“These middle-aged men, some of the most powerful in the world, are not allowed even to stand or walk normally. The shoes are not very expensive—about $145—but apparently even to order a replacement pair in the correct size wld risk an unacceptable breach of courtly etiquette. What if he noticed??"
Trump’s personal phone number is the hottest commodity in Washington, D.C.—and some are willing to barter or pay to get it, @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @ashleyrparker.bsky.social report: theatln.tc/suGnXBwC
WSJ: The likelihood of Iran closing the strait was discussed, Gen Caine predicted it, and Trump decided “Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait — and even if Iran tried, the U.S. military could handle it.”
www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
I had assumed the headline was a joke. But no.
people.com/new-dime-coi...
Senator Tuberville on x writing a response to the @endwokeness account Original tweet from @EndWokeness - “less than 25 years apart” Image 1 - the twin towers as they are hit by a the planes on 9/11/2001 Image 2 - Mayor Mamdani sitting on a prayer rug while hosting an Iftar at city hall Quote tweet from Senator Tuberville - “the enemy is inside the gates.”
Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.
When a federal judge (finally) put ICE officers under oath, they admitted that they are given daily detention quotas and rely heavily on a Palantir-supplied AI tool to select targets, without warrants and without enough evidence to obtain one. They simply go into neighborhoods and round people up.
New rules for @starsandstripes.bsky.social prove the Pentagon is at war with itself. You can't claim to promote "independent," "impartial," and "credible" coverage while simultaneously doing everything to undermine it.
Our troops and their families deserve better.
(1) The accused declared, ordered, or otherwise indicated that there shall be no survivors or surrender accepted; (2) The accused thereby intended to threaten an adversary or to conduct hostilities such that there would be no survivors or surrender accepted; (3) It was foreseeable that circumstances would be such that a practicable and reasonable ability to accept surrender would exist; (4) The accused was in a position of effective command or control over the subordinate forces to which the declaration or order was directed; and (5) The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with hostilities.
✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here.
Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning:
Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime.
And recognized as such by the US Government.
From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.
Hey does anyone remember how we had like a decade of near zero interest rates? Thank god the USA spent that time investing in infrastructure! What a calamity if we had just squandered the last best chance of our lives
I hope the first thing this task force does is inform Pete Hegseth about what happens in the war colleges he's never attended - or apparently, even visited - because all this stuff isn't it.
He has no idea what he's talking about here, but that's no surprise.
Also, the guy tapped to do this BS review is Anthony Tata, someone so extreme that the Senate rejected his nomination back in Trump 45. But this time, they caved. Elections have consequences.
Like I said, Russia and China are likely to be the big winners of Trump’s ill-advised “war of choice” with Iran. wapo.st/4ui9QzJ
"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."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/p...
Agatha Christie wrote one of her slightly more thriller-y novels about a billionaire business man with a scheme like this but you don’t find out about the scheme until the end of the book because it’s instantly recognizable as psychopathic and criminal and fundamentally at odds with human decency
“There’s no reason to expect that Trump’s Iranian debacle will prevent him from lighting yet another match of chaos or conflict. In fact, experience teaches that Trump bristling from a failure makes him more, not less, likely to do something equally stupid, and to do so soon.”
@elonmusk on X: Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI. Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions. Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software. You can think of it as Digital Optimus AI being System 1 (instinctive part of the mind) and Grok being System 2. (thinking part of the mind). This will run very competitively on the super low cost Tesla AI4 ($650) paired with relatively frugal use of the much more expensive xAI Nvidia hardware. And it will be the only real-time smart AI system. This is a big deal. In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies. That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft. No other company can yet do this. 10:17 AM · Mar 11, 2026 · 42.1M Views
"That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft."
— Elon Musk, comedian
rigged. To watch sports in 2026 is to become, almost inevitably, a kind of conspiracy theorist. Atter a late penalty in a December game between the Broncos and the Raiders turned a meaningless field goal into a bad beat for anyone who had Denver minus 8.5, the Barstool Sports founder, Dave Portnoy, filmed himself melting down on camera. "This is the most rigged game I have ever seen in my entire life," Portnoy ranted, pacing around his living room alone, looking like a paranoid QAnon adherent. He demanded that the referees be investigated; he demanded that the Raiders' coach, Pete Carroll, be investigated. Then he called for more decisive punishments. "Prison for Pete Carroll!" he bellowed. "Murder Pete Carroll! I want Pete Carroll murdered!" Portnoy apologized the next day, clarifying that he'd only been calling for a "metaphorical murder." But he didn't back off his accusation. He had lost a quarter of a million dollars on "one of the wildest sequences" of the season, he told his audience. Somebody needed to get to the bottom of it.
😐
Ubiquitously advertised betting available through the computer you carry in your pocket via apps designed and managed by ruthlessly efficient data scientists and programmers seems like a mistake. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
NEW: A sharp warning in an ordinary news release: "President Trump’s Justice Department.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi has made clear since day one her view that DOJ's lawyers are "his lawyers." On Thursday, DOJ went further, claiming it's "Trump's Justice Department."
Today, at Law Dork:
It’s become obvious that the Trump administration gave zero thought to how this war would play out. Even now, though, I don’t think they quite appreciate how locked in they are to a complete and total clusterfuck. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/im-sick-an...
I love the idea that *this* US government, which has been nabbing landscapers and five year olds knows where Iranian sleeper cells are but just hasn’t gotten around to doing anything about it yet.
The case of temporary visitors was more complicated at common law. The parents, if lawfully present, were under the temporary protection of the sovereign. That is why one judge in a famous case, Lynch v. Clarke, held in 1844 that a child born of temporary sojourners was a citizen. But the rule was contested because of increasing international travel and the resulting dual allegiances. Joseph Story suggested that an exception for temporary visitors would be a “reasonable qualification” to the rule. Henry St. George Tucker in his treatise stated flatly that temporary visitors fell outside the common-law
I'm afraid I can't just sit here and say nothing when another law professor gives false testimony to Congress about the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Ilan Wurman has given false testimony to Congress, being fully on notice of the falsity. I do not think this is fairly debatable. 1.
"U.S. officials called London insurers and brokers, trying to figure out how the market operates, industry insiders said."
When applied to the current administration, I urge caution in using terms like "plans," "strategy," "policy," or "doctrine."
www.wsj.com/finance/u-s-...
Witkoff and Kushner chose not to have nuclear technical experts present during negotiations in Geneva. Several experts have raised questions about the disastrous duo’s technical understanding of uranium enrichment after they presented an assessment of Iran’s Research Reactor that made no sense.
Chairman Cruz Announces Hearing to Debate the Future of Section 230 WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Liability or Deniability? Platform Power as Section 230 Turns 30” on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 10:00 am EST. Thirty years after enactment of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, this hearing will take testimony from legal experts on the role Section 230 has played in the digital era. Witnesses will discuss how Section 230 affects the regulation of online expression and conduct, as well as the constitutional limits on congressional policymaking imposed by the First Amendment. Upon announcing the hearing, Sen. Cruz said: “Big Tech—the most powerful companies on Earth—can exercise monopoly power to make views they dislike disappear and that should scare everyone. When it comes to viewpoint suppression, however, repealing section 230 might increase censorship. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and discussing possible reforms to section 230 so online platforms are a free and open marketplace for ideas.” Witnesses: Ms. Daphne Keller, Director of Platform Regulation, Program in Law, Science, and Technology, Stanford Law School Ms. Nadine Farid Johnson, Policy Director, Knight First Amendment Institute Mr. Matthew Bergman, Founding Attorney, Social Media Victims Law Cente
Senate Commerce hearing on Section 230. And, uh, this is big. Not giving him any credit, but Ted Cruz was really the first Senator to be vocally anti-230 and calling for repeal a decade ago. And here he is saying "whoa, repeal might be bad." That's big.
www.commerce.senate.gov/2026/3/liabi...
You read the news like "White House surprised Iran fires missiles in war. Investors bet on the Money Fairy turning sea mines into cotton candy" and it's that scene in Downfall where Hitler is moving imaginary armies on the map.
Man, we're gonna *lose* lose this war, aren't we?
My opening assumption was a strategic defeat but tactical stalemate that Donald would spin into a win in domestic politics because we killed a lot more of them than they did of us, but this is gonna be like if Vietnam and the oil crisis had a baby.
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.
