Followers of the Watch, keeping up with the nefarious Donald Trumpf junta is challenging, but Coriolanus will do his utmost to capture the most salient issues, beginning with the renewed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and how we got here.
Last week, the fragile Gaza ceasefire was in place and the Republican-led US Congress presented a multi-trillion dollar budget plan that would give unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy by slashing social safety programs like Medicare, Medicaid, housing assistance, agricultural subsidies, and food assistance schemes like Meals-on-Wheels. Progressives and liberal Democrats (Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AKA AOC) urged Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to fight the GOP budget plan, but he capitulated, angering his caucus and Democrats nationwide. Schumer argued speciously that a government shutdown would be worse for Americans because the notorious DOGE would be unchecked rampaging through the Executive Branch. A massive, deafening chorus furiously demanded he step aside as Minority Leader for allowing passage of the bill and letting fascism win in the US. So enraged are Democrats, Schumer cancelled three public events where he wanted to hawk his new book about antisemitism, citing “security concerns.”
Schumer’s security concerns: “Jewish Voice for Peace” volunteers. Above is a sit-in at Trumpf Tower, NY.
So, why did Senator Schumer cave in to the Republicans and the oligarchs without a fight?
“Chuck Schumer: The Man Who Let American Fascism Rise Without a Fight” (Photo: Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Connecting the dots for a retired US Army intelligence officer can be tricky at times, but not on this occasion. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is facing more domestic challenges to his iron-fisted rule. He announced that he is trying to fire his Director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, who knows all the secrets of Netanyahu’s mishandling and cover-up of the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attacks. Netanyahu’s corruption trial is also hobbling him.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s greatest threats aren’t Iran, the Palestinians, or the Houthis. His most dangerous enemies are D/Mossad David Barnea, D/Shin Bet Ronen Bar, D/Mossad David Barnea, and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.
So, what happens next? The US budget is passed, freeing billions of dollars of aid to Israel. Over the weekend, Donald Trumpf orders the bombing of the Houthis in south Yemen, a Shia tribe aligned with Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah (LH). The Houthis are undergoing a man-made famine thanks to Sunni Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), whose ground forces were unable to defeat the Shias. The Houthis counter-attack against Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea on behalf of Iran and LH, since they and the UN are the only entities helping them.
By conducting this military strike, Trumpf is killing two birds with one stone, doing a favor to both Benjamin Netanyahu and Muhammad Bin Salman. Below is the Dotard fascinated by the video feed of brown-skinned people being nebulized by powerful precision rocket strikes from USCENTCOM forces:
Before golfing in West palm Beach, Trumpf called the Houthis “barbarians.”
Given the financial green light from the US budget thanks to Chuck Schumer, and the political green light from Trumpf, Netanyahu announces that Hamas has reneged on the ceasefire and begins a brutal attack on the people in Gaza. On the first day of the renewed Nakba, the IDF killed 400 Palestinians. As a wartime Prime Minister, Netanyahu again delays his corruption trial and drowns out talks of inquiries. This was all done in one week.
An international arrest warrant issued by the ICC for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes remain active.
Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.
Regardless if a Labor or Likud Prime Minister was leading Israel, Senator Chuck Schumer’s voting patterns in the US Congress reflect that he wants to ensure the uninterrupted flow of American taxpayer funds to Israel. This is why his critics refer to him as the “Senior Senator from Israel.” Unlike US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) who called for stopping US military aid to Israel during the Nakba, Senator Schumer timidly called for Israel to hold elections against Netanyahu. The most powerful lobbying group in the US is AIPAC. Bernie Sanders and AOC do not receive a dime from AIPAC.
Simply put, US Senator Chuck Schumer put the interests of the State of Israel ahead of the interests of the American people, and everybody knows it. Hence, the chorus of calls for him to step down as Senate Minority Leader. Serious discussions have arisen about challenging him in a primary. And who cares if hundreds of Arabs are needlessly killed or American servicemembers in the Middle East are put in harm’s way?
Two indicted criminals awaiting justice. (Photo: Carlos Barria / Reuters)
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
“Uh, just one more thing, Senator…”
Citations:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/government-shutdown-2025
https://www.businessinsider.com/netanyahu-white-house-trump-recognizes-golan-heights-israel-2019-3
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/schumer-not-leader-need
https://www.trackaipac.com/states/newyork
How much aid does the US give to Israel? (usafacts.org)
Russia-Ukraine Update
The most important fact to remember is Vladimir Putin and Donald Trumpf are not good faith actors, like Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk.
Ukraine and Russia Exchange 175 POWs
Ukraine secures return of 175 defenders from Russian captivity on 19 Mar (Photo: Zelensky / Telegram)
175 Ukrainian soldiers were released after a one-for-one prisoner trade with Russia. Another 22 Ukrainian service members returned through negotiations outside of the one-for-one swap. “This is one of the largest exchanges. Our soldiers, sergeants and officers are returning. The soldiers who fought for our freedom in the Armed Forces, Navy, National Guard, Territorial Defense Forces and Border Guard,” President Volodomir Zelensky stated. These 175 Ukrainian POWs are lucky to be alive because elements of the Russian forces have been torturing and executing prisoners since Putin launched his invasion in Feb 2022, as you have read here on Coriolanus.
Look how happy this poor guy is to be free from the clutches of the Russians. (Photo: Zelensky / Telegram)
Russia has lost 897,010 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 Feb 2022. The number includes 1,560 casualties suffered just over the past day according to the General Staff of Ukraine Armed Forces.
Russia has also lost 10,352 tanks, 21,509 armored fighting vehicles, 40,892 vehicles and fuel tanks, 24,640 artillery systems, 1,319 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,107 air defense systems, 370 airplanes, 331 helicopters, 29,616 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
This has been quite an expensive war for the Pariah State in terms of population, materiel, morale, and international reputation. No doubt Vladimir Putin enjoyed reading about US military casualties and costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, only to find he vastly surpassed US losses in only three years.
Putin Increased Sabotage Attacks to Pressure Europe and US
Over the past two years, Russia has significantly increased sabotage against European countries that support Ukraine. The number of attacks on critical infrastructure quadrupled in 2023 and tripled in 2024. Moscow is waging a covert campaign against submarine cables, warehouses, and rail networks in Europe in an attempt to put pressure on the West. Poland blamed Russia for the fire at this Warsaw shopping center pictured above.
Lithuanian authorities assess that Russian military intelligence organized and funded the Ikea store arson attack in Vilnius in 2024. The main suspect in the incident engaged with “Russian military and security services” and accepted payment as part of a terrorist organization plotting attacks in both Lithuania and Latvia. The suspect is said to have planted a timed fuse in the store on 9 May 2024, which was activated overnight.
After filming the fire and sending the footage, the suspect in the case attempted to cover up their tracks and fled to Warsaw — where they picked up a BMW as a reward for completing the task.
Saboteur activity has decreased in recent weeks against the backdrop of US diplomatic efforts to end the war. Experts predict that attacks may resume after the adoption of new European decisions on assistance to Ukraine.
Putin Puts Trumpf Call on Hold While Talking to Oligarchs
Trumpf reacts in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, 6 Mar 2025 (Photo: Reuters / Evelyn Hockstein)
Russian President Vladimir Putin waved off concerns that he was making US President Donald Trumpf wait for a planned phone call on the Ukraine war as he was speaking to Russian oligarchs instead. Financial Times Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon noted Tuesday morning that Putin was speaking to the group even though the call with Trump was due on his schedule.
“Putin is meant to be speaking to Trumpf around now, but he is talking to a room full of oligarchs instead,” Seddon wrote on X. “Asked if he’s going to be late, Putin waves off the question and says not to listen to his spokesman.”
Trumpf’s phone calls with two previous British leaders reportedly left staff crying from laughter. What he is said was apparently so madcap that they left staff at Number 10 Downing Street in tears.
According to a report in Politico, any conversation between the then-president and the two occupants of Number 10 from 2017 to 2021 — Theresa May and Boris Johnson — were mandatory listening for civil servants and other aides in the PM’s orbit, with staff making a point to gather in a secure room or the PM’s private study to hear them speak with the leader of America.
This is what happens when the court jester is crowned as king. Republicans voted for this and own it.
French Legislators Condemn Trumpf
The Statue of Liberty in Paris, France.
Paris should take back the Statue of Liberty because the US no longer represents the values that led France to offer the statue, French Euro-Deputy Raphael Glucksmann demanded. “Give us back the Statue of Liberty. We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,'” he told cheering supporters. “‘We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,'” he added.
French Senator Claude Malhuret castigated Trumpf and compared the White House to the court of insane Roman Emperor Nero: “Never in history has a President of the United States capitulated to the enemy. Never has anyone supported an aggressor against an ally.”
Malhuret continued: “We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.”
Meanwhile, the outgoing German government agreed to release an additional three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in military assistance for Ukraine. They also warned their citizens about traveling to the US because of the recent detention of their citizens by ICE.
As you read here on Coriolanus, the European powers and Canada are organizing a defense of Ukraine without the US. France announced that it will provide intelligence, most likely satellite imagery and SIGINT, to Kiev as well as extend its independent nuclear arsenal to “allies.” This is what happens when the President of the United States is a Russian asset.
Citations:
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-returns-175-ukrainian-service-members-from-russian-captivity/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1148026
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-putin-ukraine-phone-call/
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-monitoring-us-detentions-of-its-citizens/a-71952116
North Korea Publicly Executes Three Men for Trying to Escape by Boat
A North Korean navy ship, top right, patrols near fishing boats at South Korea-controlled Yeonpyeong island, 31 May 2009. (Photo: Byun Yeong Wook / AFP)
North Korea publicly executed three men — shooting each with 90 machine gun rounds — for attempting to flee to democratic South Korea by boat. Authorities then burned their corpses in front of horrified residents of the town, who were forced to watch. The three victims, all in their 30s, had been caught in January. In Dec 2023, hundreds of residents were forced to gather at an airfield in frigid weather to watch authorities execute a 23-year-old man by firing squad. His alleged crime was murdering a woman while trying to steal about $6 worth of beans from her. Public executions are a common occurrence in North Korea, for crimes like murder or human trafficking, or even distribution South Korean videos.
A North Korean defector reacts next to a drawing depicting a public execution of a North Korean soldier, at a human rights rally in Seoul, South Korea, 14 Apr 2011. (Photo: AP)
Sadistic North Korean supremo Kim Jong-un fattens himself and his treasury by sending cannon fodder to Russia and keeping their salaries. Pyongyang is also making money through criminal enterprises, like the recent massive crypto-heist which you read about here on Coriolanus. While his people are starving, North Korean soldiers are selling their equipment for money and scrounging for cigarette butts on sidewalks.
North Korean cigarette pack.
The North Korean army is ordering soldiers to stop scrounging the streets for cigarette butts to smoke even as commanders keep some of the soldiers’ monthly cigarette rations for themselves. In the past, it was just the lower-ranked soldiers who looked for butts, but now even the higher-ranked soldiers are doing it too. Each soldier is supposed to get 15 packs per month in rations, but the higher ranks skim off the top. In the case of the border guards, each soldier used to be supplied with 15 packs of Baekseung-brand cigarettes per month, but since last fall, they have only been supplied with 10 packs. Female soldiers are forbidden from smoking, so they trade their ration of cigarettes for other things.
North Korean soldiers smoke cigarettes as they stand on the banks of the Yalu River near Sinuiju, 4 May 2014. (Photo: Jacky Chen / Reuters)
Hungry North Korean soldiers are selling some of their military equipment to buy food, prompting officials to conduct inspections that have caught some soldiers without all their issued gear. Though the country’s military is often said to be under-supplied, military-grade items tend to be of better quality than products civilians can obtain, so are viewed as desirable. Weapons are used often during training, but personal gear like tents, lunch boxes, canteens and waterproof rice containers are not used as often, so some soldiers figure they won’t be missed.
In North Korea, able-bodied men are required to serve ten years in the 1.2 million-strong military after high school, from around age 18, while able-bodied women must serve seven years. But rations can be small and new recruits plead with their parents for food after enlisting.
Kim Jong-un enjoying his cigarettes and light refreshment while his people starve and his soldiers scrounge the streets for butts.
Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables: “There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.”
US President Donald Trump (R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un shake hands following a signing ceremony during their historic US-North Korea summit. (Photo: Saul Loeb/ / AFP / Getty Images)
In 2018, President Trumpf took his enthusiasm for his detente with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to new heights, declaring at a rally with supporters that “we fell in love” after exchanging letters.
Citations:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/public-execution-12222023162046.html
https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2025/03/19/north-korea-soldiers-cigarette-butts/
https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2025/03/15/north-korea-soldiers-sell-gear/
US: Louisiana Prisoner Executed With Nitrogen Gas
The late Jessie Hoffman Jr was convicted of murder.
Louisiana executed a man convicted of murder with nitrogen gas on Tuesday evening, the state’s first execution in 15 years and its first using the largely-untested method. A raging legal battle ended with a gas mask strapped over his face in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola death chamber. State officials pronounced Jessie Hoffman Jr. dead at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday at Angola. He inhaled pure nitrogen gas through a mask strapped to his face for 19 minutes while pinned to a gurney, until oxygen deprivation caused him to die. Officials acknowledged that Hoffman showed “convulsive activity” as he died and that he moved and shook.
An appeal stated that since Hoffman is a Buddhist, his breathing and meditation practices would be disrupted by the execution process. “Kill me with a firing squad, at least then, I’ll be able to breathe air at the time of my death,’ Hoffman requested. The state said no.
Dead Man Walking (1995) with global activist nonpareil Sean Penn took place in a Louisiana death row. Susan Sarandon portrayed Sister Helen Prejean who continues advocating against the death penalty.
Sister Helen Prejean. (Undated photo)
When Trumpf bombed the starving Houthis, he called them “barbarians.” Republican-controlled red states are using firing squads and now nitrogen gas to execute prisoners, as if the death penalty will deter violent crime or bring back the victims. Perhaps these faux Christians in the Republican Party will bring back lapidation as a punishment.
Citation:
Ireland’s Little-Known Intelligence Agency: J2
EU member Ireland has a population of approximately 5,233,461 people who enjoy a $114,900 GDP per capita. 7,500 active-duty personnel make up the Irish armed forces, which is not part of NATO. In terms of military strength, Ireland is ranked 97 out of 145 countries by the Global Firepower Index (GFI), yet her military successfully participates in UN peacekeeping missions worldwide. In fact, Ireland “punches above her weight” on the geo-political stage.
Besides the armed forces and the Garda (the national constabulary), protecting Ireland is a small, but effective secretive agency called “J2”. Excerpted from Spyscape with gratitude, let’s see one of the reasons why welterweight Ireland effectively punches as a heavyweight in international affairs.
FTA:
“Ireland’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, AKA J2, is one of the most secretive units in Europe and the main intelligence branch of the Defense Forces.
J2 has been monitoring suspected Russian spies at Moscow’s embassy in Dublin since the compound opened in 1973 and deploys alongside Irish forces on international duties.
J2 is the national intelligence service of the Irish Armed Forces operating domestically and internationally. Traditionally, J2’s work in Ireland has focused on suspected terrorists and terrorist sympathizers but J2 also gathers intelligence from UN mission reports and other sources that would be helpful to Irish peacekeeping forces abroad. Ireland’s secret service retained its €2m ($2.18m) annual funding as part of the 2024 Budget, reportedly up from €750,000 in 2019.
Irish peacekeepers in the Golan Heights (Undated photo: Defense Forces)
Staff are drawn from the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps. The service is under the command of a Colonel, known as the Director of Military Intelligence, who provides a monthly intelligence briefing to Ireland’s Minister for Defense. J2’s current director is not named.
J2’s HQ is believed to be at McKee Barracks in Dublin.
Internally, J2 works with Ireland’s national police counterterrorism and counter-espionage unit known as the Garda Síochána (Guardian of the Peace) Special Detective Unit. Externally, J2 liaises with foreign intelligence agencies like CIA, as well as government and non-governmental agencies.
G2/J2
G2 – The Office of the Directorate of Intelligence began in the 1920s as the intelligence arm of the Irish Army following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a designation used to refer to an Army intelligence, security, and information branch.
J2 – The Directorate later became the intelligence service for the entire Irish Armed Forces, and J2 now refers to joint services for the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps, as well as its national security roles.
Known Operations
While Ireland was militarily ‘neutral’ in WWII, G2 had secret agreements with Britain’s MI5 and the US Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to the CIA). G2 intercepted German naval and aerial communications through Irish listening stations and apprehended more than a dozen Nazi spies including notorious spy Hermann Görtz. Ireland also broke German codes during the war, under the supervision of cryptologist Richard J. Hayes.
Army officers reportedly headed to Portugal in 1943 posing as Red Cross officials delivering supplies (including 52 tons of potatoes) to neutral Portugal for refugees in Spain. Their real mission – dubbed Spuds for Secrets by the Irish media – was to gather intel on Irish minister Leopold H. Kerney in Madrid. Kerney had met with Edmund Veesenmayer, one of the Nazis involved in plotting secret German operations in Ireland. G2 contacted British spies in Lisbon and Madrid and had a good look around but eventually concluded Kerney was neutral.
From the late 1960s to 1998, G2 was said to be involved in intelligence-gathering operation during ‘The Troubles’, the decades-long conflict drawn largely along religious lines between Catholics and Protestants. G2 officers crossed the border into Northern Ireland on intelligence-gathering missions from 1969.
J2 military intelligence had their hands full monitoring the comings and goings at the Russian Embassy in Dublin, established in 1973. Within a decade, Ireland expelled three suspected KGB spies. Five decades later, J2 is still at it, The Irish Times reports. J2 conducts limited work in the embassy area, sometimes using the Army Ranger Wing to carry out surveillance.
Irish journalist Rory Carroll
In 2005, Arabic-speaking J2 officers were reportedly deployed in Iraq following the kidnapping of Irish journalist Rory Carroll in Baghdad by militants. With J2 working alongside the British and American governments, Carroll was released unharmed and returned safely to Dublin.
Lisa Smith. As a soldier, she had worked on the PM’s private plane.
In 2019, J2 reportedly drew up a plan with US military intelligence to extract Lisa Smith, a former Irish Army soldier who converted to Islam and allegedly joined ISIS militants. According to some reports, J2’s extraction plan was rejected by the Irish government but Ms. Smith was brought back to Ireland in 2019 and charged with terror offenses. Ms. Smith denies the charges.
In 2023, the Irish military launched a recruiting campaign to hire Russian language and cultural analysts to work with intelligence officers – Arabic and Chinese specialists have already been hired. The Journal reported that the job would feed into data gathered by J2.”
Citations:
https://spyscape.com/article/j2-spies-who-are-irelands-equivalent-to-the-cia
https://www.thejournal.ie/russian-irish-defence-forces-linguist-6066714-May2023/
https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=ireland
https://www.ireland.ie/en/un/newyork/
New Strain of Bird Flu Wipes Out Mississippi Poultry Farm
A new strain of a highly pathogenic bird flu known as H7N9 has surfaced at a poultry farm in Mississippi where chickens are raised for breeding.
The finding of the new strain came as researchers separately reported a potentially positive development: Exposure to human seasonal flu may confer some immunity to H5N1 bird flu.
The new strain found in Noxubee County, Miss., was confirmed 12 Mar and all of the roughly 46,000 birds either died or were euthanized after the infection spread, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and Mississippi’s Board of Animal Health. None of the birds entered the food supply.
Authorities didn’t say how the birds were infected, although federal wildlife agents had been identifying low-pathogenic versions of the H7N9 virus for several years in wild birds. It is possible that the version found in the chickens is circulating in wild birds, but most researchers think it probably acquired its deadly attributes once it got into the Noxubee chicken operation.
These chickens were grown and maintained for breeding purposes, not for their meat. This is significant because breeders live for months, if not years. If a low-pathogenic virus “happens to get into a broiler meat flock, the birds don’t get sick and they go on to slaughter,” an analyst said. But when a breeder flock picks up that virus, “the virus can replicate for weeks … this may well be what happened in Mississippi.”
Is the Trumpf junta, headed by quacks, fraudsters, and mountebanks capable of dealing with the economy-crushing avian flu, whooping cough, or spreading measles which has reached a five-year high with 15 states reporting cases?
Citations:
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-strain-bird-flu-mississippi-poultry.html
UN: 151 Unprecedented Climate Disasters Struck World in 2024
Floods, heatwaves, and supercharged hurricanes occurred in the hottest climate human society has ever experienced. The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather that took lives, demolished buildings and ravaged vital crops. More than 800,000 people were displaced and made homeless, the highest yearly number since records began in 2008.
The report lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region. Heatwaves in Japan left hundreds of thousands of people struck down by heatstroke. Soaring temperatures during heatwaves peaked at 49.9C at Carnarvon in Western Australia, 49.7C in the city of Tabas in Iran, and 48.5C in a nationwide heatwave in Mali.
The 2024 Los Angeles fires.
Sadly, the earth is most likely passed the tipping scale for recovery. Greenhouse gas emissions (methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have been steadily growing in the atmosphere and ocean water temperatures are rising. Deforestation and desertification are taking away nature’s ability to convert CO2 to oxygen. With the polar caps melting, sea levels of warmer water will rise. The earth will have less ability to cool itself off. In the future we will see more flooding and wildfires, more toxic algae blooms in the oceans, more powerful hurricanes, and tornadoes raging in the strangest places. Idiotically, Trumpf has reduced the budgets for NOAA and other agencies that could monitor weather threats and analyze trends to find solutions.
Citations:
Meet Dog That Behaves Like Cat
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Coriolanus 