Early this morning, Saturday, February 28, the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump released a video following the strikes saying they were necessary to “defend American lives,” while according to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz the “preemptive” attacks were launched to “remove threats to the state of Israel.”
According to reports, among the sites struck in today’s joint U.S./Israeli attack on Iran were two schools, including an elementary school where 53 girls were killed and many more injured.
There are also reports that Iran has closed the all-important Strait of Hormuz. About this development, Ahmed Eldin writes:
This is no longer a regional war, it is economic warfare on a global scale. The Strait is a narrow chokepoint, just 21–33 km wide at its tightest, between Iran to the north and Oman and the UAE to the south. Roughly 20–30% of global seaborne crude oil – about 20–21 million barrels per day – moves through it. Major exporters including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar depend on this single route to supply global markets. A multi-day closure would guarantee that oil not only spikes past $100, it rockets. . . . [The closure of the Strai of Hormuz will] affect every single person on this planet who drives a car, heats their home, or buys anything that was transported by oil. The real weapon of mass destruction is control of the global energy arteries. Iran just reminded the world that while they may not have aircraft carriers, they have geography, leverage, and the power to make the entire global economy feel their pain.
In the 12-minute video below, Rational National podcast host David Doel discusses the “breaking news of Trump’s action on Iran, what Trump and those around him has said previously, how Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is responding” and how this response betrays his previous remarks at Davos about U.S. power in the world.
Following this video is Bruce Fanger’s commentary, “Two Leaders. Two Legal Shadows. One War.”
Two Leaders. Two Legal Shadows. One War
By Bruce Fanger February 28, 2026
Benjamin Netanyahu has been under indictment for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust for years. His corruption trial has staggered forward while he maneuvers politically to stay in power. Coalition deals. Judicial overhaul fights. Street protests. Every time the legal noose tightens, the security temperature rises.
Now missiles fly.
Donald Trump’s name resurfaces in Epstein reporting just as subpoenas and public pressure begin circling again. Old associations. Old photographs. Old questions that refuse to die. And what dominates the global stage instead?
Bombs over Tehran.
You do not have to invent conspiracy to notice pattern. Leaders under legal strain have powerful incentives to change the subject. War reshapes narrative. War demands unity. War makes critics hesitate. War compresses oxygen in the room until scandal suffocates.
Both men frame themselves as indispensable. Both cast themselves as guardians against existential threat. Both are allergic to personal accountability. Both now preside over escalation that risks igniting a region.
Netanyahu’s legal jeopardy is real. Trump’s legal exposure is real. So is the blood that flows when men in that position decide history must revolve around them.
This is not about defending Iran’s regime. It is not about minimizing real security threats. It is about recognizing when political survival and military force start to blur.
When leaders facing courtroom reckoning escalate militarily, citizens should not shrug. They should scrutinize. War cannot become a legal shield. Missiles cannot become jury nullification by spectacle.
History is littered with men who wrapped themselves in flags to outrun subpoenas.
We should not be so naive as to pretend that power does not calculate. And we should not be so timid as to stay silent when the calculation carries global consequences.
No one is above the law. Not in Jerusalem. Not in Washington.
They’ve proven that we can win by standing AGAINST genocide and corporate plunder and by fighting FOR immigrants, working people, rent control, human rights, and environmental sanity.
That’s why I’m polling better than any third party Governor candidate in California history. People everywhere are done with the duopoly.
* The Green Party of England and Wales has achieved a historic breakthrough today, winning the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election with 40.7% of the vote. This “green wave” saw the Greens overturn a massive Labour Party majority, with Labour falling to third place, signaling significant voter dissatisfaction. The victory represents a surge for the party, bringing their total to five MPs and indicating a potential shift in British political dynamics.
Opening image: Green candidate Hannah Spencer celebrates with party leader Zack Polanski after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election. (Photo: Jon Super / Associated Press)
It’s the birthday of the late, great American vocalist and song stylist Carl Anderson (1945-2004). He would have turned 81 today.
In the past I’ve done whole series of posts celebrating Carl at around this time of the year (see, for example here, here and here). This year I’m opting to simply share an example of Carl doing what he did best – singing with heart and soul.
(For more about Carl’s groundbreaking portrayal of Judas, click here, here, here and here.)
Yet it would be remiss of me not to state the obvious: There is much more to Carl Anderson than Jesus Christ Superstar. Indeed, for over three decades Carl was an accomplished and well-respected song stylist, artfully blending jazz, soul, pop, and R&B influences into his own unique and unforgettable style.
Between 1982 and 1996 Carl released nine albums. In addition, he made memorable duets with other artists and provided solo guest vocals on a number of songs by others.
In honor of the 81th anniversary of Carl Anderson's birth, I share one of his many beautiful love songs – “Still Thinking of You,” a track from his 1985 album, Protocol. It's followed by a review by Chris Rizik of the 2010 reissue of Protocol. . . . Enjoy!
Carl Anderson – Protocol (Reissue) A Review by Chris Rizik SoulTracks.com (2010)
During the 1980s, Carl Anderson’s immense talent was only matched by the wild inconsistency of the music he released. His debut album, Absence Without Love, was a major disappointment for fans who had waited nearly a decade after his seminal performance as Judas in the blockbuster movie Jesus Christ Superstar. And the follow up album, On and On, was only slightly better. Though he had teamed with first rate talent in making those albums, neither remotely did justice to his vocal stylings. But all the elements aligned in 1985 with Protocol, by far his best album of the decade and one of the most consistently enjoyable albums by a male soul vocalist that year. Teaming with producers Patrick Henderson, Al McKay (of Earth, Wind & Fire) and Gary Taylor, he fashioned an album that made good on the promise that was hinted at in his Superstar performance but was suppressed in his earlier solo work.
McKay brought the opening cut, “Can’t Stop This Feeling,” to the project and immediately created the greatest four minutes Anderson had ever recorded. The upbeat number was uber-infectious and Anderson tore it up with a a wonderful vocal performance. It was an auspicious opening to the album, but it was by no means the only high point. Unlike Anderson’s earlier discs, Protocol included ballads that appeared tailor made for his expressive crooning. “Still Thinking of You” and “One More Time With Feeling” were top notch, and “Saving My Love For You” was a chillingly simple and beautiful coda to the disc. Some of the mid-80s Kashif-like production on “Let’s Talk” and “Girl, I Won’t Say No” sound a bit over the top now, but are more than offset by the subtler work on the dance number “What Will Happen Now” and the very nice “Love On Ice.”
Clearly the material on Protocol was better than Anderson had had before, but there was also an obvious change in his approach to the disc – an increased comfort in driving the music where he wanted vocally – and it resulted in a great ride for listeners. Unfortunately, the album never received the promotion or attention it deserved, as for most popular music fans the introduction to Carl Anderson occurred a year later on the inferior “Friends and Lovers” duet with Gloria Loring and the accompanying slapped-together album. But Protocol did set the stage for the future direction Anderson would take with his career and several strong subsequent recordings over the next decade on MCA and GRP Records [the albums An Act of Love (1988), Pieces of a Heart (1990), Fantasy Hotel (1992), Heavy Weather / Sunlight Again (1994) and Why We Are Here (1997)].
Kudos to the gang at FunkyTownGrooves for reissuing this hidden gem of an album (with bonus cuts to boot [including the wonderful “Light Me”). Protocol sounds as good [today] as it did a quarter century ago. It was a welcome addition to the soul world back then but, more than anything, Protocol answered the question that so many had been asking after Carl Anderson’s first two album misfires: it showed that Carl Anderson really was a unique talent who could move beyond his Jesus Christ Superstar coming out party to become one of the most enjoyable male vocalists of his era.
– Chris Rizik
Carl was so loved and he gave so much of himself. He took so many people under his wings. . . . There was so much love.
This cage you’ve been trapped inside
for longer than you can remember
might seem so sturdy and secure
that you don’t even dream of escaping anymore
like a bird that used to beat its wings
but now just lets them hang limply by its sides.
But the bars of your cage aren’t solid.
They’re a mirage made up of fears and desires
projected by your restless mind
fueled by the attention you give them.
Just for a moment let your mind be quiet
and see how fears evaporate
see how desires withdraw
like the claws of an animal
that’s no longer threatened.
Watch the bars melt away
and let the world immerse you.
Let your mind-space merge with the space out there
until there is only space without distinction –
stretch your wings and become the sky.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar isn’t apologizing – and she isn’t backing down.
After interrupting Donald Trump’s State of the Union to confront him over the deaths of two of her Minneapolis constituents, Omar went on CNN and made it crystal clear: silence was never an option.
When asked by Wolf Blitzer whether she should have followed Democratic leadership’s advice to sit quietly or skip the speech altogether, Omar didn’t hesitate.
“No,” she said. “It was really unavoidable.”
Why? Because as Trump spoke about “protecting Americans,” Omar says he ignored the fact that two Americans – Renée Good and Alex Pretti – were killed under his administration’s watch.
“I just had to remind him,” she said bluntly. “His administration was responsible for killing two of my constituents.”
That’s not heckling. That’s accountability.
Omar brought four Minnesotans with her as guests to the address – people she says have lived through what she described as a federal “occupation,” traumatized by aggressive law enforcement actions in their communities. She said it was critical to “bear witness” and “hold the space” for neighbors who have suffered.
When Blitzer pointed out that Democrats previously criticized Republicans for interrupting President Biden’s State of the Union, Omar stood firm.
“I do not [have regrets],” she said. “It was important for my constituents to see me there.”
This wasn’t political theater, she argued. It was personal. Two families in her district lost loved ones. And as the president spoke about safety, she says their names deserved to be heard.
Omar framed her protest as a moral obligation – not a breach of decorum. In her view, failing to speak up would have meant abandoning the people who sent her to Washington.
Whether critics call it disruption or courage, Omar made one thing unmistakable: when she believes lives are on the line, party strategy takes a back seat.
And for her constituents in Minneapolis, she says, being present – and being vocal – mattered more than staying silent.
Dayvon Love serves as director of public policy for the Baltimore-based think tank, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Last month, he spoke to the question “Where is Jill Stein?” and how it functions as a deflection, shielding liberals from confronting the Democratic Party’s long-standing, exploitative relationship with working-class Black voters.
___________
When people sarcastically ask the question “where is Jill Stein” it denotes a desire to deflect their complicity in the exploitative relationship between working class Black people and the Democratic Party.
The “lesser of two evils” analysis is often the pushback that liberals give to those of us who are committed to more radical approaches to electoral politics. The argument they make is that we need to be serious about who can actually win and develop an astute political approach that can deliver concrete results for our community. Additionally, not voting for Democrats – even if they are imperfect – just empowers the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
One of the critiques I have of people who share my perspective on the need for more radical approaches to electoral politics is that they often don’t have a serious answer to the concern of ceding political power to Republicans who have no incentive to do anything meaningful for Black people. Both parties are instruments of the White settler colonialism, even when there are non-White people at the helm. But they are not the same, and the differences matter.
The electorate that is necessary for Democrats to be politically viable are largely people of color. We are a captured electorate of the Democratic Party that are mostly pandered to, instead of being treated like a power base that can drive the trajectory of the party. While it may be objectively better to have a generic Democrat in office than a generic Republican, if we don’t simultaneously do the work to build the capacity to build credible electoral threats to the left of the Democratic Party establishment, then we are in effect co-signing a perpetual exploitative relationship to them.
Democrats have generally supported symbolic measures on police reform (ie body cameras, training) and rejected more radical policies like community control of law enforcement. Democrats will market their policies of making public investments in social programs, but oppose progressive taxes on corporations. The Democratic Party is interested in minimal changes to White corporate domination of the world, while wanting to appear to have engaged in the maximum amount of social change. The only way that Democrats have delivered any meaningful progressive/radical policies is with radical political forces outside (to the left) of the party. If the Democratic Party is not challenged by electoral forces to its left, it has no incentive to deliver anything to Black people besides watered down policies.
In a state like Maryland, that will go into the 2026 election cycle with a gubernatorial election that is essentially a one party race, there is an opportunity to test the effectiveness of developing credible electoral threats to the left of the Democratic Party. There is zero chance of Wes Moore losing to any of the other candidates who are running for governor. This means that if Marylanders vote in large numbers for a Green Party candidate it will send a message to Democratic Party that they need to run candidates with more progressive/radical policy platforms.
The leverage from folks voting for the Green Party candidate for governor of Maryland (which is the party on the ballot that is left of the Democratic Party) will be helpful in moving stronger policies that protect immigrants from ICE; the policy recommendations from the Maryland Reparations Commission; taking a stance against the genocide in Gaza; progressive taxation to make corporations in Maryland pay their fair share and other important policies that serve the interest of our community. Again, it is extremely unlikely that the Green Party candidate will win, but a 4 percent or 5 percent showing would be enough to send a signal to the Democratic Party that we are not satisfied with liberal reform, but instead we want revolutionary policies that can transform our community. Individual candidates that run for office as a Democrat will have an incentive to run on a more progressive policy platform if they see stronger than normal numbers of people who vote for the Green Party.
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and many other organizations are working during the Maryland General Assembly to pass HB 101. The legislation would require any entity that receives public funding and hosts statewide general election debates (like Maryland Public Television) to invite every candidate that appears on the ballot to participate. This will provide the general public with an opportunity to hear political ideas that typically fall outside of the frame of the corporate duopoly, and provide an opportunity to directly hold Democrats accountable publicly. This would help to put public pressure on the Democratic Party to move further left, while also helping to build radical electoral forces outside of the Democratic Party that can go beyond the watered down policies of the Democratic Party establishment.
For those who are asking “Where is Jill Stein?,” I say if you are serious about a political environment where Black people are more than just figures of incorporated resistance into the American mainstream, then you should be looking to support the Butch Wares and Andy Ellises of the world who are running to build electoral political power beyond the Democratic Party.
The resistance in Minnesota is decentralized. No single leader. No central command. Just neighbors organizing neighbors. Block meetings. Mutual aid. Court support. Rapid response texts. Unions. Faith groups. Students. Elders. This is what scares them. You cannot crush a movement that lives in a thousand group chats and living rooms. The Twin Cities did not wait for permission. We built power.
Image 1: Citizens gather at Whittier Park in Minneapolis on Saturday, January 21, 2026 to mark four weeks since Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents. (Photo: Tom Baker / MPR News) Image 2: Michael J. Bayly.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
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"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
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"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
