned to the City of Fort Bragg

Second Contest: No, the name Noyo Bida (The Fishing Place in Northern Pomo) should not be returned to The City of Fort Bragg

Submissions for the contests will be received through 5 p.m. March 31. They will be judged in April and prizes awarded in May.

While The Noyo Bida Truth Project supports changing the name of Fort Bragg, a name which currently memorializes a genocidal fort and a Confederate General and slave master, they have enlisted three judges for the contests who are respected in their fields and who are unaffiliated with The Noyo Bida Truth Project.

Complete contest rules can be found at https://thenoyobidatruthproject.org/events and a list of some important research tools can be found at https://thenoyobidatruthproject.org/history and here https://thenoyobidatruthproject.org/gallery

In addition, our local library has more books and articles of interest. Questions and submissions should be directed to [email protected]

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MY NAME IS DEIDRA and I am a local hairstylist here on the coast.

I was born and raised here in Fort Bragg, but spent a few years in Bend, Oregon where I went to beauty college. I specialize in vivid colors, but I also enjoy lived-in looks as well. I also enjoy razor cuts and fun short hairstyles! I'm always encouraging my clients to express themselves and to try something new.

A little about me. I am a momma of a 3 year old who loves fitness and has been sober from alcohol for 2 years. My career is so important to me and this year I plan on taking more hair classes and elevating my career even more. I love my community here and have a special connection with each of my clients. I do not judge anyone in my chair and my chair is a safe space.

I am currently taking new clients and would love to have you in my chair! I am located in the Boatyard Shopping Center @numihairstudio

I work Wednesday through Saturday. Yes….I work SATURDAYS and they fill up fast

To book an appointment or if you have any questions, DM me or text 541-408-2836

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SMALL BITES FROM WORD OF MOUTH MAGAZINE

Magic Is Everywhere.

March is off to a gentle start (weather-wise), and I’ll take it. Don’t get me wrong——those misty, rainy days with the sky brought close by low-bellied clouds have their own beauty. But when the sun returns, its warmth on my back like the hand of a good friend, my spirits rise with it.

Officially spring begins in March, but real spring will arrive when it is ready. It progresses in fits and starts, reminding us to enjoy the sun while it’s here because tomorrow might bring an encore of the clouds and cold.

While our portion of the planet tilts back toward the light, there are a million miracles to notice all around us. Check out this bird app which identifies birds by their songs. It recognized seven serenading my morning walk recently, including the ridiculously name Yellow-rumped Warbler.

This phenomenal footage of blue whales will steal your breath, and hopefully inspire you to head to the coast for one of the Whale Festival events listed below. (If you can’t see the Bluesky post, it’s also on Instagram or YouTube.)

For a delightful download of fascinating facts about inland Mendocino County’s beautiful oak woodlands, get yourself to a guided walk with the delightful naturalist Kate Marianchild. Unfortunately, there isn’t one on offer in the community events below, but if you get a group together, perhaps you can reach out and arrange one——or just get her book and take it with you next time you head out into the hills. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of fun on offer in the event calendars below.

See you out there ~

Torrey Douglass & the team at Word of Mouth Magazine, Mendocino

www.wordofmouthmendo.com

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LOCAL EVENTS

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IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING

The things I used to like
I don’t like anymore.
I want a lot of other things
I’ve never had before.

It’s just like mother says—
I sit around and mope,
Pretending I am wonderful—
And knowing I’m a dope!

I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string!
I’d say that I had spring fever,
But I know it isn’t spring.

I am starry-eyed and vaguely discontented,
Like a nightingale without a song to sing.
Oh, why should I have spring fever
When it isn’t even spring?

I keep wishing I were somewhere else,
Walking down a strange new street,
Hearing words that I have never heard
From a man I’ve yet to meet.

I’m as busy as a spider spinning daydreams,
I’m as giddy as a baby on a swing.
I haven’t seen a crocus or a rosebud
Or a robin on the wing,

But I feel so gay—in a melancholy way—
That it might as well be spring...
It might as well be spring.

— lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (1945)

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THROUGH THE WIRE

Editor,

“The Window” (for Brian Schreiner)—

As I look outside the window of my cell, the sky is three shades of blue with cotton ball clouds. A warm wind gently bends the tops of the trees. The sparrows fly and dot the sky in small crowds.

The razor wire fence is glaring in the sun across the yard of dying grass on scattered mounds. A long plane is gaining height beyond the trees. A hawk is diving at a rabbit on the ground.

Outside the window makes me look inside my mind and reminisce about the loving life I had. It gives me pleasure when I know my family is happy. It’s their happiness without me that makes me sad.

The different moods I catch when looking out the window is a cliché I’ll hold dear until I die — the things in life that have the power to make us happy are the things that have the power to make us cry.

Sean Kibler

Ukiah (January 2008)

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LEONARD'S BELATED OBIT

From the Eugene Register-Guard, April 3, 2012

Local poet Leonard John Cirino (9-11-43) passed away in his sleep on Friday, March 9, 2012 of metastatic liver cancer. He was diagnosed only six weeks before his death.

Born in Los Angeles, Leonard spent most of his adult life in Northern California, in Albion, Mendocino County, where he lived and worked as an artist in the Pygmy Forest. There he started his small publishing house under the imprint Pygmy Forest Press.

Devoted to his art and to helping fellow artists, he spent over forty years writing poetry. His bibliography includes twenty chapbooks and fourteen full-length collections of poetry since 1987.

Leonard most recently lived in Springfield where he helped care for his 98-year-old mother.

His favorite place in the world was his brother's farm in Deadwood, where his ashes will be scattered in the chestnut orchards. There he will continue his conversations with the blossoms and trees he loved with such conviction.

Leonard will be deeply missed by many - especially the dispossessed of the world to whom he was devoted to his last day.

He is survived by his mother, Marjorie Cirino (nee Burtle), his brother Bill, his partner of ten years Ava Hayes, and many nephews, grand nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles.

His poetry will be available at Tsunami Books. We thank everyone who helped make the last weeks more comfortable and happier for Leonard and his entire family.

ED NOTE: Leonard lived for many years in Albion after he was released from prisons and mental institutions where he'd been confined for cutting his young daughter's head off with a machete. Fully aware of his history, Mendolib nominated Leonard for the County's Mental Health Board. During his years in Mendocino County, Leonard was on a form of federal probation and, for a time, supervised by my friend, Beverly Bennet, who Leonard also threatened to decapitate. When I knew he was visiting Boonville I always locked up my garden tools.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, March 2, 2026

CRISTOBAL CUESTA-CASTRO, 51, Covelo. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JESSE DAVENPORT, 38, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear, resisting, attempted escape.

MANUEL GONZALEZ JR., 27, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, battery with serious injury, child endangerment.

SERGIO GONZALEZ, 49, Ukiah. Parole violation, probation revocation.

TIMOTHY JANES, 65, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JAYCEE MCLEAN, 27, Dos Rios. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

JAMES PELLEGRINE, 54, Ukiah. County parole violation.

LUIS RAMIREZ-ARAIZA, 19, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, sexual battery by restraint, false imprisonment, damaging wireless communications device.

JAIME RIVERA, 48, Ukiah. Loaded handgun-not registered owner, ammo possession by prohibited person, felon-addict with firearm.

SAMUEL ROSE, 33, Davis/Ukiah. DUI.

VINCENT TARANGO, 43, Ukiah. County parole violation.

NICOLE WILSON, 42, Redwood Valley. Under influence, child endangerment.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA’S FIRST CONDOR EGG IN 100 YEARS FOUND IN REDWOOD TREE

by Kurtis Alexander

The effort to restore the endangered California condor to the state’s far north hit a milestone last month with the likely discovery of the region’s first condor egg in more than a century.

Scientists with the Yurok Tribe say that two of 26 condors released to the wild in Humboldt County since 2022 have recently paired up, established a nest high in a redwood tree and appear to be tending to an egg.

The prospect of a new chick in the coastal forest is the first sign that the reintroduced condor population in Northern California is become self-sustaining. Condors, which are the continent’s largest flying birds with nearly 10-foot wingspans, were driven to near extinction last century. They’ve only recently begun to recover, thanks to reestablishment programs.

“This is a huge moment for our Northern California flock,” said Chris West, a senior biologist with the Yurok Wildlife Department. “It feels kind of like we’ve been putting the birds out there and putting things in motion. But this is where they really take it upon themselves to take the strides needed to become a truly wild population.”

The scientists working on the condor recovery say they can’t see, nor confirm, the existence of the new egg because of its remote location. But based on behavioral changes and flight patterns of the nesting pair, which are tracked through monitoring tags on the birds, they believe that an egg was laid in early February.

“As soon as we looked at the (GPS) data closely, we said this is what we’re seeing for sure,” West said. “There really isn’t anything else this could be.”

The presumed egg is thought to be stowed in a cavity of an old-growth redwood in a secluded area within the drainage of Redwood Creek in Redwood National and State Parks. With the mother and father alternately flying around for days and then sitting still at the tree — so still, in fact, that their tracking tags have set off mortality alerts — the scientists believe the birds are taking turns with incubation duties during the suspected egg’s roughly two-month term.

The scientists warn, though, that the first egg produced by a breeding condor pair often doesn’t survive because of the inexperience of the parents and the fragility of the incubation process.

“I do know the odds,” West said. But “I am optimistic.”

The 6-year-old condors tending to the nest, identified as A0 (or Ney-gem' 'Ne-chween-kah) and A1 (or Hlow Hoo-let), were among the first birds released into the wild as part of the Northern California Condor Restoration Program, a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks.

The partnership is seeking to release groups of condors, bred in captivity, every summer for 20 years. Currently, 24 of the program’s birds are believed to be living in the region. Two have died.

California condors, known for using their giant wings to ride thermals up to 15,000 feet into the air, were once plentiful along the West Coast as well as other parts of North America. The birds, however, were pushed to the brink by a combination of hunting, lost habitat, power line crashes and, most significantly, lead poisoning from bullets. As scavengers, condors can ingest shreds of ammunition when they feed on hunted deer and elk.

In the 1980s, the number of condors living in the wild is believed to have fallen to 22. With their demise appearing imminent, federal biologists collected the known birds and began a captive breeding program.

Condors have since been reintroduced at Big Sur and Pinnacles National Park on the Central Coast as well as in parts of Southern California. The Northern California releases are more recent, as are releases in Arizona and Mexico’s Baja peninsula.

(sfchronicle.com)

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CROW OR RAVEN?

The way I heard it, if you wonder, Is that a crow or a raven?, it's a crow. If you go, Oh my God, that bird is as big as a chicken!, it's a raven.

Tell a rat from a mouse: If you drop a mouse sixty feet it gets up and runs away. If you drop a rat sixty feet it splats like a bag of soup.

How to tell an alligator from a crocodile: Whether you see it later or after while.

A smart dog looks where you point, a stupid dog looks at your finger.

A schlemiel trips and spills the soup. A schlemazel is the guy he spills the soup on.

Those are some that I know. Do you know others like that?

— Marco McClean

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PEACH

Would you like to throw a stone at me?
Here, take all that’s left of my peach.

Blood-red, deep:
Heaven knows how it came to pass.
Somebody’s pound of flesh rendered up.

Wrinkled with secrets
And hard with the intention to keep them.

Why, from silvery peach-bloom,
From that shallow-silvery wine-glass on a short stem
This rolling, dropping, heavy globule?

I am thinking, of course, of the peach before I ate it.

Why so velvety, why so voluptuous heavy?
Why hanging with such inordinate weight?
Why so indented?

Why the groove?
Why the lovely, bivalve roundnesses?
Why the ripple down the sphere?
Why the suggestion of incision?

Why was not my peach round and finished like a billiard ball?
It would have been if man had made it.
Though I’ve eaten it now.

But it wasn’t round and finished like a billiard ball;
And because I say so, you would like to throw something at me.

Here, you can have my peach stone.

— D.H. Lawrence (1923)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

Welp, hope everyone enjoys these few weeks of “successful regime change” because it usually only lasts a short time before decades of chaos ensue and unpredictable reverberations destabilize surrounding areas. I know everyone is dunking on the “libs” for protesting this while the Iranian people seemingly celebrate, but given the historical outcomes of USAs regime change operations, we should assume it's going to make the area much worse. The Taliban is literally the Afghan government now.

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

Trump ran in 2024 on the huge issues of no war with Iran, full release of Epstein files, mass deportations, tariffs. We have gotten NONE of these. And he used his own powers, despite the promises of "America First" to break his own promise of no new foreign wars. What's more, he did so to begin a regional war of regime change in the Middle East with Iran.

I voted for Trump in the primaries and in the general election when I first became eligible to vote in '16, drawn in by his desire and promise to put Americans first and opposition to the Iraq war. I also did so in '20, and in '24. I will never vote Republican again until they put America First and Americans first. Trump and the Republicans have utterly betrayed MAGA and America First. He and the Republicans have lost their mandate to govern.

Trump was willing to leverage Republicans and let them lose to Hillary with a third-party split ticket in '16; guess what, he got what he wanted and became the nominee and eventually the president. He was willing to let Republicans lose to get what he wanted. I and many others are willing to make that same gambit. Until they put America First, do not let them continue to sell their globalist agenda in a pretty America First package. I am not going to vote in the midterms because of this war in Iran, in fact, I may vote Democrat. FUCK the Republican party for this. And, if the Republicans do not put America First in '28, I will vote split ticket or Democrat and let the party burn to the ground. There is no reason to keep voting for the party that dragged us into another Middle Eastern regime change war; this is not America First. I cannot and will not vote for the GOP until they put America First.

Never Vance

Never Rubio

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THE DEMOCRATS never made a case for not attacking Iran. At best, they meekly criticized Trump’s lack of following a proper process for attacking Iran and he just ignored them. They didn’t defend one of the best things Obama did, the Iran nuclear deal. Biden had four years to reinstate the deal. Instead, he backed Israel’s genocide in Gaza and attacks Iranian allies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The consequences of this war are as much on them as on Trump….

— Jeffrey St. Clair

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CAN DONALD TRUMP WIN A WAR WITH IRAN If He Can’t Explain Why He Started It?

So far, explanations are few and the goals—from regime change to ending a nuclear program the President already claimed to have “obliterated”—are many.

by Susan B. Glasser

In the two and a half days since Donald Trump unleashed a new war in the Middle East, the President and his Administration have come up with an astonishing array of different, even contradictory, rationales for the American military attack on Iran. By my count, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few, these include outright regime change, assistance to the oppressed peoples of the Islamic Republic, stripping Iran of “the ability to project power outside its borders,” stopping future Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks while exacting revenge for past ones, preëmptive action against an imminent Iranian threat to attack U.S. forces, preëmptive action to block Iran from building ballistic missiles that could hit the U.S. mainland, and preëmptive action to stop the Iranian nuclear program that Trump had, as recently as last week, claimed was “obliterated.” Many of these explanations are based on false premises; some already seem to have been abandoned.

All of which raises perhaps the most urgent question thus far about the most dramatic military action undertaken by the United States since the 2003 invasion of Iraq: Can the U.S. win a war of its choosing when it cannot explain why it chose to fight or what, exactly, victory would mean?…

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/can-donald-trump-win-a-war-with-iran-if-he-cant-explain-why-he-started-it

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LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

U.S. Sending More Forces to Middle East as Iran War Widens

Noem to Address Congress for First Time Since Minnesota Immigration Surge

Despite Promises, Veterans Affairs Department Cut Thousands of Roles for Doctors and Nurses

Seven Takeaways From the Clintons’ Epstein Depositions

Banks Are Becoming Bulwarks for Vulnerable Seniors

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"WE CANNOT KNOW where this foolish, reckless attack will end – but new hatreds will be seeded, terrorist vendettas sown and, ultimately, little will be achieved."

— Simon Tisdall

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WITH ‘EPIC FURY’, REGIME CHANGE RADICALS GO TO WAR ON IRAN

After again pretending to engage in diplomacy with Tehran, the US and Israel launch a new catastrophe in West Asia.

by Aaron Maté

Operation Epic Fury, the US and Israel’s new regime change war in Iran, began early Saturday with the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and bombings across the country, including at a girls’ elementary school that reportedly killed over 115 people, mostly children. The attacks escalated today with Israeli-US strikes on Tehran that have reportedly killed hundreds more. Iranian reprisals against US military bases in the Gulf region have claimed the lives of at least five US servicemembers. The war quickly widened with Israeli forces killing dozens in Lebanon after Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, fired rockets into northern Israel for the first time since late 2024.

Two weeks before the US and Israel launched their latest act of joint aggression, a follow-up to the 12-day war that they started last June, Secretary of State Marco Rubio all but admitted that the Trump administration had no interest in a diplomatic alternative.

“It’s going to be hard,” Rubio said during a visit to Hungary. “It’s been very difficult for anyone to do real deals with Iran because we’re dealing with radical Shia clerics who are making theological decisions, not geopolitical ones.”

President Trump’s own record with Iran shows his top diplomat’s claim to be false. The US reached a deal with Iran in 2015 that constrained its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. After Trump took office, multiple US government bodies, including the State Department that Rubio now heads, certified that Iran “continued to adhere” to its commitments until Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018.

In his dismissive portrayal of a “radical” clerical government in Tehran unable to make agreements, Rubio was also projecting. Just days later, Trump’s Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee declared that when it comes to stealing Middle Eastern territory, including that of Gulf allies, Israel is biblically entitled to “take it all.” Huckabee’s comments illustrated that the Trump administration contains radical, theological elements in lockstep with an even more openly extremist Israeli government.…

https://www.aaronmate.net/p/with-epic-fury-regime-change-radicals

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AYATOLLAH SO

by James Kunstler

You’ve got to think: if the US military can pinpoint one room in Teheran with a Grand Ayatollah and 39 other high officials in it, then the US military can figure out where Iran’s missiles are being launched from and put a stop to that, too. With no high command left, Iran’s missile batteries have been on their own since Saturday, desperately trying a kind of last-ditch “Samson option” to light up the whole region and bring the House of the Middle East down with Iran.

Firing on the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia especially, was maybe not such a hot idea. Saudi Arabia’ air defenses intercepted almost all the drones aimed at their giant Ras Tanura oil refinery. Falling debris started a small fire that was contained while the refinery shut down safely. Iran has reawakened the centuries-old rift between Shi’a and Sunni Islam and Saudi Arabia has been stockpiling war planes from the USA for fifty years without getting to use them much. I doubt they’ll pass up the chance. Who does speak for Iran now? Just naming a successor to the Ayatollah Khamenei would put a target on his turban. Iran’s Intel Service building was blown up on Sunday, so that network must be dark. How is Iran’s government and its remaining military command communicating? And how would US and Israeli intel not be listening in on whatever chatter is out there?

The world fretfully expects Iran to try to close the Strait of Hormuz, but how does that happen with tanker traffic halted and most of Iran’s navy blown up and its naval command headquarters destroyed? Without the ships to do it, it’s unlikely that Iran will be laying out minefields in the Strait. Or that any tankers will be around to sink in the channel.

President Trump has declared a four-week window for Operation Epic Fury. Sounds a little too generous. With no command structure left and no viable communication, you might give the Islamic Republic one more week, maybe. It’s a tossup whether they run out of missiles and drones before all their launch-sites and stockpiles get bombed. Meanwhile, a US / Israeli info operation that hacked Iran’s state-run TV seeks to persuade Iranian army personnel and government bureaucrats to turn on what remains of the theocracy and think about forming a secular government. Why would they stick with the loser regime?

Of course, the Trump-deranged political opposition in America is ululating over this effort to put the world’s leading fomenter of terrorism out of business. The New York Times is especially glum, claiming, “The American public’s appetite for an attack on Iran was low before Trump and Israel took action.” Maybe the Jacobin-Democrats they cater to feel that way, since the party has been increasingly synchronizing with the forces of Jihad since the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas raid. After forty-seven years of ayatollahs, what part of “Death to America” don’t they understand?

Not a few prominent figures on the Right also deplored Operation Epic Fury. The increasingly rogue Trump-hater and Israel vilifier, Tucker Carlson, called the action “disgusting and evil.” MTG called it “unnecessary and is unacceptable.” Blackwater founder Erik Prince colored it as “not serving America’s interests and inconsistent with President Trump’s MAGA agenda.” Rep. Thomas Masie (R-KY) framed his objection in Congress’s prerogative to declare war — though the War Powers Act of 1973 permits the president to conduct military operations for 60 days after notifying Congress of his intentions.

You can understand why people are nervous about this, with so many commentators predicting World War Three and Biblical Armageddon. The Fourth Turning narrative asserts that a major war is inevitable at this moment in history. Maybe so. But Ukraine has already happened and is on a glide path to its conclusion. And Operation Epic Fury does not have to turn out badly for all concerned, including Iran. Other more sanguine observers see a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East emerging from the smoke, a fulfillment of the Abraham Protocols, and the termination of Iran-sponsored proxy wars, terror programs, and medieval social despotism. Epic Fury looks like a turning point for Western Civ more generally as regards tolerating Jihadi insolence — its declared intent to destroy all its “infidel” enemies, meaning you and me and the remaining indigenous population of Europe. The strife Iran managed to stir up all around the Middle East and beyond for decades was largely responsible for the mass migration into Europe and the dispersion of millions into the USA during “Joe Biden’s” open border years. Citizens are now rising to oppose Islam’s aggressive promotion of Sharia Law and demographic replacement in Texas and other states. Expect bolder resistance to all that now, here and in Europe, too.

However this thing goes, Iran will not acquire a nuclear arsenal, and this was, after all, the main issue. Anyway, the Iranians must be sick of the rule of the mullahs. Mr. Trump told them some weeks ago that “help is on the way.” He meant what he said, he didn’t chicken out, and now it’s up to the people of Iran to sort out how they enter the future, starting now.

(kunstler.com)

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IF WESTERNERS COULD WRAP THEIR MINDS AROUND WHAT WAR REALLY IS

by Caitlin Johnstone

Drop Site News has a new article out which includes incredibly disturbing witness accounts of the carnage from a double-tap airstrike by the US-Israel alliance on a densely populated part of Tehran.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We were sitting here around 8:00–8:30 p.m. and suddenly there was the noise and explosion. We got up and a few people ran away. We turned around to get our belongings and we saw that blood was spraying everywhere. Someone’s hand had fallen on the floor, a head had fallen on the floor,” said Shahin, a witness who had been at the cafe and asked to be identified by first name only. “There were scalps torn off, hands severed, a few people were laying here all cut up and two people were martyred.” … “One hit and it wasn’t that bad but when the second one hit, suddenly everything exploded. The windows all shattered. Whoever had hookahs were thrown to the floor,” Shahin said. “One of my friends whom I don’t know that well he was sitting here. His hookah was in his hands until the last moment. He was severed in half. Half of him was thrown to the side. I put him back together and placed him where he was. A piece of his brain was thrown here on the floor.”

War is the worst thing in the world. Westerners talk about it like it’s a fucking video game, like “hurr durr, we just go in there and achieve our objectives and win,” when really war means shredding human bodies to bits.

Children burning to death in front of their parents.

People holding their own guts in their hands as their life slowly slips away.

People getting trapped under rubble and dying excruciatingly slow deaths of suffocation or dehydration.

People picking up pieces of their beloved family members.

Westerners are able to hold this compartmentalized video game mentality about war because war isn’t something that happens to us. We’ve never had bombs dropped on our neighborhoods. We’ve never had the experience of seeing a severed hand on the ground after an explosion and trying to figure out who it belonged to. We’ve never had the experience of seeing our child’s shredded body after a blast and thinking about how we’d carefully helped them dress that precious body for school just hours before.

We just see the movies. The propagandistic war documentaries. The sanitized news reports.

It’s not real to us. It’s not personal. It’s just this cutesy Hollywood image of sexy Good Guys doing flips and spin-kicking evil Bad Guys off cliffs.

You know this is true, because if it wasn’t then nobody would support US wars. If westerners had an actual, visceral understanding of what war really is and what it actually means, and if they could truly, deeply grasp that the people on the receiving end of those airstrikes are human beings just like them, there’s no way they’d support inflicting such nightmares upon their fellow man.

Which is why everything in our civilization is aimed at hiding that reality from us. War is made to look heroic and glamorous. Middle easterners are framed as deranged subhuman savages. The flesh-and-bone consequences of western warmongering are hidden from public view as much as possible.

They need to do this because the western empire depends on war. War is the glue that holds the empire together. They need the mass-scale bloodshed to continue, and they need the public to provide no resistance to the bloodshed. The empire cannot exist without war. Peace cannot exist without the removal of the empire.

You watch these bespectacled pundits and pampered politicians babbling about war the way they’d talk about their plans to remodel their kitchen or take a trip to Paris, and you just know if actual war ever showed up on their doorstep they’d literally soil themselves. They’d never recover. They’d spend the rest of their lives in shock and trauma, because what they saw would have shaken them irreparably to their very core.

It would impact them in this way because war is the worst thing in the world. Anyone with a functioning empathy center and a truth-based worldview would move mountains to prevent war from happening. And yet we are ruled by sociopaths who actively seek it out. War is the worst thing in the world, and we are ruled by the worst people in the world.

The world will never know peace until we cease to allow such creatures to rule over us.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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