checkmate, fellow terrorists

“sTiCk tO MaTtErS oF MoRaLiTy” Bitch, he’s doing just that by calling y’all immoral.

We’ve gone from “I don’t care if they reopen the Strait” to “we’ll destroy your civilization if you don’t reopen the strait” to “well if THEY don’t reopen the strait then WE are going to blockade it ourselves.” What an extraordinarily embarrassing moment for this country.

🧵Ieri Melania Trump ha tenuto improvvisamente un breve discorso alla Casa Bianca (in inglese, letto male). Ha detto che le voci su di lei ed Epstein dovevano immediatamente fermarsi. Che era tutto falso, solo infami bugie che attentano alla sua reputazione (vabbè). 1/13

Trump fucked up his war so bad he’s trying to change the subject back to Epstein.

TRUMP: “Do everything I ask or I’ll bomb you back into the Stone Age!” IRAN: “How about, instead, you do everything we ask and we’ll call it a day?” TRUMP: “Deal.” FOX NEWS: “Awesome Trump is the world’s most masterful negotiator!”

for those of you keeping score at home, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz lasted 0.045 scaramuccis

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

Paying someone billions they didn't previously earn so they let you stop attacking them is a chapter I missed in "Art of the Deal".

What have USA become?

Obama was able to sign a restrictive nuclear deal with Iran without the threatening mass civilian casualties. Just a note.

A Reddit user has meticulously kept a diary of Trump’s daily victory claims. It should form part of every historical archive on the planet. Brace yourself, here goes 🧵👇

I keep coming back to the basic thesis of prospect theory: those in the domain of losses — which Trump and his minions currently are — become increasingly risk-seeking

This is just further proof that women are too emotional for high office.

Just to focus in on mental stability. Trump has oscillated btw strait doesn’t matter to I’ll annihilate your country if you don’t open it maybe three times in the last ten days. Has also repeatedly given war crimes deadlines which he then “postpones” based on encouraging talks which never happened.

If the war were going well, the Administration would not be attempting to censor coverage of its progress. We don't need to see the satellite images; it's enough to know that the Administration doesn't want us to see them.

Anyone watching that speech has no idea whether Trump is escalating or deescalating the war with Iran. But to be fair, neither does he so🤷‍♂️.

Trump offers the world a toxic TACO. www.thedailybeast.com/how-trump-ju...

Il governo israeliano segue una pericolosa strategia per il dominio della regione, alimentata dal fanatismo religioso e da calcoli economici azzardati. Leggi l'articolo di Ilan Pappé.

“Trump’s Benny Hill routine” 😀 open.substack.com/pub/chadbour... (and a confirmation side note: you don’t need to be a Clausewitz to know the side promoting a ceasefire isn’t usually the winning one)

“And remember, the entire U.S. focus at the moment seems to be ending a problem (blockage of the Strait of Hormuz) that didn’t exist when the U.S. launched its war” talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-n...

A campaign can look overwhelming from the outside, but the endgame is rarely so clear. The deeper story is still unfolding.

Translation: No one is willing to bail me out of the war I started without consulting anyone.

Hey everyone remember this tweet from a week ago? Tell me again how this is going exactly as planned?

Trump’s failure to secure the Strait of Hormuz and his plea for help are yet another example of ‘Make America Look Stupid Again’. Neither the US nor Israel has the naval capabilities to ensure the world’s oil supply. Without consulting anyone, they broke it, and are now relying on others to fix it.

This moment from Feb 2025 may go down as one of the most prescient exchanges in modern diplomatic history. Zelenskyy warned Trump that while the United States may feel protected by an ocean today, a time could come when America would need help in war. Trump scolded him instead.

New in PN: Trump’s military excursion, into an abyss "The evident fact is that the president is completely nuts, and that he’s 'governing' the country — and has now taken the US to war — based on his impulses alone, without even the pretense of a strategy or goal."

Trump: “I THINK THE IRAN WAR IS PRETTY MUCH COMPLETE." Wild how rising gas prices change the mind so quickly.

Cosmically, there is something very darkly funny about spending an entire decade of American politics obsessed with repudiating the mistakes of the Iraq War, and then immediately doing it again at the first opportunity, but with even less justification, planning, strategy, or foresight.

If we examine the origins of the war on Iran, we get an inkling of a closed domain of international oligarchs, exploiting the state’s power and patriotic sentiment, while creating a world order in which the American state is much weaker. An oligarchical corridor. snyder.substack.com/p/the-oligar...

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

So operation "epic fury" is a "major combat operation" but is too limited in scope to be called a war, and a "special military operation" is not an invasion but a retreat during it is a "goodwill gesture". The post truth age has become the post satire era.

Trump said he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. He had no plan. Trump said he could deliver better and cheaper healthcare. He had no plan. Trump said he he would rebuild US infrastructure. He had no plan. Trump has no plan for Iran. Just blow shit up, kill some people, and see what happens.

When there are no consequences for the last bad thing, you'll get a next worse thing.

The language of a rapist.

@analiticamente.bsky.social sarei curioso di sapere la tua sui tamburi di guerra sempre più forti (quantomeno secondo gli account d’oltreoceano) con l’Iran

To recap in light of breaking news out of the UK: The French found a way to prosecute former presidents. The South Koreans did the same. Our British cousins now literally are prosecuting members of the Royal Family. But U.S. presidents remain above the law.

European countries are going to have to recognize the reality that over the next 3 years the US govt is going to operate like Russia - engaging in systematic efforts to tamper in their elections to elect far-right parties & candidates. It will be worse if Vance becomes president.

Auctioning off 13 year-old girls to rapists at Mar-a-Lago seems like it’s going to be a tough story to bury without dropping a few bombs this weekend.

The tragedy of American power isn’t that it’s declining. It’s that it’s increasingly unserious.

They have the impulse control and emotional regulation of five-year-olds and they're executing people on our streets.

The TACO cycle: Markets want to price in TACO. But TACO only works if Trump sees stocks tank. So we get a loop: Trump does things → nothing happens (markets already priced in TACO) → that emboldens him to do more → until markets start to think he might not TACO → stocks fall → TACO is restored.

“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945

Denmark could annex Minnesota.

The Strongman Fantasy (text and audio) open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders

Typically when the US embarks on an illegal or dubiously legal regime change we use noble words about democracy, rule of law, spreading freedom, etc. to justify our actions. Trump has not done that. He offers few noble words as eulogistic covering. It's a crass power & oil grab, according to Trump.

What did those guys standing alongside Trump remind of you of yesterday? I had some thoughts... open.substack.com/pub/davidrot...

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war