March 10, 2026
Today’s FiveStack Live was one of those conversations you need to bookmark, screenshot, and send to the people in your life who still think things are fine.
I sat down with Ken Harbaugh — decorated U.S. Navy combat veteran, Yale Law graduate, filmmaker, author, founder of VALOR Media, and host of The Ken Harbaugh Show on the MeidasTouch Network — and we went deep on everything happening right now. The Dropkick Murphys showing up in Minneapolis. The Toronto consulate shooting. The war in Iran that’s now blowing back on American diplomatic posts from Karachi to Oslo. And the through-line tying all of it together: a President who runs entirely on manufactured fear — and whose fear porn has now launched an asymmetric war he has no plan to finish.
This one matters. Let’s break it down.
🎸 THE DROPKICK MURPHYS SHOWED UP IN MINNEAPOLIS — AND IT MEANT EVERYTHING
On March 6th, the Dropkick Murphys played a free, outdoor acoustic set in the parking lot of the Black Forest Inn on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis — directly across the street from the memorial marking the spot where Alex Pretti was executed by Trump’s Border Patrol agents on January 24th.
For those who need a refresher on who Alex Pretti was: he was a 37-year-old ICU nurse. He worked at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, caring for American veterans. He had a clean record. A legal concealed carry permit. No criminal history. He was out on Eat Street that morning filming federal agents on his phone and directing traffic when a Border Patrol agent knocked a woman to the ground. Alex Pretti — because he was that kind of person — put his arm around her to help her up. That’s when federal agents pepper-sprayed him, tackled him, and shot him multiple times while he was face down on the ground.
The Trump administration’s response? Stephen Miller called him a “domestic terrorist.” Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino claimed he wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” Trump praised the agents and called them “phenomenal.”
Bystander video — verified by Reuters, BBC, the WSJ, and AP — shows a man on the ground, face down, being shot. His parents called the administration’s lies “sickening and reprehensible.” His own father said: “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
The Dropkick Murphys’ event — organized with VALOR Media and the Save America Movement, livestreamed globally on AbolishICE.live with MeidasTouch broadcasting — drew over a thousand people despite a drizzle. Frontman Ken Casey opened the show by saying: “To be standing here across the street from Alex’s memorial is something I feel like every American should have to come witness with their own eyes.”
That’s what resistance looks like. That’s what it sounds like.
Ken Harbaugh talked about why this moment matters beyond the music. When decorated combat veterans and working-class punk bands from Boston are showing up at the site of an American citizen’s execution by his own government — that’s not just symbolism. That’s the country’s conscience showing up. And it matters that VALOR Media — Ken’s own organization — was part of making it happen.
🔫 THE U.S. CONSULATE IN TORONTO WAS SHOT AT THIS MORNING
At 5:29 AM today, Toronto police responded to gunfire at the U.S. Consulate at 360 University Avenue — right in the middle of downtown Toronto. No injuries. Evidence of a firearm discharge confirmed. University Avenue closed. No suspect. No motive confirmed.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need a confirmed motive when you understand the context. This is a country that Trump has spent months threatening with tariffs and annexation rhetoric. Anti-American sentiment in Canada — America’s closest ally — has been building for a year. And the shooting happened against a backdrop of U.S. embassies and consulates being attacked, stormed, bombed, and rocketed on five continents since Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28th.
Toronto is the latest data point in a global pattern. It won’t be the last.
🌍 THE GLOBAL BLOWBACK FROM TRUMP’S WAR
Since Operation Epic Fury launched — the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — American diplomatic and military posts have been targeted across the globe:
Karachi, Pakistan: 10-16 protesters killed, 60+ wounded when Shia mobs stormed the U.S. Consulate on March 1st. Marines opened fire to hold the line. All U.S. diplomatic facilities in Pakistan subsequently shut down.
Baghdad, Iraq: Hundreds of Iraqis attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy Green Zone. Rockets and drones have repeatedly targeted the compound. Iran-backed militias have attacked U.S. military bases across the country continuously. The State Department issued a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for all of Iraq. All consular services at Baghdad and Erbil suspended.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Two Iranian drones struck the U.S. Embassy on March 3rd, causing a fire and forcing a shelter-in-place order.
Kuwait: The U.S. Embassy hit by an Iranian missile strike — Rubio ordered it closed. Ali Al Salem Air Base and Camp Arifjan both struck by ballistic missiles. Iranian strikes killed one person and wounded 32.
Qatar (Al Udeid): America’s largest Middle East air base — home to CENTCOM’s forward headquarters and roughly 10,000 troops — targeted by approximately 46 Iranian ballistic missiles.
Bahrain: A Shahed-136 drone hit a radar installation at the U.S. Naval Support Activity housing the 5th Fleet. An Iranian projectile hit the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manama, killing civilians.
UAE/Dubai: Iran fired 167 missiles at the UAE — 40% of its entire opening salvo. Jebel Ali port struck. Dubai airport temporarily halted flights. An AWS data center physically hit.
Oslo, Norway: An explosion hit the consular section entrance of the U.S. Embassy on March 8th. Norwegian police explicitly did not rule out terrorism.
Cyprus: The Royal Air Force station at Akrotiri — supporting U.S. and allied operations — hit by a Hezbollah drone. NATO territory.
Seven U.S. service members are confirmed dead. Eighteen seriously wounded. Gas prices have jumped 50 cents nationally — nearly 17% — in ten days. And the war has no exit ramp.
🤥 THE LIE IS ALWAYS THE SAME
This is where Ken and I connected the dots — and why this conversation matters.
The lie Trump told about Alex Pretti — “he was a domestic terrorist, he wanted to massacre law enforcement, he was going to kill us all” — is the exact same lie Trump told the world to justify Operation Epstein Fury. “Iran was going to kill us all. They had plans. They were an imminent threat.”
Iran had refused to comply with nuclear obligations. Sure. But they were also engaged in indirect negotiations with the U.S. in February. The Omani foreign minister — the mediator — said they were making significant progress. Trump walked away because the deal wasn’t everything he wanted, launched the war ten days later, and told the world it was about existential self-defense.
Bystander video contradicts the Alex Pretti story. Intelligence community assessments contradict the “imminent threat” story on Iran. The playbook is identical: manufacture fear, justify violence, call the victims terrorists before anyone can look too closely at what actually happened.
As Ken put it: the only thing keeping Trump in power is fear porn. Fear of immigrants. Fear of Iran. Fear of whatever comes next. And now that fear porn has started a real asymmetric war — the kind of war that Iran, as Jacob Kaarsbo and I discussed last week, has been building a doctrine around for decades. You don’t need to match America missile-for-missile. You just need to bleed them everywhere, all the time, in ways conventional forces can’t easily stop.
That war is here. And Trump had no plan for the morning after.
⛽ THE OIL CRISIS NOBODY’S TALKING ABOUT ENOUGH
Let’s talk about what hits you in the wallet.
U.S. petroleum reserves are dangerously low. Gas prices are sitting anywhere from $5 to $9 a gallon depending on where you are. Brent crude is heading toward $200 a barrel. Iran has threatened retaliatory strikes on oil infrastructure — they’ve already hit Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura facility. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil passes, is being contested. Shipping has rerouted. The global energy market is in shock.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called this “a short-term disruption.” Senator Chuck Schumer is begging Trump to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Trump told the world he has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions. He did not explain where the gas comes from.
Heads Up: if you haven’t already started thinking seriously about an EV, you need to start. This isn’t a liberal lifestyle choice anymore. It’s basic economic survival planning. An asymmetric war against the world’s oil infrastructure, launched by a president who had no post-Day-1 plan, is going to make gas prices a very long-term problem.
Buy the fucking EV.
ABOUT KEN HARBAUGH
Ken Harbaugh is a former U.S. Navy pilot and mission commander who flew combat reconnaissance missions off North Korea. He’s a Yale Law School graduate, the founder of VALOR Media, the former President of Team Rubicon, co-founder of The Mission Continues, and the executive producer of the #1 Apple TV documentary Against All Enemies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Bulwark, and the Yale Journal of International Law. He hosts The Ken Harbaugh Show on the MeidasTouch Network — daily no-bullshit commentary at the intersection of military expertise, democratic accountability and basic empathy for human beings.
He is one of the most credentialed, no-nonsense veteran voices in America, and he does not pull his punches. He’s also really hard to make laugh - then again, maybe it’s just me. LOL.
Follow Ken and subscribe everywhere:
🔗 Substack: thekenharbaughshow.substack.com
🐦 Twitter/X: x.com/Team_Harbaugh
📺 YouTube / MeidasTouch: The Ken Harbaugh Show on MeidasTouch
📰 Recent Atlantic article: Search “Ken Harbaugh” at theatlantic.com — his latest piece is essential reading this week.
THE BIG PICTURE
Alex Pretti. The Toronto consulate. The rockets at Al Udeid. The drones over Oslo. The fires in Riyadh.
They are all the same story. A president who rules by fear, lies to justify violence against his own citizens, lies to justify wars abroad, and has no plan for what happens when the world stops being afraid and starts shooting back.
Ken Harbaugh has spent his career flying missions in the dark so people back home could sleep safely. The least we can do is stay informed, stay engaged, and keep sharing this work.
Subscribe if you haven’t. Tell someone who needs to read this.
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Thank you Lev Parnas, Cheech Previti, Pamela, Leah Anderson, Jeanne Elbe, and many others for tuning into my live video with The Ken Harbaugh Show! Join me for my next live video in the app.
