because initially this will look like some great triumph for the President and a refutation of all of his critics. That is a large part of why he likes doing things in the first place. He's stymied at home, and using US military might to beat up on weak, isolated dictatorships is an easy source

why is this so funny to me

In a nation awash with guns, all we do is kill school kids

... and that, in turn, is distinct from the one-dollar coins that are likely to be produced with Trump's face on them. bsky.app/profile/adam...

This is separate from the Trump gold coin that is likely to be minted, which its proponents want to make abnormally large (I believe psychologists call that "compensation"). www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

When you get an egomaniac who doesn't give a shit about democratic norms and give him a staff of toadies who venerate him, you get garbage like this. (It's a good time to shift to paying for everything digitally...) www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...

A chilling story leading the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning this morning. ICE agents followed, Minnesota democratic lawmakers who had been critical of ICE in the state, stopping multiple times to take pictures of their houses. This is what a police state does.

Stunning photo: James Bradford in 1961, arrested for reading in the Jackson, Mississippi public library.

thought Robin Leach was gonna be the worst dead celebrity this year, but Bob Barker is edging up (from hell, apparently)

Iran has two choices, continue to profit from higher oil prices while making the US President look bad for supporting Netanyahu in yet another stupid war they could stop fighting at any time. OR The same as above but while mocking them with memes.

probably the most depressing thing I’ll read this week

NEW: When asked by a reporter why he chose to vote by mail in Florida’s recent special election, Trump — who’s been relentlessly attacking the voting method as a vehicle for election fraud — simply said: “I’m the president of the United States.”

“Are those ten ships in the room with us now?”

It’s so pretty! I want to pet it.

Woman in Cambridge, MD hired some contractors and then called ICE on them just before they finished so she wouldn't have to pay them the $10k she owes them. She even provides ICE a ladder to help them get the contractors.

Operation Final Offer

This reminds me of when you travel in a developing country and they have different rates for locals and foreigners. Feels like a sign of severe economic decline. Also, let's be real here. We basically nicked all this shit. The least we can do is let them see it for free.

Interior with a Table Bell, 1921 by English painter Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), sister of writer Virginia Woolf #womensart

'New Day Dawning' by UK printmaker Gail Brodholt #WomensArt

Mitjili Napurrula is an Indigenous Australian painter from the Northern Territories #WomensArt

Always about the ”ratings” with Trump. The “optics”. All of which are very bad regarding this war (and everything else, really). But if people could just see the glorious death and destruction they’d know Trump is a war hero. The sociopathy and narcissism are on fleek

I am getting more and more convinced that they're going to launch the biggest and stupidest special ops operation of all time.

Sometimes two scoops is not enough for a special boy.

Exactly. Been trying to tell people tesla stock is a ponzi scheme, black rock and vanguard are using other people's money to prop it up. Now it's data centers in orbit and factories on the moon, neither of which are real things. No one cares how beyond fucked that is.

The problem with massive insider-trading like we're seeing is that it taints much more than specific holdings—eventually it contaminates the entire market. The only solution is long prison sentences.

CLAWHAMR

We invaded Venezuela, kidnapped their leader and installed a puppet, and are now pillaging the country's resources just like the fascists in the 1930s did, and somehow this has already been normalized and isn't being treated as the crime it is

To claim that things are chaotic at airports "despite" completely useless ICE agents getting in the way is so disingenuous of CNN.

no idea where he is. "is this Melania's bedroom?"

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Ali Solomon.

Oh man. Capital Hill freakshows are going to war against Thune/Senate plan to pass Potemkin "SAVE" act through reconciliation. Good times. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/not-s...

Imagine if we could see visible changes to his face when he lies? It would be like staring into a kaleidoscope.

The E Street Band is coming your way!

Bret Devereaux has a good post up on the US/Iran war I agree with.

The image showcases the serene Sakuranosato Park in Mie Prefecture, Japan, where vibrant cherry blossoms lean over the tranquil Miyagawa River. This scenic location is celebrated by photographers for the perfect "V-shaped" reflection of the pink blooms against the surrounding evergreen mountains.

I'm really fascinated by this sort of pseudo-journalism corporate America now churns out that pretends to be useful and informative, but generally exists as a sort of simulacrum, comically avoiding central parts of stories that might threaten billionaire or corporate power

it's so weird living in a country being devoured by corporate greed and artifice where everything is made out of thin, damp paper mache then slathered with gold spray paint

also many of the competing games are on ESPN (cable) and not broadcast, making them exempt from broadcast public interest obligations, which doesn't even matter because the EO isn't enforceable anyway and the president is insane none of which is mentioned by "news" outlets

don't say I never did nothin' for ya: here's a free link www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

One of my operative paradigms for interpreting this administration is, precisely, as elder abuse. In much the same sense as you would analyze a malicious trustee robbing a doddering billionaire blind, you can imagine the sovereign power is held but not exercised by the person occupying the office.

the entire unipolar world, like the anti-Soviet sphere before it, is built on the ability of America to project power to any point on the map in defense of trade and global capitalism this is a century-ending kind of development, should it come off

From the same Politico article

the unitary executive!

until you understand that stability in the region is guaranteed by the powerful hand of our armed forces. Stability comes through strength," Zolfaghari said. He added that "someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever".

Ebrahim Zolfaghari has said in a video message published by Iranian outlets today that "has the level of your internal conflict reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?" "You will see neither your investments in the region nor the former prices of energy and oil again,

The spokesman for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the country's main military command (without mentioning the US and Trump’s name) has talked about "the self-proclaimed global superpower" - saying "do not call your defeat an agreement".

this btw is kind of what drives me nuts with markets reacting with cautious optimism to this or that statement

Ruth Hallensleben - Along the Bodensee at Mainau, Germany, 1961

English textile designer William Morris was born #OTD (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896). “Strawberry Thief” William Morris for Merton Abbey Works Design registered 1883, printed 1917-23 Cotton, indigo discharged & block-printed Metropolitan Museum of Art display #BirdsInArt

Gas prices shooting up at the same time as airport security lines are having hours-long backlogs feels like an economics textbook question where you're supposed to figure out what's the new tipping point distance for people deciding whether to drive or fly.