Category: Military

By Steve Rodriguez

Up until last week, even critics of President Donald Trump found it hard to accept that his war rhetoric could get much more extreme, or his threats against both enemies and traditional allies more outrageous. However, recent news about the Pentagon’s interaction with the Vatican, along with Trump comments made in the past few days that are highly critical of Pope Leo XIV, have proven such concepts wrong.

Fortunately for the Vatican, I contend the Pope, a critic of Trump’s actions and words related to the Iranian War, does possess a unique advantage he can employ to escape our president’s wrath.

According to reports in the Free Press, the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was advised the Vatican needs to play ball with the Trump administration’s efforts in the area of national security. Pentagon officials supposedly asserted the U.S. has the military power to “do whatever it wants” and that “the Church had better take its side.” while making references to “the period in the 1300’s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the Avignon Papacy.” The threat sounds right out of The Sopranos, something akin to a thug character threatening …“Nice Sistine Chapel you got there, padre. Be a real shame if it should be damaged in a bombing.”

The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

By Rebecca Solnit / The Guardian / April 12, 2026

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Across the branches of government, the services that are supposed to protect us – nuclear stockpile monitoring, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism – are being undermined, understaffed or trashed. A different kind of protection that consists of public health, vaccination programs, food safety, clean air and water, social services, civil rights and the rule of law is also under attack. The federal government that serves us is being starved while the federal government that serves the Trump agenda and the oligarchy is glutting itself on taxpayer money, including the grotesque sums dumped on the Department of Homeland Security and the US military now being warped into Pete Hegseth’s twisted vision of a ruthless mercenary force. Hegseth has reportedly stood in the way of promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers.

By Alexandra Mendoza and Kristen Taketa / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 7, 2026

Immigration arrests in the San Diego area appear to have decreased in the first two months of this year compared to late last year, though they are still much more frequent than under the Biden administration, recently released data show.

The slowdown comes after a year in which arrests increased by over 1,300% from 2024, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data provided to the Deportation Data Project by the agency in response to a public record request and analyzed by the Union-Tribune.

The data now covers more than a year into the second term of the Trump administration, which has been notable for its increased efforts to crack down on immigration.

ICE made about 8,300 arrests in the San Diego field office in 2025, up from about 600 the previous year, the data show. The office oversees San Diego and Imperial counties. December alone saw almost 1,500 arrests.

Over the past year, Trump administration officials have repeatedly stated that they will target the “worst of the worst,” referring to individuals with serious criminal records.

However, from January 2025 through March 10, 2026, data show that approximately 59% of arrests at the San Diego field office were individuals with no pending criminal charges or prior convictions.

Here are samples of photos sent to us last weekend, too late for the live-blog (that shut down about 5:30 pm after beginning at 8:15 in the morning) that we now would like to share.

Downtown San Diego — Waterfront Park

From Change Begins With ME .Indivisible.

City News Service – CBS8 / March 29, 2026

8 to 9 Million Turn Out Nation-Wide

A record 94,000 people participated in 21 separate “No Kings” protests in San Diego County on Saturday, organizers said Sunday.

The events were part of a nationwide day of demonstrations against the Trump administration that organizers were calling the largest single-day pro-democracy turnout on record.

The local crowds surpassed the more than 80,000 who mobilized countywide in October 2025. The figures came from an independent analysis by Take Action San Diego, the same organization that provided independent crowd counts for both previous No Kings events in San Diego, organizers said in a statement Sunday.

“What a day! San Diegans from every neighborhood, every background, and every generation came together around one simple truth: There are no kings in America,” said Wendy Gelernter, lead downtown organizer for Take Action San Diego.

5:40 pm PDT Hey everybody, we’re wrapping up our live blog, as we’ve been blogging since 8:15 this morning.

Chula Vista

5:29 pm PDT Byron Morton sent a batch of shots from Chula Vista. He reported, “There were about 250 people of all walks on the sidewalks bordering the intersection of H Street and Broadway. There were multilingual signs. Protesters blew whistles and cars honked constantly in passing.”

Downtown
4:26 pm PDT Even though the main march downtown San Diego has been over for hours, photos are still coming in to the Rag. Here’s a batch of the Waterfront march taken by OBcean Charles Landon:

As we finish up the four weeks of Trump’s war on Iran, it’s time to offer some key observations from Southern California.

• Trump is lying about the pace of “negotiations” with Iran in order to garner more time to accumulate more US troops in the region; this is all his “art of the deal” — confuse your opponent, make them believe you’re about to “walk away” from any talks on resolution. In this case, Trump has confused the American people, the mainstream media, European allies — even his own staff at the White House. On Thursday, he stated he didn’t care about the negotiations.
• Trump earned his TACO nickname, and changed his deadline for Iran, again for the third time. Trump Always Chickens Out.
• Despite Trump’s claims the “war is already won”, Iran and Israel continue to shell each other — even escalated attacks — and more deaths and injuries mount. Iran says 1400 of its people have been killed in the strikes over the last 4 weeks.
• The Straits of Hormuz are still closed to Iran’s adversaries. Trump couldn’t get any NATO or other ally to help free the fiery zone.
• Troops, marines, sailors are on their way; there’s reports that Trump has ordered another 10,000 soldiers to the region; there’s two ships filled with sailors and marines on their way to the Mid-East; there’s a brigade of the 82th Airborne Division on its way.
• America is on the verge of experiencing the largest protest — No Kings — in history, tomorrow March 28th as over 7 million people will be marching and protesting. Thousands of San Diegans will be protesting at the  22 events just in San Diego County. (The Rag will host an all-day liveblog about the events.)
• San Diego is about to enter the war big time: thousands of Marines from Camp Pendleton have been mobilized to go; many of their families live in the San Diego region, and if there are boots on the ground, expect to see many locals on casualty lists.

Tens of Thousands Expected Across San Diego County for No Kings March 28 

Organizers anticipate largest San Diego turnout yet after 80,000+ joined October mobilization

Tens of thousands of San Diego County residents are expected at 22 rallies, marches and family-friendly events on Saturday, March 28, building on the 80,000+ who mobilized countywide in October 2025. Participants say they are mobilizing in defense of democratic institutions, civil liberties, and social programs affecting San Diego families. Events are scheduled across San Diego County, including Downtown San Diego, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad, Oceanside,Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Fallbrook, Temecula, Valley Center, Rancho Bernardo, Ramona, La Mesa, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Otay Mesa and Borrego Springs.

Here’s the updated list of No Kings events within San Diego County, March 28

MAIN SAN DIEGO RALLY & MARCH
Waterfront Park
10:00 a.m.–noon | 1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, CA 92101

Schedule:
10:00–10:45 a.m. — Main program & speakers
10:45 a.m.–noon  — March; return to Waterfront Park

By Tanja Kropf / ExploreClairemont / Jan. 14, 2026

You’ve likely driven down Kearny Villa Road, Linda Vista Road, and Convoy Street dozens (or even hundreds) of times without giving much thought to their history. Your first thoughts of Kearny Mesa probably flit to the Convoy District and its reputation as an Asian food hub, flanked by industrial warehouses and office complexes emblematic of the area.

But the land now occupied by frontage roads, brown, boxy office buildings, and award-winning ramen restaurants used to be something much different.

Dry, dusty land covered in leathery chaparral stretched for miles. The area was called the Linda Vista mesa. It was early 1917, and the United States was on the precipice of war. By April, the nation had entered World War I, ready to battle Germany, and needed a training site.

San Diego’s civic boosters lobbied hard in pitching the Linda Vista mesa area. The San Diego Union wrote, “No city can better serve the nation than ours, where every day is a training day.”

The Army agreed. In May, war inspectors surveyed the mesa and found it ideal: flat, open, close to rail and port, with plenty of room to drill soldiers. Plus, San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric promised to provide electricity. Its proximity to the Santa Fe Depot

Here is a quick overview on this 17th day of Trump’s war with Iran.

• Cost of war — it was estimated that in the first 6 days of the war, it cost the U.S. nearly $2 Billion a day. The Pentagon reported that the first week cost us $11.3 Billions, not counting the expenses of the build-up. Tomahawk cruise missiles, like the one the U.S. military used in that deadly strike on an Iranian girls’ primary school, cost $2.2 million each. It may be worth keeping these figures in mind as the Trump administration argues it doesn’t have enough money to make health care more affordable.
• Cost of gas — since the war started on Feb. 28, the average cost of gas has risen 25%; the cost of oil 40%.
• The war is unpopular with Americans; only 1 in 4 support it. A good portion of the MAGA base is seething over the war, since their guy ran against “endless wars.”

Trump’s Assault Undermines Protections of Our Coastal Waters

By David Helvarg / The Progressive / March 11, 2026

My half-century as a journalist and two decades as an ocean advocate has taught me that democracy is not a guarantee of environmental protection for our public seas or people—it’s a prerequisite.

That’s why, in advance of what will be the third No Kings Day of mass protest against President Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian and unpopular administration, on March 28, a few activists from my organization, Blue Frontier, among others, are pushing for a greater focus on ocean-related issues, including clean beaches, safe and sustainable seafood, and oil- and plastic-free public seas.

While previous administrations have promoted offshore drilling and attacked climate science, the Trump Administration stands alone in ignoring the law and Constitutional separation of powers to undermine protection of our coastal waters.

Among other assaults on legal precedent, it has acted to undo the U.S. Civil Service Act during mass firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and elsewhere. It has also thumbed its nose at the Congressional War Powers Act and the military code of conduct in the September 2 killing of two survivors of a shipwreck, as part of a wave of deadly attacks on alleged drug-runners at sea.

From The Washington Post / March 11, 2026

The Iranian elementary school building where scores of children were killed as the U.S. and Israel began their massive aerial campaign was on a U.S. target list and may have been mistaken for a military site, multiple people familiar with the strike told The Washington Post.

The deadly attack occurred in the first few hours of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran — just as parents were hurrying to the two-story schoolhouse to take their kids home to safety — and killed at least 175 people, many of them children, according to Iranian state media.

It is still not clear why the building was hit, but one person familiar with the school strike said the building had been identified as a factory and had been an approved strike target. A second person familiar said there was an arms depot target located in the same area and did not know if the United States hit the school by mistake, or if U.S. officials had the wrong intelligence and thought the building was the arms depot.

“Initially there was some confusion on why it was on the target list,” said a third person familiar with the strike. The individual would not go into further detail, citing the military’s ongoing investigation into the strike.