an AI generated image of the Strait of Hormuz and mocking a diagram that originally showed trucks going across the land, but now I've put two stargates there instead
can this be a solution
For comparison, the entire annual budget in fiscal year 2023 for USAID — an agency decimated last year under Trump, whose administration justified slashing the aid effort as “clearing significant waste" — was around $40 billion.
If the Iran war continues, it'll eclipse that in less than a month.
CONCLUSIONS In our sample of 650,173 COVID cases among active-duty military personnel, a total of 278,278 were identified as having post-COVID-19 syndrome (42.8%). Of these, 273,405 reported post-COVID symptoms in at least two visits (42.1%). Our findings showed that the top three symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome in military personnel are related to pulmonary, neurological, and fatigue issues. Mild to moderate cases of this syndrome could leave military personnel with long-term deficits in their overall fitness and readiness. This readiness is a critical aspect of military effectiveness, ensuring that personnel can respond rapidly and decisively to threats. Thus, continued assessment and potential treatments are needed to assist active-duty military personnel to improve their overall health outcomes.
Oh look, the 🇺🇸 military concludes over 40% of COVID infections lead to Long COVID, among a population sample that is all adults, & on average in better physical condition & younger than the national/global population.
www.amjmedsci.org/article/S000...
"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-...
An amazing stat:
Iran exported more oil *today* than it did daily before the war.
It's the one country whose tankers are getting through the Strait of Hormuz.
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
“Reliance on AI among faculty is also on the rise, with observers pointing to the dystopian possibility that the college experience may soon be reduced to AI systems grading AI-generated homework – “a conversation between two robots”.”
www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
And a fleet of Shahed drones and sea-borne drones does not cost quite as much
Good morning!
Since Trump was re-elected, @forbes.com estimates—
💰His net worth is up $2.1 billion, to $6.4 billion
💰Eric’s has increased tenfold, to $400 million
💰Don Jr.’s has increased sixfold, to $300 million
💰19-year-old Barron Trump is worth $150 million
Have a great day!
Way cool data and thread. People rewrite history to make the heroes more like them and the villains more like those on the other side.
What were those people's actual views? Pretty much irrelevant.
Our current beliefs rewrite history.
Almost feels like the Iranians are directly responding to US news and media and markets with this - as if they saw the conspicuous underreaction too and thought “no, we need to demonstrate how easy this is for us”
don't worry, the U.S. is fully capable of removing mines from the Strait of Hormuz, we didn't just decommission out last mine- sweepers in the area and replace them with Littoral Combat Ships (the worst boats in the fleet by wide agreement) with untested mine interdiction upgrades
Gotta say that this is some extremely creepy language. And the argument basically is... that if the prevent people from treating gender dysphoria (adults, in this case), that they'll just... stop having it? That's not at all how any of this works.
I know people are very sensitive about the use of the word “genocide” but the attempts to medically eliminate trans children is very clearly meets the standard because they are trying to eliminate a population and also they know some of those kids are going to kill themselves
Just out @propublica.org: How did the Pentagon make the horrible mistake that left more than 150 school children dead? Perhaps because it cancelled an effort to limit such harm in favor of Hegseth’s lust for “lethality.”
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
No win scenario
All the planning involved some combination of "those assholes fired first" and "The World Has Decided It Is Time To End The Iranian Threat," both involve a level of ally+partner integration that is absolutely not the case here
There was literally no plan for "YOLO Iran war w/Bibi"
Holy shit - this would be very, very bad:
"The databases, called “Numident” and the “Master Death File,” include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names."
It’s pretty amazing that:
A) we have memory holed 2020, only six yrs ago.
B) the nation, four years later, would elect the man in charge.
C) we are not even close to prepared for when the next pandemic hits.
D) we stopped funding the scientists who might find vaccines.
"The footage appears to contradict US President Donald Trump’s claim that it was an Iranian missile that hit the school on Feb. 28." - @bellingcat.com
The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February.
A record number of Americans are withdrawing from their 401ks to cover expenses.
Americans owe $18.5 trillion in debt — an historic high.
Meanwhile, the wealth of America's 935 billionaires soared by $1.5 trillion in 2025.
“Golden Age” for whom?
March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.
A newspaper headline from over a century ago, reading: WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLDS POLICE Their Daring Crimes Are Said to Have Out- stripped the Deeds of Brothers of the Red Search for the Woman is Becoming a Safe Rule in Crimes Proceeding From Anarchistic Violence—The Guardians of the World Nearly Always Finda Woman Implicated When a Ruler is Stricken Down—Emotional Women Lose Sense of Fear.
Happy International Women's Day. 🏴
MeToo pushed a few big-name bad actors out of their positions, but it did very little to grapple with the systems and the cultures and the people that empowered those bad actors and allowed them to operate with impunity.
FEDWATCH: Oil-shock inflation “prevents the Fed from responding to worsening employment conditions .. an adversely tightening policy which could strain credit and put at risk 1 to 2 million jobs created by private credit, according to the Fed’s own estimates.” 👀
Though it is day, the sun cannot be seen in Tehran today because of all the smoke following the US and Israel bombing Tehran's oil refineries. People on the ground describe it as armageddon. History will not forgive Reza Pahlavi, Masih Alinejad, Nazanin Boniadi, and all other "leaders" who tricked Iranians into thinking this war would set them free.
Oh my god: this is *daytime* in Tehran.
I mean I guess it’s not that important when talking about things like war and policy to constantly point out that our president with bad brains is being shown obviously fake polls by his advisers and is living in a completely different and controlled reality.
This is one of the reasons why I shut down my publication, WhiteHat Magazine. It was focused on tech for good, and then all the masks came off after Trump was elected in 2016. It was a naive mission, and one I couldn't pivot from.
One thing Trump has done is imbue one of his core beliefs into government practice: frivolous legal actions are powerful.
Threaten to sue someone. Actually sue them! He did this a lot as a businessman. Now DOJ does it. Does not matter if they lose - the legal hassles imposed are the punishment.
Part of the reason "Breaking Bad" is one of the greatest TV shows of all time is that its central thesis, which feels true, is that there is a monster inside all human beings, and given the chance to come out, it will, indeed, come out.
Anyway, here's an article about a Let the Monster Out Factory.
From Tehran: "It’s catastrophic. The smoke has entered our homes, the flames are still rising and it feels like the sun is shining… The flames are so bright the highways look like it’s day time. So bright but doesn’t feel right... Help please!”
