The World Enters A Pivotal Week: Power Plant Day & the War The U.S. Cannot Win
The ultimatum expired and the EU called Trump’s next move a war crime as Americans increasingly turn against an unhinged President
Resistance Sentinel — April 6, 2026
The One Big Thing: After the Deadline, Escalation
Trump spent Easter weekend posting insane ultimatums for Iran to “open the fuckin’ Strait” and also praising Allah. Iran didn’t comply. The Strait is still closed as we await a White House press conference with Trump and his generals.
Instead, Iran today fired six separate barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel in a single day — the sixth alert still rolling in when this was written. Iran also confirmed communication with mediators, which appears to be a confirmation that they told the mediators to pound sand.
And Israel — apparently determined to ensure no ceasefire is possible — struck the massive South Pars petrochemical plant as Trump’s deadline ticked down. South Pars sits atop the world’s largest natural gas reserve. Striking it is not a message about compliance. It is a message about foreclosing off-ramps.
The European Union’s response came within hours. European Council President António Costa stated plainly: “Any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable.” He invoked the Geneva Conventions, cited Russia’s attacks on Ukraine as the same category of crime, and warned that the Iranian civilian population would bear the brunt of any escalation. America’s closest allies are now on record calling the president’s planned next move a war crime.
Then there is the story that most clearly explains what this administration is afraid of: Planet Labs, the world’s largest commercial satellite imaging firm, announced it will indefinitely withhold images of Iran and the Middle East conflict zone at the U.S. government’s request. The decision followed the publication of satellite photos that directly contradicted the Pentagon’s official damage assessments of strikes on Prince Sultan Airbase. The government didn’t dispute the photos. Instead, it tried to make such photos disappear.
When a government suppresses independent imagery of its own war, it is not winning.
Daily Inspiration: The Commission Subpoenas the Machine
In Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, the sidewalks are still quieter than they used to be. Vendors report slower business. Residents — citizens and documented immigrants alike — are still afraid to go outside, weeks after the Department of Homeland Security’s mass immigration operation, code-named “Midway Blitz.”
On Friday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s special Accountability Commission — created specifically to provide oversight of Midway Blitz — did something bold: it demanded testimony from Trump administration officials.
The commission sent letters to former Border Patrol Commander-at-large Greg Bovino and other current and former DHS and ICE officials, summoning them to testify at hearings scheduled for later this month. Local officials and community organizers are explicit about what they hope to accomplish: put a spotlight on the operation so intense that federal authorities think twice before doing it again.
This is what accountability looks like at the state level. No federal subpoena power. No majority needed in Congress. Just a governor, a commission, and the political will to make the machine uncomfortable.
Will the bad actors comply? Probably not. Should we attempt to hold them accountable and call attention to their crimes anyway? Absolutely!
Find the Accountability Commission in your state. If it doesn’t exist, build it!
The Resistance Round-Up
🗳️ Voting Rights
California AG Rob Bonta sued Trump over the mail voting executive order alongside more than 20 other states — California’s 66th lawsuit against this White House. “This order is just as illegal as the first one,” Bonta said. Three federal courts previously blocked Trump’s nearly identical earlier anti-voting order. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who blocked that first order, has been assigned this case as well.
Republican election officials publicly predicted Trump’s voting order will be “enjoined very quickly.” Pennsylvania’s Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt and former Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer — a Cato Institute legal scholar — both told ABC News the order is almost certainly unconstitutional. Schmidt added that Trump’s election disinformation is “not good for democracy.” When Republican secretaries of state say that about a Republican president’s order, it matters.
Voting rights groups filed a fifth lawsuit against Trump’s mail voting executive order, led by the NAACP alongside Common Cause, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Black Voters Matter. The suit joins four others challenging the order as unconstitutional. The judge assigned to hear the case is U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly — the same judge who blocked Trump’s nearly identical previous anti-voting order.
The voting order may be backfiring on Trump in a way he didn’t expect. Legal experts are now warning that the executive order could actually undermine the DOJ’s 30 ongoing voter roll lawsuits. The DOJ’s legal theory in those cases rested on a specific set of federal statutes — the voting order may contradict that theory in court. “The only real legal effect of this executive order might be to kill the remaining DOJ lawsuits seeking to seize voter data,” said David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
House Democrats are holding “shadow hearings” in California on midterm election security. Led by Rep. Joseph Morelle (ranking member of the House Administration Committee) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the hearings — scheduled for Los Angeles and San Francisco next week — will feature voting and elections experts and are a direct response to Trump’s fraud allegations and threats to interfere in state elections. “Democracy’s defenses are under attack,” Morelle said.
🏛️ The Courts Strike Back
A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order requiring colleges to certify they aren’t considering race in admissions. The order, which threatened to yank federal funding from non-compliant institutions, was paused pending litigation. Courts are now consistently blocking Trump’s incursions into higher education.
A Nevada federal judge ruled that ICE cannot lock up everyone facing deportation proceedings. The ruling blocks the administration’s policy of mass civil detention — the judge found that the due process rights of immigration detainees require individualized hearings, not blanket detention orders.
A federal judge ruled that Border Patrol’s continued sweeps in California violated a standing court order. Despite a prior injunction limiting interior enforcement operations, agents continued conducting sweeps. The judge’s ruling puts the administration on notice: contempt proceedings could follow.
A judge upheld the block on Trump’s subpoenas to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The attempt to use congressional subpoena power to pressure the Fed chair — a transparent effort to assert political control over monetary policy — has now been blocked twice.
A judge questioned Trump’s plan to build an “Independence Arch” near the National Mall, citing concerns about executive overreach in altering federal parkland without congressional authorization. Even the aesthetics of authoritarianism require legal approval.
💥 Cracks in the Pillars
Trump is weighing a broad cabinet shake-up, with Gabbard and Lutnick both potentially on the chopping block. Sources inside the White House told Reuters that multiple cabinet members could be removed before the midterms. Pam Bondi was already removed as Attorney General this week. Trump is “deeply frustrated” with media coverage of the Iran war, and aides are looking for a “reset.” One White House official said it bluntly: “A shake-up to show action is not a bad thing, is it?”
Republicans are adrift ahead of the midterms. The Iran war — with its rising gas prices, downed aircraft, and missing crew members — has scrambled the GOP’s political calculus. Candidates in swing districts are increasingly unwilling to tie themselves to the war, and Trump’s approval ratings have cratered among the independents who decide competitive races.
Fox News analyst Jack Keane broke with the administration over Hegseth’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George. Keane, a retired four-star general and longtime Fox fixture, called George “a generational chief of staff” and said flatly: “I don’t agree with his dismissal.” When the generals that Fox News has championed for years start publicly criticizing Hegseth’s military purge, the coalition is cracking.
Newsmax host Carl Higbie said Trump’s primetime Iran speech “did him more harm than good.” In a remarkable on-air moment, Higbie — who professed his love for Trump before and after — told viewers that Trump’s Wednesday address had rattled markets: oil jumped 12% after the speech. “You know what America needs to hear? We need a human moment from a president.” When Newsmax is editorializing against your crisis communication, your messaging is genuinely in trouble.
Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool publicly broke with Trump over the Iran war. “I did not vote for this. I am not happy with it. It does not seem to be going well, and gas near me, and we’re in the middle of nowhere, is 4 bucks. Diesel’s at 6. This is bad, bad, bad.” Pool — one of the largest right-wing media voices and a self-described Trump voter “on policy grounds” — is drawing a direct line between the war and kitchen-table economic pain. When the MAGA podcast ecosystem starts saying it out loud, it spreads.
🪖 The Escalation Trap
The U.S. government suppressed commercial satellite imagery of the Iran war after getting caught lying. Planet Labs announced it will indefinitely withhold images of Iran and the Middle East at the U.S. government’s request — following the publication of photos that directly contradicted official U.S. damage assessments at Prince Sultan Airbase. This is state-directed censorship of independent war documentation. Other satellite providers like Vantor are applying their own controls but were not contacted by the government — making Planet Labs’ compliance a choice.
The rescue mission to recover the downed F–15 crew member nearly went catastrophically wrong. A mechanical failure mid-mission forced U.S. commandos to destroy an aircraft on Iranian soil to prevent capture. The CIA ran a deception campaign. The military jammed Iranian electronics and bombed roads to protect the extraction. The rescued airman had to authenticate his identity to avoid an Iranian trap. The administration declared it a clean success. Reuters’ reporting reveals it was barely not a catastrophe.
Israel struck Iran’s South Pars petrochemical plant as Trump’s deadline approached. South Pars is the world’s largest natural gas field. Striking it as diplomatic pressure was supposedly being applied is consistent with Israel’s pattern throughout this conflict: escalate aggressively whenever ceasefire talks show any sign of traction.
Iran fired six separate barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel on Monday — the sixth alert of the day still arriving as of this writing. Trump declared the war “essentially over” in his primetime address less than a week ago.
Iran confirmed communication with mediators while simultaneously launching those six missile barrages. Resistance Sentinel’s read: Iran told the mediators to pound sand.
U.S. intelligence is warning privately that Iran is unlikely to ease its chokehold on the Strait soon. The 48-hour ultimatum Trump issued last week was made without any credible intelligence to suggest Iran would comply.
🌍 International Resistance
The EU warned Trump that bombing power plants and bridges in Iran would be a war crime. European Council President António Costa cited international humanitarian law by name and drew an explicit parallel with Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. The statement came directly in response to Trump’s Sunday post threatening to make Tuesday “Power Plant Day.” America’s closest allies are not standing with this administration on this.
The UK is accelerating its pivot toward the EU. A Guardian analysis captures what is increasingly undeniable: Trump’s disdain for Britain and his reckless Iran war are pushing Starmer’s government toward the closer European ties that Brexit severed. The piece notes that even Brexit’s architects are no longer talking about Brexit.
Ukraine is hammering Russian oil terminals for the second straight week. Russian terminals under attack cannot accept shipments. Ukraine is defending U.S. service members that Trump puts at risk by funding the Russians whose weapons help Iran target American personnel. That is not a line you can unspin.
India confirmed it is purchasing Iranian oil. The U.S.-led economic pressure campaign against Iran is unraveling as major economies prioritize energy security over American foreign policy objectives. A Japanese-affiliated tanker also passed through the Strait of Hormuz — one of the few Western-affiliated vessels to do so since the war began.
💰 The Economy
Suppressing Planet Labs’ satellite data has direct economic consequences. Financial analysts, commodity traders, and logistics firms use commercial satellite imagery to track shipping disruption, infrastructure damage, and port activity. Removing that data from the market distorts pricing and obscures the real economic scale of the Hormuz closure. That’s a feature, not a bug, from the administration’s perspective.
World commodity prices rose for the second consecutive month, with the Strait of Hormuz closure adding significant upside risk. Gas prices are expected to hit $4.25–$4.45 per gallon.
😩 The MIA Opposition Party
A Democratic governor is publicly touting her role in the Iran war and praising Arizona defense contractors for their Tomahawk missile production — hoping Trump will intervene in the state’s Colorado River water dispute in exchange. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is triangulating on a war that is killing U.S. service members and driving up gas prices nationwide. While California and Pennsylvania governors are calling out the human and economic costs, Hobbs is treating the war as a bargaining chip. Resistance Sentinel called it infuriating. It is.
⚠️ Regime Threats
Trump is seeking $152 million to reopen Alcatraz as an active prison. At a moment when gas prices are breaking working families, the administration’s symbolic spending priorities say everything about who they think their audience is.
Tactical Analysis
“Power Plant Day” demands advance preparation. Trump’s post is on record. The EU’s legal warning is on record. If the administration bombs Iranian civilian power infrastructure on Tuesday, the frame must already be in place: this is what the U.S.’s own allies called a war crime, hours before it happened. Do not wait for the event to make the argument. Make it now.
The satellite suppression story needs amplification. A government that censors independent commercial imagery of its own war after getting caught misrepresenting battlefield damage has crossed a line that matters for press freedom, public accountability, and democracy. This story connects directly to every other accountability gap in this administration. When MAGA posts about regime “transparency,” drop a link to this story about regime censorship and another about its lies about damage at Prince Sultan. Don’t argue. Just drop some truth bombs and move along.
Use Republican dissent on voting rights strategically. Schmidt and Richer are not allies. They are conservatives on the record saying something useful. That’s all the more reason to quote them to MAGA audiences that discount Democratic voices on election law. Their credibility in those communities is real — leverage it.
Hold Democratic governors to account. Hobbs is not alone in trying to find individual deals with this administration. Any Democrat who legitimizes the war in exchange for local benefits is betraying the resistance. Such politicians must be named and shamed.
Conclusion
The deadline passed. Iran didn’t comply. Trump threatened to bomb power plants. The EU called it a war crime. Israel is pushing for such escalation anyway. They may be getting their wish as Iran fired six missile barrages today.
The U.S. is losing the narrative battle at home and abroad. That’s why they tried to make the satellite cameras go dark after getting caught lying.
And despite all of this, a Democratic governor praised the missiles that are killing Iranian school girls because she wants water rights.
This week marks a pivotal moment. Be ready to get loud, potentially even to get in the streets.
— Resistance Sentinel