The Hound | Mar. 11

Hi there,

It’s Wednesday. A new PBS poll shows just 66 percent of voters are confident their state will conduct a fair election amid Donald Trump’s threats to seize elections and send in ICE or the National Guard to monitor elections. Foreign hackers likely accessed FBI servers holding the Epstein files back in 2023. And in the latest escalation of this newest Middle Eastern war, the U.S. is now attacking Iranian ships attempting to lay mines in the strait of Hormuz.

The United States is now engaged in sustained military operations against Iran—thousands of strikes, naval battles in the Strait of Hormuz, and escalating retaliation across the region. The conflict has already disrupted global oil markets, killed civilians, and drawn the U.S. deeper into Middle East combat operations. Yet the Trump administration continues to describe these actions with softer language—calling them “operations,” “campaigns,” or limited interventions instead of acknowledging the reality: the United States is at war. This semantic shift matters. When governments avoid the word “war,” they can sidestep the public debate, congressional oversight, and accountability that major military conflicts demand.

🖊️ Add your name to call on major news organizations to cover the conflict honestly and directly by calling it what it is: a war. Journalists must scrutinize the administration’s language, explain the stakes clearly to the public, and refuse to repeat euphemisms that minimize a conflict costing lives and destabilizing an entire region.

Democracy requires clear reporting—especially when the country is being led into war.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

It’s a War With Iran, Not an “Intervention” (The Intercept)

Analysis: Iran war becomes a contest of who can take the most pain (AP News)

U.S. attacks Iranian mine-laying vessels near Hormuz on Day 12 of war (NPR)

The U.S. Built a Blueprint to Avoid Civilian War Casualties. Trump Officials Scrapped It. (ProPublica)

Foreign hacker reportedly breached FBI servers holding Epstein files in 2023 (The Guardian)

Americans are increasingly worried about voting, new poll shows (PBS)

One Year After Green Bank’s Demise, Court Mulls Future of Grant-Based Climate Policy (Inside Climate News)

Centrists: Better Things Aren’t Possible (The American Prospect)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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