“Do you like bananas? Because we are going to fight a war for it”

Outrage upon outrage.

New York millionaires: threatening to flee the city since 2009

What’s particularly disconcerting about the Venezuela stuff is how entire parts of the foreign policy establishment are endorsing/running cover for an administration that clearly has no plan or actual strategy

Even the Legion contains multitudes.

We have reached a verdict: Not guilty.

"Mr. Cheney had done as much as anyone in history to undermine Americans’ trust in their institutions and leaders, including Mr. Cheney himself." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/o...

this is the most successful a CIA officer has been at toppling a government in years.

ICE Agent, 7-Year-Old Both Wearing Same ‘Military Commando’ Halloween Costume

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

Challenging this otherwise delightful John Rogers observation. (“bookish” is load-bearing here)

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

Setting aside the misdirection on these people's age, it's true that kids often learn how to become adults by testing limits and transgressing. But it's not the limit-testing and transgression per se that teach them. It's the reaction to their behavior of the peers and adults they want to impress.

Welcome new people. I was asked at dinner last night whether Bluesky was an echo chamber. I said it doesn’t matter, because what I want from social media isn’t to talk to young republicans taking a break from their group chat, but to read things I want to read but that I might have missed.

"Now, on his worst nights in the detention center, he reminds himself of the promise America made to Afghans who supported its cause: “Nobody will be left behind.” wapo.st/3W4mySQ

Superb & eviscerating take on the situation at CBS by John Oliver and @lastweektonight.com. As I’ve noted, the new billionaire owners create a mirrortocracy, pretend it’s a meritocracy & hire a mediocrity to get there. But it is not about innovating & supporting journalism. youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island told us in a statement that “every American should be alarmed that their President has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.” www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Important thread on precedents on National Guard use over state objections, from @lindsaypcohn.bsky.social, and nobody knows it better.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has credited the military’s strong recruiting numbers this year to a rise in patriotism and a “Trump bump.” But the Army’s recruiting surge wouldn’t have been possible without a program that started three years ago at Fort Jackson. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/u...

Seven years ago today, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and then dismembered. And any so-called comedian who can't stand up tonight in Riyadh and do ten minutes on that kind of hijinx and horseplay just isn't worth the Saudi blood money he's being paid.

Explain ‘we’ there, kemosabi.

like, the fact that they felt this spectacle was necessary is itself evidence that they don't have the military support that they want

i have said this before but when “getting rid of race in admissions” for the administration means “you can’t even try to reach out to underrepresented communities and encourage them to apply and if you do it is illegal discrimination against white people” then the actual goal here is segregation

A Black police officer, David Rose, was shot and killed defending a federal government building last month, and he didn’t get a presidential medal or a congressional moment of silence. A white civilian, Charlie Kirk, is shot and killed on a college campus, and he did.

The fundamental severing of the link between rights and responsibilities.

We live in a strange country, where we deem the right to hold the ability to conduct tremendous violence as sacrosanct but have agreed that the effects of said violence should be shielded from the public view.

I know Charlie Kirk valued debate and free speech because he blocked me for fact-checking his lies on Twitter and then put me on his organization's Professor Watchlist for writing a book he didn't like.

Is this lethality?* *someone please make a meme for me.

“If they’re picking up trash, they’re not here for a security emergency. There’s no clearer metric than that.” @jkdemp.bsky.social

This letter cancelling the award ceremony for Tom Hanks, with its nod to 'lethality' and no mention of Hanks himself, is a perfect example of quibbling. It should be used in classes on the West Point Honor Code as an example of using a bunch of words that aren't lies, but still avoiding the truth.

From Princeton Professor of Politics and International Affairs, @jshapiro.bsky.social.

Anyone in SOUTHCOM's JAG office wants to share the advice given and the ROEs issued to commanders operating around Venezuela? I mean, you're probably going end up sharing them along with your Memoranda for the Record before Congress one of these days, but a sneak peek would be appreciated.

A blend of special operations adventurism and an increasingly unchecked approach to warfare. Does anyone think these types of actions haven't ramped up dramatically? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

Huh, sounds pretty dumb when applied to crime, but I'm sure it makes more sense in counterinsurgency. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/u...

I’ve studied US drone strikes, I wrote a book called “Drones and Terrorism,” and this Caribbean strike is different. Lethal fire at a non-threatening target in a non-hostile environment on purpose when other means, such as capture, were easily doable, and without even attempting a legal rationale.

Military force with the most powerful military in the world should be procedurally challenging, formidable, burden building, and eye opening, physically and structurally simple.

Nothing

And I would never want to get between Ted and a trip to Cancun when there’s an emergency in Texas

FFS. No.

If you want to put back statues and memorials and names of Confederate traitors while tearing down museum exhibitions on slavery because they don't show the greatness of the nation... the nation whose history you're celebrating is whiteness. The kind of nationalist you are is a white nationalist.

Donald Trump "isn’t just deploying America’s military into the streets; he’s deploying it into the American culture war." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

Russia is circulating a meme mocking US soldiers from the Alaska meeting, after they were ordered to roll out a red carpet for Putin: 'US Army in movies vs US Army in real life'.

"Among the favorite pastimes of Republican men, two stand out: first, boasting about what strong, courageous, hypermasculine operators they are; and second, publicly melting down about how pants-pissingly terrified they are of American cities."

George, the Chief of Staff, was Groberg’s brigade commander his first Afg tour. The Vice Chief, Gen. Mingus, was his brigade commander on the next one—Groberg *literally saved his life* by tackling that suicide bomber. That neither of them will stand up for him on the record is…disappointing.

Ah yes, ‘manhood’ that spends its time on sports and gambling. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/a...

"The Army, unlike Princeton and Harvard, knew a petulant, insecure mediocrity when it saw one."