From The Archives:

If America still had the rule of law, this would be the easiest prosecution ever, but we all know absolutely nothing will happen.

It really is an attempt to mobilize erotic violence, probably taken right from Jim Crow use of "pretty women victims" (real or, often as not, invented) to gin up enthusiasm for lynching. And IN THIS CASE was a direct attempt to replace the valorization of ICE's victims.

Between SOTU, w/its dead pretty lady porn, & the Iran invasion, Trump has juiced the fawning loyalty oaths that had been trailing off of late. It's not remotely clear it'll have an effect on his general popularity: He's playing to a much-narrowed audience. Even if it does, what is the encore?

For those asking about "dead pretty lady porn:" Stephen Miller all-but admitted that he built Trump's SOTU around victims of migrants (or, falsely claiming that Iryna Zarutska was killed by a migrant) to distract from Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It worked, for Trump's fevered mob.

On the fourth hand, the Republican Party and Big Conservatism are in great shape.

uhhh oh my god

Historically, these are TERRIBLE polling numbers for day 1 of a major US use of force, particularly against a well known and disliked adversary. Usually it only goes down from the start

Trump & Co have been talking about US military action for weeks, if not months, and positioning the assets to do it - long before such intelligence ever could have become a factor. This is transparent nonsense.

So Schumer wants Congress to come back and vote on a war powers resolution, and it will probably pass. Problem fixed, I guess.

not a misfire, American officials are apparently known to stay here

NEW: Bahrain skyscrapers and Dubai hotels are now being hit by Iranian drones. This is insane. Trump has unleashed chaos and carnage. (🎥 Al Jazeera)

Rep. Wesley Hunt: "The reason why I'm a big proponent of the Second Amendment is because I have three babies and a beautiful wife. I have an AR-15 for everybody in my house. I'm not kidding."

Press running awfully fast on just the word of Netanyahu

I know you all think this is stupid, but it's the actual power of Congress. If the war powers act doesn't pass it means the war is officially, indisputably, unequivocally, illegal.

Donald Trump is dragging the United States into a war the American people do not want. Let me be clear: I am opposed to a regime-change war in Iran, and our troops are being put in harm’s way for the sake of Trump’s war of choice. Read my full statement:

Good time for Washington Post to have gutted it’s foreign coverage.

With alt text. I’ve…never seen a court talk like this before?

I love that we all know 90 percent of them will flip on a dime now, from “trump won’t send your sons to war” (like it’s only sons) to “trump is sending your sons to war and that’s good.”

The timing of the initial strikes is unusual. Often you see these types of operations launched in the pre-dawn hours at the target site partly to limit civilian casualties. This operation began at the beginning of a work and school day, with millions of adult civilians and children in harms way.

I am already seeing "it's a distraction!" takes and please fucking kill me

We have reached peak Douthat, folks.

The world could be such a nice place if we allowed it. It's all so goddamn unnecessary. There's no need for any of it. It's so beautiful here. It should be so cool to be alive

I don't expect Trumpers who yelled about Harris and others being pro-war to leave Trump in any significant numbers because they can't admit that they backed the wrong person. Plus this won't stop them from being racist/sexist/homophobic/resentful.

This operation is too, too far from November to have a rally around the flag effect. However, it is so close to November that the nasty consequences (spike in oil prices, inflation, Iranian retaliation, failure to change regime, etc) will still be pretty proximate.

I hadn't seen Canada's response to this war, but it turns out that Carney and Anand are stuck in the past. We simply can't jump up and support every American aggression. The US is a faithless ally these days, doing heaps of damage. Does Canada really want to legitiamte an autocrat's war? No.

Except when you consider that Hillary has been propped up as a political scapegoat and boogeyman for transparently misogynistic reasons for decades, it’s actually not surprising at all.

🚨 Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran's last shah, released a video within minutes of today's bombs falling: "We are very close to final victory. I want to be by your side so we can take back Iran." A U.S. backed successor. Ready and waiting with a video. Not a coincidence.

Significant disruption globally to commercial aviation — Middle East airports and airspace have closed, flights diverted or cancelled. (Flightradar24.com map)

This is so obscene.

How hard is it to build a bar at the Pentagon?

Updated version for most recent election.

Just stating the obvious here, but we have to build a government that doesn't starve and bomb the planet for kicks.

CNN is saying the Iranian attack happened after Trump “lost patience with negotiations”. I don’t believe it. The negotiations were cover. This was always the plan. The scale of the military buildup showed that.

Personally, I’m tired of the entire Middle East. I’m tired of the religious stuff I’m tired of the oil stuff I’m tired of the misogynistic tyranny of a bunch of cruel nasty men in bed with us to make everybody in their little club richer I’m tired of this charade of God by godless men

This is one of my pettier impulses but I want the record to reflect just how often this motherfucker said that Kamala Harris was the pro-war candidate in 2024.

This was published today lol

No doubt Tulsi Gabbard is drafting her resignation letter as we speak.

Literally

You can just say things.

I can guaran-goddamn-tee you Kamala Harris would not have started a war with Iran. I did all I could to avoid this. I hope the people who voted (and didn't vote) for this are happy now.

This is psychotic.

I hope the Security Council members walk out.

there are a lot of people working in the government right now who want to intentionally trigger an apocalypse to create the conditions for the return of jesus christ and I know how crazy that sounds but its absolutely true

This is the most corrupt administration in history and it's just...been accepted. It's been normalized along with the fascism (and racism, xenophobia...). It's incompatible with democracy.

It is possible to believe two things at once: That the long-suffering people of Iran deserve freedom from their despotic leaders, and that a bombing campaign by the current highly corrupt authoritarian government of America is unlikely to bring it.