Iran’s recent actions necessitate that the United States and Israel continue their military campaign against the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has started putting mines up in the Straits of Hormuz, and the United States responded by destroying at least 16 of those vessels. Iran has also struck three cargo vessels in the Straits. The Islamic Republic has also threatened to attack U.S. and Israeli “economic centers and banks” in the Middle East, and to deprive the U.S. and Israel of access to any oil. Iran’s escalations don’t stop there. The regime has also targeted NATO member Turkey at least twice, with the first time being an attempted attack on the U.S./NATO Incirlik Air Base. Iran has also issued yet another threat against President Trump’s life. A recent report highlighted that Iran might still be able to reach and move highly enriched uranium from a site hit by the U.S. in Isfahan last June, so the U.S. and Israel are [logically] contemplating sending in limited special operations troops to secure all of Iran’s highly enriched uranium. Additionally, Hezbollah, though significantly degraded by previous Israeli strikes, is still able to fire over 200 rockets into Israel since the terror organization started re-attacking the Jewish state earlier this month. Meanwhile, the remaining leadership in Iran remains intransigent, with the head of parliament stating that the Islamic Republic is not seeking a ceasefire, and the foreign minister remarking that Iran would fight on for “as long as it takes.” Furthermore, in recent days, the Islamic Republic has increased its bloodlust for global civilian deaths beyond the neighbors that it is mauling with missiles and drones, showing a brazen willingness to instigate a world war. The U.S. believes it has intercepted communications from Iran suggesting that the Islamic Republic aims to activate “sleeper” terrorist cells in the United States, possibly to avenge the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Azerbaijan stated that it foiled several recent IRGC attacks, with targets including “the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan, an Ashkenazi synagogue, and a leader [of] ​an ancient Jewish community in Azerbaijan called the Mountain ​Jews,” as reported by Reuters. The United Kingdom foiled an Iranian-backed spy ring that was surveilling British Jews. A Lebanese-born, alleged Hamas member was caught in Cyprus after being suspected of smuggling over 300 rounds of ammunition for “Hamas assassination attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany and Europe.” While too early to tell, Iran may have supported recent attacks on U.S. embassies in Oslo and Baghdad, the U.S. consulates in Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan, three synagogues in the Greater Toronto area, and a synagogue in Liege, Belgium. If the Islamic Republic were involved with these, history would merely be repeating itself, echoing when Iran’s Islamist students stormed the U.S. embassy in 1979, and Iran supported the Hezbollah attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. (RELATED: Did Iran Orchestrate The Hannukah Murder of Jews at Bondi Beach?) And despite recent polls saying that only 40 percent of Americans approve of the war against Iran, an earlier poll showed only 27 percent support, suggesting that the war may be becoming more, not less, popular. For its part, Israel continues to degrade Iran and its axis. In Iran, Israel has destroyed an estimated 75 percent of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, in addition to the factories that make those missiles and their engines, and a facility in Isfahan that stored and produced Ghadr missiles. In Isfahan, the IDF also hit an IRGC and Basij base and the IRGC police headquarters. Israel destroyed 16 planes used by the IRGC in an attack on Tehran’s international airport. Israel also killed Abu al-Qassem Baba’iyan, the new Head of the Military Office of the Supreme Leader and the Chief of Staff of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. In Lebanon, Israel continues to execute arch-terrorists. It killed six IGRC Quds Force senior commanders in Lebanon, including: the commander of the Lebanon Corps; the commander of the intelligence sector of the Lebanon Corps; one of his operatives; a financial liaison between Iran and Lebanon; a Hezbollah operative in the Palestine Corps; and the Head of Intelligence of the Palestine Corps. Israel also killed the head of Hezbollah’s Nasser Unit, Hezbollah’s head of artillery in southern Lebanon, and a Hamas operative who trained terrorists in Lebanon. It also struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell that had used Christian villagers as human shields. Due to the success of the U.S. and Israeli strikes, Iran is firing 92 percent fewer ballistic missiles and 92 percent fewer drones than at the beginning of this latest conflict. The United States continues to target Iran’s military capabilities abroad as well, having recently designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, long supported by the IGRC, as a terrorist organization. But in the face of all this, Iran doesn’t want to negotiate, nor is there a hint that it would ever negotiate in good faith. Case in point: The Islamic Republic pledged to cease attacking its neighbors, but then almost immediately attacked: the Dubai International Airport; Abu Dhabi’s oil refinery Ruwais, which had to shut down; oil refineries in Basra, Iraq; and the social security building in Kuwait City. Since its pledge, Iran’s attacks have caused the death of at least one woman in an apartment building in Bahrain and caused two deaths near Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, with its ballistic missiles. Almost half of the 300 ballistic missiles that Iran has fired into Israel have contained cluster munitions. Iran’s continued belligerence toward its neighbors continues to bring several U.S. allies in the region, besides Israel, to shore up defenses against Iran. In addition to the Muslim states’ interceptions of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles, Turkey has deployed 6 F-16s and air defense systems to defend Northern Cyprus. Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering retaliating against Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom. Some media claimed that both Qatar and the UAE have already retaliated against Iran, though both Qatar and the UAE denied these claims. (RELATED: US and Israel Continue to Degrade the Islamic Republic) The ongoing belligerence of Iran makes a continued U.S. and Israel military campaign necessary. Only with the fall of the Islamic Republic can the U.S., Iran’s neighbors, and the world truly know peace. READ MORE from Steve Postal: US and Israel Continue to Degrade the Islamic Republic Iran’s Fatal Miscalculation Disturbing New Palestinian Constitution Deepens Rift With US

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to run for president, but the state of California is a hindrance to that. So, instead of solving the plentiful problems afflicting the once-golden state, Newsom is seeking to fund a $19 million “California Brand Campaign” that would argue on a national level that California “is an economic powerhouse.” The campaign is supposed to show the “reality” of California that is “obscured by negative narratives amplified online and in partisan media.” The state government has called for interested contractors to develop a plan for “paid, social, and any other digital content.” Videos, the government said, can be “optimized for social media” or “designed for owned state channels, presentations, or events.” This reeks of desperation. Newsom, seeing how much of a problem California’s “brand perception” is for his presidential campaign, is hiring out people to make TikTok videos for him — on the state’s dime. Many are quickly seeing this project for exactly what it is. Steve Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist who is a longtime Newsom critic, pointed out that the contract only lasts until the end of this year, when Newsom will be finishing up his term as governor. “That just says all you need to know about this,” Maviglio told Fox 40. “It’s not so much about helping California businesses, it’s about trying to prop up Newsom’s unfavorability as he runs around the country.” Republican state Sen. Roger Niello, meanwhile, told KCRA, “This is unquestionably promoting Gavin Newsom, this is unquestionably part of his presidential campaign.” Newsom must be getting concerned because California’s woes have been a shadow hanging over his fledgling presidential campaign. Interviewers, such as CNN’s Dana Bash, feel obligated to confront him over it. Last month, Bash, while interviewing Newsom about his memoir, told him, “California has the highest cost of living in the nation. The state’s prices are 11 percent higher than the national average. We were actually out to dinner here in Nashville last night. We met a couple from California. They moved out of California because they couldn’t afford the rent or even to buy a home and also to start a family.” Inconveniently for Newsom, California’s most pressing problem, its cost-of-living crisis, directly runs up against the new priority Democrats are trying to center ahead of this November’s midterms: affordability. Forbes found last year that the cost of a median home in California is nearly double the national average, at $906,500. That puts buying a home nearly out of reach for middle-class families. Karl Rove noted in the Wall Street Journal last month that U.S. News & World Report has ranked California at “No. 32 on its economy, 42 on fiscal stability, 45 on growth, 46 on employment, and dead last for opportunity.” The Bureau of Economic Analysis has found that California has the highest cost of living in the nation. The Census Bureau has said that California has the nation’s highest poverty rate, when accounting for living costs. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 5.6 percent. Despite this, Newsom has chosen to tout California’s “affordability.” During his state of the state address this January, he said, “Affordability — that’s not a word we just discovered, and it’s certainly not a hoax. Here’s the way we think about it. It’s not just one issue; it’s a stacking of many issues, one on top of another.” He went on to claim that through “targeted tax credits, rebates, and program expansions, the average California family now saves $18,000.” The state write-up of his speech said he was “boldly investing” in “affordability.” Newsom has also chosen to emphasize California’s immense wealth to distract from the dismal economic situation of its poor and middle-class residents. When in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, Newsom was asked, “How are voters looking at California, looking at New York, looking at Chicago, supposed to say, ‘Yeah, this is the model that we want’?” Newsom set California’s cost of living crisis to the side and responded, “We have more Fortune 500 companies than any other state in America. More scientists, engineers, more Nobel laureates in my state than any state in America, the finest system of higher public education in the world. We have 18 percent of the world’s R&D — China, 22 percent; Germany, 21 percent; California, 18 percent of the world’s R&D. We’re the center of the universe as it relates to AI.” One might wonder if California’s wealth, particularly given its progressive governance, actually makes the plight of its lower classes look even worse. Criticism of California certainly hasn’t come from only, as the document outlining Newsom’s “brand campaign” claims, “partisan media.” Earlier this year, the Atlantic published an op-ed headlined “Gavin Newsom’s Record Is a Problem.” The piece said Newsom’s record “not only raises pressing questions about how effectively he could govern as president; it also provides opponents an endless buffet of vulnerabilities across social and economic issues.” And CalMatters’ Dan Walters this January outlined the many issues that afflict California: “high levels of homelessness and poverty, a housing shortage that’s just as acute as when he took office in 2019, an insurance crisis born of chronic wildfires, a woebegone bullet train project, soaring costs of living, persistent water supply uncertainties and a looming shortage of gasoline as refineries close due to hostile state regulation.” Walters stated, “California’s urgent issues loom over Newsom campaign.” Newsom must be bitter over all of this and fretting about how he can campaign for president when his life’s work is (perceived by many to be) a dumpster fire. We can really see this bitterness in what the state government tells potential contractors for the California “brand campaign” project: “Some look at this state and try to tear down our progress. They attack our values and caricature our culture. They distort the data to diminish our accomplishments.” Newsom can try all he wants to, as Republican state Sen. Tony Strickland said, to “put[] lipstick on a pig,” but the numbers don’t lie, and Newsom won’t be able to escape them on the campaign trail. READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes: Gavin Newsom’s Cowardly Foreign Policy Newsom’s Ticking Time Bomb: Dana Williamson Gavin Newsom Will Regret His Book Launch

Isn’t it time for a “do over”? That would be a do-over on taxes. As April 15th  tax day in America approaches, maybe — just maybe — it’s time to reconsider the entire American tax system. Adding a novel touch. The touch? A Politician Tax. Taxing all politicians personally — all elected at the federal, state, and local levels — if they vote to raise or impose a tax on anyone. Anyone — be that an individual, a corporation, a company, or any other entity. How would that work? Here’s a sample headline, this one from the 2025 Biden budget proposal: “Taxes on businesses and high-net-worth individuals would increase significantly under Biden Administration’s FY 2025 Budget proposal.” OK. Had the Politician Tax been in effect back then, President Joe Biden personally would have had his personal tax rate raised. Not anyone else. Just Joe Biden. Here’s a current headline from PBS about taxes in Washington State: “Washington could be next to tax millionaire income.” The story reports as follows, bold print for emphasis supplied: Since a state Supreme Court decision nearly a century ago shot down an income tax, Washington has stood out as being one of few states controlled by Democrats without a tax on wages or salaries — though it does tax certain investment proceeds. Facing a budget shortage, lawmakers are debating a proposal that would create a nearly 10 percent annual tax on personal earnings over $1 million. If adopted, the tax would collect billions of dollars of new revenue that would be designed to pay for free K-12 school meals, childcare services, a family tax credit and eliminate sales taxes on personal care items such as shampoo. The state House adopted it this week after an all-night session deliberating amendments to the proposal. Now, it goes back to the Senate, which passed a version previously. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson has indicated support if the Legislature, which is controlled by his party, can send it to him before it adjourns Thursday. [emphasis added] Got this? The Governor of Washington is supporting “a nearly 10 percent annual tax on personal earnings over $1 million.” So. Under the new “Politician’s Tax”, Governor Ferguson would have his personal state income tax raised by a “10 percent annual tax on personal earnings.” No excuses. No whimpering. He doesn’t have to earn a million dollars. No matter his earnings, he gets an automatic 10 percent raise on the governor’s personal state income tax bill for the governor only, with the same applied to every Washington State legislator who voted for the tax increase. Meanwhile, over there at Americans for Tax Reform is this: “Dems to Propose Highest Capital Gains Tax Rate Since 1978.” The story reports: Democrats just cannot stop raising taxes. Their latest proposal would increase the top capital gains tax rate to 35.8 percent from the current 23.8 percent. This would impose the highest capital gains tax since 1978, the stagnant Jimmy Carter era. Again? Got it. With a Politician Tax in effect, the politicians who proposed and voted for the tax mentioned would have their personal tax rate go up by a full 12 percent, as the Democrats’ proposal they present here does. And on it goes. If your mayor supports raising a tax of any kind in your city, then the mayor’s personal tax would go up by an equal amount. If anyone in Congress proposes a tax increase of any kind — especially a tax that does not affect them — then make it affect them. In other words? American politicians, too frequently of all stripes, have slowly gone tax crazy over the decades. They pass one today and move on, and then someone else passes another, and they move on from there. It could be the personal income tax. The capital gains tax. A sales tax. A life insurance tax. A property tax. But on and on — and on and on — goes a list of taxes that this or that American or group of Americans is facing. Taxes in America, to put it mildly, are out of control. Thus, it would seem that the one sure way of calling a halt to this taxing mania is to, yes indeed, tax any elected politician at any level — federal, state, or local — who supports raising taxes. In short? It’s time — more than past time — to do something about a politician’s tax mania. Be they federal, state, or local politicians. Happy early April 15th. READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: America Under Attack Democrats Silent on Party Paying Reparations for Slavery Trump Stands Tall on Iran

On Thursday, in an 89–10 vote, the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).  Despite gaining broad bipartisan approval in the Senate, the bill is “dead in the House as is,” according to Politico, with several members of the House Freedom Caucus comparing aspects of the bill to “socialism.” Last month, the House passed a different housing bill, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, in a 390–9 vote.  While both bills share many provisions, the key difference is that, as passed, the Senate version would ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. It would also require any major investor who builds or owns single-family homes available for rent to sell those properties after seven years.  The Senate bill defines large institutional investors as anyone who “directly or indirectly has investment control of not less than 350 single-family homes in the aggregate.” The Senate added these provisions to comply with President Donald Trump’s demand in the State of the Union to make his executive order permanent. It has now drawn the ire of their House colleagues. (RELATED: Trump Touts ‘Housing-Ban’ Buncombe) According to reports from Politico and CNBC, both Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) agree that House Republicans might need a formal negotiating conference to address concerns.  Breaking away from his colleagues during his speech on the floor, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) called the provision a “very bizarre thing,” adding it was “positively Soviet.”  Institutional investors own 2 percent of the single-family rental housing available nationwide, with ownership shares significantly higher in markets with high foreclosure rates, such as the Southeast. These investors own less than 1 percent of the country’s overall single-family housing stock and about 3 percent of single-family homes available for rent. Opponents argue that by purchasing housing that would otherwise have sat vacant and dilapidated, these investors provide entry into the housing market for Americans who can’t yet afford homeownership but need the space. With a housing shortage of nearly four million units, members of the House likely feel that the Senate is cutting off a market solution that has already proven its value.  Data from a University of Pennsylvania study shows that institutional investors lead to lower rents while spurring more construction of single-family units, mitigating any overall price increase caused by their involvement in the market. Policies governing zoning, land-use regulations, and building restrictions are often made at the state and local levels. The House bill includes zoning and land-use reforms. It also addresses onerous environmental reviews, such as those under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, that prevent new housing from being built. Despite threats from President Trump to refuse to sign any bill until the passage of the SAVE America Act, a White House official told Politico that “the administration supports the bill as-is.”

Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation on Wednesday that would effectively ban the abortion pill, mifepristone, in the United States.  “The science is clear: the chemical abortion drug is inherently dangerous to women and prone to abuse,” Hawley stated at a press conference. The Missouri Republican’s proposal, titled the “Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act,” would revoke the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, prohibit its distribution for abortion under federal drug law, and allow women harmed by chemical abortions to pursue legal action against drug manufacturers. A previous proposal by Hawley in May 2025, “Restoring Safeguards for Dangerous Abortion Drugs Act,” sought to reinstate stricter FDA safety rules for mifepristone before it stalled in the Senate. GOP Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who supported the introduction of the bill, added, “[T]he FDA under previous administrations has steadily dismantled critical safety safeguards surrounding the abortion drug mifepristone.” Harshbarger is expected to introduce companion legislation in the House. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the Biden administration loosened FDA safety requirements governing the abortion pill, suspending enforcement of the in-person dispensing rule. As a result, mifepristone is now prescribed via telehealth and shipped directly to patients. The FDA eliminated the requirement for in-person dispensing entirely in 2023. The Trump administration has kept those rules in place, despite strong lobbying from pro-life activists to overturn them. Guttmacher Institute data from 2023 showed that medication abortions “account[ed] for 63% of all abortions in the formal health care system. This is an increase from 2020, when medication abortions accounted for 53% of all abortions.” Researchers noted that medication abortion figures “do not include self-managed medication abortions that take place outside of the formal health care system or abortion medication mailed to people in states with total abortion bans.” Findings from a JAMA study in 2022 suggest that “self-managed” medication abortions are also on the rise following Dobbs. Requests for the pill through telemedicine provider Aid Access nearly tripled in 30 states; mean daily requests started at roughly 82.6 in the year before the leak, increased to 137.1 following the leak of the Dobbs decision, and increased again to 213.7 after Dobbs was announced. A 2025 study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center analyzed insurance claims from more than 865,000 mifepristone abortions. It found that approximately 11 percent of women experienced a “serious or life-threatening adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion,” which included complications like “sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging.” This rate was 22 times higher than the complication rate cited on the FDA drug label. Mifepristone is classified as a drug that has “serious safety concerns” under the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. Notably, the pill comes with an “FDA boxed warning,” which is the highest level of FDA safety warning. READ MORE: Abortion Activists Wanted Him to Die, but Now Baby Chance Is Home Why Notre Dame Can’t Stop Stumbling on Abortion The Disturbing Doctor Touring the Country to Promote Her Career of Third-Trimester Abortions

from Sputnik News: The first week of the US operation against Iran cost more than $11.3 billion, The New York Times reported, citing three officials. Earlier this week, US Democratic senators called on US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to appear at a public hearing on the US military […]

A panel that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines has backed away from its push to stop recommending the mRNA COVID-19 jabs, for now. Multiple outlets claimed the shift is related to its potential impact on Republicans in the midterm elections. A group of experts that advises the CDC on its vaccine recommendations has suspended an anticipated push to stop recommending mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines amid growing concerns inside the Trump administration over its political risks, people familiar with the matter told CNN.… pic.twitter.com/FgpqhB04Yh — CNN (@CNN) March 12, 2026 CNN has more: There’s increasing concern among Republicans that further attacks on vaccines will harm the party’s chances in November, and the White House has pushed health officials to focus on more politically appealing issues ahead of the midterm elections. The plan to stop recommending mRNA Covid shots has been shelved only for the time being, according to the people familiar, and could be still revived at some point in the coming months. A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that the CDC’s committee “has not reconsidered its September 2025 decision to classify COVID vaccines under shared clinical decision-making on the CDC immunization schedules.” “Additionally, the FDA and ACIP have consistently been aligned: the FDA’s approval of COVID vaccines for high-risk groups and the ACIP’s recommendation to include them on the immunization schedule under shared clinical decision-making, which means the decision to vaccinate is based upon individual patient characteristics, are compatible,” the spokesperson said, according to The Guardian. According to a Federal Register Notice published in February, the advisory committee is scheduled to receive updates on “ACIP Workgroups and discussions on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID.” “Recommendation votes may be scheduled for COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID and ACIP recommendation methodology,” it added. The Washington Post shared further: The panel may vote next week on medical codes for people diagnosed with post-covid vaccine injuries and long covid, which would allow for providers to seek insurance reimbursement to treat those conditions, according to two people familiar with the plans. No additional details have been provided about these topics, but the committee is expected to also grapple with the health effects of the disease. Harmful side effects from covid-19 mRNA shots have been a focus of some ACIP members. Public health experts say such injuries are rare, and the focus on such events distorts risks while minimizing benefits. Vaccines undergo rigorous safety testing before they are licensed by the FDA, and federal agencies rely on several vaccine safety reporting systems to monitor their safety while in use. Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, was identified early as a rare side effect of the mRNA shots, investigated extensively and incorporated into clinical guidance. Public health authorities recognize long covid as a serious, prolonged set of health problems that can arise months after an initial covid-19 infection and affect virtually any organ system. The CDC defines long covid as a condition with a wide range of symptoms — from fatigue and brain fog to shortness of breath and musculoskeletal pain — that persist or emerge after acute illness, and emphasizes that it can be disabling and affect adults and children alike.

Cost-of-living crisis? What cost-of-living crisis?