Illegal Wars

The perfect sweet spot for a certain type of hawkish centrist. They get to signal oppositij (to the process) while supporting the actions.

Confidence Inspiring

Almost like the good old days when Bush was "clearing brush" at the "Western White House."

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine are monitoring the U.S. operation in Iran from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Trump is currently located, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

No Choice But To Print His Next Statement Without Any Skepticism

 (Not a criticism of these reporters, just the general tendency to headline Elon's bullshit uncritically)

In 2020, Elon Musk announced he was moving to Texas from California and embarking on a personal austerity campaign to strip his life of belongings.

“I am selling almost all physical possessions,” he posted on social media. “Will own no house.”

But in the years since, Mr. Musk, 54, has quietly built an empire of more than 90 companies and other legal entities in Texas, which have amassed a vast collection of assets, according to an examination by The New York Times.

Mushroom Clouds

The lesson the hawks learned from the Bush years is don't bother putting in any effort.

Trump has claimed Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the US. Sources say that’s not backed up by US intelligence

I bet all the "centrist hawks" are mad. This should have been their moment to raise their profiles, get those book deals.  You know, man who has never been to Iran explains Iran. 

Morning

War on

Friday Evening

Busy busy 

Afternoon

Enjoy

Shooting Our Own Dudes

The "scary Mexican drone" thing is just some nonsense, but they have all cooked their brains on their own bullshit.

The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.

Threatening? 

Policy Ideas

Yes we know that wealth taxes are UNPOSSIBLE so how about my little idea of a kajillion % tax on private passenger jet flights.

Somewhat kidding, but I used to think that the fact that 1st class passengers had so share some indignities with the rest of us would minimize those indignities somewhat.

Now the actually rich, and Trump officials, fly private.

This isn’t just about air travel.

Weird

These 18.5 minute gaps just keep happening.

The lobbying company founded by Lord Mandelson discovered during an internal investigation that a “significant” tranche of his business emails was missing.

Global Counsel conducted an internal audit of Mandelson’s company emails after the government agreed this month to release tens of thousands of messages relating to his time as the British ambassador to the US.

The company was concerned about what would be published about its own business interests under the mass disclosure, and conducted the audit as part of a due diligence process.

The investigation was still going on when the company went into administration last week but an initial report said that significant numbers of emails were missing from Mandelson’s account. The company does not know how the emails came to to be missing.

The emails that have been kept include a series of exchanges with senior officials and ministers in government, relating directly to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador.

Morning

Filthy Friday

Happy Hour

earned mine

Bad Blogging Day

Have some unpleasant life things keeping me busy at the moment.

Even The Centrists

The value of centrist-coded people saying this stuff is that leadership can't try to wave it away as some "left wing bluesky thing" which they have wants to do (resistance is fading, however).

Well Then

Everyone who had "team of billionaire pedophiles with Russian mob connections is collaborating to destroy the world" as their top explanation for things is looked pretty smart right now.

New docs say Jeffrey Epstein collaborated with the Russian mob to loot the New York Daily News, then tried to help Mort Zuckerman discard it when reporting became inconvenient.

Always The Ones

If I had remembered that he existed, Chopra would have been on the bingo card.

Morning

Thunder Thursday

Happy Hour

Get happy

BYE LARRY

May all the people who ran to his defense over the years be forced to keep him company in retirement.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship — Harvard’s highest faculty distinction — and remaining on leave until that time, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed to The Crimson.

Summers also resigned Wednesday from his role as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a position he has held since 2011, according to the spokesperson. He will not teach or take on new advisees.

Maybe one day someone will explain, clearly, why Larry was one of those indispensable men that you just had to have around.

(sorry for worse than usual typos, a combination of phone blogging and THE DAMN HOVERING "AI" BUTTON MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO SEE WHAT I AM TYPING)

When Isn't It Insider Trading

Genuinely confused about how one would make that distinction in any consistent manner.

An editor who works for YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, has been suspended from the prediction market platform Kalshi and reported to federal regulators for insider trading, Kalshi officials said on Wednesday. It's the first time the company has publicly revealed the results of an investigation into market manipulation on the popular app.

Seems like the whole game is trying to figure out which the insider bets are and then betting with them.