Sounds like there are a bunch of countries holding a lot of cards right now. The US isn’t one of them.

Statement from campaign:

bsky.app/profile/ryan...

They didn’t donate to her. They created & ran ad featuring her w/o her knowledge or permission. It doesn’t say “candidate approved this message.“ Super PACs by law can’t coordinate w/candidates so this was slimy. Usually they do ads for candidates they support or negative ads for those they don’t.

Very true. But we aren’t her audience. We don’t have to waste energy or time parsing her motivations. We can simply acknowledge she reaches voters we can’t & if they turn on Trump & GOP that’s good b/c we need as big a mandate as we can possibly get to enact changes we want to make.

How do we even take an island that is hundreds of miles at end of Gulf & right off coast of Iran?

Approval rating in OH, GA & NC - all w/crucial Senate races - being same as VA seems not good for GOP.

Ppl speculated this is when he found out we were sending 5K marines to a country of 90M ppl.

Wrote elsewhere about this:

bsky.app/profile/giny...

I can’t decide which judge I love the most. IANAL but have enough professional background/education to follow along & have been doing so since Trump 2.0 began. Brave clients, brave lawyers & judges who are not only brave but follow Constitution. In this whole mess, they are all shining lights.

She doesn’t know Boasberg saved her ass. Roberts told Trump not to touch stove & he touched stove. Boasberg asked for evidence this was more than stove-touching. DOJ had none. Appeal straight to SCOTUS, Jeanine. That will go well. Tillis, WSJ commenters & r/WallStreetBets might submit amicus brief.

And vice versa. There will be far more Iranian soldiers than US one. No quarter is not just to protect enemies who can’t fight back. It’s to protect our military too.

Yes, this seems dangerous to say as we send 5K Marines to Iran on what looks like suicide mission. Not that Iran known for human rights commitment, but we’ve basically said we aren’t going to follow international humanitarian law so we’ll have hard time arguing that they should be better than us.

Oh, I think history will judge him. History will judge the People too. Especially after we see whatever the eff comes after him.

By J6 I mean he is only POTUS not to commit to & accept the peaceful transfer of power & do everything he could to thwart it, to the point of committing actions that resulted in indictment for criminal conspiracy & obstruction. What voters, SCOTUS, etc. did also unacceptable. But I mean his actions.

This may have been early in his Presidency. I don’t give W credit for much, but he stopped playing golf in 2003 after we invaded Iraq b/c he realized how disrespectful it was.

bsky.app/profile/caja...

Among many things he‘s destroyed. But yes, that was prob the best thing Bush did.

At least Nixon had “only Nixon could go to China.” Trump really has no positive achievements except COVID vax which he disavows. He will be remembered by history for Jan 6 b/c that is most unprecedented thing about him. Just like Nixon is most remembered for resigning to avoid impeachment.

Plus mother who died 2 days later (possibly b/c he gave her CPR), sister, BIL & 2 nieces or nephews. I have read this is why you don’t do political assassinations that take out the leader’s family. I guess Trump & Hegseth ignored that memo too, after “don’t attack Iran, period, & def not w/o plan.”

Do censure resolutions normally originate w/leadership? Honestly, I think it’s better to come from rank-and-file. Dems don’t have top-down model where leader tells them what to do; leader is supposed to find consensus & whip votes. GOP is the party of Dear Leader telling them to march to one beat.

Very deja vu of pandemic readiness employees & binders, unfortunately.

Oh, believe me, I totally agree. Hearing him talk about women is very disturbing, plus ”geographical monogamy” is just such a BS term anyway. Dude, you have 2 women who are effing you for your money. I just hope they are using him as much as he’s using them & not deluding themselves.

Very true! And not enough people understand taxes as it is so when communication is bad, it makes confusion over taxes worse.

When I see election disinfo/misinfo I often post link to @democraticags.bsky.social & @demsofstate.bsky.social b/c they are already on this & are posting messages to reassure ppl. Not much traffic or attention, unfortunately. But I figure whatever I can do to let ppl know the better.

Vance advice to Trump on Iran attack included reservations Vice President JD Vance argued in favor of a large-scale attack on Iran in the lead-up to Saturday’s strikes on the country but also expressed reservations about military attacks in general, accord…

Reporting on this is contradictory. Title of this article says he had reservations, but that isn’t lede. He was anti-interventionist but Trump was considering smaller, more targeted strikes which prob would've been wise & Vance advocated for going big. Which sounds like exactly this mess we’re in.

Pete Hegseth Promised To Stop Drinking if Confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Here's What He Said The secretary of defense has been accused of alcohol abuse and various forms of misconduct — allegations he has denied.

GOP was conflicted about him; he was confirmed only b/c Vance broke tie. (Obvs shouldn’t have confirmed.) They & many Dems questioned him on drinking & he said he‘d stop instead of saying he was X days/months sober. Troubling b/c not a job to get sober doing. Agree that Congress should question him.

Not sure where he got his numbers except for just doubling standard deduction, which allows that income to be zeroed out on return. But from more quantitative perspective the income amount for singles is 200% of poverty level; for married it’s 300%. Both Cory & Kat might want to explain numbers. 2/

I had just read headlines & went to look it up. Unsurprisingly, Bluesky was roasting him over something not well communicated. You prob knew this; I didn’t realize the <$75K tax free was for married couple; <$37.5 for singles. They don’t pay a lot in income tax; ppl may be confusing w/FICA. 1/

I bet there are “binders full of people” (hat tip to Romney) & actual binders full of plans they could’ve consulted, all of whom/which would've said “Don’t attack Iran 1st unless you have zero options left b/c X, Y & Z will happen & all are bad” & Trump/Hegseth either didn't consult them or ignored.

Which is why it seems unwise for Trump to claim not to care about price of oil & to troll Canada again w/his 51st state BS. Since they are our biggest source of imported oil.

This is NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe & Commander of US European Command. He was there to discuss Ukraine & answered in that context although obvs parallel to Iran. He has little to do w/Iran, which is unfortunate b/c he‘s more competent than Hegseth & co.