God grant me the confidence of random MAGA dudes questioning my credentials to comment on military aviation. Note: quals include test pilot, tactics instructor, checked out in ~10 platforms, flew with 2 branches, Commercial IFR, single engine, multi, and rotary in the US and Canada.

My latest at @theatlantic.com : The US basically has 4 options with Iran. None of them are good. www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Oh, the upcoming mobilization is going to be a total **** show.

Women on Russia's military register have been getting enlistment-office summonses in large numbers this summer. Some are even being called up for reserve training, which is illegal. A pregnant woman told Mediazona that draft workers told her that they're sent out "by an AI that doesn’t see gender."

French is probably one of the most anti-Trump conservatives out there, but *his* priority for the future is preserving the anti-trans and anti-abortion legal victories that occurred under Trump. An expanded Court would undo all of that--which is precisely why we must pack the Court.

Leonard Part 6.

Going outside this morning

Classic CFIT disaster: Cat Flung Into Terrain.

It sounds stupid, it is stupid, but its deadly serious because they are trying to blame an impoverished .5% of the population for EVERYTHING, no matter how ridiculous. Very much the same as how Germany blamed .5% of the population for everything, and you know what came next.

We are still feeling the effects of these 3 movies bombing in the early 2000's. Every single "adults/teens won't watch animated movies" or "No one wants to watch a 2D animated movie in theaters" etc. can be traced back to these 3 movies bombing. I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but also not.

"Ukraine producing Patriot missiles would seem like a win for everyone—mostly Ukraine. Not quite." There are other things Ukraine needs more right now. @brynntannehill.bsky.social on Trump's sort-of gift: www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-sor...

gm

My latest at the Bulwark: I'm glad that Ukraine will be allowed to build Patriot, but it won't pay dividends until long after the war is over. www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-sor...

I kind of low key love that they did this AND instituted return to office policies everywhere. Nothing says team morale like hearing your co-workers explosively shart themselves in an in-person meeting where attendance is mandatory.

Kent: Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism, such as graffiti, is down 80%, while heavy sack beatings are up a shocking 900%? Homer: Aw, you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut8o...

NYT in 1932: German Social democrats should triangulate Hitler's positions on Jews to secure the moderate vote because Jews are icky and unpopular.

My latest at The New Republic. AI is a product no one asked for, no one wants, and is being foisted upon us. It (mostly) produced garbage, while making us dumber. I can't wait for the business model to collapse. newrepublic.com/article/2130...

Wrote about the Roberts Court’s highly selective aversion to identifying racism, echoing the logic of the infamous Korematsu decision, which the Roberts Court has both condemned and imitated. Call it Neo-Korematsu doctrine. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

And there it is. JK Rowling personally and publicly offering to bankroll litigation against Amnesty International using her massive wealth.

I think the problem with the Rock is that the Rock still thinks he’s really cool while John Cena realized that he’s a ridiculous human being and did interesting things with that and Batista realized he was a ridiculous human being and decided to become Daniel Day Louis

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.

I mean, there's a good freaking reason why moustache guy and Kaiser Wilhelm II aren't on any German currency today. Or statues. Or libraries. Or streets. Or why no one names their kid "Adolf".

This one. I still suspect that we are in a parallel universe offshoot from "Earth prime", where we branched off the "sacred timeline" after the weasel got fried in the large hadron collider in 2016.

I spoke with my old friend Mitch McConnell for 20 minutes today and he told me that he'd experienced an erection lasting more than four hours, and his physician told him it could be a serious condition called rigor mortis.

one side's voters care about sexual assault and one side's voters don't and while I understand that "impossible to say whether this is good or bad" is the standard for the paper of record I think it's clear which side has the moral high ground here

Real Marty McFly in 1885 vibes here. Also, he sounds just like Pete Hegseth when he talks about getting rid of all the queers, women, non-Christians, and Black people in the military.

Excellent historical analysis. Remind you of anything? (link in comments)

Called it. www.thedailybeast.com/trump-confid...

There's a part in the book "Careless People" where the author beats Zuck at Settlers of Catan, and he is absolutely wrecked by it. Someone pulls her aside to explain everyone else has been letting him win for years. I think about this a lot re: why tech bros think everyone will love AI chatbots.

People who spiral out overusing LLM chatbots are really just experiencing the kind of brain-damaging stream of unconditional validation that’s always been the norm for the hyper-wealthy, which explains a lot.

I wrote about it previously, but Trump sucks at being a dictator (neither loved nor feared by people outside the US, just hated and mocked). Smart dictator move would have been to take ref into ICE custody for "suspicion of crimes while on a visa" related to TCOs. FIFIA is so corrupt it's plausible

"Nothing is written."

This is absolutely miserable and I'm having a wonderful time

McConnell was found unconscious after an apparent heart attack and given CPR. No word is being given on his condition. In my semi-educated opinion: Near 100% chance he's a veggie-pop due to brain damage from loss of oxygen to the brain. www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconn...

"Can't talk, coming down." youtu.be/3h9xW6ZfCX8?...

"The Pope is the puppet of the Chinese authoritatian government" is a take you would make if you made billions by drinking paint.

The anti-vax group formerly led by Robert Kennedy Jr. has been promoting the story of a woman who says vaccines killed her 18-month-old twins. She’s the lead plaintiff in the group’s lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics. Well, now she’s been charged with suffocating the toddlers.

My latest over at Public Notice, thanks to @atrupar.com for letting me guest write again. Democratic leadership needs to read the room, and give their constituents what they want, otherwise their constituents will find someone who does. www.publicnotice.co/p/democratic...

You have to understand that the US government regards transgender people as having negative value when they aren't even willing to use them as involuntary drone catchers in a war. In past wars, the government was willing to use Blacks, Japanese people, Mexicans, foreign nationals as cannon fodder.

Luke Kennard plugs up some of the shooting that Phoenix lost, but not all of it. For @sunsafterdark.bsky.social, I wrote about what makes him such a historically elite sniper, and why I'm still concerned about the Suns' 3-point attack:

‚AI will resolve climate change‘ - reality check.

Excellent post. It's not just children of immigrants, though that's how they start the process of stripping rights from anyone they want to deprive of constitutional protections. Literally the pathway to "Nuremberg Laws", which reduce some people to residents, and not citizens. (i.e. trans folks)

There's only one industry where I foresee AI mostly taking over even senior positions (certain fields involving coding that handles massive amounts of data and requires no creative elements).

There are five realistic possibilities for where the US goes from here, listed in order of likelihood: 1. Republicans use the power they have gained to stay in power forever regardless of how people vote 2. Democrats take the WH, but refuse to use that power to fix the mess left by the GOP

Another reason why AI is not ready for prime time, and certain things shouldn't be handed off to AI. That list is really big. I wouldn't trust it to tell my daughter how to take care of her hamster given the emotional damage it could cause if it ****s up.

In honor of Mel Brooks' birthday, I wrote an article that used a Yiddish word that I hadn't realized was Yiddish until spell check failed to recognize it. (drek) Honestly, Yiddish is my favorite English-donor language.

The U.S. and Iran have reached a deal to return to the deal under which they negotiate a deal, U.S. officials say.