March 30, 2026

WE ARE VERY SORRY, BUT FOR CIRCUMSTANCES OUTSIDE OF OUR  CONTROL, THE MARCH 31 PROGRAM WITH JAMES CARVILLE HAS BEEN POSTPONED.  WE WILL BE RESCHEDULING WITH MR. CARVILLE FOR A LATER DATE.

A Passover Message to

Our America at a Crossroads Friends

Passover Message to Our America at a Crossroads Friends

Each year at Passover, we are reminded that freedom is not a one-time event. This year, that truth feels especially present. Freedom is an ongoing journey—renewed in every generation—calling for our attention, our engagement, and our care.

At the seder table, we are asked to see ourselves as if we personally went forth from Egypt. In doing so, we are reminded that the responsibility for freedom—and for redemption—is ours to carry forward.

We hope your seder is filled with warmth, meaningful conversation, and the inspiration to sustain us for the journey ahead.

May the spirit of Passover guide us—and strengthen us—for the work ahead.

We look forward to being together again on April 15 at 5:00 PM Pacific (register below).

Janice, Mel and Zev

To our JUDJ listeners and readers who celebrate Easter, we wish you a very Happy Easter holiday.

March 27, 2026

TUESDAY, March 31, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome James Carville who will be in conversation with Madeleine Brand on the topic: “CAMPAIGN SEASON IS HERE: JAMES CARVILLE UNFILTERED” (Register Here)

James Carville is one of America’s most renowned political strategist and commentators.  Best known as the chief strategist for Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, he has been a central figure in U.S. politics for decades, admired for his sharp insight, plainspoken style, and deep understanding of American voters.  Often called the “Ragin’ Cajun” for his Louisiana roots and outspoken personality, Carville is a frequent contributor on television and a sought-after voice on elections, democracy, and the state of the nation.  He is also the author of several bestselling books on politics and public life.

Madeleine Brand is an American broadcast journalist and radio host with more than three decades of experience in public media.  She currently hosts Press Play, an award-winning daily news and culture program on KCRW-FM in Los Angeles, where she explores national, international, and local issues through a Southern California lens.  

Register Here

Washington Post/Opinion

The Editorial Board

March 25, 2026

The Trump administration’s First Amendment promise

The Justice Department settles a Biden-era case about social media censorship.

The First Amendment protects ideas that government agencies and experts consider misleading, false or even dangerous. That basic constitutional principle came under threat in the last decade as federal officials pressured social media companies to censor “misinformation.”

Now the Trump administration has entered into a binding legal settlement decisively repudiating that meddling. On Wednesday, a federal judge signed off on the deal. Whether the government will abide by the spirit of the settlement is a different story, but it will help to have it on the books.

Anyone with even a passing interest in air-traffic safety knows that near misses have grown more frequent. In the New York area, there have been two close calls this month alone: An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 nearly collided with a FedEx Boeing 777 in Newark last Tuesday, and another Air Canada flight nearly hit an EVA Air 777 Boeing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 12. When a tragedy is averted, some presume that the system is working, a phenomenon in disaster management known as the “near-miss fallacy.” But many complex systems on the brink of failure leave clues, and near misses are flashing red lights.

(To continue reading click here)

Foreign Affairs

Ilan Goldenberg

March 23, 2026

America Has No Good Options in Iran

Trump Needs an Off-Ramp

Three weeks into the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the outlines of a familiar and dangerous pattern are emerging. The current conflict may for now be significantly different than American wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Vietnam—it has not yet drawn in U.S. ground forces in great numbers. But the Iran war shares a deeper strategic reality with these predecessors. Washington is once again fighting a weaker regional power without having clear objectives, a defined theory of victory, and a viable exit strategy.

The result is a different kind of quagmire, but a quagmire nonetheless. U.S. forces may get bogged down in air and sea operations that drag on for months or years, impose mounting costs on the global economy, destabilize the wider Middle East, and exact a growing toll on civilian populations in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and beyond. As in past conflicts, the asymmetry at the heart of the war favors the weaker party. For the United States to win, it must achieve expansive and ambiguous goals—regime change or an Iran so weak that it cannot destabilize the region or disrupt global oil markets. For Iran, victory may simply mean survival and the ability to impose costs on the global economy through intermittent attacks that dramatically limit passage through the Strait of Hormuz or damage delicate and vital oil infrastructure in the Gulf states.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the current U.S.-Israeli campaign of missile and drone strikes is not about to topple the entrenched regime. Nor will it entirely knock out Iran’s conventional capacities such that Tehran cannot interfere with passage through the Strait of Hormuz or threaten facilities vital to the global energy trade…

(To continue reading click here)

March 25, 2026

If you missed today’s program featuring Dalia Dassa Kaye in conversation with Robin Wright, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK

On TUESDAY, March 31, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome James Carville who will be in conversation with Madeleine Brand on the topic: “CAMPAIGN SEASON IS HERE: JAMES CARVILLE UNFILTERED” (Register Here)

James Carville is one of America’s most renowned political strategist and commentators.  Best known as the chief strategist for Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, he has been a central figure in U.S. politics for decades, admired for his sharp insight, plainspoken style, and deep understanding of American voters.  Often called the “Rogin’ Cajun” for his Louisiana roots and outspoken personality, Carville is a frequent contributor on television and a sought-after voice on elections, democracy, and the state of the nation.  He is also the author of several bestselling books on politics and public life.

Madeleine Brand is an American broadcast journalist and radio host with more than three decades of experience in public media.  She currently hosts Press Play, an award-winning daily news and culture program on KCRW-FM in Los Angeles, where she explores national, international, and local issues through a Southern California lens.  Brand previously reported and anchored for National Public Radio (NPR), serving in roles that included correspondent, substitute host on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and co-host of Day to Day.

Register Here

Washington Post/Opinion

By Max Boot

March 23, 2026

Don’t blame Trump’s stupid war on Israel

The Jewish state, as usual, makes a handy fall guy. The president might look in the mirror instead.

When a nation starts a war for dubious reasons and then suffers the consequences, there is inevitably a search for scapegoats. Conspiracy theories abound. It happened after World War I, when the favorite villains were “merchants of death” and international bankers. It happened again after the Iraq War, which some blamed on “neoconservatives” and Halliburton, the oil-services giant led by Dick Cheney before he became vice president.

It’s now happening with President Donald Trump’s foolhardy war against Iran. Operation Epic Fury may yet produce some positive results, but for now, it has gone spectacularly awry. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz and targeted energy infrastructure across the region, causing oil prices to skyrocket and instability to spread. As so often happens, the Jews — or, if you prefer a polite euphemism, “Zionists” or “the Israel lobby” — make a handy fall guy.

What the right-wing fringe once whispered — that this was “a war for Israel” — suddenly burst onto the front pages last week thanks to Joe Kent’s resignation as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. In a blistering public letter, Kent wrote that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that “we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

The first part of his statement is clearly true. ..

(To continue reading click here)

The Atlantic

Juliette Kayyem

March 23, 2026

There Were Warnings

Americans are learning that public safety is not a given.

On Saturday, President Trump announced plans to deploy ICE agents to help with security at airports across the country, given all of the TSA workers who are either quitting or not showing up because they haven’t been paid for weeks. Last night, an Air Canada airplane collided with a fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing two pilots and hospitalizing scores of passengers. These twin crises are separate but related: They are both the result of an approach to governance that neglects the work of governing.

Anyone with even a passing interest in air-traffic safety knows that near misses have grown more frequent. In the New York area, there have been two close calls this month alone: An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 nearly collided with a FedEx Boeing 777 in Newark last Tuesday, and another Air Canada flight nearly hit an EVA Air 777 Boeing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 12. When a tragedy is averted, some presume that the system is working, a phenomenon in disaster management known as the “near-miss fallacy.” But many complex systems on the brink of failure leave clues, and near misses are flashing red lights.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former Fox News host who spent the weekend blaming Democrats for airport-security lines, is not in fact in charge of airport security. He is in charge of the Federal Aviation Administration, which handles air traffic and mishandled the Air Canada landing at LaGuardia. If he didn’t know before, he hopefully knows now that what happened yesterday was not simply an outlying tragedy, but the inevitable culmination of long-standing safety concerns and shortsighted funding cuts…

(To continue reading click here)

March 18, 2026

If you missed today’s program featuring Jennifer Rubin in conversation with Patt Morison, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK

On Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome Dalia Dassa Kaye who will be in conversation with Robin Wright on the topic: “THE HIGH STAKES OF U.S. POLICY ON IRAN: AMERICA’S CHOICES IN A DANGEROUS MOMENT” (Register Here)

Dalia Dassa Kaye is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and former Senior Political Scientist and Director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy. A recipient of many awards and fellowships, she speaks and publishes widely on US and Middle East policy. Dalia’s recent book, Enduring Hostility (see below) has been described by experts as an “insightful must-read.”

Robin Wright is an award-winning journalist, author, and foreign-affairs analyst specializing in the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, and global security. She has reported from more than 140 countries and served as a correspondent for The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and NPR. Wright is the author of several influential books, including Sacred Rage, Dreams and Shadows, and Rock the Casbah, and is widely respected for her depth of reporting and historical insight.

Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy

By Dalia Dassa Kaye

A timely and rigorous analysis of a half-century of American policymakers’ shifting perceptions of Iran, and how they have driven US-Iran relations.

Dalia Dassa Kaye deftly explores how America’s Iran policy is made, the people who make it, and the underlying ideas and perceptions that inform it. Dassa Kaye looks back at US policy toward Iran over the past four decades to help us look ahead, offering wider lessons for understanding American foreign policymaking and providing critical insights at a pivotal time of heightened military tensions in and around the Middle East.

Foreign Affairs

Dalia Dassa Kaye

March 6, 2026

The Mirage of a New Middle East

War With Iran Won’t Reshape the Region the Way America Wants

Eager to show that he can do what no American leader has done before, President Donald Trump has chosen conflict over diplomacy and gone to war with Iran. The Islamic Republic, knowing that this fight is existential, retaliated quickly with deadly missile and drone attacks on Israel, U.S. bases in the Middle East, and targets in Gulf states and beyond. This is now a regional war with global impact, disrupting oil and financial markets, supply chains, maritime commerce, and air travel. Threats to Americans and the death toll in Iran mount by the hour. These growing risks were predictable long before the war became reality, which might help explain why no previous president took the United States down this perilous path.

How this war will end remains uncertain. But when it does, the United States will have to face what comes next. To the extent that the Trump administration has considered plans for “the day after,” it seems to have made a series of overly optimistic assumptions about how the war might reshape Iran and the Middle East. For one, the Trump administration has insisted—including in Trump’s social media post on February 28 announcing the war—that a relentless degradation of Iranian leadership and military capabilities would weaken the regime enough that the Iranian people could rise up and “take over the government.” Even if that doesn’t happen, the administration’s logic goes, Iran would be defanged and so preoccupied with internal problems that it could no longer pose a threat to the region or American interests. Taking the current Iranian regime out of the equation, Washington assumes, would remove one of the largest sources of regional instability and usher in a new Middle East more to the United States’ liking.

(To continue reading, click here)

Politico

Shia Kapos

March 17, 2026

AIPAC attacks fall flat as Democrat Daniel Biss wins Illinois House primary

The suburban Chicago mayor, who has criticized Israel, will succeed retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

CHICAGO — Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won Tuesday’s Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, dealing a blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a race that had turned into a referendum on the group’s ability to influence the party.

Biss, whose mother is Israeli and whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, has sharply criticized Israel’s war in Gaza — and faced an onslaught of attack ads from a group aligned with AIPAC as a result.

He defeated a crowded field that included social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian American who is a more vocal critic, as well as AIPAC’s preferred candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine. Biss is now favored to win the general election in the heavily Democratic district.

An AIPAC-aligned group spent more than $5 million dollars in ads to boost Fine and attack Biss, then later, Abughazaleh. That group pulled down its anti-Biss attacks at the end of the race, before a different shell PAC emerged to prop up another low-polling progressive in the race in an attempt to divide the progressive vote.

The race had become one of the country’s most closely watched Democratic primaries, in large part because of AIPAC’s involvement in a district whose population is more than 10 percent Jewish and which has had a Jewish representative for more than 60 years.

(To continue reading click here)

March 13, 2026

Next Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we will celebrate the 6th anniversary of America at a Crossroads!  Join us as we welcome Jennifer Rubin who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison on the topic: “THE COST OF COWARDICE: POWER, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE FIGHT FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY” (Register Here)

Jennifer Rubin is a political commentator and co-founder of the Substack-hosted newsletter/media outlet The Contrarian, where she writes and speaks on democracy, the rule of law, and the moral responsibilities of political leadership. A former conservative and a long-time political columnist with the Washington Post, she is widely known for her sharp critique of authoritarianism and institutional failure in American politics.

Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Golden Mike awards.

NY Times Opinion

Thomas Friedman

March 9, 2026

Trump Has No Idea How to End the War With Iran

In September 1996, I visited Tehran for the first time. I stayed at the Homa Hotel, formerly a Sheraton. I wrote at the time that fixed above the door in the lobby was a sign that read, in English, “Down with U.S.A.” As I pondered that sign, I remember thinking something like: Wow, that’s not graffiti! That’s firmly attached. That won’t come down easily.

The late 1990s were a fleeting moment of openness in Iran, which is how I got a visa. I was hopeful that the obvious quest then of many of Iran’s young people to join the world economy would eventually triumph over its leaders who had fixed those words into the wall. It didn’t happen. The words were too deeply embedded.

Now, we’re more than a week into the war with Iran launched by President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and the biggest question I have is this: What if the necessary is impossible? What if the transformation of Iran is so much more important than the war’s critics admit, but so much more difficult than the war’s designers understand?

(To continue reading, click here)

Substack/The Contrarian

By Jennifer Rubin

March 11, 2026

Trump’s Delusions Come at Americas’ Expense

The mad king says our suffering is ‘worth it’

“We don’t see anyone who can replace the regime,” an Israeli official told David Ignatius. The New York Times reported, “A report by the National Intelligence Council completed before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran assessed that even a large-scale military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple its theocratic government.” So, when Donald Trump declares his end-goal is regime change, that he wants “unconditional surrender,” and/or wants to pick the next Supreme Leader, he is actually telling us he wants a war without end.

His delusions of grandeur and compulsion to dominate others inevitably overwhelm the Constitution, decency, political good sense, and Americans’ distress. His utter incoherence at a press conference on Monday suggests he is decomposing before our eyes.

Just days ago, he egged on Iranians to take up arms, but by Monday was expressing utter contempt for them (“Will I help them? I’d like to, if they can behave. But they’ve been very menacing.”) In his broken brain, evidently, the war can be both “complete” and “just the beginning.”

Trump is more than happy to inflict a host of harms on Americans: Seven servicemen killed, a billion per day in war costs, trillions in stock market capitalization wiped out, inflation risks heightened, and oil prices on the rise.

To justify his foray into regional war, Trump tells Americans they should docilely accept their fate as hostages of his endless war fantasy. He declares that $100+ per barrel is a “very small price to pay” (for us to pay) for his war. He adds that “only fools” would think the war is not worth it.

(to continue reading, click here)

)

March 11, 2026

If you missed today’s program featuring Leon Panetta in conversation with Larry Mantle, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK

On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we will celebrate the 6th anniversary of America at a Crossroads!  Join us as we welcome Jennifer Rubin who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison on the topic: “THE COST OF COWARDICE: POWER, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE FIGHT FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY” (Register Here)

Jennifer Rubin is a political commentator and co-founder of the Substack-hosted newsletter/media outlet The Contrarian, where she writes and speaks on democracy, the rule of law, and the moral responsibilities of political leadership. A former conservative and a long-time political columnist with the Washington Post, she is widely known for her sharp critique of authoritarianism and institutional failure in American politics.

Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Golden Mike awards.

Substack/The Contrarian

By Jennifer Rubin

March 11, 2026

Trump’s Delusions Come at Americas’ Expense

The mad king says our suffering is ‘worth it’

“We don’t see anyone who can replace the regime,” an Israeli official told David Ignatius. The New York Times reported, “A report by the National Intelligence Council completed before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran assessed that even a large-scale military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple its theocratic government.” So, when Donald Trump declares his end-goal is regime change, that he wants “unconditional surrender,” and/or wants to pick the next Supreme Leader, he is actually telling us he wants a war without end.

His delusions of grandeur and compulsion to dominate others inevitably overwhelm the Constitution, decency, political good sense, and Americans’ distress. His utter incoherence at a press conference on Monday suggests he is decomposing before our eyes.

Just days ago, he egged on Iranians to take up arms, but by Monday was expressing utter contempt for them (“Will I help them? I’d like to, if they can behave. But they’ve been very menacing.”) In his broken brain, evidently, the war can be both “complete” and “just the beginning.”

Trump is more than happy to inflict a host of harms on Americans: Seven servicemen killed, a billion per day in war costs, trillions in stock market capitalization wiped out, inflation risks heightened, and oil prices on the rise.

To justify his foray into regional war, Trump tells Americans they should docilely accept their fate as hostages of his endless war fantasy. He declares that $100+ per barrel is a “very small price to pay” (for us to pay) for his war. He adds that “only fools” would think the war is not worth it.

(to continue reading, click here)

Foreign Affairs

Dana Stroul (The Washington Institute)

March 4, 2026

America and Israel’s War to Remake the Middle East

The Perils for the Region—and the Alliance

The United States and Israel may have different names for their latest military campaigns in Iran—Epic Fury and Rising Lion—but there is nothing separate about them. They constitute the first truly combined U.S.-Israeli military operation—and it is hard to overstate how groundbreaking the partnership is. Normally, the U.S. military works in broad coalitions, designing the operation, commanding it, and doing most of the fighting. In the U.S.-NATO engagement in Afghanistan that began in 2002, the United States conducted most airstrikes and deployed the bulk of ground forces; the United States conducted the vast majority of the opening salvos during the 2003 “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq. In the mid-2010s, when Washington launched Operation Inherent Resolve to oust the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) from Iraq and Syria, it led the air campaign while training and funding partners on the ground. Indeed, the United States has not fought an adversary in a fully combined manner—dividing targets and working equally within a shared operational construct—since World War II.

With the opening of this new chapter against Iran, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has crossed a threshold. The United States and Israel are equal partners in this war, fusing their intelligence operations, dividing labor, and combining risk. U.S. and Israeli lives are both on the line. Israel and the United States, of course, have long had a special partnership, and the foundation of this joint campaign was built on decades of U.S. financial and military support. But the collaboration was nowhere near as comprehensive even nine months ago, during the June 2025 12-day war.

There is another unusual feature of this partnership: the U.S. and Israeli militaries are fusing their operations even as their publics drift further apart…

(to continue reading, click here)

March 9, 2026

This Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome Leon Panetta who will be in conversation with Larry Mantle on the topic: “POWER WITHOUT ORDER: AMERICA AND THE NEW GLOBAL CHAOS”  (Register Here)

Leon Panetta served as the 23rd Secretary of Defense from July 2011 to February 2013. Previously, Mr. Panetta served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as Chief of Staff to President William Clinton, and as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Panetta represented California’s 16th (now 17th) Congressional District from 1977 to 1993, rising to House Budget Committee chairman during his final four years in Congress.

Since retiring as Secretary of Defense in 2013, Panetta has served as chairman of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy, located at California State University, Monterey Bay, a campus of the California State University that he helped establish during his tenure as congressman. The institute is dedicated to motivating and preparing people for lives of public service and helping them to become more knowledgeably engaged in the democratic process.

Larry Mantle has been the host of AirTalk with Larry Mantle on NPR-member station KPCC, 89.3 FM, since April 1^st, 1985.  AirTalk is the longest-running daily talk show in Southern California.

NY Times Opinon

Ezra Klein

March 8, 2026

The Future We Feared Is Already Here

For years now, questions about A.I. have taken the form of “what happens if?” What happens if A.I. begins replacing workers? What happens if it becomes capable of writing its own code? What happens if it begins to deceive those testing its capabilities? What happens if governments use it for surveillance and war? What happens if governments decide it is so powerful that they need control of the labs that develop it?

This year, the A.I. questions have taken a new form, “what happens now?” What happens now that A.I. is, or at least is being used as the excuse for, replacing workers? What happens now that it is writing its own code? What happens now that it seems to recognize when it is being evaluated and reacts by changing its behavior? What happens now that governments are threading it through the national security state and using it in operations and wars? What happens now that the U.S. government has decided the technology is so powerful it needs a measure of control over labs that develop

The showdown between the Pentagon and Anthropic is a window into how unprepared we are for the questions we are already facing.

(to continue reading, click here)

BELOW ARE TWO VERY DIFFERENT (even mirror images) PERSPECTIVES ON THE WAR IN IRAN

(WITH THE CORRECTED LINK TO THE WILL ARTICLE)

Washington Post/Opinion

By George F. Will

March 1, 2026

At last, the credibility of U.S. deterrence is being restored

The perhaps 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran’s streets in early January did not die in vain.

The Hamas paragliders, who were tentacles of Iran, began today’s war on Oct. 7, 2023, igniting one of history’s most spectacular backfires. Iran’s regime and its terrorism multipliers, Hamas and Hezbollah, have unintentionally magnified Israel’s security. And Iran’s regime, whose mantra since its inception in 1979 has been “Death to America,” is near death by the clasped hands of Israel and America.

The wielders of Iran’s regime, which is founded on fear, surely experienced a sudden, terrifying epiphany when the aerial attacks, unlike previous ones, began in daylight: The attackers knew when and where the regime’s senior officials would be meeting in Tehran that day. Precision munitions, directed by spectacular intelligence, enabled a decapitation strategy.

The at least 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran’s streets in early January did not die in vain. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution failed to topple a tyranny, but refuted the then-common pessimism that tyrants can assure their permanence by controlling the consciousness of their publics. (George Orwell in “1984”: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.”) Iran’s protesters dramatically underscored the regime’s barbarism, so those who today regret the regime’s demise reveal their barbarism.

(to continue reading click here)

Washington Post/Opinion

By David Ignatius

February 28, 2026

One and done? Trump’s Iran operation is unfortunately the opposite.

Khamenei may be dead — but war with Iran isn’t over.

For more than 45 years, U.S. presidents have wanted to destroy the radical, anti-American regime in Tehran. They always concluded that the risks of war were too great — until President Donald Trump’s all-out attack with Israel early Saturday.

Trump said Saturday that the massive airstrikes had killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Few outside Iran will mourn the demise of a man who spent his career shouting: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” And by this limited definition, Trump’s decapitation strategy may have worked. But killing Khamenei, who was aging and infirm, isn’t the same thing as regime change. If there’s a plan for what’s next, I haven’t heard any U.S. or Israeli official explain it.

Wars always are easier to start than to finish, especially when you’ve set a political goal of regime change, rather than a clearly defined military objective. President Vladimir Putin thought he would take Kyiv in a week. Israel thought it would throttle Hamas in a few months. But wars to erase a regime don’t work like that.

Once a president launches a war, he feels obligated to finish it successfully. “If you’re in it, win it,” the generals like to say. That’s especially true in this case, where the regime is odious and Trump has urged Iranian citizens to risk their lives to topple it. It may be a war of choice for the United States, but that doesn’t mean there’s an easy exit ramp ahead.

(to continue reading click here)

March 4, 2026

If you missed today’s program featuring Ken Burns and Rick Atkinson in conversation with Patt Morrison, you can watch the program at THIS PAST EVENTS LINK. The program will post a few hours after it ends. Starting Thursday morning, you can listen AT THIS PODCAST LINK

NOTE: The six-part The American Revolution by Ken Burns is available for free to stream online at this link.  All episodes can be watched on PBS.org or through the free PBS app on most streaming devices (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, iPhone/Android, etc.).

On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome Leon Panetta who will be in conversation with Larry Mantle on the topic: “POWER WITHOUT ORDER: AMERICA AND THE NEW GLOBAL CHAOS”  (Register Here)

Leon Panetta served as the 23rd Secretary of Defense from July 2011 to February 2013. Previously, Mr. Panetta served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as Chief of Staff to President William Clinton, and as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Panetta represented California’s 16th (now 17th) Congressional District from 1977 to 1993, rising to House Budget Committee chairman during his final four years in Congress.

Since retiring as Secretary of Defense in 2013, Panetta has served as chairman of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy, located at California State University, Monterey Bay, a campus of the California State University that he helped establish during his tenure as congressman. The institute is dedicated to motivating and preparing people for lives of public service and helping them to become more knowledgeably engaged in the democratic process.

Larry Mantle has been the host of AirTalk with Larry Mantle on NPR-member station KPCC, 89.3 FM, since April 1^st, 1985.  AirTalk is the longest-running daily talk show in Southern California.

Washington Post/Opinion

By George F. Will

March 1, 2026

At last, the credibility of U.S. deterrence is being restored

The perhaps 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran’s streets in early January did not die in vain.

The Hamas paragliders, who were tentacles of Iran, began today’s war on Oct. 7, 2023, igniting one of history’s most spectacular backfires. Iran’s regime and its terrorism multipliers, Hamas and Hezbollah, have unintentionally magnified Israel’s security. And Iran’s regime, whose mantra since its inception in 1979 has been “Death to America,” is near death by the clasped hands of Israel and America.

The wielders of Iran’s regime, which is founded on fear, surely experienced a sudden, terrifying epiphany when the aerial attacks, unlike previous ones, began in daylight: The attackers knew when and where the regime’s senior officials would be meeting in Tehran that day. Precision munitions, directed by spectacular intelligence, enabled a decapitation strategy.

The at least 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran’s streets in early January did not die in vain. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution failed to topple a tyranny, but refuted the then-common pessimism that tyrants can assure their permanence by controlling the consciousness of their publics. (George Orwell in “1984”: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.”) Iran’s protesters dramatically underscored the regime’s barbarism, so those who today regret the regime’s demise reveal their barbarism.

(to continue reading click here)

Washington Post/Opinion

By David Ignatius

February 28, 2026

One and done? Trump’s Iran operation is unfortunately the opposite.

Khamenei may be dead — but war with Iran isn’t over.

For more than 45 years, U.S. presidents have wanted to destroy the radical, anti-American regime in Tehran. They always concluded that the risks of war were too great — until President Donald Trump’s all-out attack with Israel early Saturday.

Trump said Saturday that the massive airstrikes had killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Few outside Iran will mourn the demise of a man who spent his career shouting: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” And by this limited definition, Trump’s decapitation strategy may have worked. But killing Khamenei, who was aging and infirm, isn’t the same thing as regime change. If there’s a plan for what’s next, I haven’t heard any U.S. or Israeli official explain it.

Wars always are easier to start than to finish, especially when you’ve set a political goal of regime change, rather than a clearly defined military objective. President Vladimir Putin thought he would take Kyiv in a week. Israel thought it would throttle Hamas in a few months. But wars to erase a regime don’t work like that.

Once a president launches a war, he feels obligated to finish it successfully. “If you’re in it, win it,” the generals like to say. That’s especially true in this case, where the regime is odious and Trump has urged Iranian citizens to risk their lives to topple it. It may be a war of choice for the United States, but that doesn’t mean there’s an easy exit ramp ahead.

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March 2, 2026

THIS Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 5 PM Pacific, we welcome Ken Burns and Rick Atkinson who will be in conversation with Patt Morrison on the topic: “REVOLUTIONARY CROSROADS: HOW AMERICA’S FOUNDING ERA IILLUMINATES TODAY’S STRUGGLE FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE” (Register Here)

Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts:  An Intimate History; Jackie Robinson; The Vietnam War; and Country Music. His most recent documentary is The American Revolution. Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations; and he was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rick Atkinson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven previous works of history, including The Long Gray Line, the Liberation Trilogy (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light), and The British Are Coming, the first volume of the Revolution Trilogy. He has won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism. His latest book is The Fate of the Day.

Patt Morrison has a share of two Pulitzer Prizes as a longtime Los Angeles Times writer and columnist. As a public television and radio broadcaster, she has won six Emmys and a dozen Golden Mike awards. She has written two bestselling books.

Thirteen American colonies unite in rebellion, win an eight-year war to secure their independence, and establish a new form of government that would inspire democratic movements at home and around the globe. What begins as a political clash between colonists and the British government grows into a bloody struggle that will engage more than two dozen nations and forever change the world.

The new six-part The American Revolution by Ken Burns is available for free to stream online at this link:

All episodes can be watched on PBS.org or through the free PBS app on most streaming devices (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, iPhone/Android, etc.).

It may also be available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV as a purchased/streaming option, depending on platform availability.

New York Times

Editorial Board

March 1, 2026

A Tyrant Falls. Dangerous Uncertainty Begins.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei governed Iran with the vigilance and brutality of an autocrat convinced that his own people and the world’s superpower sought to unseat him — and in the end, they did. With President Trump’s announcement that Ayatollah Khamenei, the 86-year-old supreme leader, was killed in joint American and Israeli airstrikes on Saturday, his rsign has come to a close, cementing a lost half-century for his nation. As the Middle East confronts an unpredictable void, let us be clear: No one should mourn the death of a dictator who spent decades inflicting misery and bloodshed.

Ascending to power in 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei organized his existence around an obsession with the West. As a ruler, he squelched dissent, labeling demands for reforms as Western “sedition,” and expanded the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to repress his own people. He impoverished his citizens to bankroll foreign interventions and a nuclear program that brought Iran only isolation. When faced with citizens’ protests, he answered with force, including the slaughter of thousands earlier this year. Abroad, his legacy is one of destabilization, having constructed a so-called axis of resistance across Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

It is natural to hope that the decapitation of this regime could lead to the end of Iran’s theocracy. Yet it is also important to consider the context — and the long-term risks that it creates for both Iran and the United States.

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Substack/Steady State

Dan Rather and Team Steady

February 26, 2026

Trump’s Plan to Steal the Midterms

Not only is it illegal, it could backfire

The president knows if Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress in the midterms, it’s game over for Trump 2.0. An opposition Congress would use its innumerable powers to check the Trump agenda, and, perhaps more frightening to him, spend the second half of his term investigating the deep corruption of the first half.

Donald Trump doesn’t want you to vote, especially if you’re a Democrat. It’s becoming increasingly obvious he will do anything to keep eligible Americans away from the polls.

The president has hinted at taking executive action around this issue in the past few months, but for the first time, new reporting reveals an actual plan to take away our most cherished right.

Trump’s latest gambit: direct White House lawyers to find a legal avenue to take control of the upcoming midterm elections, according to the cable network MS NOW. One ploy he is said to be considering is issuing an executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote.

Since he can’t bend the Senate to his will to pass the SAVE Act, the most restrictive voter-suppression bill in American history, Trump reportedly is actively looking for another avenue to unilaterally assert control over U.S. elections.