Thursday, April 02, 2026
T(r)olled
This is new information to Iran. The country had not been monetizing its geographic good fortune of having 20 percent of the world’s oil, 20 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas, and one-third of the world’s nitrogen-based fertilizer pass near its shoreline. Closing the strait was always an implied threat that would result from aggressive action against the nation or its leadership, something known to everyone in the world except Donald Trump, it appears. But the threat was typically closure, and what’s emerging is something quite different. Iran has slowly realized that, unbelievably, it can actually get away with throwing a tollgate across the strait. Thanks to Trump and Israel, Iran has gained immense economic and diplomatic leverage.
What's Happening
I am not alleging grand conspiracy here, but my impression is that US domestic news outlets are not exactly emphasizing Iran's attacks on various international targets. You see a bit more coverage in the business press and of course international outlets.
We Won, Or We Think We Did
Reading pieces on Trump and Iran and even the more realistic and skeptical ones still pretend that Trump has "goals" or "objectives" other than "look like a cool character on TV and get praise from people for it."
This is from a NYT email:
President Trump said in a speech that the “core strategic objectives in Iran are nearing completion.” In a 19-minute address, he offered no timeline for ending the conflict, but said the U.S. would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
What are those strategic objectives, anyway? Over the course of the war, Trump’s statements about America’s goals have been wildly inconsistent.
His speech didn’t contain much new, but it seemed to set the stage for Trump to declare an end to the war. Today’s newsletter is about what the U.S. would leave behind in Iran and the Middle East if that happens.
I get that reporters aren't going to write like shitposters, but political journalists have a lot of freedom, generally, in how they cover things. It is a choice not to paint an accurate portrait of the man.
They will argue various things about why critics like me just want them to do Resistance Journalism, but take this from David Sanger:
For more than a decade President Trump has been intently focused on making sure Iran never had the nuclear fuel in hand to build a nuclear weapon. Until this morning, when he told Reuters in an interview, that he didn’t really care because it is “so far underground.”
Is that first sentence even remotely true? You could at least qualify it with a "President Trump has claimed...". We know he ripped up the agreement in his first term because the black president made the agreement, and that doing so made it more likely, not less, that Iran would make more potential fuel.
That's even before we get to the hilarious notion that Trump could possibly be intently focused on much of anything aside from his personal wealth and his TV watching.
If journalistic NORMS let you write that first sentence, which attributes motives to Trump's actions that are at best barely in evidence, you can write a much truer version of it, which would be more like "Trump started a war in Iran so the Trump character gets praised by Fox News hosts."
Whoopsie Doodle
Don't know who specifically is to blame here, but from the DOGE boys to Trump himself, no one in this administration gives any thought to security.
The FBI last week deemed a recent China-linked cyber intrusion into a sensitive agency surveillance system a “major incident,” meaning it poses significant risks to U.S. national security, according to one congressional aide and two U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
There is a nontrivial chance someone just flips a switch on the whole Treasury at some point, maybe because some DOGE kid dropped a thumb drive while scoring some ketamine.
Small Pleasures
It's always a reasonable bet that the replacement will be worse - or more competent at doing evil - but it is still fun watching Trump turn on his lickspittles one by one.
President Donald Trump has privately mused about firing his Attorney General Pam Bondi and replacing her with EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Wednesday, April 01, 2026
The Final Frontier
NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission is set to launch four astronauts on a journey around the moon today. Liftoff is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Sure Why Not
Above my pay grade, but aside from "change is complicated" and "this is the way the world works" I don't see many convincing counterarguments.JUST OUT: Trump has raised with SecState Rubio and other top aides the possibility of withdrawing from NATO if allies don’t help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials said.
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) April 1, 2026
He has discussed leaving NATO, or at least potentially finding ways to weaken the U.S. commitment.
Of Course He Did
Reading The Tea Leaves
I'm still not gonna place a bet on that.
...Trump left in the middle, of course.
Proper Respect
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to sit in on Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, making him the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation's highest court.I try not to think too much about this case. One reason is that I decided wasting bits of my beautiful brain thinking about The Law is about as productive as playing fantasy football. The other is that it is the case that breaks everything, if the Supremos choose to do it.
Running On Air
Maybe the global economy has uncoupled more from oil than I would have thought.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
What Will Brian Say
Starlink Go Boom
SpaceX says it lost contact with a Starlink satellite after suffering an “anomaly.” SpaceX isn’t saying exactly what happened, but space-tracking company Leo Labs says it “immediately detected tens of objects in the vicinity” of Starlink 34343 after the event.
...
SpaceX suffered a similar episode in December when it suddenly lost communications with a satellite that also seemingly exploded. That incident occurred just a week after a near miss with a Chinese satellite.
Get Elon To Fix It
After 16 years and $8 billion, the military’s new GPS software still doesn’t work
“It’s a very stressing program. We are still considering how to ensure we move forward.”
Please Unshit My Bed
Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening HormuzHe's bored now.
Administration officials assess that forcing the waterway back open would mean extending the military mission
In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.I am still betting on a ground invasion/etc and that Trump isn't really ready to declare a loss a victory, but we will see!
I hope Pete's having fun.Hegseth on when US objectives will be achieved: "He said four to six weeks, six to eight weeks, three weeks -- it could by any particular number. It will be the president's determination."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 31, 2026 at 1:39 PM
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Monday, March 30, 2026
Jsrael
Just outside the hall, 20-somethings in rumpled suits were gathered in clusters, debating the merits of a ground invasion in Iran, the conservative backlash against those who were "J-pilled" (far-right slang for skepticism of Israeli influence), the backbreaking costs of American life, and what they saw as the slow demise of the Trump era.Imagine the coverage if left wing genocide opponents said they were "J-pilled."
Pony Territory
I can't remember where I drew the line so many years ago, but <35 sounds right.
A new national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll finds President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 33%, the lowest rating of his second term in office. The poll of 1,000 respondents, conducted March 20-25, finds Trump’s approval down five points from July 2025 and 11 points lower than last April.
Never Heard Of Her
Investigators searched the office of a Federal Emergency Management Agency contractor as they investigate a network of aides former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and adviser Corey Lewandowski seeded throughout the DHS during their turbulent tenure, according to people familiar with the matter.
...
Another prong of the probe into Voorhies: her compensation. FEMA officials have been unable to locate her contract and investigators are still seeking it, according to people familiar with the matter. Senior FEMA officials were told that Voorhies was getting paid as much as $19,000 a week, some of the people said, which would amount to roughly $1 million a year.
Sure Why Not
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump on Sunday night said he has “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker off the coast of Cuba delivering relief to the island, which has been brought to its knees by a U.S. oil blockade.What are we doing?
“We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need… they have to survive,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington.
Obviously it's good if Trump decides that Rubio's embargo is bad, actually, but...
More Big Beautiful Boats, Sir, As A Tribute To You
Trump Says Iran Agreed to Allow 20 More Ships of Oil Through Strait of Hormuz
The president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, cast the permission as a “sign of respect.” He also asserted that the United States had already achieved “regime change” in Iran.
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Sunday Evening
Mommy He's Threatening to Hit Me Back
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it may retaliate against American university campuses in the Middle East, claiming that recent U.S. and Israeli strikes have damaged two Iranian universities.The group said U.S.-affiliated campuses in the region could become “legitimate targets” unless Washington formally condemns the attacks on Iranian schools by noon on Monday, according to a statement first reported by Fars news agency, which is closely associated with the Guard, and picked up by other media.
War On War Off War On
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Touching Grass
Also I'm old now. Need to pursue some hobbies.
So Many Big Beautiful Boats Of Oil
It sounds like some of his advisors were feeding him nonsense to try to talk him down a bit. Oh, sir, they've gifted you with many big beautiful boats.
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Iran allowed ten oil tankers flying the Pakistani flag through the Strait of Hormuz in the passing week.
No evidence to support this claim has been found. According to available information, only one tanker flying a Pakistani flag went through the strait – almost two weeks ago, in a widely reported incident.
Anyone Got A Plan?
Rubio is begging someone to unshit Trump's bed.
Rubio acknowledged that Tehran might continue to hold a stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
“One of the immediate challenges we’re going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
That scenario is “dangerous to the world, and it’s important that the world have a plan to confront it,” Rubio added.
Maybe if we ask Greenland nicely.
In Your Hearts, You Know Pete Hegseth Is Right
Everyone who joined in the attacks on "DEI" knew what they were doing and knew the consequences would be the purging of minorities from any position of influence and power. Don't let them pretend they thought it was about anything else.
Friday, March 27, 2026
And We Will Forget This Tomorrow
Mr. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington, said three current and former defense and administration officials familiar with the exchange. The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery. ... Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.I knew without checking (and then checked) that the politics desk reporters didn't do this piece - the defense/natsec people did - and the politics people will go on as if Trump's motives for various other things are mysterious and unknowable.
Volatility
Welp
Shutdown likely to continue: House GOP leaders are expected to soon announce they are rejecting the Senate-passed bill that would have funded large swaths of the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA, in favor of their own version. That means the DHS shutdown could be extended by least several days.
I'd Be Surprised If Any Of Them Haven't Been Hacked
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Iran-linked hackers have publicly claimed the breach of FBI Director Kash Patel's personal inbox, publishing photographs of the director and his purported resume to the internet.
On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims."
Reuters was not able to immediately authenticate the emails published by Hanadala, but a sample of the material uploaded by the hackers and reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019.
The Pardon Umbrella
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general has launched a sprawling investigation into how contracts have been solicited and handled, including the involvement of former Secretary Kristi Noem and her de facto chief of staff Corey Lewandowski, according to two sources familiar with the probe.I have no idea if the IGs have any real ability to operate under Trump.
What Do We Really Think Is Happening Here
The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give President Trump more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, Defense Department officials with knowledge of the planning said.
Trump earlier said he was pausing strikes on Iran’s energy sector for 10 more days, to April 6, so negotiations can take place beyond his previous Friday deadline. Peace talk mediators said Iran didn’t ask for the additional time. Trump said the extension was at Iran’s request.
Thursday, March 26, 2026
Seems Bad
They did try to hide this.
Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage. Six U.S. service members were killed in a strike on Port Shuaiba that destroyed an Army tactical operations center. Iranian drones and missiles also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel, and Camp Buehring, damaging maintenance and fuel facilities.and other things, presumably.
Dumb Mac
Funny but also not funny.
Donald Trump’s so-called “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth has earned himself a new nickname, current and former US officials tell us. Among various staffers and officials working within the august confines of the Pentagon and Department of Defense, the former ‘Fox & Friends’ co-host and “death and destruction”-obsessed Trump acolyte is known as “Dumb McNamara.”
Normalization
We Begin Bombing In Five Minutes
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Victory Is Ours
Lol:
The “present” that US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Iran gave Washington was allowing the safe passage of a number of fuel tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, a senior Arab diplomat and a US official tell The Times of Israel.I'm so old I remember when they had free safe passage all the time (a month ago).
What If We Made The New York Times, But Without Jamelle Bouie
When Bari Weiss took the reins of CBS News in October, her message was clear: that the public had lost trust in the network and that major change was needed to win viewers back and return it to its glory days. But through a series of actions over her turbulent six-month tenure as editor in chief, it appears the proud anti-woke warrior has instead helped destroy that trust—something that is now laid bare in the network’s rapidly shrinking ratings. Indeed, new ratings data obtained by Status isn’t just bad for Weiss. It is catastrophic.That vision isn't precisely identical to Kinsely-era Slate "contrarianism," but it is fundamentally equivalent. It is the same repackaging of elite conventional wisdom, maybe with the dial turned one notch to the right, as the bold truth-telling contrarianism that has been the staple of media outlets my entire life.
A Lot Going On Here
Delivered years late in May 2017, the Ford is the most expensive American warship ever built, at $13.2 billion.
And it’s been sent to sea for an extended deployment that included the conflicts with Venezuela and Iran — despite open questions about how well it would perform in a war.
The concerns around the Ford range from the potentially grave to the mundane, according to a new assessment from the Pentagon testing office, with many issues surfacing after it started combat testing in October 2022.
Among the lingering concerns: there isn’t enough current test data to assess the carrier’s “operational suitability,” or the reliability of several key systems, including its jet launch and recovery system, its radar, its ability to keep operating if hit by enemy fire and its elevators for moving weapons and munitions for warplanes from the hold to the flight deck.
Speaking of Good Republicans
You just explained why they are bad people, Cory, right there in the next sentence.Booker: "There are really good people in the Senate on both sides of the aisle, and I have these private conversations with my colleagues about what's wrong. But they're afraid or unwilling to say these things publicly. And that is the crisis that we're in. It's a crisis of conviction."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 24, 2026 at 6:02 PM
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One politician skill is the ability to somewhat convincingly tell people what they want to hear. It's "funny" that journalists and elected Democrats are the easiest marks for that.
MAGA FLOOR BREACHED
The four-day poll, completed on Monday, showed 36% of Americans approve of Trump's job performance, down from 40% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week.Still I think various 'fever will break, good Republicans in the Senate will step up' fantasies won't happen no matter how low the numbers go. I could be wrong!
...
Americans' views on Trump soured significantly with regard to his stewardship over the economy and the cost of living, as gasoline prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28. Just 25% of respondents approved of Trump's handling of the cost of living, an issue that was at the center of his 2024 presidential election campaign.
Only 29% of the country approves of Trump's economic stewardship, the lowest rating in either of Trump's presidential administrations and lower than any economic approval rating of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden. Voters' worries about the economy and specifically the rising cost of living were a significant factor in Biden's loss and Trump campaigned on a promise to create a vibrant economy.
I See That Big Wooden Horse Moving Across The Sea
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States sent a 15-point plan to Iran for a possible ceasefire, an official said, even as it began to move paratroopers to the Mideast to back up a contingent of Marines heading there on Wednesday. Iran’s military scoffed at the diplomatic effort and launched more attacks on Israel and the Persian Gulf region, including an assault that sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport.Fool me once, shame on you.
Iranian officials have told the countries trying to mediate peace talks with the U.S. that they have now been tricked twice by President Trump and "we don't want to be fooled again," according to a source with direct knowledge of those discussions.No worries, The New Decider is in charge.
WASHINGTON — Each day since the start of the war in Iran, U.S. military officials compile a video update for President Donald Trump that shows video of the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours, three current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official said.
...
The daily montage typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer, the officials said. One described each daily video as a series of clips of “stuff blowing up.”
Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was “Behind Enemy Lines,” in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, “Yeah!” and “All right!”
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Sure Why Not
Trump on Iranian leaders: "They're gonna make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing actually. They gave us a present, and it arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I'm not gonna tell you what that present is but it was very significant prize"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 24, 2026 at 6:47 PM
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We're playing both sides, so that we always come out on top
But the Trump administration has struggled to articulate the logic of the “general license” that the Treasury Department issued late Friday. The sanctions exemption allows Iranian oil to be sold to most countries, including the United States, for the next month. The sanctions relief for Iran followed a similar reprieve this month allowing Russian oil that is currently at sea to be sold.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who announced the Iran exemption, described the move as an act of martial artistry.
“In essence, we are jiujitsuing the Iranians,” Mr. Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday. “We are using their own oil against them.”
Also, Mr. Trump, Sir, It Was MBS
Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign presents a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East, according to people briefed by American officials on the conversations.
Dems Will Give Trump Anything He Wants, Now
Apparently just as fed up as the rest of us, Atlanta's Delta Airlines announced this week that it s suspending its stand-alone service for members of Congress until the TSA is fully funded.
"Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta," the statement read. "Next to safety, Delta's No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which mas become increasingly difficult in the current environment."
I Coulda Banged Markie Post
Trump's brain is firmly lodged in 1987, even for things you don't expect!
Appearing a few weeks later at a New Hampshire rotary club event in 1987, Trump sneered at how the Iranian navy — “little runabouts with machine guns” — had held America to ransom. “Why couldn’t we go in there and take some of their oilfields near the coast?” he asked.
The then 41-year-old businessman put it even more starkly in a 1988 interview with the Guardian: “One bullet shot at one of our men or ships, and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it.”
Monday, March 23, 2026
Sounds Safe
The unidentified air traffic controller was in charge of both air and ground traffic at the time of the crash. While that's not necessarily out of the ordinary — especially for late-night hours — it should be. It meant that he was in charge of telling both planes in the air, planes on the ground and vehicles on the ground where they needed to go. While ATC Specialists are undoubtedly highly trained, it can certainly become too much for anybody, particularly at really busy airports like LaGuardia.
And How Will They Do That Then
I don't know what Trump believes ICE will be doing at airports, but I think reporters should not headline this obviously unrealistic purpose.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were deployed to airports on Monday to help ease security lines.
The Play Inside The Play
We all (often deservedly) mock "security theater" and some of the more ridiculous rituals of the airport experience, but I don't doubt that there is some purpose to airport security. The prevention of hijackings and plane bombings seems to be an important goal, whether or not the way we go about it is precisely the right approach.
Throwing a bunch of untrained dickheads whose core function is harassment and violent kidnapping does not seem likely to improve the speed and efficiency of that!
Gravitas
Repeating myself, but for all that was wrong with the journalism/commentary leading up to and during the Iraq war, there was some sense, or at least pretense, that war was a big deal, that civilian deaths were a big deal.
Now we just see whether the line is going up or down in response to various things.
Peace Through Strength
Iranian state TV claims "Trump withdrew his 48-hour ultimatum out of fear of Iran's response"
Iran's official state television network IRIB said on its official Telegram social media channel Monday that President Trump had postponed his deadline for the Islamic Republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international maritime traffic "out of fear of Iran's response."
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Mr. Trump, Sir,
What Could Go Wrong?
Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” he was currently working on a plan for the deployment with the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration. He said he believed it would begin at large airports that have seen longest wait times and that agents would cover security points but wouldn’t provide help with baggage screening
4 Times The Size Of California
President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.I am also not going to pretend to be a war expert, but we do have a recent, and ongoing, example of the futility of certain approaches in Eastern Europe.
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Free Was Nice
Iran is planning to enshrine a “new status” for the Strait of Hormuz to require every passing ship to pay fees to Tehran for the privilege, Expediency Council member Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to the supreme leader on economic affairs, told the country’s Mehr news agency. “Iran will turn its position from a sanctioned country to an enhanced power in the region and the world,” he said. “We will sanction those domination-seeking arrogant powers.”
Musk Lies
Elon Musk was misleading in his public statements during a crucial period of his 2022 Twitter takeover, a jury has found.
After two days of deliberations, a jury in San Francisco federal court decided in a unanimous verdict against the tech titan, who was sued by a group of Twitter investors arguing they had relied on his statements. I don't get everything right, but I was very early with "Musk is a lying piece of shit."
Friday, March 20, 2026
The Lies We Tell
I don't think any of the Trumpers - Pete included - are people you would expect to have much concern for the truth, but having to (you can always resign, of course) go out there every day and lie for the boss will quickly erode any resistance they might have had. And, like Trump, they soon feel no need to distinguish between lies and truth.
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met privately Wednesday with the families of six service members who died in the Iran war and, in a press briefing the next morning, said the message he got was consistent and supportive.
“What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done,’” Hegseth said.
One of the people he met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware was Charles Simmons. His 28-year-old son, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among the six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week.
Simmons recalled his exchange differently.
“I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about,” he told NBC News in an interview Thursday.
Sure Why Not
I would expect nothing less.
Resurfaced comments made by Gregg Phillips, the head of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, have sparked concern about the new leader's competency and mental state.
Phillips, a conservative activist who spread voter fraud conspiracies, was appointed to lead the federal government's storm disaster response under the Department of Homeland Security in December. Previously, he oddly claimed that he involuntarily teleported to a Waffle House in Georgia that was 50 miles away.
“Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips said on one podcast last year. “It was real.”
My addition to "everybody is 12" theory is "everybody is 12 and blasted out of their minds on various things."
The Crisis In High Education
The University of Minnesota’s new tagline — “Leave a Future” — is leaving people scratching their heads.Somebody explained this well to me. For a top admin, the "initiative" is like "the book" for humanities professors, in that it's your ticket to the next promotion/job.
...
Officials from the U were unavailable to comment for this story. The U’s foundation, which paid for the majority of $15 million contract with marketing firm Rise and Shine and Partners to help the U with branding over five years, also did not respond to a request for comment. Rise and Shine and Partners said it could not comment on active work.
"Led a $15 million initiative to rebrand the university for the 21st century."
Except nobody really cares what the initiative is, or if it did anything useful, because the admin is off (hopefully) to the next more lucrative job. You just have to make it sound expensive and fancy.
Which Is It
Regional strikes: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country will heed Trump’s call not to repeat attacks on key Iranian energy sites like the South Pars field. Netanyahu said Israel acted alone in striking a facility linked to the gas field.
WASHINGTON — Israel coordinated its Wednesday strikes on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field with the US, a US official and a second source familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.
The source familiar with the matter says the US was aware of the attack, but did not take part in it.
An Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field was coordinated with the Trump administration in advance, according to three Israeli officials, despite President Trump’s initial assertion in a social media post that the United States “knew nothing about” it.
"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack,” Mr. Trump wrote in the social media post late Wednesday, saying that Israel had “violently lashed out.”
A day later, Mr. Trump appeared to have changed course.
Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Mr. Trump implied that he had spoken about the strike ahead of time with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
“I told him don’t do that,” Mr. Trump said. He went on to say, “we’re independent. We get along great. It’s coordinated.”
I'm sure the real story is Israel said they were gonna do it, people in the Trump administration (whether or not Trump himself) said fine, go for it, and then suddenly they realized it was a bad idea.
Pope Bob
If Pope Bob was a Trump-loving conservative Catholic, the way prominent religious figures are supposed to be, according to our political journalists, his every pronouncement would have front page emphasis. Every Catholic Democrat would be asked daily about why they don't love Trump as much as Pope Bob says they should love Trump.
I'm sure many of you remember how when Kerry ran for president, there was a daily "is Kerry a bad Catholic because of abortion" segment on NPR (exaggeration, but...). Dem Catholics were long treated as illegitimate, probably-not-deserving-of-communion fakes who might combust if they walked into a church.
He's an American Pope! One would've thought THE AMERICAN POPE would receive nonstop coverage. And yet...
Sates have a moral obligation to develop universal health care systems, Pope Leo XIV said, stating that "health cannot be a luxury for the few."
"On the contrary, it is an essential condition for social peace," he said March 18 at a conference on health care inequality in Europe organized by the European bishops' council, Italian bishops' conference and the World Health Organization.
Curious how Archbishop Russert would've handled all of this.
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Pope Bob And Cardinal Pizzaballa
“The abuse and manipulation of God’s name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at this time” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa at a webinar on the conflict ravaging the Middle East.“War”, he continued, “is first and foremost political and has very material interests, like most wars. We must do everything we can to leave no room for this pseudo-religious language, which speaks not of God, but of ourselves”.The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was commenting on the words of the U.S. Secretary of War who, during a briefing, quoted Psalm 144 to invoke a divine blessing on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.
Despair
I find it very difficult to be in active coalition with people who would push "me" under a bus for a fancier title, with people who consider their personal success and even feelings to be much more important than the causes they espouse.
Oh, but Atrios, don't you suck, too? Sure, but I am a bit less important than most of these people.
Seems Bad
What's the statute of limitations on that, Corey? Are you still under the presumptive pardon umbrella?
Some DHS contractors told White House officials they were asked to pay Corey Lewandowski
Some companies complained to the Trump administration that Lewandowski has stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process. Lewandowski denies the allegations.
Our Allies
When Danish soldiers were flown to Greenland in January of this year, they brought explosives with them so that they could destroy, among other things, the runways in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq.
This would prevent US military aircraft from landing soldiers on the island if President Donald Trump ultimately chose to take Greenland by force.
Sure Why Not
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. may soon remove sanctions from Iranian oil that is stranded on tankers to help lift global supplies and reduce prices, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.
— Tala Ramadan (@TalaRamadan) March 19, 2026
But How Will We Pay For That
Weird how that question is important when it is "spend $2 billion to build a light rail" and not this...
The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.
I know this is cliché snark at this point, but "we have infinite money for the military-cop-industrial-complex and no money for anything else" should never be left unchallenged, especially if it comes from "objective" journalists who will rediscover the deficit just in time to criticize any Democratic campaign proposals.
It is unclear who "the Pentagon" is here, whether Whiskey Pete specifically or others.
Related:
Hegseth: "Iran should be an energy-rich country. Instead, like so many other places driven by a radical ideology, they've spend that money, instead of investing in their people. That's why you had millions of Iranians protesting."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 19, 2026 at 12:32 PM
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Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Sure Why Not
They dressed him up and ran him through some sort of military "haunted house" with some firecrackers going off. Why? Who knows.Um, what? Mullin is claiming that as a congressman, he was selected for some sort of mission that required training that was "hell," and was then sent somewhere where he "smelled war." But it's all classified. And only four people know about it. And he can't share any more details.
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) March 18, 2026 at 5:22 PM
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It. Was. A. Tie.
Making Messes That Other People Are Supposed To Fix
Chat Is This Good
PONTIAC, Michigan, March 18 (Reuters) - Vaccination rates among young children in Michigan dropped sharply during the first year of the Trump administration, a Reuters analysis of state data shows, providing an early indication of how vaccine-skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is influencing immunization practices in the United States.
To state a couple of obvious things:
1) when parents are making choices for their children, it is only an issue of "personal" choice if you think children have no independent agency or rights.
2) The choice not to vaccinate affects everybody.
Americans were so convinced of their own wisdom that they killed their own children and called it "doing their own research."
---- From The Hilarious Fall of The Great Satan, America (2089)
Are They Done With His Bullshit Yet
The parade of European figures, especially, who imagined they could charm that stupid American president and get something out of him was quite pathetic to watch. I don't want to get too deep into clinical diagnosis territory, but if you think you can charm a man like Trump, then you have never known a man like Trump. Or not taken any lessons when you have.
There are some people Trump is genuinely charmed by, at least temporarily. But he eventually turns on them, too. Everyone else is just sucker he's playing a dominance game with.
One secret to the success of President Deals is he has never felt bound by any of those deals. His word means shit.
Give him an inch and he knows you're an easy mark.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Implications
Sure Why Not
Massive waste of money and potential just to cater to Trump's weird fixations.
The Trump administration is considering a new strategy for throttling the country’s offshore wind industry, after federal judges blocked its five previous attempts to stop wind farms under construction off the East Coast.
Senior administration officials are drafting settlement agreements that would pay nearly $1 billion to TotalEnergies, the French energy company behind two wind farms off New York State and North Carolina, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, including copies of the agreements.
Under the terms of the proposed settlements, the Interior Department would cancel the leases in federal waters for the two projects, known as Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay, the documents show. The Justice Department would then pay more than $928 million to TotalEnergies, reimbursing the company for its winning bids in lease sales during the Biden administration.
In exchange, TotalEnergies would abandon its plans to begin building the wind farms. It would also commit to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas, as the Trump administration prioritizes the production of fossil fuels over renewables like wind and solar power.
I suppose the future black comedy about the fall of The Great Satan, America, written in the 7th decade of the New Spanish Empire, will be quite funny.
Notable
Jan. 6 "denier," racist, an Infowars guy, thought BLM and antifa were terrorists, etc... Even the 2025 era ADL objected!After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
Excellent Plan, Sir
About 200,000 immigrant truck drivers - virtually all of them in the U.S. legally - will begin losing their commercial driver's licenses under a Trump administration rule taking effect Monday.Maybe with licenses just rolling off, the fantasy of good white American truckers from 1970s TV shows replacing all of these people will happen smoothly enough to prevent shortages. Or not!
The rule, which will bar many noncitizens from getting new commercial licenses or renewing existing ones, creates challenges for the trucking industry, already struggling with high fuel costs and high driver turnover, according to The Washington Post. Existing licenses will continue to be valid until they expire.
I imagine rising diesel fuel costs will have some impact on the perceived attractiveness of these careers!
Sin Eater
Border Patrol's Gregory Bovino to retire, sources sayI don't think they're very good at distinguishing between what is popular with the MAGA Chuds and the bots on Mechahitler, the everything app (Real Americans, according to the NYT, probably), and what plays well more broadly.
Monday, March 16, 2026
Clown Stuff
Only last week German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was "on the same page" as U.S. President Donald Trump over the goals of the Iran war.Most European leaders initially fucked this one up badly.
He is no longer sounding so enthusiastic.
Some have been blunt about disregarding international law. Meloni, while admitting to the Italian parliament that the war violates international law, declared that she neither condemned nor condoned the action. Merz claimed that international law was not a useful framework and that this was not the time to preach to friends and allies. Von der Leyen added the cherry on the cake when she stated that debating whether the war is one of choice – that is, illegal – or of necessity – legal – “partly misses the point” and that Europe must accept the world as it is. Her speech to EU ambassadors was such an explicit repudiation of the EU’s longstanding principles that the European Council president António Costa felt compelled to contradict her the following day, reaffirming the belief that multipolarity and multilateralism must go hand in hand.It took them awhile, but it seems they are now all rejecting Donald's demand that they feed their ships to explosions in the Strait of Hormuz. Progress.
Sure Why Not
Trump: "I knew the Strait would be a weapon. I predicted it a long time ago. I predicted all of this stuff. I predicted Osama bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center. I wrote it in a book."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 16, 2026 at 4:28 PM
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For Example
Trump also told NBC News in an interview published Saturday that U.S. strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island “totally demolished” most of the island but that “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.”
Norms
Neither the US nor Israel even bother to fake concern about these things. Donald and Whiskey Pete regularly boast about their love of what we normally think of as war crimes. Why should Iran show any restraint?
At a meeting in the Oval Office last week, a frustrated Mr. Trump pressed Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about why the United States could not immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz.And it's pretty easy to see that the "rules of war" rig the game in favor of strong state militaries. We are an army, you are terrorists. They were to our benefit!
The answer was straightforward: Even one Iranian soldier or militia member zipping across the narrow neck of the strait in a speedboat could fire a mobile missile right into a slow-moving supertanker, or plant a limpet mine on its hull.
Who Gets The Blame
Chief Lickspittle Lindsey Graham
Genocide enthusiast Benjamin Netanyahu
Fox News Chief Warfighter Pete Hegseth
anyone else?
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Dynastic Wealth
Just a random good-enough-for-a-Sunday-blogpost thought.
When I was young, the area rich kid was the guy whose Dad was an anesthesiologist or, maybe, the guy whose Dad was into, um, waste disposal.
Rich but not filthy rich. And mostly not multigenerational inherited wealth.
Sure those people existed, but not everywhere.
We are becoming a society with increasing numbers of people with nontrivial dynastic wealth.
And most of them think being born on 3rd means they hit a triple.
Oscar Night
I saw Sinners and One Battle After Another.
Both were good. Probably all the ones I didn't see were trash (joke).President Deals
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Other Places Aren't Real
Sicily is actually quite big! It's bigger than New Jersey!
Generally, no matter how much I consult maps, I have a hard time getting the sense of the scale of a place before I actually visit. The consistent thing is everywhere is bigger than I expect.
Iran is very big.
At Least The War Is Over
Droney
Friday, March 13, 2026
Not book smart or street smart or brain smart, but...somethin'
Can't argue with that, chief.
The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping,” he said. “It is open for transit should Iran not do that.”
Mommy He Hit Me Back
Top Trump officials acknowledged to lawmakers during recent classified briefings that they did not plan for the possibility of Iran closing the strait in response to strikes, according to three sources familiar with the closed-door session.
It Started A Little Earlier
Freedom of the seas changed the world. Now, the world is changing in ways that threaten to make the global waters less free. The ability of people, goods and money to safely traverse the oceans turbocharged trade and underpinned global prosperity. American naval dominance has long kept the maritime commons secure.I think we were doing a bit too much patrolling.
But the current mess in the Middle East — especially Iran’s assault on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — is indicative of an era in which threats to freedom of the seas are increasing, chokepoints are growing more contested, and America’s ability to patrol the waves is in doubt.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Of The Willing?
Speaking to Sky News' Wilfred Frost, Scott Bessent said: "My belief that as soon as it is militarily possible, the US Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through."
Market Wisdom
Seems Bad
The Gulf region is a key producer not only of liquified natural gas (LNG) and oil products but also of fertilizer. About one-third of global seaborne trade in fertilizers typically passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been nearly entirely closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. In particular, Gulf countries are important producers of nitrogen fertilizers, which depend primarily on natural gas burned at high pressure in the presence of hydrogen to synthesize ammonia. (The hydrogen usually comes from natural gas as well.)
But it’s not just that Gulf fertilizer can’t make it to export markets such as Sudan, Brazil, or Sri Lanka. It’s also that fertilizer producers elsewhere lack key ingredients. This is where the second-order effects of a supply chain crisis appear, just as they did during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which sent fertilizer prices soaring.
Just Buy Some Insurance
Another reality is that the insurance safety net doesn’t address the core reason ships aren’t sailing, according to shipowners and insurance brokers.Maybe the Fox News crew will volunteer for this mission.
“It’s more about the safety of the crews rather than taking on insurance for damages,” said Jerry Kalogiratos, Chief Executive of Capital Clean Energy Carriers, which runs more than 20 LNG carriers.
Insurance for ships in the region is readily available, with offers being made but not taken up, according to brokers. “Lloyd’s is open for business,” said Marcus Baker, global head of marine and cargo at insurance broker Marsh.
Welp
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said all U.S. military bases in the Middle East should close immediately as those bases will be attacked, in his first public statement since being appointed.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz maritime passage should be continued as a “tool to pressure the enemy,” he said, in televised comments translated by Reuters. Oil prices extended gains following the comments.
Iran Expert Signing On
You know Hegseth fired or sidelined anybody competent (or they extracted themselves), anybody who said anything other than, "boom boom kill kill win win."
"Real men go to Tehran" was long the mantra of the real nutters, none of whom would ever actually go to Tehran, of course.
I don't claim to have any insight about what will happen. My opinion on this stuff is of equivalent value to any random guy down at the bar. But it doesn't seem to be certain that Iran will offer any kind of face-saving (for Trump) "surrender" that he will demand.
They know very well that you can't make any deals with President Deals.
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Beta Cucks
The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed “unflattering,” according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.Real men don't care about stupid pictures.
@Grok, Is This A Good Target
The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said.Someone forgot to type, "@Grok are you sure?"
Officials emphasized that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double checked.
Monologuing
I think about this quote from America's Worst Senate Minority Leader quite a lot:
For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two... three... moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia. And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.
Not because it was wrong (narrator: but it was wrong), but because he said it loudly and proudly to an audience of journalists. It was a lot worse and more destructive than Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment, which in context was fine.
He basically said, "fuck you, don't vote for us, longtime voters, because we prefer these fancy suburban Republicans." With a big smile on his face! He was very impressed with himself!
And he did it, as Democrats do, to impress DC political journalists with his "courting the center right" strategy.
Her Brand Is Genocide
You don't have to be in government! No one flapping butterfly can necessarily change the world, but "Samantha Power, anti-genocide author and activist, resigns in protest, leveling blistering criticism of the Biden administration's support of genocide" had a lot more chance of doing good than "Samantha Power, boring replaceable bureaucrat, is doing boring replaceable bureaucrat things."Samantha Power, at last, addresses Gaza's Problem from Hell
— Jonathan Guyer (@mideastXmidwest) March 10, 2026
"I don't just get up and decide today what US foreign policy is," she told the University of Notre Dame this week. "That is the price of being in government."
The comments were perhaps the most in-depth to date on why… pic.twitter.com/TdIhku1y1C
That was the moment that "Samantha Power, anti-genocide author and activist" had positioned herself for (supposedly)! And she said, "nah."
Easiest call in the world, and she has the fucking nerve to pretend it's all very nuanced and complicated.
Well This Isn't Any Fun At All
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Sounds Bad
.@SenBlumenthal remarks after Iran briefing: "I emerged from this briefing dissatisfied and angry frankly that I have for any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate.. We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran." pic.twitter.com/e2qv0dcAds
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 10, 2026