- Yet more commentators on the stupidity of this war with Iran, from Adam Lee, Suzanne Maloney, and Susan B. Glasser;
- How the economies under Biden and Trump aren’t that much different;
- Brief items about why conservatives need guns, Christian Nationalists who admit they mean to impose their morality on everyone, how the transgender plague is driven by demons, hurricanes, tricks, and Christian theology;
- And two examples of the first lesson about comparative religion, for conservatives.
Adam Lee on the war.
OnlySky, Adam Lee, 18 Mar 2026: The colossal stupidity of war with Iran, subtitled “An unwinnable war without a goal and with consequences for the world.”
If anyone still doubted that Donald Trump will be remembered as the worst president of all time, he’s doing his best to eliminate that doubt.
Last month, America and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, assassinating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian military officials. (We also accidentally bombed a school, killing over a hundred children.)
This is all the more hypocritical because isolationism used to be one of Trump’s defining policy stances. As a candidate, he railed against politicians whom he said would get us bogged down in wars:
Followed by quotes of X/Twitter posts from 2012 and 2013 in which Trump predicted that Obama would start a war since his “poll numbers are in a tailspin” (which probably wasn’t true).
Now he’s tossed that promise aside, just like he’s discarded every other principle he ever paid lip service to. He’s committed all the evils he promised, plus all the evils he denounced.
The sheer stupidity, incuriosity, and smugly self-satisfied ignorance of this administration defies belief. Even Trump doesn’t know why we’re at war. He and his henchmen have offered a fog bank of shifting justifications about why he did this—to bring about regime change? to end Iran’s nuclear program? to heed Israel’s wishes? or something else entirely?
Lee goes on to point out how nations less reliant on fossil fuels will be less impacted by this war. (But then it’s been obvious for decades that the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels, for many reasons; Trump simply denies all those reasons, because he wants to recreate the world he grew up in, as conservatives are wont to do.) Lee doesn’t at all approve of the Iranian government, “a cabal of fanatical, violently repressive theocrats” who deserve to be replaced. But you can’t do it by bombing the country, as past interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown. But some people do not learn from the past.
\\
And by the way, the US had a treaty with Iran, under Obama. Trump tore it up because, well, Obama.
NY Times, guest essay by Suzanne Maloney, 18 Mar 2026: The Alternative to Obama’s Nuclear Deal Was War. Why Did Trump Tear It Up?
In 2015, President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the European Union reached an agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that imposed restrictions across the spectrum of Iran’s nuclear activities.
The product of years of diplomacy, the plan elevated a technically complex national security challenge into a fierce political debate split largely along partisan lines. A few months before the deal was signed, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, addressed a joint session of Congress — at Republicans’ invitation — to campaign against it.
Critics said it wasn’t harsh enough. It wasn’t perfect. (Is anything?) The alternative was war. Well, here we are: Trump tore it up, and started a war!
\\
Another take. We’ve seen this comparison before.
The New Yorker, Susan B. Glasser, 12 Mar 2026: The War Trump Doesn’t Want to Talk About
Subtitle: “We won,” the President who’s treating the conflict with Iran like a video game says, but “we’re not finished yet.”
\\\
On another topic.
NY Times, guest essay by Jason Furman (chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 to 2017), 18 Mar 2026: If You Hate Trump’s Economy, I Have News for You [gift link]
As a candidate, Donald Trump called the economy under President Joe Biden a “nightmare.” As president, he says the United States is “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.” Democratic rhetoric has shifted just as sharply, from Vice President Kamala Harris touting the U.S. economy as “the strongest in the world” during the 2024 campaign to Democrats today decrying an “affordability crisis.” And that was before gas prices jumped more than $0.50 a gallon in the wake of the Iran strikes.
While the narrative on both sides has done a 180-degree turn, the economy itself has not. It didn’t change after tariffs were rolled out. It didn’t change after A.I. became more widely adopted. The economy over the last year has looked a lot as it did in 2024. I don’t expect it to change because of the latest disappointing numbers on jobs, fluctuations in the gross domestic product or the start of the Iran war, either.
…
While the narrative on both sides has done a 180-degree turn, the economy itself has not. It didn’t change after tariffs were rolled out. It didn’t change after A.I. became more widely adopted. The economy over the last year has looked a lot as it did in 2024. I don’t expect it to change because of the latest disappointing numbers on jobs, fluctuations in the gross domestic product or the start of the Iran war, either.
Why? Part of this is partisan motivated thinking: whatever the other side did, or is doing, must be bad. More fundamentally, the economy is enormously complex and not easily swayed by this or that change in strategy or policy. Nor do presidents have the micromanagement powers many voters think they do.
That the 2025 numbers looked much like the 2024 numbers should not be that surprising. The American economy, like an ocean liner, is extremely hard to turn. The best guess of what will happen next year is that the economy will continue doing what it did last year.
…
Perhaps the most common mistake is to overrate the importance of the president. Sometimes presidents can make a big difference, but usually the aggregate economic effects of their policies are smaller — for good or ill — than their supporters or detractors would have you believe.
Concluding:
This does not mean presidents don’t matter for the economy. I believe the economy would be even better today were it not for Mr. Trump’s reckless tariffs and his Middle East adventures. It means, however, that we should probably be more honest about judging the economy and more explicitly admitting that our opinion is based on much more than interest rates or inflation or even our own economic circumstances.
My take on the Trump economy is that I haven’t felt any personal pain at all, but then I’m stable, not trying to buy a house or a car, and not struggling to make ends meet the way many young families might be. My take is just that Trump promise many things — cut prices in half! yadda yadda — that of course have never happened. (Because he has no direct control over them, but his MAGA fans don’t understand that.)
\\\
Briefly noted.
- JMG: Newsmax Host: “The Filibuster Is Why We Need Guns”
- Meaning… they need guns so they can solve problems by shooting people?
- They’re quite upfront about it.
- Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, 17 Mar 2026: William Wolfe Admits Christian Nationalists ‘Are Going To Impose [Our Morality] Upon You’
- The other problem is that he’s so certain what God’s morality is. “If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but this is good and right and just if it lines up with God’s standards and I am going to enforce my morality on you inasmuch as our morality is God’s morality.”
- Is all of Leviticus God’s morality? If not, how does he decide which parts are, and which aren’t?
- JMG (from Colorado Sun): Colorado Ballot Measures Aim To Stop “Transgender Plague” Because Dem Lawmakers Are “Actual Demons”
- Aside from the nonsense about “actual demons” (which tells me he’s a superstitious dimwit), what fascinates me about conservative outrage like this is that they’re upset about anything at variance with strict, animalistic biology. Sex and gender are about reproduction, period. There’s no room for individual expression or behavior in their belief system. (Nor, as I’ve said, shades of gray, or colors.)
- From Miami Herald. JMG: Trump Roasted For Claim Cuba Doesn’t Get Hurricanes
- Slate, Mary Ziegler: Republicans Have a New Plan to Trick People Into Voting Against Abortion Rights. This One Is Working. (They have to “trick” people since apparently their arguments themselves don’t actually convince.)
- This is what Trump does. AlterNet, Matthew Rozsa: Trump accused of ruining an innocent cop’s career in ‘shockingly cavalier’ move
- These people have no place being anywhere involved in American government. The Bulwark, Julie Ingersoll: What Pete Hegseth’s Spiritual Mentor Wants for America, subtitled “Pastor-theologian Douglas Wilson advocates theocracy, the restriction of the franchise from women and nonbelievers, and much else—and he is closer than ever to real power.”
\
The first lesson of comparative religion, for conservatives, with two examples.
Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True: Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Scientology
He discusses the latest cartoon from the long-running Jesus and Mo strip, shown above.
And:
NY Times, Robert Draper, 16 Mar 2026 (on today’s front page): ‘It Doesn’t Need to Be Here’: The Right Vilifies a Muslim School in Alabama, subtitled “A local campaign against the small school reflects growing Islamophobia in conservative enclaves in America and among G.O.P. officials.”
Do I need to spell this out? All religions seem crazy, even dangerous, to people who follow other religions. The lack of self-awareness about such prejudices continues to astound me, especially in this age of global information. But it’s true of most people, the most conservatives ones anyway, on Earth.
