Shouting into the Void

leaders like trump are why sun tzu had to write a bunch of advice like "don't write your enemy a letter detailing what tactics you really don't want them to do"

One of the things that really trips a lot of analysts, including ones with real skin in the game, is that they refuse - absolutely refuse - to accept how stupid Trump very obviously is. He has no knowledge of anything, is incapable of learning, and only remembers the last thing to happen to him.

No

Not having a plan to demine Hormuz is a ‘no winter clothes to invade Russia’ level planning error

Matthew Yglesias is poking fun at the White House finally realizing its policy is too unpopular to run on? The guy who spent all of 2025 and until circa February of 2026 arguing Democrats shouldn’t even talk about Trump’s immigration/deportation policy? That Matthew Yglesias?

i am being absolutely serious here: CENTCOM had one job and it was literally to prepare for an Iran contingency

there was a cold war strategy game -- can't remember what it was called -- where one of the options was that the Soviets closed the Strait of Hormuz with mines. That option *always* led to nuclear war.

This is not really a thing that, if it continues, has a quick "undo" button, either.

MOOOOOOOOOM THE ENEMY IS VOTING AGAIN

It wasn't a tAcTiCaL mIsCaLcUlAtIoN it was a baked in assessed cost of doing this war

now the one area where there is a story here is almost certainly the reason they said no more generally is anduril is selling some piece of shit that doesn't work for that mission, but that's separate from the war

this is *particularly* fucking stupid when republicans are all saying that gas prices rising isn’t a big deal and it’ll all be over any day now. unbelievably bad political instincts from kelly and blumenthal here.

doing this without attaching it to a war powers vote is political malpractice

every trump tweet is just threatening to go to the world's manager, ignorant of the fact that he is, in fact, supposed to be the world's manager

I read this entire article and nothing here is out of the ordinary lol, but for some reason because it’s the military doing it, it must be inherently bad. Like you could just replace DOD with USAID and you can make the exact argument (rightishly)

If we're going to do "when has automation ever made people's lives easier" discourse, I encourage everyone to read book 1 of Caro's LBJ series, and in particular the part about what happened once the Texas Hill Country got electricity and people could suddenly put their clothes in washing machines.

USCENTCOM’s entire reason for existence for the last forty years has been to prevent exactly THIS ONE THING from happening

and yet

In the struggle between rural communal 'values' and corporate greed, I want corporate greed to win every time.

For Mahmoud Khalll, this past year has been marked by profound hardship-and by profound courage. A year ago, Mahmoud was walking home through our city after sharing an iftar with his wife Noor when he was detained by federal agents, flown to Louisiana, and then held in an ICE facility for months. In that time, he was forced to miss the birth of his first child. All of this for exercising his First Amendment rights in protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty. New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity. A city refusing to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom, and a father was finally reunited with his child. Last night, as we marked the one year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together. Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City.

In a dining room, five people eat, chat and smile around a table of food.

Iftar, Day 19

I'm reposting this before even watching because Frank Kendall is always on my watch list and any decent administration next will have him front of the line to be SECDEF.

That & the China Talk/2d Breakfast team always kills it.

This in response to the hundreds of thousands of people who have died as a result of Trump and Musk’s attack on USAID is clear evidence of the exact same kind of brain poisoning that produces, eg, JK Rowling. Winning an argument with the strangers in your phone becomes more important than human life

YES. In the same sentence he said the war was complete, he proposed a policy that would vastly enlarge the war! Media reported the first half, and then later reported a different part to make it seem like a change! But it was incoherent, nonsensical slop all along.

This, too, is sanewashing!

goddamn is this a breath of fresh air after Allred 2024

This is so damned stupid.

It is 2008. Democratic politicians are greatly underestimating the size of the bag the next president will be left holding.

It is 2020. Democratic politicians are greatly underestimating the size of the bag the next president will be left holding.

It is 2026. Democratic politicians are greatly—

Kinda makes sense right, MAGA freaks hate Cornyn because he isn’t MAGA enough and “sensible” suburban Republicans hate Paxton because who doesn’t

“Franklin Roosevelt refused to rearm.” Pic unrelated

it's still early, but this seems to be the major lesson of the 21st Century

I’ve had two detailed conversations in the past weeks with GOP voters who profess to hate Trump; they can cite chapter-and-verse why they hate what’s happening. They understand they were wrong.

They also both switched into anti-trans conspiracy immediately when they admitted they can’t vote D.