I wrote this post two weeks ago. Since then, JD Vance has gone to Hungary to defend Putin's puppet, and is now leading negotiations in Pakistan. emptywheel.net/2026/03/27/h...

Over the past two nights I've watched two very difficult movies to watch. Both are incredible films. The first was Sirat and I'd rather not explain anything about the plot. I'd suggest not even watching the trailer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_9O...

*Something* dramatic happened in the strait of Hormuz today. The US claims two destroyers traversed the strait, did some prep for mine-clearing and then crossed back. Iran claims it saw a destroyer approaching the strait, threatened it and it turned away without crossing.

Several years from now Markwayne Mullin will tell us he was on a super dooper top secret mission deep in Iran that we can't confirm because only a few people were read in on it and we wouldn't know them anyways.

I think the discussion over 25A and impeachment gets at a larger reality. You can argue both sides of either tactic, but the underlying problem is NO ONE is really holding the GOP accountable for letting Trump send his son-in-law on a diplomat's errand EVEN AFTER his incompetence led to war OR

@trcfwtt.bsky.social web.archive.org/web/20260304...

The guy investigated for years for conspiring with Russia (who may have gotten not one, but TWO pardons for his ties to Russia) interceded to make sure Trump didn't fire Tulsi. Great. Just great. www.axios.com/2026/04/10/t...

Read how the Trump's lost a billion on Bitcoin. www.forbes.com/sites/danale...

Trump scorecard on his war with Iran: 1. Removed Iran's HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) - Pass🟪 Fail☑️ 2. Freedom for the Iranian people - Pass🟪 Fail☑️ 3. Regime change - Pass🟪 Fail☑️ 4. Kept Strait of Hormuz open - Pass🟪 Fail☑️ 5. Kept worldwide gas prices down - Pass🟪 Fail☑️

“This is a trans-national effort, funded by Russian oil, to replace Western liberalism with a pro-Russian ideology... Orbán is not just the puppet that gives this packaged ideology a European face... he oversees the money laundering vehicles to fund the larger network” emptywheel.net/2026/04/07/p...

I'm always struck by how well the Kind of Blue album was recorded way back in 1959.The music is fantastic. The recording is also spectacular. www.youtube.com/watch?v=q72j...

Statement from Aragachi on Twitter. Last sentence is key IMO.

Among the most important details of Trump's backdown: China intervened. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

Some thoughts about the President of the United States speaking about ending a civilization. The president speaks genocide. Anyone who has been involved in that conversation or associated actions would be complicit. And so we too must speak. Not only about crimes, but about their legal punishment.

If Trump ends up firing Tulsi Gabbard who does he get to replace her? Devin Nunes?

It's a shame Frank Sinatra never covered Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) by the Beach Boys because I really do think at its core it's something of a Frank Sinatra inspired song just in a vocal range higher than his. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6HO...

Radley is 100% correct. Democratic lawmakers posted "Don't give up the ship" warning on Nov 19 2025. about 6 weeks later, Donny ordered the illegal invasion of Venezuela and today we're all in hell with attacks on Iran either defy illegal orders or commit war crimes. no middle ground.

"Trump...is so incapable of admitting his error, he’ll just continue to huddle with the men who helped create the mess in the first place, because they’re all psychologically incapable of confessing their own incompetence." @emptywheel.bsky.social emptywheel.net/2026/04/06/t...

@democracydocket.com receives news of Harmeet Dhillon promotion by mocking her fuck-ups. By my read Stan Woodward is FAR more competent, and the nomination process may be very useful. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

It's not just GOP complicity w/Trump's war crimes and other failures in Iran, but they're also doing nothing w/the badly conflicted men who WILDLY botched pre-war efforts bc they were too fucking stupid to understand are still purporting to be in charge of negotiations. www.axios.com/2026/04/05/t...

Don't be too surprised if Trump's threat is his attempted valediction to the war. He wants out, wants to claim he won and if he can't do that with a deal or an open strait of Hormuz, it sounds like he's planning to blow it all up, call it peace and go home.

The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.

Looks like Orban’s Russia-backed false flag operation could be underway to lead to the cancelling of the Hungarian elections. Predicted recently. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić has informed Orban of “explosives of devastating power” found at the gas pipeline connecting the two countries. 1/2

Peter Magyar's attempt to inoculate against Orbán's apparent false flag.

👇👍!!!

Put everyone involved in its planning and execution in Leavenworth on Jan 21, 2029

Nope, not how this works www.wsj.com/world/middle...

NEW: Before Nick Shirley went to California this year, DOGE's Edward "Big Balls" Coristine was helping him "extract" info from a public dataset to identify targets for his YouTube "investigation" into fraud. w/ @telliotter.bsky.social More here: www.wired.com/story/edward...

In Trump's interview w/NYT in January, he raised his fears that his VZ invasion would end up like Eagle Claw three times. That visceral fear may be why he is hiding this weekend. emptywheel.net/2026/03/09/t...

One explicit goal for Iran is to get the US to withdraw from its ME force projection. To what extent have they done so, even if short term?

Donald Trump votes by mail. But this week, he signed an Executive Order so you can’t. Why? Because he is scared of your power, and he is scared of losing the midterms.

I mean, you don't really need a translator

@calmatters.org @latimes.com @nytimes.com @riversiderecord.bsky.social @usatoday.com Sheriff Bianco stated during a CBS interview that he asked the judge to unseal the warrants around 4m30s which might help the the media coalition's motion to unseal these records www.cbsnews.com/video/califo...

@uclavrp.bsky.social Bianco claimed he asked the judge to unseal the search warrants during this CBS interview but I find this hard to believe. He is asked about it at around 4m 30s. www.cbsnews.com/video/califo...

Bianco claimed on CBS that he asked the judge to unseal the warrant but the only reason it's sealed (I believe) is because Bianco's dept asked for it to be sealed. News orgs are petitioning the court to unseal this warrant including the Desert Sun. www.desertsun.com/story/news/p...

"In an exclusive March 31 interview with USA TODAY, Bianco said the publicity surrounding his investigation has prompted elections and law enforcement officials – and conservative groups – to contact his office to see how they can launch similar inquiries." www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Bad day for a fire in LA County. This is right next to the Angeles National Forest. Winds are pretty high today. I hope they can get it out quickly. www.sbsun.com/2026/04/03/w...

Say what you will about President Comacho but at least he knew well enough to hire and listen to advisors smarter than himself. Trump hates expertise. He fears the competent.

It sounds to me as if he's going to escalate.

AP: The U.S. on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on the Treasury Department website.

Whatever he says tonight, Trump will try to claim victory. He may say "mission accomplished" and blame NATO for the strait being closed. He may say the war is essentially over but send troops in tomorrow to retrieve Iran's uranium. He will try to shift accountability while appealing to his base.

It's Not that Trump Is Threatening NATO; He Is Making NATO Toxic emptywheel.net/2026/04/01/i...

In light of Richard Leon's (R-!!!) opinion ordering Trump to stop his ballroom construction, Trump is confessing it is a bunker after all, which I'm very excited about, not least bc I think this may backfire. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

How many justices are going to ask if this was all an elaborate April Fool's joke?

Iran won’t close the Strait Iran better open the Strait Iran has 2 days to open the Strait Iran has a week to open the Strait NATO, open the Strait I’ll bomb your critical infrastructure if Strait isn’t opened I don’t care about the Strait No ceasefire till Strait is open

Trump is trying to find a way to blame his war on Europe.

Vet confronts ICE agents for wearing military uniforms without serving and "Police" insignias without going to police academies. They are uncharacteristically lowkey and quiet.