The Wild Reed

Sunday, March 08, 2026

The Red Turtle: “A Film That Knows Exactly What It Wants to Be”

Author James Redfield recently shared the following on Facebook.

We’re living through a time when global events aren’t arriving one at a time, but in waves. New crises erupt before the last have been reckoned with; the volume rises, headlines collide, and the nervous system tightens.

It’s a lot. Not because we’re fragile, but because human beings were never designed to absorb global instability in real time, all day, every day. When information moves faster than integration, clarity suffers. And when clarity suffers, fear fills the gaps. That’s why inner stability matters more than ever. Awareness doesn’t require panic, and discernment shouldn’t lead to exhaustion.

Remember to step back from the noise when you need to. Protect your attention. Care for your body. Sleep well. Eat well. Walk in nature.

The more centered we are, the more clearly we see. And clarity is what sustains meaningful change.

Ground yourself. Breathe. Let calm be your strength.

I’m taking these words to heart. I’m not retreating from staying informed about what’s going on in the world, I’m not forgetting, in other words, the “duel citizenship of being alive,” but I am stepping back from the noise of the chaos in the world. I’m protecting my attention, caring for my body, and determined to do what it takes to sleep well, eat well, and spend more time in nature.

I’m also going to be more mindful and consistent in sharing content at The Wild Reed that reflects these efforts to be grounded, clear, and calm – the qualities that I want to embody, that I want to be. It will be content of wisdom, truth and beauty.

It’s not that I haven’t already been sharing such content (see, for example, here, here, and here), it’s that I want to be more mindful and consistent in doing so during these profoundly troubling times we’re living through.

And so I start this mindful sharing today by acknowledging that a favorite film of mine is The Red Turtle by Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit, an amazing film he co-wrote with French screenwriter Pascale Ferran.

Notes Wikipedia about this beautiful 2016 film, one that I first saw at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis in 2017:

The Red Turtle is an international co-production between Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli and several French companies, including Wild Bunch and Belvision Studios. The film, which has no dialogue, tells the story of a man who becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited island where his attempts at escape are repeatedly thwarted by a giant red hawksbill sea turtle.

Following is an insightful video commentary on The Red Turtle by the YouTube channel What Do I Know?. As I hope you’ll discover, both this commentary and the film it’s celebrating reflect the beauty and wisdom of James Redfield's words that opened this post – words that speak of knowing exactly what it is we want to be and doing what it takes to be this grounded and calm presence in the world.

Related Off-site Links:
Film Review: The Red Turtle – A Singular Talent – Gerald Peary (The Arts Fuse, February 24, 2017).
The Red Turtle 5-Star Review – Rapturous Minimalism from Studio Ghibli – Mark Kermode (The Guardian, May 28, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Now
• A Prayer of Anchoring
• Cultivating Stillness
• Inner Peace
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive” • Love Will Not Lose
• Until the Light Returns
• What the Wind Says
• Trusting the Flow
• A Season of Listening
• To Be Still
• Today I Will Be Still
• Eckhart Tolle on Silence and Stillness
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present In the Moment
• No Other Time, No Other Place
• A Sacred Pause
• Aligning With the Living Light
• Mystical Participation
• Secret Language of the Heart
• Come, Spirit
• A Delightful Summer’s Afternoon and a Moving Tale

Saturday, March 07, 2026

Quote of the Day

What we saw in Gaza was not just a genocide. It was a prototype of the wars to come.

The goal of the American/Israeli bombings in Iran [above and right] is not regime change, but the total destruction of the infrastructure of what makes human life possible: schools, residential buildings, government buildings, sports complexes, hospitals, clinics, airports, religious buildings, UNESCO world heritage sites. This morning it was a water treatment facility. None of this has anything to do with ideology, the Ayatollahs, etc. All of this is about making human life uninhabitable. None of it with U.N. sanction, none of it approved by the [U.S.] congress, no accountability to any body of law or morality.

Over 2,000 sites were bombed in the first few days. The number now is much higher. Two-thousand-pound bombs have been dropped, some on dense urban populations. These bombs do not distinguish between supporters of the regime and those opposed. They kill indiscriminately. It’s important both for Americans and the Iranian community (including the diaspora) to come to terms with that.

Many Iranians (especially those in diaspora who championed this war) operate from an assumption that they are “entirely different” than their neighbors, and that their fate would be different than Iraq or Syria. Colonial ambitions don’t match that expectation. I so pray that I am wrong, but every educated instinct based on study of the region tells me that the goal is complete collapse of the society, exploitation of the oil for profit of American companies, and balkanization of Iran into separate ethno-states.

– Omid Safi
via social media
March 7, 2026

Friday, March 06, 2026

It Begins With Us

Here’s to the bridge-builders, the hand-holders, the light-bringers, those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives who quietly weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world.

They are the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself. They are the whisperers of hope that peace is possible.

Look for them in this present darkness. Light your candle with their flame. And then go.

Build bridges. Hold hands. Bring light to a dark and desperate world. Be the hero you are looking for. Peace is possible. It begins with us.

– L.R. Knost

Thursday, March 05, 2026

A Night at the Ballet

Earlier this evening my friends David and Rachel and I saw the Joffrey Ballet’s American Icons program. It was a very impressive two hours of dance.

About the company, Martha Bayne writes:

Founded in 1956 by Robert Joffrey, son of a Pashtun father and an Italian mother, and second-generation Italian immigrant Gerald Arpino, the 70-year-old company continues to draw exceptional dancers from around the world to Chicago. The Joffrey is, quintessentially, a company of immigrants in an American city powered by immigration.

And here’s how the folks at Northrop Auditorium, the venue for tonight’s performance in Minneapolis, describe American Icons.

In honor of their 70th anniversary, the beloved Joffrey Ballet revisits Northrop with American Icons, a tribute to four dance legends. Featuring iconic works that have shaped the history of American dance, the soaring program is brought to life with live orchestra, including a stirring piece played by Northrop Organist Greg Zelek that highlights our glorious Aeolian-Skinner Op. 892.

Witness the daring and enduring spirit that defines the Joffrey's maverick legacy. American Icons celebrates dynamic works by four trailblazing 20th-century artists: Joffrey co-founders Gerald Arpino and Robert Joffrey, prolific dance pioneer Martha Graham and Joffrey alum Glen Tetley.

Performance includes:

“Kettentanz”: Choreography by Gerald Arpino | Music by Johann Strauss Sr. and Johann Mayer
Inspired by classical Viennese balls and gardens, “Kettentanz” is highly regarded as one of Arpino’s signature works.

“Secular Games”: Choreography by Martha Graham | Music by Robert Starer
“Secular Games” presents a playful exploration of human nature and the lengths to which we go to impress one another.

“Postcards”: Choreography by Robert Joffrey | Music by Erik Satie
A ballet depicting vignettes of Paris in the early 1900s, evoking fleeting relationships and whimsical memories, with challenging maneuvers and luscious classical movement.

“Voluntaries”: Choreography by Glen Tetley | Music by Francis Poulenc
A masterpiece of emotional depth and soaring movement set to Poulenc’s “Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Timpani and Strings,” Tetley’s “Voluntaries” is a tribute to the late John Cranko. Features Northrop Organist Greg Zelek on our glorious pipe organ.

Related Off-site Links:
American Icons Showcases the Exceptional Melting Pot That Is the Joffrey and American Dance – Martha Bayne (Chicago Sun Times, February 20, 2026).
With American Icons, Here’s Why the Joffrey Ballet Is Different – Lauren Warnecke (Chicago Tribune, February 20, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Art of Dancing as the Supreme Symbol of the Spiritual Life
• “Then I Shall Leap Into Love”
• Love’s the Only Dance
• We All Dance
• Not Whether We Dance, But How
• The Dance of Life
• And As We Dance . . .
• Our Dance
• “I Came Alive With Hope”
• The Premise of All Forms of Dance
• The Power of Dance
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Our Bodies Are Part of the Cosmos
• Flexibility and Flow
• Move Us, Loving God
• A Prayer for Dancers
• Trusting the Flow
• The Soul of a Dancer
• Aristotle Papanikolaou on How Being Religious Is Like Being a Dancer

Image 1: Joffrey Ballet dancers Amanda Assucena, José Pablo Castro Cuevas and Hyuma Kiyosawa in “Voluntaries” as part of “American Icons.” (Photo: Cheryl Mann)
Image 2: Michael J. Bayly.
Image 3: Glen Tetley’s “Voluntaries.” (Photo: Erik Berg)

The Quiet Power of André Holland

One of my favorite actors is highlighted in a piece by Ty Cole. I share an excerpt from it below. Enjoy!

_____________

André Holland’s Quiet Power
Continues to Elevate Every Role
Though he didn’t take home the NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” this year, André Holland’s career remains a masterclass in restraint, emotional depth, and undeniable screen presence.

There’s a rare calm that follows André Holland onto the screen. It’s not flashy, nor does it demand attention with dramatic theatrics. Instead, Holland commands scenes through poise, emotional precision, and an ability to make vulnerability feel powerful rather than fragile.

Even with his nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards this year, his career trajectory has long been defined by performances that critics and audiences quietly hold in the highest regard.

The actor's artistry often lives in the spaces between dialogue. A glance, a breath, or a pause in conversation becomes its own form of storytelling. That tenderness has become one of his defining traits, with him having the ability to portray men who carry depth, empathy, and introspection without losing strength.

It’s a refreshing contrast in an industry that often equates masculinity with loudness or spectacle. Much of that emotional nuance comes from Holland’s stage background, which grounds his performances in intention and discipline. Whether he’s working in television, independent films, or larger studio projects, he brings a thoughtful presence that anchors the narrative around him. Audiences may not always see him in blockbuster headlines, but within acting circles, his reputation as a craftsman is undeniable.

That reputation has only grown through projects like Moonlight, the medical drama The Knick, and a slate of independent films where his subtlety becomes the emotional center of the story.

Holland doesn’t dominate scenes through volume, but he draws viewers in with quiet gravity. In many ways, that’s what makes him such an essential performer. He reminds audiences that some of the most powerful performances aren’t shouted — they’re felt.

Here are four roles that capture Holland at his best.

Love, Brooklyn

In this intimate romcom, Holland delivers a performance rooted in reflection and emotional complexity. His character navigates relationships, identity, and the shifting rhythms of adulthood with a natural sense of vulnerability. He allows silence and body language to communicate just as much as dialogue. The result is a performance that feels lived-in and deeply human.

Moonlight

Holland’s appearance in Moonlight may be brief, but it’s unforgettable. In a pivotal moment of mentorship and understanding, he conveys compassion with remarkable subtlety. His scenes capture Holland’s gift for conveying warmth without overselling emotion. It’s a small role that leaves a lasting impact.

Exhibiting Forgiveness

In this emotionally layered drama, Holland explores themes of trauma, healing, and artistic expression. His portrayal captures the complexity of confronting personal history while searching for peace. Holland approaches the character with empathy and restraint. The performance reflects his ability to bring depth to stories about growth and reconciliation.

The Knick

As Dr. Algernon Edwards in The Knick, Holland anchors the series with intelligence and emotional resilience. The role explores the challenges of navigating racism and ambition in early 20th-century medicine. Holland balances dignity and frustration with extraordinary control. It’s a performance that quietly drives the show’s emotional core.

– Ty Cole
Excerpted from “André Holland’s Quiet Power
Continues to Elevate Every Role”
BET
March 5, 2026

Tuesday, March 03, 2026

Photo of the Day

Earlier this evening the Muslim American Caucus of the Green Party of Minnesota hosted an iftar, the fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims during Ramadan.

At this event, one that welcomed all, support was shown for both the Green Party of Minnesota and Dr. Butch Ware, Green candidate for Governor of California (pictured above speaking at this evening’s iftar).

Rooted in the principles of justice, ecological responsibility, and nonviolence, the Muslim American Caucus works to “uplift and empower Muslim voices within the Green Party, ensuring that their perspectives, concerns, and values are represented in political discourse.”

Related Off-site Links:
The Green Party Is Growing! – Rose Roby (GreenParty.org, March 1, 2026).
Arab and Muslim American Green Party Caucus Formed to Champion Justice, Peace, and Human Rights – Farah Khan (GreenParty.org, January 30, 2025).
CAIR Exit Poll of Muslim Voters Reveals Surge in Support for Green Presidential Candidate Jill Stein, Steep Decline for Democratic Candidate Kamala Harris – CAIR (November 8, 2024).
Muslim Voters Are Split Between Kamala Harris and Green Party Nominee Jill Stein, as Genocide in Gaza Influences Their Decision – Colleen DeGuzman (Houston Public Media, September 23, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”

GREEN PARTY
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear

Thomas Fazi on How Western Hegemony Has Entered a Phase of Irreversible Decline

Writes David Bracewell in response to the quote below by writer and filmmaker Thomas Fazi (pictured at right): “The creepy Western political and financial chancers scragging the planet won’t go gently from the domination game, though they’ve already unwittingly built their own public square cages from their own crooked timber. Few outside the West admire them now. They can’t any longer rag-doll a global south state while condemning its leaders and weeping for freedom without evincing even greater contempt – not since Gaza and the hyper-valorisation of the fascist state suffocating it with our elites’ help. That loss of perceived authority and its direct effect on Western force projection will reverberate in your diminishing life choices, your kids’ opportunities, your freedom to travel . . . or bank without oversight . . . or choose political views, friends, organisations, words . . . since our societies will almost certainly be the last supper of that horrible ruling class, as it faces a slow, generational exclusion from real power by the rising world majority. The West is being sidelined because our elites are institutionally supremacist and incapable of peaceful adaptation.”

Here’s what Thomas Fazi wrote:

Aside from his likely role as an intelligence asset, the Epstein Files portray [Jeffrey Epstein] as a middleman, . . . a broker connecting powerful actors in ways that maximised the political and economic interests of a transnational superclass. This superclass is not an anomaly but a structural feature of capitalism itself, a system in which wealth – and therefore power – inevitably concentrates in the hands of a small minority that comes to exercise disproportionate economic and political influence regardless of formal electoral mechanisms. Capitalism is thus intrinsically oligarchic or plutocratic: a dictatorship of capital operating beneath a veneer of democratic ritual. This has always been the core insight of Marxist critiques of capitalism. But recent decades have significantly intensified this pattern. The neoliberal era has produced a historically unprecedented concentration of wealth, extensively documented in economic data, and with it an equally unprecedented concentration of political leverage. Epstein – or what might be called the “Epstein class” – is a direct product of this development.

In such a context, democracy becomes largely illusory even as its technical procedures – universal suffrage, multi-party elections constitutional formalities – remain in place (though even these procedural norms are increasingly challenged, as demonstrated by episodes such as the annulment of elections in Romania). The public’s capacity to challenge entrenched power through the ballot box is systematically neutralised through a wide array of mechanisms: electoral systems designed to marginalise smaller parties; consensus-manufacturing propaganda and censorship enabled by compliant, elite-aligned mass media and social-media platforms; character assassination campaigns against unwelcome candidates; virtually unlimited financial resources deployed to purchase political loyalty; and the steady transfer of sovereignty from national governments to supranational institutions structurally shielded from democratic accountability. And this is not even considering the willingness of elites to bend or break the law outright in order to suppress dissent, as the prolonged legal persecution of Julian Assange, or the sanctioning of critical journalists in the EU, starkly illustrate.

. . . So yes, there is no doubt that the Western ruling classes are morally degenerate. The good news is that their centuries-long global dominance is visibly eroding as new centres of economic and political power rise and Western hegemony enters a phase of irreversible decline. The danger, however, lies in the refusal of entrenched elites to accept this loss of primacy. A class that has grown accustomed to unquestioned supremacy is more likely to escalate conflict than relinquish control voluntarily, which is precisely what we are seeing. This is why the times we are living through are so bloody – and so dangerous.

– Thomas Fazi
Excerpted from “Western Hegemony Has Entered
a Phase of Irreversible Decline”
ThomasFazi.com
March 2, 2026

Quote of the Day

Like a cracked reactor glowing in the dark, the Israeli government is spiraling – dragging the region toward catastrophe while calling it security. An endless war machine, fueled by occupation and impunity, casts a shadow over humanity that feels heavier than the smoke over Gaza.

Since October 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed – a staggering human toll that reads like a ledger written in ash across the sky.

Israel and its American patron strut around preaching democracy while bankrolling devastation, an empire-addicted-to-war dynamic that looks less like leadership and more like a collapsing casino lit by burning chips. The self-appointed guardians of “order” can’t even manage their own moral bankruptcy.

We must boycott, divest, and raise our voices – turning solidarity into a firewall against apartheid and endless war.

In the rubble where children once dreamed, beneath a sky bruised by fire, humanity itself trembles – and if we fail them now, we become ghosts wandering a future we were too afraid to save.

– Kym Staton
via social media
March 3, 2026

Monday, March 02, 2026

The Architecture of Settler Colonialism

Reminder that the myth of Israelis having “nowhere to go,” premised on a land “God gave them,” unravels the instant evacuation flights and dual passports appear.

Israelis move through airspace, embassies, and Western protections. Palestinians are sealed in, borders closed, exits denied, aid blocked, and bombardment normalized.

This is the architecture of settler colonialism. Mobility for the protected and enclosure for the colonized.

– Muchacha Fanzine
via social media
March 2, 2026

Isn’t it interesting how quickly the citizens of Israel reach for their European/U.S. passports and flee the country “God gave them,” while the Palestinians continue to live and rebuild their land, water their olive trees, no matter the scale of destruction.

– Tithi Bhattacharya
via social media
March 2, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Record Israeli Emigration Exposes Deep Crisis at Heart of the Zionist Project – Middle East Monitor (January 9, 2026).
Why Israelis Are Leaving in Record Numbers – Hila Amit (972 Magazine, January 7, 2026).
As Palestinians Are Massacred for Staying, Israelis Are Desperate to Flee – Joseph Massad (Middle East Eye, June 27, 2025).
“Not for You”: Israeli Shelters Exclude Palestinians as Bombs Rain Down – Aseel Mafarjeh (Al Jazeera, June 17, 2025).
Trapped in Gaza: Do Palestinians Have a Choice? – Waseem Abu Mahadi (The Media Line, May 15, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Israel’s and the United States’ Rationale for War on Iran Is “All Bullshit”
• “The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
• “Essential Viewing for All Who Care to Understand the Plight of the People of Palestine”
• Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
• Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014

Saturday, February 28, 2026

February Vignettes

Something to Think About . . .

– Image: Bernard Hage

Related Off-site Links:
Trump Wants to Distract Americans From Scandals at Home With a Diversionary War – Christopher S. Chivvis (The Guardian, February 28, 2026).
“The Behavior of Rogue States”: Global Revulsion as U.S. and Israel Launch War on Iran – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
U.S. and Israel Launch Unprovoked Attack on Iran, Risking Broader Regional War – Democracy Now! (February 28, 2026).
Oman’s Foreign Minister Said U.S.-Iran Deal Was “Within Our Reach.” Then Trump Started Bombing – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
We’re at War with Iran – Marianne Williamson (Transform, February 28, 2026).
Israel Strikes Two Schools in Iran, Killing More Than 80 People – Al Jazeera (February 28, 2026).
Trump Says Bombing of Iran to Continue “Uninterrupted” After Reported Killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Killed in Israeli Strike, Ending 36-Year Iron Rule – Jackie Northam, James Hider, and Peter Kenyon (NPR News, February 28, 2026).
“Bombs Will Be Dropping Everywhere”: Trump Launches Illegal Regime Change War Against Iran – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
U.S. Intervention Would Worsen Iran’s Crisis: An Interview with Phyllis Bennis – Institute for Policy Studies (January 20, 2026).
Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed to Have Nukes? – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, June 20, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Israel’s and the United States’ Rationale for War on Iran Is “All Bullshit”
• Anand Giridharadas: “The Epstein Class Is Defined by Amorality”
• Lee Camp: “The Epstein Scandal Has Revealed the Revolting Depravity of the Ruling Elite”
• Anand Giridharadas on the “Elite Network” Around Jeffrey Epstein
• Phyllis Bennis on the “Stark Danger” Posed by Israel’s Attack on Iran (2025)
• Saying “No” to War on Iran (2020)
• Veterans for Peace Strongly Condemns U.S. Aggression Towards Iran (2020)
• Major Danny Sjursen: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2019
• Jeff Cohen: Quote of the Day – January 29, 2011

Israel’s and the United States’ Rationale for War on Iran Is “All Bullshit”

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.

Iran has responded to the U.S. and Israel’s unilateral military attacks by targeting U.S. military installations across West Asia. The Irainian-backed Houthis announced that they would resume attacks on Israeli and U.S. commercial ships in the Red Sea.

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.

– Bruce Fanger
“Two Leaders. Two Legal Shadows. One War”
via social media
February 28, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
“The Behavior of Rogue States”: Global Revulsion as U.S. and Israel Launch War on Iran – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
U.S. and Israel Launch Unprovoked Attack on Iran, Risking Broader Regional War – Democracy Now! (February 28, 2026).
Oman’s Foreign Minister Said U.S.-Iran Deal Was “Within Our Reach.” Then Trump Started Bombing – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
We’re at War with Iran – Marianne Williamson (Transform, February 28, 2026).
Israel Strikes Two Schools in Iran, Killing More Than 80 People – Al Jazeera (February 28, 2026).
Trump Says Bombing of Iran to Continue “Uninterrupted” After Reported Killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Killed in Israeli Strike, Ending 36-Year Iron Rule – Jackie Northam, James Hider, and Peter Kenyon (NPR News, February 28, 2026).
“Bombs Will Be Dropping Everywhere”: Trump Launches Illegal Regime Change War Against Iran – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 28, 2026).
Trump Wants to Distract Americans From Scandals at Home with a Diversionary War – Christopher S. Chivvis (The Guardian, February 28, 2026).
The Suicidal Folly of a War with Iran – Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report, February 24, 2026).
U.S. Intervention Would Worsen Iran’s Crisis: An Interview with Phyllis Bennis – Institute for Policy Studies (January 20, 2026).
Despite Ongoing Talks, Trump Administration Is “Obsessed” with Destroying Iran: An Interview with Jeremy Scahill – Democracy Now! (January 20, 2026).
Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed to Have Nukes? – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, June 20, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Phyllis Bennis on the “Stark Danger” Posed by Israel’s Attack on Iran (2025)
• Saying “No” to War on Iran (2020)
• Veterans for Peace Strongly Condemns U.S. Aggression Towards Iran (2020)
• Major Danny Sjursen: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2019
• Jeff Cohen: Quote of the Day – January 29, 2011

The Wild Reed

Sunday, March 08, 2026

The Red Turtle: “A Film That Knows Exactly What It Wants to Be”

Saturday, March 07, 2026

Quote of the Day

Friday, March 06, 2026

It Begins With Us

Thursday, March 05, 2026

A Night at the Ballet

The Quiet Power of André Holland

Tuesday, March 03, 2026

Photo of the Day

Thomas Fazi on How Western Hegemony Has Entered a Phase of Irreversible Decline

Quote of the Day

Monday, March 02, 2026

The Architecture of Settler Colonialism

Saturday, February 28, 2026

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Israel’s and the United States’ Rationale for War on Iran Is “All Bullshit”

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