Splashdown. Back on Earth.

Smart politically because a lot of people are skeptical of Israel not because their heart bleeds for the Palestinians, but because they don't like the US being deferential to Israel. And after Biden + Trump it's seen as a bipartisan establishment failing.

The right is really trying to turn "right to exist as a Jewish state" into a new litmus test, and it very clearly does not have The Juice. Won't stop Shapiro from riding it straight to a 4th place NH finish and permanent slot on Bill Maher.

Also, if Trump ran for the Democratic nomination back in 2016, he wouldn't have gotten anywhere, he would have just been a laughingstock. So even saying "if Trump was a Democrat" is trying to smuggle in a faulty premise.

The war to do regime change turned into the war to open the Strait of Hormuz, and is now changing again into the war to free the "hostages"

I get the sense that Ellison's main issue with police misconduct (which on the surface of this video he's most concerned about) is that he has grand plans for control of the population, and a rogue cop gratuitously beating someone up is unnecessary and counter-productive to that vision.

this is the chaplain btw. wonder why he was fired.

Bluesky, where I'm unequivocally in the target demographic

Also, when Israel has more "defensive capabilities" they become more aggressive with their neighbors, who then retaliate against the US.

I wonder why people in Lebanon hate Israel, must be anti-Semitism

Higher synthesis: Hegseth probably doesn't realize the exact definition of "no quarter" but thinks it sounds cool for the same reasons he thinks war crimes are cool, if you told him the definition, he'd react with "yeah sounds about right".

Kind of a tangent, but during the 2008 campaign McCain (and Hillary!) proposed a federal gas tax holiday and conventional wisdom was that Obama would have to support it because to oppose it would be political suicide. Then he opposed it and ... it was fine.

Any democratic campaign official who posted these things would rightly be unceremoniously fired. The same standard should apply here. If he doesn't want to because it's his wife, well ... dunno what to tell you, don't make your wife your campaign manager.

Media: "Senator, isn't it true that your political opponents fucked up in the following ways [lists a bunch of stuff] and therefore people should vote for your party?" Fetterman: "What? I mean, no, huh, that's ... I'm saying, this ... any other questions?"

With this rhetoric, I always sense a bit of a guilty conscience. The reason criticism of Trump is an attack on his supporters, unlike criticism of other presidents, is because Trump, unlike those other presidents, is obviously unqualified and unfit to be president.

Seems to me like the "obscuration" here is one reason pro-Palestinian sentiment has gone up after 10/7 and the war with Gaza. The pro-Israel position often depended on misdirection re intentions in the WB/Gaza and people not paying too close attention.

It's the opposite of what Biden did. Big moves on immigration, a couple of big spending bills ... and Merrick Garland as AG. Zero attempt to reform pardons, which polls at like +30, or to protect civil servants from purges, and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into investigating trump.

Dems have this weird tendency to adopt framing that makes it sound like Trump *wants* to do good things and is just distracted or something. "Failed to deliver"

IMO the response here is that to buy a beer, they just want a name and DOB. Nobody cares if your name or address has changed or there's mismatch with other records. Showing ID to buy a beer would be a lot harder if the store was looking at government databases to find a reason to reject you.

Suspect they got an anti-drone laser in order to hide what they're doing.

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win. h/t @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

FYI Translation of this is "Oops! Google Translate did not respond: please try again!"

Nobody actually disagrees about the fact that Israel is an apartheid state, we're just arguing about whether that's good or not.

This is like the fucked-up-2026-timeline version of Cronkite denouncing the Vietnam War. As a Republican if you've lost the live pro wrestling audience you've lost America.

A lot of people who said "Je suis Milo" are going to be weirdly silent about this one.

You go to war with the martyrs you have. This is now a pro-Don Lemon propaganda account and he is to be considered an unstoppable ubermensch until such time he is once again a free moron. May death come swiftly to his enemies.

Thing is, we said this repeatedly, then Iranians protested in reliance on that promise, then we did nothing when they were massacred. It's too late now!

Looks like someone wearing one of those masks from Mission Impossible

BTW by this barometer, the murder of Alex Pretti is having an even bigger impact than the murder of Renee Good.

I actually do worry that a Republican could punish blue states and gain a political advantage. E.g. quietly undercutting federal funding to stall their economy, to give Republicans a leg up in local races. But sending ICE in explicitly in retaliation will probably have the opposite effect.

This something I want people to understand. If you don’t get their names, they’re just gone. There’s no arrest record and the snatch-and-grabs can last seconds. People simply disappear and we can’t find out who they are or what happened to them.

This also strikes me as another "we agree to do what we were already doing" but to the extent it's more than that, it's incumbent on the Dems next time they hold power to unilaterally renounce all sovereignty gained in this deal.

me again

Just to say it - any gift the president accepts automatically becomes property of the United States. If he tries to take it with him we send the FBI to take it back.

IMO key fact to understanding Trump's worldview.

On this and on the Powell indictment, Tillis is leaning hard into the "Trump's advisors" thing even though these are clearly Trump pet projects. Annoying, but this is a huge departure from 2018-2020 & 2023-2025 when Republicans who insufficiently praised Trump were drummed out of the party.

Dems' statements are worse than your parody, because they usually imply that Trump does in fact care about economic issues and is capable of fixing them and just happens to be distracted at the moment.

Yeah I noticed this "implied compliment of Trump" problem a few days ago. bsky.app/profile/russ...

To add to this ... I think that many people who claim that she was a domestic terrorist, will say the same about us. Some people will say that this shows people can look at the same facts and come to opposite conclusions and we need more dialogue. That's incorrect. We're right and they're lying.

Much like with ICE, in 2029 and possibly a lot sooner "ban Twitter" is going to be the moderate view.

Between this and the video evidence/eyewitnesses, seems like you could have a state prosecution even without FBI cooperation.

Think it's possible to have a model of political sentiment around inflation where people are upset about it, but where they aren't *homo economicus* either. The sentiment isn't "this is blowing up my budgeting spreadsheet" but "in my day a steak cost a nickel" www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkQ8...

Where I disagree with Yglesias thought: * Just because immigration isn't the *best*-polling issue doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it * Some issues are naturally more salient than others * National party figures and moderate candidates don't have to talk about the same things

Separately from bothering me as an American, this bothers me as a Jew; that they are sullying a religious event (even something kitschy for a minor holiday) with, not only political BS, but real bottom-feeder political BS.

The plus side is that under a future Dem administration, having one of these is basically an admission of guilt. We should spread the message now - anyone who buys one of these will be prosecuted for a felony in the future.

Checked this just now and it's still like this.

People who are pro-capitalist and anti-socialist because of incentives to work hard should maybe consider the effect of so many people getting rich unethically, in the government and in Silicon Valley. Why should I aspire to a rewarding career contributing to society, and not to insider trading?

3 Americans reportedly killed and 3 more injured by an ISIS attack in Syria (1 civilian among the dead, the other 5 military personnel). You may remember Syria as one of those US forever wars that peace president Donald Trump ended, and ISIS a terrorist group that Trump declared totally destroyed.

Feels like we're at a turning point. Republicans have spent a decade terrified they'd be drummed out of politics for mild criticism of Trump; now more and more of them are out in the open with it. By 2026, average swingish district R will be full-on sprinting away from Trump.