Three people are dead and 14 others were wounded in a mass shooting early today outside a bar in downtown Austin, Texas. www.statesman.com/news/local/...

This paints a picture of genuinely unprecedented incompetence and incomprehensibility.

On top of all the reporting that this war of aggression was planned well in advance, it seems that the reporting also indicates that the US political leadership are quite literally too stupid to understand basic diplomacy. I mean literally not smart enough.

Oil tanker hit off Oman coast after drones strike Duqm port www.reuters.com/business/ene...

"Who wants Iran bombed off the map? ...the Gulf Arab states, countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. You know, Qatar. The country that just gave Trump a really, really nice $400-milion-dollar plane, for his own use both during his presidency and after?"

Excellent points. I'd also add that there is a pattern emerging here: any targeted regime just has to disperse it's crucial assets, hide & disperse it's leadership and just wait out a period of airstrikes to survive. Purging internal challengers to prevent a Maduro coup scenario is also a lesson.

The Iraq War unleashed unintended consequences. Every war does. This one will. This is not the A-Team or even the B-Team. Wrote this about Venezuela but applies equally to Iran. Pete Hegseth is the key node in the chain of command. Again. 5/5 goodauthority.org/news/trump-m...

...(3) diplomacy in aftermath essential, yet State is gutted, regional ambassadors (who even are they?) not primed to deal with aftermath, will Kushner and Witkoff add this to their rebuilding portfolio? Just asking that question is nuts. 4/

In addition to consequences for Iran/region (huge), what does this mean for US in aftermath? Incomplete list of concerns includes (1) why negotiate with us ever (2) depleted munitions stocks, readiness, yet ongoing threats to Cuba, etc... 3/

This seems thrown together, relying on the military's professionalism. But this is still an inexperienced team with contempt for experts and bureaucrats with experience. It rests on no base of stress-tested assumptions, cost-benefit calcs, plans for after. 2/

A few more thoughts. USFP/natsec usually works from bottom up, even for prez-directed policies. Bureaucrats, mid-levels, political appointees work the problem, then top people bless it. Diplomacy (JCPOA) works like this. Military planning can move faster w/ prior plans, but similar. 1/

A list of news outlets and social media sites whose billionaire owners, investors or parent companies also have U.S. government defense contracts: Axios CBS NBC The Washington Post TikTok YouTube X Soon: CNN

Wow www.courier-journal.com/story/news/l...

People know

Yep. I recall being told that because I opposed the Iraq war I must not know how bad Saddam was. In fact I was on the Turkish/Iraqi border right after part of the Anfal campaign, and saw masses of Iraqi Kurds streaming across saying they had been gassed. I was VERY aware of his awfulness. And yet.

TURNS OUT, TRUMP WILL SEND OUR SONS TO WAR

Shady JD Vance in 2024: " Our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran.  It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country." (H/T Home of the Brave)

This is a history lesson in why the incompetent drunkard and the brain dead pedophile shouldn’t be allowed to replace human judgment with AI.

"It seems like Israel’s regional security doctrine, now backed by the United States, is not just that Israel has the right to defend itself but that only Israel has the right to defend itself in the region," says @mattduss.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

“I Never Thought He Would Ask Me To Build Doombots,” said the contractor who builds robots for Doctor Doom

While the bombs fall on the regime and its opponents alike, Trump and Netanyahu say that they come as liberators. Only they won't be the ones who do the dirty work. Encouraging the IRGC to sit on its hands and receive 'immunity' is the latest tell that the Iranian people's desires are irrelevant.

Trump then issued a presidential memorandum targeting Krebs upon reelection because he refuses to say the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” (it wasn’t)

NEW: Trump launches a "massive" war on Iran—with no apparent plans for what comes next. This is what Bush and Cheney did with Iraq two decades ago. It's deja vu all over again. As the missiles fly, I look back at what that dangerous folly can tell us about this one.

Since we're having Dubai discourse. These people are now divorced and neither live in Dubai anymore lmao

Perfect.

Well, the famous Murc's Law does say that Dems are responsible for all the evil done by Republicans--usually bc Dems weren't nice and forgiving enough to Republicans. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/03/andr...

This aged well. Note the author.

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

Yes

We saw all this coming and were trying to stop all of this from happening. Do you think being nicer to the fascists doing this would've resulted in a different outcome? It would've simply happened faster. People at the Times don't have to live with the consequences of this societal purge.

The level of rage I have towards the New York Times that enabled this while blaming us for it is indescribable.

More statements like this!

Donald Trump does not care about civilians in the region or the safety of US Troops. He’s illegally bypassing Congress and starting a war with Iran that has already killed dozens of children. This is unacceptable. Congress must take action to rein in Trump and save lives.

Oh.

Feb. 28, 1776: Washington sends thanks to Phyllis Wheatley, a young Black writer of Massachusetts who last year had sent him a poem, “To His Excellency, George Washington.” The general writes her: “I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant Lines you enclosed. 1/4

My statement on President Trump’s combat operations in Iran⬇️

This war is dumb and illegal

Then what happened?

Nobody needs this. What kind of deal did you strike? www.boston.com/news/local-n...

JUST IN: A federal judge says the Trump administration has been “terrorizing” refugees — violating the promise America made to them when they fled persecution at home — by locking them up illegally. He blocked the policy for those in MN storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.

Morning Bluesky.

CJ Roberts is corrupt www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/02/keep...

"The most transparent administration in history" just killed yet ANOTHER public data page which helped people see what was going on. The money is flowing by the bucketload, and they're making it harder for you to see where it's going.

The Trump administration has just deleted this photo of Trump Cabinet Secretary Howard Lutnick with Jeffrey Epstein on what appears to be an island.