New: Virality, and vengeance open.substack.com/pub/diplomat...

Rattled by recent events, administration tries to reassert state monopoly on assassinations.

🚨SCOOP: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to President Trump last Tuesday morning and informed him that Israel planned to attack Hamas leaders in Qatar before the strike took place, three Israeli officials say. My story on @axios.com www.axios.com/2025/09/15/t...

Tofu is my enemy. That is all.

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Good thread. Need an opposition party and need it now. In its absence, we have to step up.

My Mom is 91. Everytime we get her a COVID vaccine we go through the hell that is the CVS website. I am particularly fond of filling out all the forms only to find no appointments are available for the day you choose then having to start all over to book for a different day.

I’m aware of at least one other unclassified WPR report that failed to specify the entity targeted by the U.S. But in that case the info was deemed diplomatically sensitive and reported via classified annex. Unlike here where U.S. appears to have bombed some random unidentified dudes in a boat.

Circling back to last week's War Powers report on the Caribbean strike. Want to emphasize how unusual it is for the White House *not to identify the entity attacked by the US military* in one of these notifications. Raises the question as to whether the administration actually knows who it bombed.

A lot of mass shooters also traffic in this extreme-online slop. Sometimes their “radicalization” is to something that might map on to what poli-sci majors study but often not really. It’s why the hunt for a “motive” is often leads mostly except to anger, aggrievement, alienation, narcissism.

The CVS website is just an abomination. I pity older and sick people who would have to deal with it.

Governor Katie Hobbs signed an Executive Order expanding access to COVID vaccines in Arizona. It makes it possible for people to get the COVID vaccine without needing a prior prescription and directs insurers to cover the vaccine.

Same here. Long story short. I left Hawai`i in Jan of 2022 with only a carry-on, passport, and credit card. A year later, after Washington, Rome, Florence, Sicily, Bali, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Phnom Penh, I ended up in here New Mexico. Still with just the one carry-on. Safe travels.

With me it’s the packing and the OCD that comes with leaving town. Like am I sure I turned off the coffee pot.

At least I would have a cat stake out their place in the luggage. They could not come. We were both sad.

I wish she would do it for me

Russia calls this "escalation" on Poland's part.🙄

Yuck. Put everything you'd like to take on the bed. Put half of it back - you won't need it (the golden rule). Get what you can in a small rucksack, prioritising toothbrush, underwear, phone charger, and passport. Put the rest back. Leave the house. Takes 15 minutes to pack for a one month trip.

Packing? Root canal?

"I generally set aside an hour for packing." lol.

This is the biggest story in America right now. Coffee up 20.9% year-over-year Steaks up 16.6% Apples up 9.6% Bananas, 6.6%. www.axios.com/2025/09/11/t...

honestly, this will never be me www.ft.com/content/182b...

To understand the enormous significance of the grave line the U.S. military crossed with the strike on the alleged Venezuelan drug boat A must-read, brilliant and careful analysis by @martylederman.bsky.social Article II, UCMJ, international and domestic law.

Trump WH shaken by Israel strikes on Hamas in Doha open.substack.com/pub/diplomat...

my schedule today makes me want to crawl back to bed

In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and *Prevention* (at least until the fascists change the name) highlighted the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. Trump's people are undermining ~all~ ~of~ ~them~. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview...

Trump tells a reporter who asks him about going to war with American cities to “be quiet” and “listen”

Of a piece with the lawless use of the US military to kill people in the Caribbean. Misuse of the US military at home and abroad.

tl;dr: Trump to Invade Venezuela

THE MAN WHO TAUGHT HOLLYWOOD HOW TO DRESS Giorgio Armani, who died yesterday at 91, made the red carpet a fashion show. By Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

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NEW 🧵The White House has now issued its first formal legal justification for the lethal attack on a vessel in the Caribbean. This War Powers report to Congress is long on bluster and short on substance. This letter does not adequately justify the premeditated killing of apparent civilians. 1/n

Good analysis of the lethal strike on the vessel in the Caribbean from a former naval line officer and JAG who participated Navy-Coast Guard counterdrug operations. www.justsecurity.org/119985/label...

As the author of this piece, I too find it perplexing.

It’s like people forgot “president of peace” Trump tried to overthrow Maduro in 2019.

It was worth it for this. (I was also team “speed it up a notch,” learning so much tonight)

Trump to declare “Department of War” as his peace efforts falter, and his health questioned open.substack.com/pub/diplomat...

You know that boat the administration blew up? A former law enforcement official told the NYT the boat seemed to be carrying not drugs but *’migrants * www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

The spectacle is the policy.

"And you may ask yourself: Well...how did I get here?"

WHY ARE WE INVADING OUR OWN CITIES

The great @sifill.bsky.social shreds the media for falling for Trump's narratives -- in this case, that these occupations have anything to do with crime. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

I know, I know, but: The president of the US saying, literally, "we're going in" in reference to sending the military to an American city for no reason beyond terrorizing the local population should be the most immediately impeachable shit imaginable

Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security in which she’ll help oversee election security.

Arguing over hunger in Gaza ‘kind of obscene,’ UNICEF official says flip.it/n4EY5c

I've been wondering how long it would take for these cases to start falling apart www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/u...

This sorry state of affairs is of course bad for American democracy but it's also dangerous for US national security.

BREAKING: Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Don’t like the considered assessment of seasoned intelligence professionals? You can just decapitate the agencies that tell you things you don’t want to hear.

UN-backed group declares Gaza City is experiencing famine—affecting and famine will further spread into nearby Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in September. "Famine is a race against time," its report reads. Full Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report: www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/us...