☕️ TARGETING ☙ Monday, March 2, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Iran updates; Mullahs strike the Gulf; church raiders rack up indictments; the FTC targets Apple News; federal union bargaining is dying; and CNN employees are having a meltdown. And more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! And it’s the first weekday of March; February is now behind us. As you know, we attacked Iran early Saturday morning. Read the Weekend Edition if you missed it; today’s war update will be in summary form, since there’s a lot of other news to get to. While President Trump was targeting Iran, a lot more targeting was happening. In today’s roundup: a quick Iran war brief; Minnesota church: 30 more indictments (39 total), including Don Lemon; FACE Act and KKK Act charges; one defendant fled the country; FTC vs. Apple News: The “democratically dangerous” FTC letter, Democrats’ FCC hypocrisy, the Fairness Doctrine history, and “Reagan was right”; Federal unions: Appeals court dissolves injunction — Trump can now end collective bargaining for 1M+ federal employees; CNN panic: Netflix out, Ellison/Paramount in, Bari Weiss potentially running CNN + CBS, and why it matters for 2026.

🚀⛑️ C&C ARMY BRIEFING ROOM ⛑️ 🚀

Things moved fast this weekend. Operation “Epic Fury” launched Saturday and almost immediately killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with an estimated 40 top Iranian officials, in the most ambitious attack on Iranian targets in decades. Trump, not incorrectly, called Khamenei “one of the most evil people in history” on Truth Social.

CBS reported US strikes hit military bases, naval ports, prisons used to suppress Iran’s own protesters last winter, defensive silos, drone storage facilities, and the three main nuclear lab sites we struck last year (for the second time, just to make sure). Three U.S. service members were killed on Sunday, becoming the first American casualties of the operation (a fourth has since died from related injuries). Trump vowed to avenge their deaths and confirmed that combat operations will continue.

Iran’s response was … unaccountably reckless. Lashing out blindly wouldn’t be inaccurate. Within 36 hours, Tehran launched retaliatory missiles and drones at Jordan and every member of the Gulf Cooperation Council: the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. These were all countries that weren’t even involved in the initial strikes. Commenters said Iran’s strategy was meant to pressure regional countries so that they would, in turn, pressure the USA to stop the attacks.

Iran’s strategy backfired.

Dubai’s Jebel Ali naval port was hit. Abu Dhabi’s airport absorbed a strike that killed at least one person and wounded seven. Dubai’s airport —the world’s busiest for international travel— and Kuwait’s airport were also targeted. The New York Times reported over 100 injured and at least four killed across the Gulf.

The UAE ordered all schools to remote learning through Wednesday. Bahrain’s sirens went off near the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters. Iran’s wasn’t any kind of precision response; it was more like a temper tantrum aimed at the entire neighborhood. Iran struck 14 countries in a single night:

The neighborhood didn’t take it well. On Sunday, seven nations —the U.S., Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE— issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s “unjustified strikes” on sovereign territory and affirming their right to self-defense. Saudi Arabia called it “brutal Iranian aggression” and “a blatant violation” of Arab sovereignty.

Then, Europe’s big three weighed in: France, Germany, and the UK all issued a joint statement calling Iran’s attacks “indiscriminate and disproportionate,” declaring themselves “appalled,” and urging Tehran to negotiate while “the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future.”

In other words: in a single weekend, Iran managed to unite the Arab Gulf states, the E3, and the United States against itself. That level of self-owning requires a special kind of strategic stupidity.

🚀 The fog of war continues blanketing everything. As you scroll, remember two things. First, nearly everything we hear about what’s happening in Iran comes either from official US sources or official Iranian sources, and there are fewer and fewer of the latter every day. Everyone with a bone to pick in the conflict is making their own wild claims. The point being: propaganda from all sides is a certainty. Count on it.

Second, despite all the black-pilled commenters wildly forecasting “spillover” —i.e., World War III breaking out any second— there is good reason to believe it could all end much sooner than anyone thinks. The commenters forget that Trump doesn’t do things like Bush, Obama, or Biden.

Remember how Trump handled Venezuela? After black-bagging President Nicolas Maduro, Trump immediately began working with the rest of Venezuela’s newly-impressed government, which was suddenly willing to talk. So far, things are working well.

Why wouldn’t he pursue the same strategy in Iran, now that the Ayatollah is out of the way?

What nobody knows (nor should we) is whether any back-channel negotiations may already have started. Logically, having come this far, the US and Israeli forces will continue reducing Iran’s military capabilities as much as possible, so that the remaining government’s options are also as limited as possible. So strikes will continue while any discussions are underway.

So as you consume your war-related social media, remember the “hot takes” rule. Don’t let the swirling narratives get you upset or depressed. It’s all likely to change fast, so allow any new narrative at least 48 hours to percolate before you swallow it.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍

🔥🔥🔥

If you thought the Minnesota church story was dying down: think again, Jack. On Friday, CNN reported, “Attorney general announces indictments against 30 more people who protested at a Minnesota church.” Of the 30, at least 27 have been arrested, including one who fled (“took a conveniently timed vacation”) to an unnamed foreign country. Three to go.

Hey, the international fugitive probably just needed a break from raiding churches, which is hard work. Or: You can run, but you can’t hide.

Last week, US Attorney General Pam Bondi filed thirty more indictments against people who stormed Cities Church in Minneapolis during a January “anti-ICE protest”— bringing the total defendant count to, get this, at least thirty-nine. CNN selected “protesters” as their preferred noun to describe the church-raiding defendants. I suppose that is technically accurate, but only in the same way that calling a bank robbery “an unscheduled withdrawal” is technically accurate.

The DOJ indictment said the “agitators” entered the church in a pre-planned, “coordinated takeover-style attack,” and engaged in intentional intimidation and obstruction. It says two people “conducted reconnaissance” outside the church the day before the raid. (They moronically but helpfully recorded their visit on video.) One of the plotters can be heard saying, “My thoughts are to be able to close up this whole alleyway right here.”

In case anyone cared what the victims think, CNN parsimoniously allowed them a single quote. “The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside,” the victims’ lawyer, Doug Wardlow, said in a statement.

The 39 defendants (including sour podcast host Don Lemon) face two main charges. First, the FACE Act, and second, ironically, the KKK Act (conspiracy against rights). Let us recall that Biden’s DOJ sent 25 armed federal agents to arrest a father of seven at dawn for shoving someone on a sidewalk under the FACE Act. (Real violence though? Nah. Biden’s DOJ filed zero FACE Act charges against Jane’s Revenge for firebombing pregnancy centers and churches. Local issues.)

Now the regulation-issue FBI boot is on the other foot, and they don’t like it one bit. “This ain’t God’s house,” said raider Trahern Crews, who led the invasion and also runs Minnesota Black Lives Matter. He added, “This is the house of the devil!”

He would know.

🔥🔥🔥

Last week, the New York Times’s full Editorial Board ran a dramatic op-ed titled, “Legally Creative, Democratically Dangerous: Trump’s Plan to Twist the News.” Their creative cover pic had sinister, 1950s low-budget horror-movie vibes:

Nobody asked for a $3 trillion, California-based tech company to curate the news for us, and install its default “News” app on every computer, iPhone, iPad, and probably even on those dumb 3D glasses that nobody wanted. But they did it, and over the last 15 years of news feeding have included a conservative angle exactly: zero times.

Who, exactly, is picking the stories? What, exactly, is the algorithm? Nobody knows. Apple doesn’t, and won’t, say. Don’t worry, it’s the correct news! Trust us, bro. Users can’t change it, either.

But this story doesn’t contain much news. In fact, it was just a letter.

Last week, the FTC —now headed by Chairman Andrew Ferguson— sent Apple a formal letter about its far-left News app, citing potential violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act. Section 5 covers ‘unfair or deceptive trade practices.’

In legal terms, he’s saying: hey— you’ve got yourself a nice communist propaganda service there, but you’re calling it a ‘news app.’ That’s false advertising.

Cue liberal hysteria.

The New York Times responded by calling the FTC letter “legally creative but democratically dangerous.” Of course, if the flip-flop were on the other foot, and Apple News were promoting conservative outlets and suppressing progressive ones, the NYT would not be gushing op-eds about threats to press freedom. No, they’d be bursting with op-eds demanding criminal charges.

Let’s pause to consider the timing. The mid-terms are right around the corner, so the implications are enormous. If the FTC successfully establishes that algorithmic news curation on a dominant default platform can constitute an unfair trade practice, that would be a landmark precedent.

Not just for Apple. For Google News, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, Spotify’s podcast promotions, whatever the kids have on PlayStation, and so on. The whole childish game of “hey, we’re just a neutral platform, the algorithm decides” would suddenly become a lot harder to play.

🔥 Personally, I’m not a fan of government news curation. Generally speaking, I’d support Apple’s right to be left-loony if they want. After all, they live in California, which is near Portland and North Korea. As broad-minded as I am about the First Amendment, there is a wrinkle. That wrinkle has to do with monopoly law, in an age of what the courts call “network effects.” We’ve seen it play out before, for example, in the browser wars.

In short, it’s illegal to use your platform’s monopoly power to freeze out competition. That goes for news, too. It’s not a First Amendment issue. It’s a monopoly issue, with a side dish of false advertising.

So I’m delighted to debate how the First Amendment applies to Apple’s default News app, which is installed on every device and actively prevents users from selecting any non-leftist media sources. (The fix is probably to let Apple provide a “default” list of leftwing sources, but force it to let users easily swap that list out for a sane one. Fair minds can disagree.)

But there is one thing I won’t debate. I won’t debate any of it with Democrats.

Have we so quickly forgotten? About ten minutes ago, the Democrats were wielding the full force of the federal government to squash rural soccer moms for posting memes about masks. Get out of here with your fake crocodile tears for the First Amendment.

🔥 Worse, if that’s possible, during 2021-2023, Democrats themselves demanded the FTC use the same technique against conservatives. The Hill, November 2022:

In November 2022, seven Democratic senators —led by snakey Dick Blumenthal— sent the FTC a letter demanding that it use Section 5 to investigate Twitter, because Elon Musk was making content moderation less restrictive. They wanted the FTC to punish a platform for not censoring enough.

Now, in 2026, a Republican FTC chair sends Apple a letter using the same Section 5 authority because Apple News was censoring too much — just in one direction. It’s the same law, the same agency, and the same enforcement theory. But now the Democrats are outraged. Please.

The Democrats literally came up with the same “creative legal theory” that the NYT now darkly labels “democratically dangerous” and calls “a hostile takeover of the marketplace of ideas.” Was it “democratically dangerous” in 2022, when Dick Blumenthal was doing it? Well? We’re waiting!

And don’t even get me started on the Democrats’ Fairness Doctrine, which was FCC’s law of the land all the way from 1949 to 1987 (Reagan vetoed the Democrats’ effort to transform the FCC rule into law). Or the “Fairness in Broadcasting Act,” which Dick “Another One” Durbin co-sponsored in 1993. Or how, in 2008, the Democrats tried to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine— led by Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer.

There is so much history here that the Times’s Editorial Board couldn’t ignore Democrats’ love affairs with FCC censorship. So guess how they navigated this “complexity?” You won’t believe it. The Times just quietly made history, printing words that probably caused its commercial printing presses to burst into flames. I’ll screenshot it for you:

You saw it with your own eyes: “Reagan was right.” If you think we are in the End Times, there, my friends, is Exhibit A.

Serious discussions should be undertaken, about the First Amendment, monopolies, network effects, lock-ins, forced news feeds, and so on. But the Democrats aren’t invited.

🔥🔥🔥

Late last week, Reuters ran an unintentionally terrific story, hidden below an intentionally confusing, double-negatived headline: “US court will not block Trump from ending union bargaining for federal workers.” The cover pic was of Trump looking as sour as Don Lemon, even though the story was great news for the President, who was probably high-fiving everyone in the Oval Office.

Last week, a federal appeals court struck down a lower court injunction that had been stopping Trump from ending union collective bargaining for 1M+ federal employees, which constitutes about two-thirds of the government’s civilian workforce. A three-judge panel dissolved the stay while litigation continues. In short: firings of protected union workers can now proceed.

It’s a massive story; it’s another goal conservatives have longed for since even before Ronald Reagan vetoed the Fairness Doctrine.

What Reuters’ story didn’t disclose was that unionized federal employee collective bargaining was invented by executive order. John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988 in January 1962. There was no act of Congress, no constitutional requirement— just a president deciding to give government workers the right to collectively bargain.

For sixty-three years, that decision has been treated as though it were immutable law, practically quasi-constitutional or something, and not just an executive order like every other one. Now, a different president —using the exact same executive authority Kennedy used— is going the other way.

And even though President Cabbage cancelled virtually all Trump 1.0’s executive orders on his first day in office, the progressive legal and media establishment is losing their collective minds, and treating this as some kind of governance apocalypse. So —of course— they sued, and finally, last week, an appellate court disagreed.

The preliminary injunction that had blocked the Trump administration from terminating union bargaining agreements for more than 1 million federal employees is now dissolved. We’ve reached the inner wetland acres now, where the biggest and fattest swamp creatures dwell, and this is what swamp-draining looks like. It’s grinding, procedural, unglamorous work.

Executive orders get frozen, courts rule, appeals get filed, stays get dissolved, rinse and repeat. This is the only way to drain something that spent sixty years digging out its own moat. Each favorable ruling becomes another obstacle cleared, then it’s on to the next one.

But Trump keeps winning, slowly and carefully, and the unions keep filing, at vast expense. TAW.

🔥🔥🔥

With the midterms in mind, consider today’s final story. Late last week, NBC reported, “‘Shaken’ CNN staffers say they fear what Paramount takeover would mean for newsroom.” Fear! And terror!

Last week, Netflix dropped out of its bidding for Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD), leaving David Ellison’s Paramount/Skydance as the lead buyer. Among other assets, Warner Brothers includes CNN.

Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and a close Trump ally, has already made clear what kind of media operation he’s building. After buying CBS, he paid $150 million for The Free Press and installed free-speech champion Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor-in-chief.

If the WBD deal closes, Weiss could run both CBS News and CNN simultaneously. CNN employees are freaking out. One CNN producer called it “the end of the global network Ted Turner founded.” CNN staff —allegedly adult, professional journalists— were even more unhinged.

Engage catastrophe mode. They are literally panicking.

“We are doomed,” one said. “We are f**ked,” said another. “The panic at CNN right now is off the charts,” a third staffer explained.

What’s become obvious is that Ellison isn’t just buying a news network. He’s assembling an entire corporate media portfolio: The Free Press, Bari Weiss, CBS News, and now potentially CNN. That’s not a single acquisition; it’s a strategy.

The era of liberal media credibility as a self-fulfilling prophecy (“we’re the real news because we say so”) is visibly ending. What Ellison is building, piece by piece, might actually compete for credibility on merit instead of just lazily inheriting a platform. That’s what “we are doomed” really means. CNN staff can see the day quickly coming when journalism skills are required instead of just woke bona fides.

We’ve already seen CBS, under Weiss’s stewardship, drifting toward more balanced reporting.

Here’s the strategic reality facing Democrats: Their electoral coalition depends on low-information voters absorbing a left-leaning media environment by default, from screens at the airport and the gym. Democrats don’t need people to watch Rachel Maddow. They need people not to notice that the background news they’re passively consuming has its thumb on the scale.

If Ellison breaks the corporate news monopoly —if CNN and CBS become genuinely competitive, genuinely heterodox, genuinely willing to follow stories wherever they lead— then the 2026 midterms aren’t just about candidates and issues anymore. They’ll be about whether, for the first time in 30 years, the Democrat Party can win elections without the automatic benefit of a media monoculture.

The Skydance/Paramount entertainment angle is a slower burn, but is arguably even more important. If “The Message” dies in Hollywood —if Paramount starts to greenlight content that audiences actually want rather than content that checks diversity boxes— the cultural permission structure shifts even further.

Entertainment media is upstream of political media. People who’d never watch CNN still watch movies. We are looking at a potential cultural realignment that could reverse 25 years of increasingly unhinged media. The next Lord of the Rings series might not be written by Stanford’s gender studies department, might not start with a trans love scene, and might not feature a heroic orc trying to liberate the hobbits from human oppression.

Paramount’s purchase remains subject to FTC approval. Under current rules, the deal would violate monopoly limits, since Paramount would control too much of the market. So the FTC is proposing rule changes to allow it. I’ll return to this problem later, depending on how things shake out.

But it is a new day in America. The problem with news and media started during the Cold War, in 1949, and accelerated after the Millennium. Now the balance may finally be starting to tilt back. Although the war in Iran is getting all the attention, the war for American minds might be even more important. And we’re winning.

Have a marvelous Monday! We’ll re-convene tomorrow, for another war update and more essential news and commentary.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

How to Donate to Coffee & Covid

Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com