Tremendously important article by @johnsipher.bsky.social in The Bulwark. The damage that Trump is doing to the US IC is deeper and more profound than you might understand. He is changing its very structure. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-d...

Since Liberation Day, a year ago today: * US foreign direct investment is lower * US factories employ 89,000 fewer people * US goods trade deficit is UP 2% @npr.org www.npr.org/2026/04/02/n...

"i have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working." The Astronauts truly representing us all up there.

The most wholesome April fool joke

Russia's deeping fear that its own people might receive independent information reveals how brittle their system is. Russia goes after VPNs as 'great crackdown' gathers pace | Reuters share.google/ka8Dm3ZMcROL...

It's a relief that the Supreme Court appeared so skeptical of Trump's arguments on birthright citizenship. But it's still a scandal that the case got this far to begin with.

⚡️Russia is using Starlink terminals on shadow fleet tankers to dodge sanctions and fund its war in Ukraine.

"the biggest winner may be...John Roberts, whose unpopular court would be able to boast that it reaffirmed the promise of birthright citizenship, accruing legitimacy to an institution that has under his leadership wielded its power to erode American democracy." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Just the dumbest mother fuckers. Kash wants to offer a US visa to a Chinese intel operative in exchange for damaging info on a sitting US rep. This is *inviting* Chinese info ops and interference in the US.

Right, like when one country in the alliance threatens to invade another country in the alliance.

Hungary’s election is next week. I wrote about what techniques Orban and Putin are using to assure Orban’s win and how they will serve as a template for Trump.

This. The court may even pair the release of the ruling in favor of birthright citizenship with the one gutting the Voting Rights Act, and the usual suspects will proclaim it’s a sign of moderation

My new one @slate.com on Trump's new mail balloting executive order: Sometimes it's the chaos, not the cruelty, that's the point. slate.com/news-and-pol...

A history of the top marginal tax rates on the wealthiest Americans: 1940: 81% 1950: 84% 1960: 91% 1970: 72% 1980: 70% 1990: 28% 2000: 40% 2010: 35% For 50 years, corporate backed politicians in Congress have slashed taxes to line the pockets of their wealthy donors.

Really unusual. - NYT & BBC: US military struck sports hall/school in Lamerd, Iran with a new weapon never before used in war (the PrSM) - DoD: denies any US strike in Lamerd and claims video "does not show" that weapon - Then great @bellingcat.com's Trevor Ball refutes DoD claim about the video

God it would be so funny if he's excommunicated right after this comes out.

Just the dumbest motherfuckers

Just the dumbest mother fuckers. Kash wants to offer a US visa to a Chinese intel operative in exchange for damaging info on a sitting US rep. This is *inviting* Chinese info ops and interference in the US.

A minute apart

Hungary’s election is next week. I wrote about what techniques Orban and Putin are using to assure Orban’s win and how they will serve as a template for Trump.

With the help of Russia

What America giveth, Ukraine taketh away

BREAKING Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to stop funding NPR and PBS is “unlawful and unenforceable,” a federal judge ruled. Doc buff.ly/WcnQN4A

Russia funds its war with oil revenue. Last week that revenue dropped by over $1 billion after Ukrainian drones hit Primorsk and Ust-Luga. Primorsk: 4 tankers loaded instead of 10. Ust-Luga: 2 tankers instead of 8. Baltic shipments are now at their lowest since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

One of the lessons from Vietnam is that when they start bombarding you with numbers like these -- ordinance used, targets struck, so many killed and wounded -- there's more we're not being told.

That's how the Warsaw pact worked anyway.

".. shipping analysts on Monday called into question the US president’s claims, pointing out that the number of vessels seemed implausibly high .. ".. There are only 13 large ocean-going Pakistan-flagged vessels in the world .." @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/a963...

Right, like when one country in the alliance threatens to invade another country in the alliance.

Worth noting that Donald Trump just announced the end of NATO and the Special Relationship in one tweet.

When Bondi took over, the DOJ declined to prosecute a staggering 23,000 criminal cases, including those stemming from yearslong investigations into charges of terrorism, white collar crime and drugs. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

This is why we have allies and don't fuck them over. @general-ben.bsky.social and I wrote about the importance of allies and the US maintaining a presence abroad. It's not charity, it's for our own national security. www.thecipherbrief.com/column_artic...

“I’m always at your service”: leaked calls between the foreign ministers of Russia and Hungary. Recordings of conversations between Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó suggest the Hungarian minister was willing to advance Moscow’s interests within the EU.

That the Strait of Hormuz should remain free and open to international shipping, apparently

An unflattering photo of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been removed from circulation after press agencies were “made aware” that the White House disapproved.

OTD in 2022 the Bucha massacre. How my trolls reacted(ed).. 1. It never happened. 2. They were all Nazis so deserved what didn't happen 3. They were crisis actors 4. What didn't happen to all the Nazis who deserved it/crisis actors who pretended was on the site of a biolab. 5. Now do Gaza. Repeat.

If this is where the US ends up, the Trump administration is waving the white flag. Nothing about Iranian nukes, nothing about keeping the Strait open and free, nothing about regime change. A strategic waste and failure of historic proportions.

Ukrainian drones again struck Russia’s Ust-Luga oil terminal overnight. The first recent strike on Ust-Luga occurred overnight on 25 March, followed by further attacks that all caused fires at the facility. 📷 Supernova+

"Hello Sergey!" A consortium of investigative outlets obtained transcripts and audio of calls between Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó, Sergey Lavrov, and other Russian officials, showing how Hungary—and Slovakia—secretly act on the Kremlin’s behalf.

This is quickly becoming the funniest surrender in recorded history. “OK, we’ll leave having not accomplished the mission we never decided on in the first place, but before we do, we’re giving you a stronger hold on a key oil shipping route. Do not make us give you more, cause we’ll do it!!!”

This is called “strategic defeat.” You have ended up in a worse position than before you began, with your adversary, while battered, emerging in a stronger position than before.

“I love the smell of petroleum products in the morning”, to paraphrase Col. Kilgore.

The Trump administration is moving to cut a Treasury office that helps flag financial risks, shrinking its staff by more than half and raising questions about weakening an early warning system for the #economy. Reporting by Eric Katz buff.ly/0uKJbc1

Since the headline is a bit confusing, the NYT is reporting that on the same day we hit the girl's school in Minab, we also sent a missile full of tungsten steel pellets at a girl's volleyball tournament hundreds of miles away in Lamerd. Twenty one dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

"Europe does not need permission to help Ukraine restore its borders. It needs the will. There is a basic rule that applies to nations as much as to people: pour your energy into the things you can affect," writes Academic director at the University of Amsterdam Andrew Chakhoyan in his op-ed.

I urge you to listen to this if you're even remotely interested in the slow motion car crash that is the arrival of oil tankers to the world's refineries ...

Oekraïne maakt steeds vaker gebruik van onbemande grondvoertuigen om voorraden te vervoeren, gewonden te evacueren en, in sommige gevallen, voor offensieve acties. De opmars van grond-drones heeft ook invloed op de vormgeving van loopgraven. Via @kirichenko.bsky.social

WIRED surveyed the ways the Trump administration is working to manipulate this year’s midterm elections. www.wired.com/story/this-i...

BREAKING Russia expels UK diplomat on spying allegations, state media reports

We're shockingly prone to "cognitive surrender."

After Claudia Goldin became the first woman to win a solo Nobel in economics, she got hundreds of invitations. She accepted three. One was advising WNBA players on a labor deal. She helped players land the biggest % raise in US sports history. www.wsj.com/economy/wnba...