'A deep embarrassment': White House sparks outrage with latest Iran 'propaganda' video

03/06/26 4:26 AM

Political analysts and observers were outraged on Thursday after the White House posted its most recent "propaganda" video about the Iran war. The White House published a montage of strikes against Iranian targets interspersed with clips from popular action movies and television shows. The video was captioned, "JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY," on X. It was posted at a time when the Trump administration is facing growing scrutiny for its actions in Iran. On Thursday, the New York Times published an investigation determining that the U.S. had bombed a girls's chool in Iran and killed 175 civilians in the process. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is also challenging the president's reasons for conducting the bombing campaign in the first place. Political analysts and observers shared their reactions on social media. "A deep embarrassment to us all," The Tennessee Holler posted on X. "The entire Trump Cabinet is made up of people play acting actual leaders and now they do videos confirming it," political commentator Neera Tanden posted on X. "Confirming all suspicions of propaganda," journalist Natali Morris posted on X. "This is a f------ disgrace," Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, posted on X. "There is something in this that seems a poor reflection on people losing their children, sisters, and brothers. They should hire adults," physician David Bell posted on X. JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/0502N6a3rL— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 6, 2026

'Agents of Chaos': Autonomous AI Can Leak Data, Delete Files, Study Finds

03/07/26 2:05 PM

A new study has revealed that the large language models (LLMs) can behave unpredictably when given autonomous access to digital tools.

'Antichrist ideology': GOP lawmaker attacks 'demonic' Texas Dem in unhinged broadcast

03/06/26 5:38 PM

Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) suggested that James Talarico, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Texas, was possessed by demons.The West Virginia Republican attacked the Texas hopeful during a Friday interview with MAGA influencer Benny Johnson."You're fighting for light," Johnson said while introducing Moore. "Christians throughout the world, quite frankly, under persecution. Christians always are the ones who get persecuted, beheaded, slaughtered.""They're always the ones who get trod under and nobody ever talks about them and it's evil," he continued. "You're a man of faith yourself that is actually talking about it."For his part, Moore claimed that protesters had demonstrated outside of his church in West Virginia, but did not allege they broke the law."I had people protesting me outside of my church. My family and I going on," he explained. "They showed up from wherever the hell they're from. And, you know, me and my family were just trying to go to Mass. And here they are. You know, I mean, no, no space is sacred to them.""Now we just got to make sure that James Talarico doesn't get into the Senate," Johnson said before ending the interview. "I mean, that guy saying that Jesus loves abortion and loves transing of the kids and that God is non-binary. I feel dirty, Congressman, just repeating his blasphemes and heresy on my show. I'm telling you what he says. It is antithetical to the Bible. It's actually anti-Christian. It's actually Antichrist's ideology.""I think he is demonic," Moore remarked. "And I think we need to keep an eye on that and watchful eye because there are other forces of work in my view."Johnson replied: "It's a defiling of God's order. It's a defiling of God's nature. Yeah. And it's pretty simple. It's nice. Even a even a, even a community college graduate like me can get it, Congressman."Talarico, a 36-year-old part-time Presbyterian seminarian and former middle school teacher, has built a political platform rooted in Christian theology and social justice. Talarico uses scripture to champion the poor and vulnerable, relying on Christ's teachings to challenge corporate interests and political divisions. He has gained national attention for using his theological background to criticize Christian nationalism, condemning it as a "betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth" that "worships power in the name of Christ." On his campaign website, Talarico references "a barefoot rabbi" who issued two overriding commandments: love God and love your neighbor, "because there is no love of God without love of neighbor." He writes that "every single person bears the image of the sacred; every single person is holy — not just the neighbors who look like me or pray like me or vote like me," and calls for followers to adopt the spirit of that rabbi who "walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice," arguing it is time to "start flipping tables." His opposition to a Ten Commandments bill went viral when he declared: "Maybe they should try following the Ten Commandments before mandating them," demonstrating his conviction that genuine faith should guide political action rather than serve as political theater.

'Dude, I'm not MAGA': Alex Jones distances from 'sellout' Trump over  Iran war

03/04/26 7:03 PM

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones sought to distance himself from President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement over the ongoing military operation against Iran.During his Wednesday broadcast, Jones criticized Trump for suggesting ground troops could be deployed in Operation Epic Fury."I have no doubt the Marines and the Army are going to kick their ass, but we're going to have a lot of dead people. And I mean a lot," he warned. "And their answer is continue to kill whoever the new leader is, just keep killing the generals, killing the leadership, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.""You can say what you want about the Iranian cult, Islamic cult, but at least they stand for something," he continued, noting that Trump was "starting to give in and bend and do things that aren't what he said he would do, that aren't America first."Jones claimed that he had been offered millions to "sell out" his principles."I won't sell out against America First. And if I start seeing Trump sell out to whatever, I'm not going along with it. But I love the idiot, neocon, Johnny-Come-Lately Trump supporters that, like, if you don't support whatever [White House Chief of Staff] Susie Wiles wants or whatever the new war is, you're not a patriot. You're the fake MAGA," he remarked. "Dude, I'm not MAGA!" Jones exclaimed. "I'm 1776 worldwide. I'm a populist American. Make America great again; how about make America free again? So, MAGA's great, but I'm not MAGA, and I've told you that for, you know, seven, eight, nine years. I am 1776."The right-wing conspiracy theorist went on to compare Trump to a used lawnmower."I'm proud I supported Trump for 10 years and got persecuted," he said. "If Trump at the end starts going sideways, it's like you got a lawnmower, you mow the yard with it for 10 years, and then one day the engine blows, and it's cheaper just to get a new one than to replace the motor.""You're like sad about the lawnmower that the engine blew up, but you just put it out at the curb, you know, when they do the trash pickup once a year for, you know, appliances and stuff, and you put the old refrigerator out there and the old lawnmower, and oh, you were a good lawnmower, bye, bye," he added. "It's like I'm not mad that I had the lawnmower and cut the grass and did all this, and now the lawnmower's broken. Right now, black smoke's coming out of the lawnmower, and it's sputtering, and it's on fire. So I think this lawnmower is probably done.""We can't kick illegal alien Somalis out of the country, but we can go fight a million-man army. It's insane."

'I'm going to lose my mind': Iraq war vet Dems sound off over Mar-a-Lago 'chicken hawks'

03/05/26 11:27 AM

A Democratic Party representative who served in the Iraq war has issued a statement denouncing the rhetoric around the ongoing strikes on Iran. Donald Trump approved a bombing campaign against Iran earlier this week, with veterans now serving in government airing their concerns. New York Democrat Rep. Pat Ryan, a veteran who twice served in Iraq, issued a statement to CNN expressing his concern over the current Iran situation. He said, "If I hear one more chicken hawk who’s never served a single day in uniform sitting in a gold-plated office in DC or Mar-a-Lago or anywhere else, try to talk tough having never seen what war is about, I’m going to lose my mind."Fellow representatives backed Ryan's comments, with Rep. Eugene Vindman calling the conflict with Iran an unnecessary use of US resources. He said, "I will not be shedding a tear for the Iranian regime and the Ayatollah. I understand the threat but I also understand that wars are easy to start and hard to finish. "This is a commitment of American blood and treasure to a conflict that we didn’t need to be engaged in." Donald Trump has said the U.S. will stay in the fight for as long as it takes to achieve the country's objectives, although his administration has not yet laid out a compelling case for the operation, according to some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.John Bolton, the president's national security advisor during his first administration, told Joanna Coles on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" on Wednesday that he is concerned that Trump hasn't thought through the implications of the strikes. He added that the president's lack of a decision-making process "magnifies the risk" that something could go wrong.“As long as things are going successfully, he’ll stick with it," Bolton said. "If we run into real difficulty, and I hope we don’t, and we shouldn’t at this point, but if we do, because anything is possible, that would be the testing time to see whether he was able to stick it out."

'Jets Overhead, But Life Normal': Indians In Dubai Amid Iran War

03/07/26 1:27 PM

For Indian expats in Dubai, life has largely continued as usual even after tensions escalated in Middle East following the outbreak of hostilities involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

'On Our Own': Americans Stranded Amid Iran War Say US Offered 'No Help'

03/07/26 2:59 PM

As of Friday, about 27,000 Americans have returned to the US since the war began, the State Department said. The vast majority of them made their own way out without US government assistance.

'Reckless' Trump hid Iran invasion plans from Kristi Noem's DHS: former official

03/06/26 5:48 PM

Prior to Donald Trump's attack on Iran, which has grown into a war with no end in sight, there is no indication that the White House alerted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which, since its founding, has been tasked with preventing retaliatory attacks in the US.Appearing on MS NOW with host Anna Cabrera, former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor claimed that, from what he has heard from staffers at the agency under now-fired DHS head Kristi Noem, they all were kept in the dark.Brought on to talk about Noem’s ouster and the selection of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Ok) to replace her, Taylor instead warned that the county is now at risk after the way Noem, with Trump’s blessing, has changed the emphasis at DHS from national security to immigration enforcement.According to Taylor, the failure to bring all stakeholders in and explain what was about to transpire in Iran was, and is, dangerous.“When we are in a war that's a really, really big deal,” he told the host. “And you don't have to play the violin for Kristi Noem to say that’s a reckless and irresponsible thing to do.”“There's a bigger question here, too,” he emphasized, “which is, did the Department of Homeland Security even know strikes were going to happen against Iran? Was Kristi Noem or her team even brought in to conversations to prepare for this? I have seen no indication; no one at DHS has told me that has happened.”“That, in and of itself, is reckless,” he warned. “So Markwayne Mullin, if he does get confirmed, is coming into a department unlike any other secretary of Homeland Security ever before. We've never had a new secretary confirmed in the middle of a war where the possibility of imminent attack is happening. That's very, very serious.” - YouTube youtu.be

'Unconscionable': Fury as investigation finds US likely killed 175 in Iran school strike

03/05/26 11:49 PM

Political analysts and observers were outraged on Thursday after an investigation determined that the U.S. was likely responsible for a Feb. 28 strike on a girls' school in Iran that killed 175 civilians, many of whom were children. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the strike on the girls' school in Minab was "severely damaged" around the same time that U.S. forces were conducting an attack against an "adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps." The Times added that "official statements ... suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.""In the several days since the attack, U.S. officials have neither confirmed nor denied responsibility," according to the report. "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that an investigation was underway. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters on Sunday that 'as of now,' he was not aware of any Israeli military operation 'in that area' at the time.""U.S. officials in public statements have indicated that on the day in question, U.S. planes were conducting operations in the region where the school was located," it added.Political analysts and observers expressed outrage on social media. "It is unconscionable that there has still been no attempt by either the US or Israel to account, let alone apologise, for the killing last Saturday of more than 150 people at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, southern Iran," Peter Westmacott, former British Ambassador to Turkey, posted on X. "Simply heartbreaking," activist Amy Siskind posted on X. "It seems like the most obvious thing to say in the world, but people need to be held accountable for the murder of children during an illegal war," Benjamin McKean, associate professor of political science at Ohio State University, posted on Bluesky. "Yet any real accountability for this will clearly require a radical political break." "When Pete Hegseth starts flexing in front of American flags and talking about 'death and destruction from the sky,' this is what he’s talking about: dozens of little girls murdered," Stephen Cohen, managing editor at The Atlantic, posted on Bluesky. "Investigate it, be open about it, hold folks accountable to why it happened, be public what action is taken," writer Andrew Donaldson posted on X. " [The] argument 'we are the good guys' depends on such things when things go horribly wrong, like it appears it did here."

'Whining' Republicans secretly trash Trump's Iran war behind his back: lawmaker

03/06/26 12:00 PM

WASHINGTON — Republicans are happy to criticize President Donald Trump’s war on Iran behind closed doors but “willing to give up congressional power” when given chances to actually rein him in, a prominent Democrat charged, shortly before the House of Representatives rejected a bipartisan attempt to assert its constitutional powers.“There is an incredible sense in the Congress in the last year that so many Republicans have been willing to give up congressional power,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) told Raw Story at the Capitol. Republicans, Balint said, “all tell you behind closed doors a whole variety of things they don't like about what's happening. “If you pick your head up and all of a sudden your power is gone, don't whine about it because you gave it away.”‘I’m not stupid’Under Article One of the U.S. Constitution — and the 1973 War Powers Resolution — only Congress can declare war.In reality, presidents have long ignored such strictures.Balint was speaking shortly before the House considered a war powers resolution that would have forced the Trump administration to pause strikes on Iran.“I'm not stupid,” Balint, a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, said.“I can count. I don't think we're going to have the votes, but I think in every opportunity we have to assert our Article I powers, we have to keep doing these actions that show that we understand that every time we don't stand up to [Trump], legislative powers are slipping away.”Another Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), said such votes were important, to “get people on the record.”The record for the ensuing vote showed the resolution was rejected 219-212, with Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) voting yes, while four Democrats voted no.Massie co-sponsored the resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), his partner in pressuring the Trump administration over the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his links to powerful figures, prominently including the president himself.Davidson, a former military officer, is usually a loyal supporter of the Republican line.On the floor of the House, he said, “Make no mistake, Iran is an enemy of the United States. As our military engages them, they do so justly. Unfortunately, they are not yet doing so constitutionally.“For some, this debate will be about whether we should even be fighting in Iran. For me, the debate is more fundamental: is the president of the United States, regardless of the person holding the office, empowered to do whatever he wants? “That’s not what our constitution says.”‘Whatever it takes to win’Amid continued confusion over Trump’s aims in attacking Iran — currently by air and at sea and at the cost of six American lives and more than 1,000 Iranians killed — it was reported on Thursday that strikes could extend until September. Raw Story asked one senior Republican if that bothered him.“Not worried at all,”Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) replied “Trump knows what he’s doing.”Raw Story pressed: Was Norman really saying he would be okay with such a lengthy campaign, with all its attendant dangers for wider conflict through the Middle East and the world?“Whatever it takes to win,” Norman said.'Spiraling out of control'Balint considered another pressing issue: Republicans’ reluctance to even say Trump has taken America to war, despite the president’s own use of the word.“You can't call it a ‘military action,’ that it has a very short timeline, when this is the chatter,” Balint said, of the reports of a possible September end date.“We knew that it's spiraling out of control … and again, like, where's the opposition within his own party?”