"If the government can stop all photographic coverage of press conferences during a war because it doesn't like how the secretary [of defense] looked, who are we?"
-- @joycewhitevance.bsky.social
Washington reporter Chris Cameron of @nytimes.com serves a tasty slice of understatement on wry:
"The White House and the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and State Department had no strategic plan other than to hope for the best. . . .
"Their thinking never rose above a primitive impulse: unleash the bombs."
— @elliotkirschner.bsky.social
Speaking in Kentucky, President Trump said that “we hit 28 mine ships as of this moment.” The president sometimes exaggerates or is imprecise when giving figures. U.S. officials previously said that the U.S. military had struck 16 mine-laying ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
Understatement of the year from the New York Times: ”The president sometimes exaggerates or is imprecise when giving figures.”
"What Pete Hegseth is doing . . . is what happens when leadership becomes performance, and loyalty replaces competence. . . .
"Because behind the buzzwords and the Bible verses, there is a void where strategy should be."
— Heather Delaney Reese (@itsalovelylife.bsky.social)
You capture a glow through the gloom...again.
"Venezuela starts to come up every day in the administration’s stories about the Iran attack. It begins to appear that Trump thought attacking Iran would be like attacking Venezuela."
— @lktiv.bsky.social
Who could possibly have foreseen that war on Iran would (a) make Iran retaliate by closing the strait of Hormuz, which (b) could disrupt world oil markets, enriching Russia and penalizing most everyone else?
Who, indeed, except EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER THOUGHT FOR ONE MINUTE about the situation.
Pete Hegseth Blew Billions on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab
The Defense Department went on a $93 billion spending spree in 2025.
By Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab
Well things have gotten much much much much stupider
Trump goes full war is peace: "Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising, the economy is surging"
Trump can walk away from this “little excursion” as he now calls it, but I have a feeling that Iran isn’t going to let bygones be bygones for a few more decades.
Patel fires FBI Iran experts just in time for war. Counter-terror generally has already been taken apart.
www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...
"We are a military family. . . .
"I am terrified of the consequences of a draft-dodging grifter starting another forever war."
-- Jess Piper (@piperformissouri.bsky.social)
@jenrubin.bsky.social sees "recklessness and indifference to human life" in our Iran war approach:
"His jaw-dropping admission that Iran's bombardment of neighboring countries in retaliation was 'robably the biggest surprise' reflects how little thought he put into a war with global ramifications."
John Fogerty’s lyrics from 1969 still are fresh:
🎵 Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Hoo, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord 🎶
-- “Fortunate Son,” Creedence Clearwater Revival [h/t @piperformissouri.bsky.social]
oh just a thought if your plan for overthrowing the Iranian government depends on the Iranian public rising up, you likely shouldn't have defunded the American government run news agency that speaks in Farsi.
Jess Piper's post ends with this classic from "Fortunate Son," a still-resonant 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival hit by John Fogerty:
🎵 Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord 🎶
"It's the same old song — the poor sent to a war started by the wealthy. The rural folks to the front of the line. The fortunate sons in power to preside over the not-so-fortunate from the farms and fields."
-- @piperformissouri.bsky.social [1/2]
"Yesterday, or was it last week, or last month, or last year? I get my timelines so mixed up these days."
-- @lktiv.bsky.social luciantruscott.substack.com/p/memory-hol...
A confident prediction by @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social on Sunday seems stronger already.
"The Trump Organization ... is trademarking the image & name 'Trump 250' as well as several variations, which means Donald Trump will profit from America's 250th b'day
"The Trump Organization plans to make and sell bumper stickers, tote bags, cups, clothing & golf balls"
— @thedanrather.bsky.social
When Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) was at Naval War College, he taught officers about this:
"Victory disease divorces military excellence from political wisdom and strategic discipline. It convinces leaders that whatever they're doing must be working & that they should keep doing it ..."
Trumpism in one sentence, from @joycewhitevance.bsky.social:
"The 'warrior ethos' gang in the Trump administration seem to have been caught completely off-guard by the fallout from their adventure, even though the military and the intelligence community tried to warn them about the risks."
-- @pkrugman.bsky.social
This observation by Heather Delaney Reese (@itsalovelylife.bsky.social), true since Trump’s second inauguration, gains validity this year:
@tinabrownlm.bsky.social poses a very reasonable question:
Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) mocks "the reluctance of some . . . to even call Operation Epic Fury a 'war.'"
"When you bomb a nation, kill its leaders and call for its people to rise up, you’re engaged in war. And if you call for 'unconditional surrender,' you are definitely at war."
The defense secretary's "fake news" accusations disturb @markhertling.bsky.social, a retired lt. gen'l:
"That is not how republics endure. . . . When senior American officials talk like this—especially during combat operations involving American troops—they undermine a constitutional institution."
"Military operations [in Iran] and national purpose will become more and more distanced from each other, because military prowess cannot clarify America's war aims.
"As the old saying warns: If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."
-- Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social
