Nothing against KYM but Iβm not sure. Trump is extraordinarily vain so does care what people think of him, but he faced no reputational challenges at that point. And his cult of personality is basically immune to information.
I rather suspect that was their thinking all along.
Motor Monday!
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But remember, personalist leaders face no audience costs, so he could drop this like a used Kleenex whenever he feels like it.
I actually wouldnβt be surprised if the war ends next week. Trumpβs going to realize soon that thereβs unlikely to be any new noteworthy accomplishments and will pull the plug and send the ships back to the Caribbean to attack Cuba.
I had no idea who he was, but he looked like Bilbo when someone tries to take the ring away from him.
Has he ever been seen in the same room with Martin Freeman?
REPORTER: Yesterday you told us Israel was going to strike Iran and that's why we needed to get involved. But today the president said Iran--
RUBIO: No. Were you there yesterday?
REPORTER: Yes. I asked the question
Yes, if you are operating as the Air Force for a rebel group in the field. But thereβs no rebel group in the field in Iran.
Keep hearing commentators/Hegseth saying a version of "this is not Iraq, we are not doing nation-building, it's a decapitation, the people will handle it."
That's what Iraq 2003 was supposed to be! Nation-building, de-Baathification, disbanding of Iraqi army, it all came *after* things went wrong.
And so appear random in its timing.
Paper idea: preventive war model over time, when does declining power attack? With random perturbation to utilities, could be over a fairly broad swath of time.
The question why now may be fairly random. Trump, Netanyahu, Maduro, Epstein, midterms, ICE raids, all factors.
Following on Mr. T, I think we may be overly focused on the immediate causes rather than the fundamental one. The US attacked Iran for the same reason we attacked Iraq, we thought they hated us and they wanted nuclear weapons, and we thought we could prevent that at an acceptable cost.
[6] The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.
[5] To the question why they broke the treaty, I answer by placing first an account of their grounds of complaint and points of difference, that no one may ever have to ask the immediate cause which plunged the Hellenes into a war of such magnitude.
As a supporter of the June attack on Iranβs enrichment facilities, let me say I know of no empirical study or historical analogy that suggests that a campaign of air strikes will result in regime change.
We are so degraded as a republic that we do not even require the public ritual of consulting of legislature before launching a war of choice.
Most viewed photo of the last 24 hours: #Antonov #An-2, #Aeroklub Gliwicki (SP-AOB) photographed by Tomek Mazur (Gliwice) #General Aviation #aviation #daily #planespotting
To what extent can a U.S-brokered peace framework remain credible when its foundations overlap with an adversaryβs negotiating positions? @oxanashevel.bsky.social @tufts.edu Department of Political Science discusses: faculti.net/inside-washi... #Politics #Diplomacy
In my class today on nuclear weapons and world politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a young woman whose father took the same class with me at the University of California-Riverside in 1997. She showed me a picture of his midterm study guide.
βBeginning on his first day in office and continuing for the past year in plain view of the American people, Donald Trump has orchestrated and led a sweeping federal government effort to subvert the midterm elections,β said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal appeals court judge
Triumph Tuesday.
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Old timers.
#motorcycle
Excellent video, but how disheartening--and patently surreal-- to see the young citizens of a model ally referencing US threats as a key driver in their desire to serve in their nation's military.
www.dw.com/en/denmark-e...
When Itβs Finally Cold Enough to Race Ice Yachts www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/n...
Madison folks, come support democracy, rage with the Grannies, & groove with my octet, the Subterranean Jazz Project.
www.instagram.com/subterranean...
