Yes but they wanted a navy run by Fat Leonard

this administration also fired probably the most promising and mission-minded CNO in a decade because she was too woke (a woman)

It’s weird to make up reasons to get mad at Democrats about bad things Republicans have done!

Actually it’s just me going on and on about my fantasy league draft as the trapped players have to nod politely.

Sure you can, just make sure those in office today cannot ever hold office again.

The shoe thing is low on the "important global matters" scale, but HIGH on the "I'll take things a deranged Roman emperor would do for $500, Alex" chart.

For comparison's sake, the entire National Park Service costs $3 billion - a year.

The electoral parallels with the gilded age are striking but notably 1876-1896 is a decade shorter than 1992-2028(?)

It's easier to believe in the end of American democracy than it is to believe in the end of the Sixth Party System

Enshitification ratchet or realignment is basically the ballgame.

Which can come down to this question: can a critical mass of the electorate (both by churn and persuasion) change its preferences?

I'm pretty sure something just fucking broke. And the worst of the crisis is going to hit not long before the Midterm.

There's something deeply amusing in an ironic sense about watching people who criticized U.S. COIN campaigns for lacking strategic coherence cheer on the Iran campaign, seemingly completely oblivious to the similar disconnect between tactical proficiency and political ends.

The Fate of the First Amendment The Defense Department announced is barring press photographers from the briefings it holds on the war in Iran.

When the President decides photojournalists can’t take pictures at Sec’y Hegseth’s Iran briefings, it’s not a small thing. We’re connecting the dots to the larger efforts to erode our 1st Amendment rights, just when we need them the most. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

NO SHIT

we basically need an administrative revolution comparable to DOGE in reverse, except competent; to punish those who tried to destroy the republic without escalating a cycle of reprisals; to create new durable institutions; and avoid thermostatic backlash from the public. Gl;hf

Graham Platner land acknowledgment in which he calls for “lebensraum for native peoples”

Crazy video of 20 Tomahawks flying through the Iraqi Kurdish mountains near Sulaymaniyah (filmed by someone standing *above* them), seemingly fired from Navy vessels in the Mediterranean

By the way, if this is true, it means Noem potentially lied under oath, or alternatively was so uninterested in the day-to-day operations of DHS that she had no clue (but that would be surprising given that the winner was a firm she’d used before.

The right wing is really knives out for Noem.

another thing Trump has done is completely fuck up counterterrorism efforts. got a piece on this @prospect.org coming tomorrow

Toyota releasing a new dump bed Hilux? I cannot see any further applications for this…

This is a thing that is within their control and they absolutely should make their negotiating position

The Iran hawks have just been full of it for years while every real CCP threat is “well, who can say what those anti-ship missiles are for”

Every over hyped Iran threat is shit the PRC can actually do, do a thousand times better, or is actively capable of pursuing.

FBI warns Iran aspired to attack California with drones in retaliation for war: Alert The warning came in a bulletin that was reviewed by ABC News.

Adding this to my running list of “if you think Iran was a threat here’s what the PRC can do”

abcnews.com/US/fbi-warns...

honestly if i was QF or Hezbollah, i'd try to take a swing at MAL

Crashing the 'transformational' fleet architecture of the 00s straight into sequester was truly devastating, but then they straight up botched FFG(X)—which was a program that really needed to have happened in like 2014 not 2017 (also keeping LCS through the sequester was uhhhh A Choice™)

they have the longest lead time items the most dependent on congressional whims and an industry that will straight up die if you take your foot off the gas and then have choked repeatedly on Must Do's while also getting slammed by events

the refrain i've repeated for years now is that the Navy has been dealt the worst hand of the services over the last decade(s) but they've also played it badly

also tbh Navalists have also just straight up sucked at execution, flop like fish on the hill where it actually matters and then also OPNAV is lol lmao