“It was this story that woke me up and made me a scholar. I found it fascinating that a group of ordinary people from country towns who shared a fear that they were losing their democracy could figure out how to work together to reclaim it.” One of my favorite HCR stories. Happy birthday Maine.

I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵

There is absolutely no bottom. @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/03/13/p...

So Trump starts a war at great cost to the US and when the easily foreseeable consequences come about used that as an excuse to reward Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine is sending drones and drone experts to help protect our military bases. It sure paints a picture.

NEW. 👀😳 Trump fundraising email "promises that members will “receive my private national security briefings, unfiltered updates on the threats facing America" & "includes an official White House photograph showing Trump saluting during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base ..."

Here's why any attack on Iran's Kharg Island oil shipping terminal would be a nightmare for energy markets

People sign up for many reasons but it isn’t to die. This is incredibly disrespectful.

It’s quite obvious what is happening here. bsky.app/profile/seth...

In the 1920s, there was an enormous Klan-aligned caucus in the House of Representatives that passed an immigration restriction bill designed to keep out Catholics and Jews because they supposedly posed an existential threat to American civilization. 100 years later, here we are.

“You’ve heard of the Deep State. This is the Derp State.”

“Forbes reported in December 2025 that Ramaswamy’s net worth had nearly doubled, from about $1 billion to about $1.8 billion, since he announced his candidacy in February 2025.” It’s so nice to see someone getting ahead with hard work and by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. (Sarcasm)

Last year, The Atlantic gave me $10,000 to gamble with. What started as a journalistic gimmick turned into something more... unnerving. My cover story on the online betting boom that's warping sports, culture, politics, and the psyches of millions of young men: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

“Today Trump claimed the U.S. has hit “28 mine ships as of this moment,” prompting Chris Cameron of the New York Times to note that “[t]he president sometimes exaggerates or is imprecise when giving figures.’” Well that quite an understatement.

In the last 24 hours, Iran has: - Struck three ships trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz, disabling a Thai cargo ship - Blown up a large oil storage facility in Oman - Struck two oil tankers at harbor in Iraq, setting both ablaze. - Blown up oil storage tanks next to Bahrain’s main airport

This is just evil.

(Sen. Rosen) warned that Trump could not simply stop the war and have everything go back to the way it was on February 27. The Middle East has sustained too much damage. “You see the bombs, you see the destruction. It’s not going to stop just because he wishes it to be so.” She’s right.

This is true, but also, I think what people don't understand is how informing on kids who are trying out a nickname and a pronoun raises the stakes in way that could drive the inappropriate transitions and regret, the thing we're supposed to be so scared of. Let me explain.

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public. I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are. 1/ Here's what I can share:

“Andrew Egger of The Bulwark explains that the Trump administration didn’t bother to have a theory for why the U.S. was going to war with Iran—, because they didn’t think there was going to be a war, just a fast, hard strike that would enable the U.S. to put a new Iranian leader in place.” Crazy!

Great 🧵, it turns into people telling all the ways their moms and grandmas earned money during those years when women "didn't really work"

“The official social media account of the White House has portrayed its military adventures in Iran as a movie, or a game, splicing images from what appear to be footage of U.S. military strikes with clips from adventure movies and video games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.” Everyone is 12

“The American military is given tasks— and then it breaks those instructions down into discrete and granular missions against particular targets. The pilots and planners can execute those missions with courage and professionalism, but they cannot force them to make strategic sense.”

“America is not like a blanket—one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size,” (Rev. Jackson) said. “America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.“ RIP Reverend Jackson

Top notch satire right here

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) was more direct in (response to Kristi Noem): “Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy,” he posted. “See you at Nuremberg 2.0.” Wyden’s parents both fled the nazis in Germany. I think he recognizes what is going on right now.

Williamson County Republican Party chair Michelle Evans told KUT News in Austin that she could explain why they had made the change, “but at the end of the day, it’s because we can. It’s legal. It’s something we’re entitled to do, and it’s something that our party would like us to do.” Yikes.

New Yorker cartoons don’t miss.

BREAKING | The Pentagon identified the remaining two Army Reserve soldiers who died Sunday in a drone attack on a Kuwaiti port on the second day of Operation Epic Fury.

Pete Hegseth, if he does not resign, should at least get out of the way and let better men than him talk to the nation and to the press. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Got it. There's plenty of funding to send troops into harm’s way, but not to take care of their health afterwards. This is shameful.

I hope the American people realize that this war is creating more veterans that will need care for decades to come. This administration has been attacking the VA pretty much since day one. Two weeks ago the VA was trying to sneak through a new rule that would cut benefits for disabled veterans!

As Trump endangers our servicemembers' lives in the Middle East, he's also cutting care for veterans back home. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...

This case is horrifying. The man had deferred action, was on a full path to a green card, is a college grad magna cum laude, and ICE arrested him randomly while looking for someone else: “What do we do?” said one ICE officer, to which another replied “We’re going to take him with us anyway.”

The first confirmed fatalities in Trump's illegal War on Iran: Captain Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, FA Sergeant First Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, NE Sergeant First Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, MN Sergeant Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, IA

“Matt Gertz of Media Matters noted today that Trump, who watches the Fox News Channel consistently, appears to have shaped his attack on Iran in response to encouragement from FNC hosts.” I feel like I’m living in the worst reality TV show ever.

As I write this, it’s been nearly 96 hours since U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran began, and if you’re like me, the feelings over this are all rather complicated. (long thread)

On the 6 US troops who died at Shuaiba port in Kuwait: Troops asked for more drone defeat capabilities, none came. It was recommended that the makeshift tactical operations center not be used because it was hard to defend and concentrated too many troops in one place. www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-st...

You know for all of Trump’s flaws he has always been a very good salesman, it’s very telling I think that he’s not even really bothering to try and sell this.

The DEA’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces “worked with partners across federal agencies to conduct sophisticated investigations into transnational organized crime and money laundering.” The Trump administration dismantled OCDETF. How nice for Epstein and the drug traffickers.

Hegseth is wholeheartedly endorsing the core premise of fascism: industry, as part of the private sphere, must be subordinated to the military objectives of the state.

Once again, excellent, important brass tacks reporting from Marisa.

If Russia and China conspired to destroy the U.S. military with a Manchurian candidate I don't think they could have picked a better choice than Hegseth. The damage he's doing will take decades to fix.

“For Edwards, it was a like a scene out of “ Parks and Recreation,” a mocumentary-style comedy show that satires local government.” If only this was all just a mocumentary.

This is a big one. A newly uncovered document has revealed the existence of a mystery Epstein investigation. It was spearheaded by the DEA and involved drug trafficking and money laundering. Epstein was one of 15 targets. The other 14 names are redacted. I've got questions.

I’m struggling to decide what part of this letter to highlight. What outrage is most important to pay attention to today? I think that says some right there sadly.

New from me at @documentedny.bsky.social : New Trump plan: stop processing work permits for asylum-seekers until the asylum application backlog goes down. But they’re not gonna put more people on fixing that backlog. Which they estimate could take 173 YEARS. documentedny.com/2026/02/27/y...

Don’t let this get lost in the shuffle.
 
These $1,776 "warrior dividends" weren't bonuses. Trump just stole money out of a fund meant to help our troops find affordable housing.

Please read this article to the end. Even before ICE got involved, this started because this *blind man who speaks no English and uses a curtain rod as a walking stick* got lost on a walk and some Karen called the police on him and they tasered and beat him bc he didn’t drop the rod. WTF

“I need someone here now, or else I’m going to have to shoot this kid,” an ICE officer told a Portland police dispatcher in late October, when he realized his vehicle was being tailed by someone on a motorized bike.