DL Open Thread: Monday, March 2, 2026
“Mideast Conflict Widens Across Multiple Fronts”. That’s the lead headline in today’s NYTimes:
Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, traded strikes early Monday after the breakdown of a fragile yearlong truce, opening another front in the widening war in the Middle East following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah said it had launched rockets at Israeli territory overnight in retaliation for the death of Mr. Khamenei, who was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation on Saturday. Israel responded by attacking sites south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, that are affiliated with Hezbollah, as Israel’s military chief of staff warned of a prolonged conflict.
The United States and Israel have conducted thousands of airstrikes across Iran since Saturday, and a defiant Iran has responded by firing drones and missiles at Israel and at U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.
The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that the U.S. and Israeli strikes had killed 555 people across Iran. China’s foreign ministry said the death toll included one of its citizens who was caught in the crossfire.
Lebanese state media reported that at least 31 people had been killed in the Israeli strikes. Residents packed highways as they tried to flee, and schools were turned into shelters.
On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that three American soldiers had been killed in a base in Kuwait, while another nine people were killed in a strike in central Israel. Five people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, which all host U.S. military bases, and four people were killed in Syria, according to official reports tallied by The New York Times.
Three American jets were shot down over Kuwait during “an apparent friendly fire incident” while they were taking part in the campaign against Iran, CENTCOM said in a statement on Monday.
“During active combat — that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses,” the statement said.
Videos verified by The Times showed an oil tanker, the Skylight, ablaze off the coast of Oman on Sunday., and a small fire broke out at a Saudi oil refinery after two drones targeting the facility were intercepted, causing debris to fall, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
The fighting shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, according to shipping companies and Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency. The shipping company Maersk said it was halting some shipping through the Red Sea, hundreds of miles to the west.
A drone attack struck the American embassy compound in Kuwait, as Iran targets U.S. assets throughout the Middle East, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. In video from the scene verified by The Times, smoke can be seen billowing from an area surrounding the complex. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Relax. Everything’s under control.
Federal agencies are starting to show signs of strain as the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown enters its third week and the U.S. assault on Iran raises concerns about a heightened risk of terrorist threats domestically.
The department is continuing what it calls “essential” missions amid a partisan standoff in which Democrats have refused to fund the department without measures to rein in immigration officers. The funding lapse has had few implications for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, in large part because of the billions of dollars in funding Republicans in Congress approved for the agency last summer.
Over the weekend, Republican lawmakers maintained that President Trump’s military assault on Iran makes it even more critical that federal employees who help keep the country safe, including airport security officers, should not go without pay.
“We cannot afford delays,” Representative Andrew Garbarino, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a Republican of New York, said in a social media post. “We must ensure DHS is operating at maximum readiness to prevent and respond to threats against our homeland.”
Democrats dismissed those arguments, saying they would keep demanding restrictions on immigration agents.
“I don’t have any obligation to fund a Department of Homeland Security that is violating the law every day,” Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Gee, I have an idea. Probably the same one that you have–re-designate the funds from ICE’s ongoing war against America to the so-called ‘vital’ functions of DHS.
RFK Jr. Promotes Measles Epidemic:
As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.
Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s. The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.
Leaders of this campaign include the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy led for years, a group run by his longtime book publisher, and Leslie Manookian, an Idaho film-maker, homeopath and activist whom Kennedy has called his friend.
Russia Benefits From Higher Oil Prices:
Russian President Vladimir Putin may have lost another close ally after the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but an oil shock from conflict in Middle East spells potential good news for his war chest.
The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway giving access to the Persian Gulf and one of the world’s key chokepoints for tankers carrying oil and liquefied natural gas. That is firing speculation that global crude prices could spike dramatically, boosting Russian revenues.
“$100+ oil per barrel soon,” Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev gloated on X Saturday evening. The current price of Brent crude is about $73 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate trades at about $67.
Well, Putin’s Trump’s buddy, so why not? Could be the Law Of Unintended Consequences, or the consequences could have been intended.
Power Demands Could Overwhelm Our Grid:
Delaware– as part of the PJM energy grid– is likely headed for an energy shortfall and drop in reliability by the end of the decade.
That’s according presentations from independent energy auditor Reliability First and Delaware’s public advocate Jameson Tweedie.
Reliability First’s Diane Holder told lawmakers that the PJM region Delaware falls in moves from “elevated” to “high” risk by 2029 without more planned energy.
According to her organization’s report, “new data centers for artificial intelligence and the digital economy account for most of the projected increase in North American electricity demand over the next 10 years.”
“Not a prediction that there’s going to be an outage in 2029,” Holders said. “But things have worsened.”
With large data center development, Tweedie said, “we are in a period of dramatic growth where PJM will need to add the equivalent of a California or Texas-size power grid in just the next five years.”
PJM shared a plan outline that will get new energy generators connected to the grid more quickly and a definition of large load operators on its grid.
Importantly, Hansen said, PJM will ask large energy users to bring their own power to the grid, or be subject to restricted power usage when the grid is stressed. It’s a suggestion she worked on with the PJM legislators collaborative, which she said will make a difference in Delaware’s ability to negotiate with data center developers.
“Either bring your own generation or agree to be curtailable–that was a non starter before,” she said. “Now we all, as a region, have come to that conclusion. That’s really helpful for us, because that means, as a state, we don’t have to start from the ground floor.”
Yeah, let’s make sure those requirements are enforceable before we open the doors to data centers.
What do you want to talk about?
Monday morning Habeas update: Judges are getting pissed. I highly recommend reading this order from late last week starting on page 5. In short:
“This Memorandum Opinion and Order serves as explicit notice to all officials—state and federal—involved in the detention of individuals whose cases come before this court. Continued detention without individualized custody determinations, after this court’s repeated holdings that such detention violates the Fifth Amendment, will result in legal consequences. For state jail officials, those consequences include personal civil liability without qualified immunity protection. For federal officials, those consequences include exercise of this court’s full inherent authority to enforce constitutional compliance including contempt.”
https://www.wvsd.uscourts.gov/sites/wvsd/files/opinions/26-cv-121%20MOO.pdf
Yes, that’s an ongoing story, the main gist being the blatant and ongoing disdain for the rule of law by this administration.
They’re saying, ‘We’re gonna keep breaking the law. What are you gonna do about it?”
Gas prices will shoot up with straights of Harmos closed.
The news of New Mexico compound Jeffrey Epstein form owner, Keith olbermann reported this morning first 47’s administration stopped New Mexico AG from doing anything because Trump’s administration had it. Never heard another word from them. This will heatup.
Guess who’s giving the Caesar Rodney statue that once stood in Rodney Square new life? That’s right, your favorite war-starting president, that’s who.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/climate/caesar-rodney-statue-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QFA.sA0Z.DECzQsFxY33X&smid=url-share
This is egg on our collective faces. Six years ago we bent the knee toward a group that, while inspired by noble causes, was collectively stupid. Instead of re-contextualizing Rodeny and his history, and perhaps adding other leaders with diverse representation to the square, we handed over his entire history and part of our state identity to the right wing.
Checked my face.
No egg.
Interesting discussion on Carters data center regulations legislation happening in County Council tomorrow. Interesting to see who has listened to the public outrage and who listened to the campaign coffers
Today at 3pm the NCC County Council will review the Data Centers Regs Ordinance 25-101 in their Land Use Committee (and may vote on it next week). As Pam Scott is running this Starwood project application and damn, it must feel like she hit a home run as 4th year Chair of NCC Chamber of Commerce and going on as Forever Chair of the Committee of 100 Land Use Committee (for as long as I can remember), lets make her feel particularly unwelcome this afternoon.
We have a long way to go to defeat the corrupted electeds who are in bed with the Pam Scotts of our state. Another name to remember is Patrick Allen, a 360 degree lobbyist who has hired Nicole Poore’s daughter. He represents any number of special interests directly related to the hyperscale industrial data centers proposal for our Coastal Zone [ https://pirs.delaware.gov/#/lobbyist/view/3002023 ].
Start with this damn council in this election year. Listen well to what they say or do not say today.
https://www.facebook.com/ncc.chamber/posts/pfbid09mfRY19U1T9gfJGXPdJe1FwFc56SgbT6XVSNhHdN5nYTQuVEGnwP1GPbeBR65ktJl
One of my fave spies just sent me this story. It’s true–the courts are fed up with Trump:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-appeals-court-rejects-trump-tariff-refund-delay-supreme-court/#:~:text=administration%27s%20push%20to-,delay,-start%20of%20tariff
“A federal appeals court on Monday declined to delay implementation of the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of President Trump’s tariffs, allowing next steps in processing of tariff refunds to begin swiftly, following the high court’s decision last month.
The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit clears the way for the lower court, the U.S. Court of International Trade, to begin the process of crafting relief for the small businesses that successfully challenged Mr. Trump’s global tariffs.
The Trump administration had said it would issue refunds if the duties targeting nearly every U.S. trading partner around the world were ultimately found unlawful by the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in a 6-3 decision that a federal emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, did not give the president the authority to impose tariffs.
But on Friday, the Trump administration asked the Federal Circuit to wait 90 days before issuing its mandate “to allow the political branches an opportunity to consider options,” after the Supreme Court’s decision. The high court did not address the issue of refunds in its ruling, which dismantled a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s economic agenda.”
There was no ceasefire between Lebanon/Hezbollah and Israel because Israel has violated it thousands of times since “peace” was supposedly established. Israel has also violated the ceasefire in Gaza many hundreds of times, and has now used the regional terror it’s started as pretext to shut all the crossings into Gaza again. The Zionists are diabolical and inhumane.