I know U.S. governance is abysmally stupid right now, but how can anyone who watched Trump handle the pandemic not realize how he'd handle an international crisis he precipitated?

I just noticed Birdemic 3 on one of the streaming services. Having been introduced to the first one by RiffTrax, I'm both astonished and amused that there was a Birdemic 2, much less a third one.

Hegseth’s trial is gonna be a doozy.

These people are just dumb as rocks.

Hegseth is achieving levels of dipshittery in these press conferences that makes it more and more difficult for Colin Jost to parody. At some point SNL will just play Hegseth.

The war is going so well that the secretary of defense is spending his morning yelling at cnn

where’s my money 😔

It's genuinely terrifying that my country is at war and I can't tell the difference between a press conference by the Secretary of Defense and a pro wrestler hyping an upcoming match. This is not hyperbole. Hegseth is emotionally incapable and intellectually void and that is an important job.

lol

It’s almost like Putin and Netanyahu control our foreign policy.

We're in a good ol' fashioned quagmire!

It's off to the races! The WSJ reports that, in addition to more warships, a Marine expeditionary unit is being sent in. And Russia is making out like a bandit. Not only do they get to sell their oil, but on the other side of the equation, they're helping Iran with targeting

i feel like if i was tasked with not starting a war and bringing back US manufacturing jobs, i could have done a better job than this

"In a rapid reversal that left U.S. allies stunned, the Trump administration shifted from opposing the largest-ever intervention in oil markets to cajoling allies into moving forward with the maneuver in a matter of hours. "

Trump's now trying to spin skyrocketing oil prices as a good thing

When your country is being run by people who don't realize that there's a world economy that has its own financial interests in mind.

Historically, wars start with huge public support. Trump couldn’t even clear half the country. 41% That’s not “rally around the flag.” That’s America saying this war looks like a reckless stunt that’s going to cost us all.

“.. a claim that, if true, would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at an agency that serves more than 70 million Americans.” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Thankfully, no other president ever needed to.

BREAKING: As many as 150 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war with Iran, according to sources familiar—far higher than the Pentagon’s publicly disclosed figure of just 8 seriously wounded troops. The true toll of this war is already far worse than the public has been told. (Reuters)

Chris Murphy: "I Just came from a two hour, closed door classified briefing on the war. It just confirmed to me it's totally incoherent. We are not gonna be able to achieve any of our stated objectives ... this is a disaster of epic proportions, a 10 day debacle"

Fox News was on at the gym over the weekend and the chyron said "WOKE MAPPING" to refer to gerrymandering and honestly I've gotta hand it to them, it's been rattling around in my head like Beat It for 48 hours.

Watching stock market activity during crises is interesting. The war hasn't let up, gasoline prices rose again today, the Strait of Hormuz is still blocked, oil reserve releases are still in the discussion phase, yet the market is up.

Quote of the day: "A billionaire is a machine for producing policy failures at scale." -- Cory Doctorow bit.ly/3NrAUMg

Exactly 11—tipsy Lindsey counted them himself, yessirree he did

The Onion’s print ads are the best thing in the newspaper.

Who would have guessed that the legal system in America was so fragile that a single crazy president could ignore the whole thing, from the Constitution right down to state laws? Why does the Supreme Court and Congress let this demented moron act like the dictator of a banana republic?

“We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated, but we do so on our time line and at our choosing,” -- Pete Hegseth, quoted in the WSJ This is what happens when you put a pubescent male in an adult body in charge of things.

Along with the Gulf of America, the Trump-Kennedy Center, and Epic Fury, I've moved the Department of War into the Cobb Courier's stylebook for things we only use in third-party quotes. It sounds like something a 14-year-old boy would come up with for Call of Duty cosplay.

Fox should send Kilmeade as a special correspondent to report live from the ship. bsky.app/profile/atru...

I'm experimenting with small-scale solar power, so based on a YouTube experiment where a guy had a goal of setting up a credibly useful system for under $250, I bought an Ecoflow River 3 and a 100W 18V Eco-Worthy solar panel.

I'm seeing a lot of delusional statements, the most recent from the Indian Finance Minister, that the surge in oil prices won't drive higher inflation. Even if you discount the effect of gasoline prices, diesel fuel costs affect the price of all tangible goods, including food.

A year ago we were supposed to be getting $2,000 rebate checks, DOGE was going to find $2 trillion in waste to balance the budget, we were going to pay no income taxes because tariffs would pay for everything, gas and home electric bills would be cut in half, and no new wars.

Anyone else tired of being forced to find out when they did not fuck around?

Well, Trump's managed us to get into war in Iraq again! I guess it isn't too surprising given the loyalties of the militias there. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

If you go straight back in my feed you'll find an entire string of posts about the deaths of those schoolchildren and military casualties as well. Post after fucking post. Cherry-picking a single entry so you can play artisan grudge-farmer on the internet is a cheap mug's game. So fuck off. Thanks.

If there's ever a moment when the leaders of a nation need to be clear, definitive and consistent with a message, it is in response to this question: "Why are we going to war." This is misrule by the worst cadre of incompetent, beshitted cartoon characters ever gathered together in modern history.

Well, I don't know about you tree-hugging libtards, but I see a couple hundred butchered school kids, six dead U.S. soldiers and $300 million in wrecked fighter planes as a net win. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

No pasaran! 🇪🇸 God bless the Spanish for standing hard against this soulless, brutality. This is leadership:

Magical. Reminds me of one of my fav exchanges involving a Baltimore reporter and a Maryland politician: Scribe: "You said yesterday...." Governor Schaefer: "Read my lips, I never said it." Scribe: "Read my lips, I have it on tape." Governor: "Okay, I said it, but...." Hat tip to Doug Birch.

These are not the words of a national leader or professional soldier. ThIs is a freshman during fraternity rush hoping to impress and slowly summoning his own erection in the process.

This expression, worn by an ordinary, sentient soul, translates precisely to "what the fuck did I do?" On this pouting, perpetually aggrieved manchild, devoid of even a shard of self-awareness, we cannot credit the moment as such.

And 165 non-artificial schoolchildren were blown up by all this advanced and precise targeting. Congrats to everyone involved on achieving this brave new world.

To demonstrates that he remains a committed special advisor to DHS, Mr. Lewandowski will now be obliged to travel with and provide sexual services to Mr. Mullin.

Mr. Mullin may be the penultimate moron in the U.S. Senate, out-thinking only the husk that is Senator Tuberville, but helped by enough lip filler and hair extensions, he can be augmented with the intimate advice and constant companionship of Cory Lewandowski, a committed consigliere to DHS.

The ayatollahs could issue the funniest statement ever today: "Wait. He just appointed the second-most deadbrained Senator to head homeland security and he gave the dog-shooting Barbie some made-up job defending the Western Hemisphere. And now he wants to name our Supreme Leader? The fuck you say."

Yeah, Orwell said that. I think it's the opening line of his famed "Homage to Catatonia." In his first novel, "The Road To Cory's Leer," he also wrote, "Some things seem to look good from one end of the bar, but if you get close and there's just lip filler and hair extensions? Run the fuck away..."

We still have Blackburn and Johnson. It's a deep bench.

Personally, I have long regarded the Iranian Navy as an imminent threat to my country and to me personally. In fact, for forty years now, I've held my breath at the terrifying thought of those frigates, corvettes and patrol boats massing off our shores and menacing our great republic.

Not a bug but a feature in this new war of choice. What Trump requires is a major terror attack on American soil prior to the midterm elections. Declared state of emergency. Disruptions in voting. Political dissent challenged and even prosecuted. His war has primed the pump as intended.