Archduke Franz Ferdinand has entered the chat

This is so good! It's not 15000 words just to say "prices shouldn't go up bc the market can't bear it". (Although he does also cover that!) Even though it's been 20 years since I was in the industry, plus ça change. There's so much in this article that I recognise. Doc knows what he's talking about.

Trump was raised in a family that disparaged military service. He thinks people “dumb” enough to serve have what’s coming to them. Remember what he told the widow of the soldier who was killed in Niger: “he knew what he signed up for” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017....

There’s a pretty robust case to make that the Iran Hostage crisis of 1979, the revolution itself, and the policies of the Iranian government towards the US since, was all blowback from the CIA’s decision to overthrow Mossadegh in 1953. www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/p...

If you claim thousands of Americans were killed, you should be able to say where. Dodging a basic question isn’t “good faith” — it’s avoiding accountability.

AYMAN: Can you tell me where Iran killed thousands of Americans in America? ANNA PAULINA LUNA: I said they are responsible for thousands of Americans being killed AYMAN: Where? LUNA: Are you serious right now? AYMAN: It seems like you don't want to have a good faith conversation

I mean, she never answered. where has iran killed thousands of americans? what is she talking about?

Cool hey did anything happen *before* 1979 between the United States and Iran

Jayme Lawson on the BAFTA debacle. “That man’s disability got exploited that night, and it led to MULTIPLE offences. That’s the BAFTA’s fault… you censored one Black man and failed to protect two others.” Perfectly stated! 🎯

Btw I missed it because Life Stuff but Thursday marked the five year anniversary of my channel and my first solo video essay. Thank you all for sticking with me for so long 💙

Seen in Minneapolis

Massive Israeli airstrikes on southern Beirut right now

No land gains. No meaningful military degradation. Just the Maduro playbook cranked to 11 and ending in murder instead of a kidnap If anything; it just shows that they know they're fucked long term and are throwing a hail mary on hopes that 'Democracy Activates' like they thought it would in Iraq

The whole 'Epic Fury' op coming on the heels of a year of burning every single accumulated asset in the region built over decades Just feels like the last gasp of an Empire trying to flip as much of the board before they're forced, even by allies, to back away from the table They know they've lost

the reason they haven't shared a justification or a strategy is because there *is* no justification or strategy, but i guess it's kind of noteworthy that even an outlet like politico is starting to be like, "you really can't give us *anything* to run with here?"

this isn't really the huge font headline you want to see when you're launching a war of choice that you can't explain to your allies in congress

If you find yourself so obsessed with insulting trans people that you can't go to jurisdictions where doing that can have actual monetary consequences, maybe ask yourself what the hell is wrong with you.

War! War! It’s the Department of War! Don’t be so afraid to say war, you beta cucks! Is this a war? No.

I pretty much can’t watch cable news anymore even in clip form.

If blowback doesn't happen within 15 minutes, no blowback will ever happen

I swear these people don't have object permanence

This doesn't even rise to the level of ahistorical, there was a retaliatory terrorist attack this morning

The bad guys were shooting back

ANNA PAULINA LUNA: It is not the intention of the US government to invade RAMPELL: Did we not just invade? LUNA: Are you seeing boots on the ground there? RAMPELL: We just killed the leader of the country! The president has called it a war LUNA: Strategic strikes are not war JORDAN: Really?

The question that very easily blows up all this double-talk is: “Would it be an act of war if another country did this to us?” Because OF COURSE it would.

The pro Pahlavi propaganda firing on all cylinders.

Let’s not forget how Papa Pahlavi, with help from the CIA and MI5, eventually got us into the whole Ayatollah mess (as well as killed off democracy). But, ah yes, he also ushered in decades of flourishing corruption.

Even less appreciated is the fact that Grandpa Pahlavi was an out-and-out Nazi who allied with Hitler until he got overthrown during WWII by the Soviets and the Brits

Today, US & Israeli forces bombed the Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Iran’s capital of Tehran. Nurses supposedly risked their lives carrying newborns to safety from the rubble. I’m having trouble finding more reporting about this, but here is at least a blurb from Reuters:

a lot of people really do not understand the extent of the full court press they put on to sell Iraq

for reference, 73% of americans supported the war in iraq in 2003 — two years after 9/11 and two years of the bush administration making the case for it. this will be different, iran's in much worse shape to begin with, but it's starting wildly unpopular and will only get worse with consequences

Israel loves two things: bombing schools and bombing hospitals

Happy Lunar New Year, friends! Thank you for celebrating with our community, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and @bradlander.bsky.social

This time they're not even bothering with lying like that. "we want to bomb people so we are. What are you gonna do about it."

They were going on cable news where they would show breathless hosts detailed graphics of a WMD program that did not exist. And then, after finding no evidence, Rumsfield would announce that he knew the stuff had been moved to this *other* location.

Two decades ago they were going on camera constantly and talking about centrifuges, giving press conferences showing grainy satellite photos of buildings they claimed contained various specific components of weapons of mass destruction, etc.

Like he's not even bothering to pretend there is a justification other than a toddler's scream of I WANT

Host: Are you saying the US did not see intelligence that the Supreme Leader had ordered weaponization? Rubio: That’s irrelevant Host: No, that's a key point Rubio: No it’s not… Forget about intelligence

GW had Colin Powell lie to everyone waving around that lil vial in the UN in order to commit his war crimes, trump doesn't even give enough of a fuck to attempt selling his war like that.

Platner is running a campaign organized around the idea that he can talk to extremely racist working class white people on their terms and working class POC on their terms and everyone in between and not have that play and actually be like he’s empowering the racists and I just think it doesn’t work

A lot of dunking on Klein (in ways that I think go way too far) for this post and I agree that Platner’s Nazi stuff has to be acknowledged. I also see why he’s confusing in a way because he’s been vocal about supporting Maine’s POC. He thinks he can maintain a tent that big. He can’t.

Graham Platner, the guy who had to cover his Nazi tattoo to save his senate campaign in Maine, went on the YouTube channel “Valhalla VFT” in January where he said he’s a “longtime fan of the show.” Check out these vile racist thumbnails from the channel & reporting on the antisemitic host.

the absolute best you can do in defense of this guy is to claim that he has no idea what's going on in this country and no desire to change that. as political pitches go there are better ones

"A man free of patriarchy is a man who has found not only every woman's humanity, but one who has at last discovered his own. The actual path to liberation for lonely men is feminism—because pursuing an identity based on dominating others is self-isolating." www.the-reframe.com/fix-your-hea...

And they have. It is organizing that has been done, impressively, in the past. These are not hypotheticals, there is a playbook that has been tested.

It's not theoretical, that organizing has happened. They have more popular credibility than almost anyone when it comes to calling a war an unjust death trap. They can speak to their communities in a way the rest of us can't.