The First Alt-War: Online Fantasy vs.
Reality in the Iran Campaign
Posted By: Mercedes44, 3/29/2026 5:23:09 AM
commentator in (mirabile dictu) The Washington Post made an excellent point about how the war in Iran is being understood. “We are living through the first alt-war,” the Tel Aviv University scholar Jen Brick Murtazashvili wrote. On the one hand, we have the war as it is fought online. On the other, we have the war as it is fought in reality, on the ground. The two “have diverged so completely,” Murtazashvili noted, “that they might as well be happening on different planets. It’s not that people lack information; it’s more that they are constructing an entirely different alternate reality—one that confirms what they already believe.”
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Israeli parliament mandates death penalty
for most Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis 4 replies
for most Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis 4 replies
The Israeli Parliament passed a law Monday that approves the death penalty for Palestinians who are convicted of murdering Israeli citizens.
The legislation makes death by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians on Gaza's West Bank who are convicted of nationalistic killings of Jewish Israelis, according to the Associated Press, and Israeli military courts are directed to mete out the sentence to those convicted of murdering an Israeli “as an act of terror.”
It also allows courts to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment on Israeli citizens convicted of murdering other Israelis.
Lefties turned out in droves for Sunday’s “Tax the Rich” rally featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders in The Bronx — but Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to show face as he walks a tightrope with Gov. Hochul over taxes.
At least 1,000 people filled Lehman College’s sprawling performing arts center, where Sanders (I-Vt.) spent nearly an hour pushing his own proposal targeting the wealthy.
“A few years ago, it was estimated that Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive, paid an effective tax rate of less than 3.3%,
The dysfunction in Washington reached a new low Monday morning.
The U.S. Senate briefly came to order and just as quickly gaveled out in a matter of seconds, adjourning until 7 a.m. Thursday without taking action on the House-passed bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security.
It can be recalled that the House of Representatives on Friday approved a Republican-led measure to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for eight weeks.
The bill passed by a vote of 213–203, with all Republicans voting in favor and three Democrats.
President Trump demanded that Senate Republicans get tough and nuke the filibuster, noting that RINO Senate Leader John Thune needs to actually lead and whip up the votes on Sunday evening.
While speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump went off on the Democrats, calling them “sick” and likening them to terrorists for their attempts to defund ICE and protect illegal aliens.
When asked about the garbage funding bill that Senate Republicans passed in the middle of the night to reopen the government without funding for ICE, Trump said,
Tony Blair Says the Left Has to End Its
“Unholy Alliance” With Islamists to
Stamp Out Antisemitism 9 replies
“Unholy Alliance” With Islamists to
Stamp Out Antisemitism 9 replies
Tony Blair says “progressive” politicians are dodging Left-wing antisemitism because tackling it would mean confronting their movement’s “unholy alliance” with hardline Islamists. The Mail has the story.
The former prime minister said that figures on the Left are failing to confront extremists who see all Jews as supporters of Israel and the Netanyahu regime and therefore “fair game” for violence and intimidation in the wake of the Israeli war in Gaza.
His intervention comes after an arson attack that destroyed four Jewish community ambulances in Golders Green, North London, last week.
After official confirmation that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) did, in fact, commit immigration fraud, the Republic of Somaliland — which has good reason to be bitter at the crimes of Omar and her Somali family — offered to be the hammer of justice if the United States would extradite Omar there.
The tantalizing offer comes after Vice President JD Vance confirmed on Benny Johnson’s show what many of us have thought of Omar for a long time — there is, in fact, solid evidence that the radical Islamist member of Congress committed immigration fraud.
Pelosi's homeless project fails
11 replies
Nancy Pelosi hailed her latest boondoggle -- a project for the homeless -- as a “beacon of hope." Her stylish 92-unit residence appeared almost preordained to become another by-the-book scandal, squandering taxpayer money.
Inevitable. Foreseeable. Unsurprising -- if you’re going by the chronic lack of accountability for social projects in California. She unwittingly exposed a systemic failure -- one that this time ended in tragedy -- and helped produce an egregious headline in the the Wall Street Journal. “A Pelosi Model Is Now a San Francisco Scandal.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making a show of cutting the budget, with videos of him looking for millions under sofa cushions.
He’s pretending he’s leaving no stone unturned to close a $5.4 billion budget gap.
Don’t buy it. These are token gestures meant to suggest the city has cut all it can, giving Albany cover to justify what he hopes comes next: Mamdani’s tax hikes on high earners and employers.
Sure, cutting low-value government spending deserves some credit, but the problem is that Mamdani’s savings are mostly speculative or trivial.
Even the largest cut so far, $100 million from removing ineligible health-care dependents, would only materialize if auditors find such dependents.
Furious protesters blocked off construction trucks and swarmed the site of a proposed homeless shelter in Brooklyn on Sunday evening — after rumors swirled that workers would break ground at the new facility as early as Monday morning.
Several hundred protesters lined multiple blocks in Bensonhurst, calling upon Mayor Zohran Mamdani to shut down the city’s long-standing plans to erect a 150-capacity men’s shelter at 86th Street and 25th Avenue.
Pakistan said on Sunday it was preparing to host “meaningful talks” to end the conflict over Iran in coming days even though Tehran earlier accused Washington of preparing a land assault while seeking negotiations.
Speaking after talks between regional foreign ministers, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said they had covered possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war in the region as well as potential U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad.
“Pakistan will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks —
Three weeks after the Georgia Senate failed to pass a bill requiring hand-marked ballots for the November elections, a revamped House bill with the same requirement was approved.
In its original form, House Bill 960 would have added a 12th Superior Court judge to the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit.
The amended bill presented by Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, on Friday contained some of the same language as Senate Bill 568, which failed on crossover day. House Bill 960 still requires hand-marked ballots for the November 2026 general election and requires a manual recount of some elections.
Hungary's Orban, Trump's close European
ally, faces toughest reelection bid in
more than a decade 3 replies
ally, faces toughest reelection bid in
more than a decade 3 replies
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, among President Donald Trump's closest European allies, is facing his toughest reelection bid in more than a decade – putting at risk what is arguably Trump's most reliable bulwark against what he considers the European Union's longtime efforts to "do damage to the U.S."
Hungarians will go to the polls April 12, and polls show Orbán’s Fidesz (Hungarian Civic Union) party running further behind than at any other time since Orbán’s current tenure, which began in 2010. The election leader right now is the Tisza (Respect and Freedom) party, founded in 2024.
Tisza is led by Péter Magyar, also a member of the European Parliament.
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Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said the military conflict in Iran will be looked at as one of the greatest “presidential blunders of our time.”
Host Kristen Welker said, “The U.S. has reportedly sent Iran a 15-point plan addressing its ballistic and nuclear weapons program, and some analysts have already drawn some comparisons to the talks under the Obama administration. The deal that was struck during the Obama era. Do you support the Trump administration’s efforts to try to negotiate a deal with Iran to bring this war to an end?”
Booker said, “I don’t support this administration, period.
A Palm Beach, Florida, elections volunteer was arrested for stealing computer equipment encrypted access key ahead of a special election where a Democrat won by 800 votes.
John Panicci was arrested on Friday for taking sensitive computer equipment and other supplies on March 19 ahead of the March 24 special election.
As previously reported, a Democrat flipped a Florida state house district that includes President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Emily Gregory won state house district 87 in last Tuesday night’s special election.
An African nation is calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to be extradited after Vice President JD Vance claimed during an interview that the lawmaker committed immigration fraud. The Republic of Somaliland, a partially recognized state in the Horn of Africa, reacted in a post on X to the claim that Vance made in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
"Deportation? Please you’re just sending the princess back to her kingdom. Extradition? Say the word …" the post read.
On Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said Democrats had “failed this moment,” so new leadership was needed.
Host Kristen Welker said, “Senator, let’s talk about your new book. I have it right here. Stand. I’m going to read a little portion for everyone. You write, quote, ‘We cannot cancel everyone who fails a purity test. We cannot exile those who don’t align with our every belief, however passionately we hold it. Coalitions that are only composed of the already converted cannot change the country. If everyone in your coalition agrees with you on everything, your coalition is too
At 87 years old, California Rep. Maxine Waters isn’t just part of the Democratic gerontocracy the party is trying to fight against — she’s arguably its most visible face.
Thus, approaching the 2026 election, you’d think that she’d be considering retiring — and if not that, at least scaling back her role a bit. Pulling a Pelosi, if you will: take it a bit easy and let your stock portfolio do the work for you.
But, no. Not only does crazy old Auntie Maxine plan on running for her 19th term in office — which she’ll almost certainly succeed at, given her name recognition and how blue her district is
Senate GOP Needs New Leadership
20 replies
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that, despite a 53-47 Republican majority, the U.S. Senate is a graveyard for President Trump’s agenda. This is largely the fault of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who has never been a strong supporter of the President. Despite this, most Republicans hoped that Thune would work to advance Trump’s priorities, particularly after his decisive 2024 victory provided the momentum for the GOP to retake the Senate. But Thune’s refusal to get the SAVE America Act passed and his surrender to the Democrats on DHS funding — without additional money for ICE or CPB — dashed any hope.
As only TV personality and host Mike Rowe can, he embodied what makes America great. The American Dream is not just about a certain achievement like buying a home or being promoted to a particular vocation: It's about the opportunity to dream big and aspire to higher things — or just different ones.
Of course, Rowe's incredibly insightful commentary, which he posted to X on Sunday, was born from unfunny comedian Jimmy Kimmel's joke that maligned the fact that a plumber — that would be former plumber, former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, and current Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin
#ProtestsSoWhite
16 replies
We wonder if anyone has conducted a demographic survey of the people who showed up at the “No Kings” protests around the country, because we suspect the results would be an embarrassment.
We noticed as a rally marched down the main street in Pasadena, California, that the protesters were comprised almost entirely of white people who were predominantly middle-aged or older. (This is a city that is 40% black and Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.)
So we looked at videos and pictures from protests in other cities around the country this past Saturday, and noticed
A Ventura County woman has died from a rattlesnake bite she suffered while hiking at Wildwood Regional Park, authorities said Wednesday.
The recent fatality marks the second rattlesnake-related death in California this month. Experts say record-breaking heat has made the snakes active earlier than usual.
Southern California is a hiker’s paradise, but out on the trails, you’re rarely alone. The Southern Pacific rattlesnake is “right at home in the cracks and crevices of the great outdoors,” said local hiker Croy Tan. “Technically, this is where they are. This is their place, you know what I mean,” he added.
On March 14, the Ventura County Fire Department said a 46-year-old woman
Two Colorado Democrats have proposed legislation that would crack down on restaurants’ abilities to provide complimentary napkins, utensils and condiments to customers, in the name of protecting the environment.
Bill SB26-146 would ban “a retail food establishment or third-party food delivery service from providing single-use food serviceware to a customer” unless the customer requested or confirms he or she wanted it, according to the bill’s text. Democratic Colorado State Sen. Lisa Cutter and Democratic Colorado State Rep. Meg Froelich introduced the legislation on March 24 and, if passed, will go into effect at the start of 2027.
The bill defines “single-use serviceware”
After official confirmation that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) did, in fact, commit immigration fraud, the Republic of Somaliland — which has good reason to be bitter at the crimes of Omar and her Somali family — offered to be the hammer of justice if the United States would extradite Omar there.
The tantalizing offer comes after Vice President JD Vance confirmed on Benny Johnson’s show what many of us have thought of Omar for a long time — there is, in fact, solid evidence that the radical Islamist member of Congress committed immigration fraud.
It’s like a pandemic: Weekly news reports of yet another teacher arrested for having an erotic relationship with a student – often a young, attractive female exploiting a teen male under the age of consent.
But this phenomenon of “educator sexual misconduct,” or ESM, is not as bad as it appears.
In fact, it’s worse.
Such stories evoke the prurient pop music theme found in the rock band Van Halen’s 1984 tune “Hot For Teacher.”
However, in the real world, the overwhelming majority of these criminal relationships are never disclosed and prosecuted, and their destructive impact on victims goes largely unreported.