Lockstep: Fall in Line or Else

By Rob C.

Art by Adam Zyglis

TL;DR: Corporate media, politicians, and the Epstein class have all fallen in lockstep behind Trump’s war. From the Bezos-gutted Washington Post to the “New CBS,” the corporate media has officially traded its spine for a “Be Nice to Trump” mandate. While we’re being gaslit into another forever war with Iran, a $260 billion money-laundering scheme—disguised as “military aid”—shuttles taxpayer cash straight into the pockets of defense contractors. Meanwhile, Christian “Doom Scrollers” and “divinely ordained” Generals are cheering for Armageddon, treating the Middle East like a sacrificial altar for the Rapture. The Epstein Class gets the profits; the working class gets the flag-draped coffins. Fall in line, or else.

If you’ve noticed that the news feels a bit more “patriotic” lately, don’t adjust your dial—it’s just the sound of the entire American establishment falling into Lockstep. The order of the day is simple: Fall in line or get crushed.

The corporate media, once tasked with speaking truth to power, is now busy arguing over the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Washington Post, once a “storied rag” that took down Nixon, has been effectively lobotomized by Jeff Bezos. After gutting the staff, the billionaire owner’s new directive is clear: “Be nicer to Trump.” Over at the New York Times, they continue to platform the “liberal” pro-war musings of Bret Stephens while ensuring that a Middle Eastern perspective doesn’t accidentally wander onto the Op-Ed page. It’s a closed loop of propaganda designed to keep you nodding while the bombs continue falling.

If you question the war, you’re unpatriotic. If you demand evidence for the justifications, you’re a conspiracy theorist. If you point out that we’re fighting Israel’s war for them, you’re anti-Semitic. If you notice that the same people profiting from endless war are the ones demanding it continue, you’re naive about how the world works.

But the media is just the hype man for the real players: the spineless politicians and the “Military Epstein Complex.” They take the AIPAC checks and the defense contractor donations with one hand while signing away your children’s future with the other. Let’s look at the “Open Secret” that never makes it into a campaign speech:

Propagandists in Armani Suits:

The favorable coverage Trump’s war is receiving from corporate media would be hilarious if it weren’t so dangerous.

Fox News, of course, is leading the cheerleading squad. Every host, every guest, every segment is about how strong Trump looks, how necessary the war is, how Iran deserves to be bombed into submission. They’re not journalists—they’re propagandists in makeup selling war like it’s a new truck model.

But it’s not just Fox anymore.

CBS—once considered a legitimate news organization—has been transformed into a Trump-friendly outlet that soft-pedals his lies and platforms administration officials without meaningful pushback. The Paramount merger brought new management, new priorities, and a clear directive: don’t piss off Trump or his base because we need those viewers.

And the so-called “liberal” media? They’re just as complicit, just in different ways.

The New York Times consistently platforms pro-Israel viewpoints. Bret Stephens gets column after column to advocate for war, regime change, and unconditional support for whatever Israel wants. But a Middle Eastern perspective? A Palestinian voice? An anti-war position that doesn’t immediately get dismissed as naive or anti-Semitic? Nowhere to be found.

The Times doesn’t platform diverse viewpoints on Israel. It platforms the range of acceptable opinion among people who agree that Israel can do no wrong and America must support it unconditionally. That’s not journalism. That’s propaganda with a thin veneer of respectability.

The Washington Post—that storied rag that used to break Watergate and hold presidents accountable—has been gutted by Jeff Bezos and explicitly instructed to “be nicer to Trump.” Bezos bought the Post and turned it into another billionaire’s toy. He killed their endorsement of Harris to appease Trump. He’s allowed the newsroom to be decimated. He’s demanded coverage that won’t upset his business interests or his relationship with the administration.

The Post’s motto is “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Bezos is the one turning off the lights.

Corporate media is focused on Trump’s word salad while America spirals into war: They’re arguing over the arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic instead of asking why we’re on a sinking ship in the first place.

Spineless Politicians: Bought and Paid For

Now let’s talk about the politicians who fall in lockstep behind every war, every weapons sale, every blank check for Israel and the Pentagon.

Over the last 40 years, the U.S. has sent roughly $260,000,000,000 in foreign aid to Israel. That breaks down to about $1.8 million a day. Every single day. For 40 years. But here’s the rub: that money isn’t for schools, housing, or healthcare. It’s strictly military aid. It’s essentially a high-level money-laundering scheme. Your tax dollars go to Israel, which uses them to buy hardware from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, who then dump billions back into lobbying to make sure the spigot never turns off.

These politicians are either too corrupt or too stupid to realize that the Military-Epstein Complex is destroying this country and endangering the world. They’ve traded American interests for campaign cash and personal enrichment.

For Benjamin Netanyahu and the hard-right, this isn’t about “security”—it’s about the imperialist fever dream of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli hard right.

Pax Judea, or the Greater Israel project, isn’t about the security of the Jewish people. They don’t just want to defend Israel’s borders. They want to dominate the region. They want to expand settlements. They want to annex territory. They want to destroy any government—Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Iranian—that challenges Israeli hegemony.

This isn’t security. This is empire-building. And they’re using American money and American lives to do it.

Netanyahu has been pushing this vision for decades. He needs the United States to do the heavy lifting—to bomb his enemies, to fund his military, to provide diplomatic cover while he pursues policies that violate international law.

And they’ve found some “strange bedfellows” in the American Christian Right.

After the attempted genocide in Gaza, American public opinion of Israel has declined drastically. Polls show that younger Americans, progressives, and even many moderates are questioning why we give unconditional support to a government committing war crimes. But the Christian Right is a major reason the US hasn’t ended this devil’s bargain.

The Christian “Doom Scrollers” are currently giddy with excitement. To them, the attempted genocide in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon are just necessary plot points for the sequel to “Revelation”. They believe it will trigger the End Times, at which point Jesus will return and —in a truly bizarre twist —wipe out all the Jewish people while raptured “true believers” float up to heaven. It’s a death cult with a tax-exempt status.

What’s truly terrifying is that this theological insanity has infected the chain of command. We are hearing reports of American Generals and Commanders telling their troops that the war against Iran was “ordained by God” and that Donald Trump was “divinely appointed” to bring about the end times. Let that sink in. Military leadership is using religious justification for an illegal war. When your military leadership starts treating the Geneva Convention like a suggestion and the Book of Revelation like a field manual, we aren’t in a democracy anymore—we’re in a theocratic junta.

This is theocratic nationalism. This is Christian fascism. This is exactly how authoritarian regimes justify atrocities—by claiming divine mandate, and “anyone who opposes the war opposes God.”

And at the top of this entire nightmare pyramid sits the Epstein class—the billionaires, defense contractors, and predatory elites who profit from death and destruction while the working class struggles to survive. War is the ultimate distraction and the Epstein Class loves it.

They don’t fight the wars. Their children don’t enlist. They don’t pay the taxes that fund the bombs. They don’t live in the communities devastated by military recruitment that targets poor kids with no other options. They profit, we pay.

We pay with our tax dollars that get funneled to defense contractors instead of schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. We pay with our children’s lives when they’re sent to die in wars that serve Israel’s expansion and billionaire profits instead of American security.

The Epstein class doesn’t sacrifice. They benefit. Every war is an opportunity. Every crisis is a profit center. Every dead soldier is a line item that justifies next year’s budget increase. While the working class struggles to pay for eggs, the predators at the top are checking their Raytheon portfolios and signing their “Board of Peace” reconstruction contracts. They profit off the death, they hide behind the “divine,” and they use Pam Bondi to make sure the files on their previous sins stay buried under the rubble of Tehran.

Get in line or else.

If you don’t fall in line—if you question the war, challenge the narrative, demand accountability—you’re punished. You’re called unpatriotic. Anti-Semitic. A conspiracy theorist. Naive. Dangerous. You’re marginalized, de-platformed, defunded, and destroyed.

That’s how the lockstep is maintained. Not through overt force (though that’s always an option), but through social, financial, and political punishment for anyone who dares to dissent.

But here’s the thing: we don’t have to.

We can refuse. We can resist. We can demand better. We can expose the lies, follow the money, and refuse to accept that war is inevitable or necessary.

F*CK ICE, RELEASE ALL THE FILES!

Please like, share, and subscribe—because when the Generals start talking to God, it’s usually our kids who end up meeting Him.

— Robert Cain, author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.