Now he knows what asylum means. Trump: ‘Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t.

🇮🇷Mojtaba Khamenei : "If the father dies, the father's gun still remains."

Trump's strategy in Iran was to kill the leadership and cripple the military, in the hope that the Iranian people would rise up and revolt. He should've known that this strategy would be unsuccessful as George HW Bush tried it with Iraq in 1991 and just got a lot of Kurds and Shiites killed.

Wondering if the media would've chosen "honored" as the verb if Obama had saluted fallen soldiers in a fucking baseball cap

People who are critical of the GOP have to consider what it's given us in the last 100 years: The Great Depression, Joe McCarthy, 11 of the last 12 recessions, Nixon, Watergate, Iran/Contra, the first Iraq War, 9/11, The Afghan War, The second Iraq War, the Great Recession, Trump I, Trump II 1/

Joe Biden has a lot to answer for.

A one-third increase in oil prices in a week. Good thing this isn't the 70s or we'd be headed into a recession.

I declare irony dead. bsky.app/profile/fint...

Good for her.

“We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia”

Donald Trump is giving new meaning to the term *March Madness*.

Draft Kai!

Trump: "How I grieve for America's dead heroes, who will never get to see this beautiful ballroom I'm building or appreciate these drapes." www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SbL...

Pundits loved telling you about Trump's "anti-interventionism" because it seemed contrarian and interesting, but he always represented neoconservatism's worst impulses shorn of any moral pretense or concern www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

I bet Bush Jr. feels silly going to all those efforts to gin up a phony war when he could've just attacked Iraq.

Following best Republican tradition, it's time to install a Pahlavi as a ruler of Iran.

So, so instructive to compare media response to Afghanistan withdrawal -- months of hysterical garment-rending & catastrophizing, relentless criticism of the admin -- with the response to an unprovoked, unmotivated, illegal war of aggression, ie, "some critics say maybe Trump should have reasons."

The current Trump War is called Operation Epic Fury. Reagan had a little war in Grenada (basically condemned by the entire world) that he called Urgent Fury. There was an operation in the Bush II War in Iraq called Phantom Fury. "Fury." I dunno. Suggests a drunken abusive spouse.

If Trump had made an effort to sell the war, he'd have gotten the full-throated backing of the NYT (is Judith Miller still around); instead, he was too lazy and now the NYT is like meh.

Plattner's going to be like Sinema and Fetterman. The leftist who becomes a GOP stooge after he's elected.

The anti-Trump neo-cons seem to be taking the position that Trump's War is an illegal act of aggression but it's against Iran, so that makes it okay.

The NYT, probably: bsky.app/profile/cdwi...

I see "Israel-Iran War" is trending. Shouldn't that be Israel-Iran-American War?

I miss shame.

"The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 0.5 percent in January, seasonally adjusted"

1936.

The only thing that has saved America, so far, is Trump's incompetence. But somewhere in the bowels of the Republican Party is a Lenin or Hitler or Mao, who instinctively knows how to acquire and wield power.

Looks like Melania has wrapped up its theatrical "run" with total worldwide grosses of barely $16 million against a total budget of $75 million (the venues take 50% or more, so Amazon made about $8 million), which is awful for a movie but maybe okay as a bribe. www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl42...

“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.” ― George Orwell, 1984

So, who's going to get it, Scottie? bsky.app/profile/fact...

The Supreme Court:

So, with regard to tariffs, the situation is that Trump broke the law and made a huge mess and now he doesn't know what to do. When you think of it, that's the history of Donald Trump in a nutshell.

On the plus side, it will make it far easier for Comey, Schiff, and every one to make the case that they are facing political prosecutions, since Trump is advertising.

1067 days until January 20, 2029. www.timeanddate.com/countdown/ge...

Chomsky was a fraud, going back to his defense of the Cambodian genocide. Noam Chomsky, “The cool observers – meaning us smart guys – it’s our task to impose necessary illusions and emotionally potent oversimplifications to keep these poor simpletons on course.” www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact

Wow. h/t @dwallick.bsky.social

Invoking wealthy class solidarity to excuse sex crimes against children is sorta the Epstein Class in a nutshell

That jobs report must be really bad.

“Libertarians are like house cats, they’re convinced of their fierce independence while dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand.” It is mostly a philosophy for people who like to scold others, but cannot be bothered building a damn thing.

I'm not a fan of Rick Wilson. He led the smear campaign against Max Cleland, something that should never be forgiven. But this is correct.

1) My nominee for Nobel Peace Prize: The people of Minnesota. 2) My action-item for people of DC: Keep round-the-clock watch on the Kennedy Center, so Trump's goons don't do to it what they did to the East Wing.

Wasn't the reason "disastrous" become an obligatory attachment to Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan that he wasn't able to get all the Afghans out who had worked with us? Now that Trump is just sending them back, I guess this was just the media's way of trashing Biden in "news" stories.

Trump supporters accuse people who criticize Trump of Trump Derangement Syndrome (I think TDS perfectly describes his supporters, but never mind). But there was also Bush Derangement Syndrome (coined Charles Krauthammer), so the wingnut idea that you can just call your critics crazy goes back aways.

The Epstein files show it's easier to schmooze rich people for donations to get research done than it is to do research.