JM—Lawrence is arguing that modern Washington operates exactly like Gibbon’s early Roman Empire. It maintains the superficial theater of constitutional governance—elections, congressional debates, and judicial reviews—to project the illusion of a functioning domestic democracy. In reality, the critical decisions regarding global power, surveillance, and military interventions are made by an un-elected national security apparatus (the modern “Imperial Court”).

DW—Critical infrastructure attacks risk regional humanitarian crisis: With Iranian strikes hitting desalination and power plants in Kuwait and potentially other GCC countries, the disruption threatens essential services such as water and electricity, amplifying the conflict’s humanitarian impact beyond immediate military effects. This also reveals a possible Iranian shift toward economic warfare targeting civilian infrastructure for strategic leverage.

EZ—Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest desalination industry. Although it has more large plants than any other country, many of its largest cities depend on water transported hundreds of kilometers from coastal plants. Riyadh, for example, depends heavily on desalinated water pumped inland. The larger number of plants provides some redundancy, but many remain critical nodes.
Iran is different. Most of the country still relies on groundwater, rivers, dams, and reservoirs rather than desalination. Desalination is strategically important for Gulf coastal provinces and islands (such as Qeshm and parts of Hormozgan and Bushehr), but destroying Iran’s desalination plants would not deprive most of the country of water.

PCR—By renewing at Netanyahu’s insistence Washington’s war against opponents to Great Israel–principally Iran and the southern Lebanon militia Hezbollah, Trump is further endangering his administration. For example, when was the last time you saw anyone wearing a MAGA hat?

Trump has a disapproval rating of 61%, which indicates that many MAGA Americans have turned against him. Trump brought this rejection of his presidency on himself by renewing America’s 21st century fight for the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel–from the Nile to Pakistan.
The millions of displaced persons from Washington’s 21st century wars for Greater Israel resulting in the destruction of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Palestine are changing the politics of Europe and America where these displaced persons have taken root and are entering politics and media.

CBD—The Trump administration keeps escalating its assault on California coastlines and public lands. Our state has some of the strongest environmental protections in the nation, but the administration wants to nix them so Big Oil can profit.

The federal government is now advancing a plan to lease California public waters and lands to extractive industries. It’s also trying to debilitate the California Coastal Commission — a state agency that protects our coastal environments — and remove power from the courts to make it easier for the administration to greenlight fossil fuel projects.   

CBD—The Trump administration keeps escalating its assault on California coastlines and public lands. Our state has some of the strongest environmental protections in the nation, but the administration wants to nix them so Big Oil can profit.

The federal government is now advancing a plan to lease California public waters and lands to extractive industries. It’s also trying to debilitate the California Coastal Commission — a state agency that protects our coastal environments — and remove power from the courts to make it easier for the administration to greenlight fossil fuel projects.